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dcss:brainstorm:species:propose:proposed_species [2014-11-17 02:28] SomeFlowers [Cherub (name subject to change)] |
dcss:brainstorm:species:propose:proposed_species [2018-09-18 00:14] (current) YokkasoMB Added information on Yookkaso Species to bottom of page |
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| Followers of evil gods will survive their first death, becoming a one-headed ogre and receive a flying skull (XL equal or higher than 7) or curse skull (XL equal or higher than 13) servant. Stats and skills will be those of the head you controlled and headgear and amulet worn by the other head will drop to the floor. | Followers of evil gods will survive their first death, becoming a one-headed ogre and receive a flying skull (XL equal or higher than 7) or curse skull (XL equal or higher than 13) servant. Stats and skills will be those of the head you controlled and headgear and amulet worn by the other head will drop to the floor. | ||
| + | |||
| + | ===== Yokkaso ===== | ||
| + | by YokkasoMB | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Purpose == | ||
| + | Currently in crawl it is much harder for a player to learn how to use magic as a primary playstyle than for melee or ranged. The purpose of this species is to provide new players with a simple and somewhat more forgiving species to learn how to be a caster than is currently available. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Species info == | ||
| + | Yokkaso are primarily casters with decent aptitudes in magic, and can sometimes have their spell costs refunded on high health (66% chance to refund spell cost at full health scaling linearly to 0% chance to refund spell cost at 50% health). They are also durable as they start with positive fighting and armour aptitudes, 1 rank of Sturdy Frame and get a second rank at level 8. These advantages are offset by having dismal aptitudes in almost all weapons and with both evocations and invocations. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Manual Description == | ||
| + | Yokkaso are a species of tree spirits who live on the trunks of trees. Their close ties with nature give them a natural affinity for most spells. Their long and secluded lives have led to an innate understanding of themselves and their own place in the world, but little capacity for using tools or calling upon gods. | ||
| + | A Yokkaso's body is suffused with ambient magic drawn in from it's surroundings and when healthy has a chance to use this ambient magic in spellcasting. Because Yokkaso are tree spirits, their bodies are surprisingly capable of wearing heavier armour without interfering with their spells. They loathe bladed weapons of every kind, however they are somewhat adept with staves. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Species Select Description == | ||
| + | Yokkaso can wear heavier armor and sometimes cast spells for free when healthy. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Starting stats/equipment == | ||
| + | >Normal HP | ||
| + | >average MP | ||
| + | >10 str, 7 int, 5 dex | ||
| + | >STR/INT every 4 levels 50/50 chance | ||
| + | >You cast some spells for free while relatively healthy, increasing proportionally with your health. (Linearly scaling from 66% chance at 100% health, down to 0% chance at 505 health) | ||
| + | Sturdy Frame 1 - improves a rank at XL8 for Sturdy Frame 2 | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | == Innate mutations/traits == | ||
| + | >Innate magic | ||
| + | |||
| + | ** Aptitudes ** \\ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Fighting: +1 Armor: +1 Spellcasting: +1 | ||
| + | Short Blades: -3 Dodging: -2 Conjurations: +2 | ||
| + | Long Blades: -3 Stealth: -2 Hexes: -1 | ||
| + | Axes: -4 Charms: +1 | ||
| + | Maces & Flails: -1 Shields: 0 Summonings: -1 | ||
| + | Polearms: -3 Necromancy: +1 | ||
| + | Staves: 0 Translocations: 0 | ||
| + | Unarmed: -2 Transmutation: -1 | ||
| + | Fire Magic: -1 | ||
| + | Throwing: -2 Ice Magic: +1 Invocations: -3 | ||
| + | Slings: -3 Air Magic: +1 Evocations: -3 | ||
| + | Bows: -3 Earth Magic: +1 | ||
| + | Crossbows: -3 Poison Magic: 0 Experience: below average | ||
| + | |||
| + | |||
| + | == In-depth reasons for design choices == | ||
| + | == Sometimes cast free spells at high current health (This is a 66% trigger chance at 100% health, 33% trigger chance at 75% health, 0% trigger chance at 50% health and below, scales linearly). == | ||
| + | |||
| + | This is the biggest characteristic of Yokkaso that will impact a players choices, and yes it is strong. (Too strong? Can be changed to refund half mana per spell, or only 1 mana per spell, or to happen less often.) | ||
| + | |||
| + | The aim of this ability is to encourage good play and good practices from players new to magic. To get the benefit of this players are more likely to invest more heavily in health and defences. This is because to get the most benefit players will need (a) higher HP so incoming hits have less impact on the "free spells", and (b) more defences than they would otherwise get on what they may perceive to be a glass cannon character. | ||
| + | |||
| + | There is also the hope that they will be more inclined to proactively mitigate how much damage they can take by considering their position relative to their enemies, to allow them access to the "free spells" for longer. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I don't want this to encourage bad play, so I don't think it should be active proportional to their health all the way down to 1%. In a situation like that you will likely have players on 2% health casting an emergency spell hoping for a tiny chance for it to not cost anything. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I think allowing it to happen less frequently down to 50% does two things (1) teaches players that when they reach certain health breakpoints they need to change their thinking about the situation they are in and maybe re-evaluate what is going on, and (2) encourages them to stay on higher current health percentages as often as possible even if they don't think they might die in the next turn or two. | ||
| + | |||
| + | An example of what I want this species to be able to do with this ability is for a new player to enter combat, throw out a few spells, get into trouble and reach 50% health and say to themselves "Okay I now have X amount of mana left to deal with the situation that's killing me, can I do it without dying or do I have to retreat and/or change what I'm doing?" | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note that this is NOT infinite mana, even at 100% health the character can and does run out of mana, and it does not bypass spell hunger, (and given their low int, spell hunger will be a thing for a while for their newest spells) so players will also learn that they should use the appropriate spells against popcorn vs dangerous enemies to save food. I anticipate the rate of free casts, or amount of mana returned will need to be fine tuned. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Sturdy Frame == | ||
| + | |||
| + | Most casters typically wear the heaviest armour they can find that will still allow them to cast their spells at an acceptable level. For most casters this means they end the game in Fire or Ice Dragon Armour. Giving Yokkaso the mutation Sturdy Frame level 2 (reached at XL8) effectively allows Yokkaso spellcasters to reach a tier higher in end game armour, see below. Their +1 aptitude and having one rank from the start of the game makes players much more likely to start wearing real armour earlier, and to train the Armour skill earlier and for longer to make good use of this capacity the race has. This will help new players realise that a caster is not meant to forgo any kind of defences and that they can and should invest in keeping their character protected from physical damage beyond "kill it before it reaches me". Allowing a new player on a Yokkaso to survive in melee for than a few turns gives them an opportunity to learn what to do (and what not to do) when enemies do reach them as a caster. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Non-Yokkaso: 7 Encumbrance - 7AC - Swamp Dragon Scales, 11 Encumbrance - 8/9AC - Fire/Ice Dragon Scales, 15 Encumbrance - 10AC - Storm/Shadow Dragon Scales | ||
| + | Yokkaso: 7 Encumbrance - 8/9AC - Fire/Ice Dragon Scales, 11 Encumbrance - 10AC - Storm/Shadow Dragon Scales, 14 Encumbrance - 10AC - Plate Armour | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Doesn't this mean the species can do everything?! == | ||
| + | |||
| + | I certainly hope not! Given how powerful the spell ability is for casters, I wanted to ensure this class does not become the species of choice for doing anything hybrid. I also do not want this species to become the "strongeset" spell caster. That should remain with the Deep Elf. To help differentiate the Yokkaso from the Deep Elf I made the Yokkaso have some negative aptitudes in magic (ones that I believe are hard to use correctly for newbies like transmutations and hexes) and gave them distinctly average intelligence and no bonus MP per level. As a result they have much higher food costs than their Deep Elf counterparts, and while they might have a functionally similar "mana pool" at full health from range, as soon as any damage is taken their mana pool becomes a much more limited resource than a Deel Elf's. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I want Yokkaso to level a bit slowly to help keep them balanced for their area, but gave them 5 MR per level to try and normalise their MR, as newbies are a bit less likely to value MR appropriately and I don't want the species to have an unusually low amount of MR to overcome. This is just to keep them from being unusually vulnerable to MR check disables and not to make them able to ignore getting MR+. | ||
| + | |||
| + | I toyed with the idea of completely prohibiting the species from using many weapon types at all. I would consider this a valid option if the class becomes too strong of a hybrid in extended play. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Why I think Crawl needs a simple and durable magic caster: == | ||
| + | |||
| + | Currently in DCSS the learning curve for becoming a pure caster is very steep, this is a shame because magic is incredibly well done in Crawl, and adds a LOT to the game. Many playstyles benefit in some way from having a few low level spells (apportation, portal projectile, passage of golubria etc) and players can and do pick up how to use spells effectively from using these sporadically. However in the transition to being a character that primarily blasts their enemies with spells, there is a lot more to consider than keeping buffs up and training the 2 schools required to get it castable, and the skills a person learns from melee combat are of limited usefulness. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Disadvantages of using spells | ||
| + | ⦁ Very finite resource in magic points, especially early on. | ||
| + | ⦁ Effectively prohibits wearing armor with any significant armor value for a large portion of the game. | ||
| + | ⦁ Training spells requires a much larger (or at least, a more active) investment than melee (multiple schools to get different spells active, still need fighting and defences too) | ||
| + | ⦁ In the midgame missing high cost spells required to kill enemies can mean having to retreat and regen mana to full and try again. | ||
| + | ⦁ Spell use mechanically is more complex than melee or ranged | ||
| + | Advantages of using spells | ||
| + | ⦁ Higher damage from range than otherwise possible | ||
| + | ⦁ Area damage on many spells | ||
| + | ⦁ Utility and control not available to melee and ranged | ||
| + | ⦁ Spells are fun | ||
| + | ⦁ Greatly adds to replayability and customisation potential | ||