Rise of the Old Gods - Character Basics

[jbouley]

NEW CHARACTERS & SKILLS/SPELLS - Characters will be changed fairly radically in nature. Some details below, but some of it preliminary and still subject to change...

• The sorceress is now a Miko, an asian female mage, and can either specialize in a broad range of spells (direct damage, curses, auras, summons and more), martial arts skills, or a combination of both. She can also use the cube to combine various items in the game and manufacture miko-specific various sets (mostly armor sets) that, while not as powerful as other, more traditional sets that drop in the game, can give her an edge in combat.

• The paladin is now a Forge Guardian, a combination warrior and mechanist who is a member of a secret order trying to restore the lost technological lore of the Mechanists. In addition to combat skills, he has various item-enhancing skills and trap-creation skills. He also can manufacture various items usable only by him and his peers using the cube, and there are powerful explosives and laser-based weapons in the game that only his order know how to use, as well as technological booster items that operate much like charms.

• The barbarian is now a Shaman, and has powers to call upon the elements, summon minions and curse enemies. Although a spellcaster primarily, he is far from fragile, and particularly when armed with various totemic weapons, is not someone to be faced lightly in battle.

• The druid is now a Ranger, one of a reclusive class of human and half-elven men who increasingly have been pulled away from the hidden elven enclaves where they have lived for so long to fight the growing powers of the Old Gods. He is adept with the bow in particular, with many skills that play to that weapon. He also has skills beyond those of normal characters to find special items and reagents in the wild and from his enemies, as well as the ability to craft powerful potions for himself from ingredients that he finds. He can call upon plants and animals in a limited capacity and possesses potent warding auras.

• The amazon is now a Temple Crusader, one of an elite cadre of temple warriors who specialize in hunting the undead. She not only has skills that help her defeat such creatures but also skills that are fairly potent against demonic enemies. She is the most melee-oriented character in the game, though she has some spells as well to call upon heavenly aid.

• The necromancer is now a Vampire, but one that has the ability to operate during the day with reasonable power. He can show greater power in the evening, though. He has the power to drain life, cloud thoughts, change his shape, summon minions, raise the dead to his service and more.

• The assassin is now a Succubus, who has been cast away by her former master, one of the Old Gods. With vengeance in mind, she seeks the downfall of all the Old Gods who have breached the dimensional veils into the human world. Because of the limitations of giving characters monster animations, there is no way to show equipped armor or weapons on her. So, any normal armor or weapons she equips are absorbed into her while equipped and while she can use them, her appearance will not change and her hands remain empty. However, she will rarely want to use such items anyway. By equipping demon-specific items instead of normal armor and weapons, she can boost her magical powers and attacks, which are somewhat weak when she fails to equip those items. She has the ability to drain life and mana, the ability to cast various spells, take on different demonic shapes, summon demons to her aid, unleash plagues and more. At higher levels, she also gains access to powers that allow her to create various succubus-specific unique items forged in the bowels of hell.

All of the characters have a “common” set of combat and survival skills, such as inner sight, weapon masteries (sword, axe, mace, polearm, spear and throwing), find potion, find item, shout and battle orders. For the most part, these do not vary from character to character and are available to all of them. The succubus is an exception. She shares a few skills with the other characters but has masteries related to the use of her various claw-enhancing weapons and a couple other unique skills, since she should not, as a general rule, be using items typically used by other characters and thus doesn’t receive the other weapon masteries as an option.

SKILL CHANGES, GENERAL - For the characters, skill changes represent a combination of some skills remaining on a given character with minor changes, some being moved to/from other characters, and also many completely new skills. Each character will have 40 skills from which to choose. There are no prerequisite skills to obtain higher-level skills. Provided you have the proper level, you can invest in any skill with no other preconditions. Characters will gain 2 skill points per level-up if possible, or some other means will be made available to get twice as many skill points as possible.

Some skills can only be obtained from items. This will mostly occur for many unique/set items and various class-specific items.

Also, some skills may be specific to and usable only by hirelings.

[jbouley]

Here's a bit more detail on two of the characters:

The Miko

The miko is an eastern sorceress who mostly commands magical powers but also has martial arts lore that she can tap if she wants an edge in combat, whether offensive or defensive (or both). Her spells fall generally into the category of fire/water and light/darkness, with a mix of summons, direct-damage spells, auras and warding spells. In addition, she has the ability to craft clothing/armor from various items found in the game, and can create sets of garments that will grant her additional magical abilities when all worn together, as well as sometimes give her access to additional spells not in her normal skill trees.

In her Sorcery skill tree tab, she has 4 fire/earth-based spells, 4 water/cold spells, 4 electrical/light spells and 4 death/darkness spells—for a total of 16 skills there.

In her Martial Arts skill tree tab, she has a total of 12 skills. Six of them are true martial arts abilities, either offensive or defensive. Two of them are poisoning skills. The remaining four are protective spells—one for each of her sorcery areas (fire, water, light, darkness).

The insertion of four spells into the martial arts tree is because each tree can only really hold 17 skill icons (technically there is room for 18, but the lower left corner of each tree has a small “close” button that could interfere with putting a skill button in that area)—and the miko is designed to have a total of 20 spells, with 10 evenly split between fire and water and 10 evenly split between light and darkness—so I needed a place to put the last four spells. (Also, it should be noted that the martial arts skills are intended to be very limited in scope; the miko can be built as a melee character, but her major calling is the practice of sorcery.)

The Succubus

The Succubus is unique among the characters in the Rise of the Old Gods, as she doesn’t have access to all the weapon mastery skills that the other characters can enjoy as part of their survival/combat skill trees, and so she has her own set of basic combat abilities to use with her claw attacks. In part this is a practical matter; the animations used to create this character are monster animations, and thus do not have variations with various types of armor or weapons. Yes, you can pick up and use weapon and armor in the game that other characters can use, but they are “absorbed” into your body and are not visible, although you can benefit from equipping them.

As such, there are special Succubus-only items in the game, such as: circlets, torcs and horn decorations (instead of helms); harnesses and tunics (instead of torso armor); and claws, rakes and throwing darts (instead of other weapons). There are no Succubus-specific boots, belts, gloves or jewelry however, as these don’t really have any real impact on character appearance.

Equipping the demon-specific items is more than just a cosmetic choice to avoid weird effects like equipping a sword and not seeing it, though. They actually grant bonuses to the character’s abilities and skills that are, quite frankly, often necessary for her survival. There are many set and unique versions of the succubus-specific gear to help offset the fact that she is sometimes forced to pass up non-demonic torso armor, helms and weapons that might otherwise be attractive to her. Also, she can summon various hellspawned items when she finds certain reagents in the game or achieves certain levels and uses certain magical artifacts. These special items are in many cases the equal of a good set or unique item.

Driven by vengeance—having been discarded by her former master, one of the Old Gods—the succubus is driven blindly to take down all of those dark entities that are loose in the world now. She will need all her skills and wiles to succeed. In addition to her Survival/Combat tree (which, again, has some but not all of the same skills the other characters have in this tree), the succubus has her Infernal Powers and Paranormal Talents skill trees, which have 16 skills and 12 skills, respectively. The infernal powers are mostly fire spells, poison spells and curses, although she also has a spell to change her shape into more powerful demonic forms for a time and spells to summon minions to her aid. The paranormal talents are, for lack of a better term, “psychic” powers such as telekinesis, mind control and translocation.

[jbouley]

Here's another character:

The Shaman

An interesting study in dichotomy, the tattooed and muscle-bound Shaman is primarily a spellcaster, but he is not the scrawny and pale individual most expect from a magician. Serving the rough-and-ready barbarians and other hardy individuals in rough environments, he has substantial strength and hit points. Initially, however, his mana levels are not ideal initially, and so he will need to concentrate early in his Spiritual Focus skill to ensure he can cast spells often. The Shaman can hold his own in combat, and has a few magical skills to aid him in that, but the vast majority of his skills are in magical arts that connect him to the earth, the sky and the spirit world.

His Spirit Powers are 12 in number and include abilities to raise the bones of the dead, to heal, to curse opponents and even to change shape or summon some animals. His Elemental Magic covers a wide array of fire, cold, wind and lightning skills for a total of 16 skills there.

Totemic clubs in the game can give him an extra edge both in combat and in spellcasting. They often will appear with a Dual Wield skill that allows him to equip two at once. Though the damage for most such clubs isn’t spectacular, they often spawn with other important bonuses, such as extra levels of Spiritual Focus, which can aid his spellcasting.

[jbouley]

Another one to whet your whistles...

The Forge Guardian

Among the small secret order of men and women who call themselves Mechanists—and who are trying to restore the lost technological lore of the Prime Mechanists—there are three tiers: The Technologists, who have the deepest understanding of technology; the Flaks, who are the lowest-level assistants and muscle of the order; and the Forge Guardian, who fall in the middle and combines both the arts of battle and of technology. Forge Guardians serve both as the elite protectors of the Technologists and their lore as well as the captains and generals of the Flaks.

In addition to the basic Survival/Combat skills, the Forge Guardian has access to a tree of 12 Fighting Skills that can make him absolutely lethal in combat, though the Temple Crusader probably boasts a more wide-ranging, powerful and elegant overall choice of combat skills (since she is meant to be the premier melee character in the mod). The Forge Guardian also has his Constructs tree, comprising 16 skills, which allows him to unleash various technological tricks, set traps and even create automatons to fight by his side. Most of the construct skills, though they are technologically based, require mana as the Forge Guardian must expend some will to make them function, often through cybernetic implants. For the purposes of the game, willpower and magical energy are considered equivalent and treated the same.

The Forge Guardian also can manufacture various items usable only by him and his peers using the cube, and there are powerful explosives, laser-based weapons, projectile weapons and more in the game that only those of his order know how to use. Special powered armors can be found or created that will not only boost his skills immensely but also give him a more “mecha” appearance, in some cases identical to the appearance of the automatons that he can create at higher levels.

[jbouley]

Here's yet another of the characters a bit more fleshed out...

The Vampire

Although vampires typically cannot venture out in the daylight without eventually being consumed in a fiery demise, there are some who have somewhat lesser powers (at least initially) but who can endure the sun. You are one of the latter. Although you will need experience to build your powers to those of one of the “pure” vampires, you also benefit from having fewer of the weaknesses and hungers that drive other vampires’ behavior. Although many of your brethren welcome the changes that have come with the rise of the Old Gods in the world, you do not, and see only the eventuality that they will subjugate all of the undead (including yourself) along with all of the living.

In your fight against the Old Gods, you have the typical combat and survival skills available to mortal humans, as well as various predatory Vampirism skills (16 in all) that include life draining talents, mind control abilities, shapechanging and more, including some abilities that allow you to increase your abilities and share those bonuses with others allied with you. You also have a selection of 12 Necromancy skills that allow you to control the dead, curse others and summon minions.

You can also create various minor charms, magical tools and weapons from the body parts of your fallen foes, and you can use various body parts to fashion armors that will allow you to adopt the shape of other undead creatures and some of their powers.

[jbouley]

And here are the final two characters for the mod:

The Ranger

Throughout the ages, humans have sometimes wandered into the Faerie Realm where various creatures live just outside the edge of the conscious awareness of most of us. There, they sometimes end up residing with elves, and sometimes siring or bearing half-elven children. But human nature is not elven nature and sometimes, to put humans and half-elven inhabitants of elven enclaves to proper use is to put them to work as Rangers, where their wandering and sometimes crass (to most elves at least) ways are most suited. Rangers often find themselves doing scouting work and fighting battles that most elves feel are beneath them—or too risky for them to bet their long lifespans. Such a duty has fallen to you now, as the Old Gods are keen to subjugate all realms, not just those of mortal folk.

Although rangers can use any weapons and specialize in their use, the bow is the weapon most associated with them. As such, there is an entire skill tree devoted to Archery (though there are two skills in their that are more generally combat oriented—one defensive and one offensive), in which there are 14 skills. The ranger has an equal number of skills in the Nature Lore skill tree, which grant him various summoning skills and limited ability to manipulate the elements.

Rangers also can craft special potions not available to other characters from various natural ingredients and reagents in the game and can also use such materials to enhance weapons and armor to some extent. At higher levels, they can find or create items that will let them take on elemental forms for brief periods of time.

The Temple Crusader

Not all temples were built to honor the seemingly “kind” gods that the Old Gods were impersonating. Some were built to the Highest God or All-Knower, and these temples stand in opposition to the Old Gods—at least in those places they don’t stand in ruins from their battles with the forces of darkness. Temple Guards are the soldiers and officers of the front-line battles against the undead, demons and other threats. Among these, a few promising candidates are trained to be crusaders—to be the ones who go out with little or no support to carry the fight to the deepest, darkest places and most distant battlefields. Most of the Temple Guard cannot afford to stray too far from the clergy and faithful they protect. But the Temple Crusaders are there to bring the fight right to those who started it in the first place, and they don’t mind fighting dirty in the process.

At first glance, the Temple Crusader may seem to be little more than a female paladin, but she combines key elements of the paladin, amazon and barbarian from D2 as well as having a few new tricks. Her Battle Skills number 14 in all, ranging from the ability to deal critical hits to berserker rages to attacking multiple opponents art once to attacks that deal extra damage to undead and demons…and more. In addition, she has a skill tree devoted to 14 Mystical Powers, allowing her to tap the powers of the Host. She may not have the raw power of an angel, but she can summon up direct attack powers, protective powers, aura and spiritual assistants to aid her fight.

The Temple Crusader has the ability to convert soulstones and other spiritual/physical artifacts that drop from powerful demons (superuniques and end bosses, for example) into holy items that act like charms and give her an additional edge against her enemies.

[jbouley]

Just a quick note about different succubus "looks."

Not that the mod is far enough along for anyone to be complaining yet, but I just wanted to let potential players know that the succubus will not be as tied to her basic animations/appearance as you might intially think.

Several items will be available to her in the game, and relatively early on, to give her a totally different appearance. If you load up on a few of these items and sets, you can get quite a range of appearances, from totally un-succubus-like animations to different types of succubus appearances.

And, unlike most other characters who will have equipment sets to change their appearance, the ones for the succubus will require only one or two items (either a weapon alone or a weapon in combination with one piece of armor or jewelry). That's only fair, considering most characters need only change their body armor a bit to get a new appearance.

Also, while these special morphing sets for the succubus will drop as treasure, slightly inferior versions (but still useful) can be crafted from various ingredients fairly early in the game so that you don't have to wait forever to change your look.

One final note: You may be wondering, "What if I like the look I get from a succubus morphing weapon or morphing set, and then I have to ditch the item as the game gets more difficult?" Well, all of these items for the succubus will be ungradeable so that you should be able to hold on to them, whether they are unique or true set items or the lesser versions of the unique or set items that you create in the cube.

[jbouley]

Being a writer by trade, and never having been able to find the time to write that Great American Novel, you can expect that there will be a lot of back story to this mod, which I will ultimately compile into a single document to go along with the manual/readme for the mod. To that end, here is the first character biography, which is more for entertainment value than for the informational aspect in earlier posts in this thread...

Story #1 – The Succubus
The Year of Our Dark Lords, 7691, midsummer in Sanctuary
A Chronicle of the Outcast Succubus, by Trelezier, Second Scholar of Tarterus
Part the First

It falls to my clawed hands to put the life and actions of my fearsome lady to paper, as she is otherwise engaged in the bloodiest of vendettas—not to mention the fact that serving as her scribe is the only thing standing between me and death at her hands. She would not be angered to have this fact chronicled; in fact, I suspect she will be pleased to have her deadly nature given a somewhat permanent place in human and diabolic history.

Future installments (as supply of paper and pen allow, and assuming one of my fearsome lady’s enemies doesn’t kill me as an afterthought before then) shall chronicle my lady’s exploits in attempting to vanquish the Old Gods and their minions. This first missive, however, shall chronicle how my lady came to this place in the worlds, as she has related it to me, and how I come to be part of her life and one of her thralls.

The succubi are, to be certain, a misunderstood breed of demons. I should know, as I am among the rarest of demonic occupations: a scholar. Being an imp, as I am, means one of two things: You become cannon fodder on the front line of a hellish campaign, or you find a way to stay out of the fray. There are enough demonic entities in need of lore and places to find knowledge that even in the hells there is need for librarians and scholars. I chose such a path many, many centuries ago and have not regretted it. Expect, perhaps, until now.

But I digress (I never said I was the most focused of scholars). Succubi are often spoken of among mortals as seducers. Visiting humans (mostly the men, who are a decidedly vulnerable lot when it comes to matters of carnal pleasure and corruption) in the night to bring them physical pleasure in return for compromising their souls. Certainly, this is one of many strategies the succubi have taken in their duties to the Fallen Ones. What is less spoken of and perhaps more dangerous to mortalkind are their other aspects: Controlling the wills of mortal folk to do the most atrocious of deed, using their wiles to distract humans just long enough to tear them into pieces, pitting leaders of nations against each other, and so on. Not as pretty a picture as a beautiful demon throwing herself at you like some harem wench.

My fearsome lady was one of the more accomplished succubi. She served her mistress Lilith well, as do most of the succubi, but with a special dedication that benefitted not only Lilith but other of the Fallen (often called the Old Gods by mortals) as well. She might have risen far in the hierarchy of one of Lilith’s elite cabals but one of the Fallen showed interest in her, both carnally and for her ruthless efficiency, and Lilith gave my lady over to that Fallen One, known chiefly by the name Appolyon.

He gave her free rein to do his dark will in many matters, and he gave her a special place among his many concubines. Succubi are used to mixing base pleasures with violence, and so this posting for her was not particularly onerous, and even gave her hope of becoming something more than just one of Lilith’s favored ones but perhaps a chance at becoming a minor lord of the hells herself.

But the Old Gods can be fickle beings, and my fearsome lady probably would have been better to remain with Lilith, who at least gives some loyalty back to those who show her complete devotion. With the re-emergence of many of the Old Gods in the world of Sanctuary, Appolyon began to see my lady as a trifle. He had already tired of her (he is known to become easily bored of new possessions) and he saw other beings than her as the tools to his success outside the hells. He dismissed her from his side and instructed her to mind his hellish demense. Not, as it happens, as a Regent to manage his affairs in the hells during his campaign in the mortal realm, but instead as little more than overseer of his house staff. He put another in charge of his important affairs, and essentially made my fearsome lady the head housekeeper of his main lodging in the hells.

To say that my lady took this unwell would be an understatement of the ages. Once Appolyon was gone, she conducted herself to the suite of Appolyon’s newly appointed Regent, a Pit Fiend of great renown. It seems perhaps he thought she would take to his bed as easily as she had to Appolyon’s. Instead, she rended the Regent into so many pieces that he decorated the walls and floors of his suite like so much stucco and paint.

I should note that as lethal as succubi can be to mortal folk, they are not among the greatest of fighters when pitted against other mid- and high-level demons. Slaying a Pit Fiend is testament to my fearsome lady’s rage and the power she had amassed over the millennia. Many others in Appolyon’s demense lay in gruesome tatters before the day had ended. Such things do not go unnoticed, however, and my lady knew this. She fled, less out of fear though than out of a desire to live long enough to revenge herself on Appolyon himself.

Lilith sensed the betrayal quickly enough, and severed my lady from the wellspring of the succubi’s powers. This did not render my lady powerless, as one cannot stop the flow of such kinds of powers; only limit them. My lady began to find ways to tap some of her power anew as she evaded her many pursuers, and she eventually escaped into Sanctuary, both to throw her enemies off her scent and to find Appolyon. Before she made her departure from the hells, though, she paid a visit to my place of work in search of lore that would allow her to regain her powers and even augment what they were before. None in the Great Library of Tarterus survived but me. And myself only because she gave me a choice: Be bound to her as her scribe and sage, or be turned inside out in a most painful and protracted fashion. I prefer my organs on the inside of my body, so the choice was easy.

I helped guide her to various tomes that gave her insights into new powers as well as ways to access some of her old ones. And once we were in Sanctuary, she sought of the Wraith Dames of the Seryufgil, who initiated her into dark rites that allowed her to mimic some of her former powers and exhibit new ones.

Cut off from hells but not slain outright, my fearsome lady is now something more mortal than demon in certain respects, and this is unfortunate for the Old Gods, for mortal kind are known to have potential in ways that demons do not, and inner resources that enable them to transcend limitations that hold demons back. My lady is a hybrid now of the most lethal kind. With new sources of power at her disposal and the sheer determination to continue tapping powers of the hells that Lilith thought to cut her off from, my fearsome lady is becoming well armed in both the arts of combat and sorcery.

Her fall from favor she blames primarily on Lilith, for giving her to another, and to Appolyon, for discarding her. But she casts all of the Fallen Ones in the same lot, essentially: As her greatest enemies. And in the end, any Old God she encounters in Sanctuary is nothing more than a hindrance to her reaching Appolyon. Her desire is to see all of them fall before her if they are so foolish as to block her path.

I have heard her voice when she speaks of her enemies. I have looked into her eyes when she tells me what she would do to those who anger her.

The Old Gods—the Fallen Ones—need to learn fear.

Of her.

[Adam Diggins]

Now that is an awesome background for the succubi; worthy of blizzard.