I'm currently working on a Chaos Mage skillset.
Please send any input to me via PM or email (DivineWanderer@gmail.com).
Ideas for level titles, races/alignments to be allowed (and thoughts as to why), etc.
PS- I'm going to use this thread to post my ideas in. So please don't post in it until I get them up. 
Is this some king of neutral Knight or Half-mage ?
chaos mage...like an evil invoker?
Chaos doesn't imply evil (chaos and discord are different). I'm thinking more along the lines of Wild Mages from Baldur's Gate II, maybe. Or some other form of mage that harnesses the unpredictable.
Dey
Chaos mages, from my point of view, are mages with a delicate control of a very powerful, very raw innate magic that is not capable of being wielded with finesse. My idea differs from the invoker, in that most of their magic is not elementally based and does not go so much for hardcore damage, but rather damage over time. And while that may sound more like a battlemage, it differs in that respect in that most of their defenses are actually skills, not spells, and they do have one or three powerful offensive abilities rather than consistent moderate damage.
To answer Mya's question, yes, as long as things go like I plan, this will be a hybrid class available to neutrals. It will also be available to goods and evils, but neutrals will be allowed.
When considering possible additions, remember that I would like this to remain a base class, and therefore powerful abilities may need to be reconsidered. In my mind, base classes are meant to be somewhat less powerful than quest classes, so I'd like to keep that in mind while putting this together.
Some spells I thought up:
Confusion: a spell like thunderclap.
Transform Self: Change yourself into a random creature. Could be as strong as a dragon but could easily be as weak as a sheep.
Transform other: Transform self but casted at the enemy.
Dice: random effects to stats, (temp).
roulette: same as dice but works on others.
Winds of Change: Changes the terrain randomly of current room. (Long cast duration).
Redirecting Fate: Randomly adds and removes effects. Effects could come from other classes's spells.
i'll add more if I think of anything else.
For hybrid you will need Three defences.
Parry, dodge and : Two handed, Dual Parry , Shield block.
I think Shield block is not the best for a mage like class.
And dual parry is a bit to much offensive power (dual parry = dual wield with defence).
Also a good idea is to gimp weapon selection.
So avaiable weapons would be:
Staff; Polearms, Sword; Dagger; Whip; Mace; Hand to hand
So unknown weapons would be Axes, Flails, and Spears.
Perhaps we can remove maces, and have Paladins have a weapon against them.
They should have a blinding ability. I think Dirt kick is not apropriate, and flamestrike is out of question.
So perhaps Blind spell. It makes sense.
So chaos magic.
Perhaps a chaotic healing, insted of normal cures.
Some spell that cures you like 40 HP's and has a % of doing 80 damage to you.
So you cast it 10 times and get cured.
But you cast it the one more time and the % kicks in and you get -80 HP.
More to come.
Some spells I thought up:
Confusion: a spell like thunderclap.
Transform Self: Change yourself into a random creature. Could be as strong as a dragon but could easily be as weak as a sheep.
Transform other: Transform self but casted at the enemy.
Dice: random effects to stats, (temp).
roulette: same as dice but works on others.
Winds of Change: Changes the terrain randomly of current room. (Long cast duration).
Redirecting Fate: Randomly adds and removes effects. Effects could come from other classes's spells.
i'll add more if I think of anything else.
I think you're confusing Chance and Chaos. Randomness, while a facet of Chaos, is not Chaos in its entirety. I'm looking not so much at having spells with randomized effects, but rather more what Mya was suggesting, in the possibility of spells with a backlash. Like I said, my view of Chaos Mages is a hybrid class with an innate magic that is extremely powerful, and barely controllable. To give you an idea, here's a preview of what I'm working on.
Minor Ritual -> Ritual -> Major Ritual -> Master Ritual
There will be four paths - Protection, Augmentation, Combat, Destruction (ranging in power from weakest to strongest, and in safety from safest to most dangerous). As far as actual use goes, the minor ritual will be a chii-like skill that is enabled via the command "ritual". The base ritual will then be activated via the "release" command, or further chaos can be stored using the "store" command to activate the more powerful rituals. So to make it a little clearer, here is the destruction path (or what I have so far).
Destruction: Chaotic Touch -> Atrophy -> Entropic Infection -> Disintegration
Chaotic Touch (Passive)
At the first circle of their training, a Chaos Mage focused on Destruction can learn to imbue his hands and extensions thereof (namely weapons) with a small force of Chaos. This force, based on the Chaos Mage's own strength, can cause harm to the Mage's opponent in battle. However, the force may also attack its caller, harming the Mage instead.
Atrophy (Release)
A Chaos Mage of the second circle may focus the force of Chaos in their hands, causing it to directly attack the muscles of their foe. This results in the accelerated deterioration of their opponent's musculature, which can greatly weaken and enfeeble the Mage's enemy.
Entropic Infection (Store one, Release)
In the third circle of their training, a Chaos Mage learns how to focus Chaos within the body of their foe. However, the unitiated of Chaos often find themselves lacking the ability to withstand this force. As a result their body turns on itself, attacking the cells infected with the Chaos in an attempt to get rid of them. It also weakens the foe's ability to fight off other infections, as their immune system is focused on attacking the disease at hand. (causes a temporary plague effect, and a longer lasting -spellsvs effect)
Disintegration (Store two, Release)
Upon completing the fourth and final circle of their training, a Chaos Mage is able to create a pseudo-sentient entity out of pure Chaos. This entity, unlike the entropic infection, enters the victims body and takes complete control. After several hours of incubation, the monstrosity savagely turns its host upon themself, causing massive damage and possibly killing them outright. However, this ability is not without its dangers. When meddling with such powerful forces, a Chaos Mage risks their own safety, for the Chaos may turn on them instead.
I think they should have Tarot card. It would fit RP wise.
See, again, confusing randomness and chaos. Chaos isn't necessarily chance. It's raw energy that tears things apart at the seams, ripping the very fabric of the time-space continuum.
In other words, I'm not really looking for abilities that involve a lot of randomized effects. I'm looking at abilities that have high power potential, but come with a heavy price (namely the mage's own safety).
I think this is also a good way to recicle Demon fire spell.
It could be one of its spells.
How many of your ideas do I get to use for free, before you start charging me?
I think any class that leaves that much to chance isn't going to be much fun to play. High Skill Combat in FL is about perfect timing and taking advantages of sometimes miniscule mistakes that your opponent makes. A class based heavily (there are some classes with a few risk/benefit skills, but they by no means identify the class) on these sorts of abilities takes away the idea of precision and puts too much chance into the equation. In an environment where people value equipment and life to the point of barely taking risks anyways, I don't see many people playing a class where they could do everything right and still end up dead because one of their key abilities has a 5% chance of garaunteeing them a loss in battle. Nor do I, personally, see the point in playing this sort of class aside from a purely roleplay-minded point of view, and if you want that set up some triggers with an invoker that cause you to cast a hellstream / cancellation combo on yourself instead of a normal hellstream on your target 5% of the time, then tell me how much fun you're having. I like the idea of new classes, but this one in particular seems somewhat pointless and not to mention impossible to balance in the FL world. How do you justify the chance that they blow themselves up? By making them more powerful when the skills work right? You're walking into a pitfall with that mindset already, because if they're inherently more powerful when they do the right thing it not only takes the skill side of the game away from the Chaos Mage, but also his victim. I'd be furious if I knew that in order to win against this mage some %age had to come out in my favor causing him to gimp himself.
Just my thoughts. And no, I'm not also confusing chance with chaos, but any time you put this much chance into an equation like (and you are putting chance into this, whether it's a random effect, which I'm slightly more a fan of given the two because that allows for a bit more strategy, or a percent to self-destruct) this you take away the possibility of skill. The only skill involved with the class would be 1) knowing how to be the most effective with minimal risk, which is more of a math formula than a battle tactic, and 2) knowing how to run when (not if) chance doesn't go your way and (from the sound of it) you find yourself horribly gimped in mid-battle.
I share Grish's concerns a great deal.
Someone remind me why people ask bards for tarot cards ?
Because it's an ability only bards have access to?
Because that's one skill, and not something that is a huge deciding factor in t he midst of a pk battle.
Just about done.
Any more suggestions (especially level titles), send them to me.
Because that's one skill' date=' and not something that is a huge deciding factor in t he midst of a pk battle.[/quote']
Exactly. There are plenty of skills that have both positive and negative effects... acupunture, for instance, is incredibly awesome when it works, and really sucks when it doesn't. However, acupuncture (while very useful) is far from the defining skill of ninjas and blademasters.