This seems to be becoming more of a Conjurer/summoner thing more than an animator.
new class
With the exception that they can still animate objects, benches, staves, wands, perhaps even you opponents armor. Wouldnt that be cool.
Hmm...
Instead of creating an elemental, why not make them into a sort of puppetier? They control weapons, shields, and armor like they are puppets, why not give them a dummy that they can animate? Then, if you want diversity, you could specify which type of dummy you want. So, let's say that there would be three or four types of puppets. A warrior puppet, a magician puppet, a rogue puppet, and someone can come up with another. The warrior puppet might have a higher hp than the magician or rogue, and would throw out a bash or trip once in a while. The magician puppet might cast a spell here or there, and it would have permanent sanc on it. The rogue would do thief stuff, like cut purse, pilfer, or maybe a rare circle stab.
Cool class idea. I think an elemental would be the best way to make the all-aligned. Also, different kinds of elementals depending of where you are is a cool feat. Some elementals could be strong melee, earth and fire elemetals, while water and air could have a few spells they can cast.
Also good to give Illithids a new class selection.
With some brainstorming, this could become something really nice.
FL covers so many different combinations it's hard to think of a new class that is different from the others and fits into the world. I had an idea for an
Animator: Figured it could be played by Human, Faerie, Elf, Drow, Avian, Gnome, Half-elf, and Illithid
Skills
1:sword, staff, mace, spear, dagger, whip, wands, staves, scrolls.
5:shield block,meditation
10:fast healing
15:second attack
20:parry
25:dual wield
30:Offense/Defense(select)
35:mimic weapon
Spells
5:animate object
10:reverse animation
20:animate shield
30:animate weapon
35:reclaim life
40:animate corpse
50:animate environment
animate object can be used in many ways. (can only control one object at a time)
-on a door to maybe open it
-on an enemy making something on or near him hurt them slighty
-on wands or staves to make them fire on their own until they burn out.
reverse animation speaks for itself.
animate shield is pretty straightforward, would be a toned shield block at first and improve with %. You could only control one shield at a time
animate weapon would be similar to a bmgs bladedancing only not as powerful at first certainly, and probably not as powerful even at its peak.
Like animate shield you could only have one weapon up at a time.
reclaim life is the process that sucks the life back out of something you are animating, rendering it unliving again. It would act like a heal and lag accordingly. If it was a wand or other object you released youd gain little and it would happen in a round, a shield would heal you a little more and lag you two rounds, a weapon the same. Reclaiming corpse would heal you most but have a 3 round lag on it. And of course you couldnt abuse this to uber heal because all animating spells have timers for recasting.
animate corpse would be weaker than charm and stronger than a necros zombie before a strength damned. I figure they could control one
corpse at 40, then two at 50.
animate environment would be a taxing spell on the animator, but would bring to life everything around, causing significant area damage to any who might be passing through. (could even hit vulns like a dwarf on water or something)
The offense/deffense select would either add 5% to your animate weapon or shield spell, giving the animated weapon or shield a move or two and some better overall performance.
The mimic weapon skill means that if you are wielding the same weapon type that you are animating you get a bonus, maybe +3 to said weapon,parry,second attack or something.
Hmm... a mage with all those weapons, dual wield, second attack, +5%(potentially +8%) to weapons and defense, +2 charmies at 50, add a few more with a bought one and cabal abilities. I don't see how anyone wouldn't like this class.
Lets break it down:
Is animate shield just gonna float there like terra shield? If so, you've got parry, shield block AND animate shield? Three base defenses.
You've got animate weapon ALONG with second attack and dual wield for a class that gets sword, spears and daggers? Hmm... Throw in two charmies, whose attack is vulnerable base...
You can heal yourself.
You've got an area effect spell.
Staves and wands and scrolls? Plus you can animate them so you don't have to dirty your hands during a fight/flee/chase?
So...
We've got a (hell why go anything but Human or Avian) warrior/mage who has three base defenses, six weapons to choose from with a potential base of four to six attacks per round (depending on your choice of dualed weapon and how uber you want animate weapon to be), plus two charmies that can hit just about every racial vulnerability. To top it off we can heal ourselves, bring out thieves, ninjas and rangers. But not only that, we can use wands to cast flamestrike, use flying scrolls and staves for sanc (just to give an example of simple uses).
Yeah. Sounds like a nice class to me.
Hmm...:confused:
I'm in a bad mood today, so, don't let me deter you from coming up with anymore uber ideas.
The animated wands/staves/scrolls would only affect the enemy? So that having a sanc stave animated would help the opponent. The animated shield would only go to about 50% max, animated weapons and charmies would be very weak (think non-strength damned zombies, would rarely lag or cast spells).
Also, he mentioned the healing would have a timer on it (monk healing timer?) and also, have you ever tried to keep a thief/ninja/ranger around with just earthquake or fireball? It's not easy.
One more thing, I think this should be a good-only, or maybe good and neutral class, since evils get necro, and goods don't get anything to balance it.
I'd make an exception for illithids though. They need another class. And I like the puppet idea way more than the elemental. S' more unique.
The animated wands/staves/scrolls would only affect the enemy? So that having a sanc stave animated would help the opponent.
I'd take a wand or stave that I didn't have to hold during combat any day.
And he still can use scrolls out of combat.
The animated shield would only go to about 50% max' date=' animated weapons and charmies would be very weak (think non-strength damned zombies, would rarely lag or cast spells).[/quote']
It's still two high lvl charmies in addition to the other stuff.
Also' date=' he mentioned the healing would have a timer on it (monk healing timer?)[/quote']
Don't care, its still a get out of jail free card if you play it right.
and also' date=' have you ever tried to keep a thief/ninja/ranger around with just earthquake or fireball? It's not easy.[/quote']
Did I suggest that the area effect "tried to keep [them] around" as if it were lag effective? Just that it brings them out of hiding.
I'll stop being mean, didn't want to burst your bubble Mr. E, and suggest something positive.
A geomancer style, quest race for goods, remort or lvl 30 convert, whichever.
Two selectable paths to follow. One who can dabble in elementals or one who runs around sucking armor spells out of the ground while swinging an axe. Terrain dependant. Highly selectable. Sounds like a challenge for Behrens.
The smallest problem with the animator idea is that it's just rehashing ranger, necro and battlemage skills/spells. The larger problem is that very few people take advantage of what's out there now. But I can definitely see where there is a want of another good qclass.
New classes have to have fresh viable skill sets to get any attention from the IMPs. If you guys want this to happen then post about it daily and keep adding fresh skills and for heaven's sake don't make 'em anything like any other class in the game. Ask B nicely, see if he has time over the next 6-12 months.
I can only imagine the sighs that are loosed when samurai, pirate, dnd monk, dnd assassin/ninja posts, etc. pop up.
Don't care' date=' its still a get out of jail free card if you play it right.[/quote']
Necros have vamp touch, bmgs have field dressing. Mages with healing abilities isn't new.
It's still two high lvl charmies in addition to the other stuff.
Where necros have five high level charmies (3 of them stronger than the suggested elementals are) in addition to acid blast, sleep, curse, plague, poison, shatter, and powerword.
Did I suggest that the area effect "tried to keep [them] around" as if it were lag effective? Just that it brings them out of hiding.
Every mage has an area affect spell.
Its definately something that needs to be balanced, but without a surge of ideas that couldnt happen. You need to have more than you need and then tone it down I think. But I believe in my calculations it didnt come out to that much of a powerhouse.
If the animator dual wields, thats a max of 4 attacks. then he has his animated weapon which adds a 5th, maybe 6 if its a mimic weapon.
The animated shield, in offense, would be worse than regular shield block so you have a gimped shield block, parry, and a max of 6 attacks. Plus a pair of pets at pinn. That is the same number of attacks as a dualing dark knight, two elementals or puppets or wtv would be similar to one charmed mob, but dk's have dodge, and also a whole slew of spells.
edit: ALSO, no enhanced damage.
In defense the animated shield would have a slight chance to block a bash/bodyslam as well as be a better shield block
combined with another shield block being worn, that leaves 2 attacks from the animator and 1 from a weapon, plus the two pets.
Notice the animator also has no way of lagging themselves, being dependant on a its pets. It also has no sure way to avoid lag, unlike the true mage and communers animator would get prot shield.
Animator also has no natural way to blind. Which makes it hard to use the pets to take the damage.
The healing comes from reclaiming life which means its emergency use, you no longer have the use of whatever you take the life back from. WE are not talking a major heal here, maybe a cure serious for a wand, a cure crit for a sword/shield, and maybe two cure crits for a pet. The timer for this healing wouldnt be for the reclaim life spell, the timer would be on the animate spells themselves. Lets say you animate a sword, you cant do that again for say 12-24 hours, so if you reclaim the life you are stuck without a floating weapon.
As for wands etc going off on their own, this would be beneficial in combat, but many staves that are easily found arent that high lvl, and if they went around popping off on their own you would attack things you might not want to, so the animator would have to be careful what objects were alive when he was running through town.
Keep the ideas flowing, maybe in a day or two ill repost a new skill/spell list with some of the mods we have been talking about.
Necros have vamp touch, bmgs have field dressing. Mages with healing abilities isn't new.
Where necros have five high level charmies (3 of them stronger than the suggested elementals are) in addition to acid blast, sleep, curse, plague, poison, shatter, and powerword.
Every mage has an area affect spell.
You miss the point. I don't have a beef with those. The necro can't dual wield though, nor does it have a cheap version of dancing blade and terra shield. This thread is just lumping together toned down skills from other classes under different names.
Why make this class when you can make a ranger who dual wields spears/daggers, has pets, has a healing ability, camoes and can use staves?
Why make this class when you can have a dark knight who dual wields yadda yadda, has a pet, can get others, minimal healing spell, afflictive spells, use scrolls and wands?
Why make this class when you can make a necro or a battlemage or whatever?
IMHO all the suggestions so far are too similar to what we have.
In a way you are right. There is quite a bit of overlap, but I think it could be done so that the similarities are minimal. The strategy would be far different that that of a bmg, or a ranger, or a dk, or a necro, also this class gives the choice of align that necro and dk dont have, and also gives a new use for illithid, although I wonder how effective the illithid would be. Can illithids use shields? Maybe if an illithid animated a whip it would get the mimic bonus with its tentacles....
the illithid could pick up a hand from a dead mob, animate it, and mimic bonus with hand to hand 
Why make blademasters? If you wanted to be awesome in melee with a training intensive, yet stronger for it, class, you could play a monk. If you wanted to be awesome in melee with a class that uses weapons, you could play a warrior. Instead... we play blademasters, because sometimes we want BOTH. I know, this is somewhat simplifying blademasters, but frankly, DVD, you're simplifying too. A druid's a cross between a ranger and a cleric, but their unique RP and strategy is what makes people play them. Well... other people... I don't play them.
Well... other people... I don't play them.
And by other people, he means Aulian.
And by other people' date=' he means Aulian.[/quote']
There was a rumour going around that one of Aulian's chars gave 3,000,000 gold coins to the Sacred Oak clan guard in advance of his next 100 characters.
Dey
P.S - Please sign your name if you checked my math. You know who you are.
