Jump to content

A preview of Liches, and an idea of design philosophy


Behrens

Recommended Posts

Well, there have been a lot of requests to give you the same sort of preview that Viri gave for 'Saders, so here goes.

1. Design philosophy.

I wanted liches to feel like a cross between the three classes that can become liches without being battlemages with ghoul touch and hellstream, etc.

So most of their spells are brand new (which is why it took a bit to bring them out. New spells need lots of balance checking).

I wanted all of their spells to feel like they came from undead power, so, for example, they have the same shaman shroud that prevents spell detection, but it works differently for them, because it comes from the undead, instead of an evil god. So, the net result may be that you can't tell if they have sanc, but the way you get there feels very different to the player.

2. Spell feel

I decided early on against any minions. I decided that liches would mostly draw on undead powers indirectly, rather than the way necromancers do with their charmies.

So often you will have to have 1 spell up to use another, which can chain into another. The combinations are varied, and really come out fun when they start working together, allowing a lot of power for the experienced, while still being usable right off the bat.

For example, there is a spell called "grasp of the crypt" that only works on non-fliers. (I'll leave its powers to be discovered). So, there is an easy way for people to avoid any damage from it, just like earthquake.

There is also a way (special combo) to get fliers grounded, so advanced players can use this power to use the powerful "grasp of the crypt" on even prepared players.

3. Weakness feel

Obviously, being undead-like, they have a very visible weakness, but they also have several other better hidden ones. For example, paladins might find that turning a lich has even more effects than just making them flee.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The spells working together thing sounds cool. I got to know one thing though, when lichs were being tested one kept killing my ogre ranger and he could seeme through camo. Now, was he emoting looking at me and using area spells or can those bad mothers see camoed?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like humans. Don't make them sometimes, but I like them. Don't have the patience for an elven pally, so if I make a pally, it would be human. I also like to shake things up with human-ness once in a while, if it wouldn't be as powerful as another race. For example, a human zerker. But maybe I'm just weird.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've seen I think 3 lvl 50 human mages over the past few days, I've got one that can't get a group to save her life(yes her again, lich vs vampire if Marty tries to get cute and sweet with her) and I've seen a few others in the 20-40 range. I'm interested more in grouping with one to see kinda what they do. I had the first non-beta sader and I know how horrible I am with qclasses so I don't really want to be the one to break them into the game for everybody.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like humans.... Don't have the patience for an elven pally' date=' so if I make a pally, it would be human. [/quote']

You're right about that. Human is great for Pali's. But you can't make evil pali's... although I do have an rp idea for a vampire that starts as a pali.... hmmm...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Over confidence. It can be a killer. But I think it evened up a bit, at least until a certain spell was changed. THen my overpoweredness came to a screeching halt. Should have figured it if I could PK with it.

But I don't recall him tearing up too many other people. *shrug

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...