Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (Full Version)

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Dardiel -> Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/19/2020 21:02:45)




The Idea Pond: Where The Ideas are Pondered

The balancing is probably off, but numbers look cool and the equations can give insight that would otherwise be hard to explain.

Formatting pending to change upon feedback - current priority is communicating the unique concepts, and the mindset behind their creation.

Suggestions are also probably going to be connected by some thread to their adjacent ideas as I follow my train of thought, and a large portion of the suggestions are likely to be in support of strategies that are currently non-optimal. My personal build style is to have "win the battle" be secondary to "get stronger throughout the battle" so my initial ideas strongly reflect the Controller/Long-Game priority and most or all of the subsequent ideas will likely take into account whether they can make a long fight interesting.

Table of Links pending






Mr. Roguish -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (5/20/2021 22:00:38)

I don't know about the math, but I do like the concept about a particular way to effectively increase the duration of effects by a decent length that you can just set it and forget it efficiently without the specific intention of trying to obtain some god mode.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (12/2/2021 13:11:45)

Bad Infinitum
Spell/Skill/Misc Active

Note: "Adjustable Status" below refers to any status that has both a duration and a number representing its strength (such as power for burn/poison/etc, or a modifier for eleVuln/choke/etc.) Duration when used below is how many rounds remain for that effect, and Power when used below is the number representing the status' strength.

Overview: For one random adjustable status on the enemy, reduce the power of that status greatly but extend its duration to last the entire battle. If the status already lasts a long time (20+ turns), increase the power of that status.

Details: For one random adjustable status on the enemy, let X = MIN(Duration, 20)/20 and let Units = 0.05 for any status that deals with small numbers such as Poison, but 1 in any other case. Set the status' power to Power*(X+(1/9998)/5)+5*Units, then set its duration to 9999 rounds.

Examples:

Choke, -30% damage for 1 rounds -> -6.5% damage for 9999 rounds -> -12.8% -> -20.36%
Posion, 2 Power for 2 rounds -> 0.45 power for 9999 rounds -> 0.79 -> 1.198

Goal(s):
- Support the strategy of playing defensively and stacking effects on enemies, for the power fantasy of maximizing defense while inevitable doom encroaches on the enemy
- Allow diversity in the above strategy, where one could reasonably use any adjustable status for stacking and potentially multiple at once

Thought(s):
- I'm proud of the potential that the item has without having to make a complicated effect, though I do feel it asks things of the status system that would be tough to handle currently.




Rad Infinitum
The same thing as Bad Infinitum, but for effects the player has on themselves

Examples:

Lucky, +50 LUK for 1 round -> +7.5 LUK for 9999 rounds -> 14 -> 21.8
Baby Egg Damage Reduction, -28 damage for 1 round -> -6.4 for 9999 rounds -> 12.68 -> 20.21
Geocastellum x14, -100% damage for 9 rounds -> -50% damage for 9999 rounds -> -65% -> -83%




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (1/14/2022 18:38:49)

Oversoul Overcharge
Tome/Spell/Armor Skill

Overview: Choose between Accumulate and Eradicate - Accumulate gathers more Soul Charge each time it's used, and Eradicate releases Soul Charges for bonus damage.

Details: Choose between Accumulate and Eradicate:
- Accumulate gives 1 Soul Charge per time it's been cast during the battle.
- Eradicate consumes all Soul Charges, dealing 85% damage plus 20% per Soul Charge spent.

Examples:
- Accumulate 19 rounds (190 charges gained), then Eradicate = 3885% damage (average 194.25% per round, all applied on round 20)
- Accumulate 9 rounds (45 charges gained), then Eradicate = 985% damage (average 98.5% per round, all applied on round 10)
- Accumulate-then-Eradicate alternating: Round n (n/2 charges) = 85% + 10n% damage = 1950% damage by round 20 (scaling up from average 52.5% per round on round 2, up to average 97.5% per round on round 20)
- Accumulate once, then Eradicate only: 105% round 2, 85% every round after (average 52.5% damage by round 2, scaling down toward average 42.5% damage over time)

Goal(s):
- Support the strategy of playing defensively and stacking effects on enemies, for the power fantasy of maximizing defense while inevitable doom encroaches on the enemy
- Emulate my favorite Oversoul mechanic of spending a turn to gain resources and gaining more resources each time you do it

Thought(s)
- I feel like the balance on this was pretty hard to do without knowing where to find everything about AQ balancing, I wasn't certain what assumptions to make: If battles are assumed to be 10 rounds then it's a below-average spell, if they're assumed to be 20 then its strongest case is very strong but the numbers can be changed to 95% + 10% per Charge to put the numbers back in place.
- The 19-round-Accumulate case assumes that Accumulate costs a small enough amount that it can be done 19 times in a row, if it's thought of as a Mastercraft spell/skill then it spends 100% of its damage to reduce the cost by 100% and uses the 5% Mastercraft bonus to store Soul Charges for Eradicate to spend.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (2/9/2022 17:28:48)

Learning Leech
Darkness Spell/Skill

Overview: Deal damage to the enemy and heal for the damage dealt, with increasing damage on every use.

Appearance: Red/purple energy swirls slowly around the enemy and collects into a mass, then swiftly flies to the player and disperses into them.

Description: This (living?) spell/skill drains health from your enemies - it also learns their weak spots, becoming stronger with each use!

Details: Deal 35% damage plus 10% per time the spell was cast in this battle, and heal your HP for that much.

Examples:
- Cast 1: 35% Dealt+Healed = 70%
- Cast 2: 45% Dealt+Healed = 90%
- Cast 3: 55% Dealt+Healed = 110%

Goal(s):
- Support the strategy of playing defensively and stacking effects on enemies, for the power fantasy of maximizing defense while inevitable doom encroaches on the enemy
- Support the Lich fantasy of stealing HP

Thought(s)
- For balancing this is similar to Tenacious Dracolich Claws, but that spell caps at +25% damage so I reduced the initial combined damage+healing of this one by 15% to move the break-even point one round further.
- For extra "oh neat" reaction, the spell's stat scaling could be END to reflect the spell's strong connection to healing and to support a tank-caster niche.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (8/22/2023 23:49:34)

Doubt: «X», «Y» Rounds
Status

Overview: The afflicted character begins to doubt their skills, and tunnel-visions on landing hits at the expense of damage.

Details: For Y rounds the character's attacks, skills, and spells all have a BtH lean of +X (they get +X to hit, but deal *85/(85+X) damage). Applying the status again sets the duration to the longer of the two (between current duration and the duration of the new status) and increases sets X to MAX((CurrentX+NewX)/2, CurrentX)*MIN(CurrentDuration/NewDuration, 1).

Explanation of the equation for new power: If the duration is increased by the new status, then it reduces the power increase to scale inversely to the increase in duration.

Examples:

Doubt 15, 5 rounds: Character has +15 BtH, and deals 85% damage.
Doubt 85, 3 rounds: Character has +85 BtH, and deals 50% damage.
Doubt 8415, 1 round: Character has +8415 BtH, and deals 1% damage.

Doubt 15, 5 rounds, character applies Doubt 15, 6 rounds: Enemy is now afflicted by Doubt 27.5, 6 rounds (75.55% damage)
Doubt 15, 3 rounds, character applies Doubt 85, 1 round: Enemy is now afflicted by Doubt 50, 3 rounds (63% damage)

Goal(s):
- Make a status that can be stacked arbitrarily high without quickly becoming overwhelming (such as with Panic)

Thought(s):
- I feel like this status can be interesting when applied to a player, as it could be an effect they choose to apply to themselves to make certain attacks/skills/spells more accurate and being willing to reduce damage for it - even if an enemy applied it to the player, they can still try to leverage the effect's accuracy boost for their own benefit.
- I like that the effect is written like it's a fairly equal trade but takes advantage of the fact that going above 100% chance to hit has no impact, making it a status that's technically neutral at first but becomes negative when too much is applied.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (10/30/2023 20:32:51)

Looming Doomblade/Doomspear/Doomstaff
Dark Melee/Ranged/Magic Sword/Spear/Staff

Overview: 10-proc weapons; consecutive non-proc hits sacrifice damage to increase the damage and chance of its next special, which sacrifices damage to make the enemy more vulnerable to damage. Has a toggle to become 0-proc (IE stores power/proc-rate without "accidentally" spending it).

Appearance: Sword and spear each have a sphere of dark energy that seems to be gathering energy and is levitating at the end of the hilt/handle, with a blade levitating on the other side of it. Staff has an arch that curves around the sphere. Clicking on the sphere toggles no-proc mode.

Description: This sword/spear/staff siphons power from each of your attacks, and grows unstable until it erupts with a blast that leaves enemies vulnerable! Click the sphere to stabilize it, preventing the power from being able to erupt until you click it again.

Details:
- Normal attacks with the weapon deal -X% damage, and increase the damage of the special by a portion of that while the rest goes into increasing the rate of the special. The increases stack, but all increases are lost when the special occurs and when battle ends.
- The weapon can toggle into no-proc mode, which is the same effect but can't trigger the special (allowing the wielder to charge the weapon as much as they'd like).
- The special spends the majority of its damage (including the bonus damage gained from the normal effect) to apply two turns of Elemental Vulnerability (Either weapon element or all elements) at the appropriate rate. Save is -10, [STR/DEX/INT]/LUK vs END/LUK.

Examples:
- If the normal attack spends 25% melee to improve the special, with 10% going to the rate and 15% going to the damage, then after 3 attacks the special's odds of occurring are increased by 30% melee and the damage is increased by 45% melee. If the special is normally 150% melee and spends 50% of its damage on the status, if it triggers after those 3 normal attacks it has 195% melee and spends 97.5% melee on the Elemental Vulnerability instead of the normal 75%.


Goal(s):
- Support the idea of 10-proc weapons that feel like their normal attacks are still making progress toward the game plan
- Allow the player to interact with the proc rate, giving room for a small amount of choice in when the impactful special occurs without letting it function as a skill

Thought(s):
- I think variable proc rates could be worth looking into, and I feel that there could be some merit to having normal attacks contribute to the special's power as a way to help players feel less bad if they don't get a special to trigger for a long time.
- I like the idea of the status actually increasing enemy element modifiers by a X (IE able to increase a negative modifier to a positive), but I figure that's harder to implement so I went with the safer and currently existing EleVuln status.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (10/30/2023 20:35:19)

Spite
Ice Ranged/Magic Spear/Staff

Overview: Variable-proc weapons that trigger their special more often against enemies with high blocking; the special reduces enemy MRM, and normal attacks deal high damage with low accuracy.

Appearance: Spear is a halberd with a head of a Pzycho Sabre but blue & white, staff is similar but with the Sabre in a decorative position (facing backward, for example). Spear/staff poles are wooden, with some ice creeping onto them from the Sabres.

Description: This spear/staff was designed to punish those that move too quickly, and it slowly freezes them in place!

Details:
- The weapon's proc-rate is equal to the enemy's average MRM (max 100) - for example, an MRM of 40/50/60 would mean a 50% proc rate.
- The weapon's special sacrifices damage to attempt to reduce the enemy's MRM by an amount (3-5 probably).
- The weapon's normal attacks have a strongly inaccurate lean.

Examples:
- None here, this weapon is pretty simple - it tries to reduce enemy MRM, and tries less often as their MRM goes down.

Goal(s):
- Support Full-Defense builds that sacrifice accuracy in favor of survivability by giving a way to wear down enemy defenses

Thought(s):
- Continuing with X-proc weapon suggestions, this one is inspired by the Pzycho Sabres because I feel that MRM reductions like it has are underrepresented (the Necromancer class used to have a skill for guaranteed MRM reduction, but it was removed during the class rework which left only the Pzycho Sabre and a few pets that can't reduce MRM by more than 30 per battle).




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (10/30/2023 20:38:24)

Burning Question
Fire Spell/Skill

Overview: Spell/skill that implants a weak Spiritual Seed on the enemy - subsequent casts increase the seed's strength, while casting a different spell/skill increases the seed's delay.

Appearance: A small wisp of fire swirls around the enemy, then condenses into a ball and embeds itself inside the enemy.

Description: Plant two questions in the mind of your enemy: 1) When will this spell explode? And 2) How painful will it be? Other spells/skills delay the explosion, and re-casting this one make it stronger!

Details: Efficient spell/skill that spends all of its damage to inflict Spiritual Seed of Fire (3 rounds). If cast on an enemy that already has that Spiritual Seed, it makes the seed stronger without increasing the number of rounds. Each time the player casts a spell/skill other than this one, the number of rounds on the Spiritual Seed increase by 2.

Examples:
- First cast: Seed planted, power X and remaining turns 3
- Potential Usage 1: Continue recasting the spell to have it hit a power of 3X before it detonates
- Potential Usage 2: Alternate between recasting and casting other spells/skills, using the other spells/skills as a means to prevent the seed from triggering so that its power can be stacked further.

Goal(s):
- Create a spell that allows for choices to be made beyond just when to cast it (which spells/skills to have on hand for extending the Seed, when to extend it and when to empower it)

Thought(s):
- Quick-cast spells/skills would likely need a special case with this spell, but I think the simple way would be to have the Spiritual Seed check if the player cast a spell during their turn instead of having the spell cast itself trigger the Seed duration increase. Alternatively, it could be only spells that cost a turn that extend the Seed as particularly spammable spells/skills would allow the player to increase the Seed's duration without much effort.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (10/30/2023 20:47:21)

Alchemancer
FD Water Armor

Overview: Armor that trades potion healing for stat boosts, and that can conjure potions.

Appearance: A set of robes with a collection of belts and pouches that hold the components required to magically conjure potions - ingredients, a pestle and mortar, and potentially some materials that can be used to conjure more potion-making components.

Description: The Alchemancer specializes in getting the most from their potions, and replenishing their supply in a pinch!

Details:
- FD Armor with Water primary (potions are wet) and Magic > Melee = Ranged blocking.
- Skill #1, Create Health Potion, spends 100% melee to add a health potion to the player's inventory, if they have room.
- Skill #2, Create Mana Potion, spends 100% melee to add a mana potion to the player's inventory, if they have room.
- Effect: Drinking a potion while in this armor reduces its healing by 50% melee, and gives 50% melee in the form of a stat boost for the rest of the battle - Health Potions have a 50% chance to give Strength, Mana Potions have a 50% chance to give Intellect, and both have their other 50% give one of Dexterity, Endurance, Charisma, or Luck chosen at random (so 50% MainStat, 12.5% for each of the minor stats).

Examples:
- At level 150, reduce Health Potion healing by ~174 (50% melee in HP) to grant an increase of ~29 to a stat for the rest of battle (Assuming the 10 round battle standard plus using Celtic Wheel as a reference where 340 SP = +50 INT for the battle, so 174 HP = 195.75 SP = +28.79 for the battle)

Goal(s):
- Create an armor that can interact with potions, building upon the (usually) under-utilized mechanic to make an interesting resource system without having to create a resource.

Thought(s):
- If using potions is an issue due to them being stockpile-able prior to a quest/battle, the armor can still work in different ways, such as only having a single skill that gives the stat boost or having a skill that stores an HP/MP heal charge and can expend that charge to get the small heal + stat boost




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/1/2023 17:36:07)

Overflowing Aquablade/Aquaspear/Aquastaff
Water Sword/Spear/Staff

Overview: 0-proc weapons that attempt to apply Offbalanced to the enemy when you miss.

Appearance: Sword and Spear blades, as well as the "gem" at the end of the staff, are made of water and there's clearly too much - there's always a bulge at some part, constantly shifting around and trying to even out but there's no way for that amount of water to fit in the shape and size it's trying to be.

Description: This sword/spear/staff has too much water! Even if an enemy dodges your attacks, the splashing can get into their boots and throw off their balance!

Details:
- -5 BtH lean, so *85/80 damage
- Spends 20% melee (or 15% and MC bonus, if there's an MC bonus) to attempt to apply Offbalanced after each attack if at least one hit attempt was a miss. Duration is 9999 rounds (so all battle), save is 50%, reduction is [Hits Missed]/[Hits Attempted]/0.4*[20% Melee as 1-round Offbalanced]/10/0.5
- Flavor effect: Click on the water to put the weapon into "Spilling everywhere" mode. In this mode, all player attacks with the weapon miss.

Examples:
- This one is pretty straightforward - if the player lands 1/2 their attacks and the enemy fails 1/2 the saves, the enemy gets a stacking 1/4 of the weapon's Offbalance application (so 0.5% melee per turn for the rest of battle, per round).

Goal(s):
- Create a weapon that allows the player to wear down the Dexterity of an enemy, but without requiring the player to be hitting them in the first place (as with Pzycho Sabre, Legion Pumpkin Slayer, Nerfit, etc).

Thought(s):
- The Offbalance numbers are: [Misses]/[Attempts] as the usual modifier for how much of the attack met the requirements, /0.4 because the weapon can assume the player isn't putting points into accuracy which means 35% miss rate (65% hit rate) without the lean and 40% miss rate after, *20% Melee as 1-round Offbalanced because the % Melee has to be converted into what it's applied as, /10 because the effect lasts all battle which gets assumed to be 10 rounds, /0.5 because it's a 50% save.
- The flavor effect is left underpowered on purpose, I think it's important that it has the effect so that players don't feel "punished" for having their accuracy too high but I didn't want to treat it as if it were a full downside since there are theoretical cases where a player would want to miss and apply the status more - if the balance allows a buff to be added then great, but if not then I think the flavor is cute and don't think it would make anyone feel like the weapon is sub-par just because they don't use the flavor effect to auto-miss.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/1/2023 20:12:42)

Call/Summon Display Case
Guest Spell

Overview: Spell that conjures a guest whose attacks count as the player attacking with their weapon.

Appearance: A large glass cabinet holding a small replica of (or a painting of) the player's active weapon. It "attacks" by having a text box pop up like an advertisement ("Limited Edition"/"Very Cool"/etc) and then flinging that popup at the enemy so you know they read how special your weapon is.

Description: For when you want to really show off what your weapon can do.

Details:
- Costs 60% melee as normal
- Attack is 1 hit, +5 BtH lean
- The guest's attacks count as 60%-damage player attacks using their active weapon: They follow your weapon’s element (*0.9 damage for that) in addition to counting as an attack for effects associated with player attacks such as on the weapon itself (with appropriate damage modifiers for that).
- Mastercraft Bonus: Copies the weapon’s bonus.

Examples:
- Your active weapon is dark and deals /2 damage but heals you for the damage you deal: Display Case deals 27% melee (60%/2*0.9) dark damage and heals you for the damage it deals.
- Your active weapon is harm (*0.9 damage) and its Mastercraft bonus applies a 5/1.4% chance stun if every hit lands: Display Case deals 48.6% melee (60%*0.9*0.9) harm damage and applies a 5/1.4% chance stun if it hits.

Goal(s):
- Create a guest that allows the player to utilize weapon effects without requiring Celerity or the reliance on damage-based effects like Alchemical Unity being paired with damage boosting effects.

Thought(s):
- This concept assumes that player weapon attacks are possible to emulate outside of the player's actual attack. If the weapon can't be used as a guest's effect, a similar effect for the guest would be to grant the player celerity but apply the 60% damage multiplier and lock them out of anything other than attacks during that celerity turn.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/2/2023 19:34:59)

Resilience [X] (Freedom/Boss Boost Alternative)
Status

Overview: A character with Resilience [X] negates the first X successful inflictions of any status from among a chosen group, resetting each time one of those statuses are applied.

Description: Extra resistant to hindering statuses. [Optional: Display how many more inflictions are required before an infliction can be applied] [Optional: List the statuses affected by Resilience]

Details:
- When a monster (or player, if this status is given to players) fails to resist a status but their Resilience counter is above 0, they reduce their Resilience counter by 1 and are treated as if they succeeded in resisting the status. Otherwise (if the Resilience counter is 0), the status is applied as normal and their Resilience counter is reset to equal its starting value of X.

Examples:
- A monster has Resilience 3 against immobilizing effects and form shift; for a player to freeze it, they must first inflict 3 successful immobilizing and/or form shift effects - after those 3, a successful freeze infliction will actually freeze the monster; the Resilience counter resets to 3, requiring another 3 status inflictions before the monster can be frozen again.
- A boss has Resilience 1 against all statuses; it is only affected by every second status that is successfully inflicted, regardless of type.
- [Theoretical] A monster has Resilience N against any status that has been inflicted on it previously, where N is the number of times the status has been inflicted on it so far in the battle. The monster would be functionally learning to mitigate the statuses that the player leans most heavily on, such as the Snarl of a Werepyre.
- [Theoretical] A boss has Resilience 1 against damage; each time its Resilience is reset, it gains a small permanent bonus to damage and accuracy.
- A player item gives Resilience 1 against choke, and has a bonus that's paid for by inflicting choke on the player after each use.

Goal(s):
- Update the "anti-cheese" statuses such that bosses aren't invalidated by certain statuses, but in a way that also doesn't invalidate certain playstyles against those bosses.

Thought(s):
- It could be "abusable" that one could use cheaper / more consistent status inflictions to wear down a counter until the intended status can actually be applied, but at the same time I feel that it's likely a good thing to reward the player for leveraging a selection of items/effects as opposed to pushing them toward just using their best individual items or refusing to let them use those best items at all.
- I feel that certain statuses are unfairly negated by the current Freedom status and thus negate interesting playstyles, such as the various "eater" builds that are all about setup and payoff without actually needing the status itself to have an effect, or such as various Form Shift strategies that could be interesting without being broken if they had to spend larger amounts of time/resources on applying the form shift rather than being able to apply them right away and for minimal cost (Even with Prime Chaos Orb, if a boss can only have its resists scrambled on every 5th use, you're giving the boss x1.5 damage per scramble instead of x1.1 and you often would only get 1 scramble per 2 turns instead of multiple scrambles per turn - the cost of the orb would be much more pronounced as the stakes when scrambling would be much more extreme).




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/2/2023 20:54:53)

Create Opening
Spell/Skill

Overview: Quickcast Spell/Skill that temporarily overwrites the enemy's sub-X% resistances with X%.

Appearance: A large circle hovers around the enemy, then quickly shrinks to "lock on" to a particular location.

Description: This Spell/Skill allows you to damage your enemies with elements they normally wouldn't take damage from!

Details:
- At battle start, X is 5%. After each use of the spell/skill, increase by 10.
- For 2 rounds, each of the target's elemental resistances (only the main 8 - no harm, heal, void, etc) that are below X are set to X.

Examples:
- An enemy has -50% Dark modifier; for 2 rounds, its modifier is 5% instead. On your next turn, you can cast it again - the modifier is overwritten (going from 5% to 15%) and the durations are added together to make 3 rounds.

Goal(s):
- Create a way for non-imbueable element-specific effects to be applicable to enemies with negative resists, without making nukes stronger.

Thought(s):
- Temporarily overwriting resistances would be ideal for effects that scale with enemy resists (such as Absolute Darkness blinding for 7×[Dark Resist]) would be ideal to properly support the concept, but I imagine that the majority of its functionality can still exist by just modifying the incoming damage in the same manner as the Paladin armor does plus potentially temporarily removing the monster's elemental alignment for effects that won't work on monsters of a particular element.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/4/2023 15:57:08)

Metaphysical Prism
Shield

Overview: Shield with a skill to overwrite enemy incoming damage with a random element.

Appearance: A glass prism spinning inside a circular shield - occasionally it disappears into the void (10% of its total animation is spent in the void).

Description: This shield warps the elements, changing the damage you take from monsters! Click on the shield to activate a skill that randomizes the damage you take.

Details:
- Magic > Melee == Ranged Blocking (It's doing magical things, so it might as well block the magic while it's there)
- Resists all elements equally (-14% at level 150)
- Clicking the Shield attempts to scramble the monster's attacking element(s) with a save of END/LUK vs END/LUK +20 (so 30% infliction chance) - quickcast, but can only be attempted once per turn.
- If the monster fails the save, it gets a status called Distorted Element: [Element Name]. As long as it has that status, all damage it deals to the player is that element. The element is chosen at random from among the main 8 elements, plus Harm and Void.
- If the monster fails the save, the shield also scrambles its own resistances - it has a 50% chance to resist the monster's attacking element, a 10% chance to resist all elements equally, and a 40% chance to pick a random element from among the main 8 and resist that element.

Examples:
- An enemy Ice Snayl has its attacking element randomized - its element becomes set to Dark. The shield randomizes its elemental resistances, and now grants -26% Dark resist.
- An enemy Salamander has its attacking element randomized - its element becomes set to Fire (bad luck there). The shield randomizes its elemental resistances, and now grants -26% Earth resist (better luck next time).
- An enemy Gogg has its attacking element randomized - its element becomes set to Void, meaning all hits from its multi-elemental attack deal Void damage instead of wind/water/etc. The shield randomizes its elemental resistances, and now grants -13% to all elements. The newly-minted Void Gogg probably eats the player if they don't do something to win the fight that turn.

Goal(s):
- Create a shield that can interact with enemy elements in a fun way, trading the consistency of "just use the shield that matches the monster's element" for a game of trying to create an alignment between the shield you WANT to wield and the element that it defends against.

Thought(s):
- I'm unsure of the balance cost of randomizing elements, so I was conservative - the roll is difficult, there's a 20% chance the monster's element becomes Harm or even Void, and the shield itself has an effectively 60% chance to defend against the new element (50% to match, and 1/8 shot to randomly hit the right element in the 80% chance that the random element is one of the main 8) which makes it common that the player interacts with their shield inventory multiple times in a single battle.
- I think the shield counts as a sort of compression item for how it should be treated, since a very basic use would be to switch the enemy's element until it matches the equipment that the player wants to be using (though the switch still has the low infliction chance and 20% chance to be basically a straight buff to the enemy)




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/6/2023 0:46:30)

Unquestionable Superiority
Spell

Overview: Spell that inflicts Element Vulnerability (All) on an enemy, forcing the enemy to make saves until they succeed and increasing the severity of the status for each save they fail.

Appearance: A spotlight shines on the player, and they sparkle.

Description: Show your enemy how much stronger you are, permanently damaging their ego!

Details:
- Attempts to inflict a universal Element Vulnerability with a save of MainStat/LUK vs the Monster's same stats (eg INT/LUK vs INT/LUK, DEX/LUK vs DEX/LUK, etc). If the monster fails the save, they get a +10 bonus and attempt it again - this repeats until they succeed.
- The strength of the EleVuln is 200/1.1/1.5/10 = 12.12% per failed save, for the rest of the battle.

Examples:
- 1 failed save: 12.12%
- 2 failed saves: 24.24%
- 5 failed saves (meaning the enemy failed a save at +0, at +10, at +20, at +30, and at +40): 60.6%

Goal(s):
- This one was basically just a thought experiment on repeated saves, but it was paired with EleVuln because I think the concept of "Break your opponent's confidence via repeated shows of superiority" works well as a resistance reduction; alternatively, I think it would fit well as a choke.

Thought(s):
- The /1.5 in the balance is based on the assumed number of times the status will apply - 50% chance of 1, plus 40% chance of another, plus 30% chance of another, etc = 150% total chance of applying 1 = assumed 1.5 applications per use.
- It could potentially be balanced around the odds of each save being failed, such as having the 50% save apply at 1/0.5 power and the 40% save apply at 1/0.4, but the balancing on that seems way harder and more open to abuse in cases where the enemy can fail the 90% save or even the 100% save.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/10/2023 19:34:31)

Combat Practice Trainer
Monster

Overview: A boss inspired by everyone's favorite equipment tester.

Appearance: The combat practice trainer himself - making him look any different would be an insult to his legacy. However, his weapon could be upgraded to show that he's not holding back this time. The Ultimate Dragon Scythe of Elements seems to be the perfect weapon for him.

Description: You've used him as practice for years - now it's his turn to practice on you!

Details:

- Level: 150

- Resists: 100% each

- Blocking: 48 each

- Stats: 50 each

- HP: 10,000, with breakpoints at 90%, 75%, and 50% HP (Damage can't bring CPT past a breakpoint until he gets a turn at that breakpoint)

- SP: Starting at 200, gaining 100 SP per turn
------- Upon reaching each HP breakpoint, CPT's SP gain increases by 50 per turn.

- At the beginning of the battle, Combat Practice Trainer gains a barrier of 500.

- At the beginning of CPT's turn, he checks his statuses:
------- If the barrier was depleted: CPT gains 50 END/CHA and multiplies his resists by 0.9, then gains a barrier of 500 plus half the excess damage taken since his last turn. (Combat Practice Trainer adapts to your aggressive style!)
------- If the barrier wasn't depleted: CPT gains 25 STR/DEX/INT/LUK, 7 BtH, and a permanent +5% Lucky Strike chance - going above 100% chance acts similarly to stacking Fear-like effects; going above 100% chance reduces the chance (and future increases to the chance) by half but doubles his Lucky Strike damage to even out the numbers. (Combat Practice Trainer adapts to your defensive style!)
------- If he's inflicted with a status that would normally be affected by Boss Boost or Freedom: CPT gains a permanent +5 Status Resistance and can't take more than 1000 damage before the start of his next turn (If a burn deals 200 damage, the player's damage on their turn caps out at 800)

- Attack: CPT changes his weapon to match the element and type the player is weakest to, then performs a one-hit attack that deals reduced damage to compensate for element/type seeking. If he has 500 or more SP, he spends 500 SP to gain a turn of celerity. He skips the barrier check on his celerity turns (but not the debilitating status check), and instead gains 10 to each stat plus the attack on celerity turns attempts to inflict panic with MainStat/LUK vs player CHA/LUK with the panic multiplier being equal to 50%*ExpectedDamage/DamageDealt (So it gets stronger if the attack deals more damage; Combat Practice Trainer is attacking too fast - you're panicking! / You keep your calm amidst the flurry of blows.).




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/12/2023 16:29:22)

Spellcrafter's Tome
Tome

Overview: Tome that allows the wielder to customize the details of the spells it contains.

Appearance: A book at the end of a staff - a design on the cover of the book is constantly making magical adjustments to itself, as if trying to meet some ideal specifications.

Description: This tome allows you to customize the spells within!

Details:
- Contains 3 spell options and a Draw Mana option. Each spell option leads to two more sets of three options, much like Invincible Star.
- Spells 1 and 2 are Efficient Spell and Overcharged Spell
--- Both options then have Lean options; the player can choose +10, 0, or -10
--- The final choice is the Base-Random spread; the player can choose 75% random, 50/50, or 75% base
- Spell 3 is Status
--- The next choice is the effect; the player can choose Poison, Shield (eleShield all), or Empower (eleEmpower for the matching element)
--- The final choice is duration; the player can choose 2 turns, 5 turns, or permanent
- After the spell and its modifications are chosen, the spell is cast with those details (the status spell changes its power to match the effect/duration, rather than changing its cost)

Examples:
- Efficient Spell -> +10 lean -> 75% base for the players that want a very safe and consistent spell
- Overcharged Spell -> -10 lean -> 75% random for the players fishing for a big hit
- Status -> Shield -> 2 turns for a player preparing for a big enemy hit
- Status -> Empower -> permanent for a player that's playing the long game

Goal(s):
- Tomes are already the items that tend to give players the most control over their casting, this one is intended to let the player really feel like they can fine-tune their magic like a combat-scientist.

Thought(s):
- I would assume that this might count as being a ton of spells all together, albeit several similar ones so I feel like some of the versatility would mean the tome costs a lot of gold while the rest of it is basically a flavor effect
- I had no element in mind when making the tome, I typically associate this sort of science-y style with energy or ice but I think the effects are vague enough to fill any elemental slot




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/12/2023 16:34:03)

Adaptacast
Spell

Overview: Spell that bases its effect on several aspects of the current battle, rather than using inherent details.

Appearance: A magical smoke swirls around the battlefield with purpose, clearly "visiting" the locations that it will base itself on - the player's weapon, the player themselves, and the enemy - then forms itself into three javelins to strike the enemy.

Description: This spell bases its element and effects off of your weapon and the state of the battle!

Details:
- Spell cost and mainstat is based on the player's highest stat from among STR/DEX/INT. STR/DEX use SP, INT uses MP.
- Spell element is based on the weapon held. Harm comes with the matching x0.9 damage modifier, void comes with the /0.2 modifier.
- Spell is overcharged if current resource > 70% maximum, normal if current resource is within 40%-70% maximum, and efficient if current resource is below 40%.
- Spell lean is based on player current HP % minus enemy HP % divided by 2.5 and capped at 20 in either direction. Eg if the player has full HP and the enemy has none, it's a +20 lean. If both players have the same percentage HP remaining, it's a neutral lean.
- Spell applies elevuln if it hits, matching its element - the amount of damage it spends on the elevuln matches the player's armor lean (spellcaster is full damage, FO spends 25%, neutral spends 50%, FD spends 75%) and the duration matches the player's weapon proc rate /10+1 (0-proc lasts 1 round, 10-proc is 2 rounds, 20-proc is 3, 100-proc is permanent)

Examples:
- First battle after a full heal, holding a 20-proc fire wand in a neutral armor: Spell is fire, uses MP and INT, overcharged, 0 lean, spends 50% of damage to apply a 3-round fire elevuln.
- A boss battle is looking rough, the player is on 25% HP and minimal SP and the boss is at 50%; player has a 100-proc harm ranged weapon in a FD armor: Spell is harm, uses SP and DEX, efficient, -10 lean, spends 75% of damage to apply a permanent harm elevuln.

Goal(s):
- Largely inspired by the tome, I thought it would be fun to have a spell that encourages a wide range of gameplay and equipment decisions to push the spell toward achieving the player's specific goals.

Thought(s):
- The lack of melee 100-procs means the spell can't use mainstat based on the player's weapon without melee users being locked out of applying the status permanently, so instead the stat/cost can be influenced by using stat-drive shields or other buff effects (eg a character with 250 DEX/INT can use a +INT buff to cast the spell for MP and deal magic damage)




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/18/2023 6:24:35)

Cozy Campfire
Pet

Overview: Fire pet that gives the player The Warm - a very original status that boosts BtH and blocking.

Appearance: A medium-sized and very stable (ie not erratic) fire coming from a small bundle of logs that are each wearing fuzzy slippers.

Description: Perfect for the winter, this pet helps fend off The Cold!

Details:
- Deals 50% fire damage to the monster, and the other 50% is granted to the player as 1 turn of The Warm (literally just the opposite of The Cold). MC is the ability to cleanse The Cold when clicked, by paying in pet damage and excess cost being paid in SP.

Goal(s):
- To make a joke

Thought(s):
- I think it went okay




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/19/2023 17:07:28)

The Ten Sigils // Activate the Sigils
Ten Miscs and a SPell

Overview: A collection of miscs that each modify the player's attacks, skills, and spells (hereafter simplified as "attacks") if they're in the player's active inventory. Sigils only add their effects once the SPell "Activate the Sigils" has been cast, and their effects scale with the monster's resists.

Appearance: Small flat stones with glowing symbols carved into them.

Description: This sigil empowers you with [description of effect matching the sigil] when you activate it with the Activate the Sigils spell!

Details:
- Activate the Sigils is QuickCast, and the first cast allows the sigil effects to contribute. Subsequent casts permanently apply a stack of Sigil Empowerment, increasing each sigil's effect by 25%. The first cast costs 10% Melee in SP per sigil in the active inventory as well as applying a 4-turn harm burn on the player that has power of 1 per sigil, while subsequent casts have no SP cost but apply a 2-turn harm burn of power 0.625 per sigil.
- Each sigil has its own element and effects.
- FIRE: The player deals +5% damage
- WATER: The player deal 7.5% of their damage to the monster as MP damage
- WIND: The player has +3.25 BtH
- ICE: The player attempts to daze the monster (8.4% chance to not act, 50/50 save, MainStat/Luk vs End/Luk) after attacking
- EARTH: The player gains a 1-turn 3.57% eleShield after attacking
- ENERGY: The player has a 5% chance of gaining player-only celerity after attacking
- LIGHT: The player attempts to blind the monster (-6 BtH, 1 turn, 50/50 save, MainStat/Luk vs End/Luk) after attacking
- DARKNESS: The player steals 2.94%*Hits/Attempts Melee in SP from the monster after attacking
- HARM: The player treats the monster's resists as being increased by a flat 6.5
- HEAL: The player heals for 5% of damage they deal

Examples:
- A player with the fire sigil that fights an ice monster with 130% fire resist will deal [5*1.3] = 6.5% more damage once the sigil has been activated.
- A player with the water sigil and the darkness sigil, fighting a monster with 50% water resist and 100% dark resist, will have 3.75% of their damage dealt as MP damage and will steal 2.94% Melee in SP (based on accuracy).
- A player fighting a monster with 10% resists in all 8 elements but 100% harm resist and the player cast Activate the Sigils 4 additional times (+100% power) will be treated as having 23% resists

Goal(s):
- To create a set of miscs where the player can mix and match from a collection to have a customized effect

Thought(s):
- The sigils contribute 5% melee per turn at start, so the spell cost is 5% melee per turn (so 50%) per sigil. The activation splits the cost into 20% via SP and 80% via a burn. Subsequent casts are 25% power increase so 25% spell cost, I figured it would be more interesting to remove the SP cost and keep some of the burn as the 25% cost.
- There would be a decompression bonus in that the miscs are useless without the spell - I have no idea the value of that decompression, so I figured that it combined with requiring the player to cast the spell up front would be enough to justify the spell not having the QC penalty.




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/20/2023 23:56:07)

The Hummingburn
Monster

Overview: Both Chaotic and Maxtrigon/Botto made hummingbird bosses this week, so I figured I would too - this monster is a test of giving the player meaningful choices for how they deal damage.

Appearance: Wisps of fire make the shape of a hummingbird, and a small wisp occasionally pokes out of the beak to resemble a tongue.

Description: This sentient mote of flame is overcharged with magical energy! Certain elements can overload it, dealing additional damage but causing it to temporarily harness those elements itself.

Details:

- Level: 150

- Resists:
Fire: -100%
Water: 100%
Wind: 0%
Ice: 50%
Earth: 0%
Energy: 100%
Light: 100%
Dark: 0%

- Blocking: Expected Player BtH + 30 (ie 70% incoming accuracy)

- Stats:
Strength: 0
Dexterity: 300
Intellect: 0
Ensurance: 0
Charisma: 250
Luck: 250

- HP: 5,000 with a per-hit soft damage cap of 250 (0.5 exponent on excess damage) against non-ice damage; it also has a soft cap of 125 (0.5 clawback) against ice.

- SP: Starting at 100, gaining 100 SP per turn. If Hummingburn starts a turn with at least 250 SP, it spends 250 SP to reduce its Ice resist by 5% - if the resist is 0%, it instead gains permanent eleEmpower (fire).

Hummingburn has Resilience 4 against immobilizing statuses, form shift, and effects covered by Boss Boost.

- Hummingburn gains different statuses when hit by its weakest elements; each status has a duration of 1 when gained, and is increased by 1 whenever it would be gained again.
Water: Hummingburn gains the Steam-mist status, which gives it a 50% chance to evade any incoming damage (checked per instance of damage, and works against autohit) and modifies Hummingburn's attacks to become wind element.
Energy: Hummingburn gains the Electrified status, which gives it celerity and modifies Hummingburn's attacks to attempt to Paralyze the player - the status is inflicted with Dexterity and Luck (275 and 250) vs Player Endurance and Luck, with an additional penalty of [Player's Energy Resist] / 5.
Light: Hummingburn gains the Luminous status, which returns 50% of all incoming damage as harm damage and modifies Hummingburn's attacks to gain [Player Light Resist]/2 BtH and a damage multiplier of *(100%+2*[Player Light Resist]) damage.
Harm: Hummingburn gains the Piercing status, which grants it +30 status potence and increases its SP gain to 250 per turn. It also modifies Hummingburn's attacks to become autohit.
Void: Hummingburn gains the Corrupted status, which grants it all of the above statuses.

- Attack: Hummingburn's attacks are ranged (it's a long beak, so basically a spear) and fire element, and it does 1 hit per attempted player hit since its last turn (eg if the Player uses celerity and attacks 2 times then 3 times, Hummingburn attacks 5 times) at 25% damage per hit (assumed 2 hits per round, so 50% damage). The remaining 50% damage is in the form of: when it lands a hit, it attempts to inflict a permanent fire burn (inflict with Dexterity and Luck vs Endurance and Luck, - 20).




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (11/30/2023 7:03:58)

Essence of Hummingburn
Axe/Lance/Staff

Overview: Reward for defeating the Hummingburn; a fire weapon with off-element bonus effects.

Appearance: Similar to the Hummingburn, wisps of fire make the shape of the Hummingburn - the Axe has outstretched wings, the lance is in a diving / closed wing position with the beak sticking straight out, and the staff is a mix between the two.

Description: The Hummingburn has granted you its magical power in the form of this [Axe/Lance/Spear]! It harnesses the unstable energy to overwhelm your foe with Water, Energy, Light, Harm, and Void!

Details:
The weapon is a 0-proc that deals x0.5 damage in exchange for a bonus effect, which itself breaks the effect down to 25% Melee value always applied and the other 25% Melee being multiplied by damage dealt / expected damage (so half of the effect is flat value, the other half scales with damage).
Bonus effect - Basic Elements: At the end of each turn where you landed hits with the weapon, find the enemy's weakest resistance from among Water, Energy, and Light - inflict a permanent burn of that element (inflict with MainStat/Luck vs Endurance/Luck), then if the burn was applied remove that element from the list of options for future inflictions (so you end up with one burn of each of the three elements). Once all three burns are inflicted, the fourth burn is Harm.
When you would attack with the weapon while the enemy is inflicted with all four burns it can apply, the weapon becomes a 100-proc for one attack - the special eats all four burns to create an image of the Hummingburn, which attacks for four hits of void (each hit is equal 25% Melee plus the average value of the burns).




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (1/11/2024 15:50:20)

Orb of Cultures
Misc

Overview: Store power over time; use the item to summon a guest with that much power.

Appearance: A glass sphere, filled with yogurt.

Description: This product didn't fly off the shelves so much as roll off them... The more time you allow the yogurt to ferment, the more powerful it will be when you unleash it!

Details:
The item costs 35% Melee in SP per turn plus reduces your BtH by 15*0.85 = 12.75 (hard to aim when you're holding a round glass ball full of wobbly slime) and stores 1 charge per turn; at the end of each turn (after gaining charges) it also multiplies its current charges by 10/9 as a turn delay bonus.
Skill: Spend your turn and click the orb to shatter it (unequipping it and being unable to re-equip it for the rest of combat). When you shatter it, you summon a Yogurt Golem (alternate name - Culture Club). Yogurt Golem is a guest that gains the orbs charges (but does not have any turn delay bonus) and has the following stats:
- Cost: 60% melee SP per turn
- Effect: Has two attacks; Attack B happens 20% of the time, Attack A happens the rest of the time.
- Attack A: 2 water hits, 20% melee each with +5 BtH lean.
- Attack B: 4 water hits, 35% melee each with autohit "lean". Each time it performs this attack, it gains 2 charges.

Each charge on the guest increases its power as follows (ie each charge applies its own bonus, based on "which number" it is):
- Charges 1-12 decrease upkeep cost by 5% melee (12 charges = 0 upkeep cost)
- Charges 13-44 increase the odds of Attack B by 2.5% (44 charges = 100% rate on Attack B)
- Charges 45+ give the guest 0.05 Momentum - the guest attacks [1+Momentum] times each turn, rounded stochastically (every 20 charges beyond 44 gives the guest one extra attack per turn on average)




Dardiel -> RE: Zerxes_WolfHawk's Idea Pond (1/21/2024 8:49:49)

Plague Doctor
Wind Armor

Overview: Infect monsters with a status that heals them in exchange for various debuffs, and inflict disease to mitigate the healing.

Appearance: Just your typical plague doctor.

Description: Hmm, I think you're supposed to be *treating* the diseases...

Details:
FD Wind armor, with dark secondary. Magic > Melee = Ranged blocking.

Comes with two skills, Medicine and Malice.

Medicine: Spend a turn and 100% Melee SP to attempt inflicting "Dubious Treatment" on the monster. Dubious Treatment is a permanent status with the following effects:
- Diseases applied to the monster are +100% stronger
- The monster effectively has "disease lean": The monster heals for 20% melee each turn, but its damage is reduced by the amount of disease on it; its outgoing damage is *140/(140+X/5), where X is the total % melee in disease on the monster.

Malice: Spell-type skill, following weapon type. Costs 100% Melee SP (125% for magic), and spends half of its damage to apply an HP disease to the monster (neutral save, inflict with MainStat/LUK vs END/LUK). The remaining damage scales with the amount of disease on the monster, with a multiplier of (200+X/5)/200 where X is the total % melee in disease on the monster.




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