Post by Leonard on May 31, 2016 23:11:59 GMT
With the last DD focusing on the encounters, I thought it would be good to balance it with options available to the player - members of the party on their Road to Immortality. One of important goals that I set in this field of the game was giving a sense of identity to each of characters in the mechanical sense, as well as a purpose which they could serve in the party. With ten planned permanent party members and only four of them being able to participate in a battle at any given time, player should have a variety of choices available in regarding to his party composition (210 different possibilities). Let's look at them, and see what their purpose is.
Each of the characters will be given a role or a class they would serve in a typical fantasy RPG.
Main Character
Typical class/role in a standard RPG: Any.
Main character is a blank state for the player to fill in any way they wish. Starting with average attributes all along the board and no skills, player should be able to build his character however he wishes. With a wide array of available skills and ability to direct attributes toward any wished direction, main character could fill any role in the team.
Duskpaw
Class/role: Paladin/Tank
Let's start by looking at Duskpaw's attributes: he has huge HP pool, attack and bravery, average defense and low agility.
Duskpaw is meant to be a tank with some supporting capabilities. He can easily aggro his enemies, thanks to his skills, which all generate lots of threat. After he becomes the main target, he can take a lot of damage, thanks to his good health and self-healing skills, along with clever usage of defensive skills and guarding. His supportive skills are relatively powerful, but expensive. Because of that, he is meant to use them sparingly. His intended way of fighting is using a lot of his standard attacks with an occasional use of a skill. Duskpaw has no good offensive techniques by design, but thanks to his high attacks, his standard attacks still pack a punch, and guarding just to get a bit more energy reduces both damage output and Duskpaw's aggro, creating an interesting dynamic for the player.
Kestrelpaw
Class/role: Thief/Debuffer
Kestrelpaw has low attributes, with the exception of his excellent agility.
Kestrelpaw has very limited offensive potential. While he has some really great offensive techniques, he lacks attack attribute to utilize them for most of the game. His 'Weak Hit Spot' is an example of this. It's a hyperscaling ability on a character that grows very slowly. The main use of Kestrelpaw is affecting enemies with debilitating status effects. His high agility means that he can often act first in combat - and this allows the player to react to any sudden changes in the battle situations. His status effects are particularly useful against a single, strong enemy - when the power is spread among many enemies of similar strength, his debuffs end up a lot less effective than simply killing opponents. While his defensive potential may look bad, his agility allows him to play the role of a dodge tank. This is particularly useful in combination of his accuracy reducing moves. Although, this is of course a gamble - once he is hit, he's most likely dead.
Nettlepaw
Class/role: Fighter/Bruiser
Nettlepaw has an above-average stats.
Nettlepaw is nearly a complete reversal of Kestrelpaw - she has very good stats and her moves do a very high amount of damage. However, dealing damage is pretty much the only thing she can do and her skills provide very little utility. She can serve as a secondary tank, with her overall good stats and combat moves. Switching her to more defensive role is possible, especially with some flexibility given to her by her stances, although this limits her damage output.
Badgerpaw
Class/role: Berserker/Bruiser or Healer/Support
Badgerpaw has average stats, with slightly lower bravery.
Badgerpaw starts off as an all-rounder, without a particularly defined strength. Her skills branch in two exclusive directions - either surrendering her to her feral nature, which lets her be an effective fighter, or pursuing her nurturing nature, making her strong at healing and supporting others. Regardless of the choice here, she's still at least competent in every field, making her a useful choice for an unknown encounters.
Tempestpaw
Class/role: Assassin/Glass Cannon
Tempestpaw has high attack and agility but low defense and hp.
Tempestpaw is the first character not using the energy system. Instead, he relies on his combo system, which requires him to chain his attacks. His damage potential is very high, and his attacks are also coupled with nasty additional effects. However, his flashy fighting styles draws a lot of aggro - and Tempestpaw is very fragile. A lot of the challenge with using Tempestpaw is going to revolve around dealing with this problem - and not letting enemies interrupt his combos.
?
Class/Role: Battle Priest/Support
Battle priest has good stats, particularly attack and defense.
Battle Priest focuses on supporting members of the patrol with short term buffs. They are unique in that using those supportive skills gives them the energy, letting them support patrol members every turn. Her energy costing skills are a more powerful supporting skills and very strong attacks. Battle Priest is the readiest source of revive in the game, although not the only one. That makes them sort of a reverse Duskpaw - while Duskpaw uses his attacks to let him support other patrol members, Battle Priest supports the patrol members so they have the energy to attack. Their martyr-like nature let's them sacrifice her own health to further help their patrol members.
?
Class/Role: Mage/Specialist
'Mage' has very low stats.
The setting of The Road to Immortality is very low in fantasy elements, which limits the type of skills I can make for the game that would fit it. Mage probably stretches the plausibility of the system to its limits, but they offer the most unique effects and their use may be highly situational. Mage is completely reliant on their skills and support of their patrol members.
Paw
Class/Role: Bard/Jack of all Trades
Paw has average stats.
Paw is the other character that doesn't use the energy system - instead she relies on the mastery of five combat styles (each different Clan). Each of her skills requires a different style to use, and can be further enhanced by the style she was using before. While Paw has a huge variety of skills and different effects at her disposal, very few are readily available, the more powerful effects requiring travelling through the whole style tree. She's a very versatile character, able to fill in for any role, but requires proper planning, and her switching a role takes some time. Here's a screenshot of her skill view:
Careful reader will notice that only nine characters have been described above. The design of the tenth character is not yet finalised. I hope that such a choice of characters and a wide variety of skills will offer a wide variety of strategies to be used by the players, depending on their preferences and the needs for particular encounter.
Each of the characters will be given a role or a class they would serve in a typical fantasy RPG.
Main Character
Typical class/role in a standard RPG: Any.
Main character is a blank state for the player to fill in any way they wish. Starting with average attributes all along the board and no skills, player should be able to build his character however he wishes. With a wide array of available skills and ability to direct attributes toward any wished direction, main character could fill any role in the team.
Duskpaw
Class/role: Paladin/Tank
Let's start by looking at Duskpaw's attributes: he has huge HP pool, attack and bravery, average defense and low agility.
Duskpaw is meant to be a tank with some supporting capabilities. He can easily aggro his enemies, thanks to his skills, which all generate lots of threat. After he becomes the main target, he can take a lot of damage, thanks to his good health and self-healing skills, along with clever usage of defensive skills and guarding. His supportive skills are relatively powerful, but expensive. Because of that, he is meant to use them sparingly. His intended way of fighting is using a lot of his standard attacks with an occasional use of a skill. Duskpaw has no good offensive techniques by design, but thanks to his high attacks, his standard attacks still pack a punch, and guarding just to get a bit more energy reduces both damage output and Duskpaw's aggro, creating an interesting dynamic for the player.
Kestrelpaw
Class/role: Thief/Debuffer
Kestrelpaw has low attributes, with the exception of his excellent agility.
Kestrelpaw has very limited offensive potential. While he has some really great offensive techniques, he lacks attack attribute to utilize them for most of the game. His 'Weak Hit Spot' is an example of this. It's a hyperscaling ability on a character that grows very slowly. The main use of Kestrelpaw is affecting enemies with debilitating status effects. His high agility means that he can often act first in combat - and this allows the player to react to any sudden changes in the battle situations. His status effects are particularly useful against a single, strong enemy - when the power is spread among many enemies of similar strength, his debuffs end up a lot less effective than simply killing opponents. While his defensive potential may look bad, his agility allows him to play the role of a dodge tank. This is particularly useful in combination of his accuracy reducing moves. Although, this is of course a gamble - once he is hit, he's most likely dead.
Nettlepaw
Class/role: Fighter/Bruiser
Nettlepaw has an above-average stats.
Nettlepaw is nearly a complete reversal of Kestrelpaw - she has very good stats and her moves do a very high amount of damage. However, dealing damage is pretty much the only thing she can do and her skills provide very little utility. She can serve as a secondary tank, with her overall good stats and combat moves. Switching her to more defensive role is possible, especially with some flexibility given to her by her stances, although this limits her damage output.
Badgerpaw
Class/role: Berserker/Bruiser or Healer/Support
Badgerpaw has average stats, with slightly lower bravery.
Badgerpaw starts off as an all-rounder, without a particularly defined strength. Her skills branch in two exclusive directions - either surrendering her to her feral nature, which lets her be an effective fighter, or pursuing her nurturing nature, making her strong at healing and supporting others. Regardless of the choice here, she's still at least competent in every field, making her a useful choice for an unknown encounters.
Tempestpaw
Class/role: Assassin/Glass Cannon
Tempestpaw has high attack and agility but low defense and hp.
Tempestpaw is the first character not using the energy system. Instead, he relies on his combo system, which requires him to chain his attacks. His damage potential is very high, and his attacks are also coupled with nasty additional effects. However, his flashy fighting styles draws a lot of aggro - and Tempestpaw is very fragile. A lot of the challenge with using Tempestpaw is going to revolve around dealing with this problem - and not letting enemies interrupt his combos.
?
Class/Role: Battle Priest/Support
Battle priest has good stats, particularly attack and defense.
Battle Priest focuses on supporting members of the patrol with short term buffs. They are unique in that using those supportive skills gives them the energy, letting them support patrol members every turn. Her energy costing skills are a more powerful supporting skills and very strong attacks. Battle Priest is the readiest source of revive in the game, although not the only one. That makes them sort of a reverse Duskpaw - while Duskpaw uses his attacks to let him support other patrol members, Battle Priest supports the patrol members so they have the energy to attack. Their martyr-like nature let's them sacrifice her own health to further help their patrol members.
?
Class/Role: Mage/Specialist
'Mage' has very low stats.
The setting of The Road to Immortality is very low in fantasy elements, which limits the type of skills I can make for the game that would fit it. Mage probably stretches the plausibility of the system to its limits, but they offer the most unique effects and their use may be highly situational. Mage is completely reliant on their skills and support of their patrol members.
Paw
Class/Role: Bard/Jack of all Trades
Paw has average stats.
Paw is the other character that doesn't use the energy system - instead she relies on the mastery of five combat styles (each different Clan). Each of her skills requires a different style to use, and can be further enhanced by the style she was using before. While Paw has a huge variety of skills and different effects at her disposal, very few are readily available, the more powerful effects requiring travelling through the whole style tree. She's a very versatile character, able to fill in for any role, but requires proper planning, and her switching a role takes some time. Here's a screenshot of her skill view:
Careful reader will notice that only nine characters have been described above. The design of the tenth character is not yet finalised. I hope that such a choice of characters and a wide variety of skills will offer a wide variety of strategies to be used by the players, depending on their preferences and the needs for particular encounter.