New Class

Arekusanderu · Post by **Arekusanderu** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 12:39 am

Berserker.

He has a couple huge stat bonuses, mostly con and str, but has huge deficits in other areas. He should come out to total +/- of 0, because the abilities maintain game balance.

He cannot wear armor, making him one helluva Ruggilian, especially when you take into account the Berserk special, which I'm not sure how will be implemented... It is perpetually the opposite of fear. Anytime there is a hostile monster within the Bersserker's range of perception, he WILL attack it. This is about the only time anyone will ever use "wimpy"...

One last thing, to balance out the NO_ARMOR: he does not die until the Berserk special loses effect. That's when you turn OFF wimpy, because it overrides Berserk and will kill you if your HP is below 0. Of course, so will finishing off all the monsters...

If you think the not-quite-immortality is overpowered, go ahead and reduce overall stat gain to -5, but let's remember the distribution: HUGE Str and Con, near-worthless everywhere else.

Rednaxela · Post by **Rednaxela** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:02 am

The "not-quite-immortality" is extremely overpowered, even if the stats changes were reduced to a crazy -20 overall. That's because there are many places with creatures or spellcasting walls that depend you you dying when you have low hp, otherwise you could just heal while invincible and be back on your bussiness and then just waltz through and get some of the rarest loot in the game.

Arekusanderu · Post by **Arekusanderu** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:32 pm

Rednaxela wrote:The "not-quite-immortality" is extremely overpowered, even if the stats changes were reduced to a crazy -20 overall. That's because there are many places with creatures or spellcasting walls that depend you you dying when you have low hp, otherwise you could just heal while invincible and be back on your bussiness and then just waltz through and get some of the rarest loot in the game.

Let's keep in mind though, it DOESN'T work with spellcasting walls, only with monsters. And if you kill the monster, Berserk turns off, and the spellwalls kill you fastlike. Also, if you cann't see the monster, Berserk is off.

Oh yeah, forgot to put in that Stun and Fear override it as well.

And perhaps it should be made so that healing items can't be used while Berserk; in fact, make it totally automatic so the player has no control over the Berserk char. That eliminates the healing-while-invincible threat.

Rednaxela · Post by **Rednaxela** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 5:30 pm

Ok, it isn't so bad then.

Arekusanderu wrote:And perhaps it should be made so that healing items can't be used while Berserk; in fact, make it totally automatic so the player has no control over the Berserk char. That eliminates the healing-while-invincible threat.

However things would also need to be done to prevent issues such as having one berserk char atack a boss, and a backup char from behind casting heal constantly.

I still feel very unsure about this class:
1) How fun would it be to go up to a boss monster that you're not sure how difficult it is, but it totaly creams you while you're berserking. But then you don't die and you keep attacking, however it's armor is too powerful for you to even scratch, so you're doomed to endlessly keep attacking it.
2) If a dungon has treasure worth 1 death, and you can't normally kill the boss at all, but with beserk you can (slowly) actually manage to kill it. Then you can waltz back in after and get the treasure that was worth a death, even though you normally wouldn't be even close to strong enough to beat it. There's some unbalance there.

Arekusanderu · Post by **Arekusanderu** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:32 am

Rednaxela wrote:Ok, it isn't so bad then.
Arekusanderu wrote:And perhaps it should be made so that healing items can't be used while Berserk; in fact, make it totally automatic so the player has no control over the Berserk char. That eliminates the healing-while-invincible threat.
However things would also need to be done to prevent issues such as having one berserk char atack a boss, and a backup char from behind casting heal constantly.

I still feel very unsure about this class:
1) How fun would it be to go up to a boss monster that you're not sure how difficult it is, but it totaly creams you while you're berserking. But then you don't die and you keep attacking, however it's armor is too powerful for you to even scratch, so you're doomed to endlessly keep attacking it.
2) If a dungon has treasure worth 1 death, and you can't normally kill the boss at all, but with beserk you can (slowly) actually manage to kill it. Then you can waltz back in after and get the treasure that was worth a death, even though you normally wouldn't be even close to strong enough to beat it. There's some unbalance there.

1) Lessee... *thinks* If it A) hits you for more than your max HP in one strike, or B) drives you to -999 HP, you die, even while Berserk.

2) Double exp/stat loss for Berserks. Is it worth TWO deaths?

Concerning backup healer: Berserk causes all heal spells to reflect to the caster. He's only healing himself then.

GAME BALANCE (more or less) ACHIEVED!

Rednaxela · Post by **Rednaxela** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 3:37 pm

Ok, that's fairly good, except #2 there doesn't exactly make enough sence to me. Because when I said that it was worth 1 death, 1 was a rather arbitrary number, there are also some worth many more deaths than 1. So I don't think increasing the death penatly is good solution for this issue.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 6:00 pm

i think theres a simpler way. add a berserker character, based of the barbarian, but leave out the 'not dieing' part. see how the character plays, and if anyone even uses it. then slowly add the changes. also, if the berserker should be able to die, even when hes beserking. just give him a 20-200(?)ish hp bonus, but drop dex and magic to near 0?

Arekusanderu · Post by **Arekusanderu** » Sat Aug 06, 2005 10:25 pm

Aaron wrote:i think theres a simpler way. add a berserker character, based of the barbarian, but leave out the 'not dieing' part. see how the character plays, and if anyone even uses it. then slowly add the changes. also, if the berserker should be able to die, even when hes beserking. just give him a 20-200(?)ish hp bonus, but drop dex and magic to near 0?

According to the legend of the norse Berserkers, they would never die in the heat of battle. They would continue to fight until totally dismembered, even when they would otherwise be dead. One legend speaks of a Berserker whose skull was cloven in two by an enemy axeman, yet he continued to fight. This ought to be emulated in the CF class. I'm still working on number two of Red's complaints... The others have been hypothetically fixed.

Perhaps, on death of a Berserk char on a map, if the map is unoccupied have it reset. Thus the monsters are back when the Berserker returns.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:47 pm

i was thinking more like diablo 2 beserkers. this sould also be a problem for noobs, cause if they walk into a room full of monsters, theyll get killed, and cant stop. seems like it would be impossible to level up...

Arekusanderu · Post by **Arekusanderu** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 3:28 am

Aaron wrote:i was thinking more like diablo 2 beserkers. this sould also be a problem for noobs, cause if they walk into a room full of monsters, theyll get killed, and cant stop. seems like it would be impossible to level up...

If the monsters award enough exp to make up for the fact that they die, it may actually lead to farming problems. Also, that's one of the disadvantages to the Berserker. ALWAYS ask before you enter a room.