New Class Ideas

[RPG_Fatality]

I actually had these classes posted in a different thread but I wanted to revise them and fix 'em up. The classes are the Bard, Spell Sword, and Gladiator. For the purpose of saving space I will be using this symbol (*) to represent the word Upgrade.

The Bard
This class is meant to be a sort of all-rounder like the beloved red mage of the final fantasy series, and has a skill for each general "role."

HP and MP both start at about 40
Low Base Attack Speed (same as Wizard)
Note: All of the bard's songs have a 2 second cast time.
 
Up: Harp (Medium Range)  *1: Damage  *2: attack Speed +20/40/60/80/100%
Left: The bard plays a song on his harp to increase attack damage for a duration  *1: Duration  *2: Radius
Right: The bard plays a song on his instrument that gives HP regen for a duration *1: Duration *2: Regen Rate
Down: The bard plays a song of storms, releasing a tornado to randomly move around the battlefield. damaging enemies. *1: Damage *2: Duration
Passive 1: Cheerful: Grants bonus movement speed to himself and allies in a radius of 6       Move Speed +0.05/0.1/0.15
Passive 2: Instrumentalist: Reduces the cast time of the Bard's songs    Cast Time -0.5/1/1.5 seconds


The Spell Sword
This class is meant to be able to cast spells and enchant his allies weapons with different effects. This class has also already been called "the greatest thing ever" because elementally enchanted weapons are really cool.
HP: 75 MP: 40

Up: Sword  *1: Damage  *2: Chance to steal 1 mana on hit 1/2/3/4/5%
Left: Fire Enchantment: The spell sword enchants all allies's weapons with fire, applying a combustion effect to their regular attacks for 15 seconds  *1 Combust Damage (3) +3/6/9/12  *2 Combust Duration (2) +1/2/3/4
Right: Ice Enchantment: The spell sword enchants all allies's weapons with ice, applying a slowing effect to their regular attacks for 15 seconds  *1 Slow Duration (3) +1/2/3/4  *2 Movement Slow (30%) +10/20/30/40%
Down: Discharge: The spell sword plunges its sword into the ground, and lightning surges through it (similar effect to when some bosses shoot streaks of blood, just with lightning)  *1 Damage  *2 Lightning Streaks (3) +1/2/3/4
Passive 1: Spell Specialist: Decreases mana cost for the spell sword's spells by 15/30/45%
Passive 2: Arcane Euphoria: For 5 seconds after casting a spell, the spell sword gains 1/2/3 HP regen


The Gladiator
This class is of course melee, but I may have come up with a way to prevent him from being too OP. This class is a double-edged sword, meaning that its abilities do damage to itself at the same time as doing damage to enemies. This could be an awful idea, but it seems like it would be an interesting and difficult challenge for those who like to play solo runs of the game.

HP: 120
MP: 20

Up: Axes  *1: Damage  *2 Speed Penalty
Left: Double-Edged Slash: Deals massive damage in a regular attack while also dealing 10% damage to the gladiator.
*1 Damage (100) 150/200/250/300  *2 Arc (60) 90/120/150/180
Right: Rage: Cloaks the gladiator in fire, damaging enemies in an area around it while also losing 3 HP per second. No mana cost.
*1 DPS (15) 20/25/30/35  *2 Range (2) 3/4/5/6
Down: Ax Throw: Throws an ax out in each direction, dealing damage to all enemies they hit, and damaging the gladiator for 20%.
*1 Damage (100) 150/200/250/300  *2 Mana cost (50) 40/30/20/10
Passive 1: Bloodlust: Each time the gladiator kills an enemy it gains bonus movement speed for 2 seconds. Speed +0.1/0.2/0.3
Passive 2: Thick Skin: Gives a chance to halve incoming damage to the barbarian. Chance 10/20/30%

I'm still not sure about the layout of the gladiator, or if he is even balanced, but I think he would be pretty cool. Other than that, these are my suggestions, and I hope that you like them.

[jaladreips]

We totally need a separate subforum for new classes ideas.

[Ykanns]

Nice Ideas,bro.Especially the Bard,it would be really awesome play with it.

[RPG_Fatality]

I saw that the page had over 30 views so I thought I would add a poll to see which class everyone liked best. It's at the top of the page if you happened to miss it.

[FluteJester]

Bard
I don't think the range upgrade of the Health Song would be very useful. You could easily just tell everyone to crowd around you then cast it.
Bard Tornado should actively seek enemies and or spawners, with how big the floors are, it seems silly if you were to cast it after half the floor was clear and for the tornado to just wander around aimlessly in the cleared zones.


Spell Sword
Basic Mana steal chance way too low in my opinion, compared to the Warlock's passive.
Is he rooted when casting discharge? I see people playing Mage cast Meteor and die together with all the mobs because they're rooted while casting without invul frames and then get one shot by rushing mobs.
Can fire and ice enchantment be stacked together?
Does casting spells one after another stack the healing from arcane euphoria?

The Gladiator
Ax Throw seems to be a mob clear ability, but I feel like its entirely possible to straight up kill yourself depending on how damage is calculated. With damage maxed out at 300, say you hit an enemy with 10 hp and kill it. Do you take 20% of 10 damage or 20% of 300(oops edit) damage?

[RPG_Fatality]

Bard
There is no range upgrade for the healing song. Regarding the tornado, I agree it would be not that great if it was unrestricted, so maybe invisible boundaries to contain it in (they would have a fairly large diameter, assuming the boundaries were shaped like a circle) and obviously you would have to be smart about when you cast it, being most useful at the beginning of clearing a room obviously.

Spell Sword
The mana steal would be considerably cheaper than the warlock's soul sacrifice, but maybe 2 mana on hit with 3/6/9/12/15% chance.
He would be rooted while plunging the sword, but have free movement once the lightning began to spread.
Fire and ice enchantments can be stacked on each other, but having 2 spell swords will not give a double fire enchantment (or ice)
Casting more than one spell within the cooldown of arcane euphoria would reset the cooldown, not stack the regen.

The Gladiator
Ax throw will always do 20% of the maximum damage it can deal at that level. It's not meant to be spammed, which is why it has such a large toll on your health pool. Doing damage to multiple enemies will not give you 20% from each enemy damaged. Ex. Hits 3 enemies, still take 20 damage from level 1 ax throw.

Thanks for the well thought out comments! I check the forums regularly for new posts so if you have anything else to add I will get back to you quickly.

[FluteJester]

Ah sorry, I must have accidentally skipped lines when reading and related the radius upgrade of the attack boost with the healing spell.

Your classes sounds pretty fun to me, is this for a custom campaign you're working on or just suggestions for future content?

Would you allow someone to create these classes for public use? (I've been meaning to learn the Editor when I get time, no promises I'm any good though.)

[RPG_Fatality]

I don't know if you're actually able to insert your own classes into the game, I think there was another thread about that. If my editor worked, and I could insert these classes into a custom map, I would. But if you were to make them for your own map I'd be fine with that, just give me credit 

EDIT: just asked on the irc, the current classes are hard coded into the game, which is why you can't add customs.

[FluteJester]

Do you know if they plan to expand the Editor to allow custom classes?

[jaladreips]

I don't think so. Implementing new classes isn't as simple as making new maps. You have to edit source code due to nature of skills.

[FluteJester]

From reading this Editor Guide: http://hammerwatch.com/forum/index.php?topic=2026.msg4221#msg4221

I see that we can make entire new enemies with custom sprites and set their health, speed, attacks, etc.
I also see that we can tweak existing class stats and upgrades through vendor.

I'm not fluent in programming or coding, but I imagine wouldn't they create both monsters and the heroes the same way in the code due to many overlapping traits such as health, attack, speed, etc? Kind of like square is rectangle but rectangle isn't square thing, where they both stem from a parent "Unit" class yet are treated slightly differently in code.

I could just be stupid and way over simplifying how coding works, sorry if I sound like that.

[CrusaderDeleters]

From reading this Editor Guide: http://hammerwatch.com/forum/index.php?topic=2026.msg4221#msg4221

I see that we can make entire new enemies with custom sprites and set their health, speed, attacks, etc.
I also see that we can tweak existing class stats and upgrades through vendor.

I'm not fluent in programming or coding, but I imagine wouldn't they create both monsters and the heroes the same way in the code due to many overlapping traits such as health, attack, speed, etc? Kind of like square is rectangle but rectangle isn't square thing, where they both stem from a parent "Unit" class yet are treated slightly differently in code.

I could just be stupid and way over simplifying how coding works, sorry if I sound like that.

The difference between an AI unit and a Player is that you can't change the spells of the player.
But you got half of the idea.

[Phantom]

From reading this Editor Guide: http://hammerwatch.com/forum/index.php?topic=2026.msg4221#msg4221

I see that we can make entire new enemies with custom sprites and set their health, speed, attacks, etc.
I also see that we can tweak existing class stats and upgrades through vendor.

I'm not fluent in programming or coding, but I imagine wouldn't they create both monsters and the heroes the same way in the code due to many overlapping traits such as health, attack, speed, etc? Kind of like square is rectangle but rectangle isn't square thing, where they both stem from a parent "Unit" class yet are treated slightly differently in code.

I could just be stupid and way over simplifying how coding works, sorry if I sound like that.

The difference between an AI unit and a Player is that you can't change the spells of the player.
But you got half of the idea.

Could we change the looks of each spell for players or no?

[CrusaderDeleters]

\
Could we change the looks of each spell for players or no?

Some of them, I know you can. Might be client side, but I'm unsure about that.
Like the Whirlwind for the Paladin. You can actually go and change that in the image file. But things like the Flame Breath, I doubt so.