1) I am all for this.

2) Agreed, "mental domination" is flavorful, and "force wall" is a super cool mechanic that I've enjoyed in games like Caves of Qud. Even if these two aren't picked, some kind of revamp to that class power would be great.

3) Absolutely.

4) Not sure about this, I don't like just giving every class alertness to make them better. It does seem flavorful, but I have my doubts.

Voted yes with those thoughts in mind.

Agreed on most points, but Alertness seems excessive. It is a highly valuable skill that is hard to acquire for a reason, and while mindcrafters could reasonably claim benefits to evading combat magic (the caster is most likely sentient), trap evasion does not make a tinge of sense. I would also rather focus on having powerful unique abilities rather than relying on a strong skill pool to compensate for lackluster abilities.

Some other notes that I have found weird about the class:

1. It should be made more clear that Greater Telekinetic Blast can pass through enemies, instead of being a projectile weapon, since it uses the same targeting system as missiles do.
2. Regeneration (the mindcraft power) is bad. You get it late enough in the game that other sources of regeneration are most likely already available, and the PP/healing economy is terrible compared to healing spells. It is passable, should you lack any other form of healing, but decidedly underwhelming for the part of the game you get it at.
3. Greater Mind Wave is a terrible capstone ability. The scaling on it isn't impressive, it costs massive amounts of PP, and most enemies left to fight at that point either corrupt you (Fisty) or drain PP at a rate to make it entirely useless AND corrupt you (Andy)
4. Halving damage from undead is also a terrible ability to receive at level 50. Unless you absolutely want to mind blast Ghost Lords, the only possible use for it after receiving it is clearing an Undead Greater Vault.

I would recommend dropping Regeneration to 20, Greater Mind Wave to 35. Corruption resistance / Undead damage resistance should probably be merged to one class power at level 32. Perhaps give them a reasonable level 50 capstone ability instead, such as doubling the PP regen from Concentration, as it can take a pretty good while for a leveled mindcrafter to regain their PP due to the class powers that increase their PP pool but not regeneration.

As an aside, the level 18 power is arguably better than the level 40 one: 32*1d6 = 112 > 10*3d5 = 75. While not a problem as Mindcrafters tend to have sufficient PP pools and each ability is individually reasonable, I always found this to be a bit odd.

I think blingley had some very very good points. The regeneration power is very lackluster also, and much worse than healing magic, and seems kind of a very big waste. The level 50 power seems pretty weak. I like blingley's PP regen idea a lot, although I feel it is sad it would take until level 50 to get a nice power like that.

Another ability I just thought of for mindcrafter is a levitation one, preferably at a low level so they can bypass the red lake in tomb of the high kings. It would also fit their theme of telekenises, making themselves float.


As for alertness I agree it is a tough choice, don't want to make it too common.
Another reasons besides fitting the lore/flavor to the mindcradter that i think it would be cool for them to have it is that it will help give reason to diversify the racial choices. Dark elf and drakeling have high willpower and alertness making them strong choices for mindcrafter. If it was part of the profession it would give nice incentive to play other races and change your playstyle. It would give more incentive to play mindcrafter on frail traditional characters like Grey elf, and high elves, hurthlings and gnomes.

Also it is a shame no caster starts with alertness. I never really cared about alertness helping a little with traps, it always seems best for me for dodging magic. But the Creator maybe has his own vision on what the lore/use of alertness should be.

Anyways, I like the many ideas we have, mindcraft is one of the most unique classes, and there are so many fun things that could be done with them.

Some good ideas here. I like the idea of giving them alertness.

I'd suggest giving Mental Shield a duration (like invisibility) instead of continuously draining PP until you turn it off. I do play mindcrafters sometimes, but I almost never use that power because it is just too expensive.

I love most of the ideas put forth, but I am against alertness being added.

Instead of mana being trained when mindcraft is invoked, perhaps willpower could be trained instead? It would make more sense to me.

I disagree with giving mental shield a duration, I use it often as it is and it's very powerful in the mid game. It's a great way to survive multiple rounds in a dangerous situation.

That said, toggling powers such as mental shield and regen would be waaaaay more useful if it didn't cost a turn to turn them on and off.

The more I think of blingley's suggestion about PP regen the more I like it. Classes have ways of reducing PP costs, and increasing PP pools. But there is only one class that has a power to increase PP regen times, the bard, and he is not even a "caster" character really.

Waiting around for your PP to regenerate is no fun. There are a couple of ways to increase regeneration, but they all have very little effect. Potions of Raw Mana have almost no impact on PP regen compared to training your concentration. Concentration remains by far the best way to regenerate PP besides a few select items.

Maybe instead of alertness, or instead of mindcraft training mana stat, give mindcrafters the bard class power to increase PP regen. It would go along the theme/lore of concentration greatly increasing PP regeneration. As a Mindcrafter, one who has mastered their own mind and focus, they would most likely be able to use concentration/PP regeneration even better than any other class. (this would help make up for the fact that mindcraft cannot be HP casted like magic spells can be, and less of a pain when you enter a room that drains you off all your PP)

Personally if implemented, I think giving at level 50 would be kind of lame since at that point they have already pretty much beaten the game, I have characters that only reach level 50 on D:50 leaving no room to benefit from the increased PP regen, (which is why giving at lower level would be much funner). Maybe give them this power at level 25-30. Compared to bards who get this at level 40.

The HP regeneration power could definitely use huge improvements also, or turn it more into a healing spell.

Do most people think drakelings and dark elves are the best choices for a mindcrafter player? I'm interested in opinions and reasoning with regard to the most powerful mindcrafter races. Hurthlings get the Archery skill (access to Eagle Eye and Lightning Shot), Food Preservation (although drakelings get this one too), fast leveling, an extra talent at the beginning and start skilled at throwing rocks. Gardening might also be fairly nice now due to the new ability to gather herb seeds. I think the starting attribute editor and e.g. the Candle starsign give a good chance to gain enough talent points for both Alert (for Treasure Hunter) and Heir. I think the editor also helps improve the low strength and mana.

Find Weakness is a useful skill, but I think its bonus to ranged combat is not very good at skill level 100. According to the wiki, it increases the chance to critically hit by 7% in ranged combat unless that value depends on some other factor(s). Furthermore, generally bosses seem to be especially dangerous in melee and Find Weakness doesn't affect slaying weapons. On the other hand, I'm a bit unsure how easy it is to find slaying ammunition. However, Alertness appears to be a very solid way to avoid combat magic.

Nonetheless, if Alertness is considered crucial due to its magic evasion aspect, what would you think if Mental Shield affected spells in addition to the other attacks? I also think it would be interesting if mindcrafters were able to withstand magic to a degree, but I don't think giving Alertness to mindcrafters would fit their theme.

Maby give him some CHA modifers to spell damage? CHA is almost useless stat, btw midncrafter have unique mechanic and CHA modifers - its interst, i think. MIND blast work on a minds, and charismatic people have more
influence on minds :)

Drakelings are debatably one of the best choices for *any* class. They boast impressive physical stats, an alternative mode of ranged combat from the start, a highly desirable skill pool, and an ability to trivialize to some degree one of the hardest challenges any PC has to face: ToEF. The race offers a lot more than merely access to Alertness. Dark Elves combine this with a fairly impressive melee potency, especially for pointy stick + shield usage.

Hurthlings are a reasonable choice, although they are currently gimped due to the way Archery is trained: You need to hit enemies outside the usual range with ranged weapons to get train it. Most ranged weapons have more base range than many NPCs have vision range, barring Amulet of the Eye or scumming wilderness encounters. It is very much possible to finish the game with multiple ranged weapon skills at 10+ and still not be able to cap archery, or even get it to 80+, let alone reach that treshold in a respectable amount of time. That being said, should you be able to reach it, the skill is quite reasonable for Mindcrafters due to the ease of talking to Shyssi and receiving the Rune-Covered Trident, which boasts slaying abilities against the enemies Mindcrafter class powers struggle to deal with. Confusing enemies and tossing the Trident in their face repeatedly is an easy to way to deal with, well, just about anything that isn't immune. Hurthling fast leveling also does not matter that much for Mindcrafters, since as outlined above, their level 50 abilities are unimpressive. On the other hand, for non-raven-borns, Hurthlings will receive the Trident sooner.

But we're really getting offtopic here. My personal bottom line is that I would rather have something else powerful rather than Alertness. Giving classes access to more powerful skills might seem like an appealing way to buff the weaker classes, but it also homogenizes them. Variety is the spice of life, and I can imagine - and there have been in this very thread - numerous other ways to improve Mindcrafters that I feel would be superior to simply improving their skill pool with Alertness.

Majora, I'm afraid I think that regenerating PP faster at all times is a tad boring, because it would make PP less important without any additional factors that mindcraft powers would depend on. I suppose the ability could instead tap into the mind of any applicable monster within a range. When that occurs, the current PP of the player character would be increased. Each mind would be unable to yield PP more often than once. I think the power shouldn't affect monsters that are immune to e.g. Confusion Blast. Undead and corrupted monsters would be ignored by the ability by default, but it could be made possible to allow accessing the minds of the latter type of monsters as well in exchange for corruption since telepathic mindcraft powers have that downside.

By the way, I consider it odd that Magedoom and Magebane eyes weaken mindcrafters more efficiently than magic-users as mindcraft powers don't work without any PP. The names of the monsters seem to indicate they're antimagical, but mindcrafters, on the other hand, aren't actually supposed to be spell-casters as far as I know. Therefore I think the names might need to be changed. Alternatively, mindcrafters could be drained less. However, their maximum PP is still partially based on Mana so I'm not sure if they should be totally immune.

Edit: now I suppose I would like the increase to the current PP of the character to be continuous as the minds of the target monsters don't cease to exist either. That would discourage the use of area mindcraft powers though. Nevertheless, I don't know if the mental capacity flow should subject the monsters to an actual negative effect since I think the average amount of PP transferred per turn per monster would need to be a lot less than one. I currently can't think of a good debilitating effect that I would like.

How about adding a pp drain resistance to the lvl 50 class power due to superior willpower and mental self control? It would make mindcraft somewhat useful against andor, which would be a viable use for a lvl 50 class power.

I support the OP although I'd go for something else rather than alertness.

In order to make them more playable I suggest changing them this way:
General abilities:
- Good resistance to PP drain. As suggested in comments. It's already enough cases where mindcraft isn't quite helpful.
- Train Ma and / or Wi by applying mindcraft. As suggested in the OP.
- Increase their PP regeneration. As suggested in the OP.

Drop redundant class powers:
- Drop level 12 class power to replace it with something. As suggested in the OP.
- Combine Level 32 and Level 50 class powers into a single level 32 class power (aka mental resistance). As suggested in comments.

Rebalance mindcraft:
Mind Blast: ((W + CL) / 3 + 1)d5 As suggested in the OP.
Mind Wave: ((W + CL) / 3 + 1)d5 As suggested in the OP.
Greater Mental Blast: ((W + CL) / 3 + 1)d9 (risk of backslash and corruption is too way high therefore it needs a buff too)
Greater Mental Wave: ((W + CL) / 3 + 1)d9 (risk of backslash and corruption is too way high therefore it needs a buff too)
Mental Shield: halve mana cost.
Regeneration: make mana cost 3 times less.
Teleport Self: Give it around level 30. (Greater Telekinetic Blast meanwhile is considered the most powerful mindcraft, it can be moved a little further).
Teleport Other: combine with Teleport Self.

New Mindcrafts / class powers:
- Mental power pacifying monsters (it's a shame Mindcrafters can't do it while Wizards do have a spell)
- Mental power scaring monsters (it's a shame Mindcrafters can't do it while Wizards do have a spell)
- Edit: mental power putting weak monsters to sleep. Or ability to put monsters asleep with music. Seems like it fits thematically and it would be trully unique power.
- Telekinetic power blowing enemies off the way
- Sustained levitation
- Sustained power to sense monsters with minds through the walls
- Sustained mental control over a creature (PP cost per turn scales with creature power)
- Sustained invisibility (just give it adequate PP cost per turn and it won't be unbalanced). As suggested in the OP.

Companions:
Give mindcrafters some control over their mental powers not to damage their loved ones. Especially with wave powers.

I don't expect all this stuff to be added to RFE or furthermore implemented but hope some suggestions are liked and find their way to the game. Eventually.