Ideas for Class Powers for Chaos Knight / Duelist classes

[Carter]

Assuming we get there, or we do at a later point, I have composed some ideas for these Classes.

As follows:

Duelists (similar to monk, cept no DV bonuses but increased to hit and damage)
Default Penalty to using shields and heavy armor, and burdened reduces your to hit

6 - During combat you have a small chance automatically cause your opponents to un-wield and drop their weapons
12 - During combat you have a good chance to automatically cause your opponents to un-wield and drop their weapons
18 - Your chance to hit is increased by 20%
25 - Critical hit chance is increased by 20%
32 - You gain a once off bonus of +10 to Dexterity
40 - Cunning Duelist - 50% of your attacks pierce armor
50 - Master Duelist - Attacks with one handed weapons cost but 800 energy points

Chaos Knight (I think he would be close to the Paladin type, ie: concentration, casting mid/late game)

6 - You are healed by the effects of corruption attacks
12 - Your attacks cause additional corruption to all in your path
18 - Your Aura of hate begins to scare your opponents (opponents periodically flee from you)
25 - You are able to corrupt yourself (class power)
32 - You are able to summon lesser Chaos beings to your cause (Chaos Servants)
40 - You are able to cast a bolt of corruption (similar to the wyrm guarding the crown of chaos)
50 - You have become so attuned to the forces of Chaos that you can control corruption - Only positive effect corruptions can happen.

[JellySlayer]

Here's my thoughts for duelist. Trying not to make them too overpowered. Going for a character who uses one handed weapons with no shields, and has major penalties to missiles. As much as I like the idea of disarming, monsters don't carry weapons in ADOM, so don't know how that would work.

Duelists gain +1 extra To-Hit for every rank in one-handed weapons as long as they aren't using a shield (OHNS)
Duelists gain +1 extra To-Damage for every other rank in OHNS
Missile weapons take twice as long to increase marks and have half range.

6 - Base attack is reduced by an extra 10 energy per rank in OHNS
12 - Gains two free levels in the most advanced one-handed weapon skill.
18 - Glove slap - Giving an opponent a pair of gauntlets will stun them for 1d3 turns.
25 - Receives +2DV for each rank in their OHNS weapon type.
32 - Base attack cost for melee attacks with OHNS is reduced by an addition 10 points per rank (total 20)
40 - Receives +2% armor penetration on critical hits per OHNS weapon rank
50 - Receives 4 free ranks in all one-handed weapon skills.

Skillset:
-Athletics
-Dodge
-Find Weakness
-Healing

Crowning gifts (or similar...):
-Ironfist
-Kinslayer
-Bugbiter
-Serpent's Bite
-Trusted One
-Executor


Chaos Knight

All attacks have a 50% chance of corrupting an opponent.
Chaos knights permanently have the effect of an amulet of chaos equipped, drawing their alignment toward chaotic (and damaging them if lawful).
The background corruption rate for Chaos knights is 2x as high by default.

6 - Chaos burst: Chaos knight gains a temporary boost of +2 to each stat for each corruption he possesses at the cost of ~0.5 corruptions. (That is, like a potion of boost -stat-, needs to be activated)
12 - +2DV and 1 PV for each corruption.
18 - Transmute corruption: The two most recent corruptions are removed. Three new ones are added in their place. (Needs to be activated)
25 - Chaos knights can take on three additional corruptions before becoming a WMoPC. Background corruption rate is redoubled.
32 - Every time the chaos knight receives a corruption point, he also recovers a point of HP (but PoCC/SoCR now do damage...)
40 - Chaos knights can take on seven additional corruptions before becoming a WMoPC (10 extras in total).
50 - All positive bonuses received from corruptions are doubled in strength

Skills:
-Alertness
-Backstabbing
-Detect Item Status
-Metallurgy

Crowning Gifts: A bunch of artifacts of varying quality that carry the Essence of Corruption, of course.

[_Ln_]

I'm pretty sure chaos knight should be immune to becoming a wmopc at all. You get extremely corrupted but remain conscious of your actions and continue to serve the bad guys forever (until you kill them all that is). You are way more powerful as normal monsters such as chaos servants/warlords and they don't give a damn about hanging around D:50 for years. I fail to see a successful abuse of chaos powers otherwise.

Actually, I haven't got a slightest idea how a chaos knight should work if it's intended to side with bad guys (as stated on ancientdomainsofmystery.co). Different plotline and main goal?

[Grey]

The chaos knight would want to become chaos ruler itself. That means countering opposition from the existing establishment... Of course one ability could be to turn chaos creatures over to his side.

I agree that Chaos Knight should have a high level power of becoming immune to WMoPCness.

For Duellists there can be a special "Disarmed" status applied to enemies with severely cripples their to hit and damage.

All the suggestions are fairly overpowered, but one thing to consider is the chance to petition for an improvement of existing class powers. Would be nice for the new classes to be powerful enough to be worth playing anyway. Balance isn't too much of a concern unless they make the game too easy.

[anon123]

Actually, I haven't got a slightest idea how a chaos knight should work if it's intended to side with bad guys (as stated on ancientdomainsofmystery.co). Different plotline and main goal?

The background history messages should be different. Maybe telling us how the PC turned to the side of evil at a certain part of his life, and thus his motivations to enter the Drakalor Chain are different than other people's.

[Aielyn]

I actually think it doesn't make sense to have the Chaos Knights immune to WMoPC-ness, as grey put it... I mean, having it so that reaching that point doesn't literally turn you into a WMoPC is OK, but it should still be entirely the end of the game for you. Otherwise, it removes one of the main drivers of the game itself. Perhaps reaching that point turns you into a Chaos Servant, or a Chaos Mutant - end of game, you've lost your free will.

Instead, I'd like to see the Chaos Knight have resistance to the effects of corruption - that is, reduced corruption rate relative to amount of corruption absorbable before 'death' - and a modification to the corruptions themselves. Modifications, how? Reduced negative impacts, increased positive impacts (the exception being the effect on Appearance). Keep in mind that Chaos and Corruption are two distinct things, although intertwined.

I do like the idea of making it so that Chaos Knights can gain more corruptions than others. They should have a higher corruption rate, though - the whole point is that they're more "attuned" to chaos, and thus can withstand more of its affects.

Regarding the regular "win" condition, I'd suggest that a Chaos Knight should get a modified condition. Rather than having to close the gate and escape, you have to destroy the handles and enter the gate. By virtue of being a Chaos being, you aren't destroyed by this. If you have successfully destroyed the handles, thereby preventing the closing of the gate, you get a "reward" from Andy (undecided on what the "reward" would be, though).

One of the obvious questions is, what happens if a Chaos Knight becomes anything but Chaotic? Well, let's start with "it's hard to maintain" - Chaos Knights should have a natural and constant draw towards Chaos, at best counteracted by an Amulet of Order. Their class powers should inherently become either reduced or removed, leaving them in a precarious position. They should start the game with such a bad relationship with the Neutral and Lawful gods that they pretty much have to have all of the negative effects trigger when trying to normalise their piety.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I agree with Aileyn that Chaos Knights shouldn't be immune to WMoPCness (what a word!), since then corruption would have almost no downsides to them, most people would just quaff potions of raw chaos as if they were Guinness or stand triggering a corruption trap all day. Serving ChAoS is known to be a risky business, no one worries too much about you (see how chaotic gods accept sacrifices of chaotic creatures, for example), and if you turn into another creature you'll still be useful.

I agree turning into something like a chaos servant/chaos warrior and losing your free will would be a cool ending message.

Now, more corruptions before being WMoPC'd - yes, that makes good sense.

I also like Aileyn's ideas for plot/endings. I think the main plot doesn't really need to be changed too much, changing some messages and conditions is enough:

* Normal ending: you enter the Gate (bonus points for destroying the open levers), present yourself to Andor Drakon, fight on his side and are given great rewards when ChAoS reigns over Ancardia.
* Ultimate nihilist ending: makes sense without changing anything.
* Ultimate chaos god ending: makes sense without changing anything.
* Avatar of Order/Balance ending: two possibilities. Either the lawful and neutral gods absolutely refuse to crown a Chaos Knight as their champion, which would make sense and rule out these endings entirely; or you can actually do this and have an ending message like "switched sides and became an Avatar of Order..." The message about switching sides could also appear if you close the Gate.

[Carter]

* Normal ending: you enter the Gate (bonus points for destroying the open levers), present yourself to Andor Drakon, fight on his side and are given great rewards when ChAoS reigns over Ancardia.

Maybe add a twist to the rarely won RCG where you can fight a hero alongside Andor.

[grobblewobble]

I like the idea of a gauntlet slap talent for duelists. Chaos knights could start the game with a corruption or two.

[_Ln_]

Let me get this straight about Chaos Knight plotline suggestions:

You slaughter 5 powerful chaos beings, taking artifacts of balance, corrupted by chaos to prevent heroes reaching D:50. Then you use said artifacts to remove chaos barrier (restoring anomalies), than you kill Fistanarius, guardian of Chaos gate and destroy the handles which obviously were left in place for some target - otherwise they'd long be dust. And then you present yourself to Andor Drakon and he says "Good job, bro! I appoint you my personal combat buddy!".

Original C hero saving the world is already pretty silly. I can only tolerate it with Ancardian chaos gods not wanting AD to spread his influence, but this explanation doesn't really hold.

Now, what do you think of adding a suggestion to ADoM tracker to replace Chaos/Order alignment with Evil/Good (which is what it actually is)? Too radical?