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View Full Version : a post i sent to rgra, about the possible future of ADOM



uglyvan
03-15-2008, 04:02 PM
Technics
Empathy
Music
Physics
Steam

You've got to choose up to 5 classes from the standard 20 ADOM Classes,
each ranking from Level 0 (not yet a practicer) to Level 10, so that
your Global Level may climb to famous Lvl 50.


Each class is given one Major (10) Domain and one minor ( 6) Domain;
these are fixed by the rules and depend on class type (there are 5
domains, T E M P and S), but Player is free to choose between the 3
other domains (i.e. neither M nor m ) a knowledge (3) domain (at class
level 3) and one level will be given upon achieving class level 10 in a
domain between the last two as a bonus domain... well take a look
beneath


Class Lvl 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Major 10 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +10
minor 6 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6
knowl 3 +1 +2 +3
bonus 1 +1


Furthermore, when a given Domain has but one level in it you are
considered D?butant; at M 10, m 8, k 9, and b 10, you climb one Rank
in your expertise : the five Ranks are D?butant, Amateur,
Professionnel, Expert/Champion, and Ma?tre.


Each Domain may be chosen once as M (10), once as m (6),
once as k (3) and once as b (1) ,so to climb to 20th Level in, say
Steam, you must be
- 10th Level in a class using intensively energy
- 8th Level in a class where endurance is a factor
- 9th Level in a 3rd class in which Steam is chosen as k at 3rd Level
- 10th Level in a 4th class in which Steam is chosen as b at 10th
level
...Global Level 37
but you may be 19th Steam level at GL 27
and you could be 16th S at but GL 18..
one thing to remember here is levels 17-20 in a domain should give lots
of abilities...
well we will see later if this is the case, but for the moment let us
examine the 20 classes and see how we can regroup them :


euh, well what are these domains anyway ?


--Technics gives you lots of skills and skill levels
--Empathy helps you understand the working of many things in the
world, including creatures, elements, status, and classes.
--Music is the key to enthousiasm, that is to say moral; with a high
moral you can supercede your skill levels, and you can spend moral to
achieve great deeds.
--Physics lets you understand the magics of reality, giving you
access to spells (each class should have a spell list with unique
spells attached to it);each spell is bound to a domain.
--Steam is your personal endurance reserve; with high stamina you can
launch more spells, or sustain more non-critical blows.


With each domain is associated a primary ability (or stat):
with Technics comes Dexterity
with Empathy is Charisma
with Music lies Intelligence
with Physics there is Wisdom
with Steam is a mix of strength and constitution called Health


Each ability begins in the range of -5 to +3 and can be raised up to
Max(3,min(9,(Stat Domain)/2)) by spending AP (ability points) that you
get with each Global Level (your GL gives you the number of AP that you
get this level, i.e. if you began to play at 50th GL you should spend
1275 AP in abilities).


Euh, in fact stats start at 0 and you can obtain bonus AP at the rate
of 1 per negative point in a stat (but you will have to raise your
stats at a later time by losing those bonus AP)


There are also secondary abilities, such as
--Flesh and Bones (FB), beginning at 10 points and you can purchase
up to 40 levels (each level gives you +1hp oops FB).
--Chaining Mastery (CM),beginning at level 0 that you can raise up to
level 20.
--Latency Time (LT): 20-CM; between two actions you lose min(d20,LT)
segments due to your lack of control of the flow of the universe-oh
oh, where did i read about that ??


Ability levels (along with Moral level) use the same table as AP from
GL i.e. if you wish to have a Health of +9 you will have spent a total
of 45 AP, and one super-heroic good character with 1000 points of moral
is entitled to level 44 (the Maximum without magic) in every known
skill or power, although he drops to level 43 after losing 15 moral -
( moral cost is 5 times (sigma rank increase) with 1 rank is 5 skill
levels, and one action is resolved by rolling 1d20 + skill levels +
magic( up to +6), then by dividing the total by 5 ( rounded down) and
comparing the score with the rank required; i.e. if you total a 13 then
you score a 2, and if you needed rank 5 and you have 5*(1+2+3) moral
and it's worth it then you can succeed in your action. Grand Maximum is
theorically 70 i.e. rank 14 but the toughest (level 10) spells to
launch require a 60 ( and a spending of 55 Steam ahem).)
-
With 1275 AP you can purchase 40 levels of FB worth 820 AP
20 levels of CM worth 210 AP
and 5 times 9 levels of stats worth 225 AP
So there is room for a FB increaser, 4 times from *2 to *5, each time
worth 5 AP, but to get one you must raise one class to 10th level ( so
after reaching GL 40 you may reach 250 FB).


A skill or power (s o p) requires 1 point to climb a level, but you are
somewhat limited by the domain it refers to, see below


Domain Level 1-4 5-9 10-13 14-16 17,18 19 20
s o p Level is DL+3 DL+4 DL+5 DL+6 DL+7 27 29


To a s o p Level you gain exceptional bonus based on Domain Lvl


DL 1-4 5-9 10-13 14-16 17,18 19 20
bonus +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6


Finally you get a bonus ( or malus) based on your stat score


So, to obtain a natural +44 to a s o p you need to be 20th DL plus
having spent 29 points in the s o p plus having a +9 stat.


One thing to keep in mind here is that although at low level you can be
a dreadful fighter but a poor wizard, at high levels you are both
devastating and unbeatable...


Near the end of the game, each domain will eventually have four classes
attached to it, one Major, the second minor, the third being knowledge,
and the fourth a bonus.
Actually, each Class gives some points per level to the Domain
so that one can purchase skill levels etc :
--a Major Class gives 10 points per level
--a minor Class is worth 6 per level
--a knowledge Class but 3 per level
--a bonus Class 1 per level


As each class may attain 10th level, a given Domain can grow to
100+60+30+10 or 200 points. The stat associated with the Domain gives
an additional stat( magic included) times Domain Level increment - max
is ( +9( +6))*20) that is 300 more points.
So max points should be around 500; alignment modifies this total as
explained below...


Player's Alignment is based on AD&D i.e. nine possibilities, see
below:
<-Lawful: Empathy is doubled, Steam is halved
->Chaotic: Steam is doubled, Empathy is halved
/\Good: Music is doubled, Technics is halved
\/Bad: Technics is doubled, Music is halved



><Neutral: Physics is doubled


a True Neutral Player may get up to 1000 points in physics, and 500
points in every other Domain; every other Player will have a limitation
in at least one Domain which will lower it to 250 points at best;
for example, Players GL 50 with +6 enhancement in each stat will look
like this:

Al LG NG LN CN
T 250 250 500 500
E 1000 500 1000 250
M 1000 1000 500 500
P 500 1000 1000 1000
S 250 500 250 1000


As is revealed, an extreme Alignment gives two weaknesses, while
a partly Neutral is very skilled in magics.


Let us now examine the 20 Classes :


(capitalized is the Major Domain, whereas the minor
domain is in minuscule)

(remember, T or t stand for Technics, E or e is Empathy,
M or m is Music, P or p is Physics, and S or s is Steam)



Tm Archer
Tp Assassin
Ms Barbarian
Ep Bard
Me Beastfighter
Mp Druid
Ps Elementalist
Sp Farmer
Ts Fighter
Te Healer
Se Merchant
Pt Mindcrafter
Es Monk
Pe Necromancer
Em Paladin
Et Priest
Mt Ranger
Sm Thief
St Weaponsmith
Pm Wizard


Say your first Class is Farmer, then you pick Elementalist, followed by
Beastfighter, and Paladin, i tell you there's no fifth Class for you to
take and you're limited to GL 40 with no great skill in Technics, i.e.
no M nor m in T.

Grey
03-15-2008, 04:24 PM
I must say, I find this whole system to be quite confusing and unintuitive. Why do you give things titles like Steam when Stamina or Endurance would suit better? Or Music when you could quite clearly call it Morale? I don't see how this system would add any gameplay depth beyond making it extremely hard for new players to pick up the game (or current players to adjust). With the curent class-specific system it's very clear what each character does. With this system it's a mish-mash of different areas and abilities, which would most likely favour specialisers in one area. ADOM simply incorporates the ability to master other abilities within each class, without the need for jumbles of numbers and domains.

theotherhiveking
03-15-2008, 04:33 PM
I didnt get a shit.


This is ridiculously complex.

Btw,

Why not include 5th power equations?

Sradac
03-16-2008, 12:25 AM
woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow

that was one of the most complicated things i've tried to read...i just dont get it lol.

uglyvan
03-16-2008, 12:54 AM
Grmmmpf...ookay some things are a little weird

(I wrote this text in 2001)

but I still like some things in it, like the way multiclassing is handled

(well actually... I only like the way multiclassing is handled :confused: )

here is the original text:

"
Let us now examine the 20 Classes :



Technics
===> Archer, Assassin, Fighter, Healer are Major classes
===> Mindcrafter, Priest, Ranger, Weaponsmith are minor classes


Empathy
===> Bard, Monk, Paladin, Priest are Major classes
===> Beastfighter, Healer, Merchant, Necromancer are minor classes


Morale
===> Barbarian, Beastfighter, Druid, Ranger are Major classes
===> Archer, Paladin, Thief, Wizard are minor classes


Physics
===> Elementalist, Mindcrafter, Necromancer, Wizard are M
===> Assassin, Bard, Druid, Farmer are m


Stamina
===> Farmer, Merchant, Thief, Weaponsmith are M
===> Barbarian, Elementalist, Fighter, Monk are m


Now listen carefully: there are 10 lists with 4 classes per list; you
can take any class from any list, but you can't pick twice from the
same list.
Say your first class is Archer, then you pick Bard, followed by
Barbarian, and then Mindcrafter, i tell you your fifth Class will be
Merchant.


Now look at the list below:
Tm Archer
Tp Assassin
Ms Barbarian
Ep Bard
Me Beastfighter
Mp Druid
Ps Elementalist
Sp Farmer
Ts Fighter
Te Healer
Se Merchant
Pt Mindcrafter
Es Monk
Pe Necromancer
Em Paladin
Et Priest
Mt Ranger
Sm Thief
St Weaponsmith
Pm Wizard


Say your first Class is Farmer, then you pick Elementalist, followed by
Beastfighter, and Paladin, i tell you there's no fifth Class for you to
take and you're limited to GL 40 with no great skill in Technics, i.e.
no M nor m in T.
"

Grey
03-16-2008, 10:16 AM
So you can choose Paladin, Necromancer, Monk and Merchant? Please tell me you can see the flaw in that...

I do see your intention, and I think with a more generic class system it could work, but it's not suited for ADOM. Classes are very individual in ADOM, with many unique abilities. Whilst most can learn most things with enough effort (I even know of someone that made an archmage out of a Mindcrafter) each class still has things they can do that others can't. Mixing things up like this ruins that somewhat.

I think you should maybe consider how this could work if you got rid of classes, but had sort of "class modules" - elements of classes like melee combat - that could be tacked together in your system. One could then even have melee combat as all 4 specialities for the ultimate swordsman, but at the price of every other skill.

ZeroTheBird
03-17-2008, 11:14 AM
I dont need Adom to get anymore complex than it already is! :confused:

spectre
03-17-2008, 05:19 PM
This modular system kinda reeks of D&D 3ED. Me no like.