Class Suggestions

[Petra]

Racial classes, magic classes, profession classes, but what about weapon specific classes?

Weapons are quite a big thing in a game like JADE or ADOM.

A character should be able to specialize in special abilities in various weapons, even to a point to wielding exclusively a single type of weapon.

For example:

Swordmaster:
Lvl 6: Gain + 6 to hit and damage with sword.
Lvl 12: Gain 1% critical per level afterward for critical hit with sword.
Lvl 18: Living creatures have 20% of bleeding wounds when hit with sword.
Lvl 24: Gain 10% chance of cutting limbs off creatures + .5% chance per level afterward.
Lvl 30: Character can upgrade material of sword at expense of 1000 gold per upgrade.
Lvl 40: Character learns to negate effects of armor. Hits with are armor piercing.
Lvl 50: Character becomes one with sword. + 40 speed when wielding sword;

Spear Master

Lvl 6: Gain defensive bonus for using spears. + 9 DV
Lvl 12: Heavy shields can be wielded with two handed spears.
Lvl 18: Thrown spears are unerring. + 10 character speed.
Lvl 24: Spears are armor piercing and have 10% change of killing outright. Character takes advantage of leverage of weapon for enormous power.
Lvl 30: Character can upgrade material of spear at expense of 1000 gold per upgrade.
Lvl 40: Gain defensive bonus + 20DV while using spear, in addition to mastery DV bonus.
Lvl 50: Character is spear master. All criticals against character are negated and damage halved when wielding spear.

Axe Master:

Lvl 6: Character gains 5% chance + 1% level for knock back when enemy hit with axe.
Lvl 12: Axes gain 10% to smash through shields or armor on impact + %2 per level.
Lvl 18: Axes have 10% chance per level of cutting monster in half + .5% per level.
Lvl 24: Character gains + 15 damage and speed, double the bonus when berserk.
Lvl 30: Axes never rust or break or corrode.
Lvl 40: Character attacks with axe are doubled.
Lvl 50: Axe wielded becomes vampiric with no alignment penalty.

Whip Master:

Lvl 6: Character gains + 5 bonus to dexterity while wielding, + 1 per level afterward.
Lvl 12: Character can hit enemies across the room.
Lvl 18: 20% chance of enemy stunned with pain when hit.
Lvl 24: Character learns to wield whips efficiently in combat. Can hit all enemies on one side of PC.
Lvl 30: Cracking a whip has 10% chance of converting enemies to player's side.
Lvl 40: Whips lethal in the hands of PC. PC gains critical hit bonus + 10 when wielding.
Lvl 50: Character can choke, disarm, strangle, decapitate, and tangle the enemy with whips.

Shield Master (co-wielding with single handed weapon.)

Lvl 6: Character learns efficient use of shield. +7DV/+7PV.
Lvl 12: Shields become unbreakable.
Lvl 18: Character gains hits in combat with shield.
Lvl 24: Shield hits have 25% to stun enemy.
Lvl 30: Take 1/4 damage for missle attacks with shield, 50% chance of block + 2% per PC level afterward.
Lvl 40: Take 1/3 damage for magic attacks with shield, 30% chance of Willpower block + 2% per PC level afterward.
Lvl 50: Character masters use of shield as a defensive barrier. Can wield two-handed weapons with any size shield.

[Soirana]

big news... shield +spear is still broken

[fazisi]

The idea looks nice but is in some serious need of some balancing.

We need more flail lovers on this forum. Polemarm fanboys need to see what a real weapon is like.

[Petra]

Considering that monsters become terribly over powered in the late game, I'd say it's say to say in JADE, the monsters will become even more epic.

Like I said, just suggestions.

[fazisi]

I didn't mean balanced between monsters and PC. I meant balanced between weapon types. How come axes (level 18) and spears (level 24) are the only instant kill (at least I assume cleaving a monster in half is an instant kill ability) mechanisms present in your scheme? I could safely say that swords--even with their hit, critical, bleed and speed--would never get used if the player can have an instant kill 10% of the time at level 18, increasing to 26% at end game with axes.

EDIT: I looked at axes more and decided they are the most overpowered. More so than the godly polearm.

Lvl 6: Character gains 5% chance + 1% level for knock back when enemy hit with axe.
Lvl 12: Axes gain 10% to smash through shields or armor on impact + %2 per level.
Lvl 18: Axes have 10% chance per level of cutting monster in half + .5% per level.
Lvl 24: Character gains + 15 damage and speed, double the bonus when berserk.
Lvl 30: Axes never rust or break or corrode.
Lvl 40: Character attacks with axe are doubled.
Lvl 50: Axe wielded becomes vampiric with no alignment penalty.

With just the level 6, level 18 and level 40 powers, anyone at level 50 would be unstoppable.
49% chance at knockback, 26% chance for instant kill and double attacks. This pretty much ensures that every double attack, the monster will be knocked back, forcing them to waste their energy (turn) moving back into range of the PC. Then every other turn, that monster will be cut in half. Need I elaborate more?

[Aielyn]

While the idea of weapon-specific classes is generally a good one, I think a better idea would be the "weaponmaster" class, which would then gain abilities based on skill points in the wielded weapon class.

Eg/

Lv 6. Gain +3 to-hit with any weapon trained sufficiently
Lv 12. Weapon-based effect #1
Lv 18. Doubled chance of critical hit with any weapon trained sufficiently
Lv 25. Weapon-based effect #2
Lv 32. All melee attacks cost 20% less energy if weapon trained sufficiently
Lv 40. Weapon-based effect #3
Lv 50. Weapon-based effect #4

As an example, if the weaponmaster is currently using a sword (each one requires sword skill level to be above some level),

Effect #1: Triple chance of bleeding wounds for any foe capable of bleeding
Effect #2: Ability to parry an attack and counter it in a single move
Effect #3: Two hits per attack
Effect #4: Ability to wield two full-sized swords simultaneously without penalty

Note that the effects basically compound each other - Effect #3 means that countering an attack will cause a doubt-hit, and Effect #4 means that PC can hit four times in a single turn. And since the Lv 32 power allows for reduced attack energy cost, the PC can become very effective at melee fighting with a sword.

As I said, each weapon would involve a different set of weapon-based effects. Here's a possible one for Axes:

Effect #1: Increased chance of attack smashing through any PV, doing damage to armour/shields while hitting foe
Effect #2: +2 damage dice to all attacks with axe (if using a normal hand axe, for instance, it becomes 3d6)
Effect #3: Ability to strike stationary foe for 3x damage at cost of one free turn for the foe (it takes a turn to prepare the strike, and you can't redirect your attack - you can cancel it, though, if necessary)
Effect #4: Ability to attack enemies adjacent to you in all directions simultaneously for 3/4 power (if it would have hit for 20, it hits for 15 - but it hits all foes around you for that amount) - overuse causes confusion, though (due to dizziness)

Dual-wielding two mismatched weapons (say, axe and sword) would negate the weapon-specific abilities, but a weaponmaster would be able to use them more effectively than other classes. So, in place of weapon-based effects, the generic effects take over:

Effect #1: +2 to-hit to each weapon (after effect of dual-wielding causes reduction)
Effect #2: +4 to PV (using weapons together to shield)
Effect #3: +4 to DV (speed of reaction)
Effect #4: Ability to attack two different foes, one with each weapon, in a single turn

Naturally, the generic abilities are weaker than the specific ones. This is because using mismatched weapons is harder than using matched ones.

On a final note, use of shields wouldn't actually be affected by the class powers, because, as I see it, a weaponmaster is skilled in use of the weapons, not use of shields.

[Cash]

i had an idea that a merchant could play different awhile ago. JADE merchants could be similar to real merchants in older times, in the way that they used their large sums of money to hire guards for their caravan (ability to tame humanoids with gold). In JADE the merchants could get class powers that help them get better at trading gold for protection. Merchants get a lot more money so they could better equip their guards as well. But to balance the ability the merchant itself could be weaker, guards could need paychecks that need to be payed every 1000 turns and if not payed there could be a % chance of the guard turning hostile, or them taking a random item from your pack to settle the debt, and/or guards could require food.

Here is my first idea of class powers

Merchants can tame most any man sized humanoid as a guard. Merchants gain 50% exp of their guard's kills.

Lv 6: Guards (tamed humanoids) require 25% less gold every paycheck
Lv 12: Humanoids require 30% less gold to tame
Lv 18: Guards will not turn hostile on the merchant unless provoked
Lv 24: Merchant gets all items dropped (as opposed to guards getting first pick to their items dropped?)
Lv 30: Carrying capacity increased 50%
Lv 40: Can tame humanoids of any size.
Lv 50: Having grown so accustomed to giving orders in the midst of battle, all non deaf guards in eyesight gain +10 hit +10 dmg, and +10 dv +10pv.

I like this idea, maybe you guys can improve upon it.

[_Ln_]

Lv 40: Can tame humanoids of any size.

-What do you wish for?
-Emperor moloch
-You'll have to come! Maybe my friends can get you moving!
<summoning>
-Hey guys, wanna serve me for my dragon doubled money?
-*THUMB* Sure!
...
<In emperor moloch's lair>
-Hey, EM, you sure don't have much social interaction! Maybe my friends can get you moving!

[JellySlayer]

Considering that monsters become terribly over powered in the late game, I'd say it's say to say in JADE, the monsters will become even more epic.

Like I said, just suggestions.

Uh... monsters are ridiculously easy in the endgame of ADOM unless you spend a lot of time overlevelling jackals or chaos servants or something. For an average PC, the post ToEF game is pretty much a joke, excepting the Mana Temple, the cat lord, and the odd greater vault.

[fazisi]

Emperor Moloch doesn't exist in JADE. He was killed by McNasty during his ascension from mere mortal to his position as the new ChAoS gOd when he killed Andor.