suggestion: Mysticism and Sacred Journey
I know anyone can use charged rune books for long distance travel. I would just like to add a bit of symmetry to the game design. Currently, the Recall spell is available to both Mages and Necromancers in Wraith Form. Sacred Journey is only available with the Chivalry skill. I suggest Mystics in Stone Form also gain the ability to perform Sacred Journey. This form of SJ would have the same tithing cost as Chivalry's, and Mystics would need to carry a Chivalry book to use it. The Mysticism spellbook will not be affected, just as Recall is not part of the Necromancy spellbook. Nor will game balance be affected:
- humans with 0 Chivalry already have a 10% chance to Sacred Journey via JoaT
- Sacred Journey is not a battle skill. It is a QoL skill.
What the suggestion will do is add a little flexibility to some Mystic builds. Some players take 50 or 60 Chivalry or Magery primarily so they have a reliable travel power. Yes, they could use runebook charges, but that is a built-in hassle. Why not just make Sacred Journey directly available?
Rock (formerly Imperterritus VXt, Baja)
Comments
Please make the Grizzled Mare a 5 slot mount, it's incredibly rare and deserves it. Some of us have been waiting a long time for this simple addition.
That said, I would really like to see Chivalry, Bushido and Ninjitsu fleshed out to 16+ abilities each. Some aspect of marking, would be useful for Chivalry, and possibly some element of travel for Necro and Ninja (perhaps, limited to the current facet alone), as an outgrowth of their existing abilities (ninja are famous for short-range travel that's practically teleportation, and Necros could travel in the shadows as an extension of their partially crossing the veil in wraith form). Mystics could develop their own travel spells with their own peculiarities (how about a Mystic spell that could only be used if there was a mineable stone location within X squares of the mark, such as those rock knobs sticking out of the ground in various places in Tram, Fel and Ilshenar?). There's ways to do it without making the various skills "cookie-cutter".
Something also needs to be done that makes Chivalry/Necromancy/Bushido/Ninjitsu more restrictive in relation to each other.
Think of it as different expressions combining social rank with a humility element to them.
Paladins are lawful, compassionate bunch by any historical or fictional definition. Stories range from them being noble knights to having been elevated from the most humble.
Necromancers tend to be chaotic, and almost never have any sort of compassion or humility. Again, they could be the evil peasant hag in the woods, to the hubris of a noble thinking himself above the laws of nature.
By all rights, these skills should be mutually antithetical in their native setting.
Similarly,
Bushido is a noble-only thing in custom, more than legend (mostly because during the shogunate period, the samurai who had elevated themselves wanted to make themselves have a divine right, obscuring their real origins from peasant, foreign, or even Ainu, mercenary ancestors). They are rigidly bound to Law and custom - Some might be compassionate, but Humility is right out the window. Expressed honor is a facade, with many playing a game of maintaining it despite being less than honorable to their lessers (after all, they are not us, so they don't count)
Ninjitsu, on the other hand, is legendary as being the stealthy, chaotic, peasant avengers of the excesses of the samurai. Whether they are are criminal or not depends as much on the point of view, and traditionally the legends are more in tune with more of the Sosarian virtues than the haughty Samurai (where Honor & Valor dominate and Sacrifice only comes into play with family and loyalty to your lord).
These two are mutually antithetical in their home setting.
Putting the 4 into the same setting, you run into further conflict.
Paladins and Samurai would be in conflict over their Humility vs. Honor, and how they treat their lessers.
Paladins and Ninja would be in conflict over the differences between order and chaos, and working in the system vs. ignoring it.
Paladins and Necromancers would be (as originally intended) arch foes, with skill meaning nothing if your karma was the wrong way. Those with both should be legendary foes, not PCs.
No true Necromancer would want to be a Samurai, where you are facing foes face to face constantly in honorable combat. Conversely, only the most debased Samurai would pick up Necromancy, from consorting with the evil spirits and oni. Again, legendary foe types, not the norm.
Necromancers might appreciate the stealth of the ninja, but the rest of the traditional ninja code would horrify them almost as much as nearly everything necro would sicken the peasant hero Ninjas ("you want to use the bodies of our honored ancestors for WHAT???")
And, of course, Samurai and Ninja appear to be even more opposed culturally than the more-mythical Paladin and Necro - even though you have some people totally clueless in the matter (like the people doing "Ninja Batman" with nearly all his gear being Samurai based)
If you have one of these 4, you should be at serious negatives trying to do the abilities of the other 3. If you have 2 of them at equal level, you should equally suck at BOTH from the internal conflicts.
Instead, we have things like Sampires that have been breaking things for non-Sampires in PvM and PvP since 2005 (since it took a few months for people to realize those two things that should be radically opposed were complementary as implemented, then petitioned for Chivalry to be broken to further buff them).