Passive skills (talents?)

For every class level characters gain a (using WOW terms) talent point that they can spend in a talent tree. There will be three tiers and nine talents in the tree, tier one has two talents, tier two has three talents and their three has four talents. The talents on tiers one and two have 5 levels each and the talents on tier three have 3 levels each. In tier one you can spend talent points in both talents and you will be able to reach tier two when you have spent 4 points in total or 3 points in one talent. In tier two you can spend points in any talent that is connected to the talent you have most points in from tier one, if you have equal points in both talents in tier one you can only reach the middle one. You can reach tier three once you have spent 3 points in one talent in tier two, you can only put point in one talent in tier three. In total you will get 10 point for each character to spend however you feel fit. There will be a left to right alignment for all talent trees with full specialization in one field on the left and full specialization in another on the right with mixed talents in between. For example a warrior will have defensive talents to the right and offensive talents to the left.

Level

There will be two types of level; character level and job level. Gaining character level will be pretty much linear throughout the game; in the beginning each character will gain a level for each enemy that is slain, at mid game you will need to kill two enemies for one level and later three or even four enemies for one level. You gain some stats depending on both character and job with each level. So with several, up to over 20, enemies per map it might always be a good idea to consider in which order to take them down, as you might gain several levels in on map. When gaining a new character his character level will be approximately the same as your other characters should be. No experience is gained if a character is dead when an enemy is killed.


Job level works slightly different from character level, when gaining a job level you will gain no extra stat, only receive some new ability or increase the power (grade) of abilities you have. All characters start at level 1 of one of the base jobs, from here some character can chose to switch to another base job and this can in fact be done at any time but once you switch you will start over from level 1 at that job, not all base jobs are available to all characters and not all jobs within a group are available, even to a character that starts in that group. The base job lasts for 5 levels, after that you can choose your specific job. In fighting job group, magic job group and religious job group you can change one character in each the leader job, Knight, Wizard and Archbishop respectively.

All jobs have 10 levels except Knight, Wizard, Archbishop, Templar, Light Templar and Dark Templar which all have 5 levels (Templar plus Dark or Light Templar is 10 levels, while the leader jobs will go through 15 levels in total). At higher maps and character levels you should gain job level quite rapidly so that a change won’t keep your character back significantly. Leveling in job depends on job specific action and will be based on effect, e.g. even though a high character level new fire mage can only cast the first grade of firebolt his stats should be high enough to do significant damage (not compared to a high grade fireball of course) and will from that gain a high amount of job experience and gain job level rapidly.

Skills

First each class will need two “bread ‘n butter” skills, one for low levels and one for medium to higher levels, I’m thinking something like firebolt and fireball for firemages. Second each class will need 4-6 secondary skills, e.g. skill that are powerful but maybe not as generally useful as the primary “bread ‘n butter” skill, these could be some multiple hit or area of effect skill like a wall of fire, or a powerful short range skill like inferno (think of a flamethrower) or a buffing skill like fire enchant and finally the summoning of a fire elemental with the help of their fellow mages. Third each class will need some (1-3) passive skills, for mages concentration would be a good idea to have to prevent them from being interrupted when struck, or some skill which grants them the power to regenerate magic.

Suggestions for any skill for any class will be highly appreciated.

Summoning

Different types of summoning.

• Trained animal summoning: Beastmasters, hunters and rangers have the ability to charm/capture animals and train them to follow their command in battle. Commands will take time and skill and low level characters will need to use their every turn to make the animal do what they want, later however the animal will stay at course and commands will be quicker giving the characters to command several animals at once or support the fight on their own. Beastmasters are of course the strongest ones and can command up to 5 animals in battle at high levels, hunters and rangers can command up to 3 animals in battle at high level. Even though there is a limit of how many in combat animals they can have they can still charm and capture more animals to train and have at their disposal, giving them opportunities to be more diverse and approach any given situation with the right force.
• Elemental summoning: Elemental mages can at high level summon a powerful elemental to do their bidding. However to control such a powerful being the mage needs the support from other elemental mages to boost their power, all mages will still be able to move and must keep moving to stay in range of each other and the elemental, or they will lose their control of it. At least two mages are required to summon an elemental but the more mages that work together the more powerful the elemental will be. Elemental summoning lasts for a limited amount of time.
• Demon summoning: Warlocks will use their arcane abilities to summon evil demons which they will lock in their control, once summoned a demon will struggle to get free and this requires the warlocks to concentrate on the demon and their lock. Higher level warlocks can summon stronger demons and at a high level they will be able to turn themselves into demons to become powerful fighters in battle. Finally at a very high level warlocks can turn themselves into demon-kings which allow them to command another powerful demon to join the battle. A demon can only be controlled for a short amount of time and will therefore have to be banned before it is too late.
• Undead reanimation and summoning: Necromancers have the ability to reanimate slain enemies on the battlefield to do their bidding. At lower levels necromancers can only reanimate the skeletons for a short time but higher levels gives more substance to their reanimation which allows them to create zombies, fleshy ghouls or even reanimate the enemies themselves, but always only for a short period of time. At higher levels Necromancers can also summon powerful undead creature such as gargoyles, golems, vampires and with some help litches. Reanimations only lasts for a short time before the bodies collapses, summoned undead are powerful and must be banned before it is too late. To summon a powerful undead creature necromancers must build up their strength, they do this by reanimating weaker creatures.
• Nature summoning: Druids and in a smaller amount shamans can summon help from the nature. At a smaller amount in the lower levels they can summon bugs and other small wild animals to disturb the enemy, and at higher levels bigger wild animals can be summoned. The druids and shamans cannot control this animal though but only show them who are friends and who are foes. Wild animals are wild and might run away to their own at any time.
• Dragon summoning: The most powerful of all summoning is the summoning of a dragon; only a fully powered wizard with the help of at least 6 other magic users (magic class or religious class) can summon a powerful dragon that will gain attributes depending on who is there to help in the summoning. Summoning a dragon is extremely consuming and will surely kill the wizard and many of who helps him to summon, these deaths may not be resurrected again in the same battle. Once summoned a dragon will help until it has taken too much damage, however you cannot heal it or give it any direct support so make sure you are not putting it up against too much.

Titles

While playing you will be rewarded titles that you can give to your characters; while some titles can be for anyone others are only for certain classes or class group. For example alchemist which allows any character to use certain special items like smoke bombs and have potions being more potent and Leader which allows either a knight, wizard or witch to empower a fellow character of the same subclass or hire a mercenary (there will only be five mercenaries available since the maximum amount of characters is 15 and only five are hidden). Any character can only have five titles. A character can level up titles.

• Leader (5 levels) – Allows a character to boost friends of the same subclass by giving them a title of their own as well as empowering the whole group.
  Available for knights, wizards and witches.
  Level 1: 1 squire (knight) from brute force group or apprentice (wizard & witch) who gains a low amount of bonus depending on leader’s stats.
  Level 2: 1 man at arms (knight from brute force group) or xxx (wizard & witch) who gains a medium amount of bonus depending on leader’s stats or 1 mercenary.
  Level3: 2 men at arms (knight from brute force group) or xxx (wizard & witch) who gains a medium amount of bonus depending on leader’s stats or 2 mercenaries.
  Level4: 3 men at arms (knight from brute force group) or xxx (wizard & witch) who gains a medium amount of bonus depending on leader’s stats or 3 mercenaries.
  Level5: 3 men at arms (knight from brute force group) or xxx (wizard & witch) who gains a medium amount of bonus depending on leader’s stats or 3 mercenaries and a small bonus to all characters of same base class (brute force class or magic class).
• Alchemist (5 levels) – Items used by an alchemist will gain power, such as healing and magic potions become more potent, allows the alchemist to use special alchemist’s items and allows the alchemist to create normal and special items.
  Available to all classes.
  Level 1: Potions become more potent.
  Level 2: All items become more potent (such as bombs), and potions become even more potent.
  Level 3: Can use special alchemist’s items, all items become even more potent.
  Level 4: Can create items, all items become even more potent.
  Level 5: Can create special alchemist’s items, all items become even more potent.
• Master (5 levels) – Increases stats for all friends using the specified weapon or type. Specific for one type of weapon, for example swords is a sword master.
  Level 1: Increase stat 1 (for example accuracy for swords).
  Level 2: Increase stat 2 (for example parry for swords).
  Level 3: Increase stat 3 (for example damage for swords).
  Level 4: Increase stat 4 (for example speed for swords).
  Level 5: Further increase all 4 stats.
  
  Lower grade stats are generally less useful. A character can only be one type of master.
  Different Masters are:
  Sword Master
  Axe Master
  Mace Master
  Shield Master
  Knife Master
  Spear Master
  Rifle Master
  Gun Master
  Bow Master
  Fence Master
• Arms Master (3 levels) – Increases stats (accuracy, critical strike and attack) for characters using arms (e.g. weapons excepting fist weapons).
  Level 1: Very very low increase.
  Level 2: Very low increase.
  Level 3: low increase.
• Kung Fu Master (5 levels) – Increases stats (accuracy, attack, attack speed, block, critical strike, life, armor and resistance) for unarmed characters.
  Level 1: Very very low increase.
  Level 2: Very low increase.
  Level 3: low increase.
  Level 4: medium low increase.
  Level 5: medium increase.
• Defender (6 levels) – Increases defending stats for one character.
  Level 1: Increase armor.
  Level 2: Increase resistance.
  Level 2: Increase block.
  Level 3: Increase dodge.
  Level 5: Increase parry.
  Level 6: Increase block value.

More titles are needed, suggestions are welcome.

Weapons specifications

Different weapons have different behavior concerning skills and other special features.

• Normal Swords (both one and two handed): Normal swords are the most balanced weapons; used as reference their speed, damage (in terms of damage per speed), accuracy, parry, dodge, range and critical strike ratio are all normal. Normal one handed swords can be dual wielded or used with shield.
  Examples of swords are short sword and long sword.
  Examples of prefixes for swords can be wooden, rusty, keen and fine.
• Fencing Swords: Fencing swords are faster than normal swords and have higher accuracy and dodge and parry rate but lower damage. Fencing swords cannot be used with shields but can be dual wielded (by some classes).
  Examples of fencing swords are espada and rapier.
  Examples of prefixes for fencing swords can be sharp and rusty.
• Katanas: Katanas are sharp two handed swords, they have a minor armor piercing ability and will ignore a percentage or an absolute value (depending on which is higher) of the opponents armor value. Katanas generally have higher damage than normal swords.
  Special katanas are bokuto and shinai (blunt wooden practice swords without armor piercing)
  Examples of prefixes for katanas are rusty and keen.
• Maces (both one and two handed): Maces are slow, heavy blunt weapons preferred by the religious (such as clerics and paladins). Maces are generally slower and have heavier damage than swords but even though they can be used to parry it is usually tougher as they are heavy to move around. One handed maces can be used for dual wielding and shields. Maces can be used as a focal point to summon divine energy and increase magic users power.
  Examples of maces are war-hammer, mace, morning-star and club.
  Examples of prefixes for maces are light, heavy, iron, rusty and diamond.
• Axes (both one and two handed): Like maces axes are also heavy and therefore slower than swords, but not as heavy as maces giving them better balance which makes it easier to use for parries. One handed axes can be used for dual wielding and shields. Some small one handed axes can be thrown.
  Examples of axes are hand axe, cleaver axe and battle axe.
  Examples of prefixes for axes are keen, dull and broken.
• Knives: Knives are quick piercing weapons preferred by thieves and assassins. Knives are usually much faster than swords but can’t be used for parrying or with shields. Knives can be dual wielded and are often preferred for off hands. Some knives can be thrown. Knives can often be enchanted with magical power that magic users can draw upon to increase their power.
  Examples of knives are dagger, kukri, switchblade and athame.
  Examples of prefixes for daggers are magical, rusty, keen and radiant.
• Fist weapons: Using the same skills as when unarmed martial artists uses fist weapons to put and extra punch to their punch. Fist weapons can be used to channel chi through which helps monks and other martial artists to increase their power. Characters dual wielding fist weapons can block, however the block value is significantly lower than that of shields.
  Examples of suffixes for fist weapons are of power, of anger of justice.
• Normal polearms: Polearms are long range melee weapons used by many professional soldiers and guards. Aside of longer range polearms have the benefits of being able to do all types of damage but they are slow and heavy and hinders dodging.
  Examples of polearms are – halberd, glaive, pole-axe and bardiches.
• Spears: Spears are like polearms in range and damage but they do not have blunt type damage. Some classes that cannot use other polearms can use spears. Some spears can be thrown. Spears come in both one and two handed versions.
• Staffs: Staffs can be used as focal point for all magic powers such as arcane powers, divine powers and chi, many different classes uses staffs to increase their power and used for protection and damage. Staffs are easy to parry with but are slow and have low damage output.
  Examples of staffs are bo, war-staff, half-staff and long-staff.
  Examples of prefixes for staffs are oak, yew, cedar, gnarled and iron.
• Bows: Bows are the fastest ranged weapon and can with the right person using it do a lot of damage. Some bows can be used for melee also, as a staff.
  Examples of 1st prefixes for bows are cedar, yew and oak.
  Examples of 2nd prefixes for bows are war, hunting, long and short.
• Crossbows: Crossbows are bolt shooting weapons that penetrates and damages armor. Crossbows do high damage but are very slow. Reloading a crossbow takes most of the time of using it. There are repeating crossbows which can fire multiple times between reloads.
• Guns: Guns are light firearms that shoot bullets that penetrate armor. Most guns can only shoot one bullet between reloads but skilled gun users can dual wield guns and even carry extra guns with them. There are also rumors of guns that can hold more than one bullet. Reloading guns takes one turn; skilled gun users (such as true gunslingers) can reload all their guns at the same time.
• Rifles: Like guns rifles also penetrate armor. Rifles do more damage than guns and shoot small grenades instead of bullets; grenades have special effects.
  Examples of grenades are exploding, burning and stunning.
• Throw weapons: Except throwing daggers, axes and spears there are a few other throw weapons, these cannot be used in melee combat though.
  Examples of other throw weapons are shuriken, bo-shuriken and darts.

Weapons

There are three types of physical damage; slashing, piercing and blunt. Different types do different amount of damage on different types of armor; slashing does 80% damage on leather armor, 90% damage on chainmail armor and 70% damage on plate armor, piercing does 80% on leather armor, 70% on chainmail armor and 90% on plate armor and blunt does 90% leather armor and chainmail armor and 60% on plate armor. Special effects are limited to some types; poison, wind and water enchants can only be applied on piercing and slashing weapons, fire enchants can only be applied to slashing and blunt weapons and earth enchants can only be applied on blunt weapons. A weapon that has two types of damage will apply the type that is more effective.

Weapons are categorized in main and subtypes, classes can have specified a main type for example “swords”, then they can use all types of swords, or more specified “fencing swords” then he can only use one handed “fencing swords”. It can also be specified that a class can use “two handed weapons”, that includes “normal two handed swords”, “katanas”, “two handed maces”, “two handed axes”, “normal polearms” and “spears”.