Time Mage Discussion Thread

[kablizzy]

Hahaha. I don't think coding has changed that much, but yeah. That seems like a kind of cool DoT effect for Wither which also plays on the Time element.

I still have a really hard time wrapping my head around the Gravity and Space part of this, the Space part seems like more of an Astrologer thing, and the Gravity part has always struck me as weird to be a Time-based thing. I always figured it was a mis-translation of Space in the phrase "Time and Space" magic, where it was supposed to mean like, spatial space and not rocket ship space.

[Ilium]

May 11, 2013 20:02:11 GMT -6 kablizzy said:

I dunno if Ilium could code this, but in terms of Wither, having it do 1 damage first turn, 2 the second, 3 the third, and so on. Just more rapid decay as the battle wears on and as the strands of time wear more on the target. Dunno, just an idea.

And I'm a huge fan of comet shower, Meteorain, whatever you want to call it. That shit's cool. That should totally be in.

So Wither in this form would be a status effect, stacking MA/PA/Speed modifiers each turn, or would it be actual HP damage, or...?

Technically the code would not be hard to do with this regardless of what the ability does.

[kablizzy]

Oh, HP damage, definitely. My God, stacking the other mods would be freaking obscene. I was thinking something like this, in terms of HP:

Turn 1: 1 damage.
Turn 2: +2 Damage = 3 total
Turn 3: +3 damage = 6 total
Turn 4: +4 Damage = 10 total
Turn 5: +5 Damage = 15 total
Turn 6: +6 Damage = 21 total
Turn 7: +7 damage = 28 total
Turn 8: +8 damage = 36 total
Turn 9: +9 damage = 45 total
Turn 10: + 10 damage = 55 total

And so on. The cool thing about it is the Time Mage can throw this out there early, and then continue to cast regular spells as Wither is ticking away. Give it a chance to proc, of course, but yeah. Also, perhaps casting Wither again moves the damage a tick down the line?

[Mordred]

Calling "Don't Move" something like "Gravity" instead works. Much cooler.

Wither as damage over time is cool. Let's call it... hm. Entropy? It works out very well with the timespace theme as well.

[kablizzy]

I'm okay with either Wither or Entropy, but I do like the Timespace feel of Entropy.

[Schwerpunkt]

So the question is: what cancels this effect? Is it just a magic effect that can be cured with Esuna? If so, it may be rather ridiculously underpowered.

[kablizzy]

That's a good question. I neither want it to be easy to cure nor difficult, 'cause it'll eventually kill you, but if we let it get dispelled by everything, it's useless. Uhhh. I suppose I'd err on the side of "Not much", and give one or two obscure options to cure it, or at least lessen the effects? Also, something like Regen functionally 'cures' it for the first few rounds.

[Schwerpunkt]

... what? The damage increases geometrically until you simply die because nothing cures it and it doesn't expire? So it's like Curse of Agony, only it doesn't stop ticking until you die?

This is not an ability I'd be comfortable adding to the game. Maybe it can show up as a plot device in a proposition (because it's putting a hard cap on how long the player has to finish the engagement, with the inability to actually wrap things up resulting in a loss), but it sure as hell can't be in a basic class. Hell, I'd even be uncomfortable putting this in a prestige class.

[kablizzy]

Maybe I didn't make that clear, apologies. I meant more along the lines of a couple basic classes get an ability to cure it and an item or two that can mitigate the effects or cure it outright. Just not every class, 'cause then the ability is kinda useless. The regen comment was just a side-idea that I had on the topic, but that would also do the trick for a few rounds if no cures were around.

[Schwerpunkt]

Kablizzy, it's Death Sentence. Maybe you can kinda sorta mitigate it for a few turns, but it's still Death Sentence.

If we've systematically cut that effect from every single other class we've addressed thus far (except the Geomancer's self-inflicted Petrify), we can't add it here.

[Ilium]

Lol, I wouldn't exactly call 55 damage over 10 turns 'Death Sentence'.

[Mordred]

Schwer makes a good argument - if it does too much damage, it becomes death sentence, if it does too little, it's worthless. Perhaps we need to find a different direction here.

What about the Time Mage being able to teleport an ally from one position on the field to another within a certain range? We could call it Wormhole or something.

[Ilium]

Mordred

Relativity: Target any ally or guest within Range 2 of Time Mage, and move target unit anywhere within Range 3 (4 directions) of Time Mage.


(X = Caster)
                           #           #
                 #        ###          #
       #        ###      #####         #
      #X#      ##X##    ###X###     ###X###
       #        ###      #####         #
                 #        ###          #
    Range 1   Range 2      #           #
                         Range 3     Range 3
                                    (4 directions)

[Mordred]

Cool stuff, Ilium. Good name, too! I think we have our Time Magic ability set figured out.

[kablizzy]

May 12, 2013 3:15:52 GMT -6 Schwerpunkt said:

Kablizzy, it's Death Sentence. Maybe you can kinda sorta mitigate it for a few turns, but it's still Death Sentence.

If we've systematically cut that effect from every single other class we've addressed thus far (except the Geomancer's self-inflicted Petrify), we can't add it here.

So we make stuff that can cure it, then? If it's a magical effect, I can imagine it could be Dispelled, and if it's not, It'd fall under Esuna. And I'd imagine we could have an item or two that can cure it as well, no?

I like Relativity, but weren't we looking for a damage ability for Time Mage?