assassin class

from Elemental Forums

im trying to design a real assassin class, squishy and lethal but its not so easy to balance

(the use of initiative on many skills is because i dont want the plate to be an option even though its not perfect)

 

my actual idea:

 

ambush:

prereq: charge and vital strike

works only with a dagger equipped

for the first turn of combat you gain critical chance and accuracy equal to your initiative

(basically an opening move that is high reward and high risk)

 

disengage attack:

prereq: dodge

cooldown 6 turns

attacks for 75% of base dmg and grants dodge chance equal to initiative for 2 turns

(a small survivability skill because otherwise being melee would be too hard)

 

punch to the throat:

prereq: accuracy

cooldown 6 turns

attack for your level in dmg and interrupt any spell being cast

(a defense against casters)

 

poisoned dagger:

works only with a dagger equipped

prereq: path of the assassin

every attack applies a poison on the target reducing accuracy and initiative by 1 and dealing 3 poison dmg

 

deadly poison:

prereq: poisoned dagger

works only with a dagger equipped

cooldown 6 turns

casting time 1 turn

apply a deadly poison on your weapon and for the next 3 turns it will deal your level in bonus poison damage

(basically i wanted to add a "pause" skill to use when other things are in cd and when it would be too risky to jump into melee range, since assassing should have very high initiative shouldnt be a problem to lose 1 turn to gain more dmg later)

 

 

ok thoughts? suggestions? insight? more ideas?

 

 

 

4,151 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top


I am currently working on a Path Mod and have some similar ideas. One thing you ought to think about is whether or not your changes go with the vanilla or will become a mod that changes the core xml files. Are you going for something that just adds to the current game or will you change the current leveling traits?

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

well its too complicated right now and impossible to answer

 

my hope in general is that game is quite ok and modders can just add content with eventually some small balance, ie if i want to make new archer maybe i have to modify a bit bows, thats ok, but if i have to rewrite all plates and spells just wouldnt feel ok :P

so for this id just want to be a standalone added "class" to work with anything, without many other changes apart from enabling the ai to use it if possible

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top


One cool thing I do for archer classes is make a choice between one or two shots that are guaranteed to crit and several fast shots. Do you ever read the Green Arrow comics? Alot of my ideas come from him.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

The thing I would most love to see in an assassin class is some sort of stealth ability, letting you get through the battlefield unseen.  I realize that this is probably impossible to do in tactical battle, so something that could approximate it would be an ability that gives you like +200 air dodge or something, so you can pretend you're unable to be seen by enemy archers.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top


I think a teleport that is nonmagical could work as stealth.

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I want stealth to be more of a defensive gap-closer, where teleporting is, IMO, an offensive gap-closer.  Yes, it represents the same thing, but if I 'port a unit behind enemy lines before anything else moves, that's the character that the entire enemy army is going to go beat up.  I suppose you could just keep your assassin hanging in the back until the front lines have been lured away, but... I dunno.  It doesn't 'feel' right.  Once the modding tools come out, I'll probably end up playing around fairly extensively with what I'd like to see, and whether or not it can be accomplished.

 

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top


Invisibility is a serious possibility for the expansion. Now that the basics of the game are in, there is more hope that stealth mechanics will be a consideration. Until then, I am good with teleports and extremely high dodge as an approximation.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

yes ofc the first thing i thought about was stealth, but i have no clue if its possible to mod something similar

 

dodge doesnt work for me, because:

-being targeted with 100% dodge is not the same as being stealthed, in fact is much worse, is like being a tank because the opponent would lose 1 attack(or more)

-there is magic too, id like a stealthed unit not being targeted by magics for example

 

like sean said teleport could work quite as well for now, but i really prefer if there was a way to prevent the unit to be the target of anything, maybe trasform it into a tile for a turn or something

 

so the first approx could be something like

 

vanish:

cooldown: 8

range: 5

hides into the shadows allowing the unit to move away fast from his location unseen

 

but i hope we can do more

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top


I am pretty sure the AI is going to learn that if it has very little chance of hitting, it will not target that unit. I have not gotten 100% results on this and am still testing it. At least we can think that this is something to expect before the game is finished.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

man i dont want to break your dreams but movement is bad since months

 

and its just an equation

d=distance

X= movement

go to d-x+1

and still ai cant do it

 

i hope but i highly doubt ai will be able to chooe targets based on his own dmg and opponent actual defense at release

but im crossing fingers with you