New Specialization Ideas

So, anyone have ideas for new specializations?

I'm finding that between the four we have things are getting a bit over saturated. So I'd like to introduce one or two new ones. I figured I'd look to the community first to see if anyone has any ideas.

Well, first, we need to understand what a specialization does for a character, and what the underlying principles are that behind what makes a specialization.

As per our current system, a specialization encompasses the fighting style of a player. This is essentially 'if your character were in a fight, what would they do?' kind of question. The current 4 specializations covers a broad variety of fighting styles under the blanket of a couple of specs. Strength and Dex, for example, are melee and ranged. The spec. for Intelligence covers a wide variety of unique abilities and utility that can almost take care of anything, and the dom. spec. for beast tamers is great for its niche.

So the question comes; what kinds of things are not covered by the system as is? I spent a small amount of time thinking on the matter, and the thought occurred to me that we do not have a support specialization. Sure, Int. can cover the support field, but it has a utility that can cover all different specs depending on what element you choose.

So, Support specs, what would they cover? When one thinks support, you think buffs, debuffs, and heals. Well, when you really think about it, this kind of class is simply a mish-mash of other classes already out there. After briefly considering its viability, I trashed the idea, though some others may be inspired and think of neat reasons why it should be considered.

However, the thought of this brought me to my next idea; why does a specialization have to be combat based? Why can't it also encompass other types of strength? Leadership qualities, ability to manipulate guards, bandits, merchants?

Thus the Clout specialization was born. The Clout specialization is a social specialization that allows you to diffuse situations or escalate situations, as well as allows your character strong leeway depending on the strength of their personality. When rping, a Clout specialist deals 'damage' in the form of convincing NPCs that it is in their best interest to do something else, whether this be through the use of money, of changing their mind about their job, or through the influence of connections. This specialization is a very strange one, and would require thought put into how to execute it while remaining balanced, and the implications of what might be possible if the character encounters PC's and the PCs want to fight him. Perhaps he can 'Call in the local mob' to try to fight these guys off, or some such thing.

It's definitely a neat idea, though it needs work in order to be a useable spec.

I don't think that Clout would work. As you said yourself, it's how they deal with combat. Convincing an NPC to lay down his arms is all well and good but in PvP/Dungeon/Event that wouldn't work due to godmoding issues.

Maybe instead of new Specs, we can start a "Sub-specialization" system?

This man ^^^

I think an interesting idea would to have a "ninja" or "stealth" specialization. The range would be significantly shorter than other users and focused more around daggers and throwing knives or darts. They could have increased speed to compensate for their lack of long range abilities.

I like the ninja/stealth class idea. Maybe halve the range of abilities, but allow them to use daggers on strings or other melee weapons that could be used as ranged weapons.

Raizel wrote:Maybe instead of new Specs, we can start a "Sub-specialization" system?

Elaborate and explain. "Sub-Specialization" could mean any number of things.

Lexiara wrote:I think an interesting idea would to have a "ninja" or "stealth" specialization. The range would be significantly shorter than other users and focused more around daggers and throwing knives or darts. They could have increased speed to compensate for their lack of long range abilities.

I'm not against a stealth class. But how do we differentiate it enough from Strength/Dex so that picking either of those up as a secondary isn't redundant?

Im thinking that the ninja/stealth specialization can be converted into a sub specialization, since it includes the combination of both Strength and Dexterity uses. I'd like to propose a system that could perhaps function this way:

• Strength:
  
  
  
  • Path of the Weapon Master (Sub-specialization dedicated to the use of weapon abilities)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Berserker (Mastery in the use of raw attack power)
      
    • Way of the Warrior (Mastery in the use of All-Around abilities)
      
    
    
    
  • Path of the Martial Artist (Sub-specialization dedicated to the use of physical body abilities)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Enlightened (Mastery in the use of techniques that involve externalizing raw power)
      
    • Way of the Transformed (Mastery in the use of techniques that modify controlling the user's body.)
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Dexterity:
  
  
  
  • Path of the Huntsman (Sub-Specialization dedicated to the use of traps and territory factor abilities.)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Silent Killer (Mastery in the use of poison/darts/stealth)
      
    • Way of the Trap Master (Mastery in the use of traps/Camouflage/Nets)
      
    
    
    
  • Path of the Ranger (Sub-Specialization more ranged-offensive Oriented)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Marksman (Mastery in the use of multi-shot and skill shot abilities.)
      
    • Way of the Fire Rain (Mastery in the use of special arrows. Fire/Explosive/Concussion/Area of Effect skirmish)
      

Just a small idea of what this could look like. Of course any Path and Mastery can be altered as any of you guys see fit.

And in case you want to do this even more awesome how about making tertiary your special specialization? I can see a Dexterity user combining Way of the Marksman with Strength Way of the Warrior to obtain a tertiary Stealth/Ninja specialization!

So come on and bash this idea to pieces now  

I kinda like the idea of using it as a sub-specialization, but I think it could be equally effective as its own specialization. As for how to prevent redundancy in secondary specializations, there are a few different ways...

If the character wanted to have a longer range with ranged weapon, like with bows, they would go dex and if they wanted to wield larger weapons like swords or spears in addition to daggers/throwing knives, they could go strength.

I do see the problem with things like abilities, though, as it would already be almost a hybrid of str/dex. but for stealth/str maybe have an ability where they can throw a distracting dagger and follow up with a sword slash. Or it could offer the use of poisons to str users.

Most abilities for a stealth type class would be obtainable with a str/dex build, but it would also offer interesting combo possibilities especially with int users, I think. Ice daggers, poison mists, etc.

Farah wrote:Im thinking that the ninja/stealth specialization can be converted into a sub specialization, since it includes the combination of both Strength and Dexterity uses. I'd like to propose a system that could perhaps function this way:

• Strength:
  
  
  
  • Path of the Weapon Master (Sub-specialization dedicated to the use of weapon abilities)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Berserker (Mastery in the use of raw attack power)
      
    • Way of the Warrior (Mastery in the use of All-Around abilities)
      
    
    
    
  • Path of the Martial Artist (Sub-specialization dedicated to the use of physical body abilities)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Enlightened (Mastery in the use of techniques that involve externalizing raw power)
      
    • Way of the Transformed (Mastery in the use of techniques that modify controlling the user's body.)
      
    
    
    
  
  
  
• Dexterity:
  
  
  
  • Path of the Huntsman (Sub-Specialization dedicated to the use of traps and territory factor abilities.)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Silent Killer (Mastery in the use of poison/darts/stealth)
      
    • Way of the Trap Master (Mastery in the use of traps/Camouflage/Nets)
      
    
    
    
  • Path of the Ranger (Sub-Specialization more ranged-offensive Oriented)
    
    
    
    • Way of the Marksman (Mastery in the use of multi-shot and skill shot abilities.)
      
    • Way of the Fire Rain (Mastery in the use of special arrows. Fire/Explosive/Concussion/Area of Effect skirmish)
      
    
    
    
  
  
  

Just a small idea of what this could look like. Of course any Path and Mastery can be altered as any of you guys see fit.

And in case you want to do this even more awesome how about making tertiary your special specialization? I can see a Dexterity user combining Way of the Marksman with Strength Way of the Warrior to obtain a tertiary Stealth/Ninja specialization!

So come on and bash this idea to pieces now  

I won't bash this to pieces, but I will ask you how this would translate into Dom and Int as well. I don't see it meshing well with those due to the nature of what they are. Consider it a challenge to flesh this out more fully.

Although I will mention that these sub specs seem too limiting to me and makes getting a secondary spec seem to make things complicated.

Lexiara wrote:I kinda like the idea of using it as a sub-specialization, but I think it could be equally effective as its own specialization. As for how to prevent redundancy in secondary specializations, there are a few different ways...

If the character wanted to have a longer range with ranged weapon, like with bows, they would go dex and if they wanted to wield larger weapons like swords or spears in addition to daggers/throwing knives, they could go strength.

I do see the problem with things like abilities, though, as it would already be almost a hybrid of str/dex. but for stealth/str maybe have an ability where they can throw a distracting dagger and follow up with a sword slash. Or it could offer the use of poisons to str users.

Most abilities for a stealth type class would be obtainable with a str/dex build, but it would also offer interesting combo possibilities especially with int users, I think. Ice daggers, poison mists, etc.

My problem here is that I don't feel Int users should need a stealth spec to make poison mists and ice daggers. Nor do I think that it should be needed to perform a distraction followed up by a slash.

I feel like that would but too much of a limitation on other classes in an attempt to make the stealth specialization more viable.


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I've been thinking of introducing the Body Manipulators from Sinbad's Adventure.

Spoiler Warning
http://www.mangapanda.com/adventure-of-sinbad-prototype/21/2

What do people think of introducing that as a spec? Body Manipulation is broad enough that I think it is differentiated from strength well enough to be it's own separate category.

So basically they can pull a hulk or a Mr.Fantastic to a degree.

Those are the two examples we've seen in canon. But the possibilities are pretty open. Some examples of things body manipulation would be able to do are making bone weapons, changing body temp/pressure, purging poisons, and possibly even allow for exceptions to the buffing rules.

So the range at what they are capable of doing is pretty much endless. They could fo things like the dude from Toriko who does things with poison, or elongate their bones like Kimimaro.

Sounds good to me.

What I meant by Sub-Specialization is pretty much covered by Good ol' Farah. Adding Specialization is close to impossible, since our current 4 specialization pretty much cover everything. The best we can do is either

1. Sub-specialization

2. Advance Specialization.

Advance specialization can mean two separate things. Either improve the current specialization, or Combine specialties. Combining abilities is pretty cool, and flexible. However, the problem starts arising when we come to the specialization of "Intelligent". Intelligent, the way it is in our system now, is impossible to "Combine" with other specialization. Why? Because it requires a staff. So advance specialization is pretty much a "no". If you're interested in sub-specialization, I can make you a draft on how it will work.

Intelligence isn't impossible to combine with other things just because you need to wield a staff(or a wand) as dual wielding is a thing. It only becomes a problem when you're using two handed weapons like bows or greatswords.

That being said, I really don't like the idea of Sub-Specs or "Advanced" ones. You're free to make a prototype, but I believe we can come up with something that fits nicely into what we already have rather than changing it up entirely.

Well, I'm not sure if this is a great idea or not, but what if we have something similar to the Dominance spec...but with technology rather than living things? The idea I am proposing would be called the "Engineer" spec who would have some sort of large-ish technological weapon such as a mini-tank or a mini-catapult (but obviously more advanced and creative) and all the techs would revolve around the technology. This would be like a "combination" between Dex and Dom with magical technology being like the magic tools of the Dex/Strength specs and one final "machine" being the equal to the legend-beasts in Dom.

So? Workable idea or not?

I said mechanic...same thing but yak told me no

Zadi wrote:Well, I'm not sure if this is a great idea or not, but what if we have something similar to the Dominance spec...but with technology rather than living things? The idea I am proposing would be called the "Engineer" spec who would have some sort of large-ish technological weapon such as a mini-tank or a mini-catapult (but obviously more advanced and creative) and all the techs would revolve around the technology. This would be like a "combination" between Dex and Dom with magical technology being like the magic tools of the Dex/Strength specs and one final "machine" being the equal to the legend-beasts in Dom.

So? Workable idea or not?

The technology of the time period isn't advanced enough for this.

See, told ya. Im on my phone but how about something not really for combat.  Craftsman that can make Magical items Or something ..or maybe a class that makes potions......

Oh wait...it could be a temporary magical weapon that dissolves/breaks after use with half durability. It could be a magical item u could create using magoni

So, out of everything discussed here so far I'm interested in making the following two ideas a reality:

Body Manipulators - People who have undergone experimentation or intense training to radically alter their anatomy through special techniques. This spec would be focused around buffs while possessing decent utility/supplementary capabilities.

Stealth/Assassin - Fighters who have spent a great deal of time studying anatomy of their opponents and methods of staying hidden. They can create poisons and perform paralyzing strikes making them ideal for indirect combat.

Obviously some rules would be changing to support the viability of these two new Specializations such as adjustments to the buffing rules as well as removing poisons and paralyzing abilities from other specs such as Dex and Strength.


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Thoughts? Concerns? Complaints?

interesting,cant wait till i see it work. Before starting it, how you make an enemy npc with that specialization as a promo, so we could all get a feel of the capabilities? That way we can fully analyze it once we see it in action.

I want to run a beta test of sorts so the kinks are worked out of them. But these changes would affect a LOT of people, so right now I'm just gauging reactions to the general idea before taking a step forward.

I'd like to clearly state for everyone that the next course of action isn't to just implement these specs immediately. They'll need to be balanced through testing in order to know exactly what kind of rules/limitations would be included on them in the systems pages.

I don't intend for these to turn out sloppy   

As a person who has a paralyzing ability due to Str., I dislike the thought of it being removed. However, with that being said, it's only from a bias standpoint. It would certainly be an interesting specialization.

A minor concern that could be alleviated once there is a better understanding of what this would mean would be whether or not this spreads overall utility for individual classes too thin.

This is my only concern for it. Otherwise, sounds cool, and I'm excited to see what kind of stuff comes from it.