Scholarly class suggestions

Miriana

My character is currently a siren alchemist in Cyrene, though I currently find alchemist skills a bit awkward. Physiology seems to be purely based around PvP, Formulation seems to be mainly for utility purposes, and Alchemy seems to be for bashing or else general damage. The sense of awkwardness comes from physiology not offering much variation aside from, "Sic your homunculus on another adventurer/set up afflictions in PvP" and yet despite that I'll likely have to invest some lessons into it anyway whether I want to PvP or not. I'm trying to focus on scholarly classes, as my character wants to avoid negative stereotypes surrounding beauty. In light of my desire to mostly focus on bashing, can anyone make suggestions?

Paux

Magi fills that role pretty well.

Ietre

Depthswalker as well, I think. Terminus has research trees that have to be individually studied. But the DPS is really low for bashing, though slightly mitigated by a crit bonus in Terminus.

Aegoth

Crazy how classes in a PvP centred game have skills that are centred around PvP

Adrik

Aegoth said:

Crazy how classes in a PvP centred game have skills that are centred around PvP

Don't be an asshole.

@Miriana , all class skills will be more-or-less focused around PVP or PVE in some way shape or form. Alchemists can study stuff IG (though they may not get a response without Divine animating stuff to make it happen). Cyrene is probably in one of the best spots for it, as Phaestus is a good guy and interacts with the city a lot and pays attention in little details.

You don't have to drop any lessons into Physiology "whether you like it or not" to bash as an Alchemist. In fact, Alchemist has two ability trees that are predominantly PVP based, same with most other classes (except certain ones. Looking at you Tarot users / Devotionists).

Overall though, if you care little for doing much besides bashing, and don't want to look 'pretty' while doing it?

You can always become an Earth Lady and be 200+ft tall to be a GiantWoman.

Sobriquet

Aegoth said:

Crazy how classes in a PvP centred game have skills that are centred around PvP

Good thing Achaea isn't a PVP centered game then, isn't it.?

Shirszae

I think you are looking at things from the wrong angle still. Ultimately you can play any class from a scholar perspective. The class itself will neither make nor hinder your ability to play a scholar. What you need is to find a class whose flavour inspires you in that regard.

Caelan

Shirszae said:

I think you are looking at things from the wrong angle still. Ultimately you can play any class from a scholar perspective. The class itself will neither make nor hinder your ability to play a scholar. What you need is to find a class whose flavour inspires you in that regard.

This..  "Through the studies of <class based skill/ability>, I noticed <x> and it got me thinking...since then it has been revealed to me that <new/other semi-related thing>".

Mili

Hey Miriana!

I think you're looking at it from the wrong angle. In Aetolia we have the Carnifex guild and in that guild there's paths of advancement!

One of them is the Scholar path, another is Lore, another is Research.

Now the funniest thing about Carnifex is that they're essentially Infernals who threw Chivalry out the window in place of Savagery. It's a Guild full of screaming, half psychotic killers that steal souls from the Under Realm.

Just look at skills from an RP perspective and what Miriana would personally want to look into!

Just my two cents!

Krizal

Also, Physiology is actually one of the less-PK centric skills. There are abilities for ordering your homunculus to move, pick up items, look through their eyes and hear through their ears and make them speak, and all of this can be done remotely.

But as others have said, scholarly RP is less about your skills and their mechanics and more about what you do with them. Depending on what you want to research a certain class may better reinforce your RP of studying [thing], but for instance you don't need to become a farmer to study how different soils affect the growth of plants.

Paisly

I'm working on being a non-stereotypical siren as well. Though, I didn't know there was such a stereotype before I started.   It's been interesting at times.

Ietre

I think pushing against stereotypes is fairly common at this point. When I made Ietre I wanted to do that some while also keeping her Siren identity a part of her as a character. So it's more a subversion of tropes for me than outright disregarding them.

Amunet

Go Occultist, duh. Not only will I teach you how to castrate someone in several fun, class-centric ways, there's always a risk you might end up looking like Flair, and then the beauty of your character will be a moot point!

Paux

Amunet said:

Go Occultist, duh. Not only will I teach you how to castrate someone in several fun, class-centric ways, there's always a risk you might end up looking like Flair, and then the beauty of your character will be a moot point!

So how's Amunet still looking prestine after all these years? I want the terms and clayses she's working into her pacts!

Paux

Clauses* 
No idea what Clayses is. 

Amunet

Paux said:

Amunet said:

Go Occultist, duh. Not only will I teach you how to castrate someone in several fun, class-centric ways, there's always a risk you might end up looking like Flair, and then the beauty of your character will be a moot point!

So how's Amunet still looking prestine after all these years? I want the terms and clayses she's working into her pacts!

Actually, it doesn't have anything to do with the pacts. There's a lot of practical application, small-ritual RP that goes into the established Occultist canon regarding the aura and the seven rays. I would encourage you - or anyone else - to ask me about this when you see me IC, but for the sake of sparking some interest in the faction, I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version of why my character is smoking hot, while others on Team Chaos seems riddled with deformities - or, at least, grey hair. (I would ask anyone reading this to please, please, PLEASE not take it IC - I've been reluctant to post on the forums since my return specifically because I recall people "playing the forums" and crossing IC and OOC whenever someone would give insight about their faction's RP and motivations, so I'm putting a lot of faith in you guys to Not Fucking Do That this time.) 

Amunet and @Imyrr are both infamous for manipulating a particular ray to thwart the physical ravages of age. Flair (may he suffer a thousand incomparable torments for having abandoned us) and his state of decay is implied to be a conscious choice - he was an ascetic; he lived a life of self-deprivation, and would often forgo his own physical needs in exchange for a more transcendent state of enlightenment. In regard to Occultist canon, it wouldn't be required for anyone practicing entropic ritual (the canon name for what Flair did, typically involving invocation of a specific aspect of the aura) to experience the same level of physical degeneration, but most people who choose to follow in Flair's footsteps do incorporate that to an extent. That having been said, Occultist standards of beauty are weird - we don't bat an eye at transmogrification mutations, for example, or at an extra eye here or there. It's all part of the job, after all, and most of us would be willing to sacrifice something as ephemeral and insignificant as physical beauty for a greater comprehension of Chaos and ability with the Occult.

The old Occultists hold (however futilely) to a certain degree of secrecy, and maintaining secrecy means keeping up appearances. Nothing screams, "These people are up to something nefarious!" like eldritch horrors running around, wreaking indiscriminate havoc upon the unsuspecting denizens of Achaea. It was precisely that - in the form of the unfortunate victims of the Shakira Effect - which led to the persecution of the cabalists during the Burning Times; a fact that was ingrained from novicehood in our generation of Occultists. As a result, many of us are very careful to maintain unassuming, or attractive appearances. @Orklanishkal is so good at it that no one even remembers who he is (except as the lucky bastard who got to marry Amunet) though any of the old Occultists know that he is a former Demiurge, an accomplished ritualist, and one of the foremost scholars of Occultist history. Amu and Imyrr are heavily involved in politics, and they understand that outside of Ashtan, no one is going to want a mouldering corpse who is forever shrieking about the end times serving as a public figurehead. It makes sense for us, who still uphold the old Oath as best we can in this new, "fuck yo RP" Achaea, to maintain the façade.