Class Concept

Xith

I had this thought several months ago and in a couple of nights had myself a frenzy of ideas for abilities in one skill.

SPOILER ALERT: Yeah, it's a performance art class, cause the current incarnations are so beloved. /sarcasm

Some good ideas, some bad. But don't take this one too seriously because I don't imagine any version of it would be greenlighted. I took the liberty of quoting @Sylvance for her Masquerade idea though.

Skill: Mime.

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TRAITS

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Leather armour.

Can't use shields.

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ABILITIES (not in order)

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A pool of "Acclaim" that functions similar to Karma. Acclaim% is generated via this skill or another skill by performance.

The more people that witness the feat, the more acclaim is generated.

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Makeup Player must be in character to use Mime (willpower drain)

Silence Vow Disables speech, provides some willpower regeneration to counter drain.

Mime hammer Invisible hammer weapon. Can break mime walls. Blunt damage, can use for shatter.

Mime wall New type of wall. Does not conflict with stone/ice/etc. Mime may walk through it, thereby removing/breaking it. 

Does not stop projectiles. Can't be smashed by dragons. Fairly quick decay time.

Mime shove A push without contact. Prones.

Mime lasso Yanks. Removes mime wall as byproduct (yank balance)

Mime climb Climbing up an invisible rope, gives highleap effect. Combine with tightrope.

Mime lean Hidden activation, broken if leave the room (endurance drain). Upon physical attack, dodge + trip + stun. <similar to pinch block? I don't know>

Balancing Cause Mimes have good balance.

Mime box Classic technique. Shields target and prevents them leaving the room for 5 seconds (ideally halts the finishing of any timed kills) (3%)

Lipread Cause they should.

Sadface Gives pacifism.

Madface Gives fear.

Mime tickle Off balance 4 seconds.

Play dead 4 second delay, prismatic barrier (1%)

Mime run By feigning movement, causes target to chase the mime in that direction while the mime stays in the room.

Mime choke Asphyx damage. In-room only. Goes through shield. (0.5%)

Mime eat Pretends to eat. Gives nourishment.

Headstand Gives confusion.

Fitness Cause mimes are fit.

Backflip Fits the mood.

Mimewalk Allows waterwalk (endurance drain)

Silence Gives truedeaf to the room. (4.5%)

Mime sleep Sleep while awake.

Mime fence Invisible rapier techniques

Mime jab 100% accurate punch that can't be blocked. More mime telepathy. (0.5%)

Disappear Similar to astral form. (5%)

Peekaboo Emerges from Disappear with stunning attack.

Tickingmimebomb No idea what this was... 

Mime door Noise of jingling keys, the creak of a door, and the mime portals to someone else. (timed) (1%)

Mime pit Leap in a direction, leaving an imaginary pit between rooms. Enemies that follow will fall in for a time. (2.5%)

Mime duck Moves room and leaves an invisible bar to clothesline the target.

Mime trample Gallop around to trample a specific target. No horse required. Gangnam style.

Tightrope Following mime climb, with invisible tightrope may walk to another overhead room using balance. Not actual flight.

Windmill Useable on a tightrope, mimic falling and all non-mimes will fall.

Mime crutch Ignore hobble using balance to move.

Handcuff Sneaking up behind an adjacent target to bind their hands.

Piano drop After certain prep requirements, mimes raising a rope, then cutting the rope, dropping a real piano on the victim! (Instant) (3%) (can be performed for Acclaim)

As you can see, it's a bunch of ideas without a specific direction. Throwing it here for other ideas. 

And to repeat this is not an actual petition for an Achaean class.

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And now part of a concept for the additional tradeskill to build acclaim. Would probably include some wares.

Skill: Showmanship

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ABILITIES (not in order)

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Acclaim is generated by (Yx)(x), where Y is the acclaim amount to be multiplied, and x is the number of viewers present.

Funny idea on the side: maybe more acclaim if viewers use "ooh" and "ahh" emotes within the timeframe.

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Coin Ears Your grandpa's favourite trick. Produces 1 gold. (Multiplier: 0.01%)

Secret/Sleight Moving objects unseen.

Card trick One of each card trick per day (several possible) (Multiplier: 0.10%)

Hat Rabbit So cliche. (Multiplier: 0.20%)

Misappropriate By use of misdirection, steals and wears another adventurer's jewellery.

Mimicry Capture's target's voice/accent

Saw in Half Gives experience to the performer while taking some from the "volunteer", no death required. Limit 1 per year. (Multiplier: 0.30%)

Tinkering Creation of toys, subsection of the skill

Observe Shadows adventurer from adjacent to imprint their mannerisms. Dexterity effects success.

CharacterAct Depending on amount of observation, copies target's appearance, accent, clothes, certain objects. Stripped by Dispell or Revelation vibe, etc.

Chance of automatic revert lessened by more observation.

Didn't bother as long with this skill, but again just toying around. I'm aware it comes off as cartoony.

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Xith

And I liked the 'masks of power' concept here, so it might fuel the creativity while reading the others.

Sylvance said:

Well, as the Masquerade suggestion seems to have gone down well, I've done a bit more concept work on it.  Just a few points that might not be obvious from the brief information below - Many of the bastard moves are designed to only work at night time, hence they should be a bit more powerful than expected as they cannot be used 50% of the time - This skill isnot intended to look, feel or work like 'Vampires'; just thought I'd head that one off at the pass! - I'd make it so that it's impossible to either don or remove a TrueMask if another player is in the room - The FalseMask ability is explicitly designed to make a mask that is indiscernible from a TrueMask and can be placed in another player's inventory via Shaded Gestures; either type of Mask would fall out of a player's inventory when they QQ, the idea is to constantly cause speculation over who might be part of the secret House - Skills with an * can only be used whilst wearing a TrueMask.

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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The following skills exist in this ability:

Ventriloquism Make your voice come from an object
FalseMask Create a piece of incriminating evidence
Veil of Meekness Reduce your might before prying eyes
Child of Shadows Accept the protection of the night
Shaded Gesture Act beneath a cloak of secrecy
Poisoned Pen Infuse your letters with dormant derangement
TrueMask Create a Persona more real than your own
*Night's Cloak Be hidden by night's embrace
*Voice of Horror Afray your foes with a well-chosen word
*Veil of Health Hide your wounds from prying eyes
Adept Ventriloquist Make your voice come from another location
*Shadowed Hallways Speedily traverse the world at night
*Night's Footsteps Step as lightly as the shadows themselves
*Dark Whispers Draw forth their dormant madness
*Voice of Allure Entice your foe with a well-chosen word
*My Foe's Foe Improve your relations with a village
*Lord of Shadows Become one with the night
*Veil of Wounds Appear to be knocking at death's door
*Distracting Gaze Draw your foe's gaze away from your blows
*Shaded Strike Hide your attacks from onlookers
Master Ventriloquist Make your voice come from another adventure
*Sap Resolve Drain the will of your enemies
*Voice of Mastery Instruct your foe with a well-chosen word
*Stage Death Appear dead to the eyes of your foes
*Silent as Shade Interrupt telepathic communications
*Anointed of Shadows Become the incarnation of the night
*Voice of Derision Belittle your foe with a well-chosen word
*Modus Vivendi Damage another's reputation
*Shadowed Chorus Harry your foe with multiple Voices
*Darkest Feast Make a meal of your enemy's madness
*Voice of Reason Remove your maladies with a well-chosen word
*False Friend End the suffering of one burdened with shadows

Tvistor

Xith said:

CharacterAct Depending on amount of observation, copies target's appearance, accent, clothes, certain objects. Stripped by Dispell or Revelation vibe, etc.

Chance of automatic revert lessened by more observation.

Everything else aside, that would be cool.

Sylvance

This says more about my maturity than anything else, but more than anything else in your skillset, I loved Peekaboo.  That said, the main problem with this class I think would be an offshoot of the main problem with Jesters.  It would be a WTF class and tear people kicking and screaming out of immersion.

That said, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, so thanks

And totally LOL'd at the piano drop.

Now to tell you off. You said that there was nothing stringing this skillset together.  You were wrong:

ETA - image failz

Iocun

The main issue I see is that that all those performance things have very real, tangible effects, which is quite contrary to what I consider to be the essence of "miming". The part that makes miming an invisible wall or rope miming is that there is no wall or rope. This is what makes their show fascinating. But here, we have very real effects of all those things. A mime wall does create an actual wall, mime eating does nourish them, mime trample does involve physical trampling. So in effect, it stops being a performance class entirely, and becomes a class of wizards who conjure actual walls and ropes and at the same time physical attackers who actually trample and choke you.

For me, this makes them loose the charm of miming.

That is, of course, an inherent problem with trying to mix up "performance skills" with the combat-oriented skill system of Achaea. It never quite works, as any really engaging IC performance is not skill-based, but predominantly skill-independent RP, whereas in combat, any "performance ability" often just looks a bit silly.

Vaehl

I like professions.

Could be a profession of Jester.

Asmodron

loved it, made me laugh at the comedy of it. If I ever saw a Piano dropping deathsight, I would need a moment to go afk attempting to wipe the tears from my face because of all the laughter.

That being said, what @Sylvance said was correct, in a game environment and player atmosphere like Achaea, this would never work. I can see many uptight players already screaming their lungs out at the mere thought of it.

Oh also, the class reminded me of this:



Evil Mime!

Ruth

I like the mime run idea. It made me giggle.

Tvistor

Yeah, would be a cool idea in another setting.

Insanely OP though. (I get that it isn't a serious suggestion)

Asmodron

Still makes me giggle XD