New Clan Abilities for May

[Gesslar]

Hi guys! As promised, here's a thread we can talk about new clan abilities! Hopefully we can get a few done over the next couple weeks, and I'd like to hear from you and get some implemented.

Path of Leadership: These abilities deal with rallying your clanmates in combat
Path of Soldiers: These are single-person abilities that work like scouting and reporting to your clan.
Path of Fire: Fire-based abilities
Path of Air: Travel or location-based abilities.
Path of Water: Healing or cleansing abilities.
Path of Earth: Land-based abilities.

It would be nice to have a couple more in soldiers or leadership, but all suggestions will be reviewed!

[Gromgor]

Path of Leadership Abilities:

Conquest
Cost: 2 Points
Effect: This passive ability converts 10% of all xp gains into Clan Dominance (conversion rate required, obviously).
Bonus Effect: If 2 members of the clan are partied, even if only one member has this ability, the second party member generates an additional 5%.
This effect stacks for every member of the clan that is in the party.



Declaration of War:
Cost: 1 Points
Syntax:
clandeclare war on (insert enemy clan name here)
clandeclare peace on (insert enemy clan name here)

Effect: This ability allows a declaration of war to be called upon another clan under Vindicator's banner. This will make an announcement to the realms that the clan is declaring war.
Bonus Effect: This ability will flag (read: pretitle clan) all members of the declaring clan.
Bonus Effect 2: Members of clans who are under a declared war will suffer no loss of PL, GL or XP if slain by a member of a clan they are at war with. - thus it is in the best interest of the enemy clan to also declare war.



Note: Less QQ more pew pew



Enhance
Cost: 3 Points
Syntax:
enhance (ability name)

Effect: This ability would enhance a few select guild abilities. Example effects are:

- Scry/clairvoyance: Enhancing these abilities would project the vision the scrying party sees to all members of the clan.

- Roar would so motivate clan mates that they all gain a 10% chance per round to strike twice in combat until the effect ends. (The roaring warrior does not receive this buff, but does receive the standard effects of a roar)

- Mage Portals would not disappear upon use, but instead would allow clan members to use the portal for 60 seconds before disappearing, facilitating the coordinated movements of the clan.

- The mere presence of a Tradesmen that has this ability gives a passive +3% critical strike chance to all clan mates.

[Leveth]

Soldier or Leader Ability

Clanmark

-Must be wearing a clan insignia of some sort.
-Must be able to wager honor.

Allows branding of a target that has been rendered helpless, (otherwise requires consent if done for RP reasons). This 'brand' stays with the target for a length of time, longer for higher ranked clans, and always takes the shape of the clan delivering the brand. Requires spending honor commiserate with the target's guild level from branding clan. A person that has been branded takes additional damage when struck by a member of the branding clan.


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Yea, kinda rambled a bit... just kinda an off-wall thought I had. Anyone have any input?

[Irriari]

Soldier or Leader Ability

Clanmark

-Must be wearing a clan insignia of some sort.
-Must be able to wager honor.

Allows branding of a target that has been rendered helpless, (otherwise requires consent if done for RP reasons). This 'brand' stays with the target for a length of time, longer for higher ranked clans, and always takes the shape of the clan delivering the brand. Requires spending honor commiserate with the target's guild level from branding clan. A person that has been branded takes additional damage when struck by a member of the branding clan.


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Yea, kinda rambled a bit... just kinda an off-wall thought I had. Anyone have any input?

I like this idea, though I'm not sure how well it would work in reality (as I would assume the 'target' could simply hide in their abode until the duration was up, and would thereby waste the honor wagered).

I think the thing that's making thinking it difficult for me to think up soldier abilities is wording 'scouting and reporting' to your clan. In my eyes, this path would promote grouping and other forms of clanmate involvement. For laughs, I googled 'What does a soldier do?'. While I think a lot of people think about the warfare aspect of being a soldier I wanted to focus more on provisioning, scouting, and gaining knowledge of the terrain and tactics of potential enemies.
My first thought was something that could mark or share map information, but that isn't allowed in Threshold so perhaps there could be an ability like 'Prowess of the Soldier' that would either a) decrease the chance of being hit multiple times when returning to an area an enemy is in (to simulate a soldier's knowledge of an area and the enemies within it) or b) bestow a clanmate with 'secret tactical knowledge' that decreases the EP used per attack when grouped with a soldier that utilized the ability.

As for the path of water, I'd love to see a heal over time that costs a bunch of ability points (or something else to balance it since healing is kind of a cleric only™ thing. The whole path underwhelms me a bit, but that's because I don't run across tainted food much.

[Gromgor]

Ok. This is going to be completely outrageous and I totally understand that, so rejecting it outright is 100% accepted ahead of time, and expected. Flame it too, if you'd like. But if you're looking to expand clans, this might offer some ideas...

What if clans COULD BE just as important as guilds to a character's development? In short, what if a character could join certain types of clans (cults, societies, orders) and advance that way in lieu of joining a guild? For instance a "Cult" type clan could offer a character the option to acquire combat abilities, instead of having to be a cleric, mage, etc. . This could be part of a new path that would require a character to be guildless. By forsaking the benefits of a guild, they gain access to Vindicator training. Enough to be able to participate in combat effectively, with specialized abilities being purchased as clan abilities.

Clan Level would equal Guild Level for the purposes of the potency of abilities.

Abilities that could be purchased would be derivatives of abilities from other guilds. Enough to effectively combat foes. Initially the cultist would wear mage armor/weapons, but would have the option to purchase, as an ability, more advanced gear types similar to Templar armor/weapons.

Example abilities would be:

-Bind (1 point)
-Heal (3 points)
-Bless (2 points)
-Fireseed (3 points)
-Lightning Bolt (3 points)
-Bloodboil (4 points)
-conflagration (4 points)
-conduct electricity (1 point)
-warpaint (1 point)
-gale (2 points)
-combust (2 points)
-cyclone (3 points)
-inferno (3 points)
-Plus all of the other clan abilities

So what benefit does this add to the game? It gives characters a new way to progress, and helps contribute to a more varied skill makeup in combat. It also helps to create new conflicts within the game world as individuals who are members of these clans would have to be more like cultists than the typical character. This would allow groups that want to play heretic characters to actually have a way of creating a church like organization that would benefit from the same advantages a church already enjoys (church who, church mind link, etc.). Currently a character to play the "cult leader" character they have to have split loyalties (guild for combat prowess, clan for RP) where the repercussions of being discovered are on par with destruction of the character. This would help to make viable, effective "villains" to arise capable of actually challenging the status quo without the risk of absolute destruction.

It gives a different flavor for characters as well. One could play more of a "shaman" or tribal leader type archetype that focus more on elemental powers without having to be an alchemist or mage. While not necessarily a heretic, they might not wish to be a cleric but still engage in spiritual/elemental RP.


What are some obvious negatives/cons? A sudden influx of people wanting to play ill-conceived characters that get wrecked because of RP, unwilling to endure the societal destruction of character (the core of this proposal isn't meant to offset that - only the abilities related aspects). Obvious potential balance issues. Possible reduction in warm bodies on the guild whos for some guilds.

[Leveth]

I like this idea, though I'm not sure how well it would work in reality (as I would assume the 'target' could simply hide in their abode until the duration was up, and would thereby waste the honor wagered).

I think that would be a valid RP choice in this instance. Someone who is branded was given a second chance instead of killed outright... Or someone agreed to wear the brand through negotiations or surrender. Thoughts?

[Gesslar]

Gromgor, your post was interesting to read, but it seems out of scope for what we're asking in this thread.

[Gromgor]

Gromgor, your post was interesting to read, but it seems out of scope for what we're asking in this thread.

You didn't even flame it!


Path of the Soldier:

Field Dressing
Cost: 2 Points
Syntax: field dress (target) If no target is selected, this ability will target the caster.
Using make shift supplies those who follow the path of the soldier can patch up wounds to help the natural healing process.
This effect can be used once every 12 RL hours and gives +3/+3/+3 regeneration rate for as long as the character remains still. They can change gear, manipulate bags, etc. but must remain located in the room.

[Irriari]

Path of Fire:

Fiery Soul
Cost: ? 2 points?
Syntax: fierysoul
Using this ability floods the casters blood with the raging essence of fire and invigorates them allowing their abilities to do 15% more damage at the cost of taking x% more damage from all sources. (Alternatively, they could suffer from a fire based dot for the duration of the spell).

[fewi]

Name: Antagonize
Cost: 3 points
Path: Leadership
Syntax: antagonize

With this targeted ability you antagonize one foe attacking one of your clanmates generating an amount of threat towards them based on your clan rank and from the frightening antagonization you performed your clanmates recieve a small boost in moral (+2 attack and +2 defense for a few seconds).