Golden Xan
Moderator
Staff member
Mallius Odium
Immemorial
Ageless
OG 2020
Grim Scribe
Magus
Vampire Scholar
- Mar 30, 2019
- 349
- 620
- 138
Hey everyone,
Ever since Denis mentioned we can specialize characters in ways opposite to their "nature", their positioning in the Trinary Archetype System, I wondered what it would be like to focus on specializing classes always on the opposite side of where they find themselves at.
For example, specializing a Revenant, who is typically physical, in the magickal and essential elements, or a Wraith in the physical element.
I've then began to wonder what would that play like. How interesting would a Magickal Revenant be, what sort of skills would it have? After some time thinking about it, I'd like to make some suggestions about the things that came up on my mind.
But first, I need to explain what I'm envisioning the "skill tree" to be like:
Skill Tree
This is a conceptual demonstration of what a skill tree could generally be like in DHS.
The orbs represent skills that you can unlock and develop.
The inner skills, in the grey area, do not belong to any particular element. They are "generic" skills for your class that everyone can develop regardless of your specialization. They do not influence your Alignment.
The colored orbs represent skills which specialize you in one of the elements; Physical, Magickal, Essential.
When you spend skill points in one of the colored areas, you change your Alignment.
Your character's atributes are influenced by the skills you develop. For example:
Developing Physical skills might improve your character's Speed and Force.
Developing Magickal skills might increase your Mana pool.
Developing Essential skills might increase your Essence regeneration.
The inner orb represents your starting point. Your level one.
The orbs in the extremities represent "ultimate" abilities. These are the most powerful skills you can get in a given specialization.
Skills are tiered, from first degree to last. These are merely representations of a "higher level" of power. DHS might, or might not, have requirements for developing skills of higher tiers.
Additionally, skills may have upgraded versions of themselves.
Alignment
The alignment is a representation of your character's particular specialization in the trinary system. I initially envisioned it to be mostly aesthetic, but I figured it could serve gameplay purposes as well. Smoke coming out of the skill tree represents your current alignment by its color.
As you spend skill points in either side of the skill tree, you influence the character's alignment. By spending points in magickal skills, your alignment shifts to the magickal side, turning blue. If you focus on the essential element, your alignment shifts to that point, turning green. Focusing on the physical element would make your alignment red. By maintaining a mostly balanced skill set would make your alignment a yellowish grey (or should I rather say... Golden). Focusing on both physical and magickal elements would make your alignment purple, focusing on the magickal and essential elements would result in cyan, and essential and physical would result in a yellow alignment.
In-game, that would change the visuals of some of your skills. In the case of the Revenant, the flames that emanate from his body would be colored according to his alignment, for instance.
The Revenant's Role
The Revenant could be described as a warrior or a tank. It charges forward and isn't pushed back by anything. Its enemies merely attempt to sustain its onslaught.
It is physical, which means this warrior/tank role is physical. If it were to be magickal or essential, would that change its role? I think not. I believe it should complement its role by allowing it to have different ways of fulfilling it instead.
With this in mind, the skills I came to think of are related to its function. They would be alternatives to being "tanky", other ways to approach its enemies or to withstand damage, other ways to deal damage.
The second most important thing I based them on is its Mana Type. It is not quite confirmed, but Apocalypse did imply that the Revenant's Mana would be represented by Rage. And every depiction we've seen of Revenants so far had associations with fire. So naturally, I used fire and rage as an inspiration for all the skills mentioned below.
Flames of Astranoth (Tier I)
Description: Concentrating on its fueling rage, the Revenant imbues his weapons with an emanating flame. Weapons cause extra fire damage and can burn enemies.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana when attacking.
Vital Flames (Tier I)
Description: All concentrations of flame currently in the environment within a certain radius are absorbed by the Revenant. The fire absorbed is converted into Vitality. Excess Vitality is converted into Mana. Extinguishes flames and burning effects on everything consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Emissary of Destruction (Tier I)
Description: Passively, the Revenant ignites the ground where he walks over. The flames deals no damage, do not spread and burn for a limited time. The generated flames can be consumed by other skills.
Skill type: Passive - Does not consume Mana.
Immolate (Tier I)
Description: Converting the hatred within, the Revenant engulfs itself in a protective magickal fire. The fire can burn projectiles and harms attacking enemies.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana over time.
Look Into My Eyes (Tier I)
Description: The Revenant grabs an enemy with both hands and stares into his soul with its burning eyes. The opponent is magickally forced into facing the unfathomable darkness eternally burning inside its skull. The enemy painfully burns from the inside out throughout this process, leaving but only a charred carcass behind.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana gradually throughout the execution of the skill.
Warm Heart (Tier II)
Description: Constant waves of scalding heat are emanated from the Revenant, damaging nearby enemies and initiating combustion in susceptible targets over time.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana over time.
Firetongue (Tier II)
Description: Forming a whip of solid fire, the Revenant lashes to a target enemy and pulls on the whip. If the enemy is lighter than itself, the target is constrained and then pulled to the Revenant. If the enemy is heavier than itself, the target's action is interrupted and the Revenant pulls itself towards it. The target is damaged by the whip during the process. It is possible to target the environment to use this as a movement ability.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Vortex of Fire (Tier II)
Description: Controlling the fires around itself, the Revenant whips them from the objects where they burned and manipulates them through the air, forming a vortex of fire bolts. The vortex briefly whirls around the Revenant, piercing everything within its radius, and expands outwards, causing explosive damage and knocking opponents back. The fires are consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Scorch (Tier II)
Description: Charging its weapon and furiously striking the ground, the Revenant shatters the terrain, opening up small crevices in a conical area from where fire erupts, destabilizing and burning those caught within its flames. The crevices and erupting fire remain for a limited time, making the area dangerous for crossing, causing fire damage to those who attempt going through and igniting those caught by the erupting flames.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Penetrating Conflagration (Tier III)
Description: The Revenant creates and throws a magickal spear made of solid fire into a target. If the target hit is already burning, the spear amplifies the flames and explodes, releasing a volley of fragments around the target. Each fragment deals piercing fire damage to those hit. If the target hit by the spear is not burning, the spear pins him to the ground instead and burns him for its whole duration.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon being released.
Doom (Tier III)
Description: Remaining stationary for a brief charging period, the Revenant opens his mouth and releases a torrent of scorching flames towards his opponents. The spewed flame roasts everything in its path, igniting enemies and the environment alike, dealing tremendous fire damage. The longer the skill is sustained, the stronger the flames become.
Skill type: Charge - Consumes Mana gradually while active.
Eruption (Tier III)
Description: A crevice is open on the ground beneath the Revenant, from where blinding light pours through. The Revenant is engulfed by the crevice and transports itself to the targeted location. After its dislocation, the targeted area illuminates from below as the ground cracks and opens. The Revenant bursts from the floor, causing explosive damage and immediately scorching the surrounding area, setting everything ablaze within its radius and knocking enemies into the air.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Armageddon (Tier IV)
Description: Focusing in the flowing rage within, the Revenant directs and releases its energy to the sky. The vile hatred is condensed into hundreds of uneven spheres which gradually fall from the skies in the target area. The spheres explode upon impact and ignite the area.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Purgation (Tier IV)
Description: Pulling all the flames within a radius around the target, the Revenant thrusts the fires into a single individual, pressurizing them within him, resulting in a devastating implosion. Extinguishes the consumed flames. Damage is increased as more flames are consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes more Mana depending on how much fire was consumed.
Age of Rage (Tier V)
Description: Using the full extent of its magickal dominance, the Revenant temporarily delves into the ethereal world by transforming into a ghostly, raging, fiery skull. In the Age of Rage form, it can fly and cast Doom, Vortex of Fire and Piercing Conflagration at no additional Mana cost and Warm Heart is activated by default. Doom can be cast while moving. Vortex of Fire is cast on targets instead of self. Piercing Conflagration's form is changed to a firebolt that explodes upon impact. Warm Heart ignites the environment and affected units more frequently.
Skill type: Supreme - Gradually consumes Mana after its activation until depletion.
Gaze of the Abyss (Tier I)
Description: Grabs a nearby enemy with both hands and forces him onto his knees. Staring into his eyes, the Revenant reaves the soul out of the individual and absorbs it, converting it into Mana. If used during the Contained state, the target is hypnotized and Essence is gradually recovered instead.
Skill type: Activation - Does not consume Essence.
Engorge (Tier I)
Description: Altering the fabric of reality, the Revenant pours his Essence onto his weapon, shifting its molecules and increasing its size and menace. Weapon damage and Force is increased, Speed is decreased.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence over time.
Piercing Gaze (Tier I)
Description: Narrowly focusing his rage, the Revenant's eyes glow intensely as he locks his gaze onto an individual. If the target is within the Revenant's field of view and is directly looking at the Revenant, he is locked in a trance. For as long as the trance is maintained, the enemy perceives the world differently and cannot see any of his allies or opponents, cannot move away from the Revenant, and cannot divert his gaze. The enchanted enemy is forced to move towards and attack the Revenant or stay frozen in place, at the mercy of the world around him that he cannot react to.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence over time.
Totem of Hatred (Tier I)
Description: The Revenant grabs a small piramidal artifact filled with Essence from its belt. The Revenant can throw or drop the artifact on the ground. Once positioned, the artifact's molecules split, shift, grow and multiply, transforming into a living totem implanted on the ground. The totem has a flaming skull from which it perceives the world. Every enemy that enters its range is met with a firebolt spit from its mouth. The totem has its own Vitality, Mana and Essence meters, has its own skills, and lasts for a limited time. Its attributes and skills are influenced by the Revenant's own alignment and attributes.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon being released. The Essence consumed cannot be recovered until the totem is destroyed, deactivated or disintegrated.
The Other Side (Tier I)
Description: Connecting to the Essential world, the Revenant shares its existence between both the Physical and Contained world and visualizes the enemies' souls. During this shared state, the Revenant's attacks cause extra Essential damage and the souls of the enemies slain are partially absorbed, recovering Essence. A portion of the Revenant's Vitality pool is converted to Essence, increasing maximum Essence for as long as the skill is maintained.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Vitality upon activation.
Insanity (Tier II)
Description: As the Revenant suffers and dishes damage, a charge meter is filled. Once the meter is filled, the Revenant's soul releases a blinding light that interrupts all enemies' actions within its reach apply a stack of Insanity on them. Each stack of Insanity slows their actions and adds a chance to manifest hallucinations. After 3 stacks of Insanity, weak enemies drop their weapons and become mindless. Killing insane enemies with The Other Side active allows you to absorb a greater portion of their soul. Stacks of Insanity dissipate over time unless they have reached the third stage.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually over time.
Pillars of Bones (Tier II)
Description: The Revenant targets a point in the environment. A gigantic canine-like bone manifests from the ground quickly after, damaging all enemies above it and knocking them to the air. The bone forms a pillar that blocks the path, eventually withdrawing back to the ground after some time. Has no cooldown. The amount of simultaneous pillars is limited.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence for every pillar manifested.
Raise Dead (Tier II)
Description: Spreading its Essence of rage around itself, the Revenant awakens the bodies of its slain enemies by bringing them new life, born out of hatred. Sharing a fragment of the Revenant's soul, the units fight at its side. They can be ignited, but do not suffer damage from the Revenant's flames. They last for a limited time.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes a portion of the maximum Essence for the duration of the skill. The Essence consumed cannot be recovered until the skill expires or its shared Essence fragments are returned.
Glimpse of the Afterlife (Tier II)
Description: Within its field of view, the Revenant momentarily projects its vision of The Other Side to enemy units. The affected individuals see the world in a fiery distortion of the physical reality where monsters and souls can be witnessed roaming the world. Affected units' actions are interrupted and are left in shock briefly. During and after the shock, they fear the Revenant and take more damage from it.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon activation.
Gravity Well (Tier III)
Description: Manifesting Essential power deep within the Revenant, it opens a plane onto another existence. Enemy units within the affected radius are slowly pulled towards the Revenant. The strength of the pull is stronger the closer the unit is to the Revenant.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually upon activation.
Induced Rage (Tier III)
Description: Projecting its unending fury to another individual, the Revenant corrupts the mind of an enemy, bringing forth uncontrollable rage and confusion. The affected enemy becomes enraged and attacks all units nearby, friend or foe, for as long as the skill is maintained. The fury makes the enemy blind to his own safety: He will ignore other emotional influences and hazards, and has an increased pain threshold, making him flinch less from damage and not be interrupted in his attacks.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually upon activation.
Martial Essence (Tier III)
Description: Binding his Essence to that of its weapon, the body of the Revenant mixes with the weapon and shapeshifts into a new form. The form depends on the weapon category:
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon activation and at every attack executed or suffered. Different transformations have different consumption rates.
Cataclysm of Time (Tier IV)
Description: The Revenant creates a time-warping nexus around it that slows down "time" for its enemies and the world, including gravity. The Revenant and its allies are unaffected. Other effects on enemies, such as damage over time, are also slowed. Cannot be used together with Gravity Well.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence upon activation and gradually over time.
Fire Imps (Tier IV)
Description: Transforms active fires in the environment and on enemies in a target area into sentient fire imps. The imps move to attack the closest enemies they can find, dealing fire and piercing damage with their flaming daggers. If they kill an enemy, the enemy's body are ignited and the fire lasts for longer than usual. When killed, they explode, damaging everything around them. The explosion's damage is increased if there are fires nearby, and the fire spot is consumed.
In order to control the summoning of imps, the skill button is held while aiming to gradually increase a radius in which the skill will be cast. The affected fire spots in the marked area are consumed for the summoning.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence for each imp brought to life.
Hellhound (Tier V)
Description: Using powers from Elder Things gained by the Revenant, it shapeshifts into a Cerberus. Each head of the Cerberus belongs to a different plane. The Physical head on the middle fiercely damages opponents by biting, chewing and swallowing them. The Magickal head on the left can torch nearby enemies and launch firebolts from afar. The Essential head on the right can hipnotize enemies and reave their souls to recover a small amount of Vitality, Mana and Essence. All heads attack independently from the player's control. The player controls the Cerberus movement, focus and skills.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence upon activation and gradually over time.
I believe these suggestions have quite a lot of potential synergies between them.
For instance, a combination of Gravity Well and Vortex of Fire can be an interesting mix. Likewise, Doom and Raise Dead can be used to set a small army of zombies on fire and then use them to either spread more fire or concentrate their potential as damage against specific individuals.
Some skills have very broad uses. Totem of Hatred can be used to protect vulnerable teammates as well as for blocking a path, or simply to divert the enemy's horde attention and spread more fire. Pillars of Bones can be used offensively against large opponents (Gigahaus), or to limit the amount of enemies you face at the same time.
Some skills act "against" one another by consuming the available fire. The player has to choose between sustaining himself further or using them for damage, allowing for tactical choices in real time. Other skills help create a cycle of destruction, if used correctly, making up for a very natural flow in combat.
Naturally, many concepts have to be adjusted according to the game's actual features and gameplay elements, balance, lore, and more. I hope these serve as inspiration for actual skills that may be acquired, unlocked, upgraded and developed in the game. Maybe even for other classes rather than the Revenant.
I initially intended to create multiple stages of upgrades for each skill, but I thought this would make it too complex a suggestion. Some skills could easily be broken down if necessary in order to be upgraded over time.
For me, it was pleasing to conceptualize these skills and imagine how they could function in-game. I hope you will find it as enjoyable to read them and do the same, and that they will be useful in the future.
Ever since Denis mentioned we can specialize characters in ways opposite to their "nature", their positioning in the Trinary Archetype System, I wondered what it would be like to focus on specializing classes always on the opposite side of where they find themselves at.
For example, specializing a Revenant, who is typically physical, in the magickal and essential elements, or a Wraith in the physical element.
I've then began to wonder what would that play like. How interesting would a Magickal Revenant be, what sort of skills would it have? After some time thinking about it, I'd like to make some suggestions about the things that came up on my mind.
But first, I need to explain what I'm envisioning the "skill tree" to be like:
Skill Tree
The orbs represent skills that you can unlock and develop.
The inner skills, in the grey area, do not belong to any particular element. They are "generic" skills for your class that everyone can develop regardless of your specialization. They do not influence your Alignment.
The colored orbs represent skills which specialize you in one of the elements; Physical, Magickal, Essential.
When you spend skill points in one of the colored areas, you change your Alignment.
Your character's atributes are influenced by the skills you develop. For example:
Developing Physical skills might improve your character's Speed and Force.
Developing Magickal skills might increase your Mana pool.
Developing Essential skills might increase your Essence regeneration.
The inner orb represents your starting point. Your level one.
The orbs in the extremities represent "ultimate" abilities. These are the most powerful skills you can get in a given specialization.
Skills are tiered, from first degree to last. These are merely representations of a "higher level" of power. DHS might, or might not, have requirements for developing skills of higher tiers.
Additionally, skills may have upgraded versions of themselves.
Alignment
The alignment is a representation of your character's particular specialization in the trinary system. I initially envisioned it to be mostly aesthetic, but I figured it could serve gameplay purposes as well. Smoke coming out of the skill tree represents your current alignment by its color.
As you spend skill points in either side of the skill tree, you influence the character's alignment. By spending points in magickal skills, your alignment shifts to the magickal side, turning blue. If you focus on the essential element, your alignment shifts to that point, turning green. Focusing on the physical element would make your alignment red. By maintaining a mostly balanced skill set would make your alignment a yellowish grey (or should I rather say... Golden). Focusing on both physical and magickal elements would make your alignment purple, focusing on the magickal and essential elements would result in cyan, and essential and physical would result in a yellow alignment.
In-game, that would change the visuals of some of your skills. In the case of the Revenant, the flames that emanate from his body would be colored according to his alignment, for instance.
The Revenant's Role
The Revenant could be described as a warrior or a tank. It charges forward and isn't pushed back by anything. Its enemies merely attempt to sustain its onslaught.
It is physical, which means this warrior/tank role is physical. If it were to be magickal or essential, would that change its role? I think not. I believe it should complement its role by allowing it to have different ways of fulfilling it instead.
With this in mind, the skills I came to think of are related to its function. They would be alternatives to being "tanky", other ways to approach its enemies or to withstand damage, other ways to deal damage.
The second most important thing I based them on is its Mana Type. It is not quite confirmed, but Apocalypse did imply that the Revenant's Mana would be represented by Rage. And every depiction we've seen of Revenants so far had associations with fire. So naturally, I used fire and rage as an inspiration for all the skills mentioned below.
Description: Concentrating on its fueling rage, the Revenant imbues his weapons with an emanating flame. Weapons cause extra fire damage and can burn enemies.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana when attacking.
Vital Flames (Tier I)
Description: All concentrations of flame currently in the environment within a certain radius are absorbed by the Revenant. The fire absorbed is converted into Vitality. Excess Vitality is converted into Mana. Extinguishes flames and burning effects on everything consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Emissary of Destruction (Tier I)
Description: Passively, the Revenant ignites the ground where he walks over. The flames deals no damage, do not spread and burn for a limited time. The generated flames can be consumed by other skills.
Skill type: Passive - Does not consume Mana.
Immolate (Tier I)
Description: Converting the hatred within, the Revenant engulfs itself in a protective magickal fire. The fire can burn projectiles and harms attacking enemies.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana over time.
Look Into My Eyes (Tier I)
Description: The Revenant grabs an enemy with both hands and stares into his soul with its burning eyes. The opponent is magickally forced into facing the unfathomable darkness eternally burning inside its skull. The enemy painfully burns from the inside out throughout this process, leaving but only a charred carcass behind.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana gradually throughout the execution of the skill.
Warm Heart (Tier II)
Description: Constant waves of scalding heat are emanated from the Revenant, damaging nearby enemies and initiating combustion in susceptible targets over time.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Mana over time.
Firetongue (Tier II)
Description: Forming a whip of solid fire, the Revenant lashes to a target enemy and pulls on the whip. If the enemy is lighter than itself, the target is constrained and then pulled to the Revenant. If the enemy is heavier than itself, the target's action is interrupted and the Revenant pulls itself towards it. The target is damaged by the whip during the process. It is possible to target the environment to use this as a movement ability.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Vortex of Fire (Tier II)
Description: Controlling the fires around itself, the Revenant whips them from the objects where they burned and manipulates them through the air, forming a vortex of fire bolts. The vortex briefly whirls around the Revenant, piercing everything within its radius, and expands outwards, causing explosive damage and knocking opponents back. The fires are consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Scorch (Tier II)
Description: Charging its weapon and furiously striking the ground, the Revenant shatters the terrain, opening up small crevices in a conical area from where fire erupts, destabilizing and burning those caught within its flames. The crevices and erupting fire remain for a limited time, making the area dangerous for crossing, causing fire damage to those who attempt going through and igniting those caught by the erupting flames.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Penetrating Conflagration (Tier III)
Description: The Revenant creates and throws a magickal spear made of solid fire into a target. If the target hit is already burning, the spear amplifies the flames and explodes, releasing a volley of fragments around the target. Each fragment deals piercing fire damage to those hit. If the target hit by the spear is not burning, the spear pins him to the ground instead and burns him for its whole duration.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon being released.
Doom (Tier III)
Description: Remaining stationary for a brief charging period, the Revenant opens his mouth and releases a torrent of scorching flames towards his opponents. The spewed flame roasts everything in its path, igniting enemies and the environment alike, dealing tremendous fire damage. The longer the skill is sustained, the stronger the flames become.
Skill type: Charge - Consumes Mana gradually while active.
Eruption (Tier III)
Description: A crevice is open on the ground beneath the Revenant, from where blinding light pours through. The Revenant is engulfed by the crevice and transports itself to the targeted location. After its dislocation, the targeted area illuminates from below as the ground cracks and opens. The Revenant bursts from the floor, causing explosive damage and immediately scorching the surrounding area, setting everything ablaze within its radius and knocking enemies into the air.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Armageddon (Tier IV)
Description: Focusing in the flowing rage within, the Revenant directs and releases its energy to the sky. The vile hatred is condensed into hundreds of uneven spheres which gradually fall from the skies in the target area. The spheres explode upon impact and ignite the area.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Mana upon activation.
Purgation (Tier IV)
Description: Pulling all the flames within a radius around the target, the Revenant thrusts the fires into a single individual, pressurizing them within him, resulting in a devastating implosion. Extinguishes the consumed flames. Damage is increased as more flames are consumed.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes more Mana depending on how much fire was consumed.
Age of Rage (Tier V)
Description: Using the full extent of its magickal dominance, the Revenant temporarily delves into the ethereal world by transforming into a ghostly, raging, fiery skull. In the Age of Rage form, it can fly and cast Doom, Vortex of Fire and Piercing Conflagration at no additional Mana cost and Warm Heart is activated by default. Doom can be cast while moving. Vortex of Fire is cast on targets instead of self. Piercing Conflagration's form is changed to a firebolt that explodes upon impact. Warm Heart ignites the environment and affected units more frequently.
Skill type: Supreme - Gradually consumes Mana after its activation until depletion.
Gaze of the Abyss (Tier I)
Description: Grabs a nearby enemy with both hands and forces him onto his knees. Staring into his eyes, the Revenant reaves the soul out of the individual and absorbs it, converting it into Mana. If used during the Contained state, the target is hypnotized and Essence is gradually recovered instead.
Skill type: Activation - Does not consume Essence.
Engorge (Tier I)
Description: Altering the fabric of reality, the Revenant pours his Essence onto his weapon, shifting its molecules and increasing its size and menace. Weapon damage and Force is increased, Speed is decreased.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence over time.
Piercing Gaze (Tier I)
Description: Narrowly focusing his rage, the Revenant's eyes glow intensely as he locks his gaze onto an individual. If the target is within the Revenant's field of view and is directly looking at the Revenant, he is locked in a trance. For as long as the trance is maintained, the enemy perceives the world differently and cannot see any of his allies or opponents, cannot move away from the Revenant, and cannot divert his gaze. The enchanted enemy is forced to move towards and attack the Revenant or stay frozen in place, at the mercy of the world around him that he cannot react to.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence over time.
Totem of Hatred (Tier I)
Description: The Revenant grabs a small piramidal artifact filled with Essence from its belt. The Revenant can throw or drop the artifact on the ground. Once positioned, the artifact's molecules split, shift, grow and multiply, transforming into a living totem implanted on the ground. The totem has a flaming skull from which it perceives the world. Every enemy that enters its range is met with a firebolt spit from its mouth. The totem has its own Vitality, Mana and Essence meters, has its own skills, and lasts for a limited time. Its attributes and skills are influenced by the Revenant's own alignment and attributes.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon being released. The Essence consumed cannot be recovered until the totem is destroyed, deactivated or disintegrated.
The Other Side (Tier I)
Description: Connecting to the Essential world, the Revenant shares its existence between both the Physical and Contained world and visualizes the enemies' souls. During this shared state, the Revenant's attacks cause extra Essential damage and the souls of the enemies slain are partially absorbed, recovering Essence. A portion of the Revenant's Vitality pool is converted to Essence, increasing maximum Essence for as long as the skill is maintained.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Vitality upon activation.
Insanity (Tier II)
Description: As the Revenant suffers and dishes damage, a charge meter is filled. Once the meter is filled, the Revenant's soul releases a blinding light that interrupts all enemies' actions within its reach apply a stack of Insanity on them. Each stack of Insanity slows their actions and adds a chance to manifest hallucinations. After 3 stacks of Insanity, weak enemies drop their weapons and become mindless. Killing insane enemies with The Other Side active allows you to absorb a greater portion of their soul. Stacks of Insanity dissipate over time unless they have reached the third stage.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually over time.
Pillars of Bones (Tier II)
Description: The Revenant targets a point in the environment. A gigantic canine-like bone manifests from the ground quickly after, damaging all enemies above it and knocking them to the air. The bone forms a pillar that blocks the path, eventually withdrawing back to the ground after some time. Has no cooldown. The amount of simultaneous pillars is limited.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence for every pillar manifested.
Raise Dead (Tier II)
Description: Spreading its Essence of rage around itself, the Revenant awakens the bodies of its slain enemies by bringing them new life, born out of hatred. Sharing a fragment of the Revenant's soul, the units fight at its side. They can be ignited, but do not suffer damage from the Revenant's flames. They last for a limited time.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes a portion of the maximum Essence for the duration of the skill. The Essence consumed cannot be recovered until the skill expires or its shared Essence fragments are returned.
Glimpse of the Afterlife (Tier II)
Description: Within its field of view, the Revenant momentarily projects its vision of The Other Side to enemy units. The affected individuals see the world in a fiery distortion of the physical reality where monsters and souls can be witnessed roaming the world. Affected units' actions are interrupted and are left in shock briefly. During and after the shock, they fear the Revenant and take more damage from it.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon activation.
Gravity Well (Tier III)
Description: Manifesting Essential power deep within the Revenant, it opens a plane onto another existence. Enemy units within the affected radius are slowly pulled towards the Revenant. The strength of the pull is stronger the closer the unit is to the Revenant.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually upon activation.
Induced Rage (Tier III)
Description: Projecting its unending fury to another individual, the Revenant corrupts the mind of an enemy, bringing forth uncontrollable rage and confusion. The affected enemy becomes enraged and attacks all units nearby, friend or foe, for as long as the skill is maintained. The fury makes the enemy blind to his own safety: He will ignore other emotional influences and hazards, and has an increased pain threshold, making him flinch less from damage and not be interrupted in his attacks.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence gradually upon activation.
Martial Essence (Tier III)
Description: Binding his Essence to that of its weapon, the body of the Revenant mixes with the weapon and shapeshifts into a new form. The form depends on the weapon category:
- Swords: The Revenant acquires two long, sharp-bladed arms to slice enemies with.
- Maces, Mauls and Hammers: The Revenant becomes a moving boulder of magma, spikes and steel which he uses to trample and grind enemies with.
- Siege Crossbows: The Revenant transforms into a tall immobile Balista turret that shoots explosive firebolts. The turret is armed with slicing traps around its base to damage approaching enemies.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence upon activation and at every attack executed or suffered. Different transformations have different consumption rates.
Cataclysm of Time (Tier IV)
Description: The Revenant creates a time-warping nexus around it that slows down "time" for its enemies and the world, including gravity. The Revenant and its allies are unaffected. Other effects on enemies, such as damage over time, are also slowed. Cannot be used together with Gravity Well.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence upon activation and gradually over time.
Fire Imps (Tier IV)
Description: Transforms active fires in the environment and on enemies in a target area into sentient fire imps. The imps move to attack the closest enemies they can find, dealing fire and piercing damage with their flaming daggers. If they kill an enemy, the enemy's body are ignited and the fire lasts for longer than usual. When killed, they explode, damaging everything around them. The explosion's damage is increased if there are fires nearby, and the fire spot is consumed.
In order to control the summoning of imps, the skill button is held while aiming to gradually increase a radius in which the skill will be cast. The affected fire spots in the marked area are consumed for the summoning.
Skill type: Activation - Consumes Essence for each imp brought to life.
Hellhound (Tier V)
Description: Using powers from Elder Things gained by the Revenant, it shapeshifts into a Cerberus. Each head of the Cerberus belongs to a different plane. The Physical head on the middle fiercely damages opponents by biting, chewing and swallowing them. The Magickal head on the left can torch nearby enemies and launch firebolts from afar. The Essential head on the right can hipnotize enemies and reave their souls to recover a small amount of Vitality, Mana and Essence. All heads attack independently from the player's control. The player controls the Cerberus movement, focus and skills.
Skill type: Sustained - Consumes Essence upon activation and gradually over time.
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I believe these suggestions have quite a lot of potential synergies between them.
For instance, a combination of Gravity Well and Vortex of Fire can be an interesting mix. Likewise, Doom and Raise Dead can be used to set a small army of zombies on fire and then use them to either spread more fire or concentrate their potential as damage against specific individuals.
Some skills have very broad uses. Totem of Hatred can be used to protect vulnerable teammates as well as for blocking a path, or simply to divert the enemy's horde attention and spread more fire. Pillars of Bones can be used offensively against large opponents (Gigahaus), or to limit the amount of enemies you face at the same time.
Some skills act "against" one another by consuming the available fire. The player has to choose between sustaining himself further or using them for damage, allowing for tactical choices in real time. Other skills help create a cycle of destruction, if used correctly, making up for a very natural flow in combat.
Naturally, many concepts have to be adjusted according to the game's actual features and gameplay elements, balance, lore, and more. I hope these serve as inspiration for actual skills that may be acquired, unlocked, upgraded and developed in the game. Maybe even for other classes rather than the Revenant.
I initially intended to create multiple stages of upgrades for each skill, but I thought this would make it too complex a suggestion. Some skills could easily be broken down if necessary in order to be upgraded over time.
For me, it was pleasing to conceptualize these skills and imagine how they could function in-game. I hope you will find it as enjoyable to read them and do the same, and that they will be useful in the future.
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