Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Divinity 2 Character(s): a bit misplaced

an idea for a character in DD2.

a healer who's abilities involved only in healing(individual & group), dispel negative effect spells, casts buff spells(magical armor, resistance increase, higher accuracy &/or damage), & divine magic such as dispel undead or resist fear.

i know it's sort of mix between paladins in NWN & diablo2 but when the skills are put together carefully, this is the saviour of any party ventured forth in2 the heart of danger in DD2.

some of the skills i think is great with the character;

heal: individual, group, blood bond or brother/sister hood (this is a rip-off from battle realms where the healer is bonded to say, a melee fighter & damage dealt TO the fighter is distributed to the healer equally so he can last longer in battle), & the ultimate ressurection.

dispel: fear, slow, blindness, etc (someone help me here).

buffs: increase armour, increase resistance(elemental, poison, spiritual), increase accuracy & damage & sight range, healing/mana rate increase, etc.

divine: anti-undead spells such as purge(damage & slow), exorcise(instant kill or massive damage), fear(lower armour, attack rate & damage to undead), etc.. .

thing is this character cannot work with undead character. he's the anti-undead. & since he has almost no offensive spells/attack, he gains XP by healing/ressurect/successful casting(this depends on the type & level of spells). of course killing the undead means extra XP for the dude.

what do u think?

Sounds like a cleric. Clerics are often essential for party support. Unfortunately, they tend to miss out on the spoils in multiplayer. Loot tends to belong to he who lands the killing blow, and the cleric doesn't tend to get that involved in combat. If a system can be worked out to share experience and loot through non-direct combat (just how much support does a healing spell provide), this could work.

Is Divine Divinity 2 going to be just multiplayer or will it be a MMORPG?

Perhaps a cleric class (assuming there are classes) could have area effect versions of the spells like Bless and Spell Shield. Or like the Paladin in Diablo II, he could have some aura effects that slowly drain his mana (or rapidly if they're good).

I've always had a problem with the undead being singled out for destruction. It seems there are so many advantages to killing undead (maces do extra damage, turn undead abilities, etc.) Why can't there be anti-orc or anti-human spells? Why always undead?

ok, change of character then. maybe instead of anti-undead, we can have anti-evil alignment, provided DD2 has that feature. this dude is ultra-goodie & "no sex please, i'm celibate" type.

clearly this guy plays support role in multiplayer hopefully in DD2. maybe he can double as a warrior if again DD2 like RRR remains classless.

about XP gains, this is why i mentioned the need for this character 2 gain them in different ways & not by kills except for truly evil aligned enemies. as for looting, the character gains a percentage of any amount of loot the party gets as long as he's a member(to avoid exploitation by being near a party without doing anything). for items, the party can choose among themselves or have a leader elected 2 distribute the loot. this can be done by voting.

auras are good as they're passive therefore always activated. but for healer character, this means the dude has almost nothing 2 do except 2 stand there.

another ability which i like 2 suggest is called 'sacrifice'. with this ability the healer sacrifices for one of his/her party members by dying for them when the killing blow is dealt & the particular character that he/she saved has full health. as the healer is so powerful in his healing ablity, he can ressurect himself after certain time period. the healer still has his/her share of XP gathered by the party. this is the ultimate level of blood bond or blood brother/sister hood which i mentioned in the first post.

maybe instead of turn undead, he can turn evil aligned characters/enemies 2 neutral therefore unable 2 attack the healer or his party members. it can be temporary or permanent in its ultimate level(can be cast only once in a game day).

as for role-playing aspect, the healer is totally unselfish therefore gets higher XP as a trade off for lower amount of loot.

i can imagine kiya, barnabus, raze, & the other angels(or dark ~) are elite healers from the fromu race(untwist the word 2 get 'forum').

give me some more feedback & thanks for thoughts, handefood.

The idea is nice. But, I think bringing cleric/healer is more important in MMORPG.
No group was going out to kill mobs without cleric in DAOC. Otherwise that was a dead group.
Yes, and cleric has AE spells, but that was dangerous for him to cast those spells (group heal for example) as mobs aggroed very often and tanks couldn't get aggro off him.
Cleric and paladin had rez spell also.

I donno the class system of DD2, so it is difficult to say will there be a variety of different classes ? If yes, then as a party member cleric is very important.

So rather than a Cleric we could have a Priest. Of course, this Priest could be good or evil. The Priest is medeocre at combat, but has a lot of spells that protect and assault against their foes (the forces of evil/good).

Instead of Sacrifice, taking a members death as your own, what about one where you accept a percentage of the damage your party members receive. eg. a hit to the Warrior does 80% to the Warrior and 20% to the Priest. Or one where a party member can tap the Priest's health to replenish their own.

Aura's would just be a light ability. You could activate one aura at a time and it would provide a small bonus, much like a low level Bless. But the Priest could also get involved in other ways to assist the party further with healing and protection spells.

I think the Priest should have fairly average health and little combat skill, requiring that they be protected so that they can continue to protect the rest of the party. It's a bit like "kill the commander" combat. If the Priest dies, you can kiss your chances of success goodbye!

hey guys, thanks for the feedback.

handefood, i've mentioned about damage sharing bit in my earlier posts. remember the part where i mentioned blood bond or blood brother/sister hood? it can start out as bondee 90% & healer 10% & eventually goes all the way to say 30% to bondee & 70% to the healer. sacrifice can be a separate spell. he/she can resurect him/her self after certain period but if he gets killed again before the end of that spell's cooldown time, he/she's toast.

about the 'kill the commander' part, that's great. this means this character even with little amount of offensive spells is very much important to the party. being the heart & central point as well as 'savior'(ability to ressurect) of the party makes this character not a loser or just a mule.

egin, the healer certainly has great values in MMORPG but i believe DD2 doesn't belong 2 that genre. in single-player, having this character will be trickier. with little offensive spells & mostly defensive/healing ones, how does the healer fare in the game?

the premise of the game can still remain but with different locations & main quests. u can say the storyline is parallel 2 that of other characters.

handefood, i agree that aura should be 'light' as almost all that the healer does is 2 augment & strenghten the party. but as for health, i feel the healer should have a hell lot of it 2 compensate for his/her lack of offense. maybe damage absorbing ability?

what keep me thinking now is 2 make the healer balanced enough for party-based as well as single-player based plays.

thanks for the feedback.

That's a good point. What can a Priest do in a single player game? All of his damage absorbing abilities are useless. But then, Divine Divinity 2 will be a party game regardless, so perhaps it doesn't matter. Priests would probably be able to complete quests in unique ways with their super-life-giving abilities. They may be able to heal or resurect previous adventurers to gain information and secrets. Thoughts?

if RRR is any indication, then DD2 will have party-based adventures as well. this means healer can hire/summon party members 2 bolster his offense as well as defense.

with that, single-player for healer is possible with party. but then what if players want 2 play this character on his/her own, i.e. without party support? that still bugs me.

quests solved in unique ways is possible depending on the nature of the quest. as i mentioned earlier the healer is totally goodie, he may not get any quest that involves killing(unless it's baddies), stealing, lying, etc.. . maybe the healer gets unique quests that only a healer can solve.

this can go 2 more extreme level, which is a single-player campaign unique to the healer only. of course some/most people may not like that as it takes away some elements of RPG which are choosing class, skills(other than healer only skills), & alignment(healer is goodie). so freedom is a bit constricted but this is 2 make the story/adventure tight & 8 the same time fluid.

take about story for the healer, i have 2 do some more brainstorming. hopefully i have something out within 2-3 days.

Sounds like you all want a monk with cleric spells

That sounds good. In single player, you can have a cross class Priest/whatever and in a party you can have a full Priest supporting the party.

And I keep forgetting that they're taking out classes and using freeform skills instead. Priest essentially exists in Divine Divinity under The Way of the Wizard (top right quadrant, can't remember the Path). It's more of a support Path for your character, not a way of life.

now that doesn't mean that we should stop dreaming, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> anyway, classless system is in RRR but DD2's style has yet 2 be determined.

have yet 2 come up with a background story for the character. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> with the recent virus attack on my ISP & myself being very busy with work, i may only come up with the story next week. so there it is!