as mentioned in another thread, talents in this game seem a bit lackluster to me. there are a few that are REALLY good, but i feel the majority of them are too gimmicky, too stituational, too weak, or simply locked behind specific skill requirements, despite being useful to a wide variety of character builds that do not include that skill.
i do think defining 'class' skills further through unlocked talents is a good idea, and some talents (like Zombie or Pet Pal) have quite a bit of impact on how you play.
but with many character builds, choosing talents beyond early-game feels like it's more about "well, which of these sucks the least?" rather than "which of these provides a noteworthy benefit and/or changes the way the build works?".
so i've thought of some talents that i think would be fun, and i'd really like to hear more ideas for new or improved talents from other people here (as well as feedback on mine).
most of these talents have some kind of number attached to them (like proc chance or debuff duration) that should hopefully make them easily adjustable, if they turn out to be too powerful or too weak.
for that reason, i have deliberately not mentioned actual numbers. note that "a chance" shouldn't mean the chance is the same for all of these ideas, which also means it would be useful to mention the actual percentage in the talents' tooltips, as it can be a deciding factor for whether a talent is worth taking.
weapon based:
- blocking a melee attack has a chance to stun the attacker
- normal two-handed melee weapon attacks deal some damage to all enemies around the target
- blunt weapons have a chance to cripple
- slashing weapons have a chance to cause bleeding (mutually exclusive with Leech?)
- piercing weapons have increased crit-chance and/or multiplier against incapacitated targets
- equipping a single one-handed weapon increases mobility and/or recovery ap
- equipping a one-handed melee weapon and a wand allows using melee weapon for close range and wand for long range, without dual-wield penalties
- equipping two wands of different (or opposite?) elements increases attack damage
- equipping two wands of the same element increases damage & healing of associated spells
- equipping a staff increases range and/or radius of spells of the staff's element
- normal crossbow attacks have higher accuracy and/or crit chance if the character hasn't moved that turn
- normal bow attacks attacks have a chance to trigger twice
magic skill based:
- [hydrosophist] increases ap after being hit in melee
- [pyrokinetic] has a chance to cause burn on melee attackers
- [geomancer] increases armor and/or resistances after being hit in melee
- [aerotheurge] has a chance to teleport melee attackers to a random nearby location
- [witchcraft] has a chance to curse melee attackers
- [high rank hydrosophist] heal while affected by elemental debuff (including stuff like wet, warm, etc)
- [high rank pyrokinetic] allies around you have slightly increased stats (ap? damage? attributes? defenses?)
- [high rank geomancer] summons last longer and have increased stats
- [high rank aerotheurge] ignore surfaces (while/after affected by elemental debuff?)
- [high rank witchcraft] enemies around you have slightly reduced stats
physical skill based:
- [man-at-arms] enemies find you more 'attractive'
- [man-at-arms] enemies that move into melee range trigger attacks of opportunity (mutually exclusive with the above)
- [scoundrel] skills have increased chance to cause debuffs
- [expert marksman] being hit by melee attacks causes you to move away from the attacker
- [high rank man-at-arms] being hit by melee attacks has a chance to knock down the attacker
- [high rank scoundrel] being hit by melee attacks has a chance to grant you invisibility
- [high rank expert marksman] normal ranged attacks pierce, hitting multiple targets in a line (with diminishing damage after each hit?)
attributes (kinda boring?):
- increased strength, reduced defense rating
- increased dexterity, reduced armor (probably too strong with current armor scaling)
- increased constitution, reduced resistances
- increased speed, increased skill cooldowns
- increased perception, reduced movement
elemental avatars (mutually exclusive with each other):
note: damage caused is by normal attacks and Staff of Magus, in addition to normal damage
- increased water resistance and cause water damage; being warm or burning (during combat?) petrifies you
- increased fire resistance and cause fire damage; being wet, chilled or frozen cripples you
- increased earth resistance and cause earth damage; reduced movement speed and/or ap
- increased air resistance and cause air damage; reduced bodybuilding and willpower
- increased poison resistance and cause poison damage; chance to become poisoned when attacking (mutually exclusive with Zombie)
- increased armor rating and cause crushing damage; reduced elemental resistances
- increased defense rating and cause piercing or slashing damage; being hit may knock you down
- increased tenebrium resistance, reduce all damage taken and cause several random damage types; your attacks and skills have a chance to hit yourself instead
misc:
- increased duration of all buffs and debuffs on you
- chance to cause bleed on you and enemy when attacking and being attacked (mutually exclusive with Leech)
- increased stat bonuses from rings; may not wear gloves
- increased crit chance and multiplier; may not wear helmets
- increased stats from all equipment; equipment durability is lost more quickly and permanently (probably mutually exclusive with My Precious)
- don't trigger mines and pressure plates
- melee attacks have longer range and reduced accuracy
- increase damage, range and/or debuff chance of special arrows
