Willpower-based Class: Psionic

[Silas Crowley]

Introduction


Wild, depraved and ravenously developed as modern science may yet be -- there are oddities of both biology and physics that elude the grasp of civilization. Although lesser psionics have existed across the stars in fleeting movements and small demonstrations of the inexplicable sometimes called a 'Force'... true psionics were not yet uncovered in organics, until the discovery of UHS-1045: a rare, parasitic species of egg-hatched creatures of inky flesh and eldritch tendrils empowered by their use of rare psychic abilities.


Intrigued by the potential to tap into this power through genetic meddling, the foremost corporations in modding underwent secret research to harness the elusive abilities of UHS-1045, often to failure when lucky- or disaster when not, as patients and clones alike treated to the gene often turned mad or destructive to the detriment of themselves and others. Projects were kept secret for fears of legality and true danger, if prototype mods were to leak out of testing and be used for ill...


... but the reach of Steel industries goes far: it's possible for Victor to choose a different path for his child- a gift, rather, sure to alter their destiny, although it's also a gamble. Rather than send his child to conventional professions, the Steele progeny could instead be imbrued with a gene-mod for psionics from birth, trained for willpower and rigorous mental stamina in the austere highlands of a remote alien world. But as the rush into the final frontier revives, it will ultimately fall to the Heir of Steele to also open an entirely new frontier beyond, dabbling in powers of the mind and essence therein into unfathomable powers.



Mechanics


A Psionic can be anyone carrying the unstable prototype gene-mods developed upon the discovery of eldritch, psychic-powered aliens; as the Steele progeny, the captain of our story has an edge in having been born into and able to slowly develop their abilities, but mechanically Psionic is a difficult class to use which revolves around your enemy, paying attention to damage-types and changes in playstyle vastly each fight depending on which perks you choose.


While your tendency to go Willpower to scale your spells up is a factor that might make you think otherwise, you are especially weak to lust. High lust = % chance to fail using Psionic abilities, except a rare few high-level abilities granted by perks. 


The final oddity of the class is its relative independence from weapons. Psionics are expected to rely on their Specials, of which they start with two:

1. FLUX: Distorts existing velocity on a target, causing minor kinetic damage scaling off Willpower. 
   Cost: 15 Energy, 5 Health
   
2. WHISPER: Inflicts a debuff on target that gives the enemy a [30 + WIL] % chance to be stunned at the start of each subsequent round, for 4 rounds.
   Cost: 10 Energy, 10 Health
   

Perks 


Those who do have the courage to reach into their psychic potential often experience vivid revelations, hallucinations and potent dreams telling ineffable revelations a Psionic may only understand much later in life. Sometimes even the conclusion of these prophetic dreams can change by the journey one takes through life- in which, Psionics tend to gravitate between two extremes.

Conscious will, or Passionate will? Mind or Matter? Pain or Pleasure...? Preservation- or Destruction?
Even possessing Psionics forces one to become aware of these choices being made, where normal people would never realize their hands on the spools of their own destinies. 
The path Steele takes will sculpt their own psychic abilities profoundly.

• LVL 1 - TORMENT  |  REPEL
  LVL 2 - DIREHEART  |  TEMPERANCE 
  LVL 3 - PROFANITY  |  SERENITY
  LVL 4 - SPIRIT NIHILISM  |  AKASHIC ECHOES
  LVL 5 - ETHER REAVE  |  KARMIC FLOW
  LVL 6 - HOWLING DIRGE  |  UNSEEN FORCE
  LVL 7 - ELDRITCH PERDITION  |  MIND RELEASE
  

TORMENT: Assault a foe's very mind to try and sever them from their own body.
 Special attack which deals unresistable damage to an enemy equal to Willpower. Cannot be avoided by any means, even if a foe is invulnerable.
   COST: 10 Health, 5 Energy
REPEL: Release telekinetic ripples about your body to deflect attacks.
Nullifies kinetic attacks against the user for a number of rounds equal to Willpower / 5.
   COST: 0 Health, 30 Energy



DIREHEART: Stop at nothing in your use of power, professing ambitions in blood.
Lets you pay Health for spells instead of Energy by straining your body if you don't have enough Energy to use a Special.
Also grants +15 Energy whenever you incapacitate a foe.
TEMPERANCE: Attain peace through a sense of universal flow.
Reduces Energy costs of Specials by 20%.
Reduces Lust damage taken by [ Will / 2 ] %.



PROFANITY: Give in to a taste of madness for wild powers.
If Lust damage is taken, adds damage to the next Psionic Special used equal to how much Lust was gained.
Whenever Lust damage is taken, Energy rises by an amount equal to the Lust gained as well.
SERENITY: Realize the sanctity of your body through release.
Any time Lust is lowered, recover Health equal to half the Lust lost.
However, all Lust gains are also halved.

SPIRIT NIHILISM: Channel otherworldly malice against enemies.
Any time you take Health damage, your enemie(s) will also take half that damage.
Incapacitating an enemy by any means restores an amount of Health equal to your Willpower.
AKASHIC ECHOES: Receive inexplicable knowledge through meditation.
Replaces 'Sense' with 'Meditate'. Using Meditate stuns the foe in addition to Sense's existing functions.
Passively grants a 5% chance to nullify any instance of damage taken.

ETHER REAVE: Harness your growing psychic mastery to siphon another's essence.
Rips living essence from an enemy, inexplicably causing your own wounds to grotesquely seal.
Deals kinetic damage equal  to Willpower x2, and heals user's Health for amount of damage done.
   COST: 10 Health, 60 Energy
KARMIC FLOW: Silently channel justice onto your foes.
Directs all damage you have taken over the course of a battle onto a single foe.
   COST: 100 Energy

HOWLING DIRGE: Realize your psychic potential to cast a tormented storm of psionic echoes and telepathic vortex, assaulting all enemies with a horrid manifestation of dread.
Deals unresistable damage to all enemies equal to user's Willpower x2. If this Special kills an enemy, it will automatically cast itself again next round without player action.
   COST: 50 Health, 80 Energy
UNSEEN FORCE: Unleash the refined power of higher telekinesis to attack all foes with a downward blast of kinetic force.
Deals Kinetic damage to all enemies equal to Willpower x3. 
   COST: 20 Health, 90 Energy

ELDRITCH PERDITION: Attain the zenith of psychic madness; in reaching too deep into the occult frontier, you have lost yourself but found something else...
- All Health costs of Psionic specials are doubled.
- All Psionic specials deal 20% more damage.
- Lust no longer interferes with Psionic specials.
- Taking damage replenishes your Energy equal to Health lost.
- Immune to stun or special-blocking effects.
MIND RELEASE: Transcend consciousness whilst wielding psychic power to truly unleash your psionic potential.
- Grants 'Mind Release' special. Release allows you to make two actions per round, and removes the Energy costs of all Specials used. In addition, you have a [ Willpower x 0.5 ] % chance to stun enemies at the start of each round Mind Release is active.
... in 2 rounds after 'Release' is used, Energy is set to 0 and Health to 1, due to extreme psychic exertion.
   COST: 50

 

[Savin]

No, you don't get to design major game mechanics. 

 

[Silas Crowley]

It's just a suggestion, at least hear out the concept before you turn on the anti-air guns.

 

[Noob Salad]

aw

 

[Nonesuch]

These are the worst ones. The ones where actual effort and a basic ability to write have gone into sprinting at a brick wall.

 

[shadefalcon]

Sorry. But what Savin said.


The game is not ready for psionics, least of all a new class just yet...And you should probably read this thread.





Although you won't be able to write up new major mechanics, you could always try writing a simple submission. People here treat you more seriously and kindly that way.

 

[Dark67titan]

Here we go again

 

[Zavos]

At this point, psionic discussions are guaranteed to end badly.  Read through the above and speak not of it until Fen & co. are ready to prioritize it. 

 

[Nik_van_Rijn]

It's just a suggestion, at least hear out the concept before you turn on the anti-air guns.

Balance and actual game-mechanics are among the few things that FenCo tends to do without any major community involvement/contribution. I recommend you to try and come up with a hostile NPC (or several) that will incorporate the psionic abilities you came up with, since it doesn't look like they will clash heavily with whatever system for PSI the devs will end up choosing for the game.


Edit: with the exception of thematic scaling. Seeing how level 7 isn't even a midpoint at the stated future power curve of TiTS, it doesn't sound right to have any characters, player or not, 'attain the zenith of psychic madness' by that point.

 

[Noob Salad]

Next convention I'm going to track Fen down and passive aggressively send alcohol to this hotel room with little notes saying "ship mechanics when".

 

[Ormael]

Oh well that zenith of psionic madness sounds almsot like somewhere in mid or 2/3 or LN stories when people and MC realize that current so OP and unattainable apex of powers was...just merely somewhere around bottom line of true power scales. Well would be funny implement something like that to mock players that think they at the apex of food chain to realzie only it was actualy bottom of true chain.


On OP post: if it makes you feel better you not the first one to be grinded by devs and few other overzealous forum members for trying to bring up psionic class subject. Not take it too hard to heart and look into some other area of the game you maybe could write something for. Prefferably some new scene at first beofre you decide to jump on ship of writing full blown NPC recruitable crew member (this one is as....easy like this one thing you done in this thread...and can bring no less thunders on you).

 

[balitz Method]

The chuu2 perk names are adorable if nothing else.

 

[Silas Crowley]

Balance and actual game-mechanics are among the few things that FenCo tends to do without any major community involvement/contribution. I recommend you to try and come up with a hostile NPC (or several) that will incorporate the psionic abilities you came up with, since it doesn't look like they will clash heavily with whatever system for PSI the devs will end up choosing for the game.


Edit: with the exception of thematic scaling. Seeing how level 7 isn't even a midpoint at the stated future power curve of TiTS, it doesn't sound right to have any characters, player or not, 'attain the zenith of psychic madness' by that point.

Quite right; I thought of Level 7 as at least being almost endgame, presuming there were only two levels past it.
If I had my druthers I'd say put it at whatever the top or top-ish is. I didn't even write base class perks (ones gained automatically, separate from chosen perks) seeing how this was just a theoretical concept I drew up in a couple of hours.

On the subject of FenCo and balance - I didn't intend this to be a serious balance: the numbers are there to give you a rough idea of how it should work, with a bit more detail than 'burst' or 'hits all enemies' because I really like magic to be more complex than that. I'm a sucker for builds that force me to strategize or at least devote some forethought towards deciding what spell I'm gonna use.

I do appreciate your suggestion; I imagine that's actually a pretty good way to move towards my goal, but what I appreciate most was that you gave me something to work with other than 'no, [x=insert cheeky presumption]' at the flick of the wrist so I sincerely thank you for your retention of decency. 

Oh well that zenith of psionic madness sounds almsot like somewhere in mid or 2/3 or LN stories when people and MC realize that current so OP and unattainable apex of powers was...just merely somewhere around bottom line of true power scales. Well would be funny implement something like that to mock players that think they at the apex of food chain to realzie only it was actualy bottom of true chain.


On OP post: if it makes you feel better you not the first one to be grinded by devs and few other overzealous forum members for trying to bring up psionic class subject. Not take it too hard to heart and look into some other area of the game you maybe could write something for. Prefferably some new scene at first beofre you decide to jump on ship of writing full blown NPC recruitable crew member (this one is as....easy like this one thing you done in this thread...and can bring no less thunders on you).

Yeah I realized the numbers I proposed would actually be pretty weak in burst compared to, say, your vanilla mercenary at like level 7- whether you're popping guns or swinging weapons. For the sake of respecting Mercenary's devotion to DPS I might propose that a hypothetical Psionic class focuses more on status-effects, Damage-over-Time and very strategic and/or situational Specials revolving around stuff like Damage Resistances, Armor, Percentage-based health-exclusive damage and so on. 

While you might (not saying any of you do!) think "it's porn and we can only expect so much gameplay", honestly-? With the existing mechanics I've already mentioned TiTs can basically have turn-based combat as good as SMT's, which is surprisingly addictive for what is stereotypically an obsolete, boring model of in-game combat. 
Unfortunately- to exploit that, I think the existing classes and any hypothetical new ones would need a pretty intricate balance of inter-working Specials. That's presuming the game's potential for combat is ever to be realized.

Combat needs more incentives too; I play for challenge sometimes, but I admittedly have to gimp my character and wish there was more to gain, like consumables of statistic worth rather than transformative or of worth to advancing in a faction/alliance. 

-tangent aside, Fenoxo's efforts are industrious enough already I'm sure the game will get a lot better, but ideally FenCo needs to avoid sitting on its laurels or being so closeminded as to refute new ideas with the tawdry justification of seeing mere suggestions as threat to the decision-making of major game mechanics. 

 

[Dark67titan]

This will not end well

 

[Ormael]

While you might (not saying any of you do!) think "it's porn and we can only expect so much gameplay", honestly-? With the existing mechanics I've already mentioned TiTs can basically have turn-based combat as good as SMT's, which is surprisingly addictive for what is stereotypically an obsolete, boring model of in-game combat. 


Unfortunately- to exploit that, I think the existing classes and any hypothetical new ones would need a pretty intricate balance of inter-working Specials. That's presuming the game's potential for combat is ever to be realized.

Combat needs more incentives too; I play for challenge sometimes, but I admittedly have to gimp my character and wish there was more to gain, like consumables of statistic worth rather than transformative or of worth to advancing in a faction/alliance. 

Well many people play TiTS just for porn and somehow many of them can deal with gameplay not trying to be first class world wide RPG at same time. Well if it ends up this way it surely be game meantioned for decades afterward (but I not think Fen aim so high and what he want to do with his game he already attained)

-tangent aside, Fenoxo's efforts are industrious enough already I'm sure the game will get a lot better, but ideally FenCo needs to avoid sitting on its laurels or being so closeminded as to refute new ideas with the tawdry justification of seeing mere suggestions as threat to the decision-making of major game mechanics. 

Ummm I think poster above may also be worried seeing this part of your post or s/he seen something else. Anyway trying to push FenCo may not end well for anyone. And for deciding major game systems...I think they're devs for a reason to have their final say in such matters.

 

[Krynh]

-tangent aside, Fenoxo's efforts are industrious enough already I'm sure the game will get a lot better, but ideally FenCo needs to avoid sitting on its laurels or being so closeminded as to refute new ideas with the tawdry justification of seeing mere suggestions as threat to the decision-making of major game mechanics. 

You don't get to call them close minded for rejecting an unasked for major game mechanic from someone completely new to the community (and who hasn't proved themselves with existing content). Nor suggest that they are resting on their laurels when they pump out new updates almost every other day. 

 

[shadefalcon]

-tangent aside, Fenoxo's efforts are industrious enough already I'm sure the game will get a lot better, but ideally FenCo needs to avoid sitting on its laurels or being so closeminded as to refute new ideas with the tawdry justification of seeing mere suggestions as threat to the decision-making of major game mechanics. 

Fenco is hard at work trying to deliver a great game they can be proud of, they are without doubt not resting on their laurels.

You don't get to call them close minded for rejecting an unasked for a major game mechanic from someone completely new to the community (and who hasn't proved themselves with existing content). Nor suggest they are resting on their laurels when they pump out new updates almost every other day. 

What he said.


I´d also like to point out that they probably don´t want this to end like CoC, which became a bit of a mess at the end. Being a bit strict is a cheap price to pay, to get a great and organized game

 

[Noob Salad]

Err, Fenoxo has admitted himself that he only does what he feels like it. That's pretty closed minded but there's nothing wrong with that; it's his game. Still, I and a number of us would prefer if they focused entirely on mechanics and left content for later. I mean, there'll always be new content to code waiting for them.

 

[Ethereal Dragon]

Err, Fenoxo has admitted himself that he only does what he feels like it. That's pretty closed minded but there's nothing wrong with that; it's his game. Still, I and a number of us would prefer if they focused entirely on mechanics and left content for later. I mean, there'll always be new content to code waiting for them.

There's a fuckin large backlog of content waiting to be coded from what I remember.

 

[OnyxDrakkenblade]

Err, Fenoxo has admitted himself that he only does what he feels like it. That's pretty closed minded but there's nothing wrong with that; it's his game. Still, I and a number of us would prefer if they focused entirely on mechanics and left content for later. I mean, there'll always be new content to code waiting for them.

As awesome as this would be, it's not the way it works. How many times have we come up against something that there would have been NO indication we would've needed to code for already.

You don't get to call them close minded for rejecting an unasked for major game mechanic from someone completely new to the community (and who hasn't proved themselves with existing content). Nor suggest that they are resting on their laurels when they pump out new updates almost every other day.

Yeah this, your idea is YOURS no one is obligated to get on their knees, because you deigned to open your proverbial mouth, and pay fealty to your glorious genius (or whatever that translates to when it leaves your imaginary world).

 

[Zavos]

This thread is deteriorating.  Or will deteriorate.  Has eventual deterioration?  Whatever.


Lets not make this into an argument.  Its Fenoxo's game, he is free to conduct it any way he wants.  And there are valid reasons on both sides, enough to keep an argument alive until it gets so heated that Gedan locks the thread. Please lets not make that happen. 

 

[Ormael]

@Zevos I think thread reached already this point so any new reply of people that are most active here on been on critique side on FenCo (or maybe I should say only Fenoxo) side could lead to thunders fall more than soon.


@Savin Prolly some will be unhappy with my words but: Would you kindly Savin lock thread so it will not risk turning into larger firestorm?