Fundamental Class Revisions
Foreword
[HB]This will probably be one of the most hit-or-miss of my
topics, primarily because it is a rather huge change. TBS, it breaks a lot of the separation of
classes, allows personal pursuit of essentially custom abilities and jobs,
while retaining true-blood jobs as things achieved, rather than merely granted
by quest-lines. A Red Mage should be a Red
Mage at heart too. In my system, it will
take that to become one. And yes, this
is a pipe-dream. It’s just one for which
I did create a solid path to the beginning of implementation, though I’d now
need to dredge much of it up from a poor memory.[/HB]
Parallels
[HB]This system is heavily tied to:
- A full combat system revamp
- An original interpretation of material befitting FFXIV’s world lore
- (And a piece I’m now reconstructing similar to Battle Regimen)
- The same priorities in construction are used in the revised crafting system and improvements to world interaction.[/HB]
Basics
[HB]Classes carry numerous paths of learning encapsulated by
their weapon field. These may on occasion
overlap, and will behave as such.
Learning in one field can be used in others that make use of those
concepts. Additionally, some learning
can be simultaneous. You are not always
leveling one class at a time.
Connections to Disciple of Land classes (including the added Scholar,
Mechanist, and Tamer) are especially versatile.
These “concepts” are mechanically and thematically
driven. They are not abilities in and of
themselves. Rather, they are new levels
to note of control or leverage into a fight.
Abilities can be developed by the players themselves. The width of their uses should be enough to
complete the gameplay experiences in combat as the players develop.
Ability scaling as such is a matter of adding complexity,
especially in long-term strategy without developing an urge to pull out one’s
hair. Favorite and powerful abilities
become more predominant without eclipsing the fundamental strategy you learn at
lower levels. Building up effects
personally and as a team compose a large part of team combat.[/HB]
Materia Parallels (Basics 2)
[HB]A huge part of this system follows the original use of the materia
concept specific to FFXIV. To cover it
briefly, this system treats materia as the physical existence of ideas, which
can be composed of purposes/longings and memories, essentially the future and
past, within the present. This often
connects to the Echo concept, has roots in de-leveling, and is the leading
component to job-making, advanced ability-making, and late-game concepts. One of its unintended but enjoyable
consequences is a huge amount of replayability and its parallels to the
Twelve.
It has almost no relation to stat-granting materia, likely
connected more closely to job soul gems, in a less purely functionalistic
manner. It should have emotional
connections to your character, past and present implications of character
abilities, and some slightly humanistic / religious motifs (a dichotomy, but
nonetheless connected in this case).[/HB]
Detailing the Multi-Class Nature of Revamp
Part 1
[HB]If you’ve seen any of my posts on DoL revamping, you
probably have a pretty good idea as to what I’m after already. While I do not want to see any class turned
solely into a holder for mechanics and mindsets, I think isolating each does
far more to decrease the unique value of classes. I aim to make neither error.
In those DoL revamp examples I mentioned improvements to the
complexity of resources and materials, and how the learning or ‘mastery’ of
these materials could be beneficially implicative of enemies and events in
those gathering environments or of those compositions. This is still exactly what I hope to see from
Disciples of the Land.
Actually, though it might be a slight oversimplification,
the multi-use of each tier of classes is largely as follows:
War: mastery of martial niches and roles of combat including
their instinctive thematic ties
Magic: mastery of the abstract and magical surroundings of
combat and sources of power
Land: mastery of world knowledge and its use
Hand: mastery of one’s tools (weapons, armor, devices) and
the disassembly and weaknesses of others’
In short, a Blacksmith (though my crafting revisions make
this a far deeper experience and one that can certainly make an enjoyable
living alone [given gatherer friends at least]) does not end his experience
with his time at the crafting table or guild workshops. It carries as much as realistically possible
into combat. His personal connection
with his own blades, wielded himself and/or by his party is a subtle but
significant factor in combat. A
leatherworker’s expertise will often help in the killing of strong-hided beasts,
and an armorsmith’s the killing of armored humanoids.[/HB]
Part 2
[HB]This is not to say that everyone will want to be
everything. More than previously these
classes have great depth, and though one can now jump in at various points more
than before (there are no necessary copper, bronze, iron stages – just as one
does not necessarily have to train an Archer to be a Stormbow (random name here
meaning a sort of AoE archer) or Ranger or Elemental Archer, instead being able
to take aspects of camouflage, burst, debilitative, misdirective, ranged, and
weapon-specific lines of learning, etc, separately.
Additionally, in party function, personal strength, and even
making money in the economy, depth will often outdo width. Or, more aptly put, strength comes
vertically, versatility comes horizontally, and being able to make a unique
niche within either. (I apologize for
switching the meaning of “depth” here.) Just
as one could be a competent dps with only one dps class at max level, it’s plenty
possible here. To best get this point
across I’d have to give simulations on combat and business under my revised
systems. I’ll give lengthier examples in
their own subject pages, but here are some briefs:[/HB]
Combat-Related Example
Part 1
[HB]In my combat system, fights are plenty possible without
dedicated healers and tanks. More difficult, usually, and requiring much
more intricacies especially in terms of building up effects on targets, rather
than through the roles of party (this does get pretty complicated, but its learning
scales gradually through one’s “levels” so to speak). In general, precisely hybridized party
compositions are less situationally versatile than your general role-broad
compositions, most usually employed for specific NM hunts and the like. Broad-spectrum roles in general within each
class, though, will of course increase versatility. And it is also, again of course, a
compromise.
As to combat itself, this system uses a huge amount of
potential interlinking of abilities, along with custom ability creation
itself. The most prominent feature is
the use of targetable ‘systems’, which includes a spell of attack already in
motion, the effect grounds or receiver of an action, another party member
preparing an action or using a pairable effect, or oneself to be interlinked
with another action.
For instance, (though these names are largely placeholders
given the revision) a Conjurer could cast Aero onto a Pugilist using Fleetfoot
to allow the Pugilist to use these dodges to either deal air damage to enemies
surrounding her, use air magic as bonus to her own counter-attacks, or use the
air magic following dodges as a source to use her own special attacks (imagine
a jump-turning dodge turning into a Dragon Kick).
However, at a price, the Pugilist could learn how to do this
herself. This is likely in parties where
too much attention would be required for the caster to pair effectively with
every party member, and obviously when a player wants to be able to extend a
string alone that would normally require party chaining. You could say that most of our base classes
do this on their own already, even though the secondary effects are more ‘pretty’
than tactically variant, such as Vorpal Thrust, Impact Drive, and Dragonfire
Dive. Actually, all stem from the parts
of combat entailed in Lancer warfare, and as such even in my system they could
still be gained without straying at all from Lancer.[/HB]
Part 2
[HB]But let’s take an amateur Red Mage enthusiast given this
system, with experience in Gladiator and Thaumaturge/Conjurer. He could develop an abstract source for
flame magic, which he can then tie into his combat via Trance (consider this
like a thematic-specific TP build), to create surges of fire magic. Let’s say this particular player developed
his access point via training in parrying and gliding sword combat, and from… a
flint. I’ll go over how such a seemingly
abstract way of learning can be done later.
The uses are what’s important for now.
In short, he can set of flickered waves (not actually an
arbitrary description; every bit counts) of flame magic from his metal weapons
sliding across another. He uses these for offensive parrying, against parries,
and a special little something in parties…
[Because this is a favorite issue of mine, let me explain
the parenthetical. He is a Lominsian. He collects wisp-stones for the majority of
his gil-making between training with a small group of like-minded swordsman and
experimenters on the bluffs of the rolling hills off of Cedarwood. Both of these motifs – the flickering of
lights, control of light, and the waves, are prevalent in his time learning
this. This is an example of
setting-situational typing. Rest
assured, it is generally far too balanced to become a deciding issue during
leveling. Both similarities and
contrasts are useful to these in combat.]
Imagine a Lancer chaining through a few linear striking
abilities, driving an enemy back, before finishing with a charge and something
akin to Impact Drive, but without the flame magic in it being used. The Red Mage-to-be, who’s been simultaneously
harassing the enemy’s defense, then pairs with the attack, sliding his blade
down the exposed length Lancer’s spear in a fast slash, blasting flame magic
into the enemy with both his own generation of flame magic and the potential in
the spear attack.
Similar to this fairly obvious sense many moves effective
for solo combat are also effective for party combat, if one knows how to stay teamed
up effectively in combat. This is both intended, and inevitable, given the overall feel of this system.[/HB]
