Mastery Descriptions - WIP

Grim Dawn Development Updates
1

Just wanted to share some descriptions I was working on for the 3 mostly finalized skill masteries. Some of the names are still up for debate; I tend to not finalize all the terminology until the end when everything is solidified. Naming is always tricky.

Combat Mastery (name not finalized)
In the imperial army, Soldiers are trained to survive in the most hellish conditions and hold the line against the deadliest enemies of the empire. Soldiers are oriented toward close combat with sword and shield. What they lack in outright damage-dealing, they make up for in endurance and self-sufficiency.

Demolition Mastery
Sappers are the pyrotechnic engineers of the imperial army, their primary duty: blowing stuff up. Fighting best from a distance, Sappers engage enemies with guns and a wide variety of fire and electrical traps, bombs, and ammunition. Whether the target is hard or soft, Sappers have the right explosive for the job and they deal out massive damage with an insane zeal.

Occult Mastery
Once hunted by imperial forces in an effort to control arcane power and knowledge, Occultists wield diverse powers granted to them by the three witch gods and rely heavily on the eldritch creatures they are able to summon. Along with summoning, their arcane repertoire includes blessings, curses, and offensive spells that inflict damage with poison, acid, and chaotic energy. Occultists excel with neither sword nor gun but can use either to augment their offense.

Attachment: OccultSkills.jpg

2

Sounds awesome :smiley: . the name military dosent sound quite right to me but it looks like its still up for debate. Nice Job :smiley:

3

I like the descriptions, good job!

Could you please elaborate more on the quoted stuff? I would just like to know how did you handle the graphical effects of these? Are you working with Lightning effects from TQ or did you change them significantly? What will the Chaotic energy look like, Liche’s Soul Blight/Arcane Blast ability?

Thanks, man!

By the way, some thoughts of mine on the “Military Mastery”:

  • Warfare Mastery
  • Duel Mastery
  • Combat Mastery
  • Militia Mastery
  • Militant Mastery
  • Force Mastery
  • Power Mastery
  • War Mastery
  • Arms Mastery
  • Rival Mastery
  • Imperial Mastery
  • Soldier Mastery
  • Strength Mastery
  • Martial Mastery
  • Soldierly Mastery
  • Service Mastery
  • Strike Mastery
  • Battle Mastery
  • Officer Mastery
  • Commander Mastery
  • Armed Mastery
  • Support Mastery
  • Veteran Mastery
  • Infantry Mastery

Most of them are stupid I guess, but it might get you, ones skilled in English, some inspiration.

4

for Military Mastery, I don’t think the name really fits, maybe warfare mastery or Soldier mastery probably could work better, but I like the descriptions and the other names

so overall fine

5

Out of all the options so far in this thread, warfare fits best…seem to remember another game with that mastery from somewhere…:confused:

6

yes I barely remeber, I think it began with T or was it Q? :p:D

7

Military Mastery (name not finalized)
Soldiers of the imperial army … .
Soldiers are oriented toward … .

You should always avoid starting two following sentences with the same word. It makes the text less fluent to read. It becomes especially apparent when you put them under each other. I often got a fat red “WW” in school whenever I did this in an essay. (WW, German for “WortWiederholung” meaning repetition of words)

Demolition Mastery
Sappers are the pyrotechnic engineers of the imperial army, their primary duty: blowing stuff up. Sappers fight best from a distance, engaging enemies with guns and a wide variety of fire and electrical traps, bombs, and ammunition. Whether the target is hard or soft, Sappers have the right explosive for the job and they deal out massive damage with an insane zeal.

Same as above, starting two following sentences with the same word.

“blowing stuff up”
While a common phrase it does sound a bit sloppy or maybe too “slang”.

Occult Mastery
Occultists were once hunted by imperial forces in an effort to control arcane power and knowledge. The Occultist relies heavily on the eldritch creatures they are able to summon and powers granted by the three witch gods, including an array of blessings, curses, and offensive spells that inflict damage with poison, acid, and chaotic energy. Occultists excel with neither sword nor gun but can use either to augment their offense.

You open with “they were once hunted” and in the 2nd sentence you directly go into the class-description. Maybe a few more words about what changed in the present?

I don’t want to be harsh or anything but I thought since you asked for opionions I might as well do it right. I hope I didn’t nit-pick too much. :confused:

Class names: I like Demolition and Occult. Well Demolition could be named Pioneer-class maybe. Or maybe this could be the actual class-name as in TQ where mastery name was != class name.

Edit: Since you edited your first post I will give additional feedback. :3

Once hunted by imperial forces in an effort to control arcane power and knowledge, … .

With this wording you imply that something has changed now. Maybe give us a few words in the mastery-description about that? Right now you leave this open which might be a bit irritating.

Maybe something along the lines of:

Once hunted by imperial forces in an effort to control arcane power and knowledge, the Occultists are now important allies in the fight against the demonic intruders. They wield diverse powers granted to them by the three witch gods and rely heavily on the eldritch creatures they are able to summon. etc.

8

Damn, I just pwned by writing etiquette! Changed things up a bit, thanks.

I’m thinking maybe combat for the soldier’s mastery name? Either that, or maybe we could change “Mastery” to “Profession” and then just use it as the class name?

The one issue with that really is that Demolitionist is too wordy.

On the other hand, sticking with the current scheme, maybe the Occult mastery class name should be witch?

Warfare would certainly work but I think it would be bad for us to have too many parallels to TQ… for legal reasons.

Could you please elaborate more on the quoted stuff? I would just like to know how did you handle the graphical effects of these? Are you working with Lightning effects from TQ or did you change them significantly? What will the Chaotic energy look like, Liche’s Soul Blight/Arcane Blast ability?

New lightning effects, although, it isn’t radically different. We can’t use any effects from TQ. Chaos energy is red and black, although sometimes it ends up looking reddish-purple. It is usually an additive red energy effect and then a gritty, sooty looking black cloud.

There is a good shot of it here, although, since it is a dark background, you can’t really see the black cloud effect too well. http://www.grimdawn.com/screenshots/2012-02-12_oldwaterfront04_lrg.jpg

9

np, I know this stuff is annoying but it really increases the readability if you pay attention to it.^^

I’m thinking maybe combat for the soldier’s mastery name? Either that, or maybe we could change “Mastery” to “Profession” and then just use it as the class name?

Combat-Mastery sounds like a skill that increases your dmg in combat.^^

The one issue with that really is that Demolitionist is too wordy.

What about Pioneer-Mastery? It is what the mastery describes but not as wordy. Then again might sound awkward…

On the other hand, sticking with the current scheme, maybe the Occult mastery class name should be witch?

Witchcraft maybe?

10

Very minor…but some reason that line doesn’t convey the same tone as what precedes it. Goes from “hellish”…which sound grim and brutal…to “nastiest”…which I dunno just sounds kinda lame. Mosquito bites are nasty, rotten eggs are nasty…deadly enemies of the empire should carry a little more dread than that :smiley:

I’d personally write something like:

Combat Mastery (name not finalized)
In the imperial army, Soldiers are trained to survive in the most hellish conditions and hold the line against the brutal/vicious/demonic/imposing/deadly/unrelenting/savage/mortal/wicked/bloodthirsty/ferocious* enemies of the empire

*choose one :stuck_out_tongue:

11

Does it need to be called Mastery? If you avoid it you wouldn’t have too much similarity with TQ. You could name it after the profession as you mentioned before, Grunt, Sapper and Witch for example. Personally I think the profession option would sound better in this game than mastery.

12

I’m leaning that way myself. I think it would be better to use a new term.

13

In that case I would recommend ‘Arcane Profession’ or something similar over ‘Witch’, not sure about other people but there may be an issue with those who want to be a male but not want to use that profession since witch is normally associated with females. Maybe it wouldn’t matter, who knows. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: lol Love the descriptions so far though!

Soul

14

Medierra

Combat Mastery (name not finalized)
In the imperial army, Soldiers are trained to survive in the most hellish conditions and hold the line against the deadliest enemies of the empire. Soldiers are oriented toward close combat with sword and shield. What they lack in outright damage-dealing, they make up for in endurance and self-sufficiency.

For this mastery, there are a couple of choices that fit well into the close combat melee mastery that you’re thinking of. The basic choice of Martial Mastery denotes typical martial arts and self-defense styles that would be taught to a close combat specialist. Another couple of historic choices would be either Knight Mastery, Ranger Master, or Marine Mastery. These fall more into a profession name being synonymous with their fighting style. In either case, there is enough contemporary knowledge and understanding that these terms can be used to symbolize a unique martial style in any fantasy setting (such as Jedi Knights).

Another option is to name the mastery after the combat style your mastery embodies. Many professional militaries name their personal combat style with either person’s name or the kind of martial form their practicing (such as Fairbairn-Sykes style, MCMAP style, Sambo, Krav Maga, Combat Jujitsu, etc.). A lot of these styles employ knife, bayonet, rifle movements that would fit with a standard post-apocalyptic future soldier genre. Just invent a legendary teacher for your game world (or steal a real world one) and name the mastery after that.

Personally my choice is either Marine Mastery or Martial Mastery.

Dejnov.

15

+1! I much prefer something along the lines of ‘Arcane Profession’ rather than Witch…or even Occultist. Guess something like ‘Arcane’ seems more a broader term which is more appropriate imo :smiley:

Edit: Perhaps ‘Arcane Master’ ? …Grim Reaper?? lol

16

Already considering an Arcanist profession that would be different than Occult, so I’m reserving that.

17

I am also inclined to something different from “Mastery”, not sure why, “Profession” does not fit for me there that much though.

Here are few options that may inspire you:

Aspect (of Soldier, Witch, Demolitionist)
Sign (of Warrior, Witch, Destroyer)
Symbol (of War, Corruption, Demolition)
Trait (of Soldier, Corrupter, Demolitionist)
(Soldier, Witcher, Demolitionist) Specialization
(Warfare, Dark Arts, Demolition) Orientation
(Military, Witchcraft, Bombardment) School
(Military, Witchcraft, Bombardment) Training
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Demolitionist’s) Direction
Art (of Warrior, Corruption, Demolition)
Mark (of Warrior, Corrupter, Demolition)
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Demolitionist’s) Destiny
Fate (of Soldier, Witch, Sapper)
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Sapper’s) Signature
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Sapper’s) Duty
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Sapper’s) Route
(Soldier’s, Witcher’s, Sapper’s) Insignia
Path (of Soldier, Witch, Demolitionist)

I like Insignia, Route, Path, Mark, Art, Specialization, Symbol, Sign, Aspect the most (hehe). =)

medierra, I would like to kindly ask you, when you have some time, could you give us some more info about Skills that you have, please? Some “quick” export from your database. =)

Love this info!! =)

18

Oh I see, I take it that is the ‘Aetherialist’?

19

Profesion would sound good for soldier or saper but not that good for occultists and other “spiritual” classes. Why not name it “Talent”? It’s pretty universal and describes character’s “vocation” and “destiny” quite well.
Are there other Masteries (or Talents, hoping you will like my suggestion :D) planned already or you are all open for ideas besides these three ones? I could try to throw few things into the air but would prefer to do it being sure I am not missing anything already done to keep my thoughts according to the main course.

20

Ah, silly me :slight_smile: Just found necessary information in your Game Info and Features forum :slight_smile:
So, few suggestions about other masteries.

  1. The basic ways to go for a caster class are (IMO of course though it is based on quite rich gaming and reading experience):
    a) curses/DOT spells (often including manipulating life and magic energy like life/mana leech, poison, negative energy, sleep and other things though part of these things also could separate into secondary skill trees that leaves good material for addons :D)
    b) pure damage spells (usually elemental)
    c) summoning and
    d) enchantments (items or people - no matter)
    Four in total :slight_smile: As I already see an Occult class in your portfolio and it already clearly contains summons and curses it would be a best candidate for DOT and other tricky spells as well. So there probably will be pure damage and enchanting caster class. Like Sorcerer or Arcanist or Mage. Just a thing to consider. Otherwise you will probably lack of these magic aspects.
  2. You have close combat knight/soldier-type character but there is another type of combatant (and you already mentioned it as Assassin class). Though Assassin is probably better to keep for a resulting class of two masteries combination. Here we (or you? :)) need to determine the very basic ways which can be combined with something to form resulting profession. So, which basic ways for close combat we have?
    a) direct damage dealing (weapon master, brute force, berserk and so on)
    b) indirect damage speed and agility factors (hit-n-run, strike four times before they strike one, hitting weak spot, critical hits and so on)
    c) direct defense (sustaining incoming hits, massive health, reducing damage and just tanking)
    d) indirect defense (if it won’t hit you it won’t harm you - so dodging attacks, hiding and so on)
    You seem to already have a) and c) in your soldier class and somewhat of a) in the saper. So if we need to cover combat tecnhiques well we need also b) and d) and it would be perfect fit for non-techy ranged weapons as well. So there is a space for a nimble and tricky combatant like martial artist or bowman depending on the general setting.
  3. I don’t know how much of mechanics you are planning to have in your setting but saper does not seem to be too techy besides cannons. Though mechanic/engineering leaves more interesting possibilities which have not ben touched yet:
    a) mechanical summons or traps
    b) electricity tricks
    c) technical protection things like force fields or mech armor
    d) damage dealing with mechanical power (machine guns for example :D)

But wait… you are going to have 5 classes and 3 of them are basically done already :slight_smile: So… if we take a closer look we will see many similar things between Arcanist and Engineer. Both are intellectual ones and both are going more into the science than rituals. So why not combine these two? Enchantments can be partially magic and partially mech and magic would adds up to mechanic quite well in damage dealing, especially when talking about powering up all these electric devices, we don’t have power stations here I guess :smiley:
So two basic masteries of Arcanist/Engineer and Trickster/Archer (as you suggested already) would close the full options without stretching things too much. I hope you will find at least something useful in all this text :slight_smile: