[DF Idea] Diabolization

[CousinX]

Agree with those who say to pick the DF template or template/lens combo that best fits each Diablo class, and then fine-tune the results.

The bulk of the work will probably be in replicating their abilities, depending on how closely you want to mimic the game. You've mentioned that you'd rather use powers than spells, and that seems fitting, so here are a few ideas for the class I usually played...

Diablo II-style Necromantic Power (Talent: 5 points/level)
All have the Necromantic PM, -10%.

Teeth: Cutting Attack 1d+2 (Costs Fatigue, 1 FP/use, -5%) [10]; higher skill levels add Rapid Fire 2 (+40%) [+4] or Rapid Fire 3 (+50%) [+6]. Attack with Innate Attack (Projectile).

Bone Armor: Ablative DR [2/level], probably with Regeneration (Fast or Very Fast, DR only, -40%) [25 or 50]. I can't think of a way to "instantly refresh" the armor between battles, like re-casting the spell does in the game.

Raise Skeleton: Allies (Skeletal Minions: 5 allies of up to 5% points; 15 or less; Accessibility: Requires corpses, -10%; Conjurable, +100%; Minion, +0%) [6]. This allows you to "conjure" a skeletal minion by animating a corpse, up to 5 times per day (or 5 simultaneously active skeletons). For more "castings" per day, buy more skeletons at roughly 1 point apiece. For Skeletal Mages, build elemental Innate Attacks (probably mostly Burning, with various special effects, but it seems like there was one with a Toxic/Cyclic attack), and charge 2 points/ally. No need for Skeleton Mastery; just increase the power of the skeletons proportionately as the necromancer's base point level increases.

Amplify Damage: The simplest way would be to use a benevolent Aura of Power that grants all your allies Striking ST, though that's not quite in keeping with the spirit of the Curse. More authentic (but probably more expensive, and harder to use because it can be resisted) would be something like an area Affliction with Malediction, which gave all enemies reduced DR or Vulnerability to common damage types.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

And the horde pigmies are definitively drop in Fetish replacements (How I hated those guys).

I was weirded out by the little monster in Trilogy of Terror too *shudder*

[Humabout]

Amplify Damage (Level 1): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [27]

Amplify Damage (Level 2-4): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 4 yds, +50%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [32]

Amplify Damage (Level 5-8): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 8 yds, +100%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [37]

Amplify Damage (Level 9-10): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 8 yds, +100%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 1 minute, -65%; PM, -10%) [38]

Amplify Damage (Level 11-18): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect, 16 yds, +150%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 1 minute, -65%; PM, -10%) [43]

Amplify Damage (Level 19-20): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect, 16 yds, +150%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 10 minutes, -50%; PM, -10%) [45]

You can use the actual game stats for this one pretty much as is. The only thing is that the level breaks are mostly below game resolution. You could probably break it into 6 levels (each category above), although I'd omit the last one, since 10 minutes of curse is needlessly long for combat purposes. Alternatively, Amp Dmg 6 might just last until the "end of the encounter" as a feature.

[Bruno]

You've got "Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%;" listed on each one (that's listing the same disad twice on each one). Is that an error?

[Humabout]

Yes it is! My cut/paste laziness has finally caught up to me. Corrected.

[Dwarf99]

Originally Posted by CousinX

Agree with those who say to pick the DF template or template/lens combo that best fits each Diablo class, and then fine-tune the results.

The bulk of the work will probably be in replicating their abilities, depending on how closely you want to mimic the game. You've mentioned that you'd rather use powers than spells, and that seems fitting, so here are a few ideas for the class I usually played...

Diablo II-style Necromantic Power (Talent: 5 points/level)
All have the Necromantic PM, -10%.

Teeth: Cutting Attack 1d+2 (Costs Fatigue, 1 FP/use, -5%) [10]; higher skill levels add Rapid Fire 2 (+40%) [+4] or Rapid Fire 3 (+50%) [+6]. Attack with Innate Attack (Projectile).

Bone Armor: Ablative DR [2/level], probably with Regeneration (Fast or Very Fast, DR only, -40%) [25 or 50]. I can't think of a way to "instantly refresh" the armor between battles, like re-casting the spell does in the game.

Raise Skeleton: Allies (Skeletal Minions: 5 allies of up to 5% points; 15 or less; Accessibility: Requires corpses, -10%; Conjurable, +100%; Minion, +0%) [6]. This allows you to "conjure" a skeletal minion by animating a corpse, up to 5 times per day (or 5 simultaneously active skeletons). For more "castings" per day, buy more skeletons at roughly 1 point apiece. For Skeletal Mages, build elemental Innate Attacks (probably mostly Burning, with various special effects, but it seems like there was one with a Toxic/Cyclic attack), and charge 2 points/ally. No need for Skeleton Mastery; just increase the power of the skeletons proportionately as the necromancer's base point level increases.

Amplify Damage: The simplest way would be to use a benevolent Aura of Power that grants all your allies Striking ST, though that's not quite in keeping with the spirit of the Curse. More authentic (but probably more expensive, and harder to use because it can be resisted) would be something like an area Affliction with Malediction, which gave all enemies reduced DR or Vulnerability to common damage types.

Originally Posted by Humabout

Amplify Damage (Level 1): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [27]

Amplify Damage (Level 2-4): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 4 yds, +50%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [32]

Amplify Damage (Level 5-8): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 8 yds, +100%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, less than 30 seconds, -75%; PM, -10%) [37]

Amplify Damage (Level 9-10): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect , 8 yds, +100%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 1 minute, -65%; PM, -10%) [38]

Amplify Damage (Level 11-18): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect, 16 yds, +150%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 1 minute, -65%; PM, -10%) [43]

Amplify Damage (Level 19-20): Affliction (Aura of Power, +175%; Area Effect, 16 yds, +150%; Costs Fatigue, 3 FP, -15%; Disdvantage, Vulnerability, Physical x2, +40%; Disadvantage, Vulnerability, Energy x2, +40%; Maximum Duration, up to 10 minutes, -50%; PM, -10%) [45]

You can use the actual game stats for this one pretty much as is. The only thing is that the level breaks are mostly below game resolution. You could probably break it into 6 levels (each category above), although I'd omit the last one, since 10 minutes of curse is needlessly long for combat purposes. Alternatively, Amp Dmg 6 might just last until the "end of the encounter" as a feature.

With the initial response to this thread, I was worried that it'd be an entirely solo project... both of your contributions will be noted and credited where they are used either in part or verbatim. Thanks to the both of you and to anyone else who contributes... nearly done with the amazon, also working on Barbarian and Assassin so I guess you could say I'm skipping around a bit. The necromancer also has had a bit of work done but I will add these.

[Humabout]

I'd love to see what you create. Will you be posting them here? If I get bored, I'll stat up some other abilities, if you want. I think I might have a Rage power lying around my notes somewhere, too. :)

[EDIT] In hindsight, I'm sort of thinking that curses would be better modeled with emanations than Auras of Power. I'll rewrite Amp Dmg and modify the original post when I get some time. Paladin auras and monk mantras would be Auras of Power, I think.

[CousinX]

Originally Posted by Humabout

I'd love to see what you create. Will you be posting them here? If I get bored, I'll stat up some other abilities, if you want.

Yeah, I'd be interested to see what they end up looking like as well, and I might post other abilities here and there if I'm inspired to create any more.

Originally Posted by Humabout

[EDIT] In hindsight, I'm sort of thinking that curses would be better modeled with emanations than Auras of Power. I'll rewrite Amp Dmg and modify the original post when I get some time. Paladin auras and monk mantras would be Auras of Power, I think.

It's been years since I've played, but weren't Curses a ranged effect, as in, you could drop them wherever you wanted, as opposed to emanated from the necromancer himself?

[Humabout]

Were they? then just remove Aura of Power and add another +50% to Area Effect. I'd have to sort out durations, though. Afflictions have durations based on margin of success, so I think we might have to go with intent more than anything. Reduced Duration, 1/60 is definitely fitting, though.

[Dwarf99]

well it looks like the Amazon's going to go with Imbuements and I'm thinking on instituting a campaign wide Costs 1 FP (minimum, but you still get a discount for further FP costs) and Selective Area so those modifiers (since they're default for the campaign) will be "free" thoughts?

EDIT: more thoughts... other than passives like weapon mastery am I missing anything that doesn't cost FP? Speaking of Weapon Mastery how should I handle that? Right now I'm looking at individual skill talents and 5 point talents, though I may make the talents more fluid as in the aptly named Power Ups book.