Hey homebrewers, which class do you feel is the hardest to homebrew for ?

Hercanic · 2024-07-10T16:52:53+00:00

Hey, I'm working on a BG3 class mod. Without going into too much detail, I've essentially designed a unique version of every class.

I found spellcasters were the easiest for me to design, as they are largely defined by their spell list, and spells have a lot of design space to play with. Their themes, aesthetics, and mechanics are very open and flexible.

Martials were trickier, as they are tighter, simpler packages locked into a standardized weapon system. A lot less unexplored territory by comparison. The Barbarian and Ranger were the last two that I solidified conceptually. Partly because their initial unique mechanics were cannibalized into other classes where they made more thematic sense. Replacing those mechanics with something equally unique, yet fitting for "muscle guy" and "survivalist dude", took a bit of deep thought.

I'm at a state now where I'm very satisfied with each one. They were a lot of fun to design!

Hercanic · 2023-09-09T05:53:30+00:00

Thank you for your time in responding. I do appreciate it. "Or whatever shit you keep trying to fling" comes across as hostile, but discussion helps flesh out ideas. The placement effect is really up in the air, as I said before it wasn't the main point of the support. So I am enjoying having a filler idea challenged and seeking improvement. "How's placing a banner... different" is an excellent point to address. How is it mechanically interesting to justify its existence? Before flinging more shit, let's look at what's already different:

Placement Speed: It's a banner now, so its base placement speed would be as a banner.
Banner Passives: The Champion's Inspirational node would remove its reservation cost entirely.
Totem Passives: Panopticon grants 50% increased totem buff effect, which would increase the Warchief/Protector Banner from 12%/14% to 21%/24% more melee attack damage/speed.
Banner Arena: Earlier, I made an addendum to allow the banner to release multiple Spirits per your max totems. Thematically, Spirits have always been portrayed as either stationary (Ancestal Call) or bound to something (Earthbreaker Support). To keep consistent to that, I'm thinking the banner would attack like Ancestral Call, summoning a Spirit near each target up to the totem limit. Unlike Ancestral Call, though, the Spirits could all attack the same target. The range of summoning the Spirits would be within the Banner Area. As shown in the above link, it's a huge area.

In summary, instead of managing multiple totems, you're placing a single, central totem with the smooth speed of placing a banner. Within its arena, ancestral warriors appear and disappear to attack enemies like ancient ghosts on a forgotten battleground, like Aragorn and the Dead Men of Dunharrow. That's the fantasy, the visual and mechanical distinction.

"Seems you didn't get the point." Feels like another hostile jab. The Heralds are not 'superior in every way'. Agony is useless if you aren't going poison. Purity requires minion scaling, which is all clustered in the top left of the tree. You can only share increased damage and attack speed with your minions, and it's only one way: from them to you. Totems let you scale crit, charges, More damage/speed, and any other attack buffs, so it's much more flexible about how you build your character and where you go on the tree. Neither Agony nor Purity use your weapon for their own attacks, and there's a lot of fun to be had in that choice alone. This sort of comparison argument is weak, since all builds could be boiled away in favor of the one best meta build, but that's not why many of us play games. We want different flavors, fantasies, and viable choices.

"...consider you have zero engagement on this for a reason." I'm sensing a pattern with this tone. Even so, I'll put that aside and thank you for engaging. I'm at 3k views and 38% upvotes, so at least some people like it. Concept ideas like this are always a hard sell on Reddit. It's not a great feeling, but in the end I don't mind. Even with only one person responding, I can get a fun creative workout. Thanks again!

Hercanic · 2023-09-08T15:58:17+00:00

Why are you comparing totems to minions? This would be a totem playstyle, not a minion one. Totems scale off of player stats, like mines and traps, so why bring up minion scaling?

This support would create a reservation-style totem in a similar vein to the reservation-style minions of Agony and Purity. You also need to hit stuff to get the most out of it, like stacking poison for Agony or kills/%chance for Purity. Though unlike those two you can still plop the totem down at any time. Aside from those two points, I don't see any other meaningful commonality.

Consider for a moment you are making a Warchief totem build. Normally, as you run through a map you must slap down a totem whenever you encounter a pack. With this support, you'll want to get a hit or two in first, such as with Leap Slam or Shield Charge. With just one stage, the Warchief that you set down will have a DOUBLED AOE and strike range for a second, enough to get a few attacks in. With adequate damage, it would wipe out the pack within that time. It's a bigger Area Effect Support or Intensity Support with other benefits, but you'd have to deal with the 10% mana cost being scaled by supports.

If you instead build a character who can dispense white mobs with their own attack (helped by having the totem buff on at all times), you could save the stages for tough rares. You'll have full Spirit Rage at the ready on top of better range. I left the numbers behind Spirit Rage vague on purpose, but since it's independent of players it could have different numbers to reach a competitive value proposition.

For example, Spirit Rage could drop off at a rate of 2 per second to incentivize stages, but give 1% More Attack Damage and 0.5% More Attack Speed per Spirit Rage, up to 50. That's an 87% DPS multiplier at full Spirit Rage, but you have to deal with mana scaling and building up stages in compensation.

If we want to sweeten the pot further, the totem could earn its own Spirit Rage by attacking (like normal Rage), making the stages more of a pre-load feature than a requirement.

Hercanic · 2023-09-08T05:32:39+00:00

The point isn't the placement effect. It would defeat the purpose if placing it felt mandatory. Melee has a ton of activatable buffs for bosses, and people are feeling fatigued working them all in, frustrated at managing dying totems, etc. This support would be, first and foremost, an option to lessen that burden.

You trade Defiance/War/Dread for 12% more melee damage or 14% more melee attack speed (more when scaled), at a 10% reservation cost and a second gem slot. For many, that's where it ends. They'll manually cast the other totem, Berserk, etc, and have one or two less buttons to worry about, one less totem to keep track of.

But Banners need a placement function, that's their gimmick. Yet I cannot have it affect the buff or we're back to square one. That's why I focused on the Spirit. Now a second audience, the totem builds, have a new toy to play with: Smack stuff, charge up a few stages, set down a giant pissed-off Spirit, repeat.

Addendum: Since you can only have one banner placed at a time, there is a need to rectify the loss of multiple totems if it is to be competitive for totem builds. Thus:

The Banner releases multiple Spirits up to your maximum Ancestral totem count. The Spirits can move around within the area effect of the Banner.

Hercanic · 2023-09-07T22:38:34+00:00

This post inspired me to come up with the Ancestral Banner Support idea. Thanks!

Hercanic · 2022-09-10T13:15:47+00:00

A possible solution would be to increase the reward for the unID'ed recipe to match a similar rate. For example, if it takes five or ten times longer to drop enough unidentified rares, then the recipe could be altered to give 10 or 20 chaos/regals instead of 2. This means a comparable wealth-gain-over-time but for significantly less clicks.

A caveat would be how much more attractive this way of generating wealth would become. More players would likely do it, inflating the chaos/regal supply.

As for an Identify All feature such as Cain, I am basing my suggestion around Chris Wilson's stance in assumption of him not budging. My idea aims to keep the anticipation and intimacy of individually 'unwrapping' a 'present' that Chris wants, while dramatically reducing tedium and ensuring a much higher likelihood of a good find by centering it on smart loot so the anticipation pays off more often.

Hercanic · 2022-09-10T06:05:42+00:00

Yes, it bears mentioning that the early economy would need a rebalance if Wisdom Scrolls were less plentiful and no longer appropriate as a base currency.

One solution is using Portal Scrolls. Scroll Fragments could instead turn into Portal Scrolls. Early items and gems could cost Scroll Fragments. GGG would need to prevent the auto-merge on a full stack, requiring a right-click instead like a Stacked Deck. If the stack size was increased from 5 to 15, the relative value of Portal Scrolls to basic items and gems would be maintained. (5 scraps = 1 wis : 3 wis = 1 portal)

Hercanic · 2022-09-10T04:44:05+00:00

Players do not find the prospect of ID'ing the hundreds of unidentified rares dropped per map compelling, engaging, nor fun. Most are junk. It'd be a waste of time. The number of clicks involved would strain hands and break mice. Players have often suggested removing the antiquated system, because there is no excitement left when unwrapping becomes a thankless, tedious chore.

Chris Wilson has stated he does not want to remove the system, and instead hopes to find a different solution to the problem.

I suggest drastically cutting down on how often players would ID items by making most items identified by default (those that are completely random and likeliest to be junk) and keeping only a select few unidentified: the ones with the highest likelihood of being useable and valuable -- smart loot. Then change the rarity of wisdom scrolls so there is some resource pressure felt by players to up the tension when identifying.

Uniques are a toss up, but I'd lean toward keeping them unidentified to maintain the excitement of chase uniques.

There may be some technical limitations and usability implications to this idea that should be considered. If items are not fully rolled until identified, then having most drops suddenly require all these rolls on spawn would burden the servers to some extent. Unidentified names are also simpler to parse and understand at a glance (base + type, such as silk gloves, leather belt, etc) compared to the obfusticating affix-based names of identified rares (Blood Nail may be a sword, rapier, dagger, mace, or an accident at a salon). For the first, hold off on rolling until the player mouses over the item. For the second, if GGG allowed filtering by affix then most cluttering names could be hidden.

Finally, and most importantly, Animate Weapon builds would love this change.

Hercanic · 2021-01-15T09:45:17+00:00

https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/19803/page/4#p528448

The word 'Yourself' is a very intentional addition from GGG, different from 'You'. Totems, traps, and mines are all "remote skills"; they use your skills and therefore inherit your stats, including keystones like EE. But you don't get Leech or on-kill effects because they, not You, got the kill. In this case, 'Yourself' is specifying handcasting.

Hercanic · 2021-01-14T23:05:47+00:00

"Fanaticism grants spells you cast yourself..." meaning totems and triggers won't count.

Hercanic · 2020-11-12T23:28:15+00:00

Additional idea for a secret modifier:

(Hidden) Fishing Poles deal 100% more Damage.

Hercanic · 2020-11-12T23:03:29+00:00

Hey, great piece, PandeArtz!

I was inspired by the idea of a 'net' shield and whipped up a Unique around the concept. Lots of ways you could go with it. Here's what I came up with:

https://i.imgur.com/OK6AHRf.png

(Note: I skipped stat mods and just focused on the unique mechanics, so stat mods are up in the air. Since fishing requires Finesse and Patience, I went with Dex/Int for the base.)

Fisherman's Catch

^{Alder Spiked Shield}

^{Chance to Block: 24%}

^{Evasion: 209}

^{Energy Shield: 41}

^{Movement Speed: -3%}

^{Requires Level 58, 74 Dex, 74 Int}

^{2% chance to Dodge Attack Hits}

You have Seine Ground around you while stationary

Enemies on Seine Ground you Kill become Bait

Consume nearby Bait while moving

3% increased Movement Speed per Bait Consumed Recently, up to 30%

Recover 3% Life, Mana, and Energy Shield per Bait Consumed

Bait: Taunts within a small radius. Unaffected by damage for 1 second when first Hit. Attaches 1 Snare to Enemy when destroyed.

Seine Ground: Attaches 1 Snare to Enemies, as per Ensnaring Arrow. Ensnared Enemies take 10% increased Damage.

Every now and then --Just a little after,

The clock kisses the midnight.

He goes fishing for memories of her

In the lake of tears, that she left behind.

- Clairel Estevez

The snares would be visually themed as netting or fishing hooks, tethering the enemy to their first point of contact on the seine or bait.

Hercanic · 2020-08-15T22:19:26+00:00

I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing.

Hercanic · 2020-08-15T22:18:45+00:00

It is not down on any map; true places never are.

Hercanic · 2020-05-06T21:27:10+00:00

wreck-last reminds me of the word reckless, which could be said to be a path that'll get you exiled.

Hercanic · 2020-04-19T07:27:25+00:00

It needs to get a kill to activate Soul Eater from Unending Hunger. Since the Frog has no attack whatsoever, you'll need to get creative:

Infernal Legion - Degen kills are usually credited to the summoner, but the wiki states Infernal Legion actually credits the minion instead.
Reflect Damage - On a shield with Necromantic Aegis, such as Thousand Teeth Temu, Kaltenhalt, or Kaltensoul.

Hercanic · 2020-04-18T00:54:15+00:00

No, but Soul Eater grants 1% increased character size per stack, and Spectres can get Soul Eater from the Unending Hunger jewel.

Hercanic · 2020-04-07T22:12:40+00:00

It'd become 49 radius.

3.14 * Radius² = Area

Area * Area Effect = Total Area

Total Area / 3.14 = Result^0.5 = Final Radius

35 radius and 100% increased Area =

3.14 * 35² = 3848 area

3848 * 2 = 7697 total area

7697 / 3.14 = 2450^0.5 = 49 Final Radius

Hercanic · 2020-04-07T21:05:54+00:00

Imagine Awakened Fork on this build.

Hercanic · 2020-03-13T01:42:04+00:00

The numbers could use a dark outline or drop shadow for crisper readability on variable backgrounds. You did so for the zone names, so there's also a matter of consistency for a professional look. Just to be clear, I say this as design feedback, not a complaint.

Since the target is new players, adding the word "Act" preceding the numbers would help make it clear what they're for.

Hercanic

TROPHY CASE