108 réponses à ce sujet

[Spellbound7]

 

Spoiler

How about a new tree? Introducing...the Knight Tracker

 

"To many, those who hunt mages are the warriors of the Templar Order. The simple Truth is, someone has got to point them in the right direction. Knight Trackers are rogues trained in the takedown of malificarum and apostates alike. 

 

 

 

Skills:

Maker's Breath-Sustained. Tracker moves 50% faster, but basic attacks cost 2 stamina and talents cost 20% more

   Maker's Sigh (Upgrade)- Basic Attacks cost no stamina

 

Punched by the Maker-Activated. Single target version of Templar's Holy Smite

   Maker Preserve You (upgrade)- More effective against fade creatures and mages. Causes STUNNED on those enemy types, and knockdown on everyone else

 

Chant of Light- Active, no Cost. The Tracker recites the Chant, rallying allies and granting an increase to mana/stamina regeneration. Causes MOVE SLOW and ATTACK SLOW on caster

   Remember Your Verse (Upgrade) MOVE SLOW penalty removed

 

Holy Precision-Active. Grants random critical hit chain from 4-8 seconds

 

Judgment Strike-Activated. Breaks Holy Precision Chain, dealing 100% damage multiplied by the number of seconds Holy Precision was active

 

The Order Dictates-Activated. For 10 seconds, Cross Class Combos the Tracker is part of are 30% more effective.

   If I Must (Upgrade)- Cross Class Combos Party wide are 15% more effective.

 

PASSIVES

Andraste Guide Me- If the Tracker falls in battle, party health is restored by (100/party members still standing)%. Available every 60 seconds

 

Annulment- Gain 30% immunity to hostile magic

 

Speak Only the Light- Basic attacks have a chance to SILENCE enemies for seconds

 

Vigilant Hunter- The Tracker's training has granted insight into enemy tactics. Tracker takes 90% damage from basic strikes and critical hits are reduced 25%

 

A templar rogue! Certainly an interesting idea, and some good abilities too. Not entirely fond of the name, but I love that you used the same names for the debuffs

[Abraham_uk]

How about a new tree? Introducing...the Knight Tracker

 

"To many, those who hunt mages are the warriors of the Templar Order. The simple Truth is, someone has got to point them in the right direction. Knight Trackers are rogues trained in the takedown of malificarum and apostates alike. 

 

 

 

Skills:

Maker's Breath-Sustained. Tracker moves 50% faster, but basic attacks cost 2 stamina and talents cost 20% more

   Maker's Sigh (Upgrade)- Basic Attacks cost no stamina

 

Punched by the Maker-Activated. Single target version of Templar's Holy Smite

   Maker Preserve You (upgrade)- More effective against fade creatures and mages. Causes STUNNED on those enemy types, and knockdown on everyone else

 

Chant of Light- Active, no Cost. The Tracker recites the Chant, rallying allies and granting an increase to mana/stamina regeneration. Causes MOVE SLOW and ATTACK SLOW on caster

   Remember Your Verse (Upgrade) MOVE SLOW penalty removed

 

Holy Precision-Active. Grants random critical hit chain from 4-8 seconds

 

Judgment Strike-Activated. Breaks Holy Precision Chain, dealing 100% damage multiplied by the number of seconds Holy Precision was active

 

The Order Dictates-Activated. For 10 seconds, Cross Class Combos the Tracker is part of are 30% more effective.

   If I Must (Upgrade)- Cross Class Combos Party wide are 15% more effective.

 

PASSIVES

Andraste Guide Me- If the Tracker falls in battle, party health is restored by (100/party members still standing)%. Available every 60 seconds

 

Annulment- Gain 30% immunity to hostile magic

 

Speak Only the Light- Basic attacks have a chance to SILENCE enemies for seconds

 

Vigilant Hunter- The Tracker's training has granted insight into enemy tactics. Tracker takes 90% damage from basic strikes and critical hits are reduced 25%

 

 

I'm going to call this class "Witch Hunter". Though "Knight Tracker" seems like an appropriate name too.

 

This is a brilliant rogue version of the Templar that slows down, debuffs and damages enemy mages and foes from the fade. What I love the most is that it brings the Rogue class into the Mage versus Templar war that is so integral to the plot. This is something that I found off putting. As a Warrior I can role play as an Anti-Mage and as a mage I can role play as a "mutant X-Man" being marginalised in society whilst being haunted by daemons from the fade. The rogues don't have any lore specialisation that is relevant to this conflict. This was particularly noticeable in Dragon Age 2.

 

I love your ideas. I tend to prefer rogues over warriors, and having an anti-mage rogue is interesting to me.

 

 

Great lore.

Great abilities.

Great build.

Keep up the good work.

[eyezonlyii]

Thanks guys. I went with the name to tie it to the other Chantry serving roles because Templars have the Knight ranks. And of course there's the Knight Enchanter for mages.
Also, the Red Templars have the Knight Stalker stab guys.

[Abraham_uk]

Companions and their Specialisations:

 

Steward (Warrior:): 

Spoiler

The steward spent much of her late childhood and early adulthood as an aid to a legendary Orlesian Chevalier. During this time she not only helped carry the Chevalier's gear, she helped maintain the gear, provided medical assistance and even carried curative items. In return she received training as a warrior.

 

Abilities:

 

Additional Storage [passive]: One of the duties of a steward is to carry lots of items. You can carry twice the number of poisons, traps, explosives and potions in battle.

 

Advanced Herbalism [passive]: Potions restore more health/stamina/manna. Potions that provide buffs will now provide even bigger buffs.

 

Gear Maintenance [passive]: The steward has been working hard to ensure that gear is at peak effectiveness. Weapons deal extra damage, armour has higher armour rating and enchantments have higher stats.

 

First Aid [Active]: Revive a fallen ally.

 

Stim Pack [Active]: Completely restore stamina/manna and remove all negative effects on an ally.

 

Flame Weapons [Active]: Add a fire enchantment to a single ally's weapons.

 

Ice Weapons [Active]: Add an ice enchantment to a single ally's weapons.

 

Shock Weapons [Active]: Add a shock enchantment to a single ally's weapons.

 

 

Spirit Warrior (Warrior): 

Spoiler

A human who had always dreamed of one day becoming a mage, but sadly didn't have the ability to cast magic. This was until one day he made a pact with a less than trustworthy spirit. The spirit promised him magical powers and low and behold kept it's end of the bargain. The human and spirit have now become one (much like Anders in Dragon Age 2). It is unclear who is the dominant and submissive in this relationship as both now fight for control over the body. This warrior has defensive abilities that help mitigate damage and draw attention. This risky build is speedy (which is unusual for a tank), evasive, very durable but sadly draws a lot of aggro on the battlefield.

 

This character is supposed to be Gollum meets Anders. So yes he does have a craving for magical abilities and there is a constant battle between two rival personalities.

 

 

Haste [Sustained]: Increase rate of attack but reduce damage per hit and accuracy. This mode does reserve a potion of stamina.

 

Spirit Cleanse [Passive]: Complete immunity to all negative effects, knockdown and rag doll effects. However this passive will reduce damage output.

 

Aggromancy [Active]: Half damage output and half damage taken for brief time. Also draw 100% of enemy attention.

 

Depletion Mode [Sustained]: Every attack will deal less damage but will reduce the amount of stamina a foe has. (This doesn't work on mages manna pool).

 

Fatiguing Mode [Active]: For a short time all attacks will slightly slow down a foe. This is the only ability in this tree that stacks with itself.

 

Weakening Mode [Active]: During this mode the warrior will have a chance of lowering their foe's damage resistance. This has a short duration.

 

Blinding Mode [Active]: During this mode the warrior will have a chance of lowing foe's accuracy.

 

Ravaging Calamity [Passive]: All of the Spirit Warrior abilities will weaken foes even more and last longer.

 

 

Dancer (Warrior):

Spoiler

 Antiva has a unique take on the Warriors. They are more about fluidity, finesse and precision. These fighters rely on smaller movements to deal critical hits. Much like the Antivian Assassins, Dancers believe that there is an art to combat. Each and every move is about timing. This dancer was an elf who joined the ranks. Orphaned by political strife in The Free Marches during the Rift Crisis, she began her new life learning the ways of The Dancers. Despite lacking in discipline, she soon proved herself to be a natural both in melee and ranged combat. (Please don't bring up the fact that The Dancer has a similar back story to a certain other dancer. That would be a massive spoiler).

 

Precision [Active]: For short time warrior's attacks will have a higher chance of landing critical hits.

 

Glance [Active]: For brief duration, whenever enemies hit you, there is a small chance that they will land what is known as a glancing blow. These glancing blows will deal a lot less damage.

 

Kick [Active]: This ability has no cooldown nor does it cost any stamina. Kick a foe at the right moment and you will knock down low level foes and stagger all other foes. If you time this badly, the enemy will attack your leg causing you to lose a bit of health.
In addition. A foe that is affected can take additional damage from your melee attacks.

 

Staggering Attacks [Sustained]: This mode reserves a portion of the Warrior's stamina to increase the chances of all attacks staggering opponents.

 

Block and Parry [Sustained]: This mode reserves a portion of the Warrior's stamina to increase the chances of automatically blocking and parrying in melee combat.

 

Nimble Fingers [Passive]: The warriors movements are smaller in battle. Whilst this slows down the warriors attack speed, this passive increases the warrior's damage output.

 

Enduring Finesse [Passive]: Increases the durations of Glance and Precision abilities, reduces their cool downs and stamina cost. + 3 Willpower on unlock

 

Reflexes [Passive]: You'll be notified when the time is right to kick an opponent or use the parry ability. This doesn't change the fact that you have a less than one second window to use either ability. 

 

 

Apostate Mage (Rogue): 

Spoiler

Throughout his life he was on the run from the Templars. As a result he ditched the robes and the staff, instead opting for silent daggers and a bow for long range. He has become more rogue than mage, relying on stealth, alchemy and traps along with his dual daggers and combat to stay alive. As for magical abilities, he uses spells that are harder to detect. Small single target spells that use a separate manna bar whilst the rest of his abilities rely on stamina.

 

Unbalance [Active]: Send out a magical hex that will making enemies fall over unless they pass a mental resistance check. Those that do pass the check will suffer reduced accuracy and speed.

 

Frenzy [Active]: Send out a field that confuses enemies causing them to attack one another.

 

Magical Weapons [Active]: The rogue buffs their own weapon damage for a short period of time.

 

Energy Boost [Active]: Transfer manna to stamina.

 

Arcane Flask [Active]: An area of effect damage dealing spell that has been disguised as a flask. This deals some moderate damage to multiple targets and has a fast cooldown.

 

Improved Concoctions [Sustained]: Your alchemy abilities are infused with magic causing them to deal even more damage. They will however cost both stamina and mana whilst this mode is active.

 

Improved Traps [Sustained]: Your artificer abilities are infused with magic causing them to deal even more damage. They will however cost both stamina and mana whilst this mode is active.

 

Magical Enhancement [Passive]: Your magical prowess grants you +1 to each and all of your attributes. This passive also improves all of your Apostate abilities.

 

 

Bard (Rogue): 

Spoiler

The Bard is a silver tongued mainstay of the political elite. She is crafty, manipulative and dangerous out of combat and equally dangerous to face in combat. Her parents brought her up in a world of lies, deceit and intrigue so it is little wonder that these skills come natural to her. As for her fighting prowess, this began as self defence lessons but after having accidentally killed a serial murderer in a close quarters situation, she took up lessons in dual wielding and archery. The Bard has now become a vigilante who prowls around town killing those who have done wrong. She fights dirty with moves such as low blow, feign death and misdirection, but can also use her charm to buff allies. Whilst she may have a soft spot for the down trodden, she is at heart a cold blooded killer and an ambitious social climber. Her morality is a little hard to define since she does show compassion from time to time but this is tempered by streaks of ruthlessness. (Yes this is pretty much The Punisher meets Leliana.

 

Below The Belt [Active]: Attack a foes legs reducing mobility. Male opponents be warned. Rogues will go straight for the midsection weakening foe's damage output and damage resistance.

 

Insult [Active]: The rogue taunts a foe with an insult. This insult puts the foe into a rage. This rage greatly reduces their accuracy but also increases their damage output.

 

Dummy Attack [Active]: The rogue will issue a dummy attack at an enemy. The enemy will of course try to counter this attack, but in doing so will open themselves up. For a brief 1 second window that foe will be very vulnerable to any attack. The entire party can exploit this situation.

 

Divert Attention [Active]: Divert attention from the rogue to an ally of your choice. This ability will make all foes attack chosen ally instead. This is best used if there is a tank on the battlefield.

 

Song of Valour [Active]: The bard sings an ancient tale of valorous heroes, granting the party bonuses to mana or stamina regeneration at a rate affected by the bard's cunning. The bard can only sing one song at a time.

 

Song of Courage [Active]: The bard launches into an epic song of the party's exploits, granting them bonuses to attack, damage, and critical chance. The size of the bonuses are affected by the bard's cunning. The bard can only sing one song at a time.

 

Captivating Song [Active]: A song that distracts foes and stuns any foe that doesn't pass a mental resistance check.

 

Bardic Tradition [Passive]: This passive improves your bard abilities by adding 10 points to your cunning.

 

 

Acrobat (Rogue): 

Spoiler

She was a circus performer until the circus was accidental burnt down in her late teens. With everyone she knew dead and no other source of income, she decided to join the Inquisition. It was here that she was trained as a fighter, using blades and bows. It was here that she made a name for herself as part of a motley crew of assembled fighters each known by their specialisation Keeper, Legionnaire, Assassin, Alchemist, Elementalist, Arcane Warrior etc. The Acrobat is very fast, good at rushing to the aid of allies or charging into groups of enemies undaunted and relying on her natural evasiveness to make up for her lack of armour.

 

Rush [Active]: The rogue will rush attempting to knock down all nearby enemies. This requires a target.

 

Silent Dash [Active]: The rogue will sprint a short distance. This can be done without interrupting stealth.

 

Evasion [Active]: For brief time you greatly increase the rogue's rate of evasion.

 

Speed [Sustained]: This mode boosts the rogue's speed. You cannot use this at the same time as precision and/or power.

 

Precision [Sustained]: This mode boosts the rogue's accuracy and critical chance. You cannot use this at the same time as speed.

 

Harmony [Passive]: Improves all of the sustained abilities in the Acrobat skill tree.

 

Athleticism [Passive]: Improves all of the active abilities in the Acrobat skill tree.

 

Evade and Strike [Passive]: All successful evasions are always followed by an automatic counter attack.

 

 

Walking Battery (Mage): 

Spoiler

During the Rift Crisis, The Inquisition found that their fighters were getting exhausted after many days of fighting relentless monsters from the fade. In the end for many warriors, it wasn't the fade creatures that killed them but fatigue. That was until one Tevinter Mage had devised a solution. "The Walking Battery". He managed to find a way to tap into a special energy resource from the fade that would keep the warriors fighting for longer. Much longer. Walking Batteries have a secondary pool of mana that the other members of the party can draw from to use their physical and magical attacks. The energy pool also increases the damage and can even be used to reset the cooldowns of the entire party. Meanwhile the Walking Battery uses the primary manna pool for their own personal magical abilities (creation, entropy, evocation, invocation, primal and spirit).

 

Untapped Resources [Passive]: Adds a secondary manna pool which is use to fuel the abilities of this tree and also the abilities of all allies. This is a pre-requisite for all of the below abilities in this tree.

 

Walking Battery [Sustained]: Buffs effectiveness of party abilities. Also party will expend mana from the Walking Battery's secondary mana pool rather than using their own stamina/mana.

 

Time Spirial [Active]: Reset all cooldowns for entire party.

 

Stamina Drain [Active]: Steal stamina/mana from an enemy to restore secondary mana pool.

 

Energy Transfer [Active]:  Transfer mana from mana primary pool to secondary mana pool.

 

Energy Burst [Active]: For brief time party's attacks consumes more mana from secondary pool for huge damage buffs. Please note that this ability requires Walking Battery to be used.

 

Shield Generator [Sustained]: An aura around the caster will automatically restore barriers to allies continuously. This consumes secondary mana rapidly.

 

Arcane Powerhouse [Passive]: Take 50% less damage from all magical and elemental attacks. The other 50% will restore secondary mana.

 

 

Shape Shifter (Mage): 

Spoiler

Shape shifters are amongst the least trusted of the mages. This particular apostate mage has been eluding Templars by shifting between different animal forms and even using their shape shifting abilities to impersonate fellow Templars. Little is known about him other than he may or may not be related to Morrigan. Him and Morrigan are not in speaking terms because of something that might have happened in the past. It is unclear what happened since him and Morrigan have completely different stories about what happened. 

 

His abilities include Spider form, Crows form, Shadow Wolf form and Bronto Form. Each of those four forms have a separate health and stamina bar. When the health of the form is depleted or the form is manually deactivated you will have to wait half and hour before you can use that specific form. In addition there is the impersonate ability. This is not a shape shift form but rather a trickery which allows him to blend into a crowd of enemies before performing a critical hit.

 

 

Spider [Shape Shift Form]: Has three abilities: "Bite" that deals some damage, "Web" that traps enemies and "Spew Venom" that deals damage over time to multiple foes.

 

Shadow Wolf [Shape Shift Form]: Has three abilities: "Sneak" that allows you to stealth around the battlefield, "Claw" that deals some damage, and "Pounce" which charges at a foe dealing moderate damage. Please note that "Claw" and "Pounce" deal a lot more damage if you're undetected.

 

Bronto [Shape Shift Form]: Has three abilities: "Stronghold" that guards an ally taking damage in their place, "Charge" which is like "Pounce" only slower but more effective at knocking down multiple foes and staggering boss enemies. Bronto also has Stomp that creates a mini earth quake staggering foes.

 

Crows [Shape Shift Form]: Has three abilities: "Overwhelm" that targets one enemy causing them to panic as crows swarm around them, "Targeted Strikes" where the crows attack weak points in enemy armour to deal a lot of damage and "Distract" and ability that draws attention of one enemy.

 

Impersonate [Active]: For brief time assume the appearance of an enemy to blend into a group of enemies. This is not a shape shift form so it won't grant you their abilities. However it allows you to flank foes, attack from within whilst your allies are attacking them. This has a small chance of granting the shape shifter a critical hit.

 

Durable Shape Shifting [Passive]: Your four shape shift forms have more stamina and health.

 

Animal Lover [Passive]: A magical aura makes animals non threatening towards the mage and the party unless you attack the animals first.

 

Shifting Focus [Passive]: To shape shift, you must expend a lot of mana. Upon coming out of a shape shift form you must wait 30 minutes before you can use that ability again. However this passive halves the mana required and halves the cooldowns. This doesn't apply to Impersonate as it already has a short cooldown and costs little mana.

 

 

 

Necromancer (Mage): 

Spoiler

She has always been blind, death and mute. That was until one day she found a way of connecting with a spirit from the fade. This spirit gave her the ability to see, hear and even speak. She was only 8 years of age, but from that day onwards she became excited about the possibilities that magic could hold for her. In Thedas, there is no support for people with disabilities and magic provided her a means by which she could interact with people.

 

Magic had saved her life particularly after her parents abandoned her because they didn't want to face the shame of raising a disabled child. So it was due to her disability that she grew more and more attached to the fade, naively trusting all kinds of spirits since no one was there to guide her. Thus she learnt the hard way what spirits could do. After many bad experiences in the fade, she managed to find ways of outsmarting and even controlling spirits within the fade and thus began her craving for power. She became more enticed by having the power over life and death. She became a necromancer.

 

Death Siphon [Passive]: Leach mana from corpses on the battlefield.

 

Walking Bomb [Active]: You curse an enemy, inflicting ongoing spirit damage, and then trigger the curse in a devastating explosion. If Walking Bomb kills your target, the effect spreads to nearby enemies, causing secondary explosions.

 

Spirit Mark [Active]: You mark a target with an attacking spirit, inflicting ongoing damage. If the target dies while marked, the spirit mimics the victims body briefly to fight on your behalf.

 

Death Cloud [Active]: The caster summons a cloud of leeching entropic energy that deals continuous spirit damage to all who enter. Friendly fire possible.

 

Curse of Mortality [Active]: The caster curses a target with the inevitability of true death. While cursed, it cannot heal or regenerate health and takes continuous spirit damage.

 

Death Hex [Active]: The target suffers a hex of lethal bad luck. Every normal hit it suffers becomes a critical hit.

 

Death Magic [Sustained]: While active, the caster draws in nearby entropic energy, draining residual life-force from any dead enemy nearby to heal the caster.

 

Draining Aura [Sustained]: The caster creates a field that drains life from nearby enemies to heal the mage for as long as the spell is active. Each time an enemy is drained, the spell consumes a small amount of the mage's mana.

 

[Spellbound7]

Witch Hunter, of course! I'm definitely gonna try to make that one

[Abraham_uk]

Witch Hunter, of course! I'm definitely gonna try to make that one

 

I've handled the back stories of the companions.

I am going to be adding abilities.

 

Your ideas are awesome! I particularly look forward to your Witch Hunter, especially after that exciting suggestion from eyezonlyii. You know what you're doing, which is why I've decided to handle companion specialisations rather than player character specialisations.

 

 

I've done all 9 of them. They are:

 

Steward (Warrior)

Spirit Warrior (Warrior)

Dancer (Warrior)

Apostate Mage (Rogue)

Bard (Rogue)

Acrobat (Rogue)

Walking Battery (Mage)

Shape Shifter (Mage)

Necromancer (Mage)

 

I hope this companions are interesting, fun and complement the player character well.

Each character has their own back story. I haven't decided on names for the characters so for now they're known only by their Specialisations.

So what do you think? [The post I'm referring to is above this one].

[Spellbound7]

Oh, I thought you were making specs for the existing companions, not new ones lol. Idk how relevant new companions are to this thread, but new classes are always welcome. Here's what I thought of them:

 

Spoiler

Steward: Stim Packs sounds out of place, and having enchantments is not something I'd expect from a warrior. First Aid and Gear Maintenance, however, sound like skills a steward would have. Some name tweaks are in order, but overall I can see the appeal. Gear Maintenance sounds like a party-wide skill, though. Like, the steward knows how to take better care of equipment and so she can make sure the entire party is well-equipped.

 

Spirit Warrior: Passives with negative side effects are undesireable. Better make it Sustained without an upkeep so you can decide when to make use of it or not. Aggromancy is a lulzy name, but basically a better form of taunting, imo. Tanks rarely need to deal that much damage if they have good dps guys on their side. It's an interesting mix of tanking and debuffing. Personally, I'd make a spirit warrior a bit flashier.

 

Dancer: thematically sound. Glance is a particularly interesting skill, although I'd would imagine Staggering Attacks would git better on a more brunt-than-grace type of character. Also, shouldn't this be a Rogue class and not warrior, or do you mean that as a way for a Warrior to spec as a nimble-type character?

 

Apostate Mage: I'm always one for making more diverse Mages. I would have expected a magic version of Stealth in there though. The focus on alchemy does sound like it would make for a great disguise to fool people into believing they're only seeing flasks fly around when there's some magic in it. Them is cool, and Energy Transfer adds an interesting layer of complexity to the combat. Fenzy overlaps with Confusion Grenade, btw.

 

Bard: I've always found the idea of singing in the middle of combat quite funny unless there was magic involved. Bards, in all honesty, feel like they would work best as a Mage spec... or with enchanted instruments. With the added lore from the DA series that Bards are spies, it seems logical to have a mixture of Scoundrels skills from DA2 and the actual Bard spec from DA:O. It's an interesting blend.

 

Acrobat: Basically a better evasion Rogue. So... a 'tanky' rogue? Sounds good, though not sure how fun that would be to actually play. I'd imagine it would be comical to see the enemy miss all the time, however.

 

Walking Battery: Honestly needs a name chance, but good concept. I'd recommend not confining this class to just the one role, however. That being said, those last 3 skills sound great. Mana for Barriers? Take more magic damage but regen ur mana? Sounds like a great combo to me  Potentially OP, however.

 

Shapeshifter: as long as the shape shifting doesn't take 2 years to cast, I'm good. DA:O's was kinda boring.

 

Necromancer: good mix of Entropy and Spirit spells. Basically Dorian, but better. At least, as far as I remember. Wasn't really fond of Necro in Inquisition.

 

UPDATE

 

• Witch-Hunter Specialisation added. Check it out in the OP or here.
• Rift Mage Specialisation changed to Fade Lord. Check it out in the OP, or here.

 

I am currently changing Primal and Creation to be more in-line with Origins. Check back for updates.

[Abraham_uk]

Oh, I thought you were making specs for the existing companions, not new ones lol. Idk how relevant new companions are to this thread, but new classes are always welcome.

I was thinking about a future game set long after the events of Dragon Age Inquisition rather than the current one.

Okay my review of Fade Lord and Witch Hunter.

 

 

 

Fade Lord: A fast paced defensive mage that can slow down groups of enemies, sap their mana, ward against oncoming attacks and entrap foes. This is a highly useful skill tree with some neat abilities. This is great for mages who specialise as weapon wielding "Invokers". Since mages are more squishy than their rogue and warrior counterparts, this tree will allow the mage some much needed breathing room whilst they tear apart their enemies. Some great ideas here. I can't wait to see what you've got in store for the next mage skill tree.

 

Witch Hunters: For mages; Templars and Witch Hunters are as feared as the spirits and daemons of the Fade. The Witch Hunter has many creative uses of lyrium from rapidly throwing lyrium infused knives, sending out cannon blasts to silence mages, staggering foes with lyrium grenades and flaying opponents causing bleeding and confusion. This anti-mage specialisation is not just powerful set of abilities, it is the literal death sentence for all mages hostile and non-hostile alike. For a mage to face them, they know full well that they don't stand a chance. Brilliant idea! I love it!

[Spellbound7]

UPDATE

 

• Primal tree overhauled. Now includes lightning spells to be more lore-friendly. Due to the nature of the new Primal tree, it only contains 9 skills. Check Fundamental Changes section for additional details.
• Creation tree updated to include healing, glyphs and augmentors to fill up the void left by the removal of lightning spells.
• Healing Stream moved from Spirit to Creation. Spirit tree now has Mind Blast.
• Arcane Blast replaced with Arcane Weapons in the Evocation tree.
• Repulsion Field replaced with Overwhelming in Fade Lord tree. Repulsion Glyph in Creation tree made it redundant.
• New status effects added to list on OP.

[Abraham_uk]

Primal Tree: Sacrifices had to be made in order to condense fire, ice and lightning into one tree. Despite this, the tree is an exciting use of spells. Precision, Wave, Tempest and Flow, each applying damage in different ways and then freely switch between elements as you cast the same 4 spells but with vastly different results. The primal tree is a flexible tree with highly destructive results to anyone who dares challenge the mage.

 

Creation: Same as before, but with the addition of two brand new glyphs, an aura to buff your allies and a mode that will speed them up. Now the Creation tree is the healing, buffing, crowd control machine that it was always meant to be. Add to this a sand cloud and  a wall of damaging brambles and you turn your nature themed mage into a highly versatile defender.

 

Other Changes: Mind Blast is a useful ability, I'm glad it's made a come back. Arcane Weapons is another nice ability. Overwhelming fade is a highly risky ability. Damn. The Fade Lord is a very powerful glass cannon for a brief period of time. I love it. Great changes. I look forward to your next skill trees.

 

Game Mechanics: There is a long section of your post where you talk about mechanics. Expect a review of that soon. I'm loving those mage gauntlets by the way. Monk mage for the win!

 

 

The Specialisations:

 

I assume that the Player Specialisations and the Character specialisations will be separate and distinct. In which case my next post will look at ways to make their abilities fit your new ideas. Don't get me wrong, the Dragon Age Inquisition specialisations are exciting, it's just that in this thread they will need changing to prevent overlapping with your other ideas.

 

As for Rift Mage. Don't worry. I have it covered. Thankfully you've missed out 2 elemental types.

Regarding Knight Enchanter, I reckon I can make Spirit Blade work. But it's probably not going to be what you think it might be...

[Abraham_uk]

Specialisations: Each party member will have their own unique specialisations.

 

Iron Bull [Reaver]:

Spoiler

 

 

As the battle gets bloodier, the vicious Iron Bull becomes even more brutal. Hurting him just makes him made. A mistake most enemies don't live to repeat.

 

Ring of Pain [Active]: You mark part of the battlefield as yours. Enemies inside the ring take spirit damage while your own attacks hit harder, The more you are hurt, the stronger both effects are.

 

Blood Frenzy [Passive]: They thought you'd get weaker once they wounded you. They were wrong. Damage Bonus: 5% for each 10% missing health.

 

Terrifying Fury [Passive]: Your critical strikes have a chance to cause a gory mess and send nearby enemies fleeing in a panic.

 

Fervor [Passive]: When an enemy dies near you, the thrill of death spurs you to hit that much harder. Gain 30% damage bonus.

 

Scenting Blood [Passive]: Being near a badly wounded enemy spurs you into a frenzy, driving you to move faster and giving you a better chance of striking deadly blows.

 

Devour [Active]: You launch an attack fuelled by your fury, ripping into foes for damage that increases as your own wounds deepen. Ring of Pain significantly increases the effect. You take damage with each swing.

 

Dragon Rage [Active]: You're an unstoppable fury of physical force while this ability is active. Your attacks are harder and faster, and you gain health with each strike. This has a very long cool down.

 

Blood Bath [Active]: For a brief time your attacks are more likely to inflict a bleeding status effect. If a target is affected by any other negative effect however, you are guaranteed to inflict the bleeding status effect (unless the target is unable to bleed).

 

 

Cassandra [Templar]: 

Spoiler

 

Cassandra is an unrelenting warriors who specializes in fighting mages and demons. No enemy's magic can withstand her, and she inspires and protect her allies with her righteous power.

 

Blessed Blades [Active]: You rally all of your nearby allies to fight with greater strength, especially when facing demons.

 

Spell Purge [Active]: Through faith and will, you dispel all hostile magic from the area around you all hostile magic in area dispelled. This includes barriers and other beneficial effects.

 

Maker's Will [Active]: Your party's attacks have a chance to weaken their targets.

 

Champions of The Just [Passive]: Your righteous fervor inspires the entire party to fight harder against demons.

 

There is no Darkness [Passive]: Your faith is your protection against the elements, and not for you alone. The entire party gains increased resistance to fire, ice, electric, and spirit damage.

 

Wrath of Heaven [Active]: You summon a blinding pillar of light that stuns nearby enemies and damages demons.

 

The Maker's Shield [Active]: For a brief time spells aimed at the Templar will be deflected away. There will be a 1/3 chance that the deflected spells will be returned to the hostile caster.

 

The Last Sacrifice [Passive]: Even should you fall, you give your allies strength to fight harder in your name. When Cassandra is knocked out, party members gain a 50% damage bonus.

 

 

Blackwall [Champion]: 

Spoiler

 

Blackwall's time as a Grey Warden has taught him the most important lesson of warfare: survival. It's not about how many enemies you can kill, it's about outlasting the enemies. Blackwall's abilities have been learnt from not only his experience in battle but also through training and researching combat techniques used by previous Grey Wardens.

 

Line In The Sand [Active]: You call upon the legacy of the greatest champions in history, defying enemies as you hold your position. This stops enemies from moving past you and enables you to block choke points.

 

Adamant Bullwark [Passive]: You stand all the stronger to finish the fight, gaining a bonus to your maximum guard. In addition your armour's effectiveness has been greatly increased. Maximum guard bonus +25% and Armour Bonus + 20%.

 

To The Death [Active]: You taunt an enemy into a frenzy. Their damage output increases over time, but so does the damage they take. The effect ends if you get out of range. 

 

Unyielding Resilience [Passive]: An attack the would bring you down instead leave you with a small amount of health, and you are immune to all damage for a short time. In addition enemies that hit you with melee attacks are staggered by recoil.

 

Depletion Mode [Active]: Every attack will deal less damage but will reduce the amount of stamina a foe has. (This doesn't work on mages manna pool).
 

Counterstrike [Active]: For a brief time every melee attack the Championt receives will be answered with a counter attack.

 

Ravaging Calamity [Passive]: All of the Champion's negative effects abilities will weaken foes even more and last longer.

 

Final Stand [Long Duration Active]:  Maximum guard, half damage output and half damage taken. Also draw 100% of enemy attention. Please note that this ability remains active until all enemies on the battlefield are slain. Also with every foe that is killed, the remaining foes will become even more desperate to kill you causing their damage output to increase. This is a very risky taunt ability.

 

 

Cole [Assassin]: 

Spoiler

Any rogue can kill a target, but assassins make death into an art form. They specialize in quick, deadly kills that let them slide back into the shadows undetected, or indirect kills that eliminate targets while the assassin is safely away. Cole is one such Assassin.

 

Many ideas taken from Duellist 76.

 

Assassinate [Active, Single Target]: One shot, one kill is the oft repeated mantra for every Assassin. With a single strike, the Assassin can eliminate most foes outright while survivors suffer a massive critical hit.

 

Precision [Active, Personal]: Even without the safety of the shadows the Assassin is still a dangerous adversary, especially with time to study their target. The likelihood of landing a critical hit increases by 10% every second for 10 seconds.

 

Hidden Blades [Active]: They'll swear you leapt from the shadows like the thrown blade and hit your target with a flurry of strikes from every angle... but its obvious that you were nowhere near them at the time.

 

Mark of Death [Active]: You mark your enemy, and every hit adds part of its power to the mark's damage. Trigger your mark when you are ready, and watch your enemy fall from injuries that were never even noticed. You can manually trigger the mark early for bonus damage.

In addition the first attack from Stealth inflicts 15% more damage against an enemy who has yet to take damage while ignoring 50% of their armour.

 

Cloak of Shadows [Active]: You go into stealth, and your allies follow your lead. The entire party remains undetected for the duration of the effect, even while attacking. This ability has a very long cool down.

 

Flicker [Active, AoE]: You become a blur, striking up to four enemies in a small radius. Every strike is a critical hit.

 

I Was Never Here [Passive]: You have learned to use the distraction of an enemy's death to slip silently into the shadows. Killing a target removes any cooldown on stealth.

 

Knife In The Shadows [Passive]: You are a deadly threat to any enemy that can't see you coming. When you attack from stealth, you automatically critical hit. In addition your attacks slip past armor to find a target's hidden vulnerabilities.

Armour Penetration: 25%

 

 

Varric [Story Teller]: 

Spoiler

 

Varric is a skilled adventurer with a variety of different abilities. Abilities he learnt from his time in the Merchant Guild, "looking after" Hawke and helping out The Inquisition. Be it special abilities with his crossbow or inspiring his comrades with an embellished tale before the battle begins, Varric is one companion you'll want at your side during both times of struggle and times of peace.

 

Bianca's Song [Active]: Varric hums a melody under his breath, recalling the untellable tale of how Bianca got her name. Few things focus Varric as much.  Critical damage: +5% Critical Chance + 5%.  Attack speed: +10% and +10% Movement speed,+10% for entire party. 10% faster cooldowns for entire party as well.

 

 

Improved Engineering [Passive]: Due to faults in the design of crossbows, they have huge kickback and often miss their target when fired rapidly. This passive helps fix those issues, greatly reducing recoil. This also increases the ar

 

Rhyming Triplet [Active]: Fire three bolts in a row. The first bolt applies a bleeding status effect (useless on foes who can't bleed), the second bolt applies a temporary blindness effect (reducing a foe's accuracy) and third applies a slowing effect (slowing down the target). Please note that if you haven't selected Aim and Improved engineering there is a good chance that only the first of 3 bolts hits the target.

 

Armour Piercing Bolt [Active]: A bolt that completely ignores armour rating dealing 100% of a shot's potential damage. This shot has a higher chance of landing a critical hit.

 

And Take Them Down [Passive]: Your experience with finding and pointing out enemy vulnerabilities gives the entire party a better chance to land critical hits. Critical Hit Chance Bonus: 15%

 

Tricks of The Trade [Active]: You help the team make the most of its abilities, increasing the damage and duration of all status effects the party applies. Damage Bonus: 10%. Duration Bonus: 10%.

 

Knock Out Bomb [Active]: You hurl a grenade containing a powerful concoction that put nearby enemies to sleep. Sleeping enemies awaken after taking damage.

 

Flask of  Amplification [Active]: Throw a flask that increases the duration and area of effect of an ally's attacks. This is only effective if said ally is using either AoE and/or Duration based attacks.

 

 

Sera [Tempest]: 

Spoiler

These unpredictable experts specialize in using alchemical mixtures that wreathe them in frost or flame. Fast, chaotic, and possibly mad, they wade into the fight and dare enemies to face the storm. Sera is one such Tempest.

 

Flask of Frost [Active]: This flask coats you in an icy skin that increases your armor and freezes enemies that strike you in melee range. You can't use this ability while another one is active.

Damage Resistance: 85%  Freeze Duration: 1 second

 

Flask Maker [Passive]: Your experience with elixirs has made you better equipped to handle potions and other consumables, letting you carry more of them at a time and giving you a 25% chance not to use an elixir when you activate an ability. This ability does not apply to healing potions.

Maximum Potions Bonus: 1   Chance to Activate: 25%

 

Ride The Storm [Passive]: The effect of your elixir lasts longer if you activate one immediately after another expires.

Bonus Duration: 3 seconds

 

Flask of Fire [Active]: This flask coats you in flames that spur you to frenzied action. For a short time, your abilities cost no stamina, and enemies who attack you are knocked backward. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active.

 

Fury of The Storm [Passive]: When your stamina is exhausted, you fight even harder, lashing out with fury to win the fight.

Damage Bonus: 10% when Stamina < 50%

 

Killer's Alchemy [Passive]: You can use more concentrated elixirs that give you an uncanny edge in battle. You do bonus damage with all attacks for a short time whenever you use an elixir or potion. This bonus is stackable.

 

Flask of Lightning [Active]: This flask sends you into a heightened state of incredible speed. Everyone on the battlefield except you moves much more slowly for a short time. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active. Please note that this ability has a long cooldown.

 

Thousand Cuts [Active]: You choose a target, then dash to and fro- a shadow leaving blood with every leap. After you slice through other nearby foes, you land behind your target, striking deep. This ability has a long cooldown.

 

 

Dorian [Necromancer]: 

Spoiler

 

These mages specialize in binding the spirits that are drawn to death. They can put the fear of death into enemies, bring spirits to fight on their behalf, and even cause devastating explosions when their enemies die. Dorian is one such Necromancer.

 

Death Siphon [Passive]: Leach mana from corpses on the battlefield.

 

Walking Bomb [Active]: You curse an enemy, inflicting ongoing spirit damage, and then trigger the curse in a devastating explosion. If Walking Bomb kills your target, the effect spreads to nearby enemies, causing secondary explosions.

 

Spirit Mark [Active]: You mark a target with an attacking spirit, inflicting ongoing damage. If the target dies while marked, the spirit mimics the victims body briefly to fight on your behalf.

 

Death Cloud [Active]: The caster summons a cloud of leeching entropic energy that deals continuous spirit damage to all who enter. Those affected cannot heal or regenerate health. Friendly fire possible.

 

Death Hex [Active]: The target suffers a hex of lethal bad luck. Every normal hit it suffers becomes a critical hit.

 

Death Magic [Sustained]: While active, the caster draws in nearby entropic energy, draining residual life-force from any dead enemy nearby to heal the caster.

 

Power of The Dead [Passive]: Killing enemies attracts spirits that increase the power of your spells for a short time.

 

Simulacrum [Passive]:  If you are knocked unconscious, a spirit you control takes on your likeness and fights on your behalf for a short time. The spirit draws magic directly from the fade, casting spells without cost. You cannot be revived by any means until the spirit leaves.

 

 

Vivienne [Knight Enchanter]: 

Spoiler

 

Vivienne's unique abilities allows her to defend her party whilst tackling threats of an acrane nature.

 

Spirit Blade [Active]: You create a blade of solid magic that attacks enemy's stamina, mana, barriers and guard. This attack is very weak against health though.

 

Fade Cloak [Active]: You surround yourself with the magic of the Veil itself. You are briefly invulnerable and can pass through enemies unharmed. Upon decloaking you deal a lot of spirit damage to nearby foes.

 

Arcane Sphere [Active]: Set up a 5m radius sphere that increases the speed, damage output and damage resistance of everyone within. This is a risky move since everyone friend and foe alike can benefit from this sphere.

Fatiguing Fog [Active]: Send out a cloud that reduces the speed, amount of stamina/manna available and damage resistance of everyone within (friend or foe). The debuffs only applies to those within the fog.

 

Combat Clarity [Passive]: The chaos of combat frightens some, but for you, its a comfortable rhythm. Your mana regenerates faster when you're near hostile enemies.  Mana Regeneration: 50% if enemy within 5 meters.

 

Fade Shield [Passive]: You draw back the energy released by your enemies in your attacks against them. Any successful attack strengthens your barrier. The more damage you do, the more powerful your barrier grows. Barrier: 30% of damage dealt.

 

Veiled Riposte [Passive]: Whenever you have a barrier active, enemies who attack you will take damage in return. Damage Returned: 20%.

 

Knight Protector [Passive]: You're adept with defensive magic. Barriers you create take longer to naturally decay. Barrier Decay Reduction: 35%

 

 

Solas [Rift Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Sola's connection to the fade grants him some powerful forceful abilities that can turn groups of attacking enemies into groups of flying enemies.

 

Stone Fist [Active]: You summon a boulder from the Fade and smash it into your target, sending them flying. This will also explode dealing damage to nearby enemies. Spirit Damage: 500% weapon damage.

 

Earthquake [Active]: The caster disrupts the earth, causing a violent quake that knocks everyone in the targeted area to the ground every few seconds, unless they pass a physical resistance check. Foes who do pass the resistance check will be staggered, suffer a penalty to their accuracy and be unable to perform critical hits. It is also notable that foes in the Earthquake zone will be unable to perform talents or spells since they require a lot of mental focus to perform. Friendly fire possible.

 

Tornado [Active]: Hurl enemies into the air. When the tornado ends they will fall to the ground taking a lot of damage. Foes who pass the resistance check will suffer a negative status effect that remains even when leaving the tornado area of effect. This negative status effect will make them stagger as they move about and they will suffer a debuff to their movement speed, attack speed and damage output. This is a temporary affliction that will only last 10 seconds.

 

Restorative Veil [Passive]: You pull stray magic from around weakened enemies to regain mana based on the damage you do to them.

 

Encircling Veil [Passive]: You use stray magic around weakened enemies to increase the power of status effects on them.

Duration Bonus vs. Weakened: 25% longer.

 

Smothering Veil [Passive]: Rag doll attacks deal more damage to foes who do not pass the resistance checks. Foes who do pass resistance checks will suffer even greater debuffs.

 

Twisting Veil [Passive]: You catch stray magic around weakened enemies and use it to increase the damage of your own attacks.

 

Unshakable [Sustained]: The mage suppresses the physical and elemental force of incoming attacks, becoming immune to knockdown and all elemental based negative effects (including chilled, burning, stunned, wet, drenched etc). This mode will however increase length of cooldowns and mana costs.

 

 

Inquisitor [Player Character]: 

Spoiler

 

In addition to having 3 specialisations to choose from (per class) the Inquisitor has a second specialisation. This specialisation is available regardless of class picked and will grant The Inquisitor a set of abilities that only they possess. [That's 8 skill trees in total, whereas allies only have 7]. None of the active abilities in this tree consume mana or stamina, however they do have long cooldowns.

 

Close Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: The Inquisitor can close rifts using the mysterious mark on their hand. Obviously can only be used near a rift.

 

Mark of the Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: Causes massive damage and can even kill some enemies instantly. However can only be used near a rift.

 

Aegis of The Rift [Active]: You turn the Veil itself into a magical shield that deflects enemy projectiles.

 

Focused Teamwork [Active]: During this mode successfully performing an ability combo leads to greater combo damage.

 

Rift Torture [Active]: A blast of energy that puts foes over a large area of effect in severe pain for a few seconds. Foes will be paralyzed. 

 

Enhancement From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Strength and +10 to Magic. (Cannot use at same time as Perception From The Rift)

 

Perception From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Cunning and +10 to Dexterity. (Cannot use at same time as Enhancement From The Rift).

 

Lessons From The Rift [Passive]: 9 attribute points to spend.

 

Dance of The Rift [Passive]: Increases chances of counter attacks at melee range.

 

Gear From The Rift [Passive]: Certain gear has unique enchantments. When worn by your party members, they will not be able to benefit from this gear. When worn by the Inquisitor however, the gear will have some unique buffs.

 

 

 

So what do you think?

[Brainfist]

While I think that the fighting sytem in DA:I has its flaws my changes wold be more conservative. I have some ideas. I.e. new (or old xD) weapon-stats on every weapon such as strength-multiplicator, armor piercing and crit damage. (same thing for armor) Changing your weapons in fight would possible and usefull again.
Furthermore I would give the player the opotion to distribute ablitiy-points, while I would also change the effects of those, so it is actually usefull to spread your points a bit(So no warriors with 100 Strength but zero agillity).
The overall classes would be pretty the same, but adding the ability for warriors to use bows (and maybe crossbows) and dual wield one-handed weapons. Daggers can be used by all classes. But since they will be pretty crap weapons without skills mages are still bad in melee combat.
Rogues also can dual-wield, but they don't get the abillity to use two swords at once. The dual-dagger tree would be completley removed, but some skills could go into the other rogue-trees.
Maybe I will specify a bit more in an other post but I`m hungry now.

[Spellbound7]

While I think that the fighting sytem in DA:I has its flaws my changes wold be more conservative. I have some ideas. I.e. new (or old xD) weapon-stats on every weapon such as strength-multiplicator, armor piercing and crit damage. (same thing for armor) Changing your weapons in fight would possible and usefull again.
Furthermore I would give the player the opotion to distribute ablitiy-points, while I would also change the effects of those, so it is actually usefull to spread your points a bit(So no warriors with 100 Strength but zero agillity).
The overall classes would be pretty the same, but adding the ability for warriors to use bows (and maybe crossbows) and dual wield one-handed weapons. Daggers can be used by all classes. But since they will be pretty crap weapons without skills mages are still bad in melee combat.
Rogues also can dual-wield, but they don't get the abillity to use two swords at once. The dual-dagger tree would be completley removed, but some skills could go into the other rogue-trees.
Maybe I will specify a bit more in an other post but I`m hungry now.

 

I haven't given much thought to attributes - I was more focused on the skills themselves - but you should check the Fundamental Changes and Skill Tree Distributions sections of the OP as it covers most of what you said.

 

Spoiler

Specialisations: Each party member will have their own unique specialisations.

 

Iron Bull [Reaver]:

Spoiler

 

 

As the battle gets bloodier, the vicious Iron Bull becomes even more brutal. Hurting him just makes him made. A mistake most enemies don't live to repeat.

 

Ring of Pain [Active]: You mark part of the battlefield as yours. Enemies inside the ring take spirit damage while your own attacks hit harder, The more you are hurt, the stronger both effects are.

 

Blood Frenzy [Passive]: They thought you'd get weaker once they wounded you. They were wrong. Damage Bonus: 5% for each 10% missing health.

 

Terrifying Fury [Passive]: Your critical strikes have a chance to cause a gory mess and send nearby enemies fleeing in a panic.

 

Fervor [Passive]: When an enemy dies near you, the thrill of death spurs you to hit that much harder. Gain 30% damage bonus.

 

Scenting Blood [Passive]: Being near a badly wounded enemy spurs you into a frenzy, driving you to move faster and giving you a better chance of striking deadly blows.

 

Devour [Active]: You launch an attack fuelled by your fury, ripping into foes for damage that increases as your own wounds deepen. Ring of Pain significantly increases the effect. You take damage with each swing.

 

Dragon Rage [Active]: You're an unstoppable fury of physical force while this ability is active. Your attacks are harder and faster, and you gain health with each strike. This has a very long cool down.

 

Blood Bath [Active]: For a brief time your attacks are more likely to inflict a bleeding status effect. If a target is affected by any other negative effect however, you are guaranteed to inflict the bleeding status effect (unless the target is unable to bleed).

 

Enraged Response [Active]: Iron Bull will run to the aid of an ally under attack. The more damage that ally has suffered, the angrier Iron Bull becomes causing him to deal even more damage.

 

No Mercy [Passive]: If Iron Bull is hit with a hostile spell or a projectile (arrow or thrown weapon), he will gain a 30% damage bonus versus the aggressor.

 

 

Cassandra [Templar]: 

Spoiler

 

Cassandra is an unrelenting warriors who specializes in fighting mages and demons. No enemy's magic can withstand her, and she inspires and protect her allies with her righteous power.

 

Blessed Blades [Active]: You rally all of your nearby allies to fight with greater strength, especially when facing demons.

 

Spell Purge [Active]: Through faith and will, you dispel all hostile magic from the area around you all hostile magic in area dispelled. This includes barriers and other beneficial effects.

 

Maker's Will [Active]: Your party's attacks have a chance to weaken their targets.

 

Champions of The Just [Passive]: Your righteous fervor inspires the entire party to fight harder against demons.

 

There is no Darkness [Passive]: Your faith is your protection against the elements, and not for you alone. The entire party gains increased resistance to fire, ice, electric, and spirit damage.

 

Wrath of Heaven [Active]: You summon a blinding pillar of light that stuns nearby enemies and damages demons.

 

The Maker's Shield [Active]: For a brief time spells aimed at the Templar will be deflected away. There will be a 1/3 chance that the deflected spells will be returned to the hostile caster.

 

Imbuing Light [Active]: Enemies within melee range of any party member will deal less damage. In addition their attacks will consume more stamina/mana.

 

Maker's Light [Passive]: Reduces the potency and duration of all negative effects on the party. So for example if a negative effect makes a party member take 50% more damage from all sources for 60 seconds, with this passive the negative effect will only make the party member take 25% more damage from all sources for 30 seconds.

 

The Last Sacrifice [Passive]: Even should you fall, you give your allies strength to fight harder in your name. When Cassandra is knocked out, party members gain a 50% damage bonus.

 

 

Blackwall [Champion]: 

Spoiler

 

Blackwall's time as a Grey Warden has taught him the most important lesson of warfare: survival. It's not about how many enemies you can kill, it's about outlasting the enemies. Blackwall's abilities have been learnt from not only his experience in battle but also through training and researching combat techniques used by previous Grey Wardens.

 

Line In The Sand [Active]: You call upon the legacy of the greatest champions in history, defying enemies as you hold your position. This stops enemies from moving past you and enables you to block choke points.

 

Adamant Bullwark [Passive]: You stand all the stronger to finish the fight, gaining a bonus to your maximum guard. In addition your armour's effectiveness has been greatly increased. Maximum guard bonus +25% and Armour Bonus + 20%.

 

To The Death [Active]: You taunt an enemy into a frenzy. Their damage output increases over time, but so does the damage they take. The effect ends if you get out of range. 

 

Unyielding Resilience [Passive]: An attack the would bring you down instead leave you with a small amount of health, and you are immune to all damage for a short time. In addition enemies that hit you with melee attacks are staggered by recoil.

 

Depletion Mode [Active]: Every attack will deal less damage but will reduce the amount of stamina a foe has. (This doesn't work on mages manna pool).

Fatiguing Mode [Active]: For a short time all attacks will slightly slow down a foe. This is the only ability in this tree that stacks with itself.

Weakening Mode [Active]: During this mode the warrior will have a chance of lowering their foe's damage resistance. This has a short duration.

 

Counterstrike [Active]: For a brief time every melee attack the Championt receives will be answered with a counter attack.

 

Ravaging Calamity [Passive]: All of the Champion's negative effects abilities will weaken foes even more and last longer.

 

Final Stand [Long Duration Active]:  Maximum guard, half damage output and half damage taken. Also draw 100% of enemy attention. Please note that this ability remains active until all enemies on the battlefield are slain. Also with every foe that is killed, the remaining foes will become even more desperate to kill you causing their damage output to increase. This is a very risky taunt ability.

 

 

Cole [Assassin]: 

Spoiler

Any rogue can kill a target, but assassins make death into an art form. They specialize in quick, deadly kills that let them slide back into the shadows undetected, or indirect kills that eliminate targets while the assassin is safely away. Cole is one such Assassin.

 

Many ideas taken from Duellist 76.

 

Ideal Target [Passive]: A skilled Assassin demands everyone present be attentive. Enemies who aren't paying attention suffer an extra 50% from critical hits.

 

Assassinate [Active, Single Target]: One shot, one kill is the oft repeated mantra for every Assassin. With a single strike, the Assassin can eliminate most foes outright while survivors suffer a massive critical hit.

 

Precision [Active, Personal]: Even without the safety of the shadows the Assassin is still a dangerous adversary, especially with time to study their target. The likelihood of landing a critical hit increases by 10% every second for 10 seconds.

 

Quick And Clean [Passive]: Efficiency is the name of the game for every Assassin. The first attack from Stealth inflicts 15% more damage against an enemy who has yet to take damage while ignoring 50% of their armour.

 

Hidden Blades [Active]: They'll swear you leapt from the shadows like the thrown blade and hit your target with a flurry of strikes from every angle... but its obvious that you were nowhere near them at the time.

 

Mark of Death [Active]: You mark your enemy, and every hit adds part of its power to the mark's damage. Trigger your mark when you are ready, and watch your enemy fall from injuries that were never even noticed. You can manually trigger the mark early for bonus damage.

 

Cloak of Shadows [Active]: You go into stealth, and your allies follow your lead. The entire party remains undetected for the duration of the effect, even while attacking. This ability has a very long cool down.

 

Flicker [Active, AoE]: You become a blur, striking up to four enemies in a small radius. Every strike is a critical hit.

 

I Was Never Here [Passive]: You have learned to use the distraction of an enemy's death to slip silently into the shadows. Killing a target removes any cooldown on stealth.

 

Knife In The Shadows [Passive]: You are a deadly threat to any enemy that can't see you coming. When you attack from stealth, you automatically critical hit.

 

 

Varric [Story Teller]: 

Spoiler

 

Varric is a skilled adventurer with a variety of different abilities. Abilities he learnt from his time in the Merchant Guild, "looking after" Hawke and helping out The Inquisition. Be it special abilities with his crossbow or inspiring his comrades with an embellished tale before the battle begins, Varric is one companion you'll want at your side during both times of struggle and times of peace.

 

Bianca's Song [Active]: Varric hums a melody under his breath, recalling the untellable tale of how Bianca got her name. Few things focus Varric as much.  Critical damage: +5% Critical Chance + 5%.  Attack speed: +10% and +10% Movement speed.

 

Overtime [Passive]: Nobody puts in long hours like a dwarf. Mana/stamina regeneration rate: +10% for entire party. 10% faster cooldowns for entire party as well.

 

Improved Engineering [Passive]: Due to faults in the design of crossbows, they have huge kickback and often miss their target when fired rapidly. This passive helps fix those issues, greatly reducing recoil.

 

Rhyming Triplet [Active]: Fire three bolts in a row. The first bolt applies a bleeding status effect (useless on foes who can't bleed), the second bolt applies a temporary blindness effect (reducing a foe's accuracy) and third applies a slowing effect (slowing down the target). Please note that if you haven't selected Aim and Improved engineering there is a good chance that only the first of 3 bolts hits the target.

 

Armour Piercing Bolt [Active]: A bolt that completely ignores armour rating dealing 100% of a shot's potential damage. This shot has a higher chance of landing a critical hit.

 

And Take Them Down [Passive]: Your experience with finding and pointing out enemy vulnerabilities gives the entire party a better chance to land critical hits. Critical Hit Chance Bonus: 15%

 

Opportunity Knocks [Passive]: When an ally critically hits, you take advantage of their success faster with reduced cooldown times.

Cooldown Reduction: 0.5 seconds

 

Tricks of The Trade [Active]: You help the team make the most of its abilities, increasing the damage and duration of all status effects the party applies. Damage Bonus: 10%. Duration Bonus: 10%.

 

Knock Out Bomb [Active]: You hurl a grenade containing a powerful concoction that put nearby enemies to sleep. Sleeping enemies awaken after taking damage.

 

Flask of  Amplification [Active]: Throw a flask that increases the duration and area of effect of an ally's attacks. This is only effective if said ally is using either AoE and/or Duration based attacks.

 

 

Sera [Tempest]: 

Spoiler

These unpredictable experts specialize in using alchemical mixtures that wreathe them in frost or flame. Fast, chaotic, and possibly mad, they wade into the fight and dare enemies to face the storm. Sera is one such Tempest.

 

Flask of Frost [Active]: This flask coats you in an icy skin that increases your armor and freezes enemies that strike you in melee range. You can't use this ability while another one is active.

Damage Resistance: 85%  Freeze Duration: 1 second

 

Flask Maker [Passive]: Your experience with elixirs has made you better equipped to handle potions and other consumables, letting you carry more of them at a time and giving you a 25% chance not to use an elixir when you activate an ability. This ability does not apply to healing potions.

Maximum Potions Bonus: 1   Chance to Activate: 25%

 

Ride The Storm [Passive]: The effect of your elixir lasts longer if you activate one immediately after another expires.

Bonus Duration: 3 seconds

 

Flask of Fire [Active]: This flask coats you in flames that spur you to frenzied action. For a short time, your abilities cost no stamina, and enemies who attack you are knocked backward. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active.

 

Fury of The Storm [Passive]: When your stamina is exhausted, you fight even harder, lashing out with fury to win the fight.

Damage Bonus: 10% when Stamina < 50%

 

Killer's Alchemy [Passive]: You can use more concentrated elixirs that give you an uncanny edge in battle. You do bonus damage with all attacks for a short time whenever you use an elixir or potion. This bonus is stackable.

 

Flask of Lightning [Active]: This flask sends you into a heightened state of incredible speed. Everyone on the battlefield except you moves much more slowly for a short time. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active. Please note that this ability has a long cooldown.

 

Thousand Cuts [Active]: You choose a target, then dash to and fro- a shadow leaving blood with every leap. After you slice through other nearby foes, you land behind your target, striking deep. This ability has a long cooldown.

 

Evade and Strike [Passive]: All successful evasions are always followed by an automatic counter attack.

 

Rush [Active]: Sera will rush attempting to knock down all nearby enemies. This requires a target.

 

 

Dorian [Necromancer]: 

Spoiler

 

These mages specialize in binding the spirits that are drawn to death. They can put the fear of death into enemies, bring spirits to fight on their behalf, and even cause devastating explosions when their enemies die. Dorian is one such Necromancer.

 

Death Siphon [Passive]: Leach mana from corpses on the battlefield.

 

Walking Bomb [Active]: You curse an enemy, inflicting ongoing spirit damage, and then trigger the curse in a devastating explosion. If Walking Bomb kills your target, the effect spreads to nearby enemies, causing secondary explosions.

 

Spirit Mark [Active]: You mark a target with an attacking spirit, inflicting ongoing damage. If the target dies while marked, the spirit mimics the victims body briefly to fight on your behalf.

 

Death Cloud [Active]: The caster summons a cloud of leeching entropic energy that deals continuous spirit damage to all who enter. Friendly fire possible.

 

Curse of Mortality [Active]: The caster curses a target with the inevitability of true death. While cursed, it cannot heal or regenerate health and takes continuous spirit damage.

 

Death Hex [Active]: The target suffers a hex of lethal bad luck. Every normal hit it suffers becomes a critical hit.

 

Death Magic [Sustained]: While active, the caster draws in nearby entropic energy, draining residual life-force from any dead enemy nearby to heal the caster.

 

Draining Aura [Sustained]: The caster creates a field that drains life from nearby enemies to heal the mage for as long as the spell is active. Each time an enemy is drained, the spell consumes a small amount of the mage's mana.

 

Power of The Dead [Passive]: Killing enemies attracts spirits that increase the power of your spells for a short time.

 

Simulacrum [Passive]:  If you are knocked unconscious, a spirit you control takes on your likeness and fights on your behalf for a short time. The spirit draws magic directly from the fade, casting spells without cost. You cannot be revived by any means until the spirit leaves.

 

 

Vivienne [Knight Enchanter]: 

Spoiler

 

Vivienne's unique abilities allows her to defend her party whilst tackling threats of an acrane nature.

 

Spirit Blade [Active]: You create a blade of solid magic that attacks enemy's stamina and mana. This deals very little damage to their health. If it's damage to health through melee, you're better off relying on your regular melee attacks.

The Spirit Blade can inflict the following debuffs:

 

5% chance of inflicting silence (prevents target from using any spells).

5% chance of making target unable to use talents (that consume stamina)

5% chance of inflicting slow (slows down foes by 10%)

5% chance of inflicting energy drain (stamina and/or mana is slowly depleted from target)

5%  chance of inflicting sunder.

 

Ability Drain [Active]: Lowers all 6 attributes by 3 on a single target. This debilitation is unique since it cannot be removed and no enemy is immune to it. However this debilitation cannot be stacked. There is one exception. On Boss Enemies this ability will wear off after 3 minutes. After this the Boss will have developed an immunity to it. This ability has a long cooldown.

 

Fade Cloak [Active]: You surround yourself with the magic of the Veil itself. You are briefly invulnerable and can pass through enemies unharmed. Upon decloaking you deal a lot of spirit damage to nearby foes.

 

Arcane Sphere [Active]: Set up a 5m radius sphere that increases the speed, damage output and damage resistance of everyone within. This is a risky move since everyone friend and foe alike can benefit from this sphere.

Fatiguing Fog [Active]: Send out a cloud that reduces the speed, amount of stamina/manna available and damage resistance of everyone within (friend or foe). The debuffs only applies to those within the fog.

 

Combat Clarity [Passive]: The chaos of combat frightens some, but for you, its a comfortable rhythm. Your mana regenerates faster when you're near hostile enemies.  Mana Regeneration: 50% if enemy within 5 meters.

 

Fade Shield [Passive]: You draw back the energy released by your enemies in your attacks against them. Any successful attack strengthens your barrier. The more damage you do, the more powerful your barrier grows. Barrier: 30% of damage dealt.

 

Veiled Riposte [Passive]: Whenever you have a barrier active, enemies who attack you will take damage in return. Damage Returned: 20%.

 

Knight Protector [Passive]: You're adept with defensive magic. Barriers you create take longer to naturally decay. Barrier Decay Reduction: 35%

 

Battlefield Scan [Active]: Detect the following with a scan.

 

Enemy strengths and weaknesses (including resistances) cloaked enemies and traps on the battlefield

 

Also enemy aggro abilities will have no effect on party. When an enemy aggros your party, you will only be able to see that enemy whilst the rest of the enemies will be invisible. This effect remains until either that foe has been killed or you perform a Battlefield Scan.

 

The only other way for aggro abilities and cloaking abilities to have no effect is to have a party member with a high cunning stat.

 

 

Please also note that any traps that are detected by the scan will not be triggered should any allies step on them.

 

 

Solas [Rift Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Sola's connection to the fade grants him some powerful forceful abilities that can turn groups of attacking enemies into groups of flying enemies.

 

Stone Fist [Active]: You summon a boulder from the Fade and smash it into your target, sending them flying. This will also explode dealing damage to nearby enemies. Spirit Damage: 500% weapon damage.

 

Pull of The Abyss [Active]: You create a tiny rift that pulls enemies toward a central point. All foes (even foes who are immune to being rag dolled) will take more damage from all sources.

 

Earthquake [Active]: The caster disrupts the earth, causing a violent quake that knocks everyone in the targeted area to the ground every few seconds, unless they pass a physical resistance check. Foes who do pass the resistance check will be staggered, suffer a penalty to their accuracy and be unable to perform critical hits. It is also notable that foes in the Earthquake zone will be unable to perform talents or spells since they require a lot of mental focus to perform. Friendly fire possible.

 

Telekinetic Burst [Active]: The mage summons a wave of telekinetic force that hurtles enemies away from the core of the blast. Those who pass the resistance check will suffer a debuff to magical resistance.

 

Tornado [Active]: Hurl enemies into the air. When the tornado ends they will fall to the ground taking a lot of damage. Foes who pass the resistance check will suffer a negative status effect that remains even when leaving the tornado area of effect. This negative status effect will make them stagger as they move about and they will suffer a debuff to their movement speed, attack speed and damage output. This is a temporary affliction that will only last 10 seconds.

 

Restorative Veil [Passive]: You pull stray magic from around weakened enemies to regain mana based on the damage you do to them.

 

Encircling Veil [Passive]: You use stray magic around weakened enemies to increase the power of status effects on them.

Duration Bonus vs. Weakened: 25% longer.

 

Smothering Veil [Passive]: Rag doll attacks deal more damage to foes who do not pass the resistance checks. Foes who do pass resistance checks will suffer even greater debuffs.

 

Twisting Veil [Passive]: You catch stray magic around weakened enemies and use it to increase the damage of your own attacks.

 

Unshakable [Sustained]: The mage suppresses the physical and elemental force of incoming attacks, becoming immune to knockdown and all elemental based negative effects (including chilled, burning, stunned, wet, drenched etc). This mode will however increase length of cooldowns and mana costs.

 

 

Inquisitor [Player Character]: 

Spoiler

 

In addition to having 3 specialisations to choose from (per class) the Inquisitor has a second specialisation. This specialisation is available regardless of class picked and will grant The Inquisitor a set of abilities that only they possess. [That's 8 skill trees in total, whereas allies only have 7]. None of the active abilities in this tree consume mana or stamina, however they do have long cooldowns.

 

Close Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: The Inquisitor can close rifts using the mysterious mark on their hand. Obviously can only be used near a rift.

 

Mark of the Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: Causes massive damage and can even kill some enemies instantly. However can only be used near a rift.

 

Aegis of The Rift [Active]: You turn the Veil itself into a magical shield that deflects enemy projectiles.

 

Focused Teamwork [Active]: During this mode successfully performing an ability combo leads to greater combo damage.

 

Rift Torture [Active]: A blast of energy that puts foes over a large area of effect in severe pain for a few seconds. Foes will be paralyzed. 

 

Rift Strike [Active]: You recreate your own fist from the essence of the Fade and smash nearby foes to the ground.

 

Enhancement From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Strength and +10 to Magic. (Cannot use at same time as Perception From The Rift)

 

Perception From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Cunning and +10 to Dexterity. (Cannot use at same time as Enhancement From The Rift).

 

Eagle Eye [Active]: Zoom camera into an opponent and target their limbs. Attacking head will incur the most damage, attacking legs will damage speed, attacking arms will reduce damage and accuracy and attacking torso will damage their resistance. This ability has a range of 50 metres is a range weapon (including staff) is equipped. If a melee weapon is equipped then the range of this ability is limited by the range of equipped weapon.

 

Lessons From The Rift [Passive]: 9 attribute points to spend.

 

Dance of The Rift [Passive]: Increases chances of counter attacks at melee range.

 

Gear From The Rift [Passive]: Certain gear has unique enchantments. When worn by your party members, they will not be able to benefit from this gear. When worn by the Inquisitor however, the gear will have some unique buffs.

 

 

 

So what do you think?

 

Expanding on the Inquisitor's Rift abilities is a good idea and makes him even more unique. There are some pretty creative skills in there (especially Gear From the Rift, which has a lot of potential for unique gear for the Inquisitor). I'm not sure about Eagle Eye - do you go into FPS when you use it? Could be a fun thing to try.

 

Just as an fyi, the specs I design are limited to 8 skills only, with at least 3 passives (something I have to update for the Ranger), so some of these skills would like have to be removed if you want it to match with the stuff I make. Up to you

 

Iron Bull

More damage can't go wrong.

 

Cassy

More protective skills work well on a Templar, though maybe it would have been better to have a least 1 skill that works well against Mages. Dunno.

 

Blacky

Honestly I have no idea how Blackwall summons spectral shield guardians to block people's path, but yeah, ok Bioware. Those skills you suggested might need some name tweaking, but they otherwise seem to stick with the idea that Blackwall is more of an impediment to foes than an outright threat. Y'know, a tank. Not sure why you removed Walking Fortress though. Is it an overpowered skill?

 

Cole

Sounds good, especially with Flicker and Hidden Blades, though Ideal Target overlaps with Blindside from the Subterfuge tree. I suggest to bring Gaps in the Armor back, since I'd imagine armour penetration is a helpful talent for an Assassin.

 

Varric

Interesting replacement for the Artificer tree. Fits Varric pretty well, though Opportunity Knocks has already been implemented into the Subterfuge tree. All in all a good tree.

 

Sera

Killer's Alchemy sounds good, but the dodgey skills seem out of place here. They're good skills for a Rogue to have, however.

 

Dorian

Necro seems a lot more appealing now, though Curse of Mortality does stack with Brittle > Canker (Entropy tree). Much better.

 

Viv

Hmmm, not sure about that Spirit Blade. I think it should just be changed to deal BARRIER and GUARD damage, and that's it. It deals normal weapon damage. Arcane Sphere and Fatiguing Fog sound good. Not sure about Ability Drain - could just make that a Focus ability. Battlefield Scan seems more like a Rogue ability, though it work for a KE as well. Will need some sort of way to display all that info, though.

 

Solas

Earthquake and Tornado for Rift Mage sound good! Unshakable sounds super useful too. 

[Abraham_uk]

OP's Feedback:

I'll remove two skills per tree.

This will help put them in line with your ideas.

 

As for certain skills being removed. I wanted to limit myself to 10 but still have a few new ideas thrown into the mix.

When you go down that path other skills will be removed.

 

My Thoughts On Fundamental Changes: 

Spoiler

 

Guards and Barriers: From what I gather in Inquisition (I haven't played by the way) they are there because you can't heal. However if you're bringing back healing, then guard and barrier being more damage mitigation rather than damage prevention makes a lot of sense. Good thinking.

 

Health and Resources: More health makes more sense in a game where restorative items are in short supply. Let's say the only other way to heal yourself is with healing spells, but those use mana. Now you're out of mana potions and health potions. So I think what you're suggesting is a good idea. If you're going to have healing, there should be restrictions that prevent heal spammers. More health and healing abilities but less potions. As for stamina and mana, this should be interesting.

 

Regeneration: I would actually remove regeneration all together. I love the idea of having low health, stamina and mana, having run out of restorative items and having to find a safe place to set up camp. Setting up camp is risky since you could become ambushed. I'm thinking of ways of having healing back but without sacrificing the "war of attrition" type aspect of older RPG's. Baldur's Gate did this well with limited potions and limitations on healing spells.

 

Attribute Points: Bring them back! I want to be able to have my own builds. Heck if I come up with a poor build I should be punished for it, or at the very least have a more challenging time beating the game as a result. Maybe my warrior isn't a tank but is high in dexterity and cunning. Maybe my rogue is highly defensive with lots of health. Perhaps my mage is less of a glass cannon but doesn't have many points into magic damage. Attribute points were one of the most exciting features of Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2.

 

Fatigue: I love it! There was a game that had an interesting mechanic called Sword and Sorcery. As time goes on, the Sychian actually get's weaker rather than stronger. She has less hit points available so as the game progresses, the game will be less forgiving for player mistakes. Obviously your idea is nowhere near as punishing as that (that would be silly) however trudging around without resting for long periods of time should make players think about resting.

 

Weapon Changes: Some cool stuff. Moving and shooting to me is the sign of a skilled archer. I've done some archery practice and I struggle to hit a still target at short range whilst standing still. So clearly it would take a skilled archer to pull this off. Also nerfing the damage output of daggers is a good idea. Daggers in real life are weak weapons, that can only really deliver damage when piercing gaps in armour. I do love the penalty to off hand. This shows understanding of that type of combat. Few of us are ambidextrous, so presumably for a left handed guy such as myself I'd deliver more damage with my left hand, so my right hand would be focusing on parrying and blocking whilst the left handles riposting.

 

I love the fact that these changes reflect real life combat (to an extent). Awesome. By the way are you including a "switch weapon" option? That would be pretty useful. I don't like sticking to one weapon combat style. I like to mix things up, especially with an overhaul where all classes have both ranged and melee options.

 

Vambraces and Bucklers: Nice speedy option for rogues to get a hold onto. Sure the rogues have the short end of the stick regarding weaponry, but this makes sense since they are more speed and stealth orientated. It also allows rogues to use shields so good thinking.

 

New Options for Mages: So we can be like this:

Spoiler

 

and we can can do this

Spoiler

 http://www.gameranx.com/img/11-Dec/ninokuni04.jpg

 Both of those options sound amazing. One is an alternative to staffs and the other is a nice new weapon that works well with the Inovker skill tree. 

 

No More Weapons and Armour Restrictions: Granted that is not strictly true. Grimoires and staffs are most likely restricted to mages and rogues cannot use large weapons including two handed weapons. That said I love the fact that you're providing all of the classes more variety. That said I would like to see different skill trees for the warriors and rogues.

 

 

Cold Magic Realism: I never thought of that. This provides an option for mages who have run out of mana and lyrium potions. Just use some cold magic. Besides every now and then I want to be like Mr Freeze, but without Arnold and the daft cold puns. Love it!

 

Toggling Primal Abilities: I've already mentioned this. Awesome idea! I love toggling between the elements. Makes more sense than having 9 spells that are essentially 3 spells but with different elements.

 

Overall Thoughts: I love your ideas! You've brought a lot of depth into the game and introduced a lot more options. These ideas sound exciting! Kudos for all the awesome ideas!

 

 

 

My Thoughts on Status Effects:

 

 

Spoiler

 

A good variety of ways to weaken foes.

 

You can deal damage over time, make foes more vulnerable to different kinds of attacks, lower a foe's damage output, weaken their armour, stagger the foe, perform elemental effects, paralyse or slow them, exploit them for combos and so much more.

 

I love them! Great thinking.

 

[Uccio]

More spells, direct attack, AEo, crowd control, buffs.

 

It looks good though. 

[Spellbound7]

UPDATE

 

• Warrior specialisations added! The Spirit Warrior and the Undying. Check em out in the OP!
• Magic Missiles can now be primed with Gather Power to deal AoE damage as a single big projectile.
• Ambush from the Ranger tree changed to a passive ability.
• Edited No more weapon and armour restrictions section in Fundamental Changes.
• Added dodging to Fundamental Changes.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

OP's Feedback:

I'll remove two skills per tree.

This will help put them in line with your ideas.

 

As for certain skills being removed. I wanted to limit myself to 10 but still have a few new ideas thrown into the mix.

When you go down that path other skills will be removed.

 

My Thoughts On Fundamental Changes: 

Spoiler

 

Guards and Barriers: From what I gather in Inquisition (I haven't played by the way) they are there because you can't heal. However if you're bringing back healing, then guard and barrier being more damage mitigation rather than damage prevention makes a lot of sense. Good thinking.

 

Health and Resources: More health makes more sense in a game where restorative items are in short supply. Let's say the only other way to heal yourself is with healing spells, but those use mana. Now you're out of mana potions and health potions. So I think what you're suggesting is a good idea. If you're going to have healing, there should be restrictions that prevent heal spammers. More health and healing abilities but less potions. As for stamina and mana, this should be interesting.

 

Regeneration: I would actually remove regeneration all together. I love the idea of having low health, stamina and mana, having run out of restorative items and having to find a safe place to set up camp. Setting up camp is risky since you could become ambushed. I'm thinking of ways of having healing back but without sacrificing the "war of attrition" type aspect of older RPG's. Baldur's Gate did this well with limited potions and limitations on healing spells.

 

Attribute Points: Bring them back! I want to be able to have my own builds. Heck if I come up with a poor build I should be punished for it, or at the very least have a more challenging time beating the game as a result. Maybe my warrior isn't a tank but is high in dexterity and cunning. Maybe my rogue is highly defensive with lots of health. Perhaps my mage is less of a glass cannon but doesn't have many points into magic damage. Attribute points were one of the most exciting features of Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2.

 

Fatigue: I love it! There was a game that had an interesting mechanic called Sword and Sorcery. As time goes on, the Sychian actually get's weaker rather than stronger. She has less hit points available so as the game progresses, the game will be less forgiving for player mistakes. Obviously your idea is nowhere near as punishing as that (that would be silly) however trudging around without resting for long periods of time should make players think about resting.

 

Weapon Changes: Some cool stuff. Moving and shooting to me is the sign of a skilled archer. I've done some archery practice and I struggle to hit a still target at short range whilst standing still. So clearly it would take a skilled archer to pull this off. Also nerfing the damage output of daggers is a good idea. Daggers in real life are weak weapons, that can only really deliver damage when piercing gaps in armour. I do love the penalty to off hand. This shows understanding of that type of combat. Few of us are ambidextrous, so presumably for a left handed guy such as myself I'd deliver more damage with my left hand, so my right hand would be focusing on parrying and blocking whilst the left handles riposting.

 

I love the fact that these changes reflect real life combat (to an extent). Awesome. By the way are you including a "switch weapon" option? That would be pretty useful. I don't like sticking to one weapon combat style. I like to mix things up, especially with an overhaul where all classes have both ranged and melee options.

 

Vambraces and Bucklers: Nice speedy option for rogues to get a hold onto. Sure the rogues have the short end of the stick regarding weaponry, but this makes sense since they are more speed and stealth orientated. It also allows rogues to use shields so good thinking.

 

New Options for Mages: So we can be like this:

Spoiler

 

and we can can do this

Spoiler

 http://www.gameranx.com/img/11-Dec/ninokuni04.jpg

 Both of those options sound amazing. One is an alternative to staffs and the other is a nice new weapon that works well with the Inovker skill tree. 

 

No More Weapons and Armour Restrictions: Granted that is not strictly true. Grimoires and staffs are most likely restricted to mages and rogues cannot use large weapons including two handed weapons. That said I love the fact that you're providing all of the classes more variety. That said I would like to see different skill trees for the warriors and rogues.

 

 

Cold Magic Realism: I never thought of that. This provides an option for mages who have run out of mana and lyrium potions. Just use some cold magic. Besides every now and then I want to be like Mr Freeze, but without Arnold and the daft cold puns. Love it!

 

Toggling Primal Abilities: I've already mentioned this. Awesome idea! I love toggling between the elements. Makes more sense than having 9 spells that are essentially 3 spells but with different elements.

 

Overall Thoughts: I love your ideas! You've brought a lot of depth into the game and introduced a lot more options. These ideas sound exciting! Kudos for all the awesome ideas!

 

 

 

My Thoughts on Status Effects:

 

 

Spoiler

 

A good variety of ways to weaken foes.

 

You can deal damage over time, make foes more vulnerable to different kinds of attacks, lower a foe's damage output, weaken their armour, stagger the foe, perform elemental effects, paralyse or slow them, exploit them for combos and so much more.

 

I love them! Great thinking.

 

 

One thing I forgot to add to this list was dodging. All classes can do quick dodges, like you could in ME3. Warriors would roll out of the way, rogues would leap away and mages would fadestep a couple of meters away. Perhaps have that on cooldown to avoid just evading everything all the time.

 

Also, Megakoresh has the credit for the idea of toggleable spells. He mentionned something of the like in his Clickbait title.txt thread where he reviewed the game.

 

More spells, direct attack, AEo, crowd control, buffs.

 

It looks good though. 

 

made a small addition to Evocation and Invocation. You can now prime Magic Missiles (Evoke) with Gather Power (Invoke) to turn it into a large single missile that deals AoE damage on impact. This was initially a separate skill, but it felt like it was overlapping too much with existing AoE spells. Now it can exist as a modified version to Magic Missile, which means they share a cooldown.

[Abraham_uk]

Regarding Feedback: I've responded to feedback by removing 2 skills per skill tree. They're leaner and cleaner I hope. It was easier to do with some skill trees (because some skills were added just to make 10) than others (because some skill trees had skills 10 that I thought as essential). I've merged some of the abilities together. Thank you for your suggestions.

 

Spirit Warrior Review: The Spirit Warrior is an oddity in terms of the Warrior since this is a magical warrior that has a spirit companion that decimates their foes. Boost your speed with a channel of energy and send forth a chilling scream from beyond the fade negating magical effects before branding an enemy. Then fade burst your way into the fray and finish with a deadly spirit strike. In addition you gain protection with elemental resistance. I can see the Walking Battery has found it's way into the build. This is a nice way of having an additional resource pool from which to draw your abilities. Great concept great ideas. I love it! I just don't understand how the Soul Brand works...

 

Reaver I mean Undying Review: Jokes aside, this is a really exciting and menacing specialisation. This warrior is a blood thirsty killing machine, but goes about it's business differently to the Reaver. The Reaver is a taunting warrior who actually revels in danger getting stronger as more foes are aggroed and their health is lowered. This is a play style that favours the Leroy Jenkins in all of us, only the Reaver pulls it off and kills the enemies before the enemies kill them. Undying is different. Very different. For starters Undying is all about regulating your health to keep you alive. Halt your stamina regeneration to regenerate your health, then follow up with improvements to your regeneration when health is low. If that wasn't enough your inner rage will increase damage output but at the expense of damage resistance. The Undying can also be a healer sacrificing some of their health to restore the health of allies and then follow up with some blood mage esque abilities causing bleeding with bone shards and spewing blood at melee range for another damage over time. The sanguine wrath is the most reaver esque ability though with the Undying gaining damage output for every missing health. If a Reaver and Blood Mage gave birth to a daemon child, then this specialisation would be the result. I love this filthy abomination of a spec! Awesome ideas!

[Abraham_uk]

6 New Specialisations:

 

Is 4 per class pushing it?

 

 

Chevalier [Warrior]: 

Spoiler

 

Chevaliers are deemed to be the finest warriors in Thedas. Not relying on any fancy pseudo magic, nor reliant on guerilla warfare. They are straightforward fighters who rely heavily on only the best fighting techniques.

 

Precision [Active]: For short time warrior's attacks will have a higher chance of landing critical hits.

Glance [Active]: For brief duration, whenever enemies hit you, there is a small chance that they will land what is known as a glancing blow. These glancing blows will deal a lot less damage.

 

Striker [Active]: For brief period of time ignore barriers and guard to deal direct damage to health.

 

Force and Focus [Active]: A Dwarven beserker would have you believe that to knock an enemy down it takes a lot of physical strength. In actuality this can be done with very little force at all. First you must attack the enemy when they are most vulnerable and hit them in a precise manner. Chevalier's call this skill Force and Focus. For a brief time regular attacks deal sunder, have a small chance of knocking enemies down and inflicting sunder. Foes immune to knock down will be staggered instead.

 

Advanced Reflexes (Active): For a brief time every hostile attack at melee range will be answered with a counter attack when a melee weapon is being wielded. If you're wielding a ranged weapon then every ranged attack on the Chevalier will be responded with a swift counter attack.

 

Weapon Techniques (Passive): The warrior will add improved counter animations into their three melee combat styles (weapon & shield, 2 hand and dual wield).

Ranged Weapon Techniques (Passive): The warrior will sacrifice rate of speed for bows to increase range and damage output.

 

Intense Training (Passive): Technique is very important but so is fitness. If you are unfit you cannot endure long battles and you cannot maintain high finesse and dexterity. Intense Training reduces the amount of stamina that The Chevalier consumes with their warrior talents.

 

 

Survivalist [Warrior]: 

Spoiler

 

Survivalists are versatile warriors whose skills are best suited towards staying alive in wild and hostile environments. Be it carrying consumables, camping, maintaining gear, surviving off the land and even a bit of guerilla warfare, survivalists are most proficient at staying alive in seemingly impossible circumstances.

 

Channel Defence [Active]: For a short time you take less damage from all sources but deal less damage as well. (Makes you a tank).

Guerilla Warfare [Active]: For a short time you have reduced threat generation. Since you're not a rogue, don't expect to pull off assassinations. This ability is designed to keep you alive.

 

Ensnare [Active]: Place a disc that lures enemies towards it. The disc will explode sending out toxic gas inflicting random status effects on enemies. There is a good chance that at least one of these effects will hit enemies. If you're lucky all of the effects will afflict all enemies within the explosion radius.

These include:

 

Poison based damage over time to health

Poison based damage over time to stamina

Reduced movement speed

Reduced attack speed

Reduced accuracy

Chance to fall asleep (unless foe passes resistance check)

 

 

 

First Aid [Active]: Using your skills of herbalism, you revive a fallen ally. The revived ally will only have a little bit of health upon revival.

 

Repair [Active]: Remove sunder and restore guard to an ally.

 

Additional Storage [passive]: One of the abilities of the survivalist is to carry lots of items. You can carry twice the number of poisons, traps, explosives and potions in battle. In addition potions restore more health/stamina/manna. Potions that provide buffs will now provide even bigger buffs.

Well Rested [passive]: Years of living in the wilderness has taught this warrior about the value of a good night sleep. Though proficiency in camping and provisioning, the entire party awaken from the camp-site fully alert leading to reduced stamina and mana consumption for their abilities and take 10% less damage from all sources. However the well rested bonus will wear off so you will still require to set up camp frequently.

Gear Maintenance [passive]: The survivalist has been working hard to ensure that gear is at peak effectiveness. Weapons deal extra damage, armour has higher armour rating and enchantments have higher stats.

 

 

Bard [Rogue]: 

Spoiler

 

Bards are spies, scoundrels, musicians and fighters who treat battle as one big game of tactics, cunning and intrigue. Bards use chants in battle to buff their allies but also use a bit of dirty fighting to gain the upper hand in combat.

 

Below The Belt [Active]: Attack a foes legs reducing mobility. Male opponents be warned. Rogues will go straight for the midsection weakening foe's damage output and damage resistance.

Insult [Active]: The rogue taunts a foe with an insult. This insult puts the foe into a rage. This rage greatly reduces their accuracy but also increases their damage output.

Dummy Attack [Active]: The rogue will issue a dummy attack at an enemy. The enemy will of course try to counter this attack, but in doing so will open themselves up. For a brief 1 second window that foe will be very vulnerable to any attack. The entire party can exploit this situation.

Divert Attention [Active]: Divert attention from the rogue to an ally of your choice. This ability will make all foes attack chosen ally instead. This is best used if there is a tank on the battlefield.

Song of Valour [Active]: The bard sings an ancient tale of valorous heroes, granting the party bonuses to mana or stamina regeneration at a rate affected by the bard's cunning. The bard can only sing one song at a time.

Song of Courage [Active]: The bard launches into an epic song of the party's exploits, granting them bonuses to attack, damage, and critical chance. The size of the bonuses are affected by the bard's cunning. The bard can only sing one song at a time.

Captivating Song [Active]: A song that distracts foes and stuns any foe that doesn't pass a mental resistance check.

Bardic Tradition [Passive]: This passive improves your bard abilities by adding 10 points to your cunning.

 

Fanatic [Rogue]:

Spoiler

 

Fanatics are not just loyal to their party. They are dangerously loyal to the point of fanaticism. Lay on finger on a fanatic's allies and you shall perish. This fighting style incorporates speed, damage output and some berserker style abilities to really finish off opponents.

 

Frenzy [sustained]: Every regular attack deals 10% extra damage but also consumes stamina. In addition your attack speed in increased by 10%.

 

Frantic Movement [sustained]: Increases your movement speed by 20%

 

Rush [Active]: Rush into enemies potentially knocking them down.

 

Bodyguard [Active]: For brief time guard an ally. You'll gain increased rate of evasion and bonus to attack damage. If the ally is below 80% health you'll gain a 10% attack damage, if the ally is below 40% health you'll gain 15% attack damage.

 

Depravity [Active]: The rogue is at their most depraved. They take 30% more damage from all sources to deal 30% more damage for brief time.

 

Evade and Strike [Passive]: All successful evasions are always followed by an automatic counter attack.

 

Fanatical Vengeance [Passive]: For every ally that falls in combat gain a 10% damage bonus.

 

Additional Reserves [Passive]: Defending your party till your dying breath can get very tiring. Fortunately this rogue has a second reserve of stamina should the main pool run out. The rogue also has an additional reserve of health. The two second reserves cannot be restored by stamina salves and health potions. They can only be restored by resting. Please note that the pools have: 150 HP and 100 SP.

 

 

Spirit Healer [Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Spirit healers focus on restoration, not destruction. They know that the best way to win a battle is to keep themselves and their allies in the fight as long as possible. They are the mages most likely to be accepted—or at least tolerated—by common people, and yet templars fear them as much or more than the damage-focused specializations. No other mages so directly draw their power from the beneficial spirits of the Fade. It's a risk, but the rewards are undeniable. Removing injuries, granting resilience to wounds, even rescuing comrades from the brink of death—these are not support abilities, they are the core of any effective party. Any fool can cause harm, but no amount of muscle can make a weapon heal

 

Healing Aura [sustained]: While this mode is active, the mage can use spirit healer spells and becomes a focus for restorative energies,

increasing the natural healing of all allies within the aura. However, the mage cannot cast any offensive spell for the duration of the effect.

 

Group Heal [active]: The mage restores the health of all allies simultaneously with a surge of creation magic.

 

Group Cleanse [active]: Removes all negative effects from entire party (except fatigue).

 

Energy Transfer [active]: Transfer some of your mana to restore stamina and mana to your party members.

 

Resurgence [active]: You call on benign spirits to restore you and your allies for continuing the fight. All party members are healed to full health, including those who have fallen unconscious, and a glyph around you provides ongoing healing to the party for the spell's duration. This ability has a very long cool down.

 

Second Chance [Passive]: The spirit healer's mere presence lends allies great resilience to wounds. While the spirit healer is present, party members who fall in battle will not suffer injuries upon reviving.

Party members immune to injuries from dying.

 

Vitality [Passive]: The spirit healer's deep connection to the Fade lends the mage incredible resilience. Constitution: +10

 

Fortification [Passive]: Barriers on all allies decay 50% slower. In addition barriers provide more damage reduction.

 

 

Keeper [Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Keepers are leaders and defenders of the Dalish clans. Their role is to keep the traditions of the Elven culture by remembering their cultural heritage and preserving their magic. Keepers tend to be orientated towards nature based magic and whilst the Inquisitor is not a Keeper, they have studied this nature magic for many years.

 

It is important to note that whilst each shape shift form has a long cool down, the shape shifting from humanoid to animal and vice versa is instantaneous.

 

Spider and Crows [2 Shape Shift forms unlocked by this skill]: This skill unlocks the Crows Form and Spider shape shift forms. Each shape shift form has a separate health and stamina bar. Upon health depletion or deactivation you revert to humanoid form.

 

Spider Form has three abilities: "Bite" that deals some damage, "Web" that traps enemies and "Spew Venom" that deals damage over time to multiple foes.

 

Crows Form has three abilities: "Overwhelm" that targets one enemy causing them to panic as crows swarm around them, "Targeted Strikes" where the crows attack weak points in enemy armour to deal a lot of damage and "Distract" and ability that draws attention of one enemy.

 

Bear and The Wolf [2 Shape Shift forms unlocked by this skill]: This skill unlocks the Lion Form and Shadow Wolf shape shift forms. Each shape shift form has a separate health and stamina bar. Upon health depletion or deactivation you revert to humanoid form.

 

Shadow Wolf Form has three abilities: "Sneak" that allows you to stealth around the battlefield, "Claw" that deals some damage, and "Pounce" which charges at a foe dealing moderate damage. Please note that "Claw" and "Pounce" deal a lot more damage if you're undetected.

 

Bear Form has three abilities: "Terror" that incites fear into enemies making them panic, "Stronghold" that draws attention whilst reducing damage taken and "Maul" which is a damage dealing attack.

 

Nature's Cry [Active]: The mage will send out a call. Nearby animals will come to aid you briefly in combat. This ability consumes no mana and has no cool down but only works if there are nearby animals in the area.

 

Fauna's Friend [Passive]: A magical aura makes animals non threatening towards the mage and the party unless you attack the animals first. In addition shape shift forms have 50% more health and stamina along with shorter cooldowns.

 

One With Nature [Sustained]: The keeper's bond with the earth creates a defensive shield that immobilizes the keeper for as long as this spell is active, but inflicts nature damage and a penalty to movement speed on any enemy that enters the field.

 

Hallucinogenic Gas [Active]: Cause enemies to see visions of various different predators. This will make enemies attack thin air believing that they are attacking creatures. There is a chance that enemies may even attack one another.

 

Nature's Vengence [Active]: The keeper summons gigantic roots from within the ground to attack all enemies in the area, impaling the opponents for a short time unless they pass a physical resistance check.

 

Replenishment [Passive]: No living thing can escape the cycle of life; all who fall return to the earth. The mage now regains some health whenever a keeper spell inflicts damage. When an enemy dies within the field of One With Nature, the body is consumed, giving the mage a large bonus to health regeneration for a short time.

[Spellbound7]

Well Origins did have 4 specs, though each had 4 skills, which meant 16 new skills total. What I'm making has 8 skills per spec, with upgrades on active skills too, so 4 might be a bit much.

[Abraham_uk]

Not everything is going to be a hit. Which is why I have more ideas.

 

Two of these are based on concepts that Spellbound thought up.

 

 

The Ritualist [Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Ritualists don't just cast spells. They cast rituals. They take their time to augment the power of their magic to increase damage output, area of effect, power of debuffs and durations. In return they incur higher spell costs, longer casting times and longer cool down times. In addition ritualists cannot wear armour. This is because armour interferes with spell casting, preventing mages from reaching their full potential. This lack of armour however will make them squishy and as a result engaging in melee combat (while still possible) is not very wise.

 

All of the rituals have nature themed animations. There will be a green aura around caster during Rituals of Power with a few leaves whirling around the caster. All of the active rituals will have green coloured animations with leaves hurtling towards target.

 

Rituals of Power [Sustained]: Your spells will now reach their true potential. Healing spells will heal more. Destruction spells will deal more damage. Area of Effect spells will have a larger area of effect, debuffs and buffs will have a larger impact on the battle etc. Please note that the buffs and penalties will not be immediately apparent. As the battle keeps going your spell effectiveness, durations and area of effect get stronger, but so do the penalties.

 

Increases:

Spell effectiveness (amount damage, amount healing, magnitude of buffs and debuffs)

Spell durations

Spell area of effect

 

At the cost of:

Longer cooldowns

Longer cast times

Greater mana consumption

Faster build up of fatigue

 

 

Ritual of Strength [Active]: (Requires Rituals of Power to be active)

Cast this spell on an ally. It has buffs at the cost of drawbacks.

 

Increases: The speed and damage output of a single ally's attacks.

At the cost of: Damage resistance.

 

 

Ritual of Fury [Active]: (Requires Rituals of Power to be active)

Cast this on an ally for buffs at the cost of drawbacks.

 

Increases: Effectiveness of ally's talents/spells. Greater damage output, debuffs and AoE for their abilities.

At the cost of: Increased stamina and mana consumption.

 

 

Ritual of Fatigue [Active]: (Requires Rituals of Power to be active)

This spell increases the stamina and mana consumption of enemies.

 

Ritual of Damnation [Active]:

This spell reduces a foes resistance to all negative status effects.

How this works is, if a foe can be inflicted with a negative status effect, the effects will last longer and be more potent.

 

Vitality of The Ritualist [Passive]: Being a ritualist can be very exhausting. This passive is here to mitigate some of the disadvantages of this specialisation. When Rituals of Power is active fatigue will now build up at a normal rate as opposed to a faster rate. In addition, improvements to spell casting will be delivered slightly faster, whereas penalties to casting will build up slower.

 

Resilience of The Ritualist [Passive]: Ritualists cannot wear armour. This passive mitigates this by granting 10 points of constitution.

 

Damage of The Ritualist [Passive]: This adds a poison based damage over time effect to both Ritual of Damnation and Ritual of Fatigue. In addition allies affected by Ritual of Strength and Ritual of Fury will have magical damage over time poisons attached to their weapons for the duration of the effect, allowing them to poison any foe they hit.

 

 

 

The Dervish [Rogue]: 

Spoiler

 

The Dervish love their critical hits. Be it fighting them toe to toe or from the shadows, these skilled fighters make sure they hit the sweet spot as often as possible. They are fast, nimble, agile but also stealthy at the same time. Unlike The Assassin, killing is not so much an art form, but rather a necessity. Their methods are about killing foes quickly to ensure that they themselves are not killed.

 

Rush [Active]: Rush into a group of enemies staggering them (potentially knocking them down).

 

Silent Dash [Active]: Sprint to the location of an opponent and strike them from behind.

Staggering Attacks [Sustained]: This mode reserves a portion of the Rogue's stamina to increase the chances of all attacks staggering opponents. In addition this mode will provide a critical hit chance and critical hit damage bonus to staggered targets.

Speed Boost [Active]: Increases the speed of the Rogue's attacks, movement speed and evasion chance for a brief time.

 

Deepening Wounds [Sustained]: As the rogue attacks a target, they become more vulnerable to the rogue's attacks. Constantly applying pressure on wounds inflicted by the rogue, the enemy will take slightly more damage from each attack (up to a point).

 

They will have bleeding effect from the rogue's onslaught and every attack will slightly reduce a foe's maximum health. Should that foe try to heal themselves, there will be a limit to their healing.

 

Evade and Counter [Passive]: Successful evasions at melee range are always followed by a counter attack.

 

In and Out of The Frey [Passive]: You take 20% less damage from all sources when out of stealth and you deal 10% more damage when in stealth.

 

Dance of Death [Passive]: In stealth every critical hit has a 20% chance of dealing 50% more damage than a regular critical hit. Outside of stealth every critical hit hit has a 10% chance of dealing 25% more damage than a regular critical hit.

 

 

 

@Spellbound. I didn't realise you wanted the Ritualist to be a monk. I'll give that a try as well. What do you think of my take on the ritualist?

[Duelist]

Specialisations: Each party member will have their own unique specialisations.

 

Iron Bull [Reaver]:

Spoiler

 

 

As the battle gets bloodier, the vicious Iron Bull becomes even more brutal. Hurting him just makes him made. A mistake most enemies don't live to repeat.

 

Ring of Pain [Active]: You mark part of the battlefield as yours. Enemies inside the ring take spirit damage while your own attacks hit harder, The more you are hurt, the stronger both effects are.

 

Blood Frenzy [Passive]: They thought you'd get weaker once they wounded you. They were wrong. Damage Bonus: 5% for each 10% missing health.

 

Terrifying Fury [Passive]: Your critical strikes have a chance to cause a gory mess and send nearby enemies fleeing in a panic.

 

Fervor [Passive]: When an enemy dies near you, the thrill of death spurs you to hit that much harder. Gain 30% damage bonus.

 

Scenting Blood [Passive]: Being near a badly wounded enemy spurs you into a frenzy, driving you to move faster and giving you a better chance of striking deadly blows.

 

Devour [Active]: You launch an attack fuelled by your fury, ripping into foes for damage that increases as your own wounds deepen. Ring of Pain significantly increases the effect. You take damage with each swing.

 

Dragon Rage [Active]: You're an unstoppable fury of physical force while this ability is active. Your attacks are harder and faster, and you gain health with each strike. This has a very long cool down.

 

Blood Bath [Active]: For a brief time your attacks are more likely to inflict a bleeding status effect. If a target is affected by any other negative effect however, you are guaranteed to inflict the bleeding status effect (unless the target is unable to bleed).

 

 

Cassandra [Templar]: 

Spoiler

 

Cassandra is an unrelenting warriors who specializes in fighting mages and demons. No enemy's magic can withstand her, and she inspires and protect her allies with her righteous power.

 

Blessed Blades [Active]: You rally all of your nearby allies to fight with greater strength, especially when facing demons.

 

Spell Purge [Active]: Through faith and will, you dispel all hostile magic from the area around you all hostile magic in area dispelled. This includes barriers and other beneficial effects.

 

Maker's Will [Active]: Your party's attacks have a chance to weaken their targets.

 

Champions of The Just [Passive]: Your righteous fervor inspires the entire party to fight harder against demons.

 

There is no Darkness [Passive]: Your faith is your protection against the elements, and not for you alone. The entire party gains increased resistance to fire, ice, electric, and spirit damage.

 

Wrath of Heaven [Active]: You summon a blinding pillar of light that stuns nearby enemies and damages demons.

 

The Maker's Shield [Active]: For a brief time spells aimed at the Templar will be deflected away. There will be a 1/3 chance that the deflected spells will be returned to the hostile caster.

 

The Last Sacrifice [Passive]: Even should you fall, you give your allies strength to fight harder in your name. When Cassandra is knocked out, party members gain a 50% damage bonus.

 

 

Blackwall [Champion]: 

Spoiler

 

Blackwall's time as a Grey Warden has taught him the most important lesson of warfare: survival. It's not about how many enemies you can kill, it's about outlasting the enemies. Blackwall's abilities have been learnt from not only his experience in battle but also through training and researching combat techniques used by previous Grey Wardens.

 

Line In The Sand [Active]: You call upon the legacy of the greatest champions in history, defying enemies as you hold your position. This stops enemies from moving past you and enables you to block choke points.

 

Adamant Bullwark [Passive]: You stand all the stronger to finish the fight, gaining a bonus to your maximum guard. In addition your armour's effectiveness has been greatly increased. Maximum guard bonus +25% and Armour Bonus + 20%.

 

To The Death [Active]: You taunt an enemy into a frenzy. Their damage output increases over time, but so does the damage they take. The effect ends if you get out of range. 

 

Unyielding Resilience [Passive]: An attack the would bring you down instead leave you with a small amount of health, and you are immune to all damage for a short time. In addition enemies that hit you with melee attacks are staggered by recoil.

 

Depletion Mode [Active]: Every attack will deal less damage but will reduce the amount of stamina a foe has. (This doesn't work on mages manna pool).
 

Counterstrike [Active]: For a brief time every melee attack the Championt receives will be answered with a counter attack.

 

Ravaging Calamity [Passive]: All of the Champion's negative effects abilities will weaken foes even more and last longer.

 

Final Stand [Long Duration Active]:  Maximum guard, half damage output and half damage taken. Also draw 100% of enemy attention. Please note that this ability remains active until all enemies on the battlefield are slain. Also with every foe that is killed, the remaining foes will become even more desperate to kill you causing their damage output to increase. This is a very risky taunt ability.

 

 

Cole [Assassin]: 

Spoiler

Any rogue can kill a target, but assassins make death into an art form. They specialize in quick, deadly kills that let them slide back into the shadows undetected, or indirect kills that eliminate targets while the assassin is safely away. Cole is one such Assassin.

 

Many ideas taken from Duellist 76.

 

Assassinate [Active, Single Target]: One shot, one kill is the oft repeated mantra for every Assassin. With a single strike, the Assassin can eliminate most foes outright while survivors suffer a massive critical hit.

 

Precision [Active, Personal]: Even without the safety of the shadows the Assassin is still a dangerous adversary, especially with time to study their target. The likelihood of landing a critical hit increases by 10% every second for 10 seconds.

 

Hidden Blades [Active]: They'll swear you leapt from the shadows like the thrown blade and hit your target with a flurry of strikes from every angle... but its obvious that you were nowhere near them at the time.

 

Mark of Death [Active]: You mark your enemy, and every hit adds part of its power to the mark's damage. Trigger your mark when you are ready, and watch your enemy fall from injuries that were never even noticed. You can manually trigger the mark early for bonus damage.

In addition the first attack from Stealth inflicts 15% more damage against an enemy who has yet to take damage while ignoring 50% of their armour.

 

Cloak of Shadows [Active]: You go into stealth, and your allies follow your lead. The entire party remains undetected for the duration of the effect, even while attacking. This ability has a very long cool down.

 

Flicker [Active, AoE]: You become a blur, striking up to four enemies in a small radius. Every strike is a critical hit.

 

I Was Never Here [Passive]: You have learned to use the distraction of an enemy's death to slip silently into the shadows. Killing a target removes any cooldown on stealth.

 

Knife In The Shadows [Passive]: You are a deadly threat to any enemy that can't see you coming. When you attack from stealth, you automatically critical hit. In addition your attacks slip past armor to find a target's hidden vulnerabilities.

Armour Penetration: 25%

 

 

Varric [Story Teller]: 

Spoiler

 

Varric is a skilled adventurer with a variety of different abilities. Abilities he learnt from his time in the Merchant Guild, "looking after" Hawke and helping out The Inquisition. Be it special abilities with his crossbow or inspiring his comrades with an embellished tale before the battle begins, Varric is one companion you'll want at your side during both times of struggle and times of peace.

 

Bianca's Song [Active]: Varric hums a melody under his breath, recalling the untellable tale of how Bianca got her name. Few things focus Varric as much.  Critical damage: +5% Critical Chance + 5%.  Attack speed: +10% and +10% Movement speed,+10% for entire party. 10% faster cooldowns for entire party as well.

 

 

Improved Engineering [Passive]: Due to faults in the design of crossbows, they have huge kickback and often miss their target when fired rapidly. This passive helps fix those issues, greatly reducing recoil. This also increases the ar

 

Rhyming Triplet [Active]: Fire three bolts in a row. The first bolt applies a bleeding status effect (useless on foes who can't bleed), the second bolt applies a temporary blindness effect (reducing a foe's accuracy) and third applies a slowing effect (slowing down the target). Please note that if you haven't selected Aim and Improved engineering there is a good chance that only the first of 3 bolts hits the target.

 

Armour Piercing Bolt [Active]: A bolt that completely ignores armour rating dealing 100% of a shot's potential damage. This shot has a higher chance of landing a critical hit.

 

And Take Them Down [Passive]: Your experience with finding and pointing out enemy vulnerabilities gives the entire party a better chance to land critical hits. Critical Hit Chance Bonus: 15%

 

Tricks of The Trade [Active]: You help the team make the most of its abilities, increasing the damage and duration of all status effects the party applies. Damage Bonus: 10%. Duration Bonus: 10%.

 

Knock Out Bomb [Active]: You hurl a grenade containing a powerful concoction that put nearby enemies to sleep. Sleeping enemies awaken after taking damage.

 

Flask of  Amplification [Active]: Throw a flask that increases the duration and area of effect of an ally's attacks. This is only effective if said ally is using either AoE and/or Duration based attacks.

 

 

Sera [Tempest]: 

Spoiler

These unpredictable experts specialize in using alchemical mixtures that wreathe them in frost or flame. Fast, chaotic, and possibly mad, they wade into the fight and dare enemies to face the storm. Sera is one such Tempest.

 

Flask of Frost [Active]: This flask coats you in an icy skin that increases your armor and freezes enemies that strike you in melee range. You can't use this ability while another one is active.

Damage Resistance: 85%  Freeze Duration: 1 second

 

Flask Maker [Passive]: Your experience with elixirs has made you better equipped to handle potions and other consumables, letting you carry more of them at a time and giving you a 25% chance not to use an elixir when you activate an ability. This ability does not apply to healing potions.

Maximum Potions Bonus: 1   Chance to Activate: 25%

 

Ride The Storm [Passive]: The effect of your elixir lasts longer if you activate one immediately after another expires.

Bonus Duration: 3 seconds

 

Flask of Fire [Active]: This flask coats you in flames that spur you to frenzied action. For a short time, your abilities cost no stamina, and enemies who attack you are knocked backward. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active.

 

Fury of The Storm [Passive]: When your stamina is exhausted, you fight even harder, lashing out with fury to win the fight.

Damage Bonus: 10% when Stamina < 50%

 

Killer's Alchemy [Passive]: You can use more concentrated elixirs that give you an uncanny edge in battle. You do bonus damage with all attacks for a short time whenever you use an elixir or potion. This bonus is stackable.

 

Flask of Lightning [Active]: This flask sends you into a heightened state of incredible speed. Everyone on the battlefield except you moves much more slowly for a short time. You cannot use this ability while another elixir is active. Please note that this ability has a long cooldown.

 

Thousand Cuts [Active]: You choose a target, then dash to and fro- a shadow leaving blood with every leap. After you slice through other nearby foes, you land behind your target, striking deep. This ability has a long cooldown.

 

 

Dorian [Necromancer]: 

Spoiler

 

These mages specialize in binding the spirits that are drawn to death. They can put the fear of death into enemies, bring spirits to fight on their behalf, and even cause devastating explosions when their enemies die. Dorian is one such Necromancer.

 

Death Siphon [Passive]: Leach mana from corpses on the battlefield.

 

Walking Bomb [Active]: You curse an enemy, inflicting ongoing spirit damage, and then trigger the curse in a devastating explosion. If Walking Bomb kills your target, the effect spreads to nearby enemies, causing secondary explosions.

 

Spirit Mark [Active]: You mark a target with an attacking spirit, inflicting ongoing damage. If the target dies while marked, the spirit mimics the victims body briefly to fight on your behalf.

 

Death Cloud [Active]: The caster summons a cloud of leeching entropic energy that deals continuous spirit damage to all who enter. Those affected cannot heal or regenerate health. Friendly fire possible.

 

Death Hex [Active]: The target suffers a hex of lethal bad luck. Every normal hit it suffers becomes a critical hit.

 

Death Magic [Sustained]: While active, the caster draws in nearby entropic energy, draining residual life-force from any dead enemy nearby to heal the caster.

 

Power of The Dead [Passive]: Killing enemies attracts spirits that increase the power of your spells for a short time.

 

Simulacrum [Passive]:  If you are knocked unconscious, a spirit you control takes on your likeness and fights on your behalf for a short time. The spirit draws magic directly from the fade, casting spells without cost. You cannot be revived by any means until the spirit leaves.

 

 

Vivienne [Knight Enchanter]: 

Spoiler

 

Vivienne's unique abilities allows her to defend her party whilst tackling threats of an acrane nature.

 

Spirit Blade [Active]: You create a blade of solid magic that attacks enemy's stamina, mana, barriers and guard. This attack is very weak against health though.

 

Fade Cloak [Active]: You surround yourself with the magic of the Veil itself. You are briefly invulnerable and can pass through enemies unharmed. Upon decloaking you deal a lot of spirit damage to nearby foes.

 

Arcane Sphere [Active]: Set up a 5m radius sphere that increases the speed, damage output and damage resistance of everyone within. This is a risky move since everyone friend and foe alike can benefit from this sphere.

Fatiguing Fog [Active]: Send out a cloud that reduces the speed, amount of stamina/manna available and damage resistance of everyone within (friend or foe). The debuffs only applies to those within the fog.

 

Combat Clarity [Passive]: The chaos of combat frightens some, but for you, its a comfortable rhythm. Your mana regenerates faster when you're near hostile enemies.  Mana Regeneration: 50% if enemy within 5 meters.

 

Fade Shield [Passive]: You draw back the energy released by your enemies in your attacks against them. Any successful attack strengthens your barrier. The more damage you do, the more powerful your barrier grows. Barrier: 30% of damage dealt.

 

Veiled Riposte [Passive]: Whenever you have a barrier active, enemies who attack you will take damage in return. Damage Returned: 20%.

 

Knight Protector [Passive]: You're adept with defensive magic. Barriers you create take longer to naturally decay. Barrier Decay Reduction: 35%

 

 

Solas [Rift Mage]: 

Spoiler

 

Sola's connection to the fade grants him some powerful forceful abilities that can turn groups of attacking enemies into groups of flying enemies.

 

Stone Fist [Active]: You summon a boulder from the Fade and smash it into your target, sending them flying. This will also explode dealing damage to nearby enemies. Spirit Damage: 500% weapon damage.

 

Earthquake [Active]: The caster disrupts the earth, causing a violent quake that knocks everyone in the targeted area to the ground every few seconds, unless they pass a physical resistance check. Foes who do pass the resistance check will be staggered, suffer a penalty to their accuracy and be unable to perform critical hits. It is also notable that foes in the Earthquake zone will be unable to perform talents or spells since they require a lot of mental focus to perform. Friendly fire possible.

 

Tornado [Active]: Hurl enemies into the air. When the tornado ends they will fall to the ground taking a lot of damage. Foes who pass the resistance check will suffer a negative status effect that remains even when leaving the tornado area of effect. This negative status effect will make them stagger as they move about and they will suffer a debuff to their movement speed, attack speed and damage output. This is a temporary affliction that will only last 10 seconds.

 

Restorative Veil [Passive]: You pull stray magic from around weakened enemies to regain mana based on the damage you do to them.

 

Encircling Veil [Passive]: You use stray magic around weakened enemies to increase the power of status effects on them.

Duration Bonus vs. Weakened: 25% longer.

 

Smothering Veil [Passive]: Rag doll attacks deal more damage to foes who do not pass the resistance checks. Foes who do pass resistance checks will suffer even greater debuffs.

 

Twisting Veil [Passive]: You catch stray magic around weakened enemies and use it to increase the damage of your own attacks.

 

Unshakable [Sustained]: The mage suppresses the physical and elemental force of incoming attacks, becoming immune to knockdown and all elemental based negative effects (including chilled, burning, stunned, wet, drenched etc). This mode will however increase length of cooldowns and mana costs.

 

 

Inquisitor [Player Character]: 

Spoiler

 

In addition to having 3 specialisations to choose from (per class) the Inquisitor has a second specialisation. This specialisation is available regardless of class picked and will grant The Inquisitor a set of abilities that only they possess. [That's 8 skill trees in total, whereas allies only have 7]. None of the active abilities in this tree consume mana or stamina, however they do have long cooldowns.

 

Close Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: The Inquisitor can close rifts using the mysterious mark on their hand. Obviously can only be used near a rift.

 

Mark of the Rift [Active ability that is automatically unlocked and cannot be removed through respec]: Causes massive damage and can even kill some enemies instantly. However can only be used near a rift.

 

Aegis of The Rift [Active]: You turn the Veil itself into a magical shield that deflects enemy projectiles.

 

Focused Teamwork [Active]: During this mode successfully performing an ability combo leads to greater combo damage.

 

Rift Torture [Active]: A blast of energy that puts foes over a large area of effect in severe pain for a few seconds. Foes will be paralyzed. 

 

Enhancement From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Strength and +10 to Magic. (Cannot use at same time as Perception From The Rift)

 

Perception From The Rift [Active]: For brief time you gain +10 to Cunning and +10 to Dexterity. (Cannot use at same time as Enhancement From The Rift).

 

Lessons From The Rift [Passive]: 9 attribute points to spend.

 

Dance of The Rift [Passive]: Increases chances of counter attacks at melee range.

 

Gear From The Rift [Passive]: Certain gear has unique enchantments. When worn by your party members, they will not be able to benefit from this gear. When worn by the Inquisitor however, the gear will have some unique buffs.

 

 

 

So what do you think?

 

Commenting only on the Rogues, since that's my thing:

• Varric's Story Teller spec looks like an odd mish-mash of his DA2 and DAI specs only with the addition of Armour Piercing Bolt, which seems to be of kinda dubious value IMO, and Knockout Bomb, which actually worked brilliantly with an Assassin.
  In battle, Varric has always worked best as more of a machine gun than a sniper so his talents usually lent themselves toward overwhelming enemies with consistent criticals.
  Personally I think DA2 talents like Goad or Armistice would be a better. Might do my own take on Varric later on.
   
• While the Assassin has always been all about delivering damage and it's nice to see my ideas incorporated, it may be a little too damage heavy.
  Knockout Bomb in DAI serves the purpose of both CC and allowing an Assassin to trigger it's own combos.

 

The Dervish [Rogue]: 

Spoiler

 

The Dervish love their critical hits. Be it fighting them toe to toe or from the shadows, these skilled fighters make sure they hit the sweet spot as often as possible. They are fast, nimble, agile but also stealthy at the same time. Unlike The Assassin, killing is not so much an art form, but rather a necessity. Their methods are about killing foes quickly to ensure that they themselves are not killed.

 

Rush [Active]: Rush into a group of enemies staggering them (potentially knocking them down).

 

Silent Dash [Active]: Sprint to the location of an opponent and strike them from behind.

Staggering Attacks [Sustained]: This mode reserves a portion of the Rogue's stamina to increase the chances of all attacks staggering opponents. In addition this mode will provide a critical hit chance and critical hit damage bonus to staggered targets.

Speed Boost [Active]: Increases the speed of the Rogue's attacks, movement speed and evasion chance for a brief time.

 

Deepening Wounds [Sustained]: As the rogue attacks a target, they become more vulnerable to the rogue's attacks. Constantly applying pressure on wounds inflicted by the rogue, the enemy will take slightly more damage from each attack (up to a point).

 

They will have bleeding effect from the rogue's onslaught and every attack will slightly reduce a foe's maximum health. Should that foe try to heal themselves, there will be a limit to their healing.

 

Evade and Counter [Passive]: Successful evasions at melee range are always followed by a counter attack.

 

In and Out of The Frey [Passive]: You take 20% less damage from all sources when out of stealth and you deal 10% more damage when in stealth.

 

Dance of Death [Passive]: In stealth every critical hit has a 20% chance of dealing 50% more damage than a regular critical hit. Outside of stealth every critical hit hit has a 10% chance of dealing 25% more damage than a regular critical hit.

 

 

The Dervish seems to fit a skirmisher role. The spec itself looks fine but the role it seeks to fill is ably handled by the Tempest.

 

Good work though. 

[Abraham_uk]

Commenting only on the Rogues, since that's my thing:

• Varric's Story Teller spec looks like an odd mish-mash of his DA2 and DAI specs only with the addition of Armour Piercing Bolt, which seems to be of kinda dubious value IMO, and Knockout Bomb, which actually worked brilliantly with an Assassin.
  In battle, Varric has always worked best as more of a machine gun than a sniper so his talents usually lent themselves toward overwhelming enemies with consistent criticals.
  Personally I think DA2 talents like Goad or Armistice would be a better. Might do my own take on Varric later on.
   
• While the Assassin has always been all about delivering damage and it's nice to see my ideas incorporated, it may be a little too damage heavy.
  Knockout Bomb in DAI serves the purpose of both CC and allowing an Assassin to trigger it's own combos.

 

 

The Dervish seems to fit a skirmisher role. The spec itself looks fine but the role it seeks to fill is ably handled by the Tempest.

 

Good work though. 

 

 

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm looking forward to your Varric Spec.

Oh and please do your thing. You seem to understand the rogues best.

 

Anyway. I have exhausted all my ideas for specialisations.

I've worked through multiple possible specialisations for warrior, rogue and mages not to mention ones for each of the characters.

I'm looking forward to your thoughts on this matter.

 

I'm going to get the ball rolling on unique racial skills.

I don't think skill trees are necessary since we potentially have (if you count ally specific specialisations, Inquisitor specialisations, the Inquisitor skill tree and the 15 regular class skill trees) 34 skill trees. (15 + 9 + 9 + 1 = 34). So I don't think we need any more skill trees. These racial skills will be available to player right from the get go. They are there to give each race it's own flavour and are available to companions too.

 

Let me know what you think.

[Spellbound7]

UPDATE

 

• Ritualist specialisation added
• Jester specialisation added
• OP updated accordingly. Specialisations are now displayed like basic skill trees.
• You can switch directly from class to class from the skill tree/specialisation pages.
• Fundamental Changes updated with Crossbows and specialisation-specific equipment.

 

I decided to go for the Jester instead of the Dervish for a few reasons. While a Dervish is a cool idea, I felt that the Jester might be a bit more appropriate since it doesn't come with any inherent religious affiliations (Dervishes are middle-eastern ascetics) and is closer to the medieval-European context of Dragon Age and lore (Orlesian Harlequins). While I can imagine a place like Rivain might have Dervishes, I felt like the Jester would make an easier Rogue. Just slightly.

[Abraham_uk]

This is going to be another busy post.

 

2 New Specialisations to Review and suggestions for racial skills...

I hope you enjoy.

 

Thoughts on Class Descriptions: 

Spoiler

Really good stuff. I love how you describe each specialisation. Since most of these specialisations will be new to players having them explained will help immensely.

 

Ritualist [Mage]:

Spoiler

: Spellbound always finds a new unexplored angle to focus on regarding specialisaitons. This is especially true with both the Jester and Ritualist specialisations  Ritualists use lyrium tatoos to enhance their magical skills. Combine this with an absence of armour to boost magic over time and you have a powerful glass cannon.

 

Purification and Oppression rituals are nice ways to weaken enemies in terms of speed and barriers, but also grant a bonus to allies. Ritual of Glaciation is one that is likely to be skipped sadly as most gamers would probably not notice the heat game mechanic. Gamers who do understand this game mechanic would definitely see the value of heat mana.

 

Anoint is a useful ability and really brings into focus what this entire skill tree is about. One key skill that is affected by sustained abilities (much like how in primal tree, the spells are affected by elemental sustained abilities). The passives are also pretty useful means of further boosting your main abilities. Good work all round. Intelligent creative use of abilities that has a deep understanding of the game mechanics of the opening post.

 

Jester [Rogue]:

Spoiler

Oh this is quite something. This reminds me of the shadow specialisation of Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age 2. However it's an illusion tree done right. I was greatly underwhelmed by Shadow in Origins and DA2, because I just didn't see the point. When you have subtefuge and assassin why bother with another stealth based tree? Well this actually turns the illusionist rogue into a DPS killing machine that has exploding decoys, turns foes against one another, fast movement with flicker, a mirror ability that makes enemies go mad and a teleport ability.

 

You've used suggestions from Duellist on this one. Duellist you should definitely check this out. I think this is the kind of rogue that you've been talking about. I'm quite flattered to see a couple of my suggestions make the cut. You've done a great job at weaving suggestions made by people on this thread into this specialisation too. (This is meant as a complement). 

 

I think the Jester is a testament to the sort of concepts you go for. Specialisations are not just a set of abilities. There is a story behind them. These abilities represent an unexplored aspect of Dragon Age Lore being brought to life. Specialisations are not just trees with cool abilities, for many combatants they are a way of life. The Jester is a terrifying, speedy, stealthy, illusionist who is adept at tearing you apart out both physically and psychologically. Great ideas from an imaginative person.

 

One last specialisation [Warrior]:

Spoiler

: Make it a non magical one. That would be my suggestion. Both of the warriors are magic orientated. I have ideas and will share them, but as demonstrated, you are at your very best when working with your own ideas. Keep up the good work.

 

Racial Abilities [My Suggestions]:

Spoiler

 

There are no racial skill trees in this suggestion. There are 33 skill trees (or potentially 34 if the Inquisitor get's a Rift based skill tree). So I think that's enough. That said, I feel that each race should have a few unique abilities mainly for role playing. I want the experience to be different for each race. Feel free to discuss, criticise etc. I'd also like to see your suggestions on the matter too.

 

Elf Skills: 

Spoiler

These are available at the start of the game and do not require skill points to unlock.

These are available to: Sera, Solas and The Elven Inquisitor. 

 

Ranged Resistance [Passive]: Elves have a 30% resistance to all non magical ranged attacks.

 

Mobility [Passive]: Elves have a 10% faster movement speed in and out of battle.

 

Stillness and Recovery [Passive]: When standing still, mana and stamina regenerates 50% faster.

 

Elven Ambassador [Passive]: Elves are a marginalised race. They have been treated badly at the hands of humans, and are generally slow to trust Dwarves and Qunari too due to bad experiences. Having an elf in your party will help improve your disposition with Dalish and City Elves. This ability also opens up new dialogue options with Elves.

 

Codex Entries: As an Elf, you have a good understanding of Elven culture. This actually removes dialogue options that involve asking questions about Elven culture but instead adds this lore to your codex. Requires player character to be an Elf.

 

 

Dwarf Skills:

Spoiler

 These are available at the start of the game and do not require skill points to unlock.

These are available to: Varric and The Dwarven Inquisitor.

 

Magical Resistance [Passive]: Dwarves have a 30% resistance to all magical attacks.

 

Defend The Mage [Passive]: Mages in Dwarven culture are rare. This is because Dwarves cannot be mages. Sometimes you'll find an Elven mage within the ranks Dwarven warriors and Dwarven bandit groups. If said mage were to fall in combat, then this would be a huge loss to the group. This passive reduces the threat generation of Mages in the party. This passive however doesn't stack.

 

Mental Fortitude [Passive]: Don't even bother pulling off illusions or using mind altering magic on a Dwarf. It quite simply won't work. Even if a foe were to use stealth, the Dwarf would see right through it.

 

Merchant [Passive]: It is in mercantile and business that a Dwarf's charisma shines brightest. They gain 10% lower prices when purchasing and 10% higher prices when selling. In addition this opens unique dialogue options with fellow Dwarves and shop keepers. If you purchases a lot of times at a particular store and you purchase a lot, you can gain some loyalty awards too.

 

If you're not a Dwarf, be sure to bring Varric along to help you out when purchasing items.

 

Codex Entries: As a Dwarf, you have a good understanding of Dwarven culture. This actually removes dialogue options that involve asking questions about Dwarven culture but instead adds this lore to your codex. Requires player character to be a Dwarf.

 

 

Human Skills:

Spoiler

These are available at the start of the game and do not require skill points to unlock.

These are available to: Cassandra, Blackwall, Cole, Vivienne, Dorian and The Human Inquisitor.

 

Damage Resistance [Passive]: Humans have a 10% resistance to melee, ranged and magical attacks. 

 

Adrenaline [Passive]: Humans have more adrenaline in their body than other races. What this does is provides is 10% faster stamina regeneration.

 

Intense Training [Passive]: Humans like to fire off their abilities one after another. This passive provides 10% faster cool downs for all activated abilities.

 

Gentry Affinity [Passive]: It is important to note that most people in high society are very accepting towards Elves, Dwarves and Qunari. However there are a few individuals (including dignitaries) that look down on all non-humans. Being a human or having at least one human in your party will help when speaking with certain bigots. If you're not human, it is best to allow a party member do the talking. 

 

Codex Entries: As a Human, you have a good understanding of Human culture. This actually removes dialogue options that involve asking questions about Human culture but instead adds this lore to your codex. Requires player character to be a Human.

 

 

Qunari Skills:

Spoiler

These are available at the start of the game and do not require skill points to unlock.

These are available to: Iron Bull and The Qunari Inquisitor.

 

Melee Resistance [Passive]: Qunari have a 30% damage resistance to melee attacks.

 

Self Preservation [Passive]: Qunari have a slight advantage when blocking. They take less damage from all sources (except attacks that ignore guard) when their guard is up, guard decays slower and blocking is more effective in combat.

 

Heavy Weight [Passive]: Qunari are very heavy individuals. Their weight is such that they are more resistant to being knocked down and are merely staggered by rag dolling abilities (such as any mages who use telekinesis or a flash bomb that sends its targets flying).

 

Path to Righteousness [Passive]: The teachings of the Qun are a part of your background whether or not you identify as being part of the Qunari religion. You can go on pilgrimages, undertake unique quests and even become a fully fledged member of the Qunari religion. Iron Bull cannot become fully fledged, so to get the full benefit of this passive you must be a Qunari.

 

Codex Entries: As a Qunari, you have a good understanding of Qunari culture. This actually removes dialogue options that involve asking questions about Qunari culture but instead adds this lore to your codex. Requires player character to be a Qunari.

 

 

 

 

Class Based Codex Entries [My Suggestions]: 

Spoiler

All three classes have their own codex entries.

In addition so does each specialisation available to the Inquisitor.

 

This is the same idea as the Codex Entries for each race. Each class and specialisation locks out certain dialogue options that involve asking obvious questions that your character should know the answer to. Instead information about your class and specialisation will already be in the codex.

[Spellbound7]

My, my, such praises! Thanks xD

 

I can't say I'm fond of racial abilities since they thend to influence your class and build, but they do makes sense, and actually add deeper roleplaying qualities to the game. I'm okay with most of those, but I'd argue the active skills should not be there as they tend to confer larger bonuses than passives and as such will influence your decision even more.\

 

All in all, though, good stuff.