Shattered Kingdoms

Apparently I have to be more vague.

AN ABILITY THAT MAY OR MAY NOT INVOLVE USING HORSIES should go to mercenaries, paladins, and hellions. This would provide a really interesting buff to centaurs, which I think might be what they need to be made viable for the warrior classes.

AN ABILITY THAT MAY OR MAY NOT INVOLVE SPECIAL HORSIES should go to shaman, paladins, and hellions. The horses would be religion-specific, both in appearance, and stats. The shaman variation could be more akin to a spirit companion - not strong enough to turn shaman into a pet class, but holding some form of synergy with the shaman skillset. Use your imagination; I think the possibilities are pretty cool

AN ABILITY THAT MAY OR MAY NOT INVOLVE SHIELDS should go to mercenaries, paladins, and hellions. This is an almost unused skill, as is, and would finally see the light of day if it were introduced to all players. It was suggested to me that barbarians are too...barbaric to use such strict group tactics, and thus it might not make sense for them to have the skill.

Problem #1: it's giving buffs to melee classes, when they already tend to have the edge in combat currently. While this could be argued, none of these are pure buffs, but in fact just giving melee classes options as to how they fight. I really don't want to have to break down exactly how this would alter combat, but I think it holds a lot of opportunities. Casters will see change in time, and already are - don't get caught up on temporary and minor imbalances. Think long term.

Problem #2: it's taking away essential "defining" skills. The theme and feel of those cabals will be changed, but I feel that's primarily an issue with giving such skills to specific groups in the first place. It's akin to allowing only Druids to use bows, or only Harlequin to dodge. Those skills might "fit" their theme, and making them specialized might even make that theme very potent, mechanically. That doesn't mean that they aren't hogging skills that could radically change the way combat works in the rest of the game. These skills, while not nearly as important as bow or dodge, are basic mechanical features that could really change the way combat works on a daily basis.

Problem #3: finding new skills to replace these three. It's not an easy task, but the chance to bring something fresh to some pretty old skillsets is never a bad thing. The first two skills are certainly the hardest to replace, because they ARE important, mechanically and thematically. However, I bet they could be replaced with skills that are more useful to a larger range of classes, but still match the theme. Further still, a cabal is defined by its members, not by its skills. If you can't play <insert cabal> the way you want because you can't <insert skill>, then your skills of RP are truly lacking.

While the goal of this would be to alter the face of melee combat and bring a lot more options and potential strategy to the table, this also presents a good opportunity to look at the cabal skillsets and the way they're slanted. For some classes, cabal skillsets really don't mean much. Rogues, for example, don't gain as much as, say, a paladin might from joining most cabals, because of the way the skills are designed. A good cabal skillset, in my mind, offers something to every class, equally. It's hard to bridge the melee/caster bridge to achieve that, but I think it can definitely be done.

I think what'd be interesting would be to see class-group specific cabal skills.

For example: A front row damage skill is practicly useless to sorcs in PVP. Replace it with something useful, and so forth.

My suggestion i a bit more than a nutshell: Split cabal skills in warrior skills/adventurer skills/caster skills, and give them all something useful. Something that would make it difficult to chose what to play instead of instantly knowing what's best to play, as for instance:

A griffon barbarian for a cabal that would have enhanced damage when naturally flying and an unnarmed dive attack for flying combatants.

I don't see the merit of this in the first place. Why take cabal skills away just to give them new ones? If you want to give certain classes goodies, give them new goodies. Certainly they'd fit better than these.

n00b

This "ability that may or may not" stuff cracks me up.

THIS ABILITY THAT MAY OR MAY NOT USE A SHIELD WILL GIVE ME EXTRA POWERS...MAYBE. I'M A BIT CONFUSED ABOUT IT ALL, REALLY.

Eh no.

I disagree with the first post in this thread.

Leave it as is.

Cept for THE SKILLS THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE TO DO WITH BLOOD.

Make them, you know, ...better.

But if we -did- go this route then it would be easy to give everyone certain skills but give the cabal ENHANCED SKILL THAT MAY OR MAY NOT INCLUDE A HORSE

cabals make SK...... SK

it's fun to discover them and use them

if you dissolve the specials into classes then they won't be specials

RP only get cabals so far ><

i disagree, i think cabals should rely on RP first and on skills afterwards. lorzatu forced the [REDACTED] midnight council to not have skills for a good deal, upwards of over a few damn months, and at that time you just were not [REDACTED] with the midnight council, mechanics or roleplay wise.

besides, the shield ability and the horse ability definitely need to get handed out as options to ground fighters. i'd like to see more people approach fights in ways other than quaff a lot before, taunt / bash / trip, sit around and look cool. a group going in as a phalanx or some cavalry openings would be [REDACTED] cool, yes?