Shattered Kingdoms

I guess I got the bug too. Someone mentioned an esper class, and I thought that would be neat. It combines a little Jedi-like weapon work with some mental abilities designed to help high level PK (i.e. anti-summon, anti-steamrolling)

Strengths:
Good damage output.
Good defensive skills.
Some maledictions, primarily anti-caster or anti-group.
Limited but fun ability to posess a monster.

Weaknesses:
Cloth armor + lousy HP
Little buffing or utility compared to most casters - not even invis.

Custom abilities:
Mindjab - Magic missile with no range, but save vs. fort or -1 int/dex.
Focus - Self-buff bonus to weapon accuracy and damage, lowered willpower.
Anticipation - Self-buff with bonus to dodge, parry, and reflex.
Telepathic Shout - Modest area-effect damage + deafness. Flamestrike range.
Psi-strike - Combines a psychic blast with an extra-fast weapon strike. Draining physcially and mentally, but quite damaging if it hits.
Mental Block - Protective spell where target can't be seen on the who list or summoned, but has lowered willpower. Does not block gate. Usable on enemies without starting combat. Target sending a tell cancels the spell.
Galloping Giggles - Group-effect willpower malediction causes -1 to all stats plus lag based on number of people in group. (Not even a round for a lone wolf, painful for a full pack.)
Posess beast - Instead of controlling your character, you control a beast below your level, excluding persons, angels/demons, golems, or elementals. Limited to beast's skills, with no spells. Your own body is a helpless target. You die if the beast dies before the spell is released. Cannot release spell while beast is in-combat.

Restrictions: No giants for stupidity. Possibly no elves, half-elves, or deep-elves for magical attunement.

Skills // Spells:
Amateur: dagger, staff, dodge, scrolls // mindjab
Novice: parry, meditation, self defense // focus
Initiate: spears, polearms // detect invis, detect hidden
Apprentice: trip, dirt kick // know alignment, anticipation
Journeyman: second attack, trance // telepathic shout, shield
Veteran: tracking, endurance // fear, sleep, mental block, locate object
Expert: brawling, enhanced damage // word of recall, posess beast
Mentor: // galloping giggles, psi-strike
Master: // confusion

Flame away!

Underpowered solo, strong in group. Possess beast bores me. This class should get killed often, by all rights. It needs a way of having better defense to compensate for nonexistant HP -- at the very least it can use a not-very-fast polearm with okay accuracy that does loads of damage because of how little attacks it gets (two). It would be pretty strong behind a tank, otherwise it'd be "meh" and would probably die often. Should have mid-to-high art. Confusion is the spell to watch out for as it can ruin an entire enemy formation simply by casting it on the strongest tank. I'd give it blindness / deafness instead of confusion.

Confusion given to PCs.

What is this world coming to?

And then we have a group affect malediction that will drop all stats by one.

And then we'll have the ability to transform said character into a dragon for example(not a GM, a lower level one, but don't think that most dragons in SK are GMs. Actually most are master/champ level). Or if you don't like dragons, I can think of many more npcs I'd love to be and get their skills/spells.

PS: I can't wait for the next class idea that will be able to cast hold person. And then one that will be able to cast teleport on enemies. And any other nifty npc ability out there.

Teleport on enemies eh...I believe that spell might be in the game if in slightly shittier form...

Slightly is an understatement. I've only seen ONE log of it working.

It works just fine with art, just the down side of it is a bit...big.

I already suggested a class that could hold person, by the way, although the ability's suggestion was clearly tongue-in-cheek.

Whoever thought espers should be a class plays too much final fantasy.
Don't get me wrong VI kicked [REDACTED], but damn.......

My suggestions in bold. *'d spells are scribable. Psi-strike should have a weapon-type requirement (blunt or slashing for example).

Races: Human, Half-elf, elf, deep-elf, Centaur, Gnome, Giant
Giant?! Yes, Giant. Believe it or not, there is a good fantasy basis for psychic giants, especially in DnD. Granted, we don't have giant sub-races so it's most likely a moot point...

Thanks for the comments. The consensus seems to be that it's a bit too strong as a caster (confusion, control beast) and far too flimsy as a fighter. That's not good in a hybrid.

Additions and changes here in bold. Confusion and control beast removed. Explanations below.

Race restrictions: No giants or sprites

Skills // Spells:
Amateur: dagger, staff, mace, dodge, scrolls // mindjab
Novice: parry, meditation, self defense // focus
Initiate: spears, polearms // detect invis, detect hidden
Apprentice: trip, dirt kick // know alignment, anticipation
Journeyman: second attack, trance // telepathic shout, shield
Veteran: tracking, endurance // fear, sleep, mental block, locate object, pet telepathy
Expert: brawling, enhanced damage // word of recall, halluncinatory double
Mentor: third attack // galloping giggles, vertigo
Master: // psi-strike

New abilities:
Hallucinatory double: Similar to a single mirror image, any weapon strike that would strike the caster has a 50% chance of hitting the image instead. However, the image is not destroyed by being hit, only exposed. It can try to absorb damage again next round.

Pet telepathy: An esper can enter into a closer bond with his storebought pet. This removes any order lag. It also gives the pet a low-level version of the esper's focus and anticipation self-buffs. Does not work on cabal/tribunal/item "pets", or on anyone else's creatures.

Vertigo: A willpower malediction that causes disabling dizziness. The afflicted takes a penalty to both accuracy and dexterity, dropping all his loose items if he can no longer carry them all. Any command line action has a 25% chance of being replaced by a fumble emote and a round of lag. Requires light continuous concentration by caster.

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While I did mean to give espers a good single-target willpower spell, I agree confusion is too much. With giggles, fear, and shout, espers already have enough ways to make a large party unhappy. It is replaced by vertigo, which while not totally incapacitating makes escape difficult.

Likewise, control beast is hard to balance and apparently not that interesting. Pet telepathy instead adds a bonus for the esper in small groups, where he's weakest.

I agree someone who fights with staves should be able to handle maces and pole-maces. Third attack is probably a good idea. Psi-strike is raised to the new Master spell, to elevate the hybrid nature of the class. Defensively, hallucinatory double should help endurance.

Giants are psionically weak in SK, so they shouldn't be espers. Sprites are the most magically attuned race, so they make more sense to get rid of. As for adding more mage spells/skills and removing weapons, that's not the direction I want to take the hybrid.