Shattered Kingdoms

I was thinking about the detect alignment spell and I thought of something that might be cool for rogues Basically detect class as a skill. I don't think it would be an overpowered skill.
Learn more about your targets. Perhaps avoid those nasty counterstrikes more often.
Thoughts, opinions?

I like the concept. It reminds me of those rogueish skill they put in the Final Fantasy games... scan or libra or whatever it's generally called... basically the notion of a skill that lets you use those skills of perception in a tactical manner. Strikes me as being right up the rogue's alley.

As far as balance, as long as it's not giving out super-detailed information, and just basics like the player's class or something, I can't see a problem with that.

Lol . . . quick glance. One too few S-es.



No. OP. If you're chosing to fight someone ICly you should -probably- have an IC reason to do so . . . and likely KNOW your target. If you're roguing it up and killing for EQ alone, you deserve to have your butt handed to you.

It's an interesting idea, but I think that EQ tends to be "enough" in terms of roughly determing class. And yeah, you can't tell between a merc and a barb 90% of the time, but if you think about it... why should a rogue be able to? The most telling information in that case is generally somebody's title anyway. "BATTLE RAGER OF THE NORTH" etc. I'm not sure a barb has anything distinctive from a merc that you wouldn't or shouldn't be able to tell with the look command and the who list and eq.

Lot's of reasons IC'ly a rogue would be attacking someone they just met.

Also, I think using the wholist to determine who someone in front of you most likely is, is tacky.

And they should automatically know their class?

No.

Bards should be able to use lore on people first, before this.

Let's put it in context of the game.

There's the priests and paladins who have the divine insight to see into the soul, and what the heart tells.

There's all manner of spellcaster who have the magical means to look past magical facades to divine truths about people, and extensive details of objects.

There's bards, who have the thousands of pieces of learned bits of lore necessary to gain knowledge of the stories of any piece of equipment in the game and use it to practical purpose.

Then there's rogues. Rogues are supposed to be the masters of disguise and perception, the fundamentals of any good spy, sneak thief or assassin. Why wouldn't they have the fundamentals to recognize the subtle of very specific classes and identify them as such? Making it a skill turns it into a learning curve of potentially identifying someone as the wrong class and paying for it later.

I see it as being about as tactical and balanced as any other class. While that is definitely geared primarily toward more aggressive play (exceptions being a thief who is looking for specific kinds of assistance and has the ability to recognize and locate what they need simply by looking instead of taking the chance of asking), the same could be said of spells that are considered commonplace, like auras. The difference between the two is that one steps way over the line into a person's most private thoughts, while the other is based on keen observation and perception. In balance, I'd say an assessment skill would be within bounds.

I guess I just like certain things like necromancers pretending to be sorcs. It's interesting. I don't want that getting ruined by "LOOK AT THIS GUY HERE... HE WALKS LIKE A GAWDAMN NECROMANCA"

I mean come on. There really isn't a way to tell without using stuff that you can already see as a player. The "color of your soul" and whatnot, while seemingly more outlandish to "see" compared to IRL, really isn't an absurd thing in the context of SK where these things are much more clear cut.

i didnt know boston was a kingdom in sk...