FORUM

So someday there will probably be a lot of class suggestions, people wanting to see their favorites. This is mine ! Sort of. Since this is a game of characters rather than races and classes, its tricky to suggest one since he'll probably be the only dwarf ! Gotta make the most of that. Since adding a character is obviously no simple feat, tried to think of something that is lacking role wise and design wise, we have no stubbly gruff heros ! We got a hero, nag, a pervert, a nerd, and a girl. Since we have 0 support classes so far, i wanted a character that could be a support but ALSO a melee dps since we only got one of those, and Krug is also already rocking the sword. Thats why the best melee/support i could think of (not like a BARD could do it) is the DWARVEN RUNEMASTER!


Runemasters are a unique fantasy class almost always reserved for Dwarves alone, who shun magic and rely on their own ancient methods. The runemaster is a smith, a warrior, and an enchanter, all in a tough as nails dwarven package.

He'll wear heavy armor, and in one hand wield an Axe, and in the other hand, a Hammer. Those will be his specializations, the path of the Axe for primary damage, and the path of the Hammer for primary support, as the hammer is his tool for rune smithing.

His unique mechanic will be something like Kissa's blessings but not quite. He'll have an active ability to generate runes and do nothing else, which he can spend enchanting aspects of his own attack abilities or to buff his allies. Will list base skills and only make mention of what major augments could do. All of his attack abilities will consume a rune for additional affect if one is available, (because runes are made by bashing his axe with his hammer you see so he cant just turn them off when fighting!) Major augments on abilities to add extra affects will increase rune cost by 1 for added power.

List of skills by type/level
Path of the Axe 1 ~ Cleave ~ Strikes target in melee range, augments enabling Cleave to strike multiple foes in range, or deal armor crippling strikes. Way of the Axe. Consumes a rune for bonus damage, if augmented for cripple, adds bleed, if augmented for cleave, causes explosion on targets.

Path of the Hammer 1. ~ Craft Runes ~ 4 second cast skill, costs high mana, no CD. crafts several runes to be used for attacks/enchants. Augments could increase production, increase cap, or give abilities a chance to have rune effects without using a rune (So if you had 0 runes, cleave could still bleed/explode/bonus damage sometimes, but you couldnt cast something that required runes)

PotA 2 ~ Throwing Axe ~ 1 second charge ranged attack to hit target. Augments could give it major pushback, or pull in effect. Consumes 2 runes to deal partial damage to all targets in path of axe. If augmented to pull, cleaves the target after its pulled. If augmented to push, stuns target.

PotH 2 ~ Runed Blades ~ instant cast, no cooldown, no mana cost, costs 1 rune. Instantly enchants physical damage of everyone in party by 5% for 10 seconds per rune consumed to a max of 15% for 30 seconds. Augments to change damage/duration, increase cost/effect ratio, change enchant to effect Magic damage instead.

PotA 3 ~ Enchanted Strike ~ instant, deals high magic damage rather than physical. Augments cause casting interruption, or mana burn. Consumes 1 rune to debuff targets Spirit. If augmented to interrupt, also steals a buff from an enemy. If augmented to mana burn, steals the burned mana.

PotH 3 ~ Rune Shield ~ no cast time, no CD, no mana cost, costs 1 rune per cast. Applies a stack of rune shielding to selected ally or self, increasing armor/resistance by 100/50 for 10 seconds per stack up to 3 stacks. Augments to increase duration/effect, advanced augment causes rune shield to increase Dodge instead, or to absorb powerful attacks (over x amount of characters hp) at the cost of a stack.



I'll stop here since theirs only 6 skills per character in the alpha atm but i hope i got the point across, his abilities and augments are meant to make the player choose and juggle how effective he could be without relying on runes at all and thus moderately effective in most situations, or dependent on runes and thus relies on having enough between conflicts/generate enough during conflicts, to burst them out in support or offense, or hybrid in between. Then theirs the expenditure of runes, focusing on Axe path will cause him to burn through runes faster and may leave none for quick buffs, he may hold back burning them too fast (Kind of like Talon, holding back his Rapid Shot or Phoenix shot until hes got the right weakness on his target!)

Path of the Axe focus makes him a good warrior regardless of party composition but Path of the Hammer augments can really excel with certain parties (like some passives do) this way he'll have a home in any group you spec him for, versatile against any front line enemy and still dangerous to heroes in the rear.

Will be hard to find the right amount of Runes created from his spell, and maximum runes stored at once, obviously less of a problem for a primary Axe path but running out of runes is the bane of Hammer since its risky to make them during combat. Unlike Kissa's marks, they wont vanish outside of combat but he cant stop them from being consumed by attack skills, but few abilities will consume a large number.

So hopefully all of this is a compelling case of a unique role, mechanic, and aesthetic. Way better than an elf.

More reasons for Dwarf!

Need an axe/hammer user

SOMEONE has to wear a beard.

Introduction of a Dwarven character/society allows for subterranean adventures in the future!

He dual wields ! Nobody does that yet !

Dwarves as a race are also a convenient excuse for mechanical contraptions that may of found their way into the story.

Hes shorter, so easier to model !