ToME WikiGhostBuster Idea of a new class: meteorologists. They gain power from the current weather in the cave, but this one is randomly determined....
Meteorologists are scientist that has studied weather for a long time and can use it at their own benefit. As scientists, they do not have any magical skill and weather mastering is more related to spirituality.
Weather in ToME relies on a set of parameters.
- Temperature that can be either cold, hot or mild.
- Humidity that can be either dry, wet or moist.
- Wind indication, either windy or quiet. In the case of a windy weather, a wind direction (among 8) also applies.
So the current weather will be caracterized by three informations: hot and wet with a wind blowing towards NW, cold, moist and quiet, etc....
We will refer to the wind quadrant as the the wind direction and its two surrounding orientation. For instance if the wind is blowing towards NW, the wind quadrant will be W, NW and N.
Weather elements refer to the two elements corresponding to the current weather temperature and humidity: fire (for hot weathers) or frost (for cold weathers), acid (for wet weathers) or electricity (for dry weathers).
Weather changes periodically (approximately every 500 turns) and on every level change.
Meteorologists can cast very powerful spells, but :
- most rely on the current weather that cannot be changed. Depending on the spell, weather effects can be beneficial or detrimental and can dramatically change the player tactic.
- random effects are frequent in weather spells
- spells cannot be targeted and affect a zone around the player
Weather effect are important and can increase an effect (damage duration by 50%) or reduce it by 50%. Wind can increase the radius of an area by 1. Wind can also influence the best approach to attack some monsters.
Level 1 (0 mana and 0 time) "Weather Forecast" Gives knowledge of the current weather. At level 10 indicates the date of the next weather change and what it will be. At level 30 forecasts two changes.
Level 1 "Concentrate Weather" Creates a ball around the player of a random weather element. An hot weather can create a ball of fire, a cold one a ball of frost. A dry weather can create an electric ball and a wet one an acid ball. In case of either mild or moist weather, randomness applies for the corresponding element with a damage reduced by 50%. Balls will always be of radius one, and have a power increasing with the level.
Level 5 "Resist Weather" Gives resistance to a random element of the current weather. At level 20 gives resistance to both. At level 40 gives resistance to all weather elements. At level 45 also gives a temporary immunity to one the current weather element and to both at level 50. In case of either mild or moist weather, randomness applies for the corresponding element with a reduced spell duration. No immunity can be gained in that case.
Level 5 "Sense Population" A cold weather lets the player sense hot blooded (living) creatures, while a hot one allows the detection of non living monsters; both are detected in case of mild weather with a reduced region area. At level 10 a dry weather will also give an extra infravision. At level 15, all creatures are detected, and you have temporary ESP at level 25. Reduced ESP time for windy weathers.
Level 5 "Gone with the wind" : blinks the player a short distance. At level 15, if the weather is windy, it can turn to a semi controlled short range teleportation. In that case, one can choose either a regular random blinking or to follow one of the 3 directions in the wind quadrant.
Level 8 "Sense Environment" A dry weather lets you sense humid surrondings (vegetation, water), while a humid one lets you detects rocks and walls. At level 12, doors and stairs are detected. At level 20 maps the immediate area. At level 40 fully maps and lite the level.
Level 8 "Sun Light" Lights up rooms and does light damage. The damage is increased for an hot weather.
Level 10 "Weather Coat" Uses the current weather strength to increase the player AC. At level 30, also deals damage of one of the current weather element to any attacking monster. If the weather is windy, damage can even be force, pushing monsters away from the player. Reduced damage and duration for mild or moist weather (if the corresponding element is selected).
Level 12 "Acid Rain" Creates a rain of acid drops around the player (see below for rains). Smaller effect for dry weathers. Extra damage if the weather is humid. Increased area in the wind direction and small risk for the player to be attained by some drops in case of wind.
Level 14 "Fire Drops" Creates a centered rain of fire around the player (see below for centered rains). Smaller effect for cold weathers. If the weather is hot turns into a rain of holy fire. Increased area in the wind direction and small risk for the player to be attained for windy weathers.
Level 16 "North Wind Bite" Creates a storm of frost around the player. Smaller effect for hot weathers. If the weather is cold becomes a storm of ice. Reduced duration and small risk for the player to be attained for windy weathers.
Level 18 "Thunder Strike" Creates a storm of thunder around the player. Smaller effect for dry weathers. If the weather is dry, also deals a similar damage of ligth. Reduced duration and small risk for the player to be attained for windy weathers.
Level 20 "Weather regenation" Cures stuns, slightly heals the player and gives him back some mana points. Improved healing in hot weathers and higher mana recovery in cold ones. Both are reduced if there is some wind. At level 30, poison is cured in wet weathers and cuts are removed in dry ones.
Level 20 "Pollution" Creates a toxic poisonous cloud. At level 30 attacks all living monsters. A dry weather will increase the cloud duration while a humid one will increases its deadliness. Wind will increase its area in the wind direction and largely reduce its duration (-75%).
Level 20 "Kite" Teleports the player a good distance, but only if the weather is windy and in the wind quadrant direction. Otherwise, realizes a slightly improved blink.
Level 20 "Depollution" Removes in the immediate surronding non weather coherent features (lava for a cold weather, water and ice for a hot one, both for a mild weather). At level 25 also destroys traps.
Level 25 "Weather Branding" Embues your weapon with an element from the current weather. Note : if the weather is humid, the branding can be poison instead of acid. In case of mild or moist weather, randomness applies and the effect is reduced. At level 40, an extra shard embuing applies in quiet weathers.
Level 25 "Piercing Flash" Creates a flash of sunlight that can turn stone to mud . At level 35, on hot weathers, can turn into a radius 1 ball centered around the player.
Level 25 "Telekinesis" Teleport an object or a monster to your feet. It only works in windy weathers and if the object or monster is in the quadrant from which the wind originates. No weight limitation for objects, no resistance for monsters, but heavy monsters have a higher saving throw to the spell.
Level 28 "Wind blast" On windy weathers, powerful sound breath in the wind quadrant direction. No effect on quiet weathers or in a direction not in the wind quadrant.
Level 30 "Weather power" Calls on the current weather to improve the player abilities. A dry weather will increase the player speed while a humid one will render his blows more accurate. Randomness applies (with a reduced effect) for moist weathers.
Level 30 "Sticky Rain" A breath that projects some sticky product to slow down monsters. If the weather is windy and that you breath against it, small risk to be also sticked (and slowed). At level 42, turns to a region slowing monster rain, slightly deformed by the wind. At level 48, affects all monsters in LOS.
Level 32 "Weather Barrier" Create a protective ring of weather element around the player: lava for an hot weather, water for a cold one, random for a mild weather.
Level 35 "Opaque Barrier" Depending on the weather humidity randomly grows either trees (humid weather) or rocks (dry weather) around the player (none for moist weathers).
Level 37 "Hurricane" Breathes a powerful wind of gravity in one direction. If the weather is windy and that the direction is in the wind quadrant, turns to a breath of force. At level 45, force will always apply, and if the weather is dry will turn to LOS instead.
Level 40 "Death Rain" Creates a deadly rain that will attack monsters in a region (see below for deadly rains). The deadliness of the rain increases with the level from 50% at level 40 to 100% at level 50. The attack type will be randomly based on the current weather. The attacks can damage the player. At level 48 turns to irresistible damage (mana). Wind increases the area of the spell in the wind direction.
Meteorologists do fly at level 35 if the weather is windy. At level 40, they have permanent living ESP in cold weathers and non living ESP for hot weathers. At level 45 they gain the power to change the weather. The new weather will be randomly determined and a LONG time-out applies.
Note on rains: Rains are region based attacks and are always centered aroud the player. They are caracterized by a radius, a damage, a density, a deadliness and an attack type. They consist of random attacks on every square of the region with a probability based on the density. With a density of 100%, every square of the region will receive an attack (on the average). If the rain is centered, the probablity of an attack on a square is in inverse proportion of the distance to the player. Deadliness is a probability that attacks continue on a monster if it is targeted by a drop. If deadliness is 0 (for regular rain), after striking a monster a new position is randomly selected. If deadliness is 100%, any randomly targeted monster will receive attacks until either rain drops are exhausted or the monster is destroyed. Deadly rains can be incredibly powerful, even with relatively weak attacks. For instance, a radius 5 deadly rain (with density 100%) can deal up to 11x11=121 times the basic attack, if a monster is targeted at first drop!!!! Garanteed insta kill! It can also be completely inefficient if monsters go across rain drops (or if the targeted monster is immune to the attack type!) and any attack on the player square will hurt him (but without any deadly eagerness!!). As any regional attack, rains go across walls...
NB: Weather is generally random, but some dungeons impose a specific kind of weather (Mount Doom is hot, Helcaraxe is cold, small cave is wet, etc).
I am starting to implement this class for ToME in order to experiment it. Any comment or idea is welcome.