Origin Point

Hmm. The part of me that my common sense resides in informs me that leaping head-on into the way of designing four whole classes at the same time may be a bit too bold. Probably better to take them one at a time.

So that is clearly the way forward.

One thing I have found with WAR is that the tank classes seem to be the most iconic in appearance for their race. Ironbreakers, Swordmasters, KotBS, Chosen, Black Orcs and Blackguards all appear to be the closest to the generic soldiery of their race and if you look you'll notice the leaders all seem to be tank types in appearance.

So let us take the humble Tank archetype and develop it for both the Lizardmen and the Skaven.

With all tanks there are three common Mastery trees. One focused on damage, one focused on defense and one focused on disruption. I see no reason why this should change for the Saurus Guardian and Skaven Stormvermin.

Let's start with something small. Names.

Damage Mastery - The Path of Sotek/Glory
Defensive Mastery- The Path of Quetzl/Caution
Disruptive Mastery - The Path of Tepok/Cunning

These names are thematic to me. The Saurus Guardian paths all come after the Old Ones - Sotek being the aggressive, warlike serpent god, Quetzl being a god of protection and Tepok being the wise god of magic. The Stormvermin paths are influenced by the way Skaven speak and think. You'll have noticed Skaven tend to emphasise themselves by repeating something multiple times in the same sentence, often right together. 'Die-die man thing!!' Skaven also don't hold much for religion or philosophy. So the Mastery names are simple concepts that you can imagine Skaven sticking to. Glory-glory! Caution! Cunning-cunning am I!

That was the simple bit. Now for some more complicated rambling and thoughts.

Each of the paired tank classes has a mechanic mirrored in the opposite faction. Now unfortunately with 3 main races it's impossible to have loose ends...and as you will notice the mirrors are not identical to eachother. With the Lizardmen and Skaven this will not be the case. First, a summary.

High Elf Swordmasters and Black Orcs - Stances. The mechanic is a simple one, attacks lead from no stance to A, B and C which in turn unlock more powerful attacks and abilities. More often than not Stance C's attacks are the hardest hitting but cost less or no Action Points to compensate for the fact you have to get there first.

Dwarf Ironbreakers and Dark Elf Blackguards- 'Hate'. This mechanic is probably the most complicated of the current tanks. Attacking and being attacked generates a pool of Hate points. A number of their abilities, offensive and defensive cost Hate, reducing the pool of Hate points. These abilities are more potent and with some tactics and stances the Hate pool affects how powerful an attack or ability is.

Knights of the Blazing Sun and Chaos Chosen- Auras. This mechanic is the most simple as it is not dependant on a series of circumstances or events being met to function whereas stances and the Hate pool do. This mechanic functions as a buff/debuff mechanic and works, quite simply by the class having a number of toggle auras that can be turned on and off, lasting an amount of time before fading. These auras include Strength (buff/debuff), Toughness (b/d), Resistance (b/d), Damage, Disrupt (debuff), Healing Disrupt. These auras affect team-mates as well in some cases and make the tank ideal for support roles.

Now, in other games I've played these mechanics are not uncommon. Let's take Guild Wars as an example. Stances come into play with the Assassin class where attacks work on chains and you need to get from A to B to C. Hate comes into play with the Warrior class in the form of the Adrenalin pool where abilities require X adrenalin to be used and it builds up in combat. The Auras come into play with the Dervish Class or even the Ranger stances.

Another game - City of Heroes/Villains. Stances come into play with the Dual Blades powerset where A leads to B which leads to C. Auras are a common feature of the whole game and the 'Hate' pool was present in the old Blaster defiance.

So my idea for a mechanic for Guardians and Stormvermin is found in other games as well. Mainly in City of Heroes with the Kheldians.

Spawned to Protect/Packleaders

The difference between Lizardmen and Skaven will be simple. Lizardmen as a whole will be more defensively orientated while Skaven are more aggressive. Applying this will be simple enough.

Let's discuss the mechanic first. The idea behind this mechanic is that these Tank classes are team-players. It is a scaling, passive buff that works on a pendulum based on the number of friendly players within 30 feet of them. In the case of the Saurus Guardian Toughness and Wounds will scale up whereas with the Stormvermin Weapon Skill and Strength will scale.

The idea is simple- the more allies around them the more resilient the Saurus gets and the more aggressive the Skaven becomes. Does this create a balance issue? Hmm. Well, this could lead to Saurus Shield-walls that are ridiculously hard to kill and Skaven linebreakers that demolish other tanks. So we'd have to cap the number of people that can affect this. Let's cap it to 6 - the size of a normal party.

Now this can remain as simple as this or it can be more complicated. Different attributes could scale based on the Archetypes of the allies. If this were the case then I'd suggest the following in addition - For Saurus make it +Armor/Resist and for Stormvermin +Damage.

Tanks could cause Strength to scale.
MDPS could cause Toughness to scale.
Healers could cause Wounds to scale.
RDPS could cause Weapon Skill to scale.

So the average City Dungeon run....

*
Tank
Healer
Healer
RDPS
MDPS

Would grant the Guardian/Stormvermin the following - +Strength, 2 x +Wounds, + Weapon Skill and +Toughness. This could lead to people tweaking groups. An all tank group would grant a potential 5 x +Strength to 6 tanks. With Stormvermin this makes them a linebreaker force...but we all know that there are obvious weaknesses running like that.


To go with the Mechanic we need to look at Weapon Proficiencies as well.

Every Tank has the Shield as an option.

Black Orc- Axe, Sword, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor - not too sure if Black Orcs get Dual Wield..confirmation would be nice.
Black Guard- Sword, Spear, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
Chosen - Axe, Sword, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
Ironbreaker - Axe, Hammer, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor
KotBS- Sword, Great Weapon, Staff, Heavy Armor - again, dual wield?
Swordmaster- Sword, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor

So let's look at what lorewise would go best for these new races. Taking appearance into account I'd go with the following...

Saurus Guardian- Axe, Sword, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor (Note: Medium Armor if the second option is chosen for class mechanic!) - The great weapon Axes would look more like Halberds here and there would probably be some single handed ones out there.

Stormvermin- Sword, Spear, Great Weapon, Heavy Armor

Well, only brief but that's a meaty enough start. A summary. We have Mastery tree names, a mechanic and weapon proficiencies for our two new tanks. Next post will develop it a bit more by looking at racial tactics and discussing common sense...