Recently, I got rather bored. Aside from that being the reason for my return to Tempus, (you might remember me as Timeless) I had a very random thought as to what classes would rank in the scale of Magic-Based to Mundane-Based. After some careful thought and consideration, I realized I had just wasted 3 seconds of my life by not winging it. So, based on just gut reaction and years of playing this game, I have a non-comprehensive, opinionated, and generally my-own-views list of the classes in past and future, in fairly obvious order.

PAST: (Magic-Heavy) Mage, Cleric, Bard, Knight/Ranger (tied, kinda), Monk, Thief, Barbarian (Mundane Heavy)

FUTURE: Physic, Psionicist, Monk, Cyborg, Mercenary

After creating this rather imprompteau (sp) list, I figured, why not try to create a new class? I decided to myself that it would probably have to be a Future class, and would have to avoid direct overlap on this silly pantheon I made.

So, I decided to break out my DnD books and browse. I just happen to have the edition 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook (XPH) and the Complete Warrior (CW) handy with me. Being my newest (and two of my three favorite) books, I just thumbed through the pages. 'Lo and behold, I found the inspiration for a class that would (almost) fit right into the pantheon of future classes: the Soulknife.

First of all, this class is cool. Ever since they turned it into a 1-20 class, it has been among my favorites. Secondly, it seems to fill a niche that hasn't been explored yet on Tempus: a fighter that uses mana instead of movepoints to use their powerful attack abilities (Ranger's don't count… how often do you see them cast Call Lightning?)

Based on my silly ordering, this class would be somewhere between the Monk and Psionicist. If you were to integrate ALL the classes, it would fall probably between Bard and the Ranger/Knight. They rely on their mana more heavily than any of the fighting classes so far, but definitely fight on par with traditional fighters. What would be a weakness? Movepoints probably, as they would be using mana for attack skills. Not sure how that would program, but that's beside the point. Also, because of how the ideas worked out, they would have a bit of a weakness in early levels, lacking the progression of their abilities.

I have a 1-49 moves list partially finished if anyone is interested, but I want to hear some opinions/ideas first.

For those who haven't heard of a Soulknife before, they are basically people with Psionic ability that focus it to the manifestation of a weapon that they wield like normal people would wield swords, or axes. In DnD, they can enhance their mind blade with their chocie of powers and alter the size of the weapon. They can eventually throw the weapon, create two for dual weilding, deal charge-up damage, attack everything near them, and deal ability damage with a strike.

Ok, so that was a bit long. I better stop talking now, and get back to Muddin'.

That sounds like an AWESOME class. Change the name though, soulknife is reallly dorky sounding.

Its traditional DnD man! :P

Ok, I'll take suggustions for the name. 'War Mind' is also in the XPH… but I'm sure someone can create something better than a silly DnD class name :D

Temporalist ..I dunno, sounds hardcore to me. :D And yes, I like the idea. David (Strael)

Coo. Sounds great to me….Psion/Soulknife…..Cool Remort idea!

If I ever make the cash / Exp to remort :/

Good News: I like the idea. Bad News: You've basically described a remorted psionicist, either primary or secondary, with their other half being a warrior based class.

Having said that, if I understand you correctly, the skills / abilities would all focus on either enhancing their weapon(s) or increasing their ability to do damage with their weapon(s). It's the kind of class that I would really like :p So, let's see your skills/spells for the class, that will allow us to see the stuff the class will be capable of, also it would allow us to try and balance it, if it isn't already. Also keep in mind that this might all be simply for fun :)

Of course it's all for fun. I really don't mind one way or the other whether it ends up in-game or not… its the creation of ideas to keep the MUD from stagnating that I'm after. If this whole mess only ends up giving a single class a single skill on the mud, then that'll be a total victory in my book :D

So, people seem interested enough in seeing the current, unfinished skills list. I kept it saved in a Microsoft Word document just in case. i haven't put anything in stone yet

(class name) v 1.0 s(K)ills and s(P)ells

New features explained somewhere near the bottom.

1 – (k)Punch, Swim, Slashing Weapons (p)Psiblade 6 – (p) Psychic Strike 10 – (k) Appraise, Evaluate, Dual Wield 14 – (p) Energize Blade 19 – (p) Psionic Fire 22 – (p) Bladewind 26 – (k) Double Attack 33 - (k) Greater Slashing Weapons 40 – (k) Triple Attack 44 – (p) Blade to the Soul

Now, the (new or unusual) skills:

Psiblade: Each (classname) creates a blade as unique as themselves from the powers of their mind. Damage scales with level (I dunno… maybe (Gen if applicable*Level/10)d8 slashing? I haven't seen too much of the new tempus balancing, so I don't know what would be 'fair').

Slashing Weapons: A psiblade lives or dies by his mastery of his personal weapon. (Could be replaced with Psiblade Affinity, or something to encourage the usage of their unique weapon)

Psychic Strike*: A (classname) eventually learns how to focus their latent mental energies into their weapon, resulting in a more powerful single strike. (Prerequisite power move :D )

Dual wield: If you can manifest one Psiblade, why not two?

Energize Blade: A true psiblade eventually learns how to strengthen his blade, making it as potent as any magic weapon. Acts like enchant for Psiblade… and only psiblades… so it might be able to do a bit more.

Psionic Fire: Channeling the heat of his rage into his weapon, a (classname) causes it to ignight! Acts like that Cleric spell that sets their weapon on fire.

Bladewind: With enough practice manifesting their weapon, a Psiblade soon learns how to manifest a weapon for each opponent they are fighting, and make a strike. Hits for normal melee damage, maybe with a bit of a bonus, against all opponents fighting the (classname).

Greater Slashing Weapons: A (classname) fights with his weapon almost exclusively; it is only natural that he eventually becomes incredibly adapt at it.

Blade to the Soul: As a Psiblade is a weapon of the mind, it is only natural that a powerful (classname) could learn to strike beyond the flesh. (Acts as a debuff for mental stats, and mana drain. Or both.)

*Originally, Psychic Strike was a major weapon-enhancemnt that lasted only for one hit. You would have to recharge it every other round! I figured, not only would that be un-fun in Tempus, it would also be a bit of a problem to code. If you would rather see this in the original form, we could try to figure something out.

As you can (hopefully) see, this class has some interesting skills, but a great deal of room to grow. There are no knockdown, stun, sleep, buff, heal, or other abilities. I would like to stay away from direct damage spells/abilites, since it isn't exactly in theme. I also would like to know if there is a way to transfer the "Slashing Weapons" to something more specific to the Mind Blade without being a royal pain to program. yes, I am taking the pogramming into consideration - I worked on MUDs before, and know that some things are just hard to do.

There are lots of other things listed for the official DnD Soulknife that I do not know if they would translate: Weapon Throwing; weapon size altering (you can make a 2-handed blade, a strong 1-handed blade, or a pair of weaker 2-handed blades); movement speed enhancement; and a decent list of specific weapon powers, in three tiers, that one can add. (the last tier are nasty, abilty-draining powers, and leech-like effects)

So, does this class seem unique enough so far, and not overlap too much into other classes themes? If so, then how could it be changed?

You could make Psychic Strike a skill that costs mana as an idea…Kinda like Psiblast. Just my thoughts. Otherwise, Über. Sounds cool, and it would make a very fun addition to tempus.

I think that was my original idea. Im also curious as to what affects one could cast onto a weapon… it would make a neat ability list for the class.

Also, what would be a thematically correct trip skill, or stun/sleep skill? It seems like allmy favorite classes have something akin to that.

Creating classes is tough work. Props to the tempus coders who give us these wonderful, all-round classes.

Psychic Shackles/Chains - Rips an opponent to the ground / Binds in place. Your choice. Both i think are sorta apropriate.

Good idea! Just looking at the classes on Tempus (skills list), I would think such a skill would land at about level 35. Similar to Gravity well, just more into the trip/hold part and less with the damage/ability mod.

Anyone else have anything neat to add? I'm keeping track of changes on my little word document, and willpost v 1.1 as soon as it seems viable.

Ooc, would the weapon a soulknife uses be an already made item (Bone sword, for example) or something he made (Ezekal's HellScythe of mass carnage) and just an extension of himself, like a spell that makes a weapon that he can use?

If I understand the character concept correctly the soulknife (I happen to like that name, maybe change it to Soul Warrior or Psi Warrior shrug) 'manifests' as in creates the weapon. Essentially a skill / spell that makes an item appear. The item should essentially be !break, but perhaps have a duration? Also no one but the creator of the weapon should be able to use it.

Thanks for explaining it. That was better than I could have done myself =)

A few more ideas I'm not sure if I can add or not… second opinions are appreciated.

Speed of Thought - Haste. Obviously Higher level, or even a remort skill. If you don't want it to be haste, then we could always just go +speed. ::Evil Grin::

Wounding Attack - A slash that causes a nasty wound. Deals normal weapon damage + Constitution damage if it hits.

Stand Still (stupid name, but that's a feat in the book) - By activating this and not moving from the location, a Soulknife can fight more effectively.

Reckless Offence - A Soulknife (or even other classes - this one can translate) activates this ability, then take a penalty on AC to recive 50% of that penalty to attack rolls. Example - A Soulknife chooses to take a -10 penalty to his armor to gain a +5 Bonus to hitroll.

Deep Impact - For one round, your attacks ignore armor-based AC and damage reduction from AC. Ouch. Magical bonuses to AC are unaffected.

And I'm spent. These were just some spur-of-the-moment ideas. If any of them seem nice, I'll find a level for them in the skills tree, and post version 1.1 later.

Your opinions count, since I know I couldn't be unbiased with this =D

For stand still, why not rename it to "Hold Your Ground" or sumthing like that, since "Stand still" is kinda….odd. O, and how about if u use -stand still- you shopuldnt be able to flee until your enemy is slain, and just make it an Über Skill?

Just for the sake of wondering, (and since this class seems like at least a semi-popular idea) are there any exsisting skills that would fit in this class, without making it a cookie-cutter of other classes? I already put in some basics, but what about psi triggers like Adrenalen, Confidence, and Power? Maybe other skills I can't think of off the top of my head?

I'm going to update the document later tonight, too. Since I have nothing better to do, after all. Except maybe remort again, but it seems all the good money zones get ripped up pretty fast.

good idea…we need to think of abilities that can be reused. But, unfortunately, i got thrown off, and so i came up with this - Charge - By running straight at an enemy, the Soulknife can not only increase his attack power by a large amount, but also frighten his enemy greatly. Unfortunately, he loses a great amount of accurracy with this attack, and should he miss he will topple over.

i find charge a great idea, its literally the same thing as lungepunch. maybe relating those skills a bit more to the mud would be better. remember, the class should be based on tempus, not the other way round, a "soulknife" would seem completely out of place. having more spells such as a renamed haste, or lungepunch (charge) would make things a lot easier. lot more in place.

Ok, its a little delayed, but here's version 1.01 for your viewing pleasure. New skill explainations below.

Soul Knife

S(K)ills and s(P)ells

1 – (k)Punch, Swim, Slashing Weapons (p)Psiblade

3 – (p) Distraction*

4 – (k)Alpha Blade*

6 – (p) Psychic Strike

8 – (k)Disarm*

10 – (k)Appraise, Evaluate, Dual Wield

12 – (k)Headbutt*

14 – (p) Energize Blade

15 – (k)Retreat*

17 – (k)Beta Blade*

19 – (p) Psionic Fire

20 - (p)(1)Lesser Blade Channeling, (3)Blade Channeling, (7)Greater Blade Channeling*

21 – (p)Confidence*

22 – (p) Bladewind

24 – (p)Magnetic Blade*

26 – (k) Double Attack

27 – (p)Keen Edge*

28 – (p)Adrenaline*

30 – (k)Gamma Blade*

33 – (1)(k) Greater Slashing Weapons*

35 – (p) Psychic Shackles*

37 – (1)(p)Deep Impact*

38 – (k)Wounding Attack*

39 – (k) Charge*

40 – (k) Triple Attack

43 – (3)(p)Speed of Thought*

44 – (k) Blade to the Soul* (p)

48 – (4)(k)Nine-Points Strike*

• - New or altered

Skills not already in exsistence:

Alpha Blade: As clothsline, but with your weapon.

Beta Blade: As uppercut, but with weapon. (see a theme?)

Magnetic Blade: Renamed Attract.

Gamma Blade: A combat skill with a % chance to cause a waitstate on the opponent (greater than the waitstate on Gamma Blade).

Keen Edge: Enhances your temporary weapon.

Psychic Shackles: Used like Gravity Well, but less focus on the damage and more on the knockdown/binding.

Deep Impact: As Above.

Speed of Thought: +Speed. Because monks shouldn't be the only blessed ones.

Charge: Lungepunch with a weapon.

Nine-Points Strike: Here's the big one, and I would not be surprised if it gets batted down.. 9 separate attacks, randomly mixed between Normal, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Wounding. Obviously harder to get the named attacks. HUGE waitstate. Think combo with less emphasis on "martial artsy" moves and more on just 9 attacks in a round.

Blade Channeling Series: I just thought of this one while I was sitting here. These spells will add a random Proc (on-hit cast…) to the weapon. As a baseline pwoer guide, Lesser will chose from group 1 in the Oedit line, Standard will chose from groups 1 and 2, and greater will add Group 3.

Note that on several things, I added in numbers. These are the Generations you get these skills… to prevent unscrupulous multiclassers from abusing the most powerful class abilities.

Note that there are now around 30 skills… that means there are few slots left. Merc has 38 (I think), so this is close to a full skill/spellset.

I currently Have a bit of a theme with adding skills- I am avoiding damage reduction, healing, and stun/sleep skills, as well as direct combat spells.

Now, as for how this class fits into Tempus.

Every being is naturally psionic, to some extent. Don't believe me? Read the Telepathy help file. Some are more psionic than others - that is where we get the Psion class. But what about those whom do not want to follow that path?

The soulknife is just the class for those with the gift of psionics, but with a desire to meet their foes head-on in combat. Be it a crusader not interested in the "subtlties" of true Psionics, to bloodthirsty murderers interested in ripping their foes apart, the class has no real alignment-centric appeal. It is also a helpful class to those who need to be somewhere without visible weapons. They may never develop the raw influence over minds that a true Psion does, but their mastery over their personal weapon becomes truely fearsome.

Comments? Suggustions? Add-ons?

Ok, as much as I dislike posting twice, I recieved some feedback over AIM from Endymion about this class. And what feedback it was! He had some of the best ideas I have heard in a while, although implementing them would be… crazy. Here's the extent of things, cleaned up a bit to fit in plain English sentence structure:

"I think they should be made just completely offensive; they should not have a single skill to increase their AC or damage reductions. It would be interesting to have a class like that.

"As far as in-combat skills, most of them should effect their opponent's combat in some way, and as thus only be able to be used once on them. And I was thinking for their weapons, they can use normal weapons, but at a penalty. They should be a class not dependent on weaponry gear; they should be able to summon their own, and they get bonuses for using their own summoned weapons.

"They should have some of the psi combat abilities, but only able to use them on themselves.

"Another part of the whole "mana" deal: what could be really interesting, the % of their maxmana they're at is the % of damage they will do with a normal attack; their skills can be stronger then, but with each use their attacks get weaker as a whole."

(Me)"But, the weapons would have to be grossly powerful to compensate."*

"Yeah. And that whole mana drain thing… it should be like rangers, kinda like a critical hit. An innate ability to proc a mana sieve in effect and give them the mana. That could counter balance that other ability."

After telling him to post it, he said I should. SO I literally just copied/pasted his part of the conversation, and edited it slightly so it would make a bit more sence. Arn't I nice. :)

What do you all think of that? I like the idea, personally. It would make for a highly-tactical class, and would have quite a bit of active decision-making when playing.

*I think they would have to be powerful to compensate for always functioning at reduced capacity. Maybe opinions elsewhere would differ.

This would be sort of like Mages, on an offensive scale. Mages are much more powerful defensively with their mana, This class would be more powerful offensively at full mana.

Essentially, psidrain would be the best offensive skill against this class, which would make the balance of things incredibly off.

Well, as a tradeoff of having no "defensive abilities" and seeing as how they are part psion, they could have a substantial bonus to their save_psi. Which, if im not mistaken would lower the amount of mana taken from the character, or have the whole "damage according to mana" be an ability that is turned on for a set amount of time. Or taking this to the extreme, have a soulless like effect, something like "attuning of the mind" which sets it on permenantly. In this case you'd get extra damage from the attuning at the cost of the risk of losing your mana and you're screwed. Could always give them their own psidrain though if you wanna be uncreative. :)

I like the class idea, and it would be really cool to have a class that could "create" their own weapon (reminds me of psylocke from x-men), but from the skills set you showed, they would seem entirely too powerful. It seems to have everything monk have but with extra psi boosters.

The skills seem to just be renamed monk things -

Alpha blade similar to palm strike Beta blade similar to throat strike Charge similar to hiptoss Nine-points strike similar to combo Speed of though similar to zen of celerity Gamma blade similar to deathtouch (with double/triple attack and retreat that monks have also)

To me, these are the most powerful monk skills that make monk what it is with zen of obliv being the only big thing not included.

But, on top of that, they'd also have adren/confid and psychic shackles (like motor spasm).

Basically what I'm saying is it's too similar to stuff that's already on the mud, just renamed. I do think it would be cool though to do something like a class that's only offensive that uses its mana somehow.

Hmm… a vaild Point. I honestly have NO experience with Monks though. Anyways, Monks skills seem to pack more punch than what I was thinking. the 9-points would do normal attacks for the vast majority of the time, for example. Only a small percentage, say 10-20% based on gen, would actually use real skills.

Also, the attack skills would use mana, and have damage based on the weapon you were using. It would make it MUCH harder to play than a monk, barring Monk-ish HP.

If you wish to complain about 'similar skills,' go ahead and go on about how charge is similar to lungepunch is similar to hiptoss is similar to shoulderthrow… you get the idea. It is VERY hard to fit in skills that arn't "similar" to an exsisting one. What I was going for, were skills that might superficially resemble exsisting skills (which we all know is done often enough on almost every MUD) but use a different resource to activate.

What does a Monk have that this class doesn't? Zens, nerve pinches, a reliable knockdown (Shackles, from what Endy stated, would be a One-shot deal that hopes to pin someone on ground, not Spasm them) damage reduction, healing, evasion, and Unarmed Strike damage multiplier. This class may be able to create their own weapons, but they still have to use them. And if we go with what was proposed, the weapon is on a timer. AND all of their attack skills require them to be wielding a weapon.

Also, since I can't claim to have gotten a Monk that far… how is Gamma Blade similar to Death Touch? I thought DT was a massively damaging skill. Gamma really just hits a normal attack with a large waitstate, that has a CHANCE of making the opponent wait longer. Also, Alpha and Beta were based on the Barbarian skill list with Clothsline and Uppercut. I guess those skills are just parallel to the Monk's similarly names skills. Did I mention that Charge was listed as above as "similar to Lungepunch?"

If you want to see where the Alpha/Beta/Gamma blade ideas come from, find a copy of any of the Guilty Gear games, and play Chipp Zanuf. Or maybe there is a video from a big tournament which shows all the attacks. It's a good game series though, and definitely worth trying if you have access to a PS or PS2.

Ok, so after rambling off-topic, here is the point I am trying to make. Monk attack skills use movepoints, not mana. My original intention was to have attacks skills that use mana, and Endy kindly added in the "mana-link damage" idea. Maybe some of the ideas are similar, but Monks they are not. Just as Barbarians and Mercs have a skills that reflect Monks, each class has a unique "flavor" that keeps them separate.

Wow, you'd think I was biased towerds the class.

Anyways, what would you recommend to make the class more "unique?"

Your Gamma idea is VERY similar to death touch. Death touch is so great not because of the damage (well that is definately a bonus) but because of the huge wait state it inflicts…

And dude, getting 9 hits in a round, would like, annihilate the hell out of someone with proper damroll, considering I with 75 damroll and 6 attacks per round am considered fast. With a hammy and that, 9 attacks would just be like, insane

"If you wish to complain about 'similar skills,' go ahead and go on about how charge is similar to lungepunch is similar to hiptoss is similar to shoulderthrow… you get the idea. It is VERY hard to fit in skills that arn't "similar" to an exsisting one. What I was going for, were skills that might superficially resemble exsisting skills (which we all know is done often enough on almost every MUD) but use a different resource to activate."

Basically, this is my whole point. Tempus has enough classes with skills/spells that are pretty much the same, except that they're called something else. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but if more classes are put in, I'd want them to be 75% unique skills/spells that's nothing like anything else on the mud.

By the way, lungepunch and shoulderthrow have a big difference from hiptoss and what charge would be, which is lunge/shoulderthrow require you to have an empty hand to do it, meaning you need to remove your weapon to do it, adding removal time and such. Hiptoss is a great knockdown because it does some more damage and doesn't require you remove your weapon, which is I think what you wanted with charge.

"What does a Monk have that this class doesn't? Zens, nerve pinches, a reliable knockdown (Shackles, from what Endy stated, would be a One-shot deal that hopes to pin someone on ground, not Spasm them) damage reduction, healing, evasion, and Unarmed Strike damage multiplier. This class may be able to create their own weapons, but they still have to use them. And if we go with what was proposed, the weapon is on a timer. AND all of their attack skills require them to be wielding a weapon."

All I'm saying is that the skill-set you put in has all of the major monk things except oblivity and omega. The things that make monk such a powerful class are celerity, combo, deathtouch, double/triple attack, retreat, oblivity, and omega in my opinion. (btw, evasion does absolutely nothing from my experience)

As far as gamma blade being similar to death touch, death touch has a chance to lag you, which is what I thought you wanted gamma blade to be.

"Anyways, what would you recommend to make the class more "unique?""

Like I said originally, I like the idea of the class, but to me, it's pretty much monk that would use mana rather than movement. What could make this class unique…hmmmm, just to throw up some ideas, maybe a lot more skills that would focus around this psychic weapon that they create, like your blade channeling idea.

Maybe the class could create different types of weapons or maybe while in battle, you'd have to manually alter your weapon. Also, spells that could change the weapons' damage dice, add damroll, hitroll, etc., I'm really not sure. But, I think if the whole class revolved around the weapon, it might be neat (although I can't really think up anything else)

I beleive we are on the same level about the class relying on its weapon. I just think we were taking different approaches to it. You prefer the weapon-buff idea, while I was looking at more of a weapon-skill standpoint. Either way, focus is on the weapon in-hand.

My one reserve about overloading on weapon-enhancement is that you might result in a class that has the feel of a Ranger. Let's face it - primary ranger isn't too entertaining. HOWEVER… there is the initial power move I listed.

Anyhoo, I feel like a fool for leaving out the basic Damroll and WeaponSpeed enhancements. I believe the "renamed attract" may cover the hitroll aspect. I also think it should remain a renamed attract, to prevent so much stacking. Unless the MUD balance can handle something being +Hitrollend and Attracted, 'cause we all know people don't go Physic for Spacetime Recall.

So, based on suggustions…

OUT:

Charge Alpha/Beta/Gamma Blade Nine-Points Strike (I watch too much Samurai X anyways) Retreat Slashing Weapons/Greater Slashing Weapons (you'll see…)

IN:

A +Damroll spell (Name Pending) Dimensional Shard (+Weaponspeed, name could use some work) Shape Weapon (pick your damage type! Except maybe piercing, because a thief with one of these would hurt) Psi Weapons/Greater Psi Weapons (If a specific flag could be created, then this might work) Mana Rift (the Manalink weapon Endy supplied) Others…?

POTENTIAL ALTERATIONS:

Speed of Thought (Could be haste still, but the class might be losing some advantages already) Rename Adrenaline, confidence, and make self-only

As I am not completely in-tune with the X-Men storyline/cosmos/mythology, maybe someone can shed a bit more light on Psylock, and perhaps some translatable skills? I know enough about her to know she manifests blades, and has some psychic powers, but I think I see her as more of a Soulknife/Psion. More direct control over people minds with the Psion, ya know.

Anyways… thanks for the input! I'll keep my eyes open for new ideas to add, and would appreciate the same. This'll be a fully-developed class yet, and will probably end up being a good think-tank exercise.