yerkyerk
02-01-2010, 01:31 PM
Warning; long read ahead..
I’ve already made a fake Channel mastery once, here’s the revisited and improved version. The purpose of this character was to offer a caster with a fresh new approach to dealing with enemies. The Channeler does no casting of his own, but instead uses portals and rifts to the alternate dimension to battle his foes. That means the damage is very raw and powerful, but the Channeler does not have much control over the powers he’s using.
He is mostly a caster/supporter, but also offers several options to supplement melee masteries.
Introductionary story;
When all hope of winning the war for Cairn was lost and the foul invaders came to devour what was left of the big cities, scientists decided to seek temporary refuge in an alternative dimension. The scientists had, with the aid of magic, learned how to open portals to another world, where the magic energies were thought to stem from. This world was known as the Netherworld.
These gates however, were considered dangerous and only very cautious experiments involving lower life forms had been used for testing these portals. With the apocalypse breathing down their necks, the scientists became audacious. Entire regiments of humans were sent through to hide from the carnage on Cairn; but they had to face the horrors that awaited them in the other worlds. The powers in the Netherworld contained weird monsters, some monsters attacked the defenseless refugees, others took control of them, time rifts caused a lot of survivors to grow old at an alarming rate, energy leaks drained people of their motivation to life and much, much worse things occurred in there. Still their chances of survival were higher in there, so they kept coming back. Eventually, most refugees died from such escapes.
Some people would survive these circumstances relatively unharmed; they were known as Channelers. Channelers have an innate ability to direct the powers of the Netherworld.
But being alone, they could not protect their kinsmen forever in the Netherworld. They would often loose what little friends and family they had left to the invaders on Cairn or see them wither and die in the Netherworld.
Left alone on a cold forsaken world, a handful of Channelers eventually escaped the science labs and sought out the human dwellings on Cairn and helped the people survive. Their motivation for doing so remains unknown. Some people say the Channelers are trying to show they’re good people at heart and want to be accepted and forget what happened in the Netherworld. Other, more skeptical survivors, fear that Channelers serve as pawns for whatever rules in the Netherworld – and once the Channelers manage to repel the invasion of Cairn, enslave what’s left of humanity. Even these skeptics would not turn away the help of a Channeler though, as they are powerful allies indeed.
Channel
Channelers have no magical powers of their own, instead they act as mediums to guide the magical flows between the corporeal and the ethereal world.
Headcrabs (summon)
Summons little jellyfish parasites from the alternate dimension – the headcrabs are hungry for spiritual essence. They attach themselves to the brains of their opponents (knocking off helms while occupying the helm slot of your enemies). They cannot be directly attacked by their hosts and share the damage they take with their hosts (the hosts do not share their damage with the headcrabs though).
Headcrabs use a mana shield – which means the damage they receive will first be subtracted from their mana reserves. They sap mana away from their hosts to fill themselves; any excess mana is directed to the Channeler. They also lower the OA and DA of enemies .
They have little health and are extremely vulnerable when they cannot feed (they’ll also quickly loose mana when not feeding).
Neural Attack (passive)
This upgrade for headcrabs allows them to mess with the minds of their hosts. Each chance fires every 3-5 seconds, more neural attacks will be opened on skill point investment. The headcrabs get a chance to cause fear, a chance at silencing their hosts for a few seconds (which mean they cannot use spells), a chance to confuse their hosts, which means they’ll attack anything in their path, a chance to blind (which causes OA/DA to lower), a chance to take over-time vitality damage.
Synergize Damage Distribution (aura)
Activating this aura will cause part of the damage the Channeler or his allies receive to be distributed to the headcrabs (who in turn can share the damage with their hosts).
Dimensional rifts (active)
The Channeler opens up cracks in the alternate dimensions through his own body, which causes powerful magic and elemental currents to slip through him. They will swirl in an outward spiral around the caster (in both directions). They do not damage the caster. Long cooldown.
More investment in this skill allows the Channeler to create more rifts, allowing for more magical currents.
Dimensional Gaps (passive)
Increases the size of the rifts, allowing bigger currents to fly through
Aether Shield (activated)
Incoming damage will be subtracted from mana, rather than from health. This does not go for poison, vitality and bleeding damage however.
Recission (passive)
The Channeler has learned how to guide magical currents and has a chance to convert them back to their original state. Gives the Channeler a passive chance to convert part of the incoming magical/elemental damage into mana.
Time Ward (active)
Channeler throws down a timeward, which slows everything surrounding it, including allies (and projectiles).
Time Stasis (passive)
Allows the Channeler and his allies to move faster near a Time Ward. High levels will reverse the slow penalty, even allowing for the Channeler and his allies to get a speed bonus when near the Time Ward.
Anomaly(active)
This allows the Channeler to let effects of the Netherworld come through. The Channeler opens a circle that intermingles with the Netherworld; everyone in the circle will be affected by the Netherworld. They will get highly resistant against physical-based attacks (physical, piercing, vitality, poison, stun, etc..), but they’ll also be slowed down and be highly susceptible to magical attacks (magical/elemental). They also gain a high mana regeneration.
Portal (active)
Opens a portal to the Netherworld on the ground – which in itself does nothing. However, with portal skills, the Channeler allows the Netherworld to influence the world of Cairn. Does not discriminate between friend and foe. Only one portal skill can be active at any time, activating a new portal skill removes the currently active. More investments allows for the opening of more portals and duration will last longer.
Nether Beasts (active)
Portal skill. Nether Beasts will try to crawl through the portals, but they do not fit through entirely. In their rage, they attack anything and everything near the portals with their claws/tentacles. Different attacks with random effects (damage, stun, drain mana).
Nether Power (active)
Portal skill. Anyone near the portal gets a boost in %magical (including elemental) damage.
Slither (active)
Portal skill. The portals shift irregularly, transporting the ones close to it from and forth the Netherworld in rapid succession. This causes the victims to get a high chance at dodging and avoiding missiles, but also a low OA and fumble attacks.
Manalife (active)
Portal skill. The portal eats away life and gives mana in return.
Portal Master (passive)
Increases the effectiveness of all portal spells. Nether Beasts will do more damage, absolute magical damage is added to Nether Power, Manalife gets a %boost, Slither will give an energy regeneration boost.
Disruptive Shield (active)
Conjures a powerful shield in 6 yards around the player. This wall has very high health (scales on difficulty) and will crumble after time or after taking too much damage. The wall will block enemies from moving through and will stop missiles (it will not block out enemies that are already in). However, the player and his allies can still walk and shoot through the wall.
Teleportal (active)
Allows the Channeler to teleport. The player will throw down a portal below himself and fall through, to rise where his target portal is leading. The target portal can only be placed on places where the player can walk to (relatively straight) and it takes the player some time to recuperate from the travel (player will have to get up).
Energization (activated)
Replaces the basic attack. The Channeler transforms all weapon damage through the Netherworld; all physical attack damage returns in a magical form. Redistributes all weapon damage from the player into magic/elemental damage (1/4th of each type). Higher levels gives a boost to Offensive Abilities.
Channel Mana (passive)
Attacks will steal a fixed percentage of mana from the target.
Channel = Channeler
Berserk (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202) = Berserker
Ritual (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188) = Cultist
Channel+Berserk = Specter
Channel+Ritual = Medium
I’ve already made a fake Channel mastery once, here’s the revisited and improved version. The purpose of this character was to offer a caster with a fresh new approach to dealing with enemies. The Channeler does no casting of his own, but instead uses portals and rifts to the alternate dimension to battle his foes. That means the damage is very raw and powerful, but the Channeler does not have much control over the powers he’s using.
He is mostly a caster/supporter, but also offers several options to supplement melee masteries.
Introductionary story;
When all hope of winning the war for Cairn was lost and the foul invaders came to devour what was left of the big cities, scientists decided to seek temporary refuge in an alternative dimension. The scientists had, with the aid of magic, learned how to open portals to another world, where the magic energies were thought to stem from. This world was known as the Netherworld.
These gates however, were considered dangerous and only very cautious experiments involving lower life forms had been used for testing these portals. With the apocalypse breathing down their necks, the scientists became audacious. Entire regiments of humans were sent through to hide from the carnage on Cairn; but they had to face the horrors that awaited them in the other worlds. The powers in the Netherworld contained weird monsters, some monsters attacked the defenseless refugees, others took control of them, time rifts caused a lot of survivors to grow old at an alarming rate, energy leaks drained people of their motivation to life and much, much worse things occurred in there. Still their chances of survival were higher in there, so they kept coming back. Eventually, most refugees died from such escapes.
Some people would survive these circumstances relatively unharmed; they were known as Channelers. Channelers have an innate ability to direct the powers of the Netherworld.
But being alone, they could not protect their kinsmen forever in the Netherworld. They would often loose what little friends and family they had left to the invaders on Cairn or see them wither and die in the Netherworld.
Left alone on a cold forsaken world, a handful of Channelers eventually escaped the science labs and sought out the human dwellings on Cairn and helped the people survive. Their motivation for doing so remains unknown. Some people say the Channelers are trying to show they’re good people at heart and want to be accepted and forget what happened in the Netherworld. Other, more skeptical survivors, fear that Channelers serve as pawns for whatever rules in the Netherworld – and once the Channelers manage to repel the invasion of Cairn, enslave what’s left of humanity. Even these skeptics would not turn away the help of a Channeler though, as they are powerful allies indeed.
Channel
Channelers have no magical powers of their own, instead they act as mediums to guide the magical flows between the corporeal and the ethereal world.
Headcrabs (summon)
Summons little jellyfish parasites from the alternate dimension – the headcrabs are hungry for spiritual essence. They attach themselves to the brains of their opponents (knocking off helms while occupying the helm slot of your enemies). They cannot be directly attacked by their hosts and share the damage they take with their hosts (the hosts do not share their damage with the headcrabs though).
Headcrabs use a mana shield – which means the damage they receive will first be subtracted from their mana reserves. They sap mana away from their hosts to fill themselves; any excess mana is directed to the Channeler. They also lower the OA and DA of enemies .
They have little health and are extremely vulnerable when they cannot feed (they’ll also quickly loose mana when not feeding).
Neural Attack (passive)
This upgrade for headcrabs allows them to mess with the minds of their hosts. Each chance fires every 3-5 seconds, more neural attacks will be opened on skill point investment. The headcrabs get a chance to cause fear, a chance at silencing their hosts for a few seconds (which mean they cannot use spells), a chance to confuse their hosts, which means they’ll attack anything in their path, a chance to blind (which causes OA/DA to lower), a chance to take over-time vitality damage.
Synergize Damage Distribution (aura)
Activating this aura will cause part of the damage the Channeler or his allies receive to be distributed to the headcrabs (who in turn can share the damage with their hosts).
Dimensional rifts (active)
The Channeler opens up cracks in the alternate dimensions through his own body, which causes powerful magic and elemental currents to slip through him. They will swirl in an outward spiral around the caster (in both directions). They do not damage the caster. Long cooldown.
More investment in this skill allows the Channeler to create more rifts, allowing for more magical currents.
Dimensional Gaps (passive)
Increases the size of the rifts, allowing bigger currents to fly through
Aether Shield (activated)
Incoming damage will be subtracted from mana, rather than from health. This does not go for poison, vitality and bleeding damage however.
Recission (passive)
The Channeler has learned how to guide magical currents and has a chance to convert them back to their original state. Gives the Channeler a passive chance to convert part of the incoming magical/elemental damage into mana.
Time Ward (active)
Channeler throws down a timeward, which slows everything surrounding it, including allies (and projectiles).
Time Stasis (passive)
Allows the Channeler and his allies to move faster near a Time Ward. High levels will reverse the slow penalty, even allowing for the Channeler and his allies to get a speed bonus when near the Time Ward.
Anomaly(active)
This allows the Channeler to let effects of the Netherworld come through. The Channeler opens a circle that intermingles with the Netherworld; everyone in the circle will be affected by the Netherworld. They will get highly resistant against physical-based attacks (physical, piercing, vitality, poison, stun, etc..), but they’ll also be slowed down and be highly susceptible to magical attacks (magical/elemental). They also gain a high mana regeneration.
Portal (active)
Opens a portal to the Netherworld on the ground – which in itself does nothing. However, with portal skills, the Channeler allows the Netherworld to influence the world of Cairn. Does not discriminate between friend and foe. Only one portal skill can be active at any time, activating a new portal skill removes the currently active. More investments allows for the opening of more portals and duration will last longer.
Nether Beasts (active)
Portal skill. Nether Beasts will try to crawl through the portals, but they do not fit through entirely. In their rage, they attack anything and everything near the portals with their claws/tentacles. Different attacks with random effects (damage, stun, drain mana).
Nether Power (active)
Portal skill. Anyone near the portal gets a boost in %magical (including elemental) damage.
Slither (active)
Portal skill. The portals shift irregularly, transporting the ones close to it from and forth the Netherworld in rapid succession. This causes the victims to get a high chance at dodging and avoiding missiles, but also a low OA and fumble attacks.
Manalife (active)
Portal skill. The portal eats away life and gives mana in return.
Portal Master (passive)
Increases the effectiveness of all portal spells. Nether Beasts will do more damage, absolute magical damage is added to Nether Power, Manalife gets a %boost, Slither will give an energy regeneration boost.
Disruptive Shield (active)
Conjures a powerful shield in 6 yards around the player. This wall has very high health (scales on difficulty) and will crumble after time or after taking too much damage. The wall will block enemies from moving through and will stop missiles (it will not block out enemies that are already in). However, the player and his allies can still walk and shoot through the wall.
Teleportal (active)
Allows the Channeler to teleport. The player will throw down a portal below himself and fall through, to rise where his target portal is leading. The target portal can only be placed on places where the player can walk to (relatively straight) and it takes the player some time to recuperate from the travel (player will have to get up).
Energization (activated)
Replaces the basic attack. The Channeler transforms all weapon damage through the Netherworld; all physical attack damage returns in a magical form. Redistributes all weapon damage from the player into magic/elemental damage (1/4th of each type). Higher levels gives a boost to Offensive Abilities.
Channel Mana (passive)
Attacks will steal a fixed percentage of mana from the target.
Channel = Channeler
Berserk (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=202) = Berserker
Ritual (http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188) = Cultist
Channel+Berserk = Specter
Channel+Ritual = Medium