Skill idea; Changeling

[yerkyerk]

Rather than creating a full-fledged mastery thread again, I'd thought I'd just make one for a single skill;
I love the idea of pets being able to equip randomized equipment. Unlike me, most people would apparantly prefer to equip their pets themselves. At any rate, both these options probably require considerate reprogramming. I think there's an easier solution though.

I could slap the following skill idea well on to my Channel mastery and perhaps I will, but than it wouldn't get any attention;

The Changeling. It's very similar to TQ's Enslave Spirit, but for an unlimited time. Here's how I see it working;
You summon a creature, called Changeling (inspired by Age of Wonders, great game for mythology freaks), this is sort of a ghost-like creature with weak attacking capabilities. However, it can live in and control other creatures that are affected by a specific playerskill (so the player has the choice in which creatures he'll want to take over). Once the host dies, the Changeling leaves the body but remains alive (in his true, fragile form). He can than take over other creatures that are targetted by the player.
Heroes and bosses cannot be taken over, but a strong Changeling should be able to take over champions.
A Changeling wouldn't just take over the properties of the host, but with some passive synergy skills would be able to boost some of his hosts' skills (thinking of stuff like %to Stun, %to Confuse, %health, flat damage increases, aura's, increased critical hits/damage, speed, etc...)
You'd get 2-3 (or more) Changelings with enough skillpoint investment, and ofcourse they'll wear the randomized equipment their hosts spawned with. As a perk, Changelings would be immune to any form of mind control.

It's not a very original idea and I won't take any credit for it, but it does take care of having a widely varied and personalized amount of pets with randomized equipment - and in an easily implementable way. You can choose wether you want casters, aura buffers, tanks, ranged fighters, etc..
I also think this is more appealing than a simple permanent Enslave Spirit skill. And as a portrait it could simply use the Changeling's portrait, rather than a monster portrait.

[eisprinzessin]

It's similar to the Imp, but more limited ... I like it anyway

[yerkyerk]

Lol, that must've been my inspiration, it's indeed pretty similar
Only difference seems to be the targetting of monsters. Oh well. I can do with many words what you can only do with few. So there!

One addition that could also be interesting; let this pet (and perhaps other pets as well) level.
It should reach its max level in 10-20 minutes on average. This can give the player a sense of progress within the game session as well as motivate him to keep the Changeling alive.

[eisprinzessin]

I left out the equiment stuff to keep that post short (more or less ) ... didn't even think about it, did I?

The levelling idea is great. But reaching the host's max level within 20 minutes might make the Changeling too powerful Thinking of the enhanced spawning system medierra was talking about ... and that there will be a wider level range.

[yerkyerk]

Well, max level shouldn't be too hard or too long to reach, especially if you have to reach it each game session or after your pet gets killed. Loosing a pet should be a setback, but only a little. This'll keep out the frustration and still reward the player for treating his pets properly.

The level system could work roughly as follows;
10 levels, reached within 20 minutes (on average). 1st level would be half as weak as a normal summon. Half health, half OA/DA and and a penalty to its passives. 5th level would be equal to normal summon. 10th level would be twice as strong as a normal summon (I know it's not linear, but exponential is better, right?). Twice the health, twice the OA/DA and a small bonus to its passives.
The speed at which it levels should be dependent on its own level (decided by the number of skillpoints spend in the pet and its passives) as well as the difficulty. The stronger your initial pet, the longer it takes to level.
With a levelling system for pets, cooldown for summons could be heavily reduced.

This allows the player to either go with strong permanent pets or weak pets that can be spammed through the battlefield. And without the annoyance of waiting for the summon skill to cooldown as well

[medierra]

A pet that converts monsters would be pretty cool except that I always worry about skills that could potentially frustrate the player. Skills that could be potentially frustrating are any that could interfere with the player targeting and killing enemies.

I always think back to melee weapons in D2 that had knockback... you just wanted to kill an enemy but your weapon would keep knocking it out of melee range, thereby making the weapon useless.

I can imagine similar issues with a pet converting an enemy when all you want to do is kill it and move on to the next area. Other skills like pet crowd control could have similar effects. For melee in D2 I usually played druid or paladin and I basically just wanted enemies to run into my melee range in groups so I could annihilate them with fury or zeal as efficiently as possible. If my pet was trapping enemies before they got to me, it would require my to run over to them to finish them off, which could get a little annoying over time.

Maybe though, the last example is acceptable and just a reason for some melee players not to choose that pet or just not enable that particular pet skill. It could be great for casters.

I just always try to imagine how pets will function over long-term gameplay to ensure they won't be doing things that could be annoying to the player.

[yerkyerk]

Knockback was pretty annoying indeed, could be fun as well.

I think it should be on skills; preferably ranged skills. Than the player can choose wether to activate it or not. I loved Ember Lance in Torchlight 1.0
I didn't use it for the ridiculous damage output (no really), but to knockback enemies from my toon, while my pets killed em.

Convert was also an annoying skill in D2 (and sorry, even more so in TQ). Confusion worked fine, as the enemies would attack anything in sight and you'd still be able to kill the confused pets. But not being able to target enemies because they are temporarily allied with you is a bit annoying.

At any rate; this skill would be no temporary ally; it would be infested with the Changeling. It'd possess the enemy, turning it into a permanent ally for you (the Changeling would disappear when taking over a host, as it takes over the host). Much like the Banshee in Warcraft 3.
Just like a permanent 'Enslave Spirit' skill would, but with a little twist.
Taking over could even take a few seconds, leaving the Changeling in a vulnerable state. Or the host has to be killed before the Changeling can take over. But that's all optional ofcourse

And if you still want to kill the pet for some unknown reason (like it's carrying the Staff of Everlasting Doom) you can simply resummon the Changeling. The possessed monster will fall through its knees. No gore, no blood, just falling over dead (well, it probably is already dead when taken over by the Changeling).
I would advocate 3 Changelings though. Allows the player more interesting options.

Perhaps there should be a standard unsommon button as well. Dunno *shrug*.