Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

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Rias
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Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by Rias »

Arcanistristmas has begun! To start we have 3 new abilities:

Occult Shape: Triquetra
This shape will allow you to draw three glyphs in a diagram instead of just two! A little efficiency boost when it comes to time and chalk, but also allows for the potential use of more complicated glyph interactions, the first of which is ...

Glyph: `kaylaj` (Reactivation)
This nifty glyph will allow the diagram it's in to be reactivated multiple times before it disappears! Buff up multiple group members with a single diagram! The number of reactivations is dependent on the occult artist's Arcana skill.

Glyph: `taqet` (Fortourgy Channeling)
This glyph causes the Arcanist to start channeling Fortourgy, which they can CAST at foes to smack them around with a little blast of force as a ranged attack. It default to bludgeon and a decentish DF, but the DF will scale slightly with Arcana skill to be on par with ranged weapons, and the more Arcana skill, the more likely the damage type will be upgraded to Crush per attack. Arcanists finally have some purely occult means of attack for those who want to live that fantasy! Granted, it's significantly less convenient to draw a diagram just to open a channel than it is for socerers or druids who can just open their channels on a whim, but `kaylaj` should help one have more quick channel re-opens for the time being. And that's not all for Arcanistristmas, so stay tuned for something that'll make this and other arcane glyph effects even more convenient ...

And as always, freedback is both appreciated as well as effective in getting tweaks to happen in order to make abilities feel viable and useful, so post your thoughts and suggestions here in this thread!
<Rias> PUT ON PANTS
<Fellborn> NO
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Guillaumo
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Re: Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by Guillaumo »

IC wise, Are we to act as if these abilities have always been available? Or are these new discoveries?
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Teri
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Re: Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by Teri »

I rped it as a new discovery myself.
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Re: Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by Teri »

So far, the time saving of the new shape and the reactivation glyph are fantastic. Taqet is very fun, but draining while maintaining fathys. No feedback on it beyond that yet. For curiosities sake putting fathys and cosir into triquetra in differing orders does not give it the permanent length of time fathys usually has, and the circle expires once cosir does. I found that neat as far as being able to drop that somewhere and not have to travel back to erase it.
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Re: Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by nobody »

Triquetra is delightful. Immensely useful, and the added cost means it isn't always best to use it and that's great too. We had a new character accidently learn it instead of occult diagrams and they were very sad, which is understandable and I hope they found their grind and leveled up quickly. I think this ability should have prerequisites of occult diagrams and at least 1 rank of glyph retention (but 2 would be better - though maybe also look at Kathrine's feedback which suggests the current set up is that Triquetra costs two ability points, one to learn triquetra and one to provide the arcane mental capacity to learn triquetra (unless it is the last thing one learns, but that seems exploity)).

Kaylaj is also very, very nice. That it persists more than half an hour makes it a nice boon for doing solo activities instead of just buffing a big group all at once, love the versatility there.

Taqet is fun, though combat is not my jam. In good news, I got to try out the new death mechanics :rofl:. The relatively higher damage is nice, and against enemies vulnerable to crush damage it can one-shot and that was lovely (I hadn't one-shot anything since mortal crits got taken out). Despite the fun, I likely won't use this often, but the reasons aren't specific to taqet, it's just that channeling is energy intensive. I tried it out with stealth, but stealth is a slow game, stalking adds 3 energy per enemy and aim shot adds 5 energy per shot, and aiming also bumps the cost by another 1 per shot. At 11 energy per shot (5 seconds for aim shot + 6 for casting with aim, costing 1 per second) it is more than even the heaviest of melee weapons. Side note: aim shot and feint don't work with raw cast (feinting doesn't make a lot of sense though, so that's pretty fair), so I found myself carrying my sling while casting so I could aim shot and feint. So, I abandoned stealth and then it worked MUCH better, but was still sending me to rest far faster than using my sling (if I actively look for a fight, channeling is -1 to -5 energy while sling is +1 to +5 energy, waiting for an enemy is great with a sling and terrible with channeling). This is further compounded because I first tried it out with dorun/kaylaj and taqet/kaylaj circles set up, so I was starting out with 50 less energy, and that... wasn't smart on my part. That led me to guess that taqet is in a different ability tree than persistent circles - choose to keep your energy and have it handy for taqet OR set up persistent circles for buffs/utility, don't try doing both. I did my testing without armor (this is dumb, I don't recommend it), but meant that I didn't have to worry about dropped channels. It seems like it would be pretty unsustainable with channel dropping, but again, haven't done that.
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Re: Arcanistristmas (Pt. 1: Triquetra, Kaylaj, Taqet)

Post by Dennis »

Glyph: `taqet` (Fortourgy Channeling)
This glyph causes the Arcanist to start channeling Fortourgy, which they can CAST at foes to smack them around with a little blast of force as a ranged attack. It default to bludgeon and a decentish DF, but the DF will scale slightly with Arcana skill to be on par with ranged weapons, and the more Arcana skill, the more likely the damage type will be upgraded to Crush per attack. Arcanists finally have some purely occult means of attack for those who want to live that fantasy! Granted, it's significantly less convenient to draw a diagram just to open a channel than it is for socerers or druids who can just open their channels on a whim, but `kaylaj` should help one have more quick channel re-opens for the time being.
Hello, I just got around to playing with the TAQET spell recently.

My feedback is that the spell is pretty cool, but unfeasible in its current form as anything other than a neat display of skill. This is due to a high cost in terms of a combination of factors tied to required level, skill, consumed energy, and chalk consumption.
[spoiler={MORE DETAILS}]{By using all of the new tools in play it is possible to bring up channels very simply, comparable to active channeling. However, it costs 6 uses of chalk to put together a SMALL CIRCLE CROSS FITHVU BELDI KAYLAJ TAQET circle to use meaningfully at any length in combat, (though you could likely get away if you're unarmored and only use a standard 4-chalk circle with single use through LINE BELDI.) Because CROSS has such a high energy component, such a setup costs almost half of an arcanists' energy to do so. This results in a lot of rest before you can actually begin fighting. As arcanists have no means to increase their rate of energy gain, it can be awkward to use in a group.}[/spoiler]

Proposal: Implementing consumable ways to bring the effect of TAQET to bear would complement the glyph greatly. This could be done through arcane tools, or by transcribing it onto single-use consumed items.
  • Example A. If the caster could enchant TAQET upon a quarterstaff, they could begin ZAPPING foes with the now enchanted quarterstaff. This would remove the active channel aspects, but create a strong flavor to an arcanist fighting. This alleviate the issues of high cost-of-entry while still making it a potent and uniquely arcanist tool. This could play into the ecosystem by generating demand for highly durable woods by causing high wear-and-tear through use. This would create demand for high quality quarterstaves and generate more interaction between woodworkers and arcanists.
  • Example B. offset the high recovery to downtime by giving the arcanist a means to prepare glyphs sooner. This could be through a unique class-talisman-like item that can hold a series of glyphs. This would prevent item bloat from creating many single-use nonstacking items, while still giving arcanists a means of preparing contingencies before entering danger. These sequences could be coded in by holding the item in one's hand and stepping into a circle, which then stores the active effect for a later time through a unique activator.
As a raw cast spell, TAQET costs a standard amount of energy to cast. However, by testing it on unconscious enemies I found the maximum DF at a reasonable arcana (200 to 300) was rather low at 60 damage, and that required multiple shots to kill an unarmored laborer. I have not yet tried it at a higher level, so this may be different for more experienced arcanists. Overall, I found TAQET To be unfeasible as the default damage of bludgeon is heavily resisted, and though higher level arcana converts it to CRUSH damage it does not feel meaningful as I am gambling for a reduction in damage.

Proposal: I think if TAQET in its current state defaulted to CRUSH and scaled better DF with arcana, it would make it a more meaningful expression of a purely occult means of attacking. Alternatively, if being struck with an orb of force had secondary effects like an increased chance to knockdown on strike, it would make it more potent. As there is a much higher cost of entry than other active channels, in terms of both high riln-cost of use and investment of myriad ability and skill points, it is an interesting glyph that doesn't immediately inspire usage.

Stealth edit: TAQET at 700 arcana is much more viable as an option, being comparable to throwing with a sling. However, I don't think it should take until someone is a master arcanist for a glyph to become comparable to a nonmagical means of usability. Preparing Remote Activation glyphs also assists greatly with channel drops, and is functionally identical as channeling but is still clunky and requires a dedicated loss of max energy.
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