HELP! Hero Development (spell ideas and triggering help)

Heya WC3camp,

I'm currently developing a hero for an rpg campaign I have in the works. I'm running low on ideas on what to do with this particular hero and was hoping you guys could offer some creative insight on how about to finish it. Thanks.

First, the hero concept:
Her name is Milandra Athenae, the Forge Born Mage. The hero is a sort of Mage-Black Smith hybrid as she draws her power from the weapons she forges and equips. Her magics are tied with weapon craft, often taking the form of imbuing her weapons with spells and enchanting them to produce a number of magical effects. I was hoping to make it so that all her skills are built around maximizing the power of the weapons she has equipped as well as improving her synergy with them, a sort of "become one with the blade/weapon" philosphy.
I need to expand the concept of the hero. Beyond trying to achieve "oneness" or "unity" with her weapon, what else can be said about her fighting style and magic that makes her truely unique? I'm completely open to all creative suggestions.

Now, secondly, I'll discuss the constraints new ideas must consider:
(1) All heroes in the map have the critical strike, evasion, and magic resistance ability triggered to level up as the hero attribute they're tied to rises (strength for critical, agility for evasion, and intelligence for magic resistance), so using them as unique hero spells are out of the question.
(2) This hero is the only hero capable of wielding weapons with an orb of lightning effect on them, giving him a chance to cast a wide range of spells (from offensive to defensive) depending on which item he has equipped. This sort of limits the kind of spells one can make up for him so just keep in mind that new spells must have a degree of uniqueness to them otherwise they may just end up mimicing the orb effect of a weapon. Classic spells like AOE nukes, DOT', or direct damage spells like frost bolt or chain lightning just won't do. Neither will combat abilities like Cleaving Strike or Bash. Note also that these weapons will have spells built into them that can be actively cast.
(3) My knowledge of trigger, I humbly admit, is quite limited. I've done what I can with what I know and I may need some help with the implementation of new spells so please, if you can, post triggering tips and instructions if the spell is a tad complex.

Thirdly, the tentative skill set I have drawn up for her. Now, all heroes have 8 skills each, all triggered to level up when their intelligence attribute hits a certain score. I'm thinking all skills should have a maximum of 4 levels but that is still open to change. Please do keep level progression in mind when suggesting something. Anyway, here are her skills currently:

1. Weapon Craft: Accession - Milandra is the only one capable of picking up and equipping special and powerful items called "Relicals." Depending on what weapon is equipped in inventory slot 1, Milandra will recieve a hero attribute bonus. Normal items will recieve a lower bonus as compared to Relicals. All Relicals have (1) a lightning orb ability granting a chance to cast a specific spell its imbued with (2) a normal spell that cast actively (3) a passive combat ability like bash, cleaving strike, or feedback (4) stat bonuses and hero attribute bonuses. Here are some basic spells considered for the Relical lightning orb ability.
---- Poison Arrow/DOT
---- Frost Nova
---- Flame Strike/Burn Ground
---- Berserk/Self Speed Bonus and/or damage penalty (for greater physical damage)
---- Self Affecting Roar
---- Slow/Frost Arrow
---- Finger of Death
---- Vampiric Potion
---- Mana Steal
---- Steal Magic/Buff Steal (affects self only)
---- Holy Light/Extra Damage to Undead (exorcist armament)
---- War Stomp
---- Thunder Clap
---- Limited Range Chain Lightning
---- Shockwave/Strike through damage
---- Impale
---- Entangling Roots
---- Stampede
---- Wind Walk with critical damage
---- Soul Burn
---- Silence and Slow (mage killer)
---- Purge/Abolish Magic
---- Orb of Corruption/Armor Reduction
PROBLEM: I was hoping that the hero attribute bonuses accession grants on Milandra would be weapon specific. For instance, if she equips the Mage Slayer, she will receive +5 INT, +2 AGL, +2 STR, as opposed to if she equips the Exorcist Arm where she recieves a +5 STR, +4 INT, +0 AGL. I don't know how to give weapons this specificity. I was thinking about playing with Arrays but my knowledge and experience with arrays is limited. I then considered a series of "If and Then" actions, but that would be too long and messy. Any suggestions?

2. Weapon Craft: Lore - based on Spell Book, contains recipes for 11 special Relicals that can be forged through combining equipped Relicals

3. Forge Born Union - based on Engineering Upgrade of Goblin Tinker, Milandra receives a stat increase (ATK, DEF, ATK Rate, Move Rate) whenever she attacks an enemy. Every time this skill levels up, the bonus she recieves per strike increases (1.25/1.50/1.75/2 per strike for ATK, .1/.2/.3/.4 per strike for DEF, 1/1.25/1.50/1.75% per strike for ATK and Move Rate). The Maximum amount of strikes she can make before she stops receiving stat bonuses is 40, so that's +80 ATK DMG, +16 DEF, +70% ATK and Move rate at level 4 at maximum charge.

4. Fury of the Forge - based on Purge. The idea is that this skill deals direct damage based on the charge level of Forge Born Union. It is meant to be Milandra's Ultimate and the most powerful damage dealer in the game, ideally dealing around +1000 DMG at its final level with Forge Born Unity at maximum charge. It does not dispel any buffs of the target, it only inflicts a massive slow effect as a result of the crippling power of the blow. Once this spell is used, the charge level of Forge Born Union resets to 0.
PROBLEM I have not been able to come up with a decent equation to calculate the amount of damage it inflicts, please, I'm open to suggestions.

5. Queen of Blades - Metamorphosis or some other morphing spell. Grants chaos damage, splash damage, as well as other stat bonuses. Stat bonuses have yet to be determined, do suggest something. I put this in thinking it was in keeping with the theme of maximizing equipped weapons. This allows her to deal full damage to her target regardless of armor type (her default attack type is Normal). This too is open to change.

6. Spirit Anchor - Reincarnation. Explanation is that, due to Milandra's constant striving towards achieving unity with her weapon, her spirit becomes bound to it making it serve as an anchor for her spirit, allowing her to ressurect herself from death. "The blade is the house of my spirit, I know no death or destruction"

That's it so far. As you can see, she's pretty messed up and in dire need of help.

She still needs 2 more spells (preferably actively cast offensive spells) and a balancing of her current spells and abilities. I was hoping that they might some how be based on Forge Born Union in a similar fashion that Fury of the Forge is, that they depend upon it for its effects and strength. I intended for it to be her central skill which works in synergy with the others. If she seems overpower, note that Creeps and Hostiles level up as Heroes do, albeit, at a slower rate.

Anyway, please post your thoughts. Thanks.

Damn, you reall have thought this out. And be glad I have read the whole thing. And know that I am answering your questions backwords, so be ready for that.

Make your own spells, I am often against helping creativly. However, I dont quite understand what you mean when you say she's pretty messed up and in dire need of help. It looks like you have it all thought out. Do you mean you dont know how to do much of what you have posted?

As for Fury of the Forge, possibly 1000/40 is what you want. That would mean 25 damage per charge. If you want it to have a higher minimum damage, it is quite easy:

Variables: X = Minimum Damage (No Charge)
( 1000 - X ) / 40

That will give you whatever you want. If the minimum damage is 200, then you get ( 1000 - 200 ) / 40, meaning 20 damage per charge.

As for the stat bonus based on each relical, why not just make it tied to the item? IE Mage Slayer has that orb effect, as well as granting +5 int, +2 str/agi? Thats what I would do, unless I am missunderstanding the problem?

Haha, Thanks for your thoughts St33m. Yeah, sorry if the post was kinda long


That and I don't know what else to give her for her last 2 spells. I'm utterly out of ideas. I'm also having difficulty figuring out how to trigger some spells as well a giving them values and equations that are balanced.


The problem with that is it ignores the level of FotF. Ultimates will also have 4 levels, they just require higher INT scores to level up. I was thinking that the equation should also take into consideration the level of Forge Born Union. I was thinking that whatever equation I come up with, it should have X (level of Fury), Y (level of Forge Born Union), and Z (the current charge of Union)


Actually, I was also considering that, but then I thought that she should recieve stat bonuses from weapons that aren't Relicals. What do you think? Do you think that adding an attribute bonus on top of the bonus of Relicals is a bit excessive?

What level does Fury go up to?

Maybe you want, assuming its 4, it to be like 250X - Z / 40? That doesnt have Y... Well, maybe 125XY - Z / 40? That way if you have level 4 fury and level 4 union, and full charge, you have 1000 damage, but say if you have level 1 fury and level 2 union, with full charge you would only deal... wait no my math is wrong. I was thinking Z was minimum damage... I'm getting confused, let me restart. MAybe 250X - 50Y / 40? That way the minimum damage is based on the level of Union?

As for the stats thing... do you have any inventory system that would prevent the stats from 2 items from stacking? I think it would work fine, but I dont know what yo're using.

Wait... that would mean that with lvl4 Fury and lvl4 Union at maximum the damage would be like 1000 - 200/40 = 995.
The problem with this skill is that, even at low levels, the damage has to be pretty good to give up the stat bonuses it imparts. At level 1, Union at maximum will give Milandra +50 DMG, +4 DEF, and 40% ATK and Move rate. Actually... now Forge Born Union seems like utter shit in the lower levels. Save for damage, the other stat bonuses rise too slowly and even then don't offer that high an increase... I mean, +4 DEF after 40 hits? That sucks. It will probably need tweaking. Any ideas?

Actually, your equation's given an idea. What if it were something like (...) Z/40, that way, whatever damage is calculated in (...) will be reduced by a % of the maximum charge level of Union. When Z=40 or 1, the spell will deal full damage. The function inside the (...) is still problematic though.


I don't think so. The reason why I made it so it only counts the weapon in slot 1 is that the I'm using triggers to modify the attribute scores of the hero directly and thought that the attribute bonuses from multiple items would be difficult to track with triggers. If I only counted the item in slot 1, I'll know exactly the how many attribute points to add and subtract as the hero equips and unequips a weapon.

That makes sense. So maybe 250X/(Z/40)? Lets see, that means with rank 4 in both skills and full charge you do 1000 damage, and with 0 charge you do 1000/40 = 25 damage. Hmm.. maybe not.

Why do you want to directly attribute stats, as apposed to just using +? IDC really, but it seems liek more work...

How about ((50(X+1)Y) Z+4/40)+(100)? Even with 0 charge at X=1 and Y=1 you still get 110 damage. When everything is maxed out, you reach up to 1200 DMG. I can make it so that Fury is based on edited Wind Walk which ensures that your next strike will add 100/125/150/175% to your base damage. So, supposing that that Milandra's AVG damage at Lvl 10 is 49 and casts fury with everything maxed out, she will deal about 1334.75 DMG!
This way it's always worth it to cast the spell and just balance it out with a long cool down time. Or does that seem excessive?

That's true, I suppose that would be cleaner and simpler to just use the +Stat ability.

There's still the problem of the 2 remaining spell slots and tweaking the numbers of Union's charge up bonuses.

I think you need to reduce the attack speed and speed increase, but I dont know your map, so maybe not. That much speed is a lot, and I think it would be more beneficial to get a really powerful weapon (or weapons if your map allows that), whichever has the most damage, and then just attack stuff a lot. If you got, say, 200 damage, true, it would be worse burst damage, but better dps overall... I dunno, maybe I'm crazy.