Holy Powersets, Statesman!

[GGamerGirl]

This is a large idea of mine, having been exposed to more fantasy MMOs and games. They are called "Holy Powersets". All current kinds of powersets are included, and I will be covering the Blast, Melee, Armor, Support, and Control sets in this post. The rest is in the spreadsheet attachment. 

 

The basic damage of these powersets is obviously Energy (En) damage, but with a twist. They also have a Negative Energy (Ng) component, either in the form of DoT or straight damage. The idea comes from the fact that these powers extract the sins of the enemy's soul and those sins as punishment. These powersets will only have the Bright color customization available. Many of these powers lower Defense or To-Hit, and may also include Holds and Stuns.

 

And just so you know, these are not "Hero Only" sets. Villains can use them as well. Religion has been used for not-so-virtuous purposes throughout human history, after all.

 

Without further ado...Let there be light!

 

Holy Powersets.xlsx

Edited March 23, 2021 by GGamerGirl

[GGamerGirl]

Holy Blast - Ranged

Primary: Blaster (BL), Corruptor (CR), Sentinel (SN)

Secondary: Defender (DF)

 

1. Holy Bolt - BL, CR, SN, DF

    Single target, Minor Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng), Foe -Def

2. Radiant Blast - BL, CR, SN, DF

    Single target, Moderate Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng) Foe -Def

3. Daybreak - BL, CR, SN, DF

    Cone, Moderate Damage (En, Ng), Foe -To Hit

4. Smiting Blast - BL, CR, SN, DF

    Single Target, High Damage (En), Foe Knockdown, -Def, Minor DoT (Ng)

5. Guiding Light - BL, CR, SN, DF

    You know what this does: Self +To Hit, +Dam

6. Revealing Blast - SN

    Single Target, Moderate Damage (En), High DoT (Ng), Foe -Def

6. Blinding Flash - BL, CR, SN (7), DF

    Single Target, Minor Damage (En, Ng), Foe Hold, -To Hit

7. Mass Smite - BL, CR, SN (8), DF

    Target AoE, Moderate Damage (En), Minor DoT(Ng), Foe: -Def, Knockdown

8. Holy Lance - BL, CR, DF

    Sniper attack, Superior Damage (En, Ng), Foe -Def

9. Wrath of the Heavens - BL, CR, SN, DF

    PBAoE, Extreme Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng), Foe KD, -Def, -To Hit

 

Some of the effects/animations of the Carnival of Light's attacks can be used here.

[GGamerGirl]

Blessed Melee - Melee

Primary: Brute (BR), Scrapper (SC), Stalker (ST)

Secondary: Tanker (TN)

 

1. Shining Fist - BR, SC, ST, TN

    Single Target, Minor Damage (En, Smash), Min DoT (Ng), Foe -Def

2. Holy Hammer - BR, SC, ST, TN

    Single Target, High Damage (En, Smash), Minor DoT (Ng)

3. Smiting Barrage - BR, SC, ST, TN

    Close Cone, High DoT (En, Ng), Foe -Def

4. Assassin's Sky Strike - ST

    Assassin's Strike (En, Sm), Min DoT (Ng); can also be named "Assassin's Smite"

4. Holy Power - BR, SC, ST (5), TN (7)

    Obviously, Self +Dam, +To Hit

5. Purge - BR, SC, ST (7), TN (6)

    PBAoE, Moderate Damage (En, Ng), Foe -Def, Knockdown

6. Antagonize - BR, TN (5)

    Brute/Tanker Taunt power

6. Placate - ST

    Stalker Placate power

6. Confront - SC

    Scraper Taunt power

7. Hammer Brilliance - BR, SC, ST (8), TN

    Cone, Moderate Damage (En, Ng), Foe -To Hit

8. Brilliant Flash - BR, SC, TN

    PBAoE Foe: Stun, -To Hit

9. Hammer Judgment - BR, SC, ST, TN

    Close TAoE, High Dam (Sm) on target, then Extreme DoT (En, Ng) on all foes affected, Foe Knockdown, -Spd, -Def. Energy/Negative is supposed to be 30/70

 

Again, some of the attack animations used by the Carnival of Light can be used for this set.

[GGamerGirl]

Holy Dominion - Control (Not Domination)

Primary: Controller, Dominator

 

All powers are available to both. DoT components of some powers are not supposed to be affected by Containment.

1. Dawn Shackles

    Single Target, Moderate Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng), Foe Immobilize, -Fly, -Def

2. Blinding Light

    Single Target, Moderate Damage (En, Ng), Foe Hold, -To Hit

3. Chains of Light

    Target AoE, Minor Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng) Foe Immobilize, -Fly, -Def

4. Purging Force

    Cone, Moderate Damage (En, Ng), Foe Knockback, -Def, This deals higher damage on controlled foes (this damage is not affected by Containment)

5. Golden Binds

    Target AoE, Minor Damage (En, Ng), Foe Hold, -Def

6. Sufferance

    Single Target, Minor Damage (En), High DoT (Ng), Foe Stun, The DoT component deals slightly more damage on controlled foes (not affected by Containment)

7. Divine Judgement

    Target AoE, Minor Damage (En), Minor DoT (Ng), foe Stun

8. Glimpse of Punishment

    Cone, Foe Fear, -To Hit, -Def, either higher debuff or longer Fear if controlled

9. Holy Protector

    Summon a Holy Protector that deals moderate Energy damage and minor Negative DoT. Deals more damage on controlled foes.

 

I know some of the effects can be changed for some of these powers, especially for Sufferance. Sufferance could probably be changed to a non-damaging Target/Location AoE debuff for Speed, Jump, Fly, To Hit, and Defense, and deal Negative DoT on controlled foes. The overall idea, however, is that Purging Force, Sufferance, and Glimpse of Punishment would be more effective on controlled foes, just as much as Gravity's Lift deals more damage to foes under Crush's effect. This effect is called "Sin and Punishment".

Edited March 20, 2021 by GGamerGirl
Clarified that this is a Control powerset.

[GGamerGirl]

Holy Armor - Defense

Primary: Tanker (TN)

Secondary: Brute (BR), Scrapper (SC), Sentinel (SN), Stalker (ST)

 

1. Hide - ST

    Obviously.

1. Holy Shield - BR, SC, SN, ST (2), TN

    Toggle, Self +Resistance (Sm, Le, Fr, Ng), +Defense (En, Ng)

2. Consecrated Aura - BR, SC, SN, TN

    Toggle, PBAoE Min DoT (En, Ng), Energy/Negative ratio is 70/30

3. Blessed Mending - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Click, Self: Heal, +Regen

4. Holy Resolve - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Click, Self +Resistance (Immobilize, Hold, Stun, Sleep, Knockback, To Hit Debuff), +Regeneration

5. Nature Shield - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Toggle, Self +Resistance (Fr, Cd, En, Tx, Speed Debuff), +Defense (En, Fr)

6. Soul Shield - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Toggle, Self +Resistance (Ng, Ps, Tx, Confuse, Fear), +Defense (En, Ps)

7. Child of Light - SN, ST

    Auto, Self +Regeneration, +Defense (all damage)

7. Holy Surge - BR, SC, TN

    Click, Self +Regeneration, -Endurance Cost

8. Second Life - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Click, Self Resurrect, +Recovery (working second effect)

9. Sacred Bastion - BR, SC, SN, ST, TN

    Click, Self +Resist (All damage), +Defense (All damage), +Regeneration, +Recovery, Endurance crash after effect expires.

 

And before I forget, if you have ideas on how to change these sets and these powers, state the Powerset, number, and power name, and what change you think can be made. You can download the spreadsheet in the first post and edit it. 

[GGamerGirl]

Holy Radiance - Support

Primary: Defender (DF)

Secondary: Controller (CN), Corruptor (CR), Mastermind (MM)

 

All powers are available to all Archetypes mentioned. 

0. Beacon of Light Special- I don't know if this can be pulled off, but this effect basically causes the target(s) of "Beacon of Light" to radiate holy energy, giving their nearby allies healing. You can imbue one ally at Lv 12, and a second at Lv 24. And you can give the Beacon to your pets.

1. Healing Light

    PBAoE, Team Heal, then Heal over Time

2. Bright Skies

    Ranged Location AoE, Foe -Fly, -Jump, -ToHit, -Speed

3. Protection Aura

    Toggle (Exclusive with Devotion Aura), PBAoE, Team +Regeneration, +Resistance (All damage)

4. Beacon of Light

    Ranged Ally, Ally +Regeneration, +Healing, Adds Beacon Special

5. Freedom

    Ranged Ally, Ally +Resistance (Immobilize, Hold, Stun, Sleep, Defense and Regeneration debuffs), +Regeneration

6. Stand Judgement

    Ranged Target AoE (Foes), Foe -To Hit, -Defense, -Resistance, -Speed

7. Devotion Aura

    Toggle (Exclusive with Protection Aura), PBAoE, Team +To Hit, +Damage, +Perception, +Resistance (To Hit debuff, Taunt, Placate, Confuse)

8. Concecrate

    Ally or Self

    When used on Ally: Ally +Defense (All), +Resistance (All damage)

    When used on Self: PBAoE Foe Min DoT (Ng)

9. Lay on Hands 

   Ally or Self

   When used on Ally: Ally +Regeneration (High), +Damage (All), +Resistance (All but Psionic)

    When used on Self: Self +Regeneration (High), +Resistance (All but Psionic), -Recovery

[SeraphimKensai]

Are we going to have mobs and players that have Atheism Armor and be completely immune to holy's effects and some with Agnostic Armor that have a random percentage resistance from 0-100% to holy effects?

 

That said, your post is reasonably well thought out, but a caveat: why lock the power colors to bright? Maybe I'm making the assumption based on your post that in your used to the western notion of the monotheistic christianity? By opening it up to all color schemes you could roleplay characters easier from a polytheistic background supporting a divine being like lovecraftian Cthulhu or the Greek Titan Gaia for examples? I just think that would give you a little more options.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by SeraphimKensai

[TemporalVileTerror]

I mean, an Atheism Armour would also be a great defense against Incarnates, since the Lore bible suggests that belief plays a part in how Powers work in this game, and that the Rikti-earth world managed to slay their gods with the help of disbelief in their divinity.  Heck, in this game, disbelieve hard enough and you might even be able to make the hail of bullets wink out of existence before they riddle you with holes.

I'd be for it!

[honoroit]

No Dom?! (good stuff tho, gimme that legacy chain) 

 

Not all light is of a benevolence, there are secret mantra, most pertain to defense, prostelisation, and seeding of a hostile realm. 

There is also inquisition. 

 

 

 

[Tyrannical]

I like the look of most of these powersets, I think we totally need a sort of 'light' theme to counter the dark.

 

That being said, I think perhaps avoiding things like 'holy' and other religious connotations might be best here. Not that I find the idea contentious, but more so that focusing a bit too hard on that aspect means that there's fewer hooks players can make use of.

 

If it was 'light blast' or 'light armor' and such, I can see more opportunities to use this set across different characters. 🙂

[Zeraphia]

4 hours ago, SeraphimKensai said:

Are we going to have mobs and players that have Atheism Armor and be completely immune to holy's effects and some with Agnostic Armor that have a random percentage resistance from 0-100% to holy effects?

 

That said, your post is reasonably well thought out, but a caveat: why lock the power colors to bright? Maybe I'm making the assumption based on your post that in your used to the western notion of the monotheistic christianity? By opening it up to all color schemes you could roleplay characters easier from a polytheistic background supporting a divine being like lovecraftian Cthulhu or the Greek Titan Gaia for examples? I just think that would give you a little more options.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

You've now officially stated why this powerset would be Psionic damage 2.0.

 

All robots naturally don't have "beliefs" in the same way humanity does. Therefore, all robots will have 50-75% resistance to Holy damage. LOL!

[Greycat]

11 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

I like the look of most of these powersets, I think we totally need a sort of 'light' theme to counter the dark.

 

That being said, I think perhaps avoiding things like 'holy' and other religious connotations might be best here. Not that I find the idea contentious, but more so that focusing a bit too hard on that aspect means that there's fewer hooks players can make use of.

 

If it was 'light blast' or 'light armor' and such, I can see more opportunities to use this set across different characters. 🙂

 

Ehhhh... I sort of agree, and sort of don't.

 

I mean, off the top of my head, people using Peacebringers as "beings of light" or "angels" and ignoring the lore isn't uncommon. Nor is discarding the Dark powersets' descriptive link to "the underworld," and instead being things like swarms of nanobots or (thanks to recoloring) "desert power" armor (dust devils/swirling sand, for dark armor.) And Water blast, well... the liquid and its source are highly variable.

 

The flip side of this, of course, is that people may really *want* to push this - and wonder why they're not getting extra damage on anything demonic (though that's not necessarily an "opposite") or undead (again, not really opposite, but still stereotypical.)

[Andreah]

9 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

I like the look of most of these powersets, I think we totally need a sort of 'light' theme to counter the dark.

 

That being said, I think perhaps avoiding things like 'holy' and other religious connotations might be best here. Not that I find the idea contentious, but more so that focusing a bit too hard on that aspect means that there's fewer hooks players can make use of.

 

If it was 'light blast' or 'light armor' and such, I can see more opportunities to use this set across different characters. 🙂

I agree.

 

I would prefer to keep the names of the powersets to be things that are more general; light and dark vs. holy and unholy.

 

However.

 

It would be also very cool if we could customize the text names and descriptions of powers and powersets to some degree. 

 

For example, if this powerset were "Light" and that one word was treated as a replaceable token with a default value of "Light" and you could substitute your own value for it at character creation or respec/new-build? The the OP could choose the "Light Melee" powerset, click the "Change Set Name", and put the word "Blessed" in instead. Then the set would take on that word in place of light (but still indicate 'Light' somewhere off to the side as the set it's named from), and the powers' names and descriptions would pick up the word "Blessed" where appropriate.

 

Then people could also do things like recolor Dark Melee and call it Sand Melee, and so forth.

[Andreah]

3 minutes ago, Greycat said:

The flip side of this, of course, is that people may really *want* to push this - and wonder why they're not getting extra damage on anything demonic (though that's not necessarily an "opposite") or undead (again, not really opposite, but still stereotypical.)

Hmm, how about a future Incarnate slot that allows customization of extra damage to or effects on specific sets or types of enemy group?

 

Or a smattering of new IO sets that do something like that?

[Darkneblade]

I think we can call it Celestial powers. Celestial Blast, Celestial Aura, Celestial Melee, Celestial Affinity etc. It doesn't have to be holy or light.

Then we can add new enemy types with Celestial powersets similar to skullz called Zealots or something light related.

Edited March 20, 2021 by Darkneblade

[Rathulfr]

4 hours ago, honoroit said:

There is also inquisition. 

 

 

 

 

I lewt teh hat.

 

(edit: proof)

 

 

Edited March 20, 2021 by Rathulfr
added screenshot of my Orc Mage, Ralph

[CursedSorcerer]

15 minutes ago, Night said:

*looks at peacebringer*

 

You can already just...change colors of any power in any set to fit the idea

Yeah, I just recolor Energy Blast to make it look like Light. Then again, variety IS the spice of life.

[Zeraphia]

I think at this point Energy Blast / Fire Blast kind of capture the majority of this idea with recoloring like others have said, at least for Blast sets. However, I think there's a serious discussion to be had about aspects of holy/light brands of powersets for support/control sets. I don't think any of the support sets truly encapsulate the idea of what we're talking about (thermal being a bit too niche to science, and empathy not be quite the same brand) along with no set that really "makes it work" (I guess Fire is "close" but still kind of distinctly fire and the animations don't quite fit). 

[GGamerGirl]

SeraphimKensai: I though of just bright for aesthetics, but dark colors can also work. Also, I assume that in City of Heroes, "Holy" power comes in different forms and from different pantheons, and can even come from atheistic sources or from things outside religion such as secular Humanism. Maybe some get such powers from the urSkeks.

 

Darkneblade: You know what, I like "Celestial" better than "Holy". It seems more neutral to things like "Religion", "Magic", "Science", etc. 

 

Andreah: About changing names of powersets for your customizing purposes, my main's primary is Radiation Blast. I would never call it "Radiation" because it is supposed to be "cell energy with a touch of acid". I can imagine Dawn Shackles being called "Claw of Guthix" or something.

[GGamerGirl]

Zeraphia: I am glad you brought it up. The support was the hardest to come up with. A. My plan for it was that the Beacon gimmick would be the centerpiece of the set, where allies near the ally with the "beacon" are healed whenever he is healed. I then thought that would be a little hard to implement, so I somewhat changed it (in the post) to be more of an "Enflame" effect, only targeting an ally and radiating healing to allies. I guess I was thinking utility to Hami raids? B. The "Auras" are toggles and exclusive to each other (you can have one or another, but you can't have both active). C. As for 8 and 9, I thought it would be interesting to have powers that you can target yourself with, but still be better suited to targeting allies. Lay on Hands (9th) was actually the easiest power to make of the two, as its "target self" effect is meant to be for "panic" purposes (like when the Tanker is stuck). D. Sorry for doing the letters before some of the explanations. The reply area was not registering the Enter button. Anyway, my question to everyone is: How should some of these powers (in Control and Support) be changed?

[honoroit]

There should be open pvp in AP, ouro, and pocket D - at that point we'll need no Dom light sets. 

 

[MTeague]

On 3/20/2021 at 7:41 AM, TemporalVileTerror said:

I mean, an Atheism Armour would also be a great defense against Incarnates, since the Lore bible suggests that belief plays a part in how Powers work in this game, and that the Rikti-earth world managed to slay their gods with the help of disbelief in their divinity.  Heck, in this game, disbelieve hard enough and you might even be able to make the hail of bullets wink out of existence before they riddle you with holes.

I'd be for it!

Wait, we're playing in Sigil / Planescape:Torment?   

[GGamerGirl]

I have just added two polls for you. The first deals with what these powers are called. The second is which powersets need changing (in terms of the powers they offer).

[GGamerGirl]

So, I have decided to make some changes for the powersets. I am still in the process of putting them together, but I am going to mention a few points.

 

1. Name: "Holy" is going to be renamed to "Celestial". As such, the names of many powers will change to reflect this.

2. Animations/Color: Two types of animations: the first is similar to the animations made by Carnival of Light. This is default for Melee and Blast. The second type of animations, default for Control and Buff/Debuff has more "Zodiacal", "Planetary", and "Constellation" type animations. Both animations should be made available to all sets in "Default", Bright, and Dark colors. 

3. Melee and Blast will have few changes, but I would like to add effects having to do with something called "Cosmic Feedback", allowing the powers to deal extra damage as Negative or Fire. Perhaps Blast can have an effect like Radiation's "Contamination"?

4. I want to re-work Control so it does not do too much damage across the board. For example, one of the powers will become "Shimmering Dust", a cone-shape attack lowering Damage, Defense, Speed, and To-Hit using high-albedo space dust (or light particles similar to D&D's Faerie Fire). 

5. I am trying to come up with ways to make Buff/Debuff better. I still want to keep some remnants of "Ally or Self" options (with effects depending on who you target) in the late tiers if it can be pulled off. T5 "Freedom" (working name) is going to be changed so it can also be used as a Rez if needed. The concept is basically about adapting to changes in dynamics, as the celestial sphere moves and the planets and stars change positions over the eons, and the interactions between light and dark sometimes cause surprising events.