Rookie
MaksInnit
License : Supporter
Member since 24/Oct/2022
Total Posts : 4
Friends,
I would like to share my idea for a healer specialisation for a Necromancer class.
Thinking about Necromancers, two images spring into my mind - a gruesome, remorseless summoner, raising hordes of undead to to their bidding and a cunning practitioner of dark arts, playing with the life essence and always dancing on the edge of life and death. For the purposes of this idea I focused on my second mental image.
I always liked the idea of a healer whose restorative abilities depend on dealing damage. I believe that a Necromancer would be a perfect fit for that archetype. A skilled Necromancer could ruthlessly siphon the life essence from their enemies to then weave that same life essence into themselves and their allies. It is that manipulation of life energies that, in my opinion, has great flavour and mechanical potential.
Some examples of this idea done in other games:
1) Dungeons and Dragons 5e - Wizard's School of Necromancy subclass gives you "Grim Harvest", allowing you to restore your health after killing an enemy with a spell
2) World of Warcraft - Shadow Priest has a spell called "Devouring Plague" that deals damage over time and heals you for half the amount of damage dealt, Warlock has a channeled spell called "Drain Life" dealing damage over time and healing you for 500% of the damage dealt
3) Elder Scrolls Online - The Nightblade class has an entire skill tree called "Siphoning" that is dedicated to life stealing abilities
Some abilities I thought of for the subclass:
1) Soul Extraction - Deal damage to an enemy and allow you to heal a friendly target. This could be done in a few ways, either the spell gives you a secondary resource that is used on healing abilities or it gives you a buff that enables you to use a healing ability. It could also simply empower the healing ability, so that you can still heal without enemies present, but less effective.
2) False Life - Heals a target for a large amount but cause some of it to be then lost over time. Let's say the spell heals 100hp instantly. The target will then loose, let's say 40hp over the next 8 seconds, giving that "false" life flavour. The spell could alternatively give 60hp and 40hp worth of a shield that will diminish over time. I think the artificial life essence, or unlife if you will, would fit perfectly within the archetype.
3)Bone Shield - Gives a friendly target a shield of bones. Each time that target takes damage, the shield looses one bone and reduces damage taken by x% or x amount. The spell will give 5 bones and the effect will end when the duration expire or when you loose the last bone. Maybe additionally, if the target lost all the bones, the shield has an additional effect? Damage, Crowd Control?
4)Dark Oath - Places a buff on a friendly target causing Necromancer's abilities to heal them when dealing damage. This can be a solution to a problem of swapping targets in a damage-to-heal playstyle. You can put this on your tank/ally and your damage/healing spells will heal them automatically. Sage in FF14 has an ability called "Kardia" which does exactly that.
4.5)Life Siphon - Damage over time ability that drains life from an enemy and restores health to a friendly target marked by the Dark Oath.
5) Life Transfer - Sacrifice your life force to heal an ally. This could be a set amount, maybe 100hp loss for the Necromancer and a 150hp gain for the target. It could also be made into an uncapped channeled ability, giving it that true feeling of balancing life and death as your life slowly ticks away to heal your ally.
That is it for now, I would love to see what you think.
See you all in Aragon!
Last edited: 2022-10-26 19:43:03