Possession skill

[Rageburst]

I\'ve always wanted to play a character whose specialty is possessing others! Ever played Messiah? It was too short, but it was fun as heck.

Although the character woud have a weakly true form, his/her specialty is the ability to possess other creatures and inherit whatever abilities the creature has. Through greater training, this character can learn to enhance inherited abilities, defence, hp, and so forth.

Restrictions would be that the character cannot possess the more powerful monsters, and that the character cannot re-possess a monster too soon (a minute delay for example). Another optional restriction is that by specializing into this skill, you actually render yourself weaker while not possessing anyone (like Voldemort of Harry Potter).

The character can equally possess small critters such as rats, which would allow them to travel while more hidden, as well as crawl into small passageways that others cannot pass.

Critisize away!

[lynx_lupo]

ok. here it comes...
I don\'t understand you fully. The way I see it possessing could be a racial trait, but there are no races with it and there will be no new races. Or a skill where the possesser\'s mind possesses the creature, thus rendering the possesser\'s body incapable of anything but life-support. So it could be VERY risky business.



ssssssssss

[Wedge]

\"Possesion\" is a bit of an odd skill to have, but if there are telepathic skills in the game then some form of mind control would be feasable.  It could then have gradual levels of power, like at first you can only try to influence an enemies actions by making them slower to attack or running away.  Eventually you can gain total control of an enemy, or even multiple enemies and control them like in a RTS game!  Also the better you get the further you can be from the creatures you are controlling.  Excersing full control does of course leave the player totally vulnerable so it\'s a totally team type skill.  And of course it has to be restricted that you can\'t attack PC\'s with controlled monsters... although it might be kinda cool, and if someone with the skill was actually challenged to a fight or in a guild war maybe they could... be kinda like a beast tamer except they have more controlling ablities, BUT they are totally vulnerable when doing so... it\'d make for some intresting strategy I\'d think.

[elscouta]

Oh, yes i \'d love a ghost race that can possess monsters and NPCs . To possess a monster, you need to have a stronger will and better charisma that it and once you possess, you keep your own stats/skills *but* some modifier depending on monster applies.

[Rageburst]

lynx_lupo, lemme re-explain what I meant.

Have you ever read Harry Potter One? Don\'t read on if you haven\'t.






Anyway, Voldemort reduced to nothing, but a weakly creature with no tangible body (In planeshift, it could be just a person with no special abilities while not possessing others). In order to gain any sort of power, he had to possess creatures. The idea is that he borrows the body of the creature he possessed, and can possess other creatures when the creature outlived its usefulness.

Another example of possessing is a demon/malevolent spirit possessing a person. Ever seen the exorcist?

Gameplay-wise, the possessor can \"enter a body\" of a monsters/critter and inherit its abilities. At any time the possessor wants, he/she can leave the body, and run away before the possessed monster returns to its normal angry self. Got it?

[Xalthar]

it could prove an interesting spell/ability..

[sashok]

It\'s a good idea. I thought it could even be something like, if you saw the movie dreamcatcher.  Basically, depending on how strong your skill is, once you possess somebody, you body dissapears(you transfer into possed body),  but as i said, the stronger the will or skill you can travel inside the body or control it the longest.  So, if you have a weak possession skill you won\'t be able to control the movement of the victim.  There could even be a silent possess.  Where you can enter somebodys body/mind without them realizing it.  So that you can infiltrate their base/hideout/guild even.

[Wedge]

There can be no possesing of player characters... just no.  And if your own body dissapeared that kinda takes all the risk out of it and makes the person invincible.  I\'d also have to wonder if the code has players and monsters created in the same manner, so you could just a assign a player flag to the creature.  It would be too much work to make a unique setup for the specific case of posessing of a monster.  If that is the case maybe you could just direct the AI of a creature, like pick it\'s targets or cause it to run away.  Of course then that brings up the question if it can attack PC\'s and the abuses that could cause... hummmm... this is starting to sound very complicated...

[Xordan]

I don\'t really like this idea. Sounds a bit complicated.

[Rageburst]

It does entail a lot of design and coding decisions doesn\'t it?

I would just think that when you possess a monster, this would basically remove the monster and then you transform into the monster. Somehow, this has to look like the monster has been replaced by you.

In the end, it would work out to something like this:
-> player uses possess spell on a monster
-> Monster disappears.
-> player is immediately repositioned to where the disappeared monster was
-> Rather than use the player\'s 3d model, the monster\'s 3d model is used instead.
-> Stats and skills are appended to what the player already has... or whatever.

In between, you can add some flashy animation to show that the possession took place.

In the end, this is similar to how you would design an animal-transforming druid. I\'d imagine that it would be better if more than one person tackle such gameplay issues if they chose to do so.

[druke]

hmm a magic thread i missed

ok here it goes
>wizard cast domination on monster
>wizard moves to monets body, while teh original stands/sits/lies/ where it was left,prone to attakcs
>wizard has mental atributes of himself and the physical attubutes of the monster(including hp)
>if wizard\'s real body dies, spell ends and = dead wizard

[Serphet]

wouldn\'t be goodif mosters could possess you huh?

[zinder]

IMO this is a good idea, but i dont think you shouldnt be able to take over monsters with ease. i think a take-over has to cost something. Otherwise i already see possessor-batteries in high density areas, battling each other or used to powerlevel fighters and mages.

One way is to allow possession only on some artifical creatures, like sukkubi or golems. the possessor needs to create/buy them.

Or loosing a possessed creature results in health and stat drain.(you were just thrown out of another being and have to aclimate to your own body again)

[Kiva]

Actually, it is only Wizards who wish to take over animals. Witches don\'t. Wizards are just some evil people who want to ruin everything with their magics.

Witches use a much smarter technique, they call the animal, not by picking up the phone, but they use their special abilities to make it approach, where they then enter it\'s mind. There, the Witch share the animal body with the animals mind. Now for the crucial part - They don\'t abuse the animal by taking control of it, they just slightly push the it in the direction they want to go. If one is to fully take over an animal body, there should be losses. If you do it for too long, you begin to become the animal, and you forget who you are, as in you loose stats/skills. If you are to fully become the animal, someone has to pull your mind out of the animals head, or you\'re lost forever.

.... Wizards never figured a spell to take over animals so they stopped trying to do it.

Edit: Btw, I got this stuff from a book that explains everything about magic (it also explains why Gandalf doesn\'t have a wife).

[druke]

..those text dont extend to these cosmos necisarily.

I am quite fond of animals, though i dont posses them i do \"call\" them

that being said

i am Druke master of the earthen way