Hi!

I was near from the release of this mod, but first, I want to hear your suggestions and opinions:

Murdock′s Level Abilities is, a bit similiar to other mods like Class Abilities, or Perks mod, the main diference is that my mod is integrated in a more roleplaying way. Instead of pressing a crank, the mod introduces the character of the "Master" who, depending of your class style choice, can be a monk hermit, a necromancer in a tomb, the Archmage Trebonius, a legendary retired thief,etc, who becomes your master until you reach level 30, and he cannot teach more to you.

In basics, Murdock′s Level Abilities tryes to increase the reward of leveling. So, when you level up, you can visit your master, and he will teach you different powers, abilities, "special spells",resistances...all with extense dialogue. When you level up, you will gain a "experience point" so, you can spend it on your master. Depending on your skill build, your master will suggest a concrete ability build. Also, to access to high level abilities, you will need to unlock other minor abilities first. For example:

You visit an old hermit monk, at his shack, and you tell him to learn from him. He sends you on a easy level-1 quest, and he acepts you. The Master( the old hermit ) tells you about three paths that he cain train: The Path of Martial Arts, The Path of Healing and the path of Avoiding, and you only can choose a path until the next 10 levels. If you choose the Path of Avoiding, for example, he can teach you some powers (Concentrated Jump;40 pt jump once per day) resistances (Avoiding Level I ; 2pt sanctuary) and abilities (trained legs Level I ; 2pt fortify acrobatics). Some of these abilities can be improved through leveling and expending points( Avoiding Level 2, Level 3, Level 4...) Oh, the effects are not acumulative, so, Avoiding level 4 will replace all the others( Avoiding level 2,3...)

These powers and abilities will not be given without explanation; If you choose to learn a 10% resistance to normal weapons, you will be told that you spent 4 hours of training with your master, despicting the hits that you recive from him, and how yo feel that your skin became hardened.

Also, as you can see, English is not my native languaje, so if anyone offers himself to correct the gramatical( and even better, SINTACTICAL) errors, it would be great.

Now, I want to hear your suggestions...do you want some more added?

PM me if you would like me to help you with grammar/syntax. Glad to help.

sounds great!

normally i dont get mods that alter anything besides landscape, quests, and graphics, but i might make an eception for this mod

I think this idea is pretty cool, as long as it's balanced well. Do you get to choose which master to use, or would it be selected automatically depending on your class/skills? I also would probably be willing to help with grammar and syntax if you like (and when I have time).

As it's unable to recognize wich class is playing the PC, I've made that Sellus Gravius will ask you about your skills (stealth, magic, etc) and he will give you a list of possible people who could get care of you at your arrive at vvanderfell.

I am a huge fan of Balathustrius and I use his "Class Abilities" mod. If you can believe it, I once asked Balathustrius if he would be interested in adding NPC "masters" to the game who would send the PC on quests to prove his worth and then reward him by teaching him new abilities and improving his old ones. He was not interested in the idea, but he did make it so the PC's abilities "automagically" improved at a certain level as a result of my request. He also told me I could do whatever I wanted to with his mod so one day long ago I opened the CS and started working on almost the exact same mod you're now making! I wish you better luck than I had! :^)

Anyway, I'll tell you what I was trying to do, as best as I can remember. Like you, I was writing dialogue for a few NPCs who would basically serve the PC as a "teacher" of sorts. I like the NPCs you describe, I actually laughed when I read that you picked Trebonius to teach the mages! Very funny! :^) In addition to the NPCs you listed, I think I was planning an Arena trainer who would teach fighters and a Nord huntsman living somewhere in Solstheim for ranger types. Basically my idea was to have your character choose your profession in dialogue with Sellas Gravius, just like in "Class Abilities," then after you chose your profession, if Sellas liked you enough, he might tell you the name/location of an NPC who was renown for his/her skill in your chosen profession. The NPC probably wouldn't teach you anything at first, but once your character got a high enough reputation or level, or if you got the NPC's disposition up high enough, he would see some promise in you and send you on a quest to prove yourself worthy of his tutelage. The first quest would probably be challenging for a level 10ish character. Upon completion of the quest you would be rewarded by having your "professional" abilities improved a bit and the teacher would either tell you to come back when you had grown and were ready to learn more, or else would go ahead and give you another quest if your reputation/level/his disposition towards you was high enough. The second quest would be significantly more difficult than the first, probably very challenging for a level 20/30 character. And of course this process would be repeated as many times as you feel like writing another quest. I also thought it might be fun to develop a friendship and tell some stories in the dialogue with the NPCs and I thought eventually maybe the NPC would name the PC a "grand master" of his trade or give him some other honorary title to go with his accomplishments and abilities.

That was my idea, maybe you can use it and maybe not, but there it is. :^)

Now I have a question for you. Can you write up a detailed list of all of the abilities you plan to let us choose from? Do you know what they are all yet? Do you want suggestions for new/different abilities?

I've got impressed Bycote, it's amazing how you had the same idea! (Well, technically, I had YOUR idea )

It would be great to hear your suggestions about new or different abilities, specially the magic-ones. The abilitie-tree of each profession develops on Three Paths, than can be combined through ability picking, but if you especialice in one single path, you'll reach greater powers. It's not the same a mixed skilled thief, that an acrobat who lives for jumping and climbing. The path system is intended to give a lot more customization to your character. Here are some of the texts of the basic monk training:

"As a monk, an a hermit, I will teach these thing that I learned, at my youth at the monastery, and now, at the loneliness of my meditations. A monk, has to know, how to fight his enemies, because, in your travels, you will encounter many people who doesn't respect the others and will try to make evil things against others. your task, is defending them, so I'm gonna teach you some basic kicks and punches, that I learnt at the monastery of my order. These combat movements, are basic movements, but a long time ago I encountered an Akaviri monk that told me: " The best fighter is not the one who can throw one hundred different kicks, it's the one who can throw the same kick one hundred times". Also, I will teach to you the basic defensive stance, so you can block some hits with your arms. For the rest, you will have to climb the tallest tree from the swamp near here, and return to this cave, without touching the floor, only jumping through the trees.

[You begin the basic training. You go to the straigth place of the cave, and (Monk′s name) explains lightly the basic moves. The first, is a normal punch, but you pay attention to the rotation movement of the hand, and how he moves his hips alongside with the punch, giving it a strong propulsion that makes an echo at the abandoned cave. Then, he begins explaining how to perform the straight kick. After that, he places you hands near your head, and says that this is the basic way of protecting you.]

After that, he asks you to throw him a punch. With a bit of fear, you throw a punch with all your strength to the old man′s stomach, bu he not seems to feel nothing. That is a punch?- he askes, and he push you with the hand opened, that pushes you two meters far from him. At the ground, you try to recover for the jumping training. The next days you spent with him, you learn a lot of physics. And falling, too."

So you get:

Basic martial Arts Training : Hand-to-Hand +2pt
Basic Defensive stance : Sanctuary +2pt
Basic Acrobatic Training: Acrobatics +2pt" 1

What do you think about that one?

I really like this idea. Hope to see if released soon, Keep us up to date on what you'll be doing with it.

And where at is this Class Abilities mod? I found the http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7847 mod but not the former.

Sorry Murdock, I forgot to check this thread yesterday. :^)

Tes96, here's the link to Balathustrius' (I love saying his name! ;^) Class Abilities on PES - http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6351

Now down to business. That sounds good Murdock, it needs quite a bit of rewriting of course but you seem to have no shortage of volunteers for that job. :^)

Based on what you just posted, I do have a suggestion for a (possible) improvement. When I was writing my mod it was my desire to add a completely new way for players to develop their characters' skills so characters played with my mod would be *different* than characters played without it. They would literally have cool new abilities, powers, and spells that characters played without my mod would not have. If your mod develops by giving characters' bonuses to their skills (such as +hand-to-hand and +acrobatics), then characters will end up mostly the same, their skills will just increase/max out a little faster. Now instead of giving bonuses to those skills, say the characters reward is a constant effect jump or attack bonus. Now THAT is something new, a real bonus a character played without your mod would not have!

With that in mind, I think a mod like this would be much more interesting if it developed by your character gaining special effects like sanctuary (which you listed), jump, attack, feather, slowfall, toggleable water walking, etc instead of bonuses to attributes and skills. In fact, to be very clear, I do not think attribute and skill bonuses should be part of this mod at all. Also I think it would be great for your character to learn some powerful new once-per-day powers from his teacher, and perhaps you could gain some nice spells that cost considerably less magicka to cast than similar spells in the game thanks to your teacher's teaching.

I will write up an example class or two to show how I think they should be developed if you would like me to. Heck, if you like what I come up with I may just find the time to write up a whole slew of classes for ya. ;^)

Yes, I only put the attribute bonus because it's the BASIC TRAINING. After that, you will learn speciall spells (no, or very low costs) powers, abilities...and all of that will be handled with constant effect abilitites, but certain abilities will include an skill bonus. At the basic training, you will learn the basics, then, you will choose between the three paths of your profession choosing abilities. For example, at level 3, you can train "Fortified legs" wich gives you 10 pt jump and +5 athletics, or "concentrated jump" that is a power (once per day) that enables you to perform a long jump (40 pt jump) once per day.

I'll be very pleased to hear your class examples!

Some moves of The path of Martial arts that I've made and implemented yesterday ( available for monk, gladiators and assasins, but with diferences between the two paths. Karma moves only available for monks) Some of the duration of movements are missing, because I've made that list for me before implementing them


MARTIAL ARTS:
LEVEL 2:
Basic covering block +5
Hit to the stomach: Power -100 fatigue touch
Throw dust: spell 0 cost blind touch 50 pt 7 secs

Level 3:
Resistance to pain resist I: normal weapons 10
Double kick: Power damage health 50 pt drain intelligence 50 touch
Motivation: fortify attack 10

Level 4:
Concentration: Power fortify attack hand to hand 20 stregth 20
Ilumination kick¨Power Damage health 55 pt light (replaces double kick)20 pt silence 15 sec drain magicka 10

Level 5:
Punch barrier: Power Sanctuary 100 fortify agility 100 5 sec drain fatigue 200 5 sec
Peace in Ten movements [legendary move]: power Poison 20m 10 sec touch
Hit to the stomach Master: Spell 10 cost -100 fatigue touch

Level 6:
Dance of the White Guar:
Restore Health 1-5 20 sec fortfy attack 1-5 20 sec hand tohand 1-5 20 sec Spell 0 cost

Witchslayer Kick: Power touch damage intelligence 100 to 20 sec silence 20 sec

Cry of the Defenders: sound 60-100 spell cost 30 Damage health 30 area

Level 7: Obligatory Training with your master : fortify attack 10, fortify strength 10, constant effect

Level 8:Spiritual Kick [Legendary Move]:Spell 30 cost, damage fatigue 100 30 sec, summon ancestral ghost.

Level 9:
Proof of fire: Resistance fire 10%
Proof of Ice: Resistance frost 10%
Proof of shock: resistance shock 10%

Level 10:
Legend of the Knife Thrower: fortify marksman 100 30 seconds. Spell 40 cost
[Quest: Retrieve the legendary Scroll of Akamuns Shetar]
Revenge[bad Karma move]: Chameleon 100 15 seconds, fortify attack 150 15 seconds, fortify attack 50 15 seconds, Demoralize Humanoid 20-50 30 seconds [If you choose this ability you will have a constant -30 health damaged.

True Ilumination Kick: replaces illumination kick: Damage health100 pt light (replaces double kick)50 pt silence 15 sec expel undead 30 ft 30 sec restore health 10 5 sec power

At level 10 your master about good and bad karma moves




Level 11
Basic Katana Training: 30 pt long blade
Basic tanto training: 30 pt short
Resistance to pain II : 20 resistance weapons

Level 12:
Cry of the order of Heat: Fire damage 30 pt 15 secs area + 30 pt 15 seconds in himself(autodamage)

Improved: Punch barrier: Power Sanctuary 100 fortify agility 100 10 sec drain fatigue 20010 sec

Hits of Justice: Restore health and fatigue 1-4 10 secs fortify hand to hand 20

Level 13:
Rip Eyes: Spell no cost: Blind 100% 200 secs

Renegade Cut [bad karma move]: Damage strength 50 pt 100 sec spell cost 50 pt

Concentration over Motivation:Removes Concentration and Motivation powers and gives Concentration: Power fortify attack hand to hand 40 stregth 40


Motivation over Concentration: removes the Concentration and Motivation Power: gives you +25 constant effect attack

Level 14:
Proof of Martial:
Roundhouse kick: Spell no cost, damage fatigue 100 touch, damage fatigue 30 himself(autodamage)

Proof of Avoiding

Proof of Healing

Obligatorio hacerlas

Iluminated marksman

Level 15:

Drunken Boxing: Draing agility 30, fortify hand to hand strength 60 pt, sanctuary 60 pt 40 sec blind himself autodamage 50 pt Power

Dual Spiritual Kick[legendary improving move]: replaces the old spiritual kick and Spell 30 cost, damage fatigue 200 60 sec, summon ancestral ghost. 60 sec [good karma move]

Suicide move of Konun Shoudala[legendary move]: Damage himself 150 hp autodamage, damage strength endurance 50 pt, damage health 100-500 20 sec area

Renegade Weapon Possesion: POWER Summon longblade 200 sec fortify attack 100 silence 200 sec
[bad karma move]

Level 16:
Pain resistance III: 40% resist normal weapons
Gambler′s kick: damage health and fatigue 1-200 fortify luck 1-200 50 sec cost 0 spell

Amnesia Punch:Cost 50: damage intelligence 100 200 seconds calm humanoid 40 200 seconds

Do you think they are overpowered? I will explain later the karma gameplay, but I'm thinkinf of removing it or renaming for lore purposes, even that feature i'ts only intended for monks, and reflexing their ideologicall position trough the past of time on their adventures ( help good or bad people, etc.)
Also, I plain to make the masters have their orwn faction, so the fighter maser won't teach a mage, because you need requisites. When he teaches you, you join the faction "Master XXX disciple" where you cannot advance ranks until you became level 30, when he cannot teach you more and you reach the rank of Master of your Profession

Factions! Now that is a clever idea! I didn't think of that.

I'm afraid our ideas for the classes themselves are pretty different. I was only planning on having 4 levels of advancement in my mod - your character would start as a novice or apprentice of his profession, then become journeyman, master, and finally grand master. I got the idea from the old Might and Magic games, but I think a similar system to this is also used in Oblivion. Anyway, I suppose I could look at your ideas for classes and see if I have any ideas for any possible changes/improvements, but I'm afraid I won't be much use thinking of new classes, that's just too different than my idea. :^)