» Fri May 27, 2011 5:39 pm
And since liches came up earlier, I re-present:
The Monstrous Transformations Post
These are all my ideas for the various kinds of monsters that the game ought to let you become (vampires, werewolves, and so on), I'll update this whenever something new occurs to me.
What Transformations?
At minimum, TESV needs to have vampires and werewolves. Beyond that, it would be good to see different clans of vampires, other kinds of lycanthropes, and maybe even liches. I've also been trying to come up with a decent idea for a more 'good' transformation, in contrast to the more 'evil' vampires, lycanthropes, and liches.
Vampires
How Do You Become One?
As with the previous games, if you are attacked by a vampire, there's a chance of contracting Porphyric Hemophilia. If you don't cure it in three days, you wake up as a vampire. There may also be some friendly vampires who may be willing to infect you at the asking.
Progression
There ought to be some sort of progression to the abilities that you get from any of these transformations. For vampires, progression comes from getting more and more powers the longer they've been a vampire; in a sense, vampires become more and more monstrous and less human over time. The rate at which they gain new powers could be dependant on either how many days they've been a vampire, or by how many times they've fed on blood.
Initial Powers
When they first change, the vampire's appearance changes slightly: their teeth elongate, they become paler, their eyes become red, and their faces become slightly thinner and predatory. The longer they go without feeding, the more pronounced all these features become, causing people to first stop socializing with you, and eventually to attack you or run away, as your true nature becomes obvious.
Vampires get the ability (and the requirement) to feed on the blood of humans, elves, or the beast races. They can feed on the very recently dead (so they can kill a bandit, and immediately feed upon them, for example), or on someone who's sleeping; however, feeding on a sleeper carries the risk of your not keeping control, and killing them; the chance of killing the person the vampire is feeding on is dependent on a mix of how long you've been a vampire, how many days it's been sense last feeding, and your willpower. The longer you go without feeding, the more your appearance degenerates, making it obvious you're a vampire, and the more of your powers you lose. Some powers you'll lose if you go even one day without feeding, while others will persist for several days.
The other beginning vampire abilities:
-resistance to normal weapons
-weakness to silver and fire
-heavy damage from the sun (reduced by things such as cloud cover and covering your skin)
-no longer breathes, making vampires immune to drowning and poison gas.
-small bonus to strength, larger ones to speed, agility, and personality.
-gains a natural health regeneration. However, it doesn't heal damage from silver, fire, or sunlight.
Other Powers
As vampires progress, they get access to more powers. This list isn't in any particular order:
-Hunter's Sight: nighteye and detect life.
-Charm
-Predator's Pounce: a super jump
-Preternatural Speed: lets the vampire move a high speed.
-Daywalking: allows the vampire to walk in the sunlight for a brief duration.
Clans
TESV should bring back the idea of multiple vampire clans, each with its own unique powers (and in some cases, physical changes). To go beyond what the previous games had, these clans also ought to have a clear theme to them (Daggerfall's vampires were just normal vampires with one extra random ability attached to them, while Morrowind's vampires were just another repetition of the whole fighter/mage/thief thing).
Skyrim is the location that's the most hinted at for TESV's setting, so I've tried to come up with clan ideas for there, with the idea being that each clan of vampires would be suited for hunting in a specific type of territory. Here's what I've come up with:
-Volkihar: This clan is an official one from the lore. These are vampires that lair in frozen lakes and rivers. Their abilities include being able to swim incredibly fast, a touch-ranged frost attack, and the ability to phase directly through sheets of ice covering bodies of water.
-'Forest Vampires': savage types dwelling in the forests of Skyrim. Attacks by this clan are often mistaken for werewolf attacks, as their powers include the ability to shapeshift their hands into vicious claws, as well as a link to wolves that allows them to make wolves their servants.
-'Mountain Vampires': a winged clan of vampires that lair on the high mountain peaks, to swoop down on the villages below to feed. These vampires, when they change, sprout a pair of large, bat-like wings (which need to be concealed by a cloak to go out among people without them marking you as a vampire), as well as the ability to climb up nearly any surface with ease (useful when in a space that's too cramped for wings).
Lycanthropes
Becoming One
Just as with vampires, you become a Lycanthrope if you are attacked by one and contract Sanies Lupinus (or Sanies Ursinus, or whatever, depending on the animal). Wait three days, and you become one.
Progression
Basically the opposite of vampires. Vampires progress, basically, by becoming more and more of a monster; while lycanthropes progress by regaining more and more of their former humanity. Gaining control over their transformation is the cornerstone of lycanthropes' progression. Their progression should be determined by how long they've been a lycanthrope.
Initial Powers
When they first become one, lycanthropes are forced to change every night. When they change, they must kill at least one NPC (bandits and the like count for this), or they take a heavy blow to their health. Also, whenever the transformed lycanthrope comes within melee range of a creature, there is a chance that they will lash out automatically at it, without any player input.
Other beginning lycanthrope abilities:
-Resistance to normal weapons, but major weakness to silver (only when transformed)
-Bonus to strength and endurance, which increases when transformed
-Animal Senses: using enhanced senses to track creatures when transformed. A creature's scent appears as a colored mist wreathing the creature, and marking the areas the creature has been recently. The color denotes the broad category the creature falls under (for instance, one color for grazers like deer or sheep, another for predators, a third for humanoids, and a fourth for monstrous humanoids, like ogres and trolls).
-like vampires, gains health regeneration, but doesn't heal damage from silver.
Other Powers
Lycanthropes don't get as many new powers as vampires do as they progress. Instead, they get more control over their condition:
-They are forced to transform less often. The transforming every night only lasts a fairly short while, until the disease fully settles on them; then forced transformation only happens twice a month, when one of Nirn's two moons are full. Eventually, they get even more control, and only have to transform when the larger of the two moons is full.
-They stop involuntarily lashing out at nearby creatures.
-They get the ability to voluntarily transform, at first only once a day, but the amount gradually increases until they can transform back and forth as often as they want. During voluntary transformations, lycanthropes aren't required to kill an NPC, only during the forced ones.
Lycanthropes also eventually get the following ability:
Full Transformation: the lycanthrope changes form into a full animal, rather than the usual man-beast form. This form gives less than the usual stat bonuses, but moves faster, has greater range on its animal senses, and allows the lycanthrope to be perceived by all other creatures as just being a normal animal, with whatever reaction is appropriate.
Packs
Thankfully, unlike vampires, there's more complete info on the different types of Lycanthropes. Obviously, if TESV only deals with one province, only two (three at the outside) will appear, but I'll present them all. So, here's the complete list:
-Werewolves: exist everywhere in Tamriel. On top of the base lycanthrope bonuses, werewolves also get a bonus to speed, and get nighteye as a free ability when transformed.
-Werebears: native to Skyrim. They get an even bigger bonus to endurance, and resistance to cold when transformed.
-Werelions: native to Elsweyr and Cyrodiil. They get a bonus to agility, and nighteye when transformed.
-Werecrocs: native to Black Marsh and Morrowind. Get swiftswimming, increased lung capacity (although not full-on waterbreathing), and an armor bonus from the scales, all only when transformed.
-Wereboars: native to Hammerfell and High Rock. Gets an additional bonus to strength.
-Werevulture: native to Valenwood. Gains the ability to fly when transformed.
-Weresharks: reputed to live along all coastlines. Gains swiftswim and waterbreathing when transformed, but will also find their land speed drastically reduced, and begin to suffocate when out of water.
Liches
Becoming One
No accidental infection here. Achieving lichdom requires performing a complicated ritual on yourself, requiring a phylactery, rare ingredients, and a heavy dose of necromancy. Learning the ritual can be accomplished two ways: first, achieving a high rank in a Necromancer Guild (in fact, becoming a lich could be a requirement to reaching the highest ranks in the guild), or second, by finding a book that explains the ritual (although the book should be exceedingly rare, and found at the bottom of a few difficult dungeons).
Progression
I'm actually inclined to not give liches any progression, and just give them all their powers at once. The journey to become a lich ought to be long and difficult, so it seems fair to reward them with the whole shebang. Besides, I'm having a hell of a time coming up with a decent progression system for them.
Powers
When they changes themselves, liches become undead in appearance: their muscles atrophy, and their skin becomes dried out and tight, basically looking like a mummified corpse. As undead, they no longer have to breathe, and they gain a resistance to normal weapons, but gain a hefty penalty to fire. The transformation also gives a bonus to intelligence and willpower. They also get the following abilities:
-Guise of the Living: this lets the lich change their appearance to appear as though they're still alive. Maintaining this appearance is taxing, though, and while doing it the lich stops regenerating his magicka.
-Turn Undead: liches are the lords of the undead, and all other undead know it, at least on some level. Liches get an incredibly powerful turn undead spell that will send all but the most powerful of undead running for the hills.
-Bonus to Necromancy Summoning Durations: all summoned or reanimated undead pets have their base duration increased by 50%.
-Phylactery: (note: I'm well aware of the lore from Oblivion that contradicts what I'm about to say, but if they can change Cyrodiil from a jungle into what it was in Oblivion, then they can disregard a small little piece of lore, in the name of an engaging game mechanic). This is the big ability of liches. The ritual to create a lich binds their soul to an object called a phylactery; as long as the phylactery exists, the lich can use it to cheat death. Liches get a once-per-day ability where, if the ability is active on the lich when someone lands a killing blow on them, will let the lich avoid dying. Instead of being killed, the lich will be instantly teleported to wherever they left their phylactery, with one hit point left. If the phylactery is on their person, they don't teleport anywhere, they just get to survive that last hit.
Living Saint
I don't have a full system for this; this is really just me sorta feeling out the idea. In Oblivion, there were a couple NPCs who were referred to as 'living saints' of one of the Divines; I've basically taken that brief mention and expanded greatly on it as an idea for a more 'good-aligned' idea for a transformation. Living Saints are individuals who have been chosen as champions for one of the Nine Divines. These people have been endowed with powers tied to the domain of the patron Divine, and over time their appearance may even change to reflect their status. As examples, a Living Saint of Akatosh might gain powers that manipulate time, and might gain some draconic physical features; a Living Saint of Kynareth may get powers tied to animals and plantlife, and get an appearance reminiscent of a spriggan. This might not work for all nine of the Divines, but it ought to work for at least a handful of them.
It also occurred to me that a similar system could be done with the Daedra in place of the Divines, with you taking on some of the features of the lesser daedra tied to your chosen Daedra Lord (Dremora for Dagon, Golden Saints for Sheogorath, and so on).
Becoming One
Becoming a Living Saint would be heavily quest-based. You would probably have to join the relevant god's church, and rise fairly high in it before you could become one. And unlike the other transformations, you can involuntarily lose your sainthood. To keep it, you have to periodically perform randomly-generated quests for the church, to continuously prove yourself worthy of your station.
Progression
This would likely also be quest-based. You do so many quests, and you gain more powers. Your progression would be reflected in both new powers, and in a changed appearance, as you take on more of the aspect of your god.
Powers
Unlike other transformations, there really isn't a downside to it, aside from the need to do a quest every now and then. Because of that, Living Saints probably shouldn't have as many powers. As such, they don't get any stat bonuses, just a small selection of powers tied to the god they chose.
Types
-Living Saint of Akatosh: gains abilities that manipulate the flow of time (haste, slowing projectiles, and eventually even freezing time). As they progress, they take on a slightly draconic appearance, reptilian eyes, patches of golden scales, and perhaps a pair of small draconic wings, that allow them to glide.
-Living Saint of Kynareth: Kynareth is the goddess of the air, but also seems to play some role as a nature goddess. Her Living Saints get abilities that fulfill both those roles, being able to strike an enemy with a blast of wind, create a featherfall effect, and can calm most animals to the point where they won't attack. Physically, the Living Saint takes on a nature-y appearance, reminiscent of a Spriggan.
-Living Saint of Arkay: the bane of the undead. They get the ability to turn, and later outright destroy most lesser undead, and eventually get the ability to let loose a burst of sunlight to decimate vampires. I don't currently have any ideas of how they might change physically
)
