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Race/Class interactions
On their description for races, Intrepid states that "In keeping with our theme of Consequence, and unlike other games, race won’t just be a matter of look, with relatively inconsequential abilities tacked on. Instead they integrate deeply into our class system, augmenting and changing the basic chassis provided by our eight core archetypes."
In what ways do you think or would you like to see race choices affect your class' abilities? Do you think this might help form a meta rather than provide flavor to the classes(e.g. would an elf mage simply be more powerful than a dwarf mage)? Would you like to see unique racial abilities or simply modifiers to already existing class skills?
I'd like to have racial bonuses be relevant to the game to allow for more character individuality besides the size and looks of my character model, but I don't want to see every mage an elf and every warrior an orc. It'll be difficult for me personally because I very much am the type who if I feel like I can achieve better results as a different race/class/skill tree, unless I'm super for or against the aesthetics then Im going to chose that option.
Let me know what your ideal race/class mix would be and how you hope they'll interact. I'm all in on Tulnar at the moment and am really hope for some night vision abilities and maybe blind effects on some skills. Maybe we can do brief transformations to bring out our bestial characteristics and empower certain skills.
Comments
As most will agree there isn't much info (enough) on this subject but from what I have found.
I would like to believe that races have a selection of racials, so for example. being human doesn't mean you will be good at everything rather that is a choice of many perks that humans have. say when you create your character you choose one of many, from "adaptability" to "coercion" however some will overlap with other races. I think it makes sense that multiple races share qualities, I mean, think about it for more that 1 second, we all share something another race could be good at.
In the spirit of your question, how they interact, I would love to see orcs be great warriors or smiths so on, but dwarves and humans can be great warriors and smiths too. maybe they have unique offshoots to their perks. different designs like in ESO.
seeing all mages as elves and all orcs as warriors seems unlikely while we have this primary/secondary class system. or rather it will take a few months after reaching end game to have the "meta" distinguished.
I believe they've stated that racial abilities will have their own progression track, like a class does, but to what extent it can augment your character beyond appearance - I am anxiously awaiting to find out.
As for how those abilities might augment your class abilities, that is the most intriguing aspect of all to me personally. I can't wait to hear more. I'm afraid to even speculate on it right now though, I'm afraid of being disappointed there - even if I don't have a lot of preconceived notions yet.
I think anything they do to the race above "you get new spell" or "a flip jump" will be a boon to the project. I understand the concern for min/max and such but with so many class combinations and if they make the abilities genuinely different and sexy enough then I don't think the superior race argument holds as much sway as it does in other games. Remember the lore and the story behind these races, starting areas, and appearances is going to be so different that playing the same class from a different race might feel very very different. I think that is quite awesome. Obviously they can't make some "I win button" on one race that overshadows all the others but everyone has played WoW on this team and knows how that turned out. They just need to make sure the lore is equally exciting and the visuals for each race are solid. Remember armor for one race looks drastically different from the same armor on another race. That has already been confirmed. So if they take that a step further with the abilities for the same class but different race, then we have the building blocks of a successful racial system.
I for one am really excited about armor looking different on different races. Think of a dwarf in full plate in LotR universe and then look at the high armor of the elves...more elegant, leen, less bulky or brute....something like that....so race becomes a matter of personal visual preference and style....an extension of ones' character and storyline. The orc mage, the underrealm cleric, the dwarven islander summoner....so unique they could be if they do this system right. I can't wait!
- It seems that subraces will have differentiations within themselves on attributes.
- The amount of class combinations also makes the min/max and meta concern a little overblown as there will be a lot of different ways to play different classes and even roles.