Alternates to Hit/Miss Defense for Dex-Based Characters in RPGs

Path of Exile does it, Diablo 2 does it, Torchlight does it, Last Epoch does it, Titan Quest does it, Grim Dawn doesn't do it but kinda but that's game weird so who cares. Basically; these games have miss/hit chances when you attack enemies and when enemies attack you. (And also Morrowind and pretty much all CRPGs and every roleplaying game which shares its DNA with the you-know-what dragon game.)

Characters with a lot of Dexterity; Rogues, Archers, Amazons, Tricksters, Assassins, and so on tend to primarily build their PASSIVE defense around increasing the chance to avoid hits. This makes sense both in universe (dodging attacks meaning you don't take any damage at all instead of just reducing them the way a heavily armored warrior might endure enemy attacks) and also acts as a mechanically different form of defense then simple damage mitigation in the form of armor. But there's a few issues with it. Mechanically, this defensive type is inherently less reliable then the other types as it relies on randomness. On top of this, other base systems heavily skew this system to being either overpowered or very weak, such as a minimum hit chance percentage. In a properly balanced action game this may not be an issue, but in your typical ARPG with a huge amount of character build, gear, enemy, and encounter variance this quickly falls apart. While running into a monster with a "attacks always hit" modifier should be scary for a Dex character regardless under this system; it uniquely screws over this character worse then a "purges your defensive auras" monster or a "penetrates your armor" monster since rarely do these characters have a secondary form of defense and there tends to be less secondary forms of mitigation to offset this. This makes the game for these characters much more like rocket-tag; you either kill everything in one hit or they kill you in one hit with no inbetween.

This contrasts to the other characters with their own stats and defensive schemes. In PoE, which is the one I'm most referencing in and building from; Strength based characters use Armor which reduce incoming damage by a percentage, Dexterity uses our Evasion rating described above, and Intelligence has energy shield, which simply acts as a second health bar that recharges quickly when not in combat. Hybrid classes that mix two primary attributes use both of their attribute's defenses but to a lesser extent then a pure class. ie; Strength/Dex equipment grants Armor and Evasion but less then a pure Armor value then a pure Str piece of equipment would in that slot. 

Side note: While writing this post I had a sudden sense of Deja Vu and then I remember I did write this exact same thing before. This really is the autistic hyper-fixation blog. Doesn't matter, I have new ideas to add to the pile. I won't go into detail about high Evasion characters should have it easier in dodge enemy attacks though since I covered it there and I still think it's a decent mechanical idea- for video games, of course. While I cover a lot of tabletop stuff this mechanics heavy stuff isn't as viable at the table in my opinion.

While mechanically making Dex-based evasion mechanics more interesting is the goal, passive defense is inevitable in this genre and also important for the stat and character building side. How do we make this system more interesting while keeping its theme and making it distinct from the other forms of defense, like Health tanking, armor, block, or magical shields?

Definition of Terms- Accuracy Ladder
In most games with these systems, attacks either miss or hit in a very binary system. It has its roots in tabletop gaming; which is represented on a d20 attack roll. Crits are usually a secondary calculation with its own statistic; though sometimes it can be a factor. Roughly you can think of it like a ladder of different outcomes based on the roll and possible results.

(Critical Fail -------- Miss ---- Hit -------- Critical Success)

Increasing your To-Hit, Attack, or Accuracy rating essentially weighs this table towards successful hits, where as increasing your Defense weighs enemy attacks towards missing. I should also mention in this example, "Critical Hit/Fail" doesn't necessarily mean it's enhanced in any way; just that it's the guaranteed hit or miss hard boiled into the system. Path of Exile in particular engages towards this basic system more, since crits require a "confirmation" hit roll behind the scenes to activate. This means having high Dexterity & Evasion makes crits harder to land on you (Defensive) and having high accuracy and crit chance makes your attacks hit more and are more likely to crit (Offensive). However, this basic ladder concept can be applied to more then a binary hit/miss system. A good example of this, and the exact mechanic that inspired this post, is the Pillars of Eternity accuracy vs defense ladder or Attack Resolution system.

(Miss - Graze - Hit - Critical Hit)

In Pillars; a Graze means an attack or spell deals -50% damage or has -50% reduced duration, and the opposite applies to a critical hit. This heavily incentivizes Accuracy as something to build for any character, including spellcasters. Narratively this makes sense; highly agile characters dodging attacks and magic spells at close range so they are only grazed by them and are less phased by them as a result. But having a form of mitigation that reduces the incoming negative effects is a bit of a problem for our schema; as this is very similar to what our potential concept of Armor (strength) characters already do. At this point if included in the game; the difference between a chance to negate 50% damage or having a set amount of damage reduction becomes a math puzzle and is far less interesting to me then three complete, different defensive mechanics. It's still a useful starting point for our ideas.

As you can see, this small addition of mechanical depth can change a lot about the binary pass-fail system. But what should we actually do with it?

Alternate Concept #0- Fumbles & Counterblows
Whenever you are attacked, the enemy has a chance to hit based on your dexterity score and evasion. Very high difference of scores unlock the worst result, in which case the enemy fumbles their attack.

(Fumble - Miss ------ Hit ------ Critical hit) 

Whenever an enemy fumbles an attack against the player character; they not only miss but also slow down considerably, and become vulnerable to a counter-attack. The next time the player hits the enemy within a short window they take increased damage. Ideally, this would also be animated and shown in the game, either with a whiff or stumble animation, to further sell the illusion the player-character dodged or tricked the enemy so much they lose their balance and open them up to a counter.

This concept allows for more depth and increased reward for Evasion-based builds. It also indirectly helps with avoiding damage by increasing damage output; you can kill enemies quicker to avoid them hitting you again. This concept also fits with the general theme of Dex-based character fantasies; duelists or rogues striking enemies down in a glass-cannon playstyle. However, this doesn't actually change the core mechanic being chance-based. There are other mechanics that could make it deterministic, such as the first enemy attack each enemy makes against you always misses or fumbles with an increased chance to fumble; not to mention abilities or skills that can force an enemy fumble/stun animation and so on.

The other issue with the fumble mechanic is that it gives the player-character a special mechanic or advantage the enemy doesn't have (or if you did implement it the other way, attacking certain enemies would be suicidal or just really annoying to deal with; much in the way enemies with really high evasion already are). This increases the feeling of disparity between the player and monsters in the game; a nice thing about the Hit/Miss/Crit scale concept is that the player and enemies are essentially playing by similar rules, making it a sliding scale of combat. But this isn't universally true and lots of games already don't really have enemies with random chance to crit on attack; so thinking of a fumble just as a "defensive crit" in the context of the miss/hit random chance system it's more reasonable to think only players get access to it. Obviously once again this is only counting the passive defense aspect of the game; special enemy attacks could always make a player fumble or enemies could enter a guarded stance which automatically parry a player attack is a given as a possible mechanic to spice up the combat.

Alternate Concept #1- Active Defense Enhancement
More detailed in the other rant post; essentially allowing Dexterity focused characters more mobility & active ability to dodge attacks or telegraphed AoE zones of damage is another form of damage mitigation that is unique and separate from other forms of damage reduction. However the issue with this is the implementation. If every point of Dexterity just gave you +1% faster move speed and you could use that to dodge attacks; it would quickly be totally out of control with the character either zipping around the map so fast or every other type of character being almost unplayable in terms of speed. But you can't make the investment too small; if a max level Archer or Rogue is only 10% faster then everyone else and that's all the benefit you got from Dexterity then it would feel like a massive investment for just a chance to dodge enemies more often. Of course, given how insanely powerful movement skills seem to be in every game, maybe it'd be a fair trade off, but for average players I think it'd feel weird. It also has to do with scaling and impact; for an entire game's worth of content, a system like this would only be able to increase whatever movement speed or animation speed by a tiny fraction of fraction; meaning your gear upgrades would do almost nothing as you move through the game. For standard Accuracy/Defense rating however it works well since these values can scale off each other; so small dex/evasion/attack bonuses early in Act 1 can feel impactful while still needing constant upgrades throughout the game. If these stats were just "+X% chance to dodge all attacks" they'd need to be highly constrained or limited by certain hard caps or else you'd literally be increasing your modifiers by 1% per item swap throughout the campaign by the end or can't even get this gear until way later. There's a reason why games don't really set these as passive stats you can just grind for with level.

Second? This isn't really what we're talking about. This is kinda supposed to be... passive mitigation, right? Like armor, shields, stuff like that? Plus rarely is movement speed or mobility tied to a single stat like this; it tends to be a part of an overarching character design and part of the "power budget" of a character. Like Archers already tend to have moves that either keep enemies at distance or let them get back, and being ranged means they naturally have to be weaker in melee to make them not just straight better then a melee character.

One semi-simple solution is to have this archetype have multiple levers. Perhaps every point of Dexterity does increase your movement speed, but only when using the rush skill or dodge skill every character, has, giving a slight advantage (like PoE's dodge roll), that way Dex characters aren't literally able to just freely avoid every single slow predictable enemy attack. But this is just one mechanic; you can also stack evasion to increase your block/stun recovery time, making you less likely to get stunlocked. While this mechanic is usually thematically reserved for warriors, having it for agility-type characters also makes sense. Then on top of that; you have resistance to status effects, but especially slows. ARPGs seem very hesitant to actually put slows on the characters unless from very specific enemies (curses) or elemental types that you're meant to protect yourself against (cold dmg). As such, in this hypothetical scenario Dexterity could do a little bit of all of these. Increasing your resistance to slows, decreasing the size of enemy slam attacks or reducing the amount of damage you take from them (treating you as farther from "the center" for damage calculation), increasing your general action, attack, move, and stun recovery speed; and maybe enhancing your other movement based skills like dodge rolls, sprints, dashes, and so on. Tying this all to one stat or ability score is probably not ideal for game progression but might be interesting from a design perspective. And ALL of this, just to mechanically equal a passive chance to avoid attacks because I don't like the RNG engine. Yikes.

Alternate Concept #2- Damage Threshold
The higher your "Defense" or "Evasion" rating is, you avoid all attacks that deal damage underneath that value. Any attack that does over that amount of damage, you take the full amount of damage. Effectively means weak attacks from minions or spam spells won't do anything to you and you just dodge them, but big powerful attacks from stronger monsters or AoE damage spells and slams still hurt you. Extremely simple.

Unfortunately, I don't see this one really working in practice. These types of games tend to have random damage numbers or alternate damage types (elements, magic v physical, pierce that ignores armor, etc.) and would come out to be very difficult to predict how well defended you really are. While slightly less random then Evasion rating, it would still feel very "random" in that you suddenly take big hits from enemies if enemies have randomized damage enough to slip past your DT. Secondly, becomes a huge balancing nightmare as if you can raise your DT too high enemies will just literally not be able to do anything to you, or you can still take one shots when enemies stack multiple modifiers or amplify damage curses or what have you. However, I do think it thematically fits these types of characters well; and fits with the theme of scoundrels, bards, and assassins being cocky and untouchable until they just get slapped for a million damage out of nowhere causing sudden panic and being less reliable or as tanky as an armor user who presumably has more normal damage mitigation. The argument could also be made that this actually fits armor thematically better; so perhaps switching roles (evasion reduces damage by a percent, armor has a DT value) might fit these defense classes more. Though maybe in a perfect world, PoE style the class that specializes in the Damage-Threshold-Evasion would actually be the Duelist or Str/Dex hybrid; but this category has gone on far enough.

While we're treating this damage type as an absolute value, it also doesn't have to be and could be roped in with another defensive layer or schema. Like the accuracy ladder from before;

(Miss/Bonus DT --- Hit v Damage Threshold --- Hit v Damage Reduction --- Pierce)

Your absolute threshold only applies to "good" defense rolls vs enemy attacks (equivalent to a accuracy/evasion miss), where as a smaller Damage Threshold is applied to normal attacks that "hit" you successfully or instead just reduce the damage by that flat amount (maybe these could be swapped effects?) Finally, the equivalent of an enemy crit with this system would just deal full damage regardless of how large your threshold is. However writing this out, I'm basically now realizing this is basically what hit chance vs evasion is but the "damage threshold" is just the defense vs attack rating lmao. All in all I don't like this one; the absolute nature of it means that partial investment is almost useless you make even super late game enemies have very weak attacks that can still fit under a character's normal damage threshold that doesn't specialize in evasion, and it doesn't stop the pass/fail nature of random hit chance just offloads it to a slightly more predictable outcome just based on how strong an enemy is or whatever. Still, I have to include it in this list.

Alternate Concept #3- Potential Damage & The Vulnerable State
Instead of taking the damage directly, you receive "potential" damage. This could still be tied into a Dexterity system, like a percentage of the damage you take becomes potential damage or a certain type of hit you can take (between a miss/hit/crit etc.) deals a portion of the damage immediately and the rest is deferred in this way. Think of this as a secondary form of delaying damage but instead of being over time and guaranteed its a big lump of damage you could take at some point in the future.

While this sounds a little strange at first given the fiction of the game I think it fits pretty well. It contextualizes the combat system as being slightly more story based or requiring suspension of disbelief as when the skeleton hits your character you don't actually take the damage from the hit, but instead you are put slightly off balance, or reeling, or being pushed back and starting to feel doubt essentially, to the point that the next hit may be the lethal one that ends your adventure. I also think this well fits the leather clad "dex fighter", archer, rogue, or other similar archetypes often associated with this defensive stat.

There are then a few possibilities on when this potential/stored damage can actually hit you then. Without a reliable means for this type of damage to actually hurt you, it'd essentially then be no different from damage reduction. I actually have a really fun idea on how to represent this too given the genre staples; represent it as a crack in your character's life orb that slowly creeps towards the top as you have more and more of this "stored" damage. When the amount of potential damage is equal to or greater then your life total; you enter a "vulnerable" state, where the next solid attack that hits you will kill you instantly (because you take all the potential damage at once). Of course if this could be any random generic skeleton sword slash attack it would be no different then eating a high damage crit with a chance-based dodge rating; which is why instead I would have it so regular monster attacks become potential with Dexterity or evasion scaling, but area of effect or dodgeable spell attacks can pop your potential damage. As an addition visual indicator, a DbD Terror Radius like heartbeat appears in the center of your character with a loud heartbeat sound, which acts as a useful indicator you need to back off an use a recovery ability or wait for your potential or stored damage to disappear.

Thematically, I like this potential form of damage a lot. It gives a more active form of defense and also fits with the general aesthetic of "Dex based" characters; like thieves or rogues who run in an bite off more then they can chew, and will suddenly get put in their place if they try to get too fancy with it. And it also allows you to stay in combat longer if you take the risk; perfect gimmick for a arrogant rogue type character like PoE's Shadow. I also think, contrary to first opinion, that it may actually be fine to have this NOT as a character-specific passive ability or active "smoke bomb disappear risky ninja defense skill", but as a game-wide mechanic. Why? Because characters who aren't stacking evasion/dex won't have this vulnerable state happen that often and will more likely die from normal damage; but when it rarely does happen it'd make for an interesting gameplay moment of the Warrior going into their defensive block stance to avoid taking a critical strike or a Sorcerer quickly teleporting away or using their bubble shield to avoid getting one-shot through their defenses. Certain enemies could also specialize in this kind of damage; like if you walk through spider webs or let invisible rogue enemies stay behind you too long and now have to deal with them over any other enemies to avoid getting one-shot. 

The issue with this concept is twofold though; firstly being something that may be useless for characters who don't build into it (if too low-Dex can't turn damage into potential damage then splashing a little evasion doesn't do anything for you; where as in PoE even a small amount of evasion will reduce some of the damage you take sometimes at least), or even worse it could actually be MORE beneficial for character who don't specialize in it then those who do. Like imagine if a heavily armored warrior gets enough evasion that 50% of the damage they take is deferred as potential damage; but they don't convert enough that they ever reach the "vulnerable state", meaning they essentially get a form of damage mitigation better then the evasion character who might reach multiple "vulnerable" points during a single combat encounter with a boss and therefore has more chances to actually die in the fight. Part of avoiding this is just how the vulnerability state is mechanically implemented; for example I'd have the vulnerability state only activate when you mitigate a hit large enough to actually chunk your hit points, which causes the heartbeat visual and audio warning, which then beats faster and louder if it grows to be capable of killing you in a single hit. So midway through a fight you might mitigate enough that a single hit will put you at half HP, which you have to worry about a bit, but full "balls to the wall one hit will kill you" moments are more rare and not something you get often with this form of damage resistance. The second problem I have with it, which is more nitpicky, is that this just the PoE Energy Shield in reverse. Instead of getting out of combat to recharge your temporary defensive shield, you are getting out of combat to avoid a large hit, but if this potential damage is deferred after a few seconds of safety then it's exactly the same as an ES build just more complex and harder to make a build around imo. With all this in mind; I'd keep this as a special character power or rare mechanic for certain mobs; like rare mobs with a "Heartseeker" modifier that lets them charge up a lethal crit on you if you fight them for a long time, or a method for an lifestealing vampire dexterity character to avoid death by entering a vulnerable state for 3 seconds whenever they reach 1 HP IF they can manage to lifeleech all their health back or w/e within the time limit. But this leads perfectly into the last concept...

Alternate Concept #4- Damage Deferral
The simplest, and by far my favorite of all alternate defensive stats for Hit/Miss systems is simply damage deferral. You still take some or all of the damage from the attack, but instead of taking it all at once, you take the damage over time. At first glance, this may seem really bad. Why would anyone use this? You still have to take the damage, right? Yes, but the rate of taking the damage is reduced significantly, which means you don't have to take it all at once. Instead of dying to a single bit hit or rapid series of hits, your health drops but you now have a safety net of time to use to recover your hit points, complete the combat encounter, or both.

Most of these kinds of games have some form of healing; like potions, flasks, lifesteal on attacks, life gain on kill, and so on. With damage deferral, you can simultaneously survive hits while also undoing the damage of those attacks through healing. Most of the time there is also a base health regeneration rate, which already helps greatly reduce the amount of damage you're taking, but this fully depends on the interval of time. This would have to be adjusted for the speed of the game; with slower games naturally having slower damage deferral timers, and fast paced games having much shorter ones. While this depends immensely on the theme of the game; Dexterity characters often have a lifesteal or life-gain-on-kill focus, or a focus on alchemy and self-healing. Path of Exile's claw weapons, which are a Dex/Int hybrid weapon, have a base ability of restoring life or mana on hit. Already the ability to defer damage would go hand in hand with this archetype; but it's even better with the Armor/Evasion/Energy Shield scheme as you could essentially be taking damage to life while regenerating or blocking damage with energy shield acting as an extra barrier. Same as all games with healing; healing over time with a shield is doubly effective since you are essentially restoring the health and preventing further health damage with the ablative effect of a barrier or bonus HP or whatnot.

Of course, the exact amount of damage deferred and how/when it is applied is important. If evasion is a pure damage deferral tool; then all attacks would be damage over time which for whatever reason rubs me the wrong way. Instead you could use the accuracy ladder, but instead with damage being deferred or immediate being the outcomes instead of attack roll. For example, you could still have misses, but a very high evasion role could mean enemies hit you with a slower damage over time effect (100% of the damage taken over 12 seconds) where as a medium hit or lower evasion score results in taking half the damage now, and the other half over a shorter time period. (like 50% and the rest of the damage over 4 seconds). In this protocol the player is less actively managing the damage deferral in the shorter term, instead more relying on the life steal/regen/other damage mitigation effects to sustain them. You could also apply a secondary reduction of damage to just the overall amount as a new modifier to items, character skills, or to other abilities. Like "75% of the damage taken is taken over 4 seconds" with whatever is leftover just being lost, but this is starting to get back to the realm of pure mitigation and damage reduction, which is more armor's thing. I think having a character with just a flat amount of damage mitigation built in to their evasion mechanic is fine though, since it helps a lower HP/armor character survive who doesn't have those sorts of magical/ranged defenses Wizards might get in our potential game.

(Miss - Graze (100% deferred) - Glance (50% deferred) - Hit - Critical)

I also believe this concept really thematic fits the Dexterity characters and their style of defense; they "dodge" attacks to make themselves bleed or avoid the damage for a short time, but still have to mitigate the damage as a high risk/reward kind of defensive mechanic, and adds a decent amount of active management to the system. If you see your life draining from hits, drink a health potion or use your defensive options; perhaps even moves that delay the damage even further, though once again this could be more of a character-building thing over an active part of the combat system.

However there are a few negatives to it. Firstly; it's much harder to tell exactly how dangerous or to differentiate monster types if they're all dealing delayed and mitigated damage. For example, in an RPG where you can go to high level areas early, your first warning sign to leave is usually coming up to an enemy that deals half your life in a single hit or something similar. Even if you manage to defeat the opponent or run away, this subtly tells the player they need to improve their gear or level up more. While rapidly losing all your health from a powerful enemy attack is similar, I don't think it has quite that punch. In the same vein, running into a pack of enemies in Diablo 2 and being chain smacked by several powerful melee enemies reminds the player to keep their sorceress or whatever back and reinforces the combat style; where as an Evasion character might wade into big groups of enemies not realizing they're "playing it wrong" since they're mitigating the damage and not seeing the immediate effect of their actions. These are just gut reactions though, and I think players could learn to adapt to this new system. Along with this; I do think a game where almost every enemy deals damage over time could be really annoying just from a player perspective, but hopefully this would mostly only matter to our evasion/dex player and they'd see it as a positive and a result of their hard work building their character.

Secondly; what to do with lethal damage over time damage? This is trickier then it seems. I can easily see a situation where a player has frustration over running into monsters, killing them easily, but taking a lot of deferred damage and dying right after because they don't have the healing or lifesteal to sustain their build. Or even worse, standing there awkwardly watching their health tick to zero as they realize they have nothing in their inventory or try to rush to open a town portal scroll and go back to town before they die (this could also be extremely fun however).

If you do something like make healing more effective for "overflow" damage to your life total or make it so healing always ticks before damage (ie; you can't die from damage over time while you have a healing effect active) then it might be too easy to cheese. However I feel like this might be completely fine, since presumably players have limited healing resources. The second solution to this is to just make the damage from mitigated hits nonlethal; which means you can't actually die from pure deferred damage. Similar to poison in a lot of games; this means it just lowers your survivability but won't actually kill you. I also like this solution from a possible action game perspective, as this would also fit the character fantasy of high risk high reward Dexterity rogue archetype we like; but once again this might be too easy to cheese encounters by just getting really high evasion and disengaging from packs and waiting for your deferred damage to go away or returning to town after every fight for a heal; which is certainly not what is intended. Still, I think this solution is a really interesting way to represent a Dex-build evasion type character in a game that doesn't have to rely on a static hit/miss chance.

Four Homebrew Conquerors

In celebration of the Path of Exile developers making this league have a mapping system that doesn't make me want to pull my hair out, let's make some homebrew Conquerors.

Don't know what a "Conqueror" is? Imagine your campaign creeping to an absurd power level. Your party kills Cthulhu. You retire that campaign and make the previous player characters into an even higher power level cosmic level threat. Those are the Conquerors.

[1] Menosa
Born in a slum in the great city of Sarn, this Maraketh girl was brought up by cruelty and sharpened by pain. Her youth was defined at the edge of a knife, both in the struggle to survive and in a literal sense, given the knife fights over food and water in those desperate ghettos.

Once she managed to escape into the Atlas of worlds, her anger and pain crystalized into a thrill of battle and violence. All around her- the worlds in the maps contort to her tastes; most commonly, great urban scenes or decay. Often beauty mixed with rot and corruption- stone temple with soiled sheets hanging between the pillars; converted to an open air brothel. An aquaduct where rushing rats have replaced the water. She is a natural born warrior, as all Maraketh are, but she isn't seeking a worthy foe or a honorable death- it is simply the joy of combat that drove her forward. Unlike many other Conquerors, she never had delusions of using the Atlas for anything else.

As with all Conquerors, extended time in the Atlas has made her personality more extreme and psychotic. Power grows exponentially here. Anyone who faces her feels their eyes sting with upturned sand, nose curl at the smell of sewage, and ears deafen at the sound of her banshee cry- if you can even manage to see her fly through the air before she cuts you down.

[2] The Horseman
Massive black horse with hooves that clip the earth like thunderbolts. On its back is a rider in dusty, dirty armor. The once huge man was probably Ezomyte, maybe even Karui, it's impossible to tell with his helmet. Once the horseman held his lance and rode his beast of war through the lands of the Atlas of Worlds seeking a place of peace, free from war and hatred and greed. But as time went on, his journeys went on and on, countless lands teaming with monsters and foes- hope faded from this once proud warrior. He cowers on the back of the saddle, still unbelievably strong and deadly, but he is no longer the master. The horse now decides where they will go.

The lands around the Atlas shift and bend to the horse's whims- endless flat plains in all directions. Off in the distance, you will sometimes see a lone riding beast- maybe a Rhoa or Rhex, maybe another horse- which scatter the moment you try to get close. This is an animal mind, and it creates an animal world around itself.

This Conqueror, as with all others, is incredibly powerful. The stomping of its hooves shake the ground and it snorts fire. It can run as fast as an avalanche for days at a time- maybe forever. The rider on the horse obediently raises his spear and channels the lightning into its strikes- mountain-puncturing lance tip obliterating anything that dare stand in the steed's way on its endless gallop. This "Conqueror" lacks the bloodthirst of the others- it does not fight simply for the thrill or lust for power, but instead as an animal does- it fights to kill anything that threatens it. If you startle it, it will run. If it is angered, then you shall be destroyed utterly.

[3] Nollux Perandus
Most Conquerors go into the Atlas of Worlds as humans- and they become something more then human. Godlike- divine in stature. Their mortal, human emotions and foibles exaggerated and deadly. Some are not quite so stable. He appears as a bloated corpse, levitating nearly weightless on the air. His chin is recessed into his neck, only a dark red hole where a long seeking tongue extends. His fingers are many-jointed and incredibly agile and delicate, like a butterflies wing. None of these corruptions and mutations have weakened him; as a Conqueror Nollux is as deadly as he is grotesque.

Fleeing the destruction of his entire family bloodline into the Atlas of Worlds; Nollux exemplifies his family's reputation for greed, egoism, and sloth. As he travelled the Atlas, he became more and more powerful, and his greed and lust for luxury grew more and more. The world around him shifts into more beautiful, palatial, and luxurious- cobblestone turns to marble tiles, stalactites grow into stone pillars, metals turn to golds and silvers. While once he scoured the Atlas for luxuries, his tastes have since narrowed and refined. Now- is only true thirst is for wine. Specifically, wine made from the creatures he slayed- his long tongue tasting their fine essences. Tougher creatures that cannot simply be turned into his drink will be locked in golden barrels until they are broken down- this is how Nollux absorbs his newest prey.

Nollux's influence on the Atlas and his own personal strength are such that even getting near him is incredibly dangerous. Everything near him becomes utterly beautiful on the outside, while becoming more and more corrupted within. His twisted form causes normal bodies to shiver or fall to the floor at the mere sight of him, and naturally the insides of those he observes begin to slosh with wine as they are converted. His primary weapon is a mighty hammer, on the face of which is an inlet mold of a perandus coin; so anything he strikes will soften and bear the mark of his family's riches on it.

[4] The Shaman
An Azmeri, or maybe an Oriathan. He goes about almost naked; wearing only a loincloth of beast skins and bone talismans. His body is lean and wiry, but inhumanly strong and agile; as common with primitive men and those lost in the Atlas of Worlds. This shaman connects to the natural world; the Vastiri Desert, the forests of Wraeclast, the snowy wastes of the Kalguurans- he channels to each of these into his magic and it is a fearsome sorcery indeed.

Clearly, his lust for power extended even further once he came to the Atlas. The world around him shifts to one of nature; vines creep and overtake stone and wooden fortifications alike. More and more pristine, spiritually deep, and mystically charged locations are what he seeks. He doesn't seem capable of speech anymore, only grunting as an animal as he casts enchantments. As the Conquerors warp the world around them; his power is one that makes language and runes to convey information fail and blur- less abstract thought is possible in one who views the world through preternatural eyes.

Beyond just the command of the elements, the shaman is deeply skilled in curses and breaking them; capable of cursing other beings to turn into animals or plants, a curse so strong it can remain potent outside the Atlas. Lesser beasts obey his commands, scouring the Atlas and making his territory of spiritual, holy ground free from the sickly hands of mankind.

[Class] Maraketh Warrior

The Maraketh are a human culture which lives in the harsh deserts of Vastiri and other wastelands. They are a matriarchal society where women are in charge- the Sekhema or leader of the people is always a woman. These are warrior women, relying on speed and agility to defeat their foes. They are often seen riding on Rhexs- large dinosaurish creatures, while using bows and spears as their martial art. While the society is ruled by women, men can still be expected to fight, and if they do adopt the traditions of the womenfolk of their society; preferring agility instead of brute strength. As such, this class can be played by both men and women.

If you dislike the direct Path of Exile reference here; just rename this class to "Wasteland Warrior" or something.

Maraketh Warrior
HD- d8
Max AC- 15 / Minimum Hit-Points- 5

To play a Maraketh Warrior, your Strength must be equal to or less than your Dexterity. You must also have a Constitution modifier of +0 or better. You can either make these class requirements you need to get when rolling a character, or grant bonuses for picking this class that grant these stats instead.

The Maraketh are more lightly armored then a traditional Fighter, but are just as skilled. Progress your To-Hit as a Fighter. You gain the damage bonus of a Fighter starting at 3rd level.

In addition to being a trained Fighter, you also gain the ability to survive in the desert. You do not need to make survival checks or worry about carrying water rations in hot and wasteland climates.

At 5th level, your maximum AC raises by +1.

At 6th level, you gain the special Maraketh fighting style known as Blood and Sand. These are supernatural battle stances which enhance your abilities. While at first these simply appear as a special combat stance, they are magical in nature and small grains of sand or droplets of blood can be seen swirling around the user in the midst of a bloody battle.

While within Sand stance, the first enemy to attack you in melee range each round must save or be blinded. They then must make their attack roll at the negative of being blind (usually disadvantage), and they are blinded until the next round. The number of enemies you automatically blind before they attack increases by +1 at levels 8 and 10.

While withing Blood stance, you maim enemies with powerful blows. After you've damaged an enemy with a weapon; they s must save if they try to move. On failure, they take 1d3 damage. They can avoid this by standing still for a round to hold their body together. This debuff effects every enemy you strike in melee. The damage for this ability increases to d4 at level 8 and d6 at level 10.

At 10th level, you become a Sekhema Guard and gain the supernatural ability of Wasteland. By blowing a handful of desert sands into an enemy's face, they are stunned and dazed for one round, unable to act. Within that one round, they experience several days of isolation in a barren wasteland, and must roll the number penalties for starvation and surviving in an inhospitable wilderness.  After the round is over, they will return just as physically drained as though they had survived that time for real; characters with a low Constitution score may simply be killed by this special move.

PoE- Essences

Sometimes, energies converge. These may be cosmic energies of fate or time, or they may be the result of wayward magic, or even extreme emotion. One could say that in every specific move of a dancer, there is a greater or lesser passion- in the same way, a single being at a single time may break a boundary of energetic convergence. In such circumstances, these beings have reached a certain breaking point and, for the safety of reality, they are trapped within crystal.

Beings trapped in essences are no longer normal. They may be violent monsters in the heat of a rage, or a monk in the midst of a harrowing realization. Regardless of the reason; they were trapped by the Gods for a REASON and releasing them from this prison is very dangerous.

Essences are released if you attempt to break them out, as the prison is unstable and liable to be broken. Simple pulling or cracking the crystal with a weapon is enough to free them. They can also accidentally be freed- if you are fighting in a room with monsters trapped in essences, there is a 1 in 6 chance somebody bumps into one enough to free it. If your hunting dog sniffs it, that's another 1 in 6 chance, etc.

Essence Monsters
For an essence monster(s), roll a random encounter. Then, describe the monster(s) frozen in place, either in the middle of an action or simply standing around. The players can clearly see the monsters, what they are and what they're armed with and so on. This gives the chance for the players to strategize with how they are going to fight these monsters.

When the monsters are released, they will spring to action. Once one of the essence monsters is broken free, all of them in the group will be busted out at the same moment. The essence monsters may be headed by an elite.

Roll on this table to determine what power the essence monsters have. Some essence monsters may have multiple powers for added challenge.

Essence Power Table - Roll 1d6
[1] Potence- These monsters are surrounded by a power aura, and are modified. Roll once on the Monster Modifiers table to determine what power they have collective gained as a result of being supercharged with energies. The head monster (or only monster if there is just one) also gains +1 HD, +1 to hit and ac, and increases the damage die of its attack(s) by one size larger.

[2] Arcane- This monster knows a random spell. The maximum level of spell it can know is equal to its HD as a Magic User of the same level could know; so no Essence Goblins knowing Disintegrate or anything like that. In the event of multiple monsters, only the head monster knows the spell, but can cast the spell once per each monster that was trapped in essence alongside it.

[3] Negative Energy- Swirling energies of chaos surround these beings. The first attack roll against them automatically fails and counts as a roll of 1. If applicable, the first casting of Turn Undead against them also automatically fails, but this will consume the aura and make them vulnerable. This power is on every monster trapped in essence, but the head monster is consumed by negative energy. On an attack roll of 20, the victim must save or have one level drained vs the head monster.

[4] Combat- These monsters have a magical power they can use in combat. Each monster has one copy of the power. Roll on the Azurite Monster Powers table.

[5] Hysteria- Every round, a random character (player character or hireling) will be overcome with a sensation, emotion, or have some chaotic shit happen. No matter how many monsters are trapped in essence, there is only one of these effects per round.

Hysteria Subtable- Roll 1d6

1. Rage. Character must save or attack the nearest living thing.
2. Sadness. Character starts crying. Disadvantage on ranged attack rolls from their tears.
   
3. Laughter. Character laughs; cannot cast spells or speak.
4. Spasm. Save or fall to the ground. Takes one round to get back on your feet.
5. Fear. Morale check or the character flees. If a PC, consider Charisma damage instead.
6. Darkness. Lowers the light level by one, or extinguishes one torch.
   

[6] Elemental- This monster is charged with elemental power. Becomes resistant to a single element, taking half damage from that element. It also deals +1 damage of that element with all attacks. If the creature was already resistant, make it immune. If it was already immune, it now heals if it takes damage of that element, and so on. You can roll the same element on this table multiple times.

Elemental Subtable- Roll 1d4

1. Fire
2. Ice
3. Lightning
4. Acid

Art @SkintickeT5 (reddit- couldn't find any other sites)

Essences as Loot
Once you have defeated an essence creature, they will drop an essence. This is the solidified power they were once charged with, in a small and mostly stable form. This energy "feels" roughly as the type of power the essence creature had, so if you hold it in your hand you can feel roughly the same emotion or intense waves of energetic power that was present in the creature.

Essences can be used to magically enchant items. Living creatures are too unstable; the power within these is what got the monsters trapped within crystal in the first place. But inanimate matter can be infused with the power in these essences.

Whenever you kill a head monster infused with an essence, it drops one essence. It looks like a cool glowing symbol thing that can be used on an item to give it magical powers. Only the head monster will drop an essence, but will drop multiple essences; one for each essence power the monster possessed.

Essences are still very chaotic. Whenever you apply an essence to an item, roll on the following table to see what happens. You can also sell them quite a bit to mad scientists and arcanists alike.

Essence Crafting Table-  Roll 1d8
[1] Cursed- The chaotic power is malign in nature. It becomes a 2 HD animated object, stats fitting the object, with the same essence-power that the monster had. Aggressive. If you want, you could make this Essence crafting roll a secret DM roll- make the item animate the moment when it is used for its intended purpose, but otherwise seems like it's magically enchanted by the essence.

[2-3] Minor Empowerment- Object is infused with magical energy and counts as a +1 magic item. Any damage or aging of the object is fixed.

[4-6] Essence Empowerment- The object gains a minor power, equivalent to the Essence. Using an elemental essence on a piece of armor will make it grant some resistance or protection from that element. If it is a Hysteria essence and it is put on a weapon, then grants a similar effect of Hysteria on a target it strikes, once per day. Etc.

[7-8] Greater Empowerment- As Essence Empowerment, but grants the full effect of the power to the wearer. The number of items you have enchanted with essences can count as the "number of monsters" for the description of essence powers above, but for your own abilities. Also, the enchanted item is counted as a +1 magic item.

Video Games- ARPG & Path of Exile Defensive Mechanics (and how to improve them)

So Path of Exile is one of the few games I've played where your build in regards to your defense is just as important, if not MORE important, then your actual offense. While the game isn't perfect, I think it has a really good set of core principles.

To summarize, this game has 3 basic stats which kind of guide all the characters- Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. All the character classes are either “pure stat” in one of the stats or are “mixed stats” and have two. So for example, there is the pure Strength Marauder, who is a generic big honorable warrior dude, and there is the Strength/Intelligence Templar, who is a strong priestly crusader who can also do magic stuff. Every class actually has the access to the same abilities (skill gems, which are socketed into equipment), the difference between classes is there starting location on the skill tree, some base stats, and their ascendancy class (subclass). The exception is the Scion who is all three stats at once and starts at the center of the passive tree and only has one ascendancy class, but it can kind of steal abilities from all the other classes.

Now if you're seeing a pattern here it very firmly falls into the sort of Fighter, Rogue, Mage sort of thing that I am fond of. I like it in video games but also in tabletop games too. But each one has a different method of avoiding damage that fits with the theme of each stat- these are the Defenses.

Strength is Armour- which reduces damage taken.

Dexterity is Evasion- which makes it harder for enemies to hit. Also reduces chance of taking critical strikes.

Intelligence is Energy Shield- a second life bar over the first which recharges quickly outside of combat, but cannot be restored with potions.

As you can see, this triangle system is really interesting and sets up a lot of nice ideas, and even different gameplay elements for each character. Armour reducing damage from Armor is totally fine, very basic- they just run up next to enemies and attack them up close. Since they can 'tank' the most hits it fits the character, but the problem here is they may lack depth. One way to solve this is because they ARE taking more damage more often even if it is highly reduced, having rapid use block or damage absorption abilities and make them rely on healing a bunch is a good way to pull this off. To be fair, these are actually things the Path of Exile developers are doing in recent years to make the game more deep, and I appreciate it and think it's good, though there is still a noticeable bit of carelessness that creeps into your play as a melee character. I'm fairly certain that the reason Cyclone is such a popular skill to build around league after league is because it just lets you turn your brain off- and trust me, I love Cyclone, but I don't really think that's the kind of play experience you want when you're playing an ARPG.

Evasive characters don't get hit often, but when they do it can be pretty dangerous- though it does reduce the chance of getting crit (enemies need to roll to hit you twice to confirm a crit I think). However, this means that all the damage you're taking is just a dice roll, there's little game play difference, which is the core of the issue here. I should also mention that some games, like the other PoE (Pillars of Eternity) has 'glancing blows' which I think is another good way to make Evasion more effective. Stagger the kinds of hits/damage/crits into different categories- like miss, glance, hit, crit, etc. and evasion gives you a better or worse chance to evade these.

Finally, Energy Shield fits perfectly for a Mage type character- staying far away from enemies and spamming spells. They need to run away to recharge their energy, and energy shield also absorbs damage from elemental attacks that the other defense types; they only block physical damage/attacks.

Now while D&D uses Armor as Damage Avoidance in that system, we already kind of have this kind of set up in a lot of D&D/OSR/DIY games already. Fighters have the best armor so (even without Damge Reduction armor) they take the least damage from direct combat hits. Rogues on the other hand aren't as good as combat but tend to have the best saves and have stealth, which means they avoid those types of dangers more often, and Magic-Users have spells that buff and protect themselves and others, which could be thought up as a type of defense that the others don't have. For example, using a wind spell to clear away toxic gas or turning undead to avoid level drain are defenses the other characters don't have access to at all.

Suggestions for Evasion in Video Games

This is a video game idea from someone who doesn't make video games, but I've thought about it a lot. Basically, my biggest complaint for how the above system works is too much randomness, especially for Evasive characters. Personally I'm a big fan of randomness, but it doesn't feel as good to build out an evasive character, especially that there are other ancillary systems like Dodge (which has nothing to do with evasion whatsoever) and Block (which is good, but anyone can do it and isn't really tied to anything in particular.) It also grants little defense from spells, though it may grant more defense against elemental damage since armor just absorbs physical, I think, so avoiding an elemental attack is a slight edge in defense here.

So here's my suggestion- Evasive characters are meant to be fast on their feet, right? Well PoE already kind of does this with most of the Dex characters having nodes or skills that are all about moving quickly already. So you're kind of expected to dodge more as an evasive character. This works, but it has nothing to do with the actual Evasion defense or how much evasion you build! So the idea is to combine the mechanics a bit; physically change the area of effect or damage radius of enemy attacks in the game. Now I know that may sound crazy, but consider that in most ARPGs or games with movement and combat; enemies have certain telegraphs or big damage circles that appear that you have to move out of. Stacking high levels of Evasion on your character could have the extra effect of literally shrinking these circles. It would be a client side sort of thing- you see a smaller circle then another character would against the same boss. This is already in the game to an extent, as maps or zones can be modified to have greater enemy Area of Effect, so it's not some pre-programmed value for every attack.

The biggest problem I see with this is two fold. The first is what happens in multiplayer. This is the beauty of a client-based online game like this with different screens; every player sees exactly what their character would, so enemy AoE are smaller for an evasive fast Ranger, because she knows how to skirt the edges of an enemy's blow to best avoid getting hurt, where as the notably more clumsy Witch could not. However, you might see another player in your game session walking into enemy Area of Effect circles and not taking damage when they explode- causing you to think the game is glitched or they are hacking! I have a solution for this; make it so if a player on your screen is in an AoE you can see, but is too small for them on their screen, little 'action lines' appear around their character model as they walk. Then, when the boss smashes down and they are in the AoE for an ally, but not for themselves, they won't take the damage- and you can play an extra client-side only animation of them rapidly dodging away, or like a cool flashy afterimage glow effect that makes it appear as though they just dodged the attack in the nick of time. I think this solution would be extremely cool in any ARPG, not just Path of Exile, as evasive characters would have different playstyles to everyone else- based more on dodging and weaving through enemies.

The second is cheesy shit, like switching to evasive gear right before or during an enemy's wind up animation, to help make it easier to avoid. I don't have a good solution for this- instead maybe the evasion mechanic doesn't actually shrink the circles, but just makes them do less damage farther away from the center. This makes evasion more important, though it doesn't directly solve the above issue. Still, I think this idea is unique and has merit, and is a unique kind of mechanic that only works and is uniquely suited to the video game genre as a whole.

 

Edit: Over five years after publishing this blogpost? I got a lot more to say about it which can be found here.

PoE- Life Force

Everybody knows that living things are animated by energy. Many call it chi or qi, or lifeforce, animus, or prana. It's not quite the same as numen, which is more of a projection of the spirit, it is instead what moves and gives inanimate matter its life.

However, lifeforce is not so banal as to be one entity. Life force in proper balance and alignment, such as with the four humors or four elements, is focused and pure. It is white life force, which is gathered and spent by all living things. It is the natural force of life.

But there is more then just this kind of life force; life force that is especially unbalanced or too powerful for its mortal form is out of control; those with too much life energy may start to have their own negative symptoms. The same applies to ecosystems where magic or living energy has been introduced too quickly or without thought; a mass battlefield where hundreds of great hereos have been killed, or when a great ageless ocean leviathan dies and sinks to the ocean floor. This glowing energy is consumed by creatures who grow tumors and mutations from the excess power; these creatures are unstable but very strong and very dangerous.

However, some alchemists and mad-botanists may use this power to further their own ends. By collecting and refining it, it can be used in various alchemical or magical processes. Though it is best used fresh, long dead or unborn forms of this life force can be found in ancient urns, trapped within the eggs or seeds of unhatched monsters, and extracted directly from infused landscapes. There are three kinds of Lifeforce energy.

Wild lifeforce is energy tied to the most basic categories of things, and is about shifting or hurtling those limitations. Wild animals infused with Wild lifeforce are more aggressive then normal; many prey animals become predatory when infused with even a small amount of Wild, becoming ecosystem destroyers. Creatures that gain a large amount of Wild lifeforce gain the ability to create or even breathe fire, and it is thought that dragons have a higher then average amount of this life energy within them for this reason.

Wild lifeforce is highly tied to creatures like bears, tigers, elk, and rats- these animals are all generalists and prolific, filled with life in its most primal form. However, any animal or being can be infused with Wild lifeforce. If you consume a charge of Wild energy, gain +1d6 temporary hit points, +2 to damage, and gain nigh-limitless stamina for that day.

Vivid lifeforce is energy tied to the most basic and powerful traits of animals and plants, and is all about enhancing those properties and enhancing the special unique traits of creatures and beings. Vivid infused animals tend to develop venom and lightning energies, and can survive in an ecosystem that is too harsh for most living things, hence making them even more specialized. Many fantasy monsters, such as basilisks or gorgons, are heavily biased towards high concentrations of Vivid lifeforce, as this could explain their unusual powers and specilization.

Vivid lifeforce is highly tied to vermin, insects, reptiles, and overly specialized creatures; such as cave beings or deep sea monsters. However, any animal or being can be infused with Vivid lifeforce. If you consume a charge of Vivid energy, gain +2 AC and to hit, and gain ½ immunity to a random elemental damage type for the rest of the day.

Primal lifeforce is energy closest tied to the rules of the universe and magical power of all the life forces. Many consider Primal to be ur-mana energy, and most beings that cast spells have slightly higher concentrations of primal lifeforce in their blood and stool; the connection is obvious, thought it is unsure if this is the cause of their magic use or a result of it. Creatuers associated with primal energies include unicorns, elementals, and almost all birds. Primal also has strong associations with age and timelessness; many people believe birds were the first animals to every fly to the land from heaven, since their wings let them skip the long walk down, but in their hubris they were punished to forever sing the praises of God, instead of being silent and stealthy like most fragile creatures do.

Primal lifeforce is highly tied to flying creatures and magical beasts. However, any animal or being can be infused with Primal lifeforce. If you consume a charge of Primal energy, regain the lowest available spell slot you have expended, gain Infravision up to 30 ft, and count as uncumbered for the rest of the day as long as you do not try to carry over your encumbrance limit.

Metamorph Creation

You get a Metamorph when you fuck up making a Chimera.

The different body parts reject each other. Instead of forming one cohesive crossbreed, they form a black ooze which shape shifts between different forms. The Metamorph is uncomfortable in all of its bodies, switching between them and its abilities at will- it can be a slime, a dog, a man with weapon created from ooze, all within a few moments of each other. The Metamorph is more like a violent, bloodthirsty shapeshifter then a living creature; and it only “lives” for a few hours once created as its lack of stability causes its death.

To create a Metamorph on purpose requires a specific process, and several body parts and samples from multiple creatures. They are then placed in a large cylinder filled with several dangerous and very expensive alchemical agents; such as Thaumetic Sulphite and Voltaxic Sulphite, and heated to cause a powerful reaction. Because of the fact that Metamorphs lash out at every living thing they see and will always attempt to kill their makers; the concept of creating one except as a trap seems daft. Even in the short period that it is alive, especially during its gestation process in the tube, the Metamorph can create several rare or potent thaumaturgical compounds and alchemical reagents- things that cannot be created in a test tube by require a living belly to stew. Imagine combining the potency of a dragon's body with the healing properties of a unicorn- but you will have to content with a powerful foe to take it.

Each part of the metamorph, parts of the living things put into its vial, determine its capabilities. Note that this isn't a realistic depiction of a chimera; behaviors aren't just altered by the brains, it is all organs. This is magical thinking that powers our fantasy world. The metamorph with a liver of a pig, the stomach of a sheep, and heart of a lion will sweat and smell like a pig, want to eat grass, and have a warriors heart of a lion, and so on. If any primary body part is mixed, use the one that is most prevalent or comes from the creature with the most HD, which is dominant over the other body parts.

Metamorph Generator Tables

All Metamorphs start with 8 HD, 14 AC, and 14 morale. It lives for 4+1d4 Hours.

The Vitae is the primary liquid biomass placed in the contained.

Hot Blood, from mammals and birds, adds +2 to hit

Cold Blood, such as from reptiles, add +2 AC

Insect Ichor adds +2 to saves and poison to its attack

Plant Sap adds +1 HD to the Metamorph

Black Blood of a monster or living-dead make it immune to all 1^st level spells.

Gel or Slime Ooze make the creature immune to acid and gain an extra 1d4 acid attack.

The Organs determine the Metamorph's behaviors and attacks.

Predator Organs make the morph attack with a deadly pounce; dealing 2d8 damage on a hit.

Prey Organs make the metamorph attack in self defensive desperation; two attacks at 2d4 on a hit.

Organs of Intelligent creatures make the metamorph attack with precision. Deals 2d6 with +3 to hit.

Abomination organs makes the metamorph attack with a random elemental blast at 2d10, but -2 to hit as it is blasted out of an unidentifiable orifice.

The Structural body parts put into place changes the Metamorph's form and speed.

Bones grant the Metamorph more speed and weight. Always goes first.

Shells of insects or crustaceans give the metamorph average speed, but +2 AC

Fibrous structures such as from jellyfish or only leather/skin placed within; the Metamorph goes at a normal speed but can squeeze its body through any gap.

Dried Wood makes the Metamorph more plant like. Rooted in place, adds +2 HD, goes last in each combat round. No weakness to fire; it's made of goo and ichor.

The Eyes determine the Metamorph senses and magic.

Bird's Eyes grant incredible vision. +2 to hit and ranged attacks; goo bow or evil spit.

Beast Eyes grant +1 morale and the Metamorph can track through brush.

Fish Eyes are unblinking, lidless. Metamorph cannot be surprised. Casts Hold Person once p round.

Man's Eyes are full of desire. Can read and knows two random 1^st level spells, casts them once p day.

Monster Eyes glow in the dark. Will lead party members into traps or other monster ambushes.

Why Make these things at All? - Roll 1d4

[1] Metamorph's ooze can be sieved and boiled to produce 2d10+10 healing potions.

[2] Chemical processes within the Metamorph create 2d6 random gemstones as waste products.

[3] Studying the body of the creature unlocks secret knowledge of life. What makes you, you?

[4] Metamorph is born in a “dormant” state. First sample of blood or hair given to it; it will hunt and kill whoever the sample belongs to.

PoE Item Skins as Magic Items

[1] Arc of Defiance – Magic Bow+1

Ego- 4

Stats- 1d6+1 Damage OR 1d4 “Death” damage

The Arc of Defiance is a shortbow. It's material is a strange, knobbed wood from a far off land, and it is steeped in the energy of deathly magic and malevolence, but also freedom. On a hit, the bow deals either 1d6+1 normal damage with standard arrows OR deals 1d4 Deathly damage when firing specially prepared bone arrows. The deathly damage drains a single level or HD for every 4 points of damage it deals in combat.

The Arc has a significant ego. Those who wield the bow without enough ego are not taught the secrets of creating the bone arrows (which are shown to the owner in dark dreams), and every season of owning the bow they must save or have a level drained. Those who are drained lose weight, become gaunt and skeletal, and prefer dark places and reject any authority for their own barbarism. The ego effects of this weapon are subtle, meaning the bow has a reputation of slowly draining the life out of lesser warriors who cannot master it.

[2] Blood Guard Axe – Magic Axe +2

Ego- 3

Stats- 1d6+2 Damage

This axe's to-hit and damage bonus only apply with the blade covered in blood. You can cut yourself and deal 1d2 damage to activate it, or you can spill the blood of an enemy on your first successful hit in the combat. Blood only stays fresh long enough for a single combat; consider the maximum limit to be one exploration turn until the blood turns cold.

The Blood Guard Axe has the magical ability to control blood. By giving up your combat round, you can swing and motion with the axe to telekinetically control blood, similar to a magical wand. The blood can flow, mix, shoot out in a geyser, form into a flying orb and explode, boil, enter containers, spill and so on. This only applies to liquid blood that has been spilled from a living being, and only fresh blood works. Blood is not very dangerous on its own unless it is diseased or used in combination with another power; the maximum damage you can deal with this power is 1 if you use it cleverly enough to harm someone with it.

The Blood Guard Axe has a moderate ego. Those without the proper ego score are consumed with bloodlust once blood has been spilled on the blade, they must make a saving throw to avoid attacking the nearest living creature with blood. They will also ignore any creature without blood, include enemies monsters that are attacking them, giving those creatures advantage on attacks against the blood guard axe wielder. The ego score of this weapon can also be satisfied by fully bathing this axe in fresh blood for a whole day, upon which it will allow anyone to use it for a week as its thirst has finally been quenched, even if only temporarily.

[3] Devourer Maul – Magic Two-Handed Mace +2

Ego- 2

Stats- 1d10+2 Damage

This powerful weapon has the face of an insatiable beast. Whenever the maul deals a maximum damage roll against a foe of human size or less, it can “eat” them. The target must make a saving throw, and on a failure is swallowed. The maul has a pocket dimension where what it eats goes, an otherworldly space where the air itself is acidic and quickly digests anything within, dealing 1d6 acid damage per round. Being and objects immune to acid take half damage instead; the otherworldly digestion breaks down material in a much more insidious way.

Once someone is consumed by the maul, the only hope for escape is an outside force. The maul can be made to “burp up” anything within if slapped on the back of the head as though burping a baby, which has a 1 in 3 chance to work, and obviously requires you to get your hands on the maul from whoever is weilding it. The other method is to make the maul “eat” a large amount of foul material, such as making several attack rolls against putrid zombies or sticking the “face” of the maul under sewer water for several rounds. Upon vomitting, everything the maul has eaten that hasn't been totally digested.

Additionally, upon a successful killing blow, the devourer maul can “eat” the slain foe, which quickly consumes the corpse in its pocket dimension over the course of 3 combat rounds, making easy revival impossible.

The Maul has a weak ego, as all it cares about is consuming its prey. Anyone who cannot master the maul leaves themselves open on a failed attack roll from being unable to handle its hefty, unbalanced weight; giving them -2 AC on a miss or losing their initiative.

[4] Ivory Steel – Magic Shfting Weapon +1

Ego- 6

Stats- 1d4+1 to 1d8+1 Damage

Without a true form, this weapon can transform into whatever the wielder wishes. While it usually defaults to the form of a one handed sword when unclaimed, the Fighter who claims this steel can make it fold, bend, twist, and morph into whatever basic weapon they want. It can change fast enough that you can make an attack with it each round, switching forms before you attack to adapt to the situation. The weapon also gains the damage die of whatever size of weapon you change it into, so forming it into a dagger will deal 1d4+1 damage, swords and spears go to 1d6+1 and it can go up to a 1d8+1 damage in the form of a huge battleaxe, sledgehammer, or greatsword.

As with all magic weapons, the Ivory Steel has a resistance to being destroyed by magic. But this particular weapon takes it a step further. When struck with a magical spell to destroy the blade, the caster of the spell must make a saving throw. On a failure, the ivory energy around this metal flies at the magic user, and binds around their hands, making them unable to cast spells for 1d4 combat rounds. During this time, the user of the weapon cannot make it shift into new forms, but can freely call back the ivory energy if they spent their combat round waving the blade to beckon the energy's return.

With a powerful ego, the Ivory Steel prevents lesser warriors from using it. Those who attempt to use it find that their damage is rolled twice and the lowest it taken, the blade shifting into dull or lightweight, hollow heads for clubs and maces right before impact. If an unworthy warrior continues to try and use it, the weapon will shift into ivory chains, as unbreakable as the sword itself, clamping around their hands and binding them. This will continue until a master thief picks the lock, or until a proper warrior takes the chains as a weapon for himself.

[5] Thundering-Tempest Shield – Magic Shield +2

Ego- 3 / Special

Stats- Add +2 AC when equipped. Shield bash deals 1d6 Shock damage.

This unique shield is made of thaumaturgical workings and technology, and as such it has no drive or ego of its own and can be used by anyone, despite its magical powers. However, those who do not have the Ego of a 3^rd level Fighter will still be harmed by this weapon if they do not possess at least +1 Strength and +1 Intelligence in modifiers or better. This is because the shield is quite heavy and without the smarts to use its powers properly it is just as likely to discharge on the user as a foe.

This shield acts as a normal enhanced shield, granting +2 AC. It can also bash targets and releases an electrical blast on them, dealing 1d6 Shock damage, and can be used as a weapon in this way. However it has another ability- when the holder of the shield is struck by an electric spell or breath attack, the damage is halved and the shield becomes charged up. While charged, the shield can release the damage stored (½ the original source of damage) as a cone blast of lightning in front of the shield user. Targets wearing heavy metal armor do not get a save to avoid this damage, but those without too much conductive material do get a save to avoid it.

[6] Siren's Spear – Magic Spear +1

Ego- 7

Stats- 1d6+1 Damage. Water blast at 1d3.

Empowered with water magic, the rushing of the waves, and the song of a siren this spear has enchanted many both to wield it and to be killed by it. With its impressive Ego, this weapon drives those unworthy who claim it to their doom like the song of a siren. Anyone without the necessary Ego score to wield this weapon will see phantoms of beautiful women, piles of treasure, potions of immortality or anything else they desire just out of reach. If they try to follow this phantom it will lead to their death by luring them over a cliff or a trap, or into the arms of waiting monsters. As such, the spear has a reputation to be cursed by those unworthy to use it.

For those who can use the spear's power however, it is quite a potent magical item. Firstly, the prongs on the end of the weapon can be struck to create wonderful music that entices people to follow it, requiring a saving throw or morale check to resist. This spell is broken if the holder of the spear attacks them, or if they know who the wielder is and refuse to follow. Secondly, the spear can be thrust to create a blast of magical water which deals 1d3 damage on a successful ranged to-hit roll. This power is technically unlimited, but deals no damage against aquatic creatures. Finally, those who wield the spear can once per day mask their appearance in a glamour. The glamour can make them appear as a different person, a different race, armored or unarmored, rich or poor, and so on just from the disguise. Attacking or casting any kind of spell will break the enchantment early, otherwise it lasts up to an hour.

[7] Hell Arrows – Magic Arrows +3

Ego- 5

Stats- Use bow damage +3 Fire Damage.

Flaming Arrows forged in the underworld. Beyond both being enchanted with fire magic, they are also steeped in demonic energies. The bolts hiss and scream when they are released. Since these are arrows, they use the stats of the bow or crossbow an add an additional damage modifier for the attack. While normally used with bows, there are some bolt variants for crossbow legions of hell's armies as well.

Hell Arrows have a moderately strong Ego. When fired by an unworthy warrior, the arrows may hang in the air instead and demand that they commit a minor sin, or promise to commit one in exchange for striking the foe of the archer. Additionally; any Clerics can attempt to Turn Evil on these arrows as they fly, which will deflect them away. Treat the HD of the Arrows as their Ego for this calculation.

[8] Bladed Mind – Magic Helmet/Weapons +2

Ego- 9

Stats- Two Blade Projections at 1d6+2, Defense-Spike Projections at 1d4+2

This incredibly powerful weapon is not a weapon at all; it appears as a strange helmet. This magical item is heavily cursed. By placing it on your head, it deals 1d50 damage to you. If this does not kill you, keep track of the number. The weapon deals that amount again times two if you take the helmet off. This means that characters can easily become trapped inside the helmet, as the damage they would take to remove it would kill them.

The Ego score of this weapon is intense. Anyone without a strong enough ego must make a saving throw to attempt to put the helmet on. If an unwise person places it on their head, they take 1d100 damage upon donning the helmet and will instantly die if they attempt to take it off. They still take double this damage if they manage to grow their ego to accommodate this weapon (ie; they level up with the helmet on), so it is still easily possible to get trapped even if they don't die from donning it. Those who wear the helmet without the proper Ego score must also make a saving throw whenever they attempt to use it, else they take 1d4+2 from the defense spike stabbing themselves. Bladed-Mind wearers without at least 9 Ego don't last long.

The Bladed Mind is quite powerful. It allows the user to project daggers or sword blades from thin air, appearing out of nothing to stab and slash at their foes. It grants two attacks a round as blade projections, and the user can still use whatever weapons they wish in their hands, but the helmet does obscure their vision. Instead, they see through the steel around them. Anyone attempting to grapple the wearer of the helmet must make a saving throw or be rebuked by a Defense-Spike Projection, which erupts from the wearer's body and deals 1 damage to the wearer anyway. This defense spike also works on those that are attempting to use mind effecting magic or telekinetically remove the helmet from its wearer; the spike comes from the nearest solid object and stabs them in the foot or side, dealing its normal 1d4+2 damage.