Voidstalking - Amendments

[King_Kunuk 3022]

 

Voidstalking - Amendments

 

I been meaning to put this out here for a long while, but I've been procrastinating about it. But the time has come for the deserved nerf hammer to come to voidstalking. Originally, a long, long time ago when the feat came out- it used to be a closed knowledge feat, requiring two voidstalkers, or another voidstalker and an obelisk to grant it to a mage. But after the fall of ando alur in almaris, a lot of the voidstalkers went inactive the feat was made open to the public for any void mage to get. While I do enjoy and love the flavor of voidstalking. This post is an attempt to bring it more inline with the relative power it should have as an open feat. All new additions or changes in this post will be HIGHLIGHTED AS BOLD TEXT and coloured green, with parts that have been removed will have a strikethrough put through them.

 

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Magic Explanation

 

Under the ‘summary’ section 

 

Voidstalking is the more permanent, objective “spillage” of The Void onto the physical world, using it’s host as a vessel to spread it’s corruption.

Voidstalking requires 4 slots dedicated to Voidal Magic to learn. One’s Voidstalking will go dormant if they lose knowledge or practice of Voidal Arts.

Voidstalking is self-taught, initiated through ritual.

Voidstalking is a Feat and one would make an app for so. This app requires aiding-magi to place their approval on the FA.

Voidstalking is mutually exclusive with other Voidal Feats (Eminence, Scion, or Artificery)

Augmented knowledge and understanding of the void’s workings allows Voidstalkers to perform rituals and maintain a deeper connection and knowledge to the void than any other.

 

Spoiler

These changes where made due to voidstalking being such a burden upon a mortal's soul that it consumes all possible mana that could be allocated to other slots. This change mainly exists to prevent voidstalking from magic stacking with most other magics. A singular slot however remains as to allow a voidstalker to still tap into other magics, such as blood magic and seer. If this amendment is passed, voidstalkers will need to adjust there active MA's accordingly.

 

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Living Tether

Under ‘Redlines’

 

-A Voidstalker always gives the effects listed above.

-A Voidstalker would count for a -4 modifier when creating Arcanium.

-Abjuration, Auric Oil, or any form of anti-mana based creations in any form would bring incredible harm to a Voidstalker, akin to a searing-hot blade passing fully through the spot struck. This stuns them for [1] whole emote and disconnects them from the Void if they are connected. For the purposes of Lore Interaction, any mana consumption caused under this effect is considered to be T3 for how effective it is

-Just because a Voidstalker faces no casting fatigue, does not mean they are not still greatly physically hindered or exhaustible. 

-Despite a lack of casting fatigue, overexerting onesself would deeply harm and potentially even destroy their form- uncertain of their limits, a Voidstalker is highly prone to killing ones self by overexerting their own body's capability by voidal corruption. This is up to the Voidstalker to roleplay and interpret, and the ST to rule on legality should it come to question.

 

Spoiler

One of the most broken things within Voidstalking was how they acted as a walking mana obelisk- which as written in obelisk lore gave them double the mana the normal voidmage would have. While I think this is fine for them to have more mana; being summed up to have infinite casts seemed a bit loony for an open feat. Thus, a new redline has been added which 'halves' the effectiveness of how there mana pools are fortified- which in essenace gives them a 50% increased mana pool, rather then a flat double to the pool.

 

In addition- to represent how they are walking 'lesser' obelisks, there arcanium modifier has been changed from a -4 to a -2. This is to try and encourage voidstalkers to gather with other mages, rather then them just sitting next to a mana obelisk and enjoy a -8 modifier, which basically gave them a solid 40% change every arcanium forging attempt

 

Slight edit here: I went and did a relook at arcanium lore, and found that Voidstalkers and Obelisks DO NOT STACK- yet such was not clarified on Voidstalker lore itself. Thus this edit has been modified to reflect that (a huge oversight on my part.)

 

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Arcane Replenishment

Under ‘Redlines’ and Hidden Content

 

- You may only supply for only one mage at a time, as the Voidstalker does not have the ability to divide the supply among a group.

- Due to the Voidal horror's curse, loud noises cannot disconnect them as the curse's voice overlaps the loud noise that may lose a mage's connection usually. However, being knocked out or physically affected during combat will lose the utilization of the mana supply, however this may only be for T3 Voidstalkers who underwent the ascension ritual and only applies to the mage they are supplying the mana for. This effect lasts for as many emotes as it takes for the voidstalker to supply the mana.

- A Voidstalker may still be able to cast their own spells once using up all slots, however their strength and speed will be much lower than it is normally as some measure of fatigue will set in, reducing them to [3] block movement [6 when sprinting] until the OOC cooldown ends., making them somewhat vulnerable for the OOC Cooldown as it takes from their own mana, and would mana fatigue them, just not physically.

- A Voidstalker is completely unable to move or react to anything during the casting time, however they may cancel it if they see threat. 

- A Voidstalker may only supply their mana from a 10-15 radius maximum

-A Voidstalker draws upon their ability as a walking mana anchor, in essence supplying mana for the spell that is being casted.

 

Spoiler

This change comes to more so clarify how much mana a voidstalker can supply to another mage during combat. One, two, and Three 'slots' when voidmagic doesn't use a slot system for mana cap made the amount a voidstalker can supply per combat encounter really vauge. This change however helps clarify this. In addition, the ability sees a minor buff (if it was or was not implied) in which the voidstalker doesn't directly draw upon there own mana pool. This was mainly done due to the nerf to 'living tether', and to make sure this ability doesn't end up dead in the water as wasted text on the magic page.

 

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Wither and Invasion

Both of these spells gain the following redlines

 

(Invasion Only)- when a voidstalker casts 'invasion', the target of the spell will begin to hear harmless, alien whispers. In addition, violent energies in the colour of the voidstalker's aura begin to collect around there hands or arcane focus as though conjuring some hazy cloud as well as appearing above or around the head of their target.

(Wither only)- when casting this spell, violent arcane energies in the colour of the voidstalker's aura will begin to collect around there hands or arcane focus, appearing akin to electric energies as well as the individual it is being casted upon.

Spoiler

Everyone's least favorite spells make a co-star appearance here. Since they are only gaining a few additional redlines, I didn't think it was necessary  to copy paste there entire mechanics. Instead in summary, casting these spells counts as both a T5 in terms of mana use on the voidstalker. An additional redline was made to allow fellow voidmages to actually counter or a way to assist others who are fighting a voidstalker by allowing warding shields to block these two spells, and also open up a form of counterplay for them. Finally, a set range has been added to both of these spells to make sure that someone doesn't get withered or invaded from 40 blocks away.

 

The next modifications to each spell are to give a solid 'tell' for each casting, as one was not mentioned in the description of each spell. This is so that a voidstalker cannot emote 'stares at you' for 3 emotes, and allows a character who might be familiar with fighting voidstalkers to prepare for what is coming there way. In addition, a target can only be invaded once per combat and not allowing a second voidstalker to 'chain' there spells together means that they are mostly one off, but extremely powerful abilities that can turn the tide of a battle if used correctly.

 

 

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I hope that these changes will be agreed upon by many. Voidstalking is a very atrocious and overpowered magic that has some rather vague redlines at times. By bringing it more in line with other voidal feats- I hope that it won't become an 'auto pick', but still be a fun way to express how one's persona chooses to delve into the void. Next on my 'to-do' list is to give voidal scion a good examination, and then look into eminency and artificery (the former to make sure it holds up in terms of 'balance' compared to other feats, and the latter because it is vastly underwhelming in what it does compared to all the other feats). Expect these... in a month or so (or when I feel like actively self motivating myself to do it)

Spoiler

Gaslighting is fun

 

[Wizry 1218]

he cooked me

[sam33497 7356]

not reading all that

[Cheese 8881]

[xo31 3979]

2 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

While a Void Mage requires 3 slots dedicated to voidal magics to learn voidstalking, their 4th slot is automatically assigned to void magics as though they have been taken up by an appropriate MA- even if they do not have a 4th slot filled by a void magic at the time of making the feat.

 

this is pretty fair, ig it sort of makes sense. you could also just put 'requires 4 slots dedicated to voidal magics.' still, why cant a voidstalker be a bard or a housemage? why would vaasek not allow a voidstalker to be a seer?

 

 

2 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

-Abjuration, Auric Oil, or any form of anti-mana based creations in any form would bring incredible harm to a Voidstalker, akin to a searing-hot blade passing fully through the spot struck. This stuns them for [1] whole emote and disconnects them from the Void if they are connected. For the purposes of Lore Interaction, any mana consumption caused under this effect is considered to be T3 for how effective it is

 

i kind of like this and it feels like it shouldve been this way anyway. 

 

2 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

-Due to being a walking mana anchor, a voidstalker’s mana-pool gains a lesser fortified property as though they were near a Mana Obelisk. This generally translates to them having 50% more mana then the average mage. This does NOT double there mana pool outright.

 

this is a pointless nerf. double mana pool is not as broken as you make it seem, especially considering the ALREADY PRESENT downsides of voidstalking. a voidstalker is insanely weak, these mfs can barely even pick up swords, it feels fair to give them double the mana, especially when people barely even USE all of the double mana.

 

 

2 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

Tier One: You may only supply a mage for one T3's spells worth of mana per combat. (One Slot per combat available).

Tier Two: You may supply a mage for one T4's spells worth of mana spells per combat. (Or 2 T3 spells)

Tier Three: You may supply a mage for one T5's spells worth of mana per combat.  (Or 2 T4 spells, or 4 T3 spells.) They also have the advantage of using the voidal horror's whispering in order to block them from any external voices that may lose their connection, however this is only made if the voidstalker underwent the ascension ritual.

 

this is just way too complicated, it was fine how it was. only useful if the VS is with other mages, not to mention the voidstalker cannot cast during this time.

 

 

2 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

- A Voidstalker may still be able to cast their own spells once using up all slots, however their strength and speed will be much lower than it is normally as some measure of fatigue will set in, reducing them to [3] block movement [6 when sprinting] until the OOC cooldown ends., making them somewhat vulnerable for the OOC Cooldown as it takes from their own mana, and would mana fatigue them, just not physically.

 

it basically already says that, mechanicalizing more abilities is cringe, just let people rp it as it says.

 

voidstalking doesnt need a nerf or amendments. it needs clarifications. 

 

in non-powergamed crp, a voidstalker can and will lose to a scion, and an eminent, and a lot of other things.

 

[RedResult 573]

void stalking needs a nerf

 

[Pancho 4197]

Nerf spotted, nerf supported. Big ups

[MeteorDragon 3441]

5 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

-A Voidstalker would count for a -4 modifier when creating Arcanium if no Mana Obelisk is nearby, Otherwise, the voidstalker applies a -3 modifier as if they where a normal mage

 

I get what you might be looking at, but I think you're reading it wrong. Just for sake of looking at things, I'll past the redline I think you're looking at here:
-A Structural (Non voidal mage -3) modifier may only be applied once. This means, regardless of how many Voidstalkers or Obelisks are present, each only count toward the modifier once. 
This is just saying that any non-voidal mage modifier can only be applied once. So you could apply an Obelisk and Voidstalker at the same time. However, you couldn't apply 2 Voidstalkers or 2 Obelisks at the same time. Any more voidstalkers than the first would just count as a -3. I don't believe it means that if you have one you can't have the other

 

5 hours ago, King_Kunuk said:

-Due to being a walking mana anchor, a voidstalker’s mana-pool gains a lesser fortified property as though they were near a Mana Obelisk. This generally translates to them having 50% more mana then the average mage. This does NOT double there mana pool outright.

 

 

This should probably read like this redline does:
-A Mana Obelisk, at best, fortifies the manapool of mages within it’s range, reducing their voidal exhaustion by half.

The difference is that it makes their spells cost half rather than them having 1.5x the mana pool. I don't think voidsalkers were meant to have 2x mana pools. Squak recently talked about it in the Story Discord sharing that they're meant to have the effect of Obelisks, which is the half costed spells

 

Personally, I don't think either of these two things need to be changed. You already technically have to work with someone if you're doing Arcanium forging, everyone forgets you need a designated Smith. For the mana pool thing, I think it's fine since it's the staple thing of Voidstalkers.

For Wither/Invasion, I don't think it's needed to have the line about allowing multiple Voidstalkers to cast wither/invasion on people in combat. I think the rule Wither has currently could be transferred to Invasion though instead where a Voidstalker can only Wither the same person once per combat. I can't remember if that has already been given to Invasion though. I also think that if we're going to make it cost a T5 spells worth of mana, it should also deal 5 points to Ward Shields

Those are my issues, but I do like quite a few of the things you've given. The 4th slot needing to be voidal is really fun, same with the Anti-Magic part. It's always made sense to me that all anti-magic should do something like that to a Voidstalker. I've never used Arcane Replenishment in my life, so I have no feelings about that. Finally, for Wither/Invasion, I think the tells are important. More specifically, I think it should require you to place aura around your target rather than just around your hands so the target knows they're gunna get hit with something, maybe add this as an Invasion redline too. I also think the stable connection part of the Wither change is nice, though I wish it was able to reduce scions back to normal voidal mage levels due to their weird magic seals and being vulnerable to that sort of thing. Might just be me hating scions though

[BakedPotato 1020]

just make it closed knowledge again

[alexmagus 959]

just make it closed knowledge again

[Islamadon 9158]

Amendments/Additions implemented into main lore post. Thank you for your submission. Moving to correct subforum to prevent redundancy and clutter.