Epic Archetype - Power Absorber

Alright, here's a pretty complex idea that's been rattling around my head. It's the Power Absorber(Edit: better name: Energy Absorber). A typical example is Bishop of the X-Men, also there's Strong Guy, Sunspot, and Sebastion Shaw as similar variants.

Basically it's a super-powered individual who can absorb and redirect various forms of energy. Can the game engine support this? Beats me. But I had fun coming up with this.

Why an Epic Archetype? Well I just can't see the primary and secondary sets of this AT being mixed and matched with anything else since the offense and defense is linked. Also I think it's about time for the Devs to break away from lore-based epic AT's to bring us more traditional yet unique character ideas.

The mechanics of it would work like this:

You're able to absorb 4 forms of energy: Kinetic, Thermal, Radiant, and Psionic. Now imagine a personal window such as a Mastermind gets. In it are circular icons representing the 4 forms of energy. Each form gets 3 icons vertically. So it looks like this:

O O O O
O O O O
O O O O
K-T- R- P

So a certain amount of damage taken will fill up 1 icon (called cells) at a time in it's category. Let's say at a certain character level you absorbed 20 points of fire damage. It would activate the bottom Thermal Icon. You can now expend a low level fire attack yourself. Absorb enough fire damage and you activate all 3 Thermal Icons allowing for high damage fire attacks you can use.

So each category readily absorbs a different damage type. Kinetic for Smashing, Thermal for Fire, Radiant for Energy, and Psionic for Psionic. Of course you can't absorb all the energy from attacks, naturally a portion of it must damage you. There would probably be a set number of points you can absorb depending on level and can't be changed with enhancements. However you can enhance your damage and damage resistance. Basically whatever damage you resist is what triggers the absorb cells to activate.

Ok so your start out somewhat scrapper-like, no range yet. The Primary is your absorption abilities. The secondary is your redirection attacks.

Let's get to some of the abilities:

• Kinetic Absorption - primary; auto; you absorb smashing attacks to charge your Kinetic cells.
• Kinetic Strike - secondary; single target; melee; minor damage; uses 1 Kinetic charge
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• Ambient Absorption - primary; auto; you absorb the ambient energies of the environment to slowly charge only the first level of cells of Thermal and Radiant.
  (I created this ability to supplement the scarcity fire and energy damage a low levels)
• Thermal Strike - secondary; single target; melee; minor fire damage; uses 1 Thermal cell
• Radiant Strike - secondary; single target; melee; minor energy damage; uses 1 Radiant cell
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• Mental Leech - primary; sngl target; melee; -recharge; you grab your enemy's head draining psionic energy charging 1 Psionic cell
• Psionic Strike - secondary; single target; melee; minor psionic damage; uses 1 Psionic cell; chance to Slow
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• Thermal Absorption - primary; auto; you absorb fire attacks to charge your Thermal cells
• Radiant Absoption - primary; auto; you absorb energy attacks to charge your Radiant cells
• Psionic Absorption - primary; auto; you absorb psionic attacks to charge your Psionic cells

Focus toggles: These toggle abilities increase the amount of damage you can absorb and redirect however only 2 of the 4 may be active at any one time in your original mode.

• Kinetic Focus - primary; toggle; you're more resistant to Smashing damage, your smashing damage is increased and the threshold for activating a Kinetic cell is decreased(essentially allowing you to use attacks at a higher rate); +Res(Knockback)
• Thermal Focus- primary; toggle; you're more resistant to Fire damage, your Fire damage is increased and the threshold for activating a Thermal cell is decreased; +Res(Disorient)
• Radiant Focus - primary; toggle; you're more resistant to Energy damage, your Energy damage is increased and the threshold for activating a Radiant cell is decreased; +Res(End Drain)
• Psionic Focus - primary; toggle; you're more resistant to Psionic damage, your Psionic damage is increased and the threshold for activating a Psionic cell is decreased; +Res(Confuse, Sleep)

Lethal, Dark, Cold, and Toxic: these are a Power Absorber's weakness but he has ways to counter them.

• Avoid Threats - primary; toggle; you're experienced enough to know what your weaknesses are and move to avoid them; +Def(lethal, cold, negative energy); +Res(Toxic)
• Lethal Adaption - primary; auto; with concentration you can absorb the kinetic energy from Lethal attacks but with less effectiveness than from Smashing; Resist(Def Debuff)

Negative Energy and Cold will have there own cell pane below the Absorption Cells Pane. They will be only 1 cell each and be known as vacuum energies of Negative and Cryonic.

• Vacuum Power - primary; single target; ranged; Power Absorbers don't work well when drained and so seek their energies back violently from their foes; An active Negative Cell will convert to an active Radiant Cell; An active Cryonic Cell will convert to an active Thermal Cell; causes Negative Energy or Cold damage to the foe in the transfer process; +Res(Slow, Fear)

Modes: Like Keldians, Power Absorbers will have different AT roles they can toggle into; tanks, blasters, maybe even defenders.

• Tank Mode - primary; toggle; Your damage resistance is increased but your damage output is decreased, You can use up to 3 Focus toggles; comprehensive status resist power
• Blaster Mode - secondary; toggle; your damage output is increased but your damage resistance is decreased, you can only use 1 Focus toggle but gain a 4th row of Absorption Cells; opens up ranged attacks
• Defender Mode - primary; toggle; You can extend a field that can use your abilities to help the group
  (I haven't really defined Defender mode very well yet)

Taunts: Essential in determining which foes you want to attack you so you can absorb their energies.

In tank mode you'll have an aoe taunt.
In scrapper and blaster modes you'll have single target taunts.

Larger attacks will open up in the secondary as you level. Moderate damage attacks will use up 2 cells of an energy category, while high damage attacks use 3, and extreme damage attacks in blaster mode will use 4.

Survival or defeat: you may look at this at a glance and think you can just take all damage and deal it back without fear of defeat but that's not the case. It will take a lot of management to suceed, much like with a Mastermind. The key is not to allow your Absorption Cells to remain maxed out. Once that happens you can no longer absorb and thus take full damage of that particular type. So expend or die (a little like Strong Guy). Also use Vacuum Power whenever your Vacuum Energies light up. Your survival also depends on which Focus toggles you choose to run for which enemies. And taunting the right enemies to attack you.

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I would add Cold and Lethal to Thermal and Kinetic, respectively.

Also, I don't think there's a such thing as Toxic defense in the game.

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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound

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Very intriguing.

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Maestro Mavius - Infinity
Capt. Biohazrd - PCSAR
Talsor Tech - Talsorian Guard
Keep Calm & Chive On!

Interesting idea..I have always liked those types of heroes. Trouble is..it does seem rather complex, and would no way be suitable for new players. Werent the khelds made as a way to expand power sets a bit, and add more complex things? Or something (maybe I just made that up).

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Title of thread made me think of Rogue.

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My characters at Virtueverse
Faces of the City

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So basically, you're invulnerable to a certain type of damage as long as you make sure you attack enough to keep the bar empty? That'd make certain enemy types awfully easy...

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Hmmm. Well, it's an interesting concept, for sure. Do you have any ideas on how you would work it into the lore?

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Goodbye may seem forever
Farewell is like the end
But in my heart's the memory
And there you'll always be
-- The Fox and the Hound

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Hmm.
I don't think it will work, generally, with specefic damage amounts.

What if it worked like so:
'Energy Absorption: Each time you take Energy damage, you gain one instance of 'Energized' for 20 seconds. This can be applied any number of times, but certain powers have differing effects. (One version for each energy type)

'Absorptive Resistance: For each application of Energized, maximum 10, you gain a 4% resistance to Energy damage. For each application of Warmed, maximum 10, you gain a 4% resistance to Fire damage. (Etc, Lethal, Smashing. Everything but negative energy, toxic, and cold)

'Minor Absorptive Blast': Deals minor lethal damage alone. Deals very minor additional DoT for each application of the various 'Energized'/'Warmed'/'Smashed' types. If you have 10 stacks each (The maximum per energy type) you'll be dealing blaster-level damage, but obviously you generally won't reach this point.

The Absorption/Resistance powers are passive; you then have an array of 'focus' powers as you said, which amplify one energy type at the expense of others. Possibly while a 'Focus' is active, you gain a regen bonus for a while after each hit of said type.

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"Why do these Lost keep trying to hold me? Don't they know I don't swing that way?"

I like it, and I would definitely reroll my char with it.

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Open Archetype Suggestion thread!, Kirsten's Epic Weapon Pools, Feudal Japan, Etc., Alignment specific Rularuu iTrials!
If Masterminds didn't suck, they'd be the most powerful AT in the game.

Say, would you care to add this AT to my AT thread?

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Open Archetype Suggestion thread!, Kirsten's Epic Weapon Pools, Feudal Japan, Etc., Alignment specific Rularuu iTrials!
If Masterminds didn't suck, they'd be the most powerful AT in the game.

One of the more interesting suggestions I have seen in some time.

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The development team and this community deserved better than this from NC Soft. Best wishes on your search.

I like this concept and in favor of this set and would enjoy trying it. Only concern, do the a base set of attacks do a type of damage without a charge? If you have high enough defense to an attack set, (S/L) as is a common type to slot for, that would rob you of being able to attack at all. It would be like you're throwing the winter snowball power ... hits but does nothing but aggro them.

I can't figure out why the same players that bashed my "rage defence" set idea that requires taking hits to increase damage output and health regen would be in support of this set which (from what I read) requires taking damage to do ANY damage at all.

We could also have a defensive set that emulated it too ...
Example: fire/absobtion brute could do secondary damage based on the damage absorbed.
50 points of fire damage with 5 points of Absorbed lethal. just as an example. It would make the set really affective against enemy groups that have many separate attack types, ie: Malta and crey.

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Let me start off by saying that I really... really, really, really like this idea for a power set. I think you have done an excellent job setting it up. Unfortunately it also seems unnecessarily complex. I believe the general concept and 'cells' are enough to make this unique on their own and there is really no need for the various 'modes'. May I make a suggestion to help simplify things a bit?

First, one of the major problems I foresee for a set like this is availability of attack types. Your kinetic and radiant meters will fill up much more often (and more easily) than the others. We must take this into consideration... because that's half of the user abilities just sitting there useless. Some solutions to help resolve this could be:

1.A build-up type power that temporarily fills all energy meters no matter what energy is absorbed.

2.The definitions for the energy types could be changed to incorporate a wider range of attacks. IE, any ranged and melee attacks (other than psi and maybe neg) are considered kinetic energy.... or at least add some to the kinetic meter in addition to the other attack type... so a distance fire attack would add some to kinetic and thermal at the same time.

Some other thoughts:
-Kinetic, being the most common, would have to be the glue that holds the set together. You'll have the most powers that use kinetic energy, but are also pretty weak by comparison.

-Your role on the team would still have to be considered 'tank' no matter how you look at it... because you want enemies focusing on you... and, as such... you'd have to have tank numbers to avoid becoming overpowered.

-Using one cell only gets you a minor damage attack? That's way too much. When setting up the cost, you have to look at the energy 'cells' like the endurance bar for regular attacks. And, as far as I know... no minor damaging attack takes away 1/3rd of your endurance bar. And unless you want your player being the meatshield that just stands there and takes damage without actually do anything else... you may want to think about adding more 'cells' (perhaps proportionate to their level) or convert it to a regular bar, like heath and endurance.

Anyway, that's just a few things that popped into my mind while considering the concept in general. Take it with a grain of salt, I won't be crushed if you ignore the suggestions. =)

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