Discussion topic for "pixie" race

[Davairus]

Hey guys,

I've been thinking about the big picture and what's going to appeal to both our past players and the prospects out there, and a potential race that I feel really resonates is a pixie. However I have to admit I am rather snowed under by a lot of fires and other needed issues (e.g. cracked skull tournament) so I think if we do this, it'd be good to take some community feedback first from this one. For jotuns and quasits, I believe you will agree those races opened a little bare but with strong appeal and have fleshed out very well over time, and I'd like to get things started off on the right foot with a pixie race again if we can.

Disclaimer, this is all entirely theoretical and may not come to be. All thoughts posted here may be for nothing, but they may get absorbed into other classes and skills, who knows. This is the creative process. Be prepared for what that means... absolutely don't shoot anyone ideas down. If we just ramble nonsense there might be something good that comes out from it. Maybe the whole idea is just retarded, and maybe it will be a hit. I'm not trying to persuade you, and inviting you to resist, I do think it really could be a hit. Just ask yourself, if you could play a pixie, would you do it? Thats the only question you need to see that it is worthy of spending time thinkin about it.



So here's a quick outline of what came to mind for me.

origin/backstory:
This is where I think things can become very interesting for our builds. So I think right now we have 5 planes, limbo serin abyss winter ether... all of which are fleshed out. BUT! What we probably should actually do here, is to retcon a new plane for the fey. This is something I think we can develop with druids. I think emerald forest basically is in that plane and Vevier's approached it like you take a portal of some sort to enter a strange fairytale. We could move/touch up the kaddar faerie area or whatever we need to do to help improve this, and I think if we did, we'd be doing this right, and not hand waving emerald half-assed like we have been doing.

pixie roleplaying traits:
Here I see a race which plays for "fun", and are a bit like a young quasit, in the sense that they like to play pranks and perform tricks, I know you guys like doing that sort of thing so this is a nice fit for many of you and I wont worry about it getting rp'd badly, and I also realize that quasit already has this. But I do think there is a need for quasit to do a very strong "heel turn" that may be undesirable to a certain contingent who wanted to just focus on the playful pranking part.
some bullet points
* incapable of focusing so they make poor studies (i.e. generally they dont want mages, which is why invoker seems very borderline, but illusionist looks like a decent fit due to all the tricks). absolutely no chance of a pixie joining mystics
* likes to dance
* non-religious. these guys are from their own plane and basically they draw power from their own plane. I think they would get along with druids but they wont be druids. Make sense?
* live in tree houses
* i think a pixie would be distrusted by other people becayse his race is known for playing pranks in the wild (i.e. we'll design the game a bit more deliberately so that NPC pixies do this to you and setup this distrust, like shargugh the brownie screwing with you etc..), and you would get the occasional evil pixie who felt that he had enough of the stigma and wanted some social justice punishing these losers who judged him


* size: tiny (smaller even than a gnome) - I am not sure if this is possible to even code but we can try to do it. This will cause them to take the worst lag in the game from bash and grapple fyi. actual size would be 2-3 feet tall
* classes: bard, illusionist, thief for sure, rangers/invokers as a maybe. pixie vampire (is that a mosquito?). pixie vamp is a joke, to clarify..
* aligns: all alignments ok.
* ethos: race is considered to be "uncivlized" so no lawfuls
* stats: low str, hgh dex, possibly 16/25. something like a gnome/halfling hybrid, or maybe a more extreme half elf if that helps
* resist/vulns: the race will have a moderate resistance to HOLY damage (see the no religion point) . immune to faerie fire / fog (see below)
* anatomy/creature type: fey

justifcation for good: emerald
justification for evil: kaddar faeries, spriggans, leprechaun mobs
justification for neutral: i dont know

(fey does not actually exist in the game right now and will also need to be coded, once it is, you'll be able to get it from emerald, kaddar faeries, etc.)

pixie-specific abilities:
* pixie dust : rather than permanent flight, a pixie flies by casting pixie dust and may then fly for a while, but sheds the pixie dust as he does so. this can be cast on groupmates also, but is typically an offensive spell. I think this used to be a knight power and is fairly well balanced as is, we wont need to do much more than touch it up (i.e. add flight to it)
* shrink weapon / shrink item - this allows pixie to shrink a weapon to one quarter of its normal size, or weight divided by 4. this counts as a curse on the weapon and the weapon is tradeable afterwards. pixie must be carrying the weapon. wont work on no_enchant stuff. think this might actually cure the low str race problems since its a fair bet this race would be a little popular. i dont know whether this is caster only, pixie dust isnt
* immune to fairy magic - it looked like a no brainer to make a pixie immune to faerie fog, and faerie fire. In doing this we make them instantly respected for pvp since those are big drawbacks for thief+rangers. I don't know if we need this but I'd like races to mean more than just flavor text (as we were doing). also there would have to be something defensively good to offset giant bash lag from fire giants
and then a new concept which is to change the racial a bit based on what "type" of class that was selected
* playful trickster - this is only for the fighter pixies. I have no idea where the idea is that is forming in my mind is going to go yet, but I feel like the pixie would somehow trick you into thinking they are about to do one thing, but then do another. like maybe you do a "fake weapon switch", causing your opponent to switch and you then switch back to what you were using as soon as they try to use a combat/weapon skill or hobble or whatever. requires getting into high levels, not straight out at level 1. probably level 25.
* fey magic - this is only for the caster pixes. They would be able to remain invisible after casting invis. like the fuzzars do. We can actually probably justify this above level 25 as det invis is so easy to get at that point that the spell almost doesnt matter.
- could potentially choose a religion but would lose their pixie-specific abilities if they did. Very interesting to see whether anyone would be willing to give it up to be a pixie knight or something

Ok thats where I'm leaving this ... please review and consider what youd like to add or change here.

[Andrael]

What would their base stats be? I mean with them being so small, the con would be kinda bad... but would they have a decent strength? Cause some times its shown for pixies to carry people. Also I like the dust idea... but I kind of think that making a 'pixie' class would force it too much...

I don't think invokers would be a good fit for them honestly. Illusionists, yes. But if you are going to make them I'd say have them either be neutral or chaotic ethos wise...

[Andrael]

Also, I'm assuming that since pixies don't follow religions, then they won't be able to join any cabals, except for like... Warlords, I don't know if they need a religious requirement or not. Unless they are exempt from that ruling.

[Davairus]

they're not carrying people because they can just give them flight with pixie dust right..

I'd actually thought about the strength issue. Low str weapon problems are solvable by giving them something to shrink things with, like if you shrink a huge stone club it becomes weight 10 instead of weight 40 and requires size small (or less) to use, counting as a curse for the purpose of allowing it to be restored after looting. I think I'd like to distinguish the caster/fighter pixies if possible by not giving fey magic to non-magical classes, but if its needed to keep them viable I don't see why we wouldnt. It doesnt necessarily have to be permanent but why not? Its certainly an idea. All of our low str races are being hurt by this, so a pixie rogue could make some tidy profits by stealing and shrinking nice weaponry.
Heralds no religion required. It probably makes sense that some creature wouldnt cross the fey realm to serin just to join knights and fight evils, and they're definitely uncivlized, meaning no lawfuls. This doesnt fit Justice cabal. That leaves warlords that I think is a possible fit but its reaching because pixie dust is rather magically inspired. It could pass if they shed that (pun intended), i like that this goes more toward the herald route than heavy combat but i dont think it needs to be the rule. I dont have any objection to a pixie ranger warlord as long as they are willing to pay the consequences of that choice. We dont have to necessarily ban all religions but we could probably sever their fey magic for choosing religions
maybe a polymorph pixie-only spell for high level illusionist? different than current mechanics

* updated initial post

[beia]

Sprites are tiny elf-like creatures with small, semi-transparent wings. They
are intelligent creatures, but very weak physically. A sprite is naturally
the quickest and most agile race, and their fey heritage gifts the ability to
detect magic as well as utilizing faerie fire and fog. Sprites can use their
wings to fly. They are resistant to charm, magic and mental attacks but are
vulnerable to disease, blunt weapons and even the touch of common iron.

[beia]

Going along with the whole shrink and enlarge thing, I think all mages should have shrink enlarge, but only illusionists can be used on other players. All the other mages will be able to shrink/enlarge equipment as needed for charmies or other players.

[Vevier]

Eh, I like keeping shrink enlarge on illus only. That being said, if you knew how many time I've heard 'pixie barbarian' in my life, you wouldn't believe me. There's something appealing about playing an itsy bitsy ball of rage.

[Andrael]

because its comically hilarious to see someone get ripped by itsy bitsy balls of rage.

[Faelon]

Pictsies. Check out Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett. Great read and it contains Pictsies.

[Mikoos]

I'm seeing this as a race that would be played a little less than elves...In fact, stat-wise I'm seeing them as elves that can fly. Faeries, elves, pixies. All too similar and some would argue that they are the same.

[Davairus]

Mikoos, our elf race is the standard Lord of the Rings elf. It does not fly, it does not have wings, and it is not 2 feet tall.

[Andrael]

What kind of Lord of the Ring Elves? Each one has different traits. Greenwood Elves are more... fight like, less contemplative and all. Lothlórien Elves are like the wood ones in terms of fighting prowess, but aren't as ferocious about it since they don't have as many enemies in their borders while the Greenwood(now recently called Murkwood in times of the Lord of the Rings vs hobbit movies which are part of the unfinished tales) but are wiser and more intelligent.

Some might argue that Imaldris, better known as Rivendell, as a 'elf' city due to how it looked, but it was really just an outpost. But eh, they didn't have any particular nature it was just kind of a place ran by Elrond, his families and followers for people coming by who knew of it more or less. In terms there isn't much difference between them, just distinctions due to where they lived. So I can see that. As compared to all the elves from D&D.

[Dogran]

The roll play choices are yours. Their stature is all basically the same.

[Mikoos]

oh Eru...must resist middle-earth derailment. I swear this game brings out the nerdiest aspects of my life. Anyway, I'm just not seeing the stats being that much different between elves or good aligned avians really. Probably would have a lower STR than avians.


Okay, so maybe a small middle earth derailment. I'd like to separate them by making them tricksters, but Elves were very tricksy in middle earth. At least the mirkwood elves were. Illusions in the forests, playing drunken practical jokes and such. They wouldn't fly. So that would separate them. Size would definitely separate them. Good things because both tie into game mechanics. hmm, my brain is failing to work atm.

[Davairus]

The point of thread was to make sure simple concerns like stats would be talked about and addressed pre-instead of post-launch.. not complained about. Its just incredibly negative and draining and will lead to zero ideas to just harp on that one point repeatedly. People said the same thing about quasit stats and they dont anymore. I'm pretty disappointed that the discussion has gone no further than just "the stats" to be frank. It actually isnt very important, because the stats run from only 16-25 and when you project players prejudiced expectations on top, there isn't really a whole lot of room to maneuvre.. and we have already done a bunch of races. There is obviously, and by obviously I mean, if you can't see this consider that you dont know wtf you are talking about, a requirement to find much stronger ways to differentiate races then having flavor text and changing a size and 2 numbers. Why on earth are you still comparing them to elves? Its literally baffling... this is nothing like elf in our lore or otherwise... you might as well say jotuns are the same as minotaurs

[Mikoos]

rofl, yes, stats have no meaning to races, elves have absolutely no connection to faries/pixes/whatever at all. I've only tried to reason the point for having pixies in the game. We can roll a race, add a background and become a pixie already. THAT process exists. I think you're just pissed for being pissed?

[Davairus]

1. that's at the top of the original thread.
2. since you mentioned it, custrace isn't working very well at all. Feedback is very poor, so its likely to be reworked into a "race spec". but when our race choices are broader. 9 out of 10 race restring requests are half-elf trying to be fey races. That is the actual goal. Not adhoc flavor text race pick. this was also mentioned in the original post

[Mikoos]

I can understand custrace getting out of control and wanting to put that fire out. I can also understand having a change in size, plus racial legacies, justifying a new race. I was just thinking in my head, what's the difference between what the game already has and such.

I have a tendency to try to think of the laziest way to do something, which is usually the simplest way. so, in my head I thought "pixie? just roll an elf." I didn't mean to bring any negativity to a discussion about pixies...I never thought that would ever occur, rofl.

Anyway, time for Vev to write the back story it seems.

[Davairus]

That actually isn't all that necessary, because its already been in the game for nearly 20 years.

[Andrael]

Thus far, all mechanics and what not of pixies are going good. I like it that you are developing new races and all, in the timespan of a year, I believe we've had 2 races brought, one class has had a rework (invo) one is undergoing one still, i think, and we brought a class back that is still being touched up. A new race will be nice, especially one that opens up a lot of interesting RP. The stats are fine, the 'shrink' weapon sounds good. I think doing it should be like enchant weapon/curse weapon. have a chance to break it. and all.