As Product Manager Wyrom noted his in Creating Adventure (https://gswiki.play.net/Creating_Adventure_-_March_2020), we are making some dramatic changes to how Development works going forward. A big part of that change is how we will communicate and engage players. Up until this point, we always held back any details of what we were working on or hoped to work on in the near future. A lot of that was due to situations were something was announced as an intention, then failed to come to fruition, due to any number of reasons. I hope that it's perfectly clear that things we're willing to discuss going forward are strictly goals and not promises. Having said that, I think this approach is better than not announcing any details until something is going out the door. I'd much rather Development work with players to refine ideas and consider all viewpoints during the design phase than after we've spent a considerable amount of time designing and implementing something. With that in mind, this is what we have in the plan for the Ascension system.

The Ascension system will be Post-Cap Development, but it will not be restricted to level 100 characters. A lot of the exact details are still being worked out, such as the mechanism to earn points, so any or all of this could change. However, the current plan is for you to earn experience through your normal hunting grounds. That experience can then be diverted into a special pool for Ascension Training Points (ATPs) that that are then spent to unlock a number of passive and active abilities. It will function very similar to the Combat Maneuver List (CML) system.

There are 3 tiers of abilities: Common, Elite, and Legendary. The Common abilities are intended to be very generic and apply to things that most characters might be interested in. It includes things like boosts to stats, skills, resistances, etc. Just those 3 different areas represent 71 different abilities, since each stat/skill/damage type is a separate ability. Elite abilities are designed for certain builds and character types (such as Squares, Semis, Pures, archers, locksmiths, etc). It includes things like rapid health/mana/stamina/spirit regeneration, elemental arrows for archers, locksmiths detecting traps when being handed a box, etc. Finally, Legendary abilities are designed for specific abilities/spells and usually tailored to a specific profession. It includes things like Rangers being able to tame one of each animal companion type (and separate ability to temporarily summon them all in combat), Warriors being able to manually stop a Berserk, Bards being able to create higher enchant sonic armaments, double attacks/spells, etc.

Characters will be required to invest a certain amount of points into the Common tier before they can access the Elite tier. They will then also be required to invest a certain amount of points into the Elite tier before they can access the Legendary tier. The abilities in each tier will get more expensive to unlock as the power those abilities represent grows. In addition, we intend to have a lot of chained abilities to promote certain builds. Some abilities may be exclusive of each other (so if you learn X, you can't learn Y).

Right now, we're spending a lot of time brainstorming the different abilities that will exist in this system and we're very interested in your thoughts and ideas. We're mostly just after ideas, so feel free to respond with anything you can think of. Rough concepts are okay. Development will work out most of the actual numbers and restrictions to keep everything in check.

GameMaster Estild

So first of all: AMAZING ideas.

Second of all, I have some thoughts. Both for specific ideas and more general 'system' ideas. I'll add specific ideas soon, but general concepts I would like to see:

Can't catch em all - Make it so that there are Trees within each of the tier circles (common, elite, legendary) where joining that tree locks you out from being able to gain the abilities in the other tree. I'd rather see that choice be the main factor aside from your profession dictating most of your choices. For example, as a Wizard you can choose between going for the Master of the Elements legendary perks, OR the Warmage legendary perks OR the Chronomancer legendary perks. But once you choose one of those you lock out the other two! This makes it easier to balance and provides uniqueness and real choice to a character, a way to really make your character stand out!

Profession and Society specific skills - THAT said, I think there should be some trees ONLY available to specific professions within the circle. For example, CoL Masters should have access to a specific tree which allows them to further enhance their abilities and plays on the nature of the organization in fun and interesting ways. One example for the Legendary Ability could be:

"Infiltration" - For every point you have in this, you can gain 5 ranks of one other 'secondary society'. Being a member of this secondary society does not grant you access to any Ascension perk requiring membership in this society. You cannot gain more than 10 ranks in this way in either society, nor can you gain in more than one additional society.

This would play into both this societies Roleplay AS WELL AS be a unique, interesting, and powerful perk.

I have more ideas, I have more thoughts. But to me, those two things would be important to have an interesting and balanced system like you propose.

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GM Naionna at 11:41 PM
Whick is so pretty. it's a shame he has to talk.

To help give you an idea of what we're planning, here are some rough ideas. Please keep in mind that some of these may or may not happen.

General
Strength Training	Gain +1 Strength statistic per rank.
Constitution Training	Gain +1 Constitution statistic per rank.
Dexterity Training	Gain +1 Dexterity statistic per rank.
Agility Training	Gain +1 Agility statistic per rank.
Discipline Training	Gain +1 Discipline statistic per rank.
Aura Training	Gain +1 Aura statistic per rank.
Logic Training	Gain +1 Logic statistic per rank.
Intuition Training	Gain +1 Intuition statistic per rank.
Wisdom Training	Gain +1 Wisdom statistic per rank.
Influence Training	Gain +1 Influence statistic per rank.
Two Weapon Combat Training	Gain +1 Two Weapon Combat skill rank per rank.
Armor Use Training	Gain +1 Armor Use skill rank per rank.
Shield Use Training	Gain +1 Shield Use skill rank per rank.
Combat Maneuvers Training	Gain +1 Combat Maneuvers skill rank per rank.
Edged Weapons Training	Gain +1 Edged Weapons skill rank per rank.
Blunt Weapons Training	Gain +1 Blunt Weapons skill rank per rank.
Two-Handed Weapons Training	Gain +1 Two-Handed Weapons skill rank per rank.
Ranged Weapons Training	Gain +1 Ranged Weapons skill rank per rank.
Thrown Weapons Training	Gain +1 Thrown Weapons skill rank per rank.
Polearm Weapons Training	Gain +1 Polearm Weapons skill rank per rank.
Brawling Training	Gain +1 Brawling skill rank per rank.
Ambush Training	Gain +1 Ambush skill rank per rank.
Multi Opponent Combat Training	Gain +1 Multi Opponent Combat skill rank per rank.
Physical Fitness Training	Gain +1 Physical Fitness skill rank per rank.
Dodging Training	Gain +1 Dodging skill rank per rank.
Arcane Symbols Training	Gain +1 Arcane Symbols skill rank per rank.
Magic Item Use Training	Gain +1 Magic Item Use skill rank per rank.
Spell Aiming Training	Gain +1 Spell Aiming skill rank per rank.
Harness Power Training	Gain +1 Harness Power skill rank per rank.
Elemental Mana Control Training	Gain +1 Elemental Mana Control skill rank per rank.
Mental Mana Control Training	Gain +1 Mental Mana Control skill rank per rank.
Spirit Mana Control Training	Gain +1 Spirit Mana Control skill rank per rank.
Elemental Lore - Air Training	Gain +1 Elemental Lore - Air skill rank per rank.
Elemental Lore - Earth Training	Gain +1 Elemental Lore - Earth skill rank per rank.
Elemental Lore - Fire Training	Gain +1 Elemental Lore - Fire skill rank per rank.
Elemental Lore - Water Training	Gain +1 Elemental Lore - Water skill rank per rank.
Spiritual Lore - Blessings Training	Gain +1 Spiritual Lore - Blessings skill rank per rank.
Spiritual Lore - Religion Training	Gain +1 Spiritual Lore - Religion skill rank per rank.
Spiritual Lore - Summoning Training	Gain +1 Spiritual Lore - Summoning skill rank per rank.
Sorcerous Lore - Demonology Training	Gain +1 Sorcerous Lore - Demonology skill rank per rank.
Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy Training	Gain +1 Sorcerous Lore - Necromancy skill rank per rank.
Mental Lore - Divination Training	Gain +1 Mental Lore - Divination skill rank per rank.
Mental Lore - Manipulation Training	Gain +1 Mental Lore - Manipulation skill rank per rank.
Mental Lore - Telepathy Training	Gain +1 Mental Lore - Telepathy skill rank per rank.
Mental Lore - Transference Training	Gain +1 Mental Lore - Transference skill rank per rank.
Mental Lore - Transformation Training	Gain +1 Mental Lore - Transformation skill rank per rank.
Survival Training	Gain +1 Survival skill rank per rank.
Disarming Traps Training	Gain +1 Disarming Traps skill rank per rank.
Picking Locks Training	Gain +1 Picking Locks skill rank per rank.
Stalking and Hiding Training	Gain +1 Stalking and Hiding skill rank per rank.
Perception Training	Gain +1 Perception skill rank per rank.
Climbing Training	Gain +1 Climbing skill rank per rank.
Swimming Training	Gain +1 Swimming skill rank per rank.
First Aid Training	Gain +1 First Aid skill rank per rank.
Trading Training	Gain +1 Trading skill rank per rank.
Pickpocketing Training	Gain +1 Pickpocketing skill rank per rank.
Acid Resistance	Gain 1% acid damage resistance per rank.
Cold Resistance	Gain 1% cold damage resistance per rank.
Disruption Resistance	Gain 1% disruption damage resistance per rank.
Electrical Resistance	Gain 1% electrical damage resistance per rank.
Grapple Resistance	Gain 1% grapple damage resistance per rank.
Heat Resistance	Gain 1% heat damage resistance per rank.
Impact Resistance	Gain 1% impact damage resistance per rank.
Crush Resistance	Gain 1% crush damage resistance per rank.
Plasma Resistance	Gain 1% plasma damage resistance per rank.
Puncture Resistance	Gain 1% puncture damage resistance per rank.
Slash Resistance	Gain 1% slash damage resistance per rank.
Steam Resistance	Gain 1% steam damage resistance per rank.
Unbalance Resistance	Gain 1% unbalance damage resistance per rank.
Vacuum Resistance	Gain 1% vacuum damage resistance per rank.
Disintegration Resistance	Gain 1% disintegration damage resistance per rank.
Health Regeneration	Increases passive health regeneration.
Mana Regeneration	Increases passive mana regeneration.
Stamina Regeneration	Increases passive stamina regeneration.
Spirit Regeneration	Increases passive spirit regeneration.

Elite
Elemental Arrows	Allows the archer to imbue their arrows with elemental (heat, cold, impact, vacuum, or electricity) energy instead of using puncture criticals.
Voln Avenger	JABs automatically apply a Kai's Smite pre-flare effect against the undead. UCS gear provides full bonus/special abilities against the undead.
Hybrid Offense	When a physical attack is performed, the next magical attack receives a boost, and vice versa.
Health Renewal	A manually activated ability to rapidly regenerate health with a long cooldown.
Mana Renewal	A manually activated ability to rapidly regenerate mana with a long cooldown.
Stamina Renewal	A manually activated ability to rapidly regenerate stamina with a long cooldown.
Spirit Renewal	A manually activated ability to rapidly regenerate spirit with a long cooldown.
Mana Adept	Reduces mana cost of spells.
Diverse Caster	Increases Casting Strength for secondary and tertiary spell circles only.
Armored Caster	Reduces spell hindrance.
Spell Resistance	A chance to resist all spells (beneficial and harmful).
Focused Redux Training	Reduces the spell penalty for redux calculations.
Artificer	A chance to not expend a charge when invoking a magical item.
Arcane Scribe	A chance to not expend a charge when invoking a scroll.
Fire Elementalist	Boost to fire damage/crits via fire based spells.
Earth Elementalist	Boost to earth damage/crits via earth based spells.
Water Elementalist	Boost to water damage/crits via water based spells
Air Elementalist	Boost to air damage/crits via air based spells
Lightning Elementalist	Boost to lightning damage/crits via lightning based spells
Marksman	Increases chance to hit aimed location. This is applied after any location modifiers.
TWC Specialist	The off-hand penalty for being outleveled is increased by 1 level. At rank 5, there is no longer a penalty.
UCS Specialist	The tier up penalty for being outleveled is increased by 1 level. At rank 5, there is no longer a penalty.
Arcane Crafter	Each rank grants the equivalent of 20% of the workshop bonus to the success roll of 420, 517, 714, 735, 925, and RECALL. Stacks with actual workshop bonuses.
Danger Sense	When you GET or ACCEPT a treasure box, there is a 20% chance per rank to immediately sense if a trap is present (0 RT). You still need to DETECT and DISARM when a trap is present, though. (But this saves you from having to DETECT every box).
Improvisational Fighter	You can maintain two martial stances at once.
Lucky Caster	You no longer fumble warding rolls (i.e. you roll a 1 + d99 instead of a d100).

Legendary
Advanced Enchanting	Increases the wizard's Enchanting (925) skill.
Advanced Ensorcelling	Increases the sorcerer's Ensorcell (735) skill.
Advanced Loresinging	Increases the bard's loresong unlocking skill.
Beastmaster	Allows a Ranger to maintain up to 4 animal companion bonds (one of each subtype). Only one companion may be active at a time. Each rank unlocks a new slot.
Wild Stampede	Allows a Ranger to temporary summon all of their animal companions to attack.
Beast Whisperer	Allows a Ranger to unlock more specific animal companion combat options (aimed attacks, faster attacks, combination attacks with the Ranger or other companions temporarily brought in with Beastmaster).
One With Nature	Assume Aspect becomes innate, allowing one aspect to be active at a time indefinitely. Animal creatures receive a Sheer Fear-like check to be automatically calmed in the Ranger's presence.
Natural Harmony	At rank 1, Resist Nature requires half as many potions to complete. At rank 2, luminescent indigo mushroom potions are no longer required to affect higher armor groups. At rank 3, the shack herbalist will now be willing to craft potions for the Ranger out of Confluence forgeables, which also introduces lightning resistance.
Battle Lorekeeper	Allows a Bard to loresing to creatures to identify their stats, spells, potential attacks, and allies that naturally spawn in the area. This would use the ::target syntax, lyrics optional.
Anger Management	Allows the Warrior to manually end a Berserk.
Griffin's Focus	Allows the Warrior to use warcries during Berserk
Improvised Pick	Allows rogue to pick locks with a found item. Each rank provides X picking mod, depending on the total number of ranks and the max ability (probably a mid-range pick)
Deadfall	Use trap components to set a trap in a room that is triggered by a creature entering. Strong enough attack to disable like-level creatures for a potent ambush on a good result. Additional ranks unlock the ability to use additional components and increase effectiveness.
Hot Potato	Toss a dangerous trap component at a target, if successful they catch it and it blows up in their hands.
Song Mastery	Lowers the multi-song penalty for renewals.
Raise Dead Mastery	Reduces the cooldown from Raise Dead (318).
Persistent Demon Summoner	Increases the duration of Minor Summoning (725) with each rank and lasts indefinitely at rank 5.
Persistent Animator	Increases the duration of Animate Dead (730) with each rank and lasts indefinitely at rank 5.
Persistent Familiar Summoner	Increases the duration of Call Familiar (920) with each rank and lasts indefinitely at rank 5.
Persistent Spirit Summoner	Increases the duration of Spirit Servant (218) with each rank and lasts indefinitely at rank 5.
Naturalist	Nature's Touch is always passively active.
Assessor	Ability to assess gear outside of trained weapon types
Musical Group	Sync instrument playing while in the same room
Booming Voice	Lowers the spell failure associated with head-worn armors
Holy Crusader	Allows unlimited uses of Divine Word
Consecrated Touch	Consecrate adds guiding light flares (instead of holy) to blesses
Pitch Perfect Shield	Increases the enchant of Sonic Shield (1009) by +5 per rank.
Pitch Perfect Sword	Increases the enchant of Sonic Sword (1012) by +5 per rank.
Pitch Perfect Armor	Increases the enchant of Sonic Armor (1014) by +5 per rank.
Pitch Perfect Singing Sword	Increases the enchant of Singing Sword Song (1025) by +5 per rank.
Endurance Singer	Increases the duration of your bardic spellsong renewal cycle.
Double Attack	Once every 30 seconds, your single target physical attacks (ATTACK, AMBUSH, FIRE, etc) will flare a double attack for no extra RT similar to rank 5 of weapon bonding. Stacks with the weapon bonding flare.
Double Cast	Once every 30 seconds, a single target attack spell with be cast twice for no additional mana or cast RT.

GameMaster Estild

Will the +1 to stats go towards the +20 bonus stat cap or go beyond this cap?

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

So a couple questions or concerns I'd have about the rogue based stuff - would a trap set by a rogue be able to hit other players?

What about finding and disarming bandit traps? Or having a chance to keep party members (and yourself) from tripping bandit traps?

Hot potato could be interesting, but I see it being abused with other players more easily than many things. "Hey, you want this component I found in your box?" "Uh, sure?" "Here, catch..."

Overall I really like the look of this!! And appreciate the transparency and listening to suggestions.

Lyrna's player

Very excited about this, and I am thrilled that you are soliciting input. As an archer ranger, this list is somewhat focused toward that, but this is what I would like to see. To me, earning these abilities would make post-cap advancement very hard, very long, but also rewarding.

General Perk Ideas
+Shear Fear Resistance

Archery Based Post-Cap Development Elite Perk Ideas
Elemental Arrow: Summon an elemental arrow for mana (advancement could be reduced mana cost)
Flare Arrow: Add flares to an existing arrow (rot-flare style subscript please) for mana (advancement could be increased flare rate)
Weighted Arrow: Add weighting to an existing arrow for mana (advancement would be amount of weighting, reduced mana cost, etc.)
Perfect Fletching: Perk to let fletchers improve the damage factor of the arrow they make (advancement would be increase in DF)
Archer Haste (must have imho): allow 2 second reduction in roundtime for a brief window for stamina (advancement could be shortening of a cooldown)
Trueshooting: Allow an arrow to bypass Evade/Block/Parry with a cooldown (advancement could mean making more such arrows per day)

Ranger-Based Legendery Perk Ideas
Vine Attack: Recasting 610 when in a room with a vine will cause the vine to attack a mob
Resist Nature: Add more elements (acid, impact, etc.) Make a temp, easily castable version. Allow permanent resistance to all armors.
Animal Attack: Lesson the RT to the point our animal companion will attack right as we command. BeastWhisperer Sounds great
Assume Aspect: Make duration of each perk longer, potentially allowing one single aspect for the total 5 minutes. One with Nature perk is pretty amazing too.
Shapeshifting: Ability to actually become an animal-based NPC mob for a short period of time. Only thing that would transfer between states being health.

So. A proposal. Unique trees for each class. I'll bust out some ideas for Wizards right now. Each will have 2 elite and 1 Legendary Ascensions that lock out other tree Ascensions.

---

Warmage Unique Line:

Requirements: Must be a Wizard. Cannot have chosen any abilities in CHRONOMANCER tree or MASTER OF ELEMENTS tree.

Elite Tier:

Storm of Magic, Storm of Steel: You can add ATTACK as a command to 950 which will allow you to use your weapon in place of a spell.
so INC 950 410 912 518 518 ATT ATT for example.

Battle Trained: For every point, lower failure rate on casting in armor by X%.

Legendary Tier:

Spellsword: Have a X% chance to cast a burst of arcane magic at any enemy struck by your weapon, lowering their Elemental TD by X as well as doing raw damage of X. The percent chance for this to happen, as well as the strength of the strike and lowering of the TD rise as you put points into this.

---

Chronomancer Unique Line:

Requirements: Must be a Wizard. Cannot have chosen any abilities in WARMAGE tree or MASTER OF ELEMENTS tree.

Elite Tier:

Warping Reality: For every point you have here, %chance for, when Temporal Reversion Triggers (540) or when you trigger TIME STOP (550), to ALSO cast a powerful magic blast at all enemies in the area.

One True Fate: Gain Truehand of 5/10/15/20 on all bolt spells or attacks.

Legendary Tier:

Time is my Plaything: Get a %chance for a secondary roll on ALL abilities, enchant rolls, attacks, artisan rolls, etc.

---

Master of the Elements Unique Line:

Requirements: Must be a Wizard. Cannot have chosen any abilities in Chronomancer tree or MASTER OF ELEMENTS tree.

Elite Tier:

Elemental Shielding: For every point, you may wear another type of MAGE ARMOR (520) elemental specific ability. So for example, you could wear and gain the benefits from 520 FIRE ARMOR and 520 WATER ARMOR

Storm Summoning: Elemental energies swirl around you, and randomly strike out at any enemies in the room! X% chance every X seconds to cast a random bolt spell you know at any random critter in the room. At max points, this also works WHILE STUNNED/INCAPACITATED.

Legendary Tier:

Fire in the heart, Ice in the veins: Become resistant to an element of your choice! More points, more resistance and more choices.

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GM Naionna at 11:41 PM
Whick is so pretty. it's a shame he has to talk.

Bard Legendary:

Chorus of Tonis
Song of Tonis further reduces roundtime by 1 second.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

Some suggestions

aimed bolts	Either reduces hard RT when channelling by 1s/rank or uses ambush training to further improve chances to hit a specific location (or maybe separate options for both)
hated hero	Increase warcamp spawn rate.
hated enemy	Increases AS/CS or damage/crit weighting against a specific creature (similar to bane weapons). Can learn more than once.
chronomage friend	Prevents gold rings/coins from being confiscated. Prevents chrono-locking from teleportation spells.
chronomage ally	Reduces the lore requirements for same zone teleportation spells.
chronomage	Unlock cross-realm teleportation for spells. (Including snap-cast and rough chalk for 740.)

Someone earlier mentioned a preference for profession specific abilities. I'm on the opposite side. I'd rather not see profession specific, per se, but ability specific limitations. If, for random example, I have a SK 318 item and want to learn 318 specific abilities, that should work even if the character isn't a cleric.

I'd also like to see a nice mix of active/passive options. I prefer less powerful passive abilities. I know others like more powerful active abilities. The ideal system will make us all happy.

Another thing I think about when I hear "prerequisites" is having to learn unwanted/unhelpful abilities just to get something useful. While entirely subjective, I'd like to see very little of "I only learned X to get Y". I believe a few of the CMANs are in the wiki as "the only reason to learn {this} to because it is a prerequisite to {something useful}". (Though I couldn't find any immediate examples, so maybe those statements are no longer there.) I feel like the shield maneuvers, on the other hand, are much better. Even the prereqs for other abilities are useful.

Legendary - Why Wield Just One?

Allow the use of certain two-handed weapons via two weapon combat.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"

Hand and Half Attack Mastery: When wielding a hand-and-a-half weapon (bastard sword, katana, bastard axe, etc.) two handed, and if fully trained in OHE, reduces rt of all attacks by 3 seconds, to a minimum of 1 second. When wielding one-handed with another weapon (but not shield), allows you to use AvD and DF as if wielding two-handed.

Hand and Half Defensive Mastery: When wielding a hand-and-a-half weapon and not a shield, and if fully trained in OHE, grants an additional +20% parry and dodge.

Spell Mastery: Increases DF and crit rank of all spells.

Spell Drain: allows damage done by spells to heal you of blood loss and injuries.

Runestaff Bonding: allows casters to bond to runestaves, up to 6 tiers, with each tier providing various additional benefits similar to paladin/warrior weapon bonding.
Tier 1: Reduce costs of all spells 20%,
Tier 2: flares with caster's attuned element (or random),
Tier 3: CS/AS increase,
Tier 4: Double-cast flares,
Tier 5: runestaff floats in front of you and is connected to you without you holding it, allowing you to reap all benefits of the weapon while having both hands open.

Great idea. Any chance we can get the ATP turned on if that part gets settled first, even if the coding for all the neat abilities is still in the works? Normal exp isn't giving me much benefit right now and I'd love to start earning ATP.

Also, am right in thinking the list might be rather open to additions in the future? It would be nice if any GM with a good idea could add extra ascensions down the road.

And some suggestions.

General
Weight training	Gain 1% DF on all melee attacks
Will training	Gain 1% DF on all warding/bolt attacks
Focus training	Gain 1% DF on all ranged/thrown attacks
Light burdens	Gain 1 pound more carry capacity without being encumbered per rank
Spell duration	Gain 1% more duration on buff spells per rank
Bane of orcs	Gain +1 damage weighting to all orcs
Bane of trolls	Gain +1 damage weighting to all trolls
Bane of ghosts	Gain +1 damage weighting to all non-corps
Bane of ghouls	Gain +1 damage weighting to all reanimated type undead, ghouls/zombies/rotting farmers and such
Bane of beasts	Gain +1 damage weighting to all 4 legged animals
Bane of bandits	Gain +1 damage weighting to all bandits
Bane of elementals	Gain +1 damage weighting to all elementals

Elite
Dwarven training	Gain +2 AS per rank when using any axe, hammer or pick
Swordmaster training	Gain +2 AS per rank when using any sword
Naturally lucky	D100 combat rolls become D10N rolls where N=(2 x rank). So D102 on rank 1, up to D110 on rank 5.
Dedicated forger	Forge RT reduced by 5% per rank
Skilled forger	1% higher chance for best results per rank
Tough hide	Gain +1 damage padding per rank

Legendary
Master of mirrors	Song of mirrors creates a full double of the bard. The first attack within a 2 minute window in diverted harmlessly to the double. The window shrinks by 25 seconds per rank to a minimum of 20 seconds at rank 5.
Shield master	Dodge penalty is reduced to 1 shield size smaller per rank (small shield penalty gone at rank 1, tower shield gone at rank 4)
Strapped shield	Shield can be held without penalty when using a two-handed weapon. Bigger shield used with more ranks
Crusader for light	1630 is player friendly, +1 target per rank for ranks 1-4, +2 more for rank 5 (total +6), cannot learn Crusader for dark
Crusader for dark	1630 gains +2 targets per rank, hits the full room (including players, but group friendly) at rank 5, cannot learn Crusader for light
Forked tongue	Gain a chance (independent of other abilities) to hit a second creature with the same noun as the first on any offensive cast. 10% per rank, has a 30 second cooldown.
Hard to kill	Once per day, ignore the fatal effects of a crit. Higher ranks reduce the injury and stun associated with the attack. 5 ranks automatically applies any short term buff abilities the player has access to (140, 1619, incarnate armor, 919)
Threatening presence	Any attack made towards members of a group lead by a paladin with threatening presence must pass a warding check. If they fail, the the creature is put under the effects of 1608. Added ranks cause TD pushdown and allow the group to be larger (+1 person protected per rank, any size group at rank 5).
Master Elementalist	On each normally cast elemental spell (not from a wand, 950 or with rapid fire), gain an additional chance for an elemental flare for each rank in master elementalist. Rank 1 unlocks a flare governed by your highest e-lore type (For instance, if you have the most water lore the flare will be one of cold/water/acid/steam/lightning). Rank 2 is the second highest lore, 3 the 3rd, 4 the 4th. At 5 you can pick the type for all 5 flare chances.
Combined arms	With a 30 second cooldown, any melee attack will be preceded by a ranged or thrown attack "flare" similar to weapon bonding. Uses your skill for that attack type and requires a thrown or ranged weapon to be on your person.

Sweet is the sound of the pouring rain,
And the stream that falls from the hill to plain.
Better than rain or rippling brook,
Is a mug of beer inside this Took.

Since we’re going to the Feats route we could always add some “multi classing” ascension. A la carte Savants!

Bard and Empath ascensions to get minor mental spells.

Ranger:
Master Tracker
Requires at least 1 rank of Beastmaster and a 4-legged AC at some high level of affinity
Allows Ranger to track their AC after having been sent to find someone.

Rank 1 - same realm
Rank 2 - adjacent realms
Rank 3 - distant realms and you can take your group with you

or
Rank 3 - distant realms
Rank 4 - you can take your group with you

~~~

Beast of Burden
(anyone)
Negates all encumbrance for short period of time (long enough to exit a hunting area while buried in boxes - 2-5 minutes)

Wee Sleepy Gnomette

Cloth-of-eonake: for when you absolutely, positively need to have zombie-impenetrable underwear. - Denil

When my scripts are acting up, I take Modrian with Coding. After a few hours, they feel like new! - MAXMANJ

Great ideas so far! Keep them coming!

I also want to note the list of ideas I posted was to provide examples of the types of things we're hoping for. It's not all inclusive or the final list that's going to happen. Every profession will have fun and unique abilities to strive for. In addition, the system will be ever evolving. Like with spells and the Combat Maneuver List, we'll make changes (adjustments, new abilities, etc) over time as needed. Lastly, this system will also not replace updating existing abilities as needed either. As a specific example, a number of sorcerers have been wanting longer animate durations with Animate Dead (730) and one of the proposed abilities is the Persistent Animator which extends the duration and eventually makes it indefinite. Persistent Animator doesn't mean we would never consider extending the base duration of the spell. It's possible for both to exist.

To answer a few questions:

NENMOONIA

Sounds like an awesome idea. Question - if you're hunting, and you turned the pool on, is it diverting the experience to the pool or are you gaining the experience alongside it?

Is there a max "pool" limit that you need to rest to absorb or would it be continuous?

Any experience you earn would continue to be field experience (your mind). It's when that field experience is turned into real experience that the experience is reallocated (per your setting) into the Ascension system. So normally, you might absorb 30 experience per pulse, but if you have it to set to divert 50% to ATPs, you would earn 15 normal experience and 15 experience toward ATPs.

AIZEN

sounds amazing. but im assuing stats and such will not be capped by the normal +40 since a lot of us already have them maxxed.

ALLENM20

Will the +1 to stats go towards the +20 bonus stat cap or go beyond this cap?

More than likely not, but some of the details still need to be worked out. It's a matter of if the bonus should replace the need for enhancives or supplement them.

Sabotage

I think figuring out what these will ultimately be for is important. If it is just for more fun abilities against creatures we are currently facing then a lot of this stuff is fine cause we can faceroll most of it already at a certain point. If you want to create creatures that are more powerful then that's another thing as a lot of this may not help with that.

The abilities will be for any existing content in the game. We're first focusing on new abilities and the system for you to earn them. Down the road, there definitely could be newer hunting grounds with more challenges and risk that also reward more credit toward the Ascension system.

GameMaster Estild

WINTERDAWN

What are your thoughts about a fair amount of these skills potentially being relegated to pointless status due to other skills being far superior mechanically?

The skill that made me think this thought is the Improvised Pick one.

Unless it can offer a benefit over vaalin it's going to be a pure RP skill, and may be a hard choice when you have other legendaries that are going to be a lot better.

You're not just unlocking a single ability then done. You can earn as many as you want. More powerful abilities will cost more ATPs, so Improvised Pick might cost 1 ATP while Improvisational Fighter might cost 20.

GameMaster Estild

CLERIC WEDDING STUFF

Sounding good so far. While we're talking about branches/trees... I'm curious as to whether any other clerics would like this set of skills for one of the clerical branches/paths... I sure would.

As a wedding cleric for 20somethin years, I've always wanted some special abilities like:

GROUP A - wedding item creation (limited per day, week, or month)
1. create a 2-quaff love potion
2. create water then turn that water into a pourable 12-quaff decanter of wine for the reception, in one fell swoop
3. make/decorate a 70-bite wedding cake
4. create a plain but engravable/alterable engagement ring/band
5. create a plain but engravable/alterable wedding ring/band
6. create an official-looking wedding certificate or license

GROUP B - engrave ring (hoping it's possible to limit this to the special rings in GROUP A which are created by clerics)
7. engrave with symbol
8. engrave with phrase
9. engrave with language

GROUP C - ?ambient? tricks
10. cause wedding bells to ring/chime
11. audible cooing of doves in the distance
12. smellable scent of roses in the air
13. visible glow surrounding the cleric-made wedding ring (in the cleric's hand) which is receiving a "wedding blessing"

GROUP D - wedding perks (for the newlyweds)
14. a special wedding blessing that can be given to the bride and groom, which offer some sort of real protection for an hour or so of their journey


= = = = = = = = = =
more details below - in other words, QUIT READING and MOVE ON, BUDDY... if you're not already interested
= = = = = = = = = =


overlook my horrid examples/spelling/descriptions please, i'm always the one at the merchant event ever-whispering to 200 people "HELP i can not create a show descrip! HAAALP!"

GROUP A - SKILL: WEDDING ITEM CREATION (limited to once per day/week/month - or twice, in the case of wedding rings you need two per day/week/month because making them for a couple)

rank 1: create a love potion (2 quaffs, drinking results in some sort of fun-looking but useless effect)
-example a love potion, show/look: The crystal bottle is heart-shaped and decorated with red hearts. A fancy label lettered in elegant script reads: Love Potion.
-example: a <color> heart-shaped bottle, show/look: The glass-stoppered bottle contains a bubbly potion and reads "Love Potion"

rank 2: create a decanter of water, then turn that water into wine (pourable, 10-12 quaffs)
-example: Soliere gestures and a decanter of water appears in her hand. She concentrates on the decanter, mutters a few words, and the water appears changed to a decanter of sparkling wine.

rank 3: create/decorate a wedding cake (40-70 bites, the writing on the cake should be one standard message, but it would be nice if the two colors and two names are customizable)
-example: a wedding cake, show/look: The cake is iced in <color> with a wedding bells theme in <color2>. You see these words: "Congratulations, <name> and <name2>!"

rank 4: create an engagement ring/band (engravable/alterable)

rank 5: create a wedding ring/band (engravable/alterable)

rank 6: create a wedding certificate or license (should be limited, and hopefully customizable with <color of certificate>, <name>, <name2>, <cleric name>, <date of wedding>, <place of wedding>)
-example: <name> and <name2> were joined in marriage by <cleric name> on <today's date> at <town/area name> (this should have to be created on the day of the wedding while standing in the area of the wedding, and the date/place are filled in by default based on game time/date and LOCATION verb result... cleric name would default to the cleric who is creating the certificate... might be a little clunky but accuracy would be important and i even have trouble remembering how to write a proper Elanthian date sometimes)

GROUP B - SKILL: ENGRAVE RING/BAND (limited to rings created by the/a cleric)

ENGRAVE WITH SYMBOL
-example: a wedding ring, show/look: Engraved on the ring is a rose symbol.
-rank 1: dagger symbol
-rank 2: infinity symbol
-rank 3: flame symbol
-rank 4: heart symbol
-rank 5: rose symbol

ENGRAVE WITH PHRASE
-example: a wedding ring, show/look: Inscribed inside the ring are the words: "<name>: I love you. -<name2>" (if 2 names are specified) or "I love you, <name>." (if one name specified) or only "I love you." (if no name specified)
-rank 1: "<name>: I love you. -<name2>"
-rank 2: "<name>: Forever mine. -<name2>"
-rank 3: "<name>: Together as one. -<name2>"
-rank 4: "<name>: Faithfully yours. -<name2>"
-rank 5: "<name>: Gags, whips, chains... Us. -<name2>"

ENGRAVE WITH LANGUAGE
-example: a wedding ring, show/look: Inscribed inside the ring are the words: "<name>: Anu aminaeri. -<name2>" (if 2 names are specified) or "<name>: Anu aminaeri." (if one name specified) or only "Anu aminaeri." (if no name specified)
-rank 1: aelotian: "<name>: Anu aminaeri. -<name2>" (i love you)
-rank 2: krolgeh: "<name>: Q'ap tezt gno'ap to. -<name2>" (you are mine)
-rank 3: tehir: "<name>: Zomjii, rafir. -<name2>" (thank you, lover)
-rank 4: dhe'nar-si: "<name>: Tacne q'hesa. -<name2>" (slay many)
-rank 5: trollspeak: "<name>: Ruo vro'lar ri. -<name2>" (i love you)
-Yes, I often speak troll to my love interest. 0;)
-Language experts, please fix if i screwed up too bad?

GROUP C - ?AMBIENT? TRICKS

-rank 1: bells - Soliere waves her hand in the air. Wedding bells begin to ring. (the hand wave is admittedly dorky, you'll come up with something awesome, i just know it)

-rank 2: birds (sound) - You hear the cooing of doves in the distance.

-rank 3: roses (scent) - You detect a light floral hint of roses in the air.

-rank 4: ring glow - Soliere blesses the wedding ring, which is then surrounded by a soft golden glow. (would be nice to be able to choose a special color) (this could be problematic unless the bless was able to be limited to a wedding ring the cleric had created themself and were holding in their hand at the moment, so i figure it might be too complicated to implement.)

GROUP D - OTHER

-grant a newlywed couple a "wedding blessing" which gives them special uncommon defense for a certain period of time for their travel to their honeymoon (how would you determine that the couple really were newlyweds or prevent this from being cast on non-newlyweds? you couldn't, except to limit the use of this to twice per day/week/month - twice because hopefully there are two people in the newlywed couple, and cause it to not be self-castable). it wouldn't have to be a brand new spell, perhaps Spirit Guard (1712). just something unusual. impossible? i know, right?

SOLIERE'S OTHER BORING NOTES:

i would like to see limits imposed because most clerics perform less than one wedding per month (many perform less than that), therefore, the need for a pair of wedding rings/bands is not so common, and we don't need 400 playershops selling wedding rings nor love potions etc, i myself would prefer things created by the cleric not even be sellable in playershops

my intent here is not moneymaking but just pure fun and roleplaying. thus, the love potion should grow mold (not too quickly, some of us do prepare for a wedding a few weeks in advance, it would be horrible if the love potion we made did not last until the wedding 3 weeks later), so it does not become an item overstocked in playershops, etc

i doubt there's a way you could easily track how many ASSIST REQUESTs are generated as a result of a particular cleric's mistakes in creating items, but it would be nice if, after a cleric has screwed up 10 items and caused GM's an inordinate amount of grief, they have their privileges revoked for a month or two. or get struck by lightning a few times. yes i'm a twisted meanie. smiteme!

I know, IknowIknow... I've always been a dreamer... no plans to stop now 0:D
Thanks for asking for input! You rule!
Soliere :) :)

Cross posted from the wizard forum, since all the action seems to be here:

LEGENDARY:

- Aim bolts.

- A giant single target no cooldown nuke that wrecks shop.

- Frontload 917 instead of being a DoT spell...like Boil Earth and Earthen Fury put together. Could be a giant single target nuke.

- 0 RT 515.

- A lot of phantom lore ranks (101+).

- Recharge items with no fail/no degradation.

- Items you recharge grant short term self-knowledge when used.



ELITE:

- Change your attunement instantly. Or something. Possibly move to Legendary if attunement is made more impactful.

- A hefty amount of phantom lore ranks.

- True cross realm 930.



COMMON:

- A decent amount of phantom lore ranks.


And stuff.

~ Methais

Get Over Here
Allows an evoked version of 116 to summon a player corpse from any realm. More ranks allows the summoning of living players from same, near-adjacent, adjacent, and far transportation realms.

As I gaze over the horizon, the wind tugs at my cloak and whispers, "Adventure" in my ear.

A squeaky halfling nearby asks, "Why you playing with orcs heads and troll rearends?!"