The Herbalist And The Naturalist

HERBALIST and NATURALIST Classes

HERBALIST

A cross between a Mesmer (degen damage) and a Monk (assists allies).

Weapons - rods wands and staves, max damage 11-22, max focus +12.
Crafted primarily of wood and attribute elements.
Intricately carved with attribute symbols, very elegant, dye affects wooden elements.

Attributes:
Chlorophyll (primary) - For every level gain +20 to max HP.
Petal - Skills related to flowers - assisting
Leaf - Skills related to herbs - healing
Stem - Skills related to wood - damage
Spore - Skills related to fungus - degen

Skintones from very pale to very dark, eyes and hair normal colors and mutated colors.
Hairstyles long and intricately braided showing forehead, for men and women.

Head: Circlet - Max armor level 60
Crafted of dust and attribute elements, circlet appears as a narrow band across forehead adorned with attribute elements, small flowers, leaves, woven stems and mushrooms. Chlorophyll Circlet is unadorned. Dye affects entire item.

Torso: Blouse and Vest
Crafted of cloth and linen (linen and damask for 15k), blouse appears as long full sleeved peasant or pirate blouse and vest, intricately embroidered with attribute symbols, elegant, dye affects cloth elements.

Arms: Wrist Bands
Crafted with same materials, wrist bands appear as 1 to 2 inch wide ties around wrists, embroidered, dye affects cloth elements.

Legs: Skirt for women, Breeches for men
Same crafting materials, elegantly embroidered, dye affects cloth elements.

Feet: Sandals
Same crafting materials, appear as Monk 15k Wanderer Sandals, embroidered, dye affects cloth elements.

Sample Skills:

Petal Power - For 5 seconds target other ally gains +3 to energy recharge.
Attribute Petal - Cost 10 - Cast Time 2 - Recharge Time 10

Parsley Balm - Heal target ally for 20 to 80 points of health.
Attribute Leaf - Cost 10 - Cast Time 1 - Recharge Time 5

Splinters - Send out 3 wooden splinters that do 3 to 33 points of damage each to target foe.
Attribute Stem - Cost 5 - Cast Time 1 - Recharge Time 3

Mushroom Cloud - Elite Skill - Create a cloud of mushroom spores at target foes location. For 5 to 15 seconds all foes within cloud are poisoned.
Attribute Spore - Cost 15 - Cast Time 3 - Recharge Time 30
Gentle Jasmine - Remove 1 hex from target ally.
Attribute None - Cost 5 - Cast Time ¼ - Recharge Time 3

NATURALIST

A cross between a Ranger (has a pet) and an Elemental (uses staves and wands).

Weapons - rods wands and staves, max damage 11-22, max focus +12.
Crafted from wood and attribute elements.
Wildly formed with dangling attribute elements and leather wraps, dye affects wooden elements.

Attributes:
Familiar (primary) - No inherent effect. Skills related to your animal companion become more effective with higher ranks in Familiar attribute.
Fur - Skills related to Mammals
Feather - Skills related to Avians
Scale - Skills related to Reptiles
Chitin - Skills related to Insects

Skintones normal (light to dark), hair and eyes normal colors.
Hairstyles long with a top knot created from crown hair, for men and women.

Head: Clasp - Max armor level 60
Crafted of bone and attribute elements, clasp appears around base of top knot, adorned with attribute elements. Recharge Clasp appears as a bone through top knot. Dye affects entire item.

Torso: Tunic
Crafted of hide and attribute elements (leather for 15k), tunic appears as single shoulder halter top, cut short (shows abs), with jagged diagonal hem line, adorned with attribute elements, dye affects normal elements.

Arms: Gauntlets
Crafted of same materials, gauntlets appear as Monk Handwraps, only leather, adorned with attribute elements. Dye affects normal elements.

Legs: Loin Cloth
Crafted of same materials, lion cloth appears as 15k Druid leggings, hip hugger, short (shows thigh), with jagged diagonal hemline starting on right hip (total slit), adorned with attribute elements, dye affects normal elements.

Feet: Anklets
Crafted of same materials, anklets appear as leg wraps from ankle to half way up calf (feet are bare) adorned with attribute elements, dye affects normal elements.

Sample Skills:

Felis Terribulus - Elite Skill - Summon a large feline that attacks target foe once with both paws which do 3 to 33 points of damage each. Once attack is complete, feline disappears.
.Attribute Fur - Cost 20 - Cast Time 5 - Recharge Time 30

Tickle You - Conjure a feather under target foes nose, causing him to sneeze and interrupting his action. This spell does no damage.
Attribute Feather - Cost 5 - Cast Time 1 - Recharge Time 7

Viper - Summon a Pit Viper at target foes location. Viper bites for 5 to 25 damage and foe becomes poisoned for 5 to 25 seconds. Once attack is complete, viper vanishes.
Attribute Scale - Cost 15 - Cast Time 3 - Recharge Time 30

Swarm - Summon a swarm of 10 to 100 bees at target foes location. For 15 seconds all foes in area are stung for 10 points of damage every 2 seconds.
Attribute Chitin - Cost 20 - Cast Time 4 - Recharge Time 30

Lick Wound - Heal animal companion for 25 to 100 health.
Attribute Familiar - Cost 10 - Cast Time 1 - Recharge Time 3

How much energy regen do they have initially? +7 energy regen (assuming that the armor doesn't give evergy regen) is way overpowered. Mix that with any other class and you got yourself a powerhouse of horror.

Maybe make it more like "when energy is replenished add 1% more evergy per 2 levels." or somthing.

I suppose a base energy regen of 1 would do it, but this can be changed.

If I recall, +2 is the base for all characters. Armor sets the extra regen.

Ah, ok, then perhaps it should be set to every 5 ranks, max +3?

I could see that working a little better, except a little redudant, why not just have him have a +4 regen like most classes? Any permenent above +4 maybe +5 is just crazy amounts of regen. It makes Elementalists obsolete and anyone could go H/E and have no hardly energy management. Setting the base at a +2 just to base it around the primary is just silly if at most you can only have +5. Instead just set the base at +4 and if you really want it just have it get a primary that somhow is useful but not overpowered. ie. like my energy idea. Remember that energy isn't like HP you don't have hundreds of points in energy that need a huge regen.

I don't really see the point of describing each armor pease individually, a overal look of the class is plentifull, Anet is always going to give it its own twist.

I am a supporter of a class that supports a single(2 or 3 max) pet, instead of a pet supporting the class.
Though with the sample skill youve put up I'm finding it very hard to be suportive of this.

First of all a primary is suposed to have benificent effect on other classes as well(even if the effect is crappy)
You have given no effect to you primary, original but contradictairy, as what point does it have if it does the exact same thing as beast mastery?
At least give it some effect to make people prefer it over beast mastery, because that can be used from a secondairy class and comes with cool nature rituals.

The skills summon some critter that does something then dissapears, though spells whith a short casting time that take a little time for the creature to orient itself from being manifested(I would feel summoning is rather disorienting, if I where suddenly teleported infront of someone with a sword)
Making it a little interesting but not really that diferent from spirit rift or wastrells worry.

sounds gross as a skill is preformed by you, it is in your skill bar
and the discription does not say 'your pet licks its wounds ....' like a ranger skill does.
Also it should be pet unable to attack and gains X health each second(or gains X health regen) for Y seconds, as it takes time to lick the all the wounds that have caused 100 damage, which is kind of hard to do if you have to bite and claw someone at the same time.

It is however nice that the skill you posted is a overpowered pet heal from the primary, it shows the class does have a focus in supporting its pet.

also I like the chitin attribute, unlike the plant user you posted above I haven't seen it on the forums earlyr(sorry if it was there) and it there by kind of original.
People often overlook the power of insects because of their size, while their size makes it that much easyer for magic to controll them allowing for controll of greater groups.
The Animate Bone Minions necro skill was originally meant to summon 2 scarabs with a bone and flesh texture on them, I do not know why they changed it into small sized bone horors, maybe becasue a bone texture scarab is hard to make but I think it would have looked a lot cooler.

Don't like bees though, too fuzzy and colorfull, and a bee can only sting once then dies, I do not think 100 bees is enough to last 15 seconds
also the number of bees does not seem to affect anything in the skill are they killable or something?

Now I realise that by stacking familiar and beast mastery you could have 2 pets, which is kinda cool also as several ranger skills mention affecting all your pets it would make for some good intersecting skills, a nice gimic when combined with a sertain secondairy class does not make for the right of existance for a class, what is the role the naturalist is suposed to preform other than dealing 66(against armor 60-100 3-0...52-44) damage at a terible rate at the cost of 20 energy per hit and a little more from their pet.

Swarm has a use though, it would make mobs run away in PvE quite effectively, beating fire storm at that effect.

Hmmm, very good points.

Perhaps the primary could be something different all together.

Got any suggestions?

(added)

One of the things I noticed while playing spellcasters (except for an elemental) is that I run out of energy so fast, especially healing skills, so a total of 40 energy isnt that much, and a recharge time of 3 is just too slow.

So I was thinking of raising the energy recharge time, and balance it out with cost and skill recharge times so the character does not become overpowerfull.

However, I did not see that there are already herbalist types suggested, so perhaps one of them is better.

That's one way.

I'll think of another.

"Whenever a hex ends on a foe, you gain +1 energy and +1 health for every every 3 levels.

Maybe a little overpowered, especially if there is a huge group of mesmers with you.

"Whenever a non-monk spell is cast on an ally heal 1 health point per level"

This could make for a sweet monk substitute.

"For every level gain +20 to max HP"

320+ extra HP at level 16 yeah it's a buttload, but at 60 armor max and it being a spellcaster really maybe have it only get +3 energy, it can be a warrior's best friend or worst enemy.

"Every 3 levels recharge time on spells are reduced by 1%"

Fast casting sort of.


Any of these can be used if you want.

"I don't really see the point of describing each armor pease individually, a overal look of the class is plentifull, Anet is always going to give it its own twist."

Ah, well, Im an artist and I can see them in my head, so I described them.
I was not aware that it was a problem.

"I am a supporter of a class that supports a single(2 or 3 max) pet, instead of a pet supporting the class.
Though with the sample skill youve put up I'm finding it very hard to be suportive of this."

The skills, as well as everything in the entire class, are not set in stone, they are merely ideas of the type of things the class would use.

"First of all a primary is suposed to have benificent effect on other classes as well(even if the effect is crappy)"

Huh? It was my understanding that a primary attribute can only be used by a character with that primary class, IE: Mesmers Fast Casting does not affect the entire party and is only available to primary mesmers.

In my head, a naturalists focus is on animals, animal related skills and support of their animal companion.

Maybe Im just not understanding what you mean....

"You have given no effect to you primary, original but contradictairy, as what point does it have if it does the exact same thing as beast mastery?"

In essense it is beast mastery, the pet being the main weapon. In this attribute there could be many attacks the pet could make, as well as many ways to protect and heal the pet while its attacking.

"At least give it some effect to make people prefer it over beast mastery, because that can be used from a secondairy class and comes with cool nature rituals."

Sounds good to me, do you have any suggestions?

"The skills summon some critter that does something then dissapears, though spells whith a short casting time that take a little time for the creature to orient itself from being manifested(I would feel summoning is rather disorienting, if I where suddenly teleported infront of someone with a sword)
Making it a little interesting but not really that diferent from spirit rift or wastrells worry."

I see the summoning skills much in the same way as a nature ritual, except the summoned appear at the targets location rather than the players location, sort of like conjuring a fireball, the conjured appears next to the target, performs its attack, then vanishes. It is not a flesh and blood pet type creature, it is an attack spell.

"sounds gross as a skill is preformed by you, it is in your skill bar
and the discription does not say 'your pet licks its wounds ....' like a ranger skill does."

LOL!
I suppose it does sound gross.
In my head naturalists live in caves and treehouses, prefering to reside amist nature as opposed to living in a village or town, they learn from animals, and animals lick their wounds, so I made that the title of the skill.
Again, anything can be altered to make it more playable.
I have never designed a class for a video game before, this is my first time, so I have probably made many mistakes that need correction.

"Also it should be pet unable to attack and gains X health each second(or gains X health regen) for Y seconds, as it takes time to lick the all the wounds that have caused 100 damage, which is kind of hard to do if you have to bite and claw someone at the same time."

Yes, it should be able to function only while not in battle.
But as you said, Anet will put its own spin on it, and I kinda figured they would know how to word it better than I do.

"It is however nice that the skill you posted is a overpowered pet heal from the primary, it shows the class does have a focus in supporting its pet."

The main focus is on pet support, communion with animals.

"also I like the chitin attribute, unlike the plant user you posted above I haven't seen it on the forums earlyr(sorry if it was there) and it there by kind of original.
People often overlook the power of insects because of their size, while their size makes it that much easyer for magic to controll them allowing for controll of greater groups."

Yes, one of my favorite spells in the original D&D dealt bee damage

"Don't like bees though, too fuzzy and colorfull, and a bee can only sting once then dies, I do not think 100 bees is enough to last 15 seconds"

Hmm...
Average 5 foes, 20 bees per foe, each foe stung every 2 seconds, so it should actually be for 10 seconds.

"also the number of bees does not seem to affect anything in the skill are they killable or something?"

No, they are like Fire Storm, an AOE spell.

"Now I realise that by stacking familiar and beast mastery you could have 2 pets,"

Oooo!!!
I hadnt thought of that!
Hmmm....
That may actually be a problem.
Well, maybe not, your skill bar can only contain 8 skills, and one should be a rez of some kind, so then 2 pet charms, 2 pet rez/heals, thats 5, a self heal makes six, that only leaves 2 for any attack skills, making the character rather weak.

"which is kinda cool also as several ranger skills mention affecting all your pets it would make for some good intersecting skills, a nice gimic when combined with a sertain secondairy class does not make for the right of existance for a class,"

True.

"what is the role the naturalist is suposed to preform other than dealing 66(against armor 60-100 3-0...52-44) damage at a terible rate at the cost of 20 energy per hit and a little more from their pet."

Much the same as an elementalist, but I didnt want them to be over powered.

"Swarm has a use though, it would make mobs run away in PvE quite effectively, beating fire storm at that effect."

Yes, although I do love fire storm as a get off me spell, it takes too long to cast.

Perhaps you could word the skills as you see them?

Thank you so much for your input.

OOOO!!!!!

I LIKE THAT ONE!!!!

So if energy was around 40 and energy recharge was at +3, with extra health, that would be a good reason to play an herbalist.

Hmmm...

So do I edit the original post, or make a new one?

Yes, perhaps I was not being clear;
Fast casting affect all spells, also spells from your secondairy profession, this helpes nicely for some skills, spawning power also affects minions and ranger spirits you might summon with your secondairy class.
The monk is the only class with a primary that is completely useless when used with a secondairy proffesion skill, I gues it compensates that by being quite powerfull.

Point is that a good primary has some use use for the secondairy profession, does not have to affect al of them.
Beast mastery skills have effects like revive animal that heals all animal companions also familiars if they are animals I guess, and call of protection affects all your animal allies, in that it seems like it already is a primary eventhough it is not, but still offers a bonus to any other atributes that controll a animal companion on a secondairy/primary class.

hmmmm.... A D&D druid's familiar is usually a creature they have nurtured from when it was still a orphaned youg pup/welp/larva in that I guess you could give it a bonus for the creature being raised better with a higher atribute(then you could unraise/elixer of youth it by lowering the attribute but that piece of random space-time incoherentie I'll leave out of the picture)
Either affecting the level of the creature of giving it adtional health or armor.

Coppying playfull/elder/watever to indicate if the pet has the armor, heath or attack speed bonus is wrong that is ranger turf, maybe familiars should be contained in skills precharged instead of you having to charm them yourself, just to give it a diference from the ranger(but then you could bring more than one which would be wrong too, hmmmm...)

Yes I sort of felt like that from the spell discription, thats why I mentioned Spirit Rift and Wastrels worry which are both spells.
But you did mention the word summon in each of the skill descriptions, so I though it might be a new skilltype, as that is not uncommon in CC's.
As you said the summon is only a spell animation thing, I'll shut up about it.

Yes pre nerfing is popular, maybe I should start doing it...
But copying stone daggers and making it cost 15 more energy and be elite O.o
Even without a recharge time it would suck due to armor.

Perhaps in the intrest of uniqueness you could cast the attacks spells off the pet, you cast a spel on your pet which spawns a Ghostly Crag at your pets location that deal damage to all nearby foes before it disapear into your pet agian.
Sort of unleash the inner beast && attuned spirit to nature && cast a instant effect spell.

Well I guess there isn't really anythign wrong with it, I'm being a Bahamutt and stating my personal preference as if it where a universal truth
*slaps himself* bad me!

No, thank you
Oh, and all of the sugestions, its your class so it's your call.

If you want it just put EDIT: "whatever" so that the following posts make sence.


<PLUG> Can anyone please look at my Cannon Berzerker? It's not fun being ignored. </PLUG>

Hmmm....
Interesting idea. Let me think about this.

Now that is an interesting idea. The Naturalists main focus is the pet, so casting the spells on the pet sounds good to me.

How would something like that be worded do you think?

LOL! You are not bad, in fact you have been very helpful.

Well, as this is the very first time I have ever tried to compile a character class for a video game, the suggestions are invaluable to me.

I will think some more about the casting on the pet, I like that idea.
I just dont know how to word it yet.

[QUOTE=Red_Dragon56]If you want it just put EDIT: "whatever" so that the following posts make sence.[QUOTE]

Ok, cool, thank you!

I did change the herbalist primary.

I have to think about the spell casting on the pet and will update the description when I figure it out.

This is much different than creating a character class for D&D.....

Predatory Instinct Spell energy 10 activation 2 recharge 10
Deal 10...30(40) slashing damage to 1 foe near each allied animal companion.

Its a team spike, that deals damage out of all pets in the team, maybe make the activation just a little longer as it is kinda strong when there are many pets in the team.
Or just balance it like the Clamour of Souls or Mistic Twister:
the same foe can not be hit more than once
(though that would take a lot of the puch out of the skill)

another example:

Vicious Spirit Skill energy 10 activation 1 recharge 15
For 5 seconds if any of your animal companions die, foes adjascent to the pet take 15...55(68) holy damage.

Traditionaly a druid is a undead hunter, they are attuned to nature and dutifully seek to destroy unatural beings.
Thats why holy damage may be fitting, I could not really think up what type of damage a spirit of nature would actually do, there is probably a better one than holy that I just fail to see right now.
[Edit]The damge is 1 time it does not hit for the 5 seconds the skill lasts[/Edit]

Proximety of Danger Elite Spell energy 10 activation 2 recharge 5
If there is an allied animal companion nearby target foe that foe takes 10...60(75) holy damage, if there is a allied animal companion adjascent to target foe that foe takes and aditional 3...35(45) damage.

This one can actually be repetedly used, to sort of get the nuking thing going.
It does not stack with multiple companions, however it would be mroe liky to have one close to target foe if you had more.
Might want to keep the skills based off of multiple pet controll to a low amount.

I do not pre-nerf if you put them in the post you might want to as it will make them fit better into the rest of the post.

Wow, I like those!

Your good at this!

I must be too old for some of the lingo, what is pre nerfing?

Type of damage....
Hmmm....

The pet itself would have slashing/peircing damage (depending on pet), but the other skills, well, Im not sure.

You have a point about the druids, that may be the way to go, or earth damage (naturalist) ("Lets hit him with a rock!") (LOL).

I need to think some more on this, I will make some changes tomorrow.

On the Herbalist, as there are others like it posted already, should I remove the Herbalist and just leave the Naturalist?
Or is my Herbalist different enough to remain?

By the way, thank you so much for your help, I really appreciate this.

pre-nerfig is making deliberatly weak skills to prevent people from saying "ohh, you noob its too overpowered"

Is not pre-nerfed

10...60(75) + 3...35(45) is a good elite
3...33(40) + 1...16(22) is my sorry attempt at severely nerfing it.

Also for your random peace of trivia:
Pre-unnerfed is the opposite and I have seen it mostly used when posting in forums of/for FC(FunCom).
FC is noutorious for nerfing any sugestion if they place it in game and then nerfing it again several patches later.

Yayz! recognition, thank you

If you keep trying to justify a cross between exsisting skills your never going to make anything useful. Any class is going to share some of the same roles as exsisting classes, but they need to do it in an original manner.

Don't try to cross classes, try to make an original alternative to an exsisting class or class combination. What's a Dervish a Cross Between? An elementist and a warrior? but he does damage to multple foes with his attack, and does AoE damage enchantments which deal additional effects when removed, and involves intentional removal of his own enchantments with the benifit of additional effects and restoritive bonuses.

Start with something we have, mix it around a bit, make an original way for it to accomplish a goal, and than give it some flavor. I can make a cross between a mesmer and a monk..... with a Mesmer/Monk, or a Monk/Mesmer. And nothing you suggested makes it any more original than one of those combinations and a few new skills added to the exsisting classes instead of making a totally new class with absolutely nothing to offer or diversify the game.

A naturalist is a nudist. Lmao. I came up wiht an idea a while back that seems A LOT like this one.... srry but mine got rejected and yours doesnt neem much better for the reasons other ppl posted.