We wanted to introduce a few skills that are being worked on for the MMO and figured that spell-lines would be a good place to start. Please understand that everything in this post is subject to change during further implementation as well as testing and balancing. We can't answer much more than what is posted here as so much is still up in the air.
Enjoy!
Spellweaving: The traditional wizard skill, Spellweaving is all about raw power and the shaping of it into harmful and useful ways. They are masters of the Al'Noth, which is our new term for magic (instead of weave) and are able to channel it in pure forms or in more colorful elemental types. To spice things up this time around, each elemental conveyance has been given some sort of triggered ability just so that their utility was clear in multiple situations.
Spellweavers dont have as solid crowd control abilities as Spellcallers do, but to balance that out almost all their spells have side effects that can easily make up for what they lack in that area (for example; freezing spells that cause damage but also slow down the victim). Combined with the ability to dish out more "burst" damage than any other spellcasting class, Spellweavers certainly will have a new way of fitting into their "glass cannon" role.
Darkweaving: The main idea behind having an individual skill line for a dark magician was to avoid an issue we constantly faced in the nwn community; "Was that spell an evil spell? Or is it how it is used?". At first glance that may seem a simple answer but some of the spells we had really danced along a thin line and it was mostly opinion as to which side it belonged to at any given time. Darkweaving is our answer to that question. If you are practicing this skill you are up to no good or simply ethics and morals hold little influence in your life.
While that was the reasoning behind its existence, it still needed to have a unique flavor, we didnt just want this to be an "evil" spellweaver, we wanted them to have a methodology exclusive to them and that no other caster class had (or had little of). So the Darkweaver became the slow spell-torturer (or damage over time). Their spells may not pack an immediate punch, but they add up over time, ticking dangerously with each passing moment and skillfully draining any useful attributes that one takes for granted. Curses, poisons, diseases are all in the arsenal of a Darkweaver and with their vampiric abilities they will outlast most others.
Spellpraying: Now this was a difficult one to get a good start on. Layonara has many deities, and they are all completely unique from one another. Sure there is some overlap here and there but we really couldnt say that all Spellprayers were the quintessential "cleric" as other games do because it simply doesnt apply to Layonara. I mean we even have gods that by dogma wouldnt encourage any healing at all. So this was certainly a tricky thing to setup and it is probably one of the skills that will require the most work to get right (and balanced).
For now we think of Spellpraying being in version 0.5, while all the other skills are a clear 1.0. So this skill is subject to much change. The basics of what we do have are oriented in capturing very global themes that all our deities do have, which is the channeling of a divine gift to bless or smite things. In addition, Spellpraying brought the "Deities excluded" field to the game. This field basically disallows followers of certain deities to learn a particular spell from any of the skill lines that are marked as being forbidden by that deity. Basically what this field brought us was the ability to not have Aeridinites casting Venomous Touch (From Darkweaving) and have some form of control and flavor while we inject more flavor into Spellpraying. With the "Deities Excluded" addition we are also able to apply it to entire skills (or spells as stated above).
Spellgrowing: Layonara has always been based around nature in some manner and we have always had Druids or Rangers of some kind. Clearly we needed a skill-line that supported the nature loving type. Spellgrowing is a very party friendly skill-line, having some very unique buffs, some excellent healing over time spells, as well as spells with integrated crowd control.
Keeping to the tradition of shape shifting, we also implemented that in this version of Layonara, the shape the caster takes depends on animal totems that they acquire through questing in the world and each shape allowing them to do something in particular. Having for instance a fox shape will allow them to scout and cover distances in a somewhat stealthy outfit, or perhaps something more feral like a feline or a wolf to deal damage as nature intends.
Spellsinging: Next we move on to the bardic skill line. This tends to be the made fun of and underdog in most games, so we figured it was about time it had some severe loving so that it would not become something that was a quirky thing to do but actually something that would be sought after by many. Enter the Spellsinger. At its core, this skill line provides the best party support in the game, hands down. It can restore, enhance, and ward just about every variable that is important to all characters and a well played Spellsinger may be able to keep a party up and running longer than a Spellprayer.
The beauty of the Spellsinger is the fact that one of its main attributes is Agility, which means that it already lends itself to a whole different set of skills than other casters are likely to be using. A Spellsinger will be able to use finesse type weapons and skills with ease due to their attributes and the plethora of aiding spells it will have. Which automatically takes them out of the usual rut they find themselves in with most other games. Sure other casters can use those skills as well but they are likely to not be as "gifted" in them due to their agility.
Spellcalling: This was a late addition in the design process. We basically needed some sort of summoner class but we werent really happy with what we had. It seemed too much of a copy of a spellweaver with a few summons here and there and that didnt seem to justify an entire skill line. Essentially it is a character whose magic comes from the often thin line between worlds and not generally from their environment.
The Spellcaller, at its most basic is a summoner. The summons have unique abilities and grow in power as the Spellcaller increases on their own. But why stop there? If these guys can control forces from beyond, they should be able to manifest it in all sorts of fun ways, and thats what we did. In the end Spellcallers ended up with a lot of utility and some really fun mechanics in addition to having a way to strengthen and use their summons cleverly in combat.