Had to do it while the forums still exist. :P

Today's theme is making ascension abilities that come across as mutant but are still in theme for the profession. I think that was the underlying question posed by ASGM Naijin a couple weeks ago in response to a Discord discussion on how to make a magical archetype for warriors or if it's even possible, but I'll get several more professions in here too.

(Just to be clear, I don't even see the quandary or problem at all. But I think several GMs do (not even Naijin, necessarily, but others have occasionally hinted at it), so I'm taking the issue on those terms with a variety of example approaches.)





Warriors


Elite

Earthshaking Tackle

Rank 1: You can EVOKE Elemental Wave to infuse the magical energy into your body as a stored effect (similar to Tremors), which gets released upon a successful Tackle. The individual targeted enemy gets hit by Tackle like normal while surrounding enemies get hit by an effect equivalent to Elemental Wave. (I would think the effect is non-magical, so it would even be able to shake down Vvrael, but I'm not wedded to that part either way.)

Rank 2: There's an additional (Multi Opponent Combat ranks/X)% chance that the affected enemies also become Vulnerable.

Rank 3: You can now opt to EVOKE and infuse Major Elemental Wave instead. (This one would definitely be magical and Vvrael would be immune.)

Warcry Synthesis: You gain the ability to set warcries to use up to half of their stamina cost as a mana cost instead.


Legendary

Distorting Growl: Must know Warcry Synthesis and the Dispel Invisibility spell. The AoE version of Gerrelle's Growl now attempts to force enemies out of invisibility. Success rate is determined by a formula involving Armor Use and Physical Fitness. (The idea being that the more sculpted the warrior, the more imposing their warcry.)

Rallying Yowlp: Must know Warcry Synthesis and the Stun Relief spell. Yertie's Yowlp can now self-unstun with a success rate of (redux*Y)%. (Yes, obviously I know berserking exists. This would be cheaper, faster, and more reliable when dealing with only stun.)

Unnerving Bellow: Must know Warcry Synthesis and the Unbalance spell. Single-target Bertrandt's Bellow can now deal unbalance damage.



Why are these mutant: They require spells on a warrior.

Why are they still in theme: They require use of warrior-exclusive abilities and get improved by training skills like MOC, Armor Use, and Physical Fitness that they have the highest skill caps in. So you continue benefiting from training physical skills to an extreme degree, but can also incorporate a bit of magical flair.





Monks


Elite

Holistic Mastery: Force Projection has a (redux/X)% chance at -1 RT. Twin Hammerfists has a (magic ranks/Y)% chance at -1 RT.


Legendary

Mental Infusion: Must know Holistic Mastery. Force Projection and Twin Hammerfists additionally have a (Minor Mental ranks/A)% chance at rolling twice and taking the higher of the two rolls.

Spiritual Infusion: Must know Holistic Mastery. Force Projection and Twin Hammerfists additionally have a (Minor Spiritual ranks * B)% chance to inflict Critical Hit.

Swift Instincts: Must know Holistic Mastery and Burst of Swiftness. While Burst of Swiftness is active, your unarmed combat attacks have a (((Burst of Swiftness ranks + Ki Focus ranks + Rolling Krynch ranks) * C) + (spell ranks/D))% to automatically tier up.



Why are these mutant: They primarily use spell ranks and magical ranks on a square.

Why are they still in theme: The combination of Minor Mental and Minor Spiritual is unique to monks, as are the combat maneuvers mentioned. Despite scaling up from spells and magical skills trained, all the benefits ultimately go to physical attacks. I'd actually like to think up a way to invoke lethal magical power here, but Call Lightning is the only thing between Minor Spiritual and Minor Mental that fits that bill (at least on a profession with 1x Spell Aiming) and it doesn't seem particularly monk-ish, so I've left it at this for now.





Paladins


Elite

Ascended Infusion: In addition to the initial -50 bolt DS/-25 TD pushdown an infused spell gets from 25 Summoning lore, you can get up to another -2A/-A at a rate of B per C Summoning ranks beyond 25, up to a cap of D.

Doubly Divine: Doubles the base Divine Energy Pool of Divine Incarnation and counts Spiritual Mana Control ranks as double toward increasing it.


Legendary

Blessed Bolts: Must know Ascended Infusion. Arm of the Arkati now applies to your infused bolt spells at an X% rate relative to how it would apply to your physical attacks.

Followup Prayer: Must know Ascended Infusion. Infused spells have a [(Blessings ranks + Religion ranks)/Y]% chance to carry over to a second hit per beseech. They still consume a charge if they do carry over. (In other words, it's primarily for assault techniques and AoE techniques when you can't manually fit in a beseech between each attack.) They can carry over multiple times, but the chance halves each time like with Spirit Strike.

Sacred Purpose: Must know Ascended Infusion and Doubly Divine. While Divine Incarnation is on cooldown, your successful magical attacks reduce that cooldown by 1 second for every Z damage dealt.

Smiting Lightning: (No prerequisites.) When you take damage, you have a ((crit rank + 1)*Z)% chance of lightning reactively striking the enemy. The base startup speed of Call Lightning is reduced by 10 seconds. Blessings and Religion ranks count as (1/N) Summoning ranks toward speeding up Call Lightning.



Why are these mutant: Entirely magical buffs on the most physical semi.

Why are they still in theme: Infused spells are unique to paladins and 2x lores are unique to paladins among semis, so these abilities make heavy use of those. Their physical nature is preserved as the emphasis on infused spells keeps them in offensive stance. I do feel like these skills are a bit more bland and straightforward than the ones I came up with squares and pures, but partly that's because paladins already have an interesting hybrid of physical and magical power even without Ascension.





Bards


Elite

Combat Flow: While Song of Tonis is active, your (not party members') assault techniques have a ((Multi Opponent Combat ranks + Combat Maneuvers ranks)/X)% chance to activate a non-refreshable Battle Rhythm buff for Y minutes, which gives you a Z% increase to SMR offense and defense. (This stacks on top of any other buffs the assault techniques give.)

Synchronized Sword: Singing Sword Song attacks more frequently and has an AS boost.


Legendary

Call and Response: Must know Combat Flow. While Battle Rhythm is active, it tracks creature types you've killed. After the first kill of a creature and until Battle Rhythm ends, you have a (Dodging ranks/N)% increase to EBP rates against that creature type and that creature type has an equivalent decrease to its EBP rates against you.

Countermelody: Must know Combat Flow. When Song of Luck activates (including the luck service if that ever happens) for you offensively, the enemy is Staggered in addition to other effects your attack would normally have. When Song of Luck activates defensively, you gain Counter and the enemy will be Staggered by your next attack.

Encore Performance: Must know Combat Flow. While Song of Tonis is active, your weapon techniques' cooldowns have a (Combat Maneuvers ranks + ranks of that weapon type)% chance to end the cooldown immediately after success.

Perfect Duet: Must know Combat Flow and Synchronized Sword. While Battle Rhythm is active, a 1025-created weapon has a chance to use (an equivalent of) a reactive weapon technique when you become eligible to use one. (That doesn't consume your Recent Block, Evade, or Parry. I'd picture this not as the 1025 weapon using the real deal weapon technique, since the messaging wouldn't always work, but using something mechanically equivalent with its own messaging.)



Why are these mutant: Entirely physical buffs on the most magical semi.

Why are they still in theme: Fundamentally, it's all about integrating physical and magical aspects together. This leans physical, but you're still heavily rewarded for more spell ranks and magical ranks so that Song of Luck kicks in more, Song of Tonis lasts longer, you have more mana to cast it in the first place, Singing Sword Song has more AS, and so on.





Wizards


Elite

Martial Studies: A four-rank skill for any pure which enables you to learn, respectively, setup weapon techniques, reactive weapon techniques, assault weapon techniques, and area of effect weapon techniques.


Legendary

Elemental Integration: Must have finished Martial Studies. Temporal Reversion triggers now count as a Recent Evade and Recent Parry, enabling various reaction techniques. Elemental Defense III Earth lore triggers now count as a recent block, enabling Radial Sweep. (Even without a shield.)

Infused Edge: Must have finished Martial Studies. The EVOKEd version of Minor Elemental Edge now adds an (Elemental Mana Control ranks/X)% chance to flare a (magical ranks/Y) AS boost, a concussion damage mana burst flare, or both.

Mage Weapon: Must have finished Martial Studies. You can now EVOKE Mage Armor at a weapon. The Fire version grants an AS boost, the Water version grants a chance to dispel when swinging, the Air version weights your attacks toward hitting heads and eyes, the Earth version adds crit weighting, and the Lightning version has a chance to stun the enemy before the AS/DS resolution goes off.

Temporal Mastery: Must have finished Martial Studies. For every 1 second that Celerity would have reduced RT below 1 second if that were possible, you have a Z% chance for a physical attack to strike twice while Celerity is active. (e.g. if your base swing is 5 seconds but your Celerity is -9 seconds, you have a (5*Z)% chance to strike twice.)



Why are these mutant: They're weapon-based on a pure.

Why are they still in theme: They rely on factors that are mostly or entirely unique to wizards, like spell circle ranks, EMC (ideally 3x), and elemental lores (ideally 2x). Similar to warriors, but in reverse, ultimately you'd still need to push magical skills to get the most out of these abilities.

For Mage Weapon, I didn't want to get bogged down in what the formulas would be when there are so many options, but each one borrows from how lores are used in either Mage Armor or Core Tap. Either way, the point is that wizards have great variety in the design paradigms of their magic, so extend that a bit further.





Clerics


Elite

Martial Studies: A four-rank skill for any pure which enables you to learn, respectively, setup weapon techniques, reactive weapon techniques, assault weapon techniques, and area of effect weapon techniques.

Righteous Frenzy: Available to clerics and empaths. Can now cast Frenzy as a self-buff which locks you into offensive stance (and can't be STOPPed) but grants some physical redux and gives your AS-based attacks (including magical bolts) and physical SMR attacks stance pushdown against enemies.


Legendary

Barrier Manipulation: Must have finished Martial Studies. Spirit Barrier no longer reduces AS. Soul Ward triggers that successfully block a physical attack and get the Blessings trigger to renew now count as a Recent Block, Recent Evade, and Recent Parry, enabling various reaction techniques.

Guided Benediction: Must have finished Martial Studies. For you (but not group members), Benediction counts all spiritual lore ranks toward the chance at a +15 AS boost as if they were (Blessings * A) ranks instead. Additionally, when the Benediction flare goes off, your attack applies Weaken Armament.

Heroic Devotion: Must have finished Martial Studies. You can consume all charges of your active Symbol of the Proselyte item to grant a buff lasting 1 minute for each charge. The buff gives your AS-based attacks (including magic bolts) and physical SMR attacks a bonus of +X, then a rotation bonus as you use different attacks without repeating, increasing by Y up to (Z * your Blessings lore-based AS boost from Heroism).

Inescapable Wrath: Must know Righteous Frenzy. While the Frenzy buff and Divine Wrath are active, enemies have reduced EBP against your physical attacks and your attacks are more likely to hit heads and eyes.



Why are these mutant: They're weapon-based on a pure.

Why are they still in theme: Essentially the same reasoning as with wizards, everything still benefits from pushing things like Cleric Base, SMC, and spiritual lores further even though the end goals are still buffs to physical attacks. Also, the rotation benefit of 320 is so unique to clerics that expanding that into the physical realm should still feel familiar and on point.