My understanding of The Living Codex is that it will essentially be our spell book, and be divided into two sections; Essential & Transcendant. Essential abilities are those that we will learn naturally as we progress our characters. I'm not sure if they will be automatically memorized as our level progresses or if we will have to purchase scrolls from common vendors and scribe them, but it sounds like the Essential abilities will be core class abilities. Transcendant abilities on the other hand will be rare and exotic spells that are written on legendary parchments known as "Prime Scrolls" -- these will be scattered throughout the wilds of Terminus, perhaps tucked away in a heavily guarded treasure vault, beneath an obscure rock found near a hidden oasis, or in the hands of a secluded cenobite.
At any given point in time, our hotbars will only have 10 active slots. Players will be free set up their bars as they please, weaving both Essential and Transcendant abilities into their available arsenal. More likely than not, we'll be able to save a variety of "favorite" hotbar setups that will allow us to interchange our preferred ability structure. I imagine this can only done while out of combat, so there will be an emphasis on situational preparation prior to engaging an encounter. Due to the 10 slot limitation, it appears that the interchanging of hotbars will probably be pretty common. You wouldn't want to get caught using your undead kit while fighting lizardmen (unless they are undead lizardmen!) so in order to be optimally efficient, players will have to memorize their hotbars and be comfortable swapping them in and out.
To further accentuate the power of our Transcendant abilities, players will be granted the ability to mark them with special items known as "Seals of Amplification", "Brands of Resilience", and "Signets of Synergy." These items will allow players to modify their spells by amplifying bonuses, decreasing penalties, and creating potentially awesome synergy effects. From the sound of it, these "signets of synergy" will create opportunities for multiple classes to use their transcendant abilities in harmony, sometimes creating unique beneficial effects. It's important to note, however, that not all Prime Scrolls will be capable of delivering these kind of synergy effects.
Overall, it sounds like a really awesome system, and we haven't even dabbled with colored mana yet. I am a fan of any feature that allows us to customize our spells and the idea of synergetic bonus effects reminds me of one of my favorite oldschool RPG's, Chrono Trigger. Could we see really flavorful spell combinations such as "Ice Nova" / "Holy Despair" / "Plague of Fire" / "Spirit of the Mammoth" / "Elemental Skin" and more? I'm not sure if these synergy "effects" will have names or just apply some sort of bonus, but the sound of class synergy is really exciting.
Here are synergy combinations that I am really excited to learn about:
Warrior / Cleric
Druid / Shaman
Wizard / Rogue
Necromander / Direlord
Bard / Enchanter
Beyond that, is it possible that we will see synergy effects shared between more than 2 classes?
Direlord / Necromancer / Summoner
Warrior / Cleric / Bard
Shaman / Druid / Enchanter
Wizard / Rogue / Ranger
Monk / Paladin / Bard
Plenty to think about, and again, we haven't even dabbled with colored mana! When do you think we'll be able to test features like The Living Codex and Colored Mana? I am thinking late Alpha or Beta. Anyway, just wanted to share some input on this feature. It took me awhile before I found this info after joining the community and I just wanted to shed some light on one of the upcoming features we can expect in Pantheon. I'm even more interested in Colored Mana which is another topic that we have barely scratched the surface on in the forum. I'm hoping to see more info on all of the features listed on The Pantheon Difference page soon ... maybe we'll get lucky and see a nice content update with the new forums? The anticipation level to learn more about this game is pretty wicked!
Very informative and well written. I put in a grand into the kitty to help the developers design their game. Whether this was a mistake or not still remains to be seen. I've fond memories of EQ. What I liked most was how in the early days people worked together to achieve common goals. I liked the challenge EQ offered in as far as the general toughnes of mobs. I even appreciated the trains that kept us on our toes and made us respectful of our suroundings and situation. Though there are things about EQ I did not like. I detested how crafting seemed mob drop dependent with very low drop rates from mobs. The failure rates added to my consternation. In that respect the game was not well thought out. My current vexation with EQ is from playing a progressive server. My Dark Elf starts in a room with a trainer and for the life of me I cannot easily not consistently find my way from that starting room to where the character goes out to lvl lol. Some here may scoff and prattle on about difficulty, well such people may get their wish, yet it would not bode well for long term growth if new people can't find their way around in a starting city lol.
Anyway oneADseven I digress. I've very apprciative of your thread as it addresses a peev of mine. That of cookie cutter classes and playstyle. The features you mentioned here I hope will solve that riddle. That being of how to help characters be unique.
I also appreciate this thread because atm I'm playing EQ and Champions online. I'm devoting a limited measure of my time since Pantheon is not ready for testing by us. I check in from time to time and will post a repy to a thread, if I think it contributes to the game. All in all, virtually every conceivable question/concern has been answered. All that is left to us is to patiently await the Devs decision as to when we can contribute with their various phases of play testing. Lol though many here should be prepared for the work and dedication involved in play testing a game.
13.2 Will there be ability chaining?
"We’re considering it. We don’t want to create a detailed combo system but we like the idea of synergetic abilities and the opportunity for players abilities to open up possible actions for others. We will reveal more in the future."
It sounds like the signets of synergy could play into this.