I was a wolf bear bipedal hybrid.
The level of customization was absolutely incredible, with a massive amount of base animals and the ability to choose a descendant of the beast tribes that was from the intermingling and political relationships between them. At least the lore said that. If it had any real in game effects, I guess I would be finding out.
My wolf half was a member of the silver wolves, a wolf beastfolk tribe located in several in game regions of tundra and snowcapped forests. The bear half a black bear from the midland regions with more temperate accommodations. The resulting fusion was a large, burly, and fearsome looking creature that had canines of a wolf, the rounded ears of a bear, and hair streaked with silver, gray, black, and white. The fur was only medium in length, attributing more to the bear half than the wolf.
I was so in love with this already. Never, ever, had another game done even this much to such a common trope of character race. At least none that I had heard of and played. The level of care and design was absurd. I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard coding this level of everything must have been. Selecting confirm brought up the next screen.
‘Congratulations on selecting your character race! Note that once the selection process is finished, you will be unable to easily change your race without deleting your avatar and starting from character creation once more. Now that you have selected your race, you may continue to select your starting skills. Skills are broken down into the categories of Magery, Psychics, Warcraft, Adventuring, Statecraft, Crafting, and Agriculture. Each of these has a number of skills to choose from. At start, you may select ten skills to receive training in. Five of these skills will start at level 10, unlocking an ability from each. The other five will begin at level 5. Bonuses and penalties from your race have no bearing on this selection, though it is recommended to select skills that receive a bonus and avoid those with penalties. The choice remains yours. After this selection, you will be able to select which abilities to unlock from your chosen five skills and make your final selection of a profession to round out your character based off of your current choices. Choose wisely!’
Following this was a page that looked to be over fifty skills at least! If I could salivate virtually, I would. Still, I already knew some skills right away that I would want. I selected Medium Armor, Hand to Hand, and Axes. Something about the idea of a bear with an axe sat right with me, glorious images of violent combat ended swiftly by a literal grizzly lumberjack enough to make me want to giggle. The last to skills were much harder. Looking over the magic section, I noticed all of them had a cycle of some kind attached. Elemental, Bio, Action, and Thought. Psychics held a different format, with each one being a typical power from popular media like telekinesis or mind reading. The ones of interest to me were, of course, the Bio cycle line of magic. Each was connected to some aspect of biological happenings. Life, Death, Purify, Preservation, Contamination, and Decomposition.
While they all sounded interesting, I knew realistically I had to pick one to focus on. After all, one of my bonuses was going to the axe. That meant I was only picking up one for the 20% bonus. Then again, the 10% boost was to all the Bio magic.
That left me in a pickle, since I wanted at least one non-combat skill to pick up with the intentions of having the option to play as a crafter after a certain point and selecting one now would save me both grinding time and give me the chance to see what non-combat abilities would offer. I suppose I could have dropped hand to hand, but a kung fu fighting bear wolf with an axe was way too interesting to give up. Screw it, I’d just have to grind later. Now to choose.
Life seemed the safest choice, most likely having the best healing options. Purify would make sense too, giving me something to counter any nasty debuff to hit me. Not having to heal was also a form of life retention too. Being stuck as a mid point healer though was a bit of a problem though. I wanted to sit frontline and handle business. Being a half healer didn't match the idea I was forming.
Preservation seemed strange. Maybe it was another healing type too, specialized differently or it was the buffing one of the group. Throwing on some pre-battle buffs fit a bit better. That was just a guess though. Selecting a skill hadn’t done anything to actually tell me what it did. Hopefully they added tooltips to them all.
The other option to go was for the Death, Contamination, and Decomposition line and focus on whatever they did. Death was usually some kind of necromancy or killing magic in most games and I would be hard pressed to imagine they did away with that trope. Contamination was either debuff or damage over time effects I imagined. Maybe both. Decomposition struck me as the same, though it was possible it also had greater effects on certain enemies. Like the undead.
The skills probably linked together in ways like that, meant to keep each balanced and thematically connected. I was enjoying the idea of playing the wolf bear a bit different to my normal game characters. I selected Preservation and Contamination. As soon as I selected the fifth, the screen reset and five more options appeared.
This selection was easier, picking up Stealth, Tracking, Survival, Botany, and Woodcraft. I pictured my character as a hunter gatherer for his tribe, given leeway to leave and explore the greater planet surrounding them for his sheer skill at surviving and understanding what he was up against. A new window, with a brand new color, appeared.
‘Congratulation! Your skill with Medium Armor has granted you an ability choice from the following options;
Medium Armory: Up to three suits of medium armor may be stored and swapped between at will. Doing so costs a tiny amount (1%) of the users stamina and mana. This is instant and has a 30 second cooldown.
Guide Towards Protection: The next physical attack taken reduces your armor’s durability first. If the damage taken exceeds the durability, any remaining damage will be taken by you. Hardness of armor applies thrice as much when using this ability. Doing so costs a small amount (5%) of the user’s stamina. This is instant and has a 5 second cooldown.
Middleweight Flex: The next physical attack dealt is enhanced by the combined weight and hardness of your armor, adding both to the damage dealt of a successful blow. Doing so costs a small amount (5%l of the user’s stamina and a small amount of the armor’s durability. This is instant and has a 5 second cooldown after an attack has been made.’
A utility option, a defense option, and an offensive option. Being able to swap equipment mid fight was a doozy if I made sure I was well equipped, but getting to that point was an uncertainty anytime soon. An option able to shelve the damage of an attack completely was also nice. The amount of durability and hardness an armor had was a question though and when he would get more if his broke was still a concern.
Now that I looked at the third again, I realized something. There was no duration on either the second or third ability. That meant I could preemptively use one or that other and combine it with some other ability later. If I was going to break my gear anyways, that was important to know. It became another resource to manage.
Hoping I’d get some option to select the first later, I made my choice. Middleweight Flex it was. The next window popped open.
‘Congratulation! Your skill with Hand to Hand has granted you an ability choice from the following options;
Striking Iron: Coat your fists or claws in energy and strike firm, dealing additional damage equal to the amount of stamina and mana spent. This ability costs a small (5%) amount of the users stamina and mana. This is instant and has a 10 second cooldown.
Dodging Water: Empower your body, avoiding the next physical or magical attack that targets you and gaining bonus movement speed for 10 seconds if you do so. This ability costs a moderate (10%) amount of the users stamina. This is instant and has a 10 second cooldown.
Leaping Cloud: Leap to a target location within skill x 2 amount of distance. After doing so, gain a slow fall effect for 10 seconds. Fall damage taken while in effect is reduced by half. This ability costs a small (5%) amount of the user’s stamina and mana. This is a 3 second charged ability and has a 10 second cooldown. This may be used while falling.’
This one was far less difficult and the utility, defense, and offense optionality persisted. While Striking Iron was undoubtable cool and could seemingly be stacked with my previous choice, I was going to be using an axe to do most of my attacking. I’d picked Hand to Hand as a just in case, not to be my main form of combat. Leaping Cloud had the biggest amount of usage from any ability I had seen so far as well. With that selected, I continued.
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‘Congratulation! Your skill with Axes has granted you an ability choice from the following options;
Felling Heads: Swing with great might, striking the target in the head and dealing additional damage equal to users skill level. In addition, targets become unable to use Psychic skills for 5 seconds. This ability costs a small (5%) amount of the user’s stamina and has a 10 second cooldown.
Use The Head: Bring the head of the axe into the path of the next physical or magical attack, reducing the damage of it by an amount equal to the combined hardness and durability of the axe. If the damage exceeds the durability, any remaining damage will be taken by you. This ability costs a small (5%) amount of the user’s stamina and has a 5 second cooldown.
Throw Thee Axe: Throw the axe at a target within 2 x skill in distance. If the user has a rope or chain attached to it, they may use it to either pull the target or themselves closer. Exceeding the weight limit of the rope or chain will break it. This ability costs a small (5%) amount of the user’s stamina and has a 5 second cooldown after the axe is recovered..’
Well now I was right back to option overload. All three had potential and would round out my already looking good kit. A ranged option that doubled as a utility mobility option. An outright ability denier. The weakest option and the first to go was the defensive option. It had nothing over the last one I had skipped.
Now the question was if I combined it with my first choice, having a powerful combined attack to deal with a playstyle I was unlikely going to be able to handle in other ways easily. The alternative was to grab the throw and combine it with Leaping Cloud for supreme mobility.
The idea of being an anthropomorphic superhero swinging through the lands was tempting. Very tempting. Okay. I’d already picked it before I could second guess myself.
‘Congratulation! Your skill with Preservation has granted you an ability choice from the following options;
Preserve Life: On casting a Preservation spell, you may spend Health to store. This store of health may be used after to heal or spend on other abilities. The max amount able to be stored this way is equal to your skill level. Health spent recovers normally. This ability costs a moderate (10%) amount of the user’s mana and has a 30 second cooldown between uses and healings.
Long Lasting Preservation: On casting a Preservation spell, the user may give the spell a charge time of 5 additional seconds. Doing so doubles the duration of the cast spell. This ability costs a moderate (10%) amount of the user’s mana and has a 10 second cooldown.
Preservation Overcharge: On casting a Preservation spell, the user may give the spell a charge time of 5 additional seconds. Doing so doubles the effects of the cast spell. This ability costs a large (20%) amount of the user’s mana and has a 10 second cooldown.’
Now this was interesting. The theme was still present in a way but the offensive option was a power boost rather than an actual way to deal damage. Not knowing what spells I would have access to, since there seemed to be a difference between an ability and a spell, was mildly inconvenient. I’d hoped the ability would be a spell, but it made more sense this way. Otherwise, leveling magic skills you didn’t select would be either impossible or difficult.
An entire additional health bar attached to skill level. That was the first defensive option, besides Dodging Water, that had an appeal to me. Selecting it, my final choice and skill appeared before me.
'Congratulation! Your skill with Contamination has granted you an ability choice from the following options;
Poison The Well: On casting a Contamination spell, you may spend Health up to your skill level. Doing so causes those targeted to become poisoned and lose health equal to twice the amount spent over 10 seconds. This ability costs a moderate (10%) amount of the users mana and has a 10 second cooldown.
Ode to Plague: On casting a Contamination spell, the user may give the spell a charge time of 5 additional seconds. Doing so doubles the number of targets available to it. This ability costs a moderate (10%) amount of the users mana and has a 10 second cooldown.
Contamination Station: On casting a Contamination spell, the user may give the spell a charge time of 5 additional second. Doing so doubles the effects of the spell cast. This ability costs a moderate (20%) amount of the users mana and has a 10 second cooldown.’
I almost selected Poison The Well right away. The synergy with Life Preservation! The two would pump off each other, with my character being able to absolutely dump Health from both sources and funnel it right into a super poison to chew through those susceptible. That was what made me hesitate though.
In many games poison was a type of damage over time effect. While some poisons might instead give penalties, the term poison still referred to them as well. Some types of enemies were resistant or outright immune to them. I had no doubt that I would face plenty of creatures like that. Undead, elementals, maybe even demons or similar would all or mostly be unaffected by poison and for that I could account. Even then, a number of enemies not of those types might have also have them. The idea of blowing all of my extra tank of Health and maybe even some of my primary pool, only to find out it was secretly laughing at me, was something I’d have to find a work around to. The other options were due some consideration.
If I wanted to make Contamination my primary means of dealing with groups, Ode was the obvious choice. While I didn’t have a clue as to the spells, the name of the skill itself and the first ability made it clear that it was a school of magic meant to weaken and damage enemies over time. Having the option when overwhelmed to double up on the targets was actually a huge boon. The final option was the boss killer option. Dropping a supercharged go screw yourself on it to bring it closer to a normal enemy was also fairly tempting, considering the other options I had so far lent better to dealing with said normal enemies.
If I had gone with Felling Heads, choosing might have been different. The extra damage tied to the ability and the rider denial effect would have been my boss go to for the beginning. In the end though I couldn’t deny my synergy hungry heart. I would just have to be careful and put the other skills I hadn’t yet unlocked abilities with to good use to study and avoid fights I couldn’t win with what I had now.
‘Great job, Potential Candidate! You now only have one final selection to make, your profession. Professions are the initial background of your character, giving you a starting equipment package and a unique bonus that will grow as you profession changes and you level up. At levels 10, 25, 50, and 100 your profession will evolve based on your skills and abilities. These changes will offer unique bonuses that are tied to your style of play and the abilities and skills chosen and trained. Your options based off your current choices are;
Warrior: All Warcraft skills gain 10% bonus experience. All weapon damage is increased by 10% and are 5% more accurate. Health and Stamina recovers 15% faster.
Hunter: All Adventuring skills gain 10% bonus experience. Ranged weapon attacks deal 10% more damage and are 10% more accurate. Stamina recovers 25% faster.
Mage: All Magery skills gain 10% bonus experience. Spells cost 10% less to cast and are 10% more powerful. Mana recovers 25% faster.
War Scribe: All Warcraft and Magery skills gain 5% bonus experience. Spells are 10% more powerful and all weapon damage is increased by 10%. Health, Stamina, and Mana recovers 10% faster.
Spell Trapper: All Adventuring and Magery skills gain 5% bonus experience. Spells cost 10% less to cast and ranged weapon attacks deal 10% more damage. Stamina and Mana recover 15% faster.’
Seemed like now was the time to pick a final focus for my character. All of them offered a progression that was a little different and that struck me as odd. So far, everything else had a fairly noticeable balance to it. The races all had roughly the same bonuses for tiers of focus. The abilities had fit into a trio of options around the three main styles of play. Here though, the bonuses didn’t exactly add up. The developers must have decided to weigh the bonuses differently in regards to their usefulness. It looked like the choice was a stronger focus on advancement or on statistical benefits. Of them all, the first and the last two were the strongest contenders.
I had to wonder what the recovery system was like. If it was one of those systems that limited in combat regeneration vs out of combat, then War Scribe won out for the usefulness of hitting both main skill groups and giving bonuses that would work on everything I did. If in combat regeneration was the same as out though, then Warrior and Spell Trapper both worked great with the abilities I had selected. Warrior would let me recover the Health I spent quicker and spam my Stamina abilities more. Spell Trapper, on the other hand, was an entirely different play style to the one I was working towards but would dramatically benefit an alternative I could work with.
I tried imagining how that one would look. Using spells more frequently and keeping distance with throwing my axe, it was more in line with the kind of kiting one would see from typical ranged characters. Plus, it didn’t detract from dealing with anyone who got close by and gave bonus experience to the secondary skills I had picked up, letting them close the gap with the others.
No though. War Scribe was too in line with my plans. While it had next to no staying power, the outright power boost to both types of my damage dealing potential would mean I would have to spend less anyways to finish off enemies. Hitting all three pools that I was using in recover was nice too.
Checking the clock, I winced. I only had an hour and twenty odd minutes before I was supposed to be done with for the day. Decision made so I could spend at least some time in the game proper, I selected War Scribe.
‘You have now completed character creation. As of this time, there are no options for starting region and instead you will begin your adventure in a community specific to your character’s race. Good luck, Potential Candidate.’
This entire time, I’d been in a temple of some kind while making these choices. Suddenly, from just beyond where I had been interacting with the screens, a golden portal appeared. Knowing this was it I entered. The world shifted and warped. Then it stopped and I found myself in the middle of a city. Time to get started.