“Hmm… What should I do…?” I tilt my head to the side in thought, analyzing yesterday’s show. “It isn’t like my plan was a failure or that I didn’t enjoy myself… but my hunters didn’t shine as much as I wanted.”
Making the orc regret being born was nice. Exhilarating, even.
But it wasn’t my only purpose. Besides my personal enjoyment, it was also the first time I could test my newly created monsters, and they… they didn’t achieve as much as I wanted.
Don’t misunderstand, it isn’t that they’re useless. It’s because I gave them as few skills as possible that they ended up not shining as much as they should.
To create random monsters, watch them fight, and improve them over time!
This is how true mad scientists work! Improving after watching the results, that’s the best philosophy!
…don’t look at me with those accusing eyes!
Fine, you got me… I was lazy and didn’t plan everything beforehand, so I left most of the work for later.
But, now that I’ve seen their flaws, it’s time to finish them.
So, as I was saying…
“...what should I do…?”
Identifying the flaws is easy. The real problem is to think about how to solve them.
The Hunters are supposed to be my security guards. As security guards, they should be strong enough to fend for themselves in almost any situation. In consequence, I must give them skills that prevent them from being completely useless against tactics that counter them.
What’s with ‘Aha! I know your weakness! Now, die!’? I must prevent this kind of bullshit at all costs!
Let’s start with The Mountain. Its strong point is easy to identify, as I created it with a certain image in mind.
The Mountain is an insurmountable obstacle.
That’s it. Very easy to understand, don’t you agree?
But its flaws became more apparent as the fight against the orc went on; especially at the end, when the orc ignored everything else to focus on me. Before this moment, The Mountain performed decently thanks to the orc and his minions focussing its attacks on it; but from that point onwards, it was completely useless.
The orc only needed to avoid the boulders to completely nullify The Mountain’s participation in the battle.
What use does an insurmountable obstacle have when you can sidestep it? The Mountain isn’t an actual mountain. Its size is relatively small, so it can’t fully block the path. It is quite slow, too, so it can’t easily catch up with the enemies. If you ignore it and focus somewhere else…
What use does such an obstacle have? Can you call it an obstacle at all!?
“Shame on you! Shame on your creator! …ah, wait, I’m the creator… Shame on the orc for ignoring you, then! It’s always his fault! It’s always him!” I pull on the fur on my head before calming down.
I know what you’re thinking right now. If the problem is that The Mountain can be ignored, so why don’t I make it faster? Why don’t I give it a movement skill?
To this question, I must answer you with a single word: NOOB. You’re a noob, a total noob.
If I did such a thing, it would break the whole concept. It would turn The Mountain into a random mob you can find anywhere!
Also… where have you seen a mountain that moves around?
Discarded! Wrong! Error! Nai-nai! Absolutely never!
You were wrong, so I’m sure you’re confused now. After all, what else can I do to fix The Mountain, other than making it faster? Aaaaaaand… you’re wrong again. You must change how you think and start the other way around instead.
‘What’s The Mountain’s strongest point?’ This is what you must ask first.
In my opinion, The Mountain’s strongest point is precisely its immovable nature. Or, to be more precise, the skill that makes it immobile: Take Root.
Of course, the other two innate skills are important too, but they rely on the enemies’ actions to be important. Damage reduction and damage return mean nothing if nobody is attacking, so let’s focus on the only one The Mountain can control by itself.
Take Root reduces EP and MP costs, which means The Mountain can use skills without worrying about running dry. Which means I don’t have to worry about the cost of the skills I give it. Which means…
“Fufufu! Hahaha!” I start laughing, imagining the crazy things I can do. “...ok. Let’s start with the basics. First of all, it must have a skill of each of the three types.”
As with any other monster, The Mountain must have an active, triggered, and passive skill before I can give it more attacks, or before I can upgrade any skill. Since it already has the Boulder Throw skill, which I don’t plan on removing, I only need to find fitting triggered and passive skills.
“Triggered skills… triggered skills… not this one, not that one… Rocky Retribution? It’s the same as the Frosty Retribution from my Lab Assistants but with rocks instead of ice. Hmmm… but it won’t help with the current problem, so it is discarded for now.”
I keep reading the list, searching for the perfect skill. I need a skill that will prevent players from ignoring The Mountain. Or at least, a skill that will make it more difficult.
Taunt and similar skills would work, but the time they're effective against Champions is very short. I need something better.
“I can’t find anything I like…” I hold my head, annoyed. “Aagh, it can be so difficult sometimes! It’s been, like… one minute already and I didn’t find anything useful!” This can’t be, I can’t keep wasting time like this. “...why don’t I look at it from another angle? What If I search for a skill that will make the players want to pay attention to The Mountain? Instead of forcing them to pay attention, a skill that will make them want to pay attention. Huh, I like the idea!”
With renewed enthusiasm, I open the list one more time and start searching for the perfect skill. This time it doesn’t take too long to discover it.
Persecute (Triggered skill) If a unit you attacked in the last 10 seconds runs away, your next attack or skill against it deals an extra 20% damage.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
In battle, you always keep track of your enemy, so this skill is considered useless and there’s almost no player who takes it for themselves or their mobs. The only exceptions to this rule are assassins, invisible units, and similar stuff.
But who says I can’t use it for the exact opposite purpose?
With this skill, players will want to pay attention to The Mountain all the time, or it’ll deal more damage.
Want to ignore my monster? Fine, take some extra damage!
It isn’t guaranteed it’ll work as I intend and make players focus on The Mountain, but… I have high hopes for it! After all, who likes taking extra damage?
“Now for the passive skill. If I want to go with a similar approach, I have the perfect skill in mind: Shared Pain.”
Shared Pain (Passive skill) 20% of all damage dealt to allied units within 10 meters is dealt to you instead.
Shared Pain is so perfect!
This is a very useful skill. Unlike most of the skills I pick for my units, this one is used by lots of players, though it’s only when it comes to tanky, support monsters. Thanks to it, those monsters can soak damage for their allies, helping them to stay alive for longer fights. Monsters with this skill usually work hand-in-hand with weak or glass cannon monsters.
But I’m not interested in all that stuff.
As a security guard, The Mountain will roam freely through my dungeon. This means it’ll always have other monsters nearby. This means that, during the fight, every time the players hit one of the other monsters, The Mountain will take some of that damage instead.
The best part is that that damage will be reduced by Stoneskin, and then the player will take damage from Lust! It’s like killing three birds with one stone!
And can you imagine this against an area DoT skill, like Hellfire? Every single damage tick will make the player take damage from Lust, once for every one of my monsters present.
“I’m sure more than one player will kill themselves by accident. I’m looking forward to it… Fufufu! Hahaha!”
So now that the passive and triggered skills are finished, it’s time to move to the bulk of the matter: the other active skills that will be supported by Take Root.
And talking about Take Root… let’s upgrade it first!
Take Root - Lv 2 (Innate active skill) Cost: - You take root. While rooted, you can’t be moved by any effect and the EP and MP cost of all attacks and skills is reduced by 20%. Upgrades Deep Roots: The cost reduction is increased to 40%. It takes longer to root and unroot.
Who cares if The Mountain takes five seconds to root and unroot, or twenty seconds instead? Is there any difference? For me, it might as well be the same time. As long as it doesn’t take ten minutes, which would be enough for the players to use another path to go around The Mountain, it doesn’t matter at all how long it takes.
Instead, what you get is a 40% decrease in all skill costs! This is so ridiculous!
“Maybe, the next time I evolve my Champion I should… No, no! Stop, Andreu, stop! Focus on the current task!”
Fine… I’ll focus.
Um, where was I? …ah, yes, the upgraded Take Root.
Twenty seconds to root and unroot is a lot for a player. It is a very easy and fast way to die. Really, you can try it if you want. Stand still inside a dungeon for a total of forty seconds, counting both the time to root and unroot, and see what happens.
But it’s different for monsters. If they die, it isn’t the end of the Dungeon Invasion.
Also, in this particular case, The Mountain’s build is designed with resilience in mind. Taking damage is actually preferred, so being unable to move for at least a minute means nothing.
“I think I have the perfect active skill for The Mountain. It’s the extremely famous, the eternally powerful, the most picked skill of all! Iiiiiiiit’s… Tadandandan… It’s Maaaaagic Missiles! …with the auto-targeting upgrade.”
Do you know what’s the best way to get a player’s attention?
It’s to continuously blast them with an unending stream of autotargetting Magic Missiles! Something only possible because The Mountain has a 40% reduction to all skills as long as it’s rooted! Fufufu! Hahaha!
Magic Missiles - Lv 2 (Active skill) Cost: 10 MP, 5 MP per missile You launch up to 10 magic missiles against any number of units. Each missile deals (2 + 0,2 * SPI) arcane damage. Upgrades Targeted Missiles: Add tracking to each missile, making them very difficult to evade.
The boulder is nice and all, especially against groups of clumped enemies, and the stun chance can be very useful depending on the situation. But nothing will ever beat Magic Missiles when it comes to targeted damage.
Unavoidable damage? Sign me in!
Well… it isn’t impossible to avoid or block the Magic Missiles, but when ten of them come at you at the same time it is very difficult to avoid them all.
Now there’s one more skill I want to give to it. It won’t help with the damage output, but I’m sure it’ll make The Mountain extremely annoying when there are more monsters around.
What skill is it? It’s the almost as famous Magic Missiles: Entangle, one of the best CC skills in the game.
Entangle (Active skill) Cost: 50 MP, 10 MP per second Immobilize every unit in a 10-meter radius for up to 5 seconds. The duration is reduced against units with higher average stats than you.
“With this skill, it’ll be extremely hard for the players to ignore The Mountain during combat, I’d say. But if they fight it, then the damage return will trigger… good luck invaders! Hahaha! Good luck fighting my security forces!”
With the upgrades and new skills, The Mountain is now at level 7. There’s no need to raise its level any higher, cp isn’t easy to accumulate.
“And with this, my job here’s done– Ah, right! I still have to modify The River!”
image [https://i.imgur.com/ZGSK4Pl.png]
“...
Do you know what’s lame? If you make your monster the same as all the other monsters! That’s extremely lame!
‘Since my monster is weak, I’ll increase its strength.’ !? ‘My orc lacks MP, so I’ll give it an MP-boosting skill.’ !?
Are you stupid!? Never, ever, destroy the essence of your monster like that!
Work on your monster’s strengths instead of their weaknesses. Think about how can you turn them around instead of fixing them.
Is your monster strong but can’t catch up with your enemies? Give it a skill that can forcibly pull the players closer instead of trying to make your monster faster. Is your monster too weak and it dies to any attack? Give it a movement skill that’ll make your invaders cry trying to hit it! Is your monster’s accuracy too low? Put traps or make the passage narrower, so that the players can’t avoid the attacks so easily.
For hell’s sake! Don’t fix your monsters, improve them!
…”
- Fragment from ‘What You Should Never Do’, one part of ‘The Dark Teachings’ series.