Hi there!

Valiant Horizon v1.0 is coming out on January 23rd! So we’re devlogging fast now.

As noted in #1, all role/sub-role talk is referring to Total//Effect’s role and sub-role concepts.

The Knight

Once of the martial ideas I wanted to replicate was someone who is just absolutely steadfast in every sense: physically and otherwise. I knew I wanted a Knight somewhere too - I just inherently like the idea of a warrior defined by dedication. (Not in like the historical sense, of course, but in the fantastical/romantic sense.) It seemed like a good pairing, and all of its tales and much of its skillset pertain to one or the other. (One of its suggested Exhaust abilities, “Swear an oath that anyone will believe”, is probably one of my favorites that I’ve written.)

The Knight’s roles are Defender (Shield, Lockdown) and Supporter (Command). Shield is a hard role to fill as a primary. On the one hand, it’s very easy to make: give it a lot of abilities that defend itself, easy peasy. On the other hand, that’s a really good way to just make it hard to kill but not do much in the way of being helpful. I mitigated this a little by giving it a trait that lets it take hits for Winded allies: this both reinforces that theme of dedication to others and lets it use its durability for allies’ sake. Lockdown and Command abilities complement this further by allowing it to tie up enemies and move allies out of harm’s way or under its protection.

The Ranger

I’ve complained in the past that the traditional D&D ranger is kind of a mess and nobody has a great idea of what it’s supposed to be (beyond, well, y’know). Here, with the benefit of very limited conceptual premises, it gets to be the dedicated wilderness expert and sharpshooter. With no rogue/thief/etc in the crew, I was able to dedicate a lot of that energy here: some of the skillset and tales mention things that probably would have gone there.

The Ranger’s roles are Attacker (Spike, Break) and Defender (Lockdown). Trick shots and conditional attacks account for most of its power set, but it’s also got a few other moves like setting traps. Its trait, precision, is the real kicker - that’s the one that really sets it apart, nothing else has that kind of consistency of damage when escalation gets high. (It’s slightly limited by the fact that there just aren’t THAT many far-range powers, and it’s pretty easy for enemies to get up in your business, maps are only but so big.)

Tactician and Windmagus, the last two, are next time!