One way to intertwine narrative and mechanics in a game is to do so through character classes. In order to have unique feeling classes, the class style needs to match the narrative of what they are. For example, a warrior needs to feel like a physical powerhouse, and a mage needs to feel like a squishy, but powerful spellcaster.
ILLUSIONIST ROGUE:
In Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War, the magic-based offensive support class is Jones’ “Illusionist Rogue” option. The in-game description of the Illusionist Rogue is as follows:
Selecting this option will change Jones to the “Illusionist Rogue” class. He will focus on learning spells designed to defend against opposing magic while dealing damage at the same time. He will also passively reduce dark damage that he takes. The Illusionist Rogue further expands his combat options by learning a variety of single-target TP spells and by learning lightning magic.
Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War
The Illusionist Rogue is in an unusual spot where it uses offensive magic and magic to offer support to the party, but it does not directly use healing spells. The best analogy would be like how warrior archetypes can reduce enemy physical damage done, and sometimes heal themselves, but not heal others. Illusionist Rogue is like that, but on the magic side of things. While a warrior is the physical shield of the party, the Illusionist Rogue is the magical shield of the party. When used correctly, an Illusionist Rogue can make any situation with enemy magic feel safer. To elaborate on how the Illusionist Rogue works in this manner, I would like to describe some of its skills in more detail.
Shadow Torrent, Blizzard, and Wind Blast LEVEL III – Dark, Cold, and Wind damage AoEs respectively.
While the lower level versions of these spells are learned in the basic “Trickster” class, the Illusionist Rogue upgrades them further not only to be more powerful, but also the level III versions of these skills grant the user a brief magical resistance buff. As the dark and wind spells apply primers to increase the damage of other elements, and the cold spell can reduce the enemies’ physical defense, these spells also provide offensive support to the party.
Dark Detonator Shields– These special dark spells provide the party with temporary resistance to one detonator school and immunity to that school’s persistent effect.
These spells provide a 50% damage reduction to the following elements, with only one active at a time: fire, cold, lightning, psychic. If the player notices that a certain enemy is sticking to one of these elements, then the Illusionist Rogue can throw up one of these shields and make the encounter much safer. These spells, along with the level III offensive spells, give the player the sense that the Illusionist Rogue is throwing up big, sweeping walls of magic to attack and defend.
Seeking Bolts– Attack a target with two accurate bolts of lightning that never miss. This spell ignores spell redirection effects. (Magic “mocking” effects).
Overall, the Illusionist Rogue is designed to feel like the player is throwing up sweeping walls of magic that have both an offensive and defensive function. Additionally, it is meant to feel like it is a thief/rogue type archetype that has learned and applied advanced magic to achieve any advantage possible in combat, whether it be the sweeping walls, or using stealth spells to increase the critical rate of lighting magic.
If you’re curious about how all my nonsense actually plays out in a game, check out Draconic Echoes: The Ardent War on Steam!