Truth Compulsion
Range: Ten feet
1 Hour Cooldown
100 Mana plus 100 Mana per minute
Mana cost halved due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Effectiveness doubled due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Compels the target to either speak the truth, or be silent. Target cannot be compelled to speak against their will either by threat or by action or the skill will stop working and cannot be used on that target again for 24 hours. Targets at least 10 levels higher than the caster have a chance, proportional to the level difference and the difference between the sum of the caster’s intelligence and charisma and their own, to be able to speak falsely even when this skill is in effect.
Perfect Recall
Range: Special (Target must be able to hear and understand caster)
10 Minute Cooldown
100 Mana and 100 Mana per minute
Mana cost halved due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Effectiveness doubled due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Allows target to perfectly recall anything that they have ever sensed or experienced. Information provided to target during skill’s effect will be retained perfectly by target, though suggestions will no more effective than they would be otherwise.
Body Control
Range: Special (Target must be able to hear and understand caster)
10 Minute Cooldown
100 Mana and 100 Mana per minute
Mana cost halved due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Effectiveness doubled due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Target can control their physical body to the limits of the possible. They can assume any position they can imagine or which can be described to them, perfectly, and hold it with no discomfort so long as the skill is in effect. They can make any or all of their body totally relaxed or completely rigid to the limit of their strength and durability. They can slow their metabolism to a point where casual inspection would lead most beings to believe they were dead or increase it to the limit of their mental and physical capacity.
Indirect Suggestion
Range: Special (Target must be able to hear and understand caster)
No Cooldown (may be activated and deactivated at will)
200 Mana plus 200 Mana per minute
Mana cost halved due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Effectiveness doubled due to title Mesmer’s Heir.
Beings which can hear and understand the caster are much more likely to accept what the caster telling the truth, to accept implied suggestions made by the caster, or to find logical arguments made by the caster convincing. Affects all beings who can hear and understand the caster. Targets at least 5 levels higher than the caster have a chance, proportional to the level difference and the difference between the sum of the caster’s intelligence and charisma and their own, to resist this effect. Targets who know the caster is a Mind Mage or Mesmerist have a chance to resist this effect.
Mana Shield
Range: Ten feet
1 minute Cooldown
50 Mana and 1 point Mana per damage point to be absorbed
Forms a shield made of Mana around the target. This shield will absorb one point of damage for every point of Mana used in its creation after the initial casting cost of 50 Mana is paid. The shield will begin to dissipate one minute after casting at a rate of one point of max damage absorbed per minute.
Mana Surge
Range: Touch
5 Second Cooldown
1-20 Mana, does 2 points of damage per Mana used.
Allows the caster to used stored Mana to inflict damage on a target they are touching. (Skin-to-skin contact not required, but must be touching target’s clothing or armor.)
Improved Mana Bolt
Range: Sixty feet
4 Second Cooldown
1-20 Mana, does 1.2 point of damage per Mana used.
Instantly advances Mana Bolt to the next level of skill. Skill now does 1.2 points of damage per MP used. Range increased by ten feet. Cooldown decreased by one second.
Okay, now THIS is interesting.
The only Skill I was offered an “improvement” for was Mana Bolt. On the other hand, that was practically the only Skill I’d been using. But the language of the Skill was interesting. It said ‘instantly’ advances. This implied that the Skill was advancing slowly in some other way, or could be advanced in some other way.
‘Status Mana Bolt Skill Level.’
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Class Skill ‘Mana Bolt’ is at Level One. Progress to next level: 15.45%.
“Whoa,” I said out loud. This was a bolt from the blue. Our Skills would level by themselves. Blowing a Class Skill slot on a level up at Level One seemed like a very poor decision. This was important enough to justify disturbing dinner.
PARTY CHAT / JAMES: Guys, if you have Class Skill slots, do NOT use them to buy ‘Improved’ skills or level skills up. Our skills are progressing naturally. Save using Class Skill slots to level them for later. It will probably get a lot harder.
After a minute, I got replies from Anthony and Joe along the lines of “Holy Shit, we have got to figure out the rules,” and everybody else just said something like “Okay, whatever.” I’d share the details when them when they got back. I returned my attention to my Skill choices.
Mana Shield is awfully tempting, I thought. I still remembered the pain of being shot, and the sight of my companions mangled and battered by the beasts we’d fought. A force field to soak up those hits sounded awesome. But my nifty new brainpower said it was a questionable return on investment, at least at my current level.
Say I drop a hundred points. I get a fifty point shield. It takes twelve minutes to regenerate all the mana, at which point I have a thirty-eight point shield. Thirty-eight points is a twenty-five percent increase. If I start fighting right that second, I’m full on Mana and can take 188 damage, the first 38 points of which shouldn’t cause me any actual harm. But once a minute I lose a point of shield. I’ll have to have the timing right, and I don’t dare use it if I get surprised, because I’ll be down twenty percent of my Mana, or more if I use a stronger shield.
It was the eternal dilemma: So many ways to use Mana and so little to use. Defend with it and you can attack less. Attack more and you can heal less.
But there was one Skill I knew I wanted. For defense. Yes. Of course. That’s why.
Select Class Skill ‘Suggestion’
SYSTEM MESSAGE: Class Skill ‘Suggestion’ selected.
I let out a slow breath. I was now the world’s greatest stage hypnotist, more than likely. There couldn’t be many people on Earth who could resist my Suggestion skill given the massive boosts to my Intelligence and Charisma from Mesmer’s Heir. I’d have to be careful with this. If it got around that I could do it, I suspected I’d end up like Loki or the Enchantress: ‘Kill on sight if not wearing a gag.’
Well, that’s how they should be treated. Stupid plot armor.
Okay. One left. This was hard. It was like being a kid in the world’s best candy store and being told, “You can have one.” And I had to be a responsible grownup about it. I stared at the invisible list for a long time, gaming out scenarios in my head.
After a while, something occurred to me.