Class Introduction: Creators

Whatever your preferred playstyle, there are probably ways you can make a Creator work for you. A very versatile class, Creators have a variety of different branches of skills and can remain simple or gain a broad but complex skillset.

1. Creators have a pool of resource known as Potential. Use of Creator class abilities generally deplete this resource (which starts at 6). Once it's gone those abilities can't be used until it's refreshed.

2. One of things Creators can do with their Potential is build a Contraption. This is a small tactical seige weapon which with the right skills can be used to deal significant damage, but is slow to build and limits mobility. It takes 10 seconds and one Potential to make one.

3. But once you've built it, you can start charging and firing it like a turret, so long as you stay in place. Given the build and charge time before the payoff, Contraptions work best if you have a good defensive line. This Creator appears to have a bunch of Contraption skills, because she's effortlessly killing that… monster… thing with it. But typically Contraptions can't survive being moved around much, so as soon as she tries to reposition or capitalise on that kill, it's going to fall apart.

4. Speaking of capitalising on a kill, what are you up to there, Creator? This Creator happens to be using another of the techniques available to her class: creating a Construct. These are autonomous creations which fight for you. With a Potential and 10 seconds of work you can create one, but you'll also need some resources. The sort of resources that only a slain foe can provide. Whilst working on the corpse, you have the chance to OoC tell them their new stats as a Construct, because conveniently that monster is going to provide the phys-rep for it!

5. And here's the finished product! Admire your handiwork and send it forth to do your bidding. Though remember that you can only have one Construct or Contraption active at a time, which means no army of monsters, and no getting a Construct to protect you whilst you turret away, at least without applying special costly skills. Constructs at a distance can be mistaken for the downed foe used since they are sort of made from the same parts, but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny up close. An audible noise made by the Construct allows others to recognise it for what it is, so don't expect to be able to use it for too much subterfuge!

6. The final thing Creators can do with their Potential is to create a batch of Alchemy between encounters. These potions and devices provide various effects when drunk, thrown or activated. At first you'll only know how to make Grappling Hooks, which are good to throw and call a DRAW, but they're limited in how useful they can be. With more skills you can both widen the pool of things you can create and increase the number of things you can make in one batch.

In all, a variety of options. Whilst you can focus on one of these areas, it's recommended that you pay at least some attention to others due to some crossover between them and to avoid a situation where you are limited in what you can do - a pure Construct Creator may find they have limited options to keep them busy whilst they have a Construct up and fighting on their behalf.

At low level, in addition to their own stats a Creator specialising in Constructs or Contraptions will need to remember a basic set of stats for their Construct, or the charge time and damage of their Contraption. A Creator specialising in Alchemy will have a few different items (from the standard Alchemy list) whose effects they need to remember.

At high level, in addition to their own stats a Creator specialising in Constructs or Contraptions will still generally just need to remember one basic set of stats or properties for these. By contrast, a Creator with more of an Alchemy focus may end up needing to remember a wider range of different Alchemical item effects.

A possible basic build for a Creator is:

• Combat Proficiency (Free)
• Basic Alchemy: Stun Shot
• Construct Alchemy
• Heavy Armour 1
• Use Weapon
• Conceptual Weapon

This combat-focused starting build allows you to use your chosen weapon both in the physical world and on Vision Quests, and provides armour for additional body hits (12 as opposed to the usual 8). For 1 Potential you can create 8 Stun Shots to throw to augment your fighting with STUN 5s, and when you down an opponent you can use a Potential to turn them into a 10 hit Construct which only hits for SINGLE, but has a few uses of those STUN 5s to aid it too.

Ready to try creating a Creator? The full description along with class skill tree and descriptions can be found here - you get Combat Proficiency from the Weapon Skills tree for free, and you'll need to pick 5 other level 1 skills (plus more for any additional XP you're adding) from these sets of skills:

• Creator Skills
• General Skills
• Weapon Skills

For a Creator, it's recommended that at first you pick one of the three areas (Alchemy, Constructs, Contraptions) to focus on, and if you picked Constructs or Contraptions be sure to mix in some Weapon Skills or Alchemy to ensure that you have things to focus on when your main focus is unavailable, eg. you already have a Construct active, or conditions aren't favourable for keeping a Contraption up.

Armed with this information, you can then complete the remaining steps of Character Creation.