I would like to first thank all of the modders for their great work.

I recently started playing Torchlight again and have appreciated a large number of the mods, especially the new playable characters.

I had a character(s) design idea but my skills in modding would be exactly zero.  Wondering if I did the lore, skill design and most of the playtesting, if anyone would do the much harder part of coding it.  I know this is a labour of love for most of you but I would be willing to make the first donation for your work.  The credit and ownership would be yours as well.

The idea centres around core archetypes with specializations.  Each specialization would be very thematic and relevant to Torchlight Lore (or at least implied lore).

For example, if one archetype was Warrior.  This would specialize into Janissary, Sturmbeorn or Regent (to name a few possible).  At level 1 the Warrior has full access to 1 tab of 7 active and 3 passive skills, these would be generic warrior type skills.  Then, at level 20 (TBD) the player can activate one of the specialty trees displayed in tabs 2 through 4.   Another 10 skills are then opened.  Once a specialty is selected, the other 2 are not available.

The 5th and final tab is how the speciality is selected.  Choosing a specialty will give immediate and direct benefits relevant to the specialty and if possible, maybe even alter and buff the initial Warrior skills that were chosen. 

Another archtype might be the Mage with specializations of Runemaster, Wazir, al.  Another might be Priest with specialties such as Redeemer, Channeler, Bishop.

Up for discussion is this creation method only unlocks 21 skills for the player.  Possibly 23 by adding two more on the 5th tab for each specialty.  Personally I believe this is more than enough, especially if the specilization skills are very *satisfying* and synergistic.  I see each specialization having its own ultimate, skills that intuitively work together and hopefully bring a real sense of uniqueness, not all the same skills with different names (there is only so much variety).

A side benefit that I potentially see is other modders could do character PACKS, using the archetype foundation and only have to group 10 skills instead of 30 by doing a specialization instead of an entire character.  i believe I could provide up to 21 character packs based on 7 archtypes.  Obviously that is a huge project, for now, I am happy with just 1 archtype and 3 specializations.

For myself I would very much like to play the aforementioned Sturmbeorn Class.  Its a Tank class with Lightning skills.  Hurricane, lightning claws, an attack buffed by max health and so on. 

Not sure if its possible, but once the specialization was chosen, it would be very cool if the character on the character selection load in screen actually changed from Warrior to Sturmbeorn.

If this sounds interesting, I would be happy to go into more detail.

Hello @Phanjam,

Thank you for the welcome. 

I have looked at the Classless character mod and I have to say it looks fantastic.  At with most of the mods I am somwehat blown away by the skills displayed by the modders.  You guys have my full respect   I have not tried it yet for a few reasons.  I am working on half the classes in Variant especially Assassin, Wildling, Bladedancer, and Druid - all in ****.  I am working these classes to their full abilities, trying every skill, seeing what works, what doesnt and what concepts the modders brought forth that make their class build shine. 

At the outset I  believe my idea and this mod provide essentially the same feel.  At the end they become quite different. 

That said...

The classless character mod seems to be an almost ideal foundation for the specialization trees concept.  I beleive the initial benefits of the classless character mod followed by a specializtion player choice would be my personal favourite way to play,


Taking the Fighter Tree up to a certain point and then getting to a special group of skills only the Sturmbeorn or Jannisary could access et. al. , Would really make the game sing for me.  Starting out Generic but ending up Focused, is best concept for character growth and playstyle with some game lore and role playing thrown in to spice it all up. 

For me, i would struggle a bit to play a *fighter* to max level. Its flexibility is in some ways the benefit and the issue at the same time.  But playing a fighter to level 20 or 30 and then morphing to his final class choice motivates me to go deep into that said characters playing time.


Obviously this is in no way an original idea.  It is done quite well in many games I have played.  Dragon Age for example.  I just have never seen it in an ARPG and would very much like to.

@steffire3

Thank you for the input.   I have considered the best approach here and I think it can work as an extension of the classless character mod.  The CC mod already has a great foundation for additions

The idea being to stay generic and flexible or veer off into a specialization - offering even more choices for the player.

5 Archetypes as available in the CC mod is plenty to work with.  Having a stand alone mod built from scratch seems too ambitious. 


So, I plan to play around with the classless character mod upon my return home and see if its a possibility to essentially enhance and compliment this already great mod.  Ill then post any ideas that arise from the playtesting.