Alright so these are some ideas that I had for another MUD and I want to gather some opinions...I am not trying to steal any players from Lusternia or anything of that sort and if anyone feels that I am...delete the thread but here we go:

Basically, each guild would branch of into different aspects like the Nature guilds/The Dark/Evil Guilds/The Good/Light guilds and then they would again branch into subclasses, here are some examples

Warriors
Light Equivelant-Paladins-Student of the Blade-Student of the Shield
Nature Equivelant- Grove Guardian-Tree Skin-Brook Walker
Dark Knight-Disciple of Death-Disciple of Darkness

Thief (haven't gotten the second branches yet)
Light Equivelant-Adventurer
Nature Equivelant- Snitch
Dark Equivelant-Robber

Priest
Light Equivelant-Cleric-Disciple of the Light-Disciple of Life
Nature Equivelant-Druid-Green Thumb-Forestal Searcher
Dark Equivelant-Cardinal-Shadowwalker-Deatheater

Ranger
Light Equivelant-Wanderer
Nature Equivelant-Scout
Dark Equivelant-Vagrant

Mage

Light-Illumin Caster-Illumancer-Time Mage
Nature-Elemental Caster-Aquamancer-Harvest Mage
Dark-Deathcaster-Necromancer-Pyromancer

Now basically the skills would branch further with each subclass and they are just some very basic ideas that I had....thoughts would be appreciated?

Warriors
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Paladins
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Standard Skillsets
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Piety

Piety skills:

Scholarship: Allows one to inscribe holy texts so that only other enlightened ones may read.

Celestial Blessing: Create a mace of pure Divine energy.

Holy Aura: Allows one to put up a temporary shield that will deflect most attacks. *This shield is very temporary and not the same as the Arc skill and it's Shield equivelant*

Armor of Righteousness: Gives one more defense against physical attacks

Rite of Sustenance: Mana from the Gods will fill your stomach, quelling your hunger for a bit longer.

Divine Eye: Allows you to have a greater chance of seeing invisible people in the same room.

Cleansing: Drain the pains of another away and pass them onto yourself.

Reflection: Transfer a percentage of your damage to your foe.

Angelic Visage: Gives one the appearance of an angel making it difficult for anyone of a good alignment to attack you.

Ascension: You have reached such a state of enlightenment that you can now temporarily shrug off hunger and thirst as well as a variety of poisons and slowly regenerate health over time.


|||---~~~Student of the Blade~~~---|||

Proficiency- Become capable with any bladed weapon.

Fiercehold- Hold onto your blades with a fierce grip so that it will be very difficult to steal your weapons.

Duality- Allows you to wield two bladed weapons at once.

Arc- Create a temporary shield that will block many physical attacks.

Strip- Use your blades to shatter the shield of an opponent.

Knick- A basic attack that will cut a small slit upon the flesh of an opponent.

Parry- Increased chance of parrying physical attacks

Slice- A slightly more advanced attack that will cause minor bleeding damage.

Blade Spin- When initiated, this attack will allow you to spin, using both weapons to attack your opponent as you exit the room.


Stab- Push your blade deep into an opponent’s body. Massive bleeding and overall damage.

Infuse- Empower your blade with magical effects such as fire, ice or lightning damage.

Draw- Allows you to knick yourself and remove a single poison that may infiltrate your body.

Chase- Should someone lose honor and attempt to flee the fight, you will get in one last attack before they can escape.

Group Strip: Remove the protective shield from around an entire party.

Gut- Open a gaping wound across the abdomen of your foe, spilling their guts and causing massive amounts of bleeding and regular damage and sometimes instant death.



|||~~~---Student of the Shield---~~~|||

Proficiency: Increase the damage reduced when you use a shield.

Duality: Wield two shields or a shield and a blunt weapon with equal skill.

Fiercehold: Fiercely grip your weapons or shields, making them more difficult to steal.

Bash: Use your blunt weapon or shield to strike your foe with a stiff attack.

Shell: Use your Divine Gifts to empower your shield to deflect most attacks.

Shatter: A blunt weapon or shield attack that will destroy the shield of most enemies.

Ram: Use your shield to thrust an opponent into an adjacent room.

Concussion: Slam your blunt weapon or shield into the head of your opponent, stunning them momentarily.

Crush: Fiercely attack your opponent with the possibility of shattering a limb.

Infuse: Increase your shield’s resistance to magical attacks.

Reflect: When daylight, you can use your shield to reflect light into the eyes of your enemy, temporarily blinding them.

Block: Use your body and shield to block one exit from the room you are in.

Defender: Put a temporary shield around your entire group.

Shield Spin: Use two shields in a spinning attack that will lift opponents into the air and drop them on their head, stunning them and causing damage.

Smash: Slam your shield or blunt weapon into your opponent and open a gaping wound that will bleed profusely.

Ram: This attack will allow you to charge at an enemy from one room away and crash into them with your shield. On very rare occasions, it may even rattle the heart of your opponent so much that it could instantly kill them.

Thief
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Adventurer
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Standard Skillsets
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Piety

Piety mentioned above

|||~~~---Collector:---~~~|||

Panhandle: Gather alms for the good of the Church.

Lightfoot: Decrease the sounds made when one walks in city environments.

Dagger: Become proficient in the use of the Dagger.
initial attack included- Poke- You can prick your target causing a small amount of damage

Ambidexterity: Wield two daggers at once.

Throw: Throw your daggers at opponents a room away.

Recall: You have formed such a liking to your weapon that you may use your mental energies to summon it from a room away.

Boomerang: You can craft a boomerang and use it to strike and enemy a room away and your weapon will return.

Bola You can use bolas to trip your enemies.

Ambush: You can lie in the shadows and await a foe, increasing the chance of a devastating attack.

Cloak: Use your environment to your advantage as you creep through the shadows.

Translucency: Meld with the light so that you become invisible.

Changeform: Allows you to take on the visage of another.

Climb: You are skilled enough that you may shimmy up trees.

Smokescreen: Emit a haze that will blind your foes for a good period of time.

Slit Throat: You must be using Translucency with this skill and its success rate is dramatically improved when used in conjunction with Ambush and Smokescreen. You are such a skilled assassin that you can creep up behind your foe and slit their throat causing great bleeding and damage and possibly instantly kill your foe.






Keep in mind that these aren't necessarily the exact order of the skills.

Wow! Apparently no one cares

Looks pretty cool to me, the ranger class seems like it could be interesting. Some good original ideas in there too

You seem to be leaving the "nature" people with not much to do.

Yeah! As I mentioned........some of these, I was struggling to come up with ideas for and it is a work in progress. I offered the Paladin/Collector bits as an example of how it all might work.

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Also consider those MUDders who find the typical Guild systems to be too linear for their tastes.

Someone's pre-defined character who wishes to be a diplomat, Religious zealot or merchant, or what-have-you, may never find a Guild that suits, or the player who has pretty much decided upon their character's tendency towards or against x or y (where x and y are choices forced by -someone else's- design choice) may not like these choices offered by any Guild and its skillset (and that almost always means PvP, PvNPC combat).

Give these people's characters a choice to improve their natural abilities by other means, whether that be a Religious device (analogous to the Order) or Merchant device (Merchant Houses, Major and Minor) etc. in your development docs . As long as they have the basic skills to hunt rabbits or rats for cash, they'd do alright 'doing their own thing' before climbing the ladder of religious devotion or building a commercial empire or anything else not combat-oriented.

I'm also thinking about the protracted discussions on the Aetolia/Achaean/etc fora re: 'Rogues' in IRE games. These are interesting ones because these debates are almost always started by a player who loves the idea of being a Rogue or the idea of being non-affiliated or perhaps because of his/her abhorrence of forced membership into Guilds that will never 'feel' appropriate, in the early and/or later stages of the character's career, and therefore a constant chore/bore.

In brief, not everyone wants to be in a Guild. Allow for it. :)

Anyway -good luck to you in your project.