Below is just about as far as I've gotten so far in writing the skillset of "Shadowbinding". Please post comments or something.

And I know, I haven't finished writing all the messages for the different abilities.



Hope this works...

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Shadowbinding

This skill revolves around the dark and the night, dealing with afflictions related thereof. Also includes some stealth abilities. Is not usable during the day. Also, its effects increase and decrease according to the phase of the moon and the time of night. (I.E. Full moon is weakest, as there is the least darkness; new moon is the strongest. Midnight is strongest and predawn is weakest. Cloud cover can negate the moon effect if it is dense enough.) All damage dealt is either physical blunt or cold-based damage. A new class of damage called (shadow) damage might be created, but that would involve a lot of extra work for you, and should only be done if this skill turns out to be too weak against people with cold-damage modifiers and potions.


Brand
Premise: Deals some damage, gives you a brand on the back of your neck visible to anyone who looks at you. Brand fades when logging out. Stays when killed. Shadowbinding is only possible with this brand placed. Note: This brand stays visible during the daytime.

Description (short) (this is what is seen in AB SHADOWBINDING)
Declare your mastery of the shadows to the infidels around.

Description (long) (this is what is seen in AB SHADOWBINDING )
Syntax: Shadowbind brand
Effect: Places a brand on the back of your neck.
Cost: 300 mana, 125 health, 50 willpower, 2 secs equilibrium
Description: The power of the night is yours to command when this brand is upon your neck.

Message: forms a ball of black power in the palm of (his/her)’s hand and presses it to the back of (his/her)’s neck, wincing in pain. A black tattoo appears there, radiating an aura of malicious strength.

Message (person): You hold out your hand, concentrating for a moment. A black ball of power forms in your palm. Quickly, you press it against your neck, wincing in pain as you do so.
Secondary message (about 2 seconds after first message) A surge of power floods through your veins as the brand of the night takes full effect.


Web
Premise: Create a web of shadows (like the skill “web” in Cosmic). Deals a very small amount of damage to the person it is cast on. Stackable (if two webs are cast on the same target, the webs stack (i.e. You have writhed out of one of the webs entagling you. Diag would reveal the number of webs.)

Description (short)
Bind an enemy with the power of the night.

Description (long)
Syntax: Shadowbind web (optional tag of stack)
Effect: Entangles an opponent. Deals a small amount of damage (10 or less) and is faster to writhe out of than other versions of web. If the optional tag of "stack" is included, the cost increases by one power. All webs must use the "stack" tag if the webs are to stack on the opponent.
Cost: 275 mana, 5 willpower, 2 secs equilibrium (plus one power if stacking)
Description: Weave a web of frozen shadows to ensnare your enemies.

Mark
Premise: You must mark your opponent before using some of the more powerful skills of shadowbinding. This deals no damage and is not curable. It lasts for five minutes, and is reset to five minutes every time shadowskills are used on the person. Fades in the day. (Time it the same as “declare”)

Description (short)
Mark your enemy and your powers will ring true

Description (long)
Syntax: Shadowbind mark
Effect: Creates a mark upon your enemy’s forehead (in look description: A shimmering teardrop of black shadows sits maliciously upon their forehead.) Increases to-hit of Staff of Shadows physical attack (later skill) by 50.
Cost: 150 mana, 2 secs equilibrium.
Description: Brand your foe a heretic of the night and bring your full powers to bear upon them.

Burn
Premise: Damage-based spell; possibility of inflicting the affliction of “cold” (shivers)

Description (short)
Lash your enemies with the frozen night.

Description (long)
Syntax: Shadowbind burn
Effect: Damage base of cosmic’s “Cosmicfire” -10 if the cold affliction holds.
Cost: Cosmicfire + 20 (mana), 27 willpower, 2 secs equilibrium
Description: Coalesce a whip of darkness to scourge your foes.


Howl
Premise: Increases the power of shadow-based spells. (+100 damage, -15 mana (casting cost), higher chance of dealing afflictions.) Limited time- about 2.5 minutes or so. Costs 3 power.

Description (short)
Call upon the force of the night with a primeval howl.

Description (long)
Syntax: Shadowbind howl
Effect: Increase the power of your shadow-based spells.
Cost: 1 power, 350 mana, 20 willpower, 3 secs equilibrium
Description: Call out into the night and bring the power of the darkness into you.


Shadowskin
Premise: Acts much like “Barkskin” or “Stoneskin” spells, but has the added bonus of dealing cold-based damage to people who attack you with bare fists/feet. (I.E. damage opponent if punched or kicked.)

Description (short):
Weave a cloak of shadows around you to protect you from harm.

Description (long)
Syntax: Shadowbind shadowskin
Effect: Same damage-reduction as stoneskin, but has the bonus of decreasing fire damage due to its cold-based properties.
Cost: Stoneskin + 25 mana (AN: Most of the time, I will have the base cost of another skill plus an extra cost; this is generally due to improvements that I have made to this skill. It’s for balancing.) 1 second of equilibrium
Description:
Wrap yourself in a protective cloak of shadows and laugh as the weapons of the infidels become puny sticks in the hands of their masters.


Skulk
Premise: Invisibility; still able to be detected by normal means (i.e. thirdeye, scry, etc. Only works at night.

Description (short):
Hide among the shadows

Description (long)
Syntax: skulk (no shadowbind needed as this does not require mana, in my opinion)
Effect: Enables the user to hide in the shadows
Cost: No mana, 50 willpower. Willpower does not regenerate while skulking, due to the effort it takes to stay hidden and unobserved. 1 sec equilibrium.
Description:
Your mastery of the night is such that you are able to hide unseen among the shadows.


Shadowbow
Premise: Conjures a weak bow that can deal damage from one room away.

Description (short):
Conjure a bow of the night.

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind bow
shoot (optional tag of “invisible”)
ex: Shoot yawgmoth n invisible
Effect: Deals 400 damage to a player. If the “invisible” tag is added to the firing syntax, the player will be unable to tell what direction the shot is coming from. If skulking, this effect (shooting invisible) breaks the skulk. (would be too unbalanced otherwise). Normal shooting does not break the skulk, as it’s kind of a “Duh, the person shot at me from the east... he must be there! Aha!” *whacks person*
Cost: 500 mana and 2 power to summon bow, bow lasts for 1 day in the real world., 50 mana to shoot (conjuring arrows). 2 secs equilibrium to summon the bow, 3 secs to shoot normally, 5 secs to shoot invisible shots.
Description: Summon a bow of the night to strike down the infidels who oppose you.


Haunt
Premise: Summon a lesser shadowfiend to defend you. (Note: This isn’t Nihilism, so the fiend does not have assignable affliction-giving attacks; just damage and random cold.) This creature follows you around for a short time- perhaps five minutes- then dissapears. The message would be something like “Its term of service over, a lesser shadowfiend unravels and dissapears into the oppressive night.” Stackable- you can summon as many of these as your power will let you. They will attack anyone whom you ENEMY or MARK- no one else; not even if that person is attacking you. They will also defend themselves if attacked. All in all, though, they’re amazingly simple-minded...

Description (short):
A fiend of the night shall harry your foes.

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind haunt
Effect: Creates a shadowfiend with the health of a Nihilism spawn. Deals (spawn damage -50) with the chance of giving the “cold” affliction.
Cost: 250 mana, 2 power, 4 secs equilibrium
Description: Summon a shade of the night to defend you.

Regenerate
Premise: Regenerate health and mana during the night.

Description (short):
Regenerate yourself under the cover of the night

Description (long)
Syntax: none; this skill is “static” in that it always functions during the nighttime without activation.
Effect: Regenerate mana and health as if you had “perfection” and “mercy” cast upon you. Stacks with these spells.
Cost: None; static
Description: Your mastery of the night is so great that when it is dark, you draw strength from the surrounding darkness.


Replicate
Premise: Create two “shadow clones” of yourself to confuse foes. Works the same as “reflection” in Illusions, except that shadow clones do not dissapear when you attack. They can take two hits instead of one (knights hitting with two weapons would dispell a in one round, though) regardless of the damage dealt.


Description (short):
Replicate yourself under the presence of the night

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind replication
Effect: Player weaves 2 clones of themselves from strands of night. See “Premise” for details.
Cost: Same as “reflection” in mana, 4 power, 3 secs equilibrium
Description: Weave a pair of clones from the fabric of the night.

Staff
Premise: Conjure a staff of the shadows to attack your foes. Works as a physical weapon or a magical attack (Physical stats: 50 damage, 100 to-hit and 125 speed. To-Hit is raised by the use of the skill Howl.) This skill is the only shadowbinding skill (besides Brand) that lasts throughout the entire day. The Shadowstaff can be used as a physical weapon during the day. Its magical attack is only usable during the night, but as such, the magic attack is more powerful than the staffs that the magi use.

Description (short):
Weave a staff of midnight.

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind staff
staffblast
Effect: Creates a staff that lasts for 3 real-world days. Magic attack deals 700 points of cold damage and 100 points of blunt damage.
Cost: 500 mana and 5 power to summon, 3 secs equilibrium; 70 mana and 2 secs equilibrium to attack.
Description: Weave a staff of the night to aid you in your crusades against your foes.

Harry
Premise: Summon a horde of lesser fiends to defend you. Alternately, this skill can summon one greater fiend to defend you. (player’s choice)


Description (short):
Command an army of shades to defend you

Description (long)
Syntax: darkbind harry (optional “greater”)
Effect: Weaves an army of four lesser fiends or one greater fiend.
Cost: 7 power, 400 mana, 3 willpower
Description: Harrass your foes with a trio of lesser fiends, or defend yourself with a greater one.

(Note: This is not “harry” as in the name “Harry Potter”, rather, it is “harry” as in “to torment by or as if by constant attack” kind of harry.)


Shield
Premise: Create a shield of shadows with the stats of a tower shield. Look description would be “ is here. (s)he wields a tower shield of howling blackness in (her/his) (left/right) hand and..... (etc)” Gives the equivalent skill of “TrueShield” from Combat. This shield would defend against fire attacks as well as physical blunt and cutting. It has the added bonus of lessening the power of magic attacks.

Description (short):
Weave a shield of the night to defend yourself.

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind shield
Effect: Weaves a shield of shadows to defend the player. Can be given to other people. Shield lasts for 5 days in real.
Cost: 2 power, 250 mana, 2 secs equilibrium
Description: Weave a shield of the night to defend yourself and your friends.

Nightform:
Premise: Player becomes a wraith of the night. Physical attacks are negated by 75% and magic attacks are increased to 125% of their damage. Cold and fire cease to have any effect at all.

Description (short):
Become a wraith of the night.

Description (long):
Syntax: shadowbind nightform
Effect: See premise.
Cost: 5 power, 500 mana, 5 secs equilibrium.
Description: Become one with the night, shedding your puny body for an infinitely more versatile shade of the night.

(Note: Nightform comes with separate abilities used only when the player is in nightform. Ablilities are listed below.)

Flow: 100 mana, 2 secs equilibrium upon flowing. Flow to anyone in the Basin.
Fission: Half your health, mana, willpower, endurance and create a replica of yourself that you can control. Player does not regenerate mana nor health while split. (Enables you to leave your main form behind and control a copy of yourself in battle.) Please note that the copy would NOT be in shadeform. Cost: 5 power. Replica cannot regenerate, meditate, sleep or link to nexuses. Does not have any power. It cannot be cured. It’s like a stone statue- when something gets hacked off, it’s hacked off and cannot be repaired perfectly.
Detonate: Detonate your duplicate and deal damage to everyone except your allies. Damage is equal to the amount of mana that your replica has minus the amount of health that it has. (In other words, it’s pointless to hide in the next room over and send bombs into the room with your enemies- you have to fight with the fissioned being.)
Control: Merge your shadeform (must be WHOLE) with another entity and gain temporary control over it. (Can merge with an NPC or player. Gives 5 seconds of control, then player is cast out and takes 500 damage and loses 500 mana. Works like any other control ability- can’t suicide or screw over the other player permanently.



Scourge
Premise: This is the transcendant skill of Shadowbinding. This skill basically is a room attack that harms everyone except your allies. It also harms the pets, steeds and loyals of anyone who is not your ally in the room.


Description (short):
Call upon the legions of the night to scourge your foes.

Description (long)
Syntax: shadowbind scourge
Effect: Deals damage to players and creatures in the room based on the equation (round down). Base damage is 10. Damage cannot exceed 2000 damage so that the skill is balanced (For instance, someone at level 73 would take about 10365 damage if this equation was not limited. Ah, the beauty of powers...) In other words, people of low level would not be harmed by this spell at all. Only people of high level would be affected.
Cost: 10 power, 500 mana, 5 secs equilibrium.
Description: Only your allies are safe from the blast of this deadly skill.



As you can tell by the high costs in mana and health, this skill isn't exactly newbie-friendly... but then again, I don't exactly like it when everyone in the game creates a new character in the guild that got the new skill just to see how good it is. They can learn it up as much as they want, but they're gonna have a bit of trouble using it if they don't have a good bit of mana to begin with.

Maybe I'm lazy, but could you remove all of the personal messages for each skill? It really clutters up what I really want to see (The skill and its use).

Very well; it is done.

Genius.

What organisation would get it?

Why would it be put into Lusternia?

Which nexus would it be tied into or, if it wasn't tied into any nexus, why isn't it?

Clearly Glomdoring.

Ceres is right, it'd be a Glomdoring guild. I'm in the middle of trying to write a small city/village that could be placed in Glomdoring, but I'm not having overmuch luck with it so far.

Also, the reason why it (and the guild, and the city in Glomdoring) would be placed in Lusternia would be mostly to serve as a new place to interact. Currently, Lusternia is locked in the same cycle- Seren vs Magnagora, Celest vs Magnagora, sometimes they work together, sometimes not, but it's almost always wars and feuds. The city I'm creating would be a neutral/evil city, a place for everyone to meet and not kill each other. Of course, the administration of that city could change the aim of the city however they pleased, but it's always nice to give the realms a fresh slate to start on.

I think it's a great idea, however here's some improvements...

If webbing is stackable, make it use power. It is too easily to abuse, by just having two shadowbinders stacking web on a target.

A lot of these skills would be only usable at night, since your descriptions of them is taht the shadowbinders use the night and its shadows.

Hope it helps

But good work!

I thought I made that clear at the top...

"Shadowbinding

This skill revolves around the dark and the night, dealing with afflictions related thereof. Also includes some stealth abilities. Is not usable during the day."



But I agree, it should cost 1 or 2 power for the web... fixing it now.

Besides putting Forgers out of business for supplying shields , I see a number of problems with this skillset. Firstly, possessing immunity to fire/cold spells would render Aquamancers unable to do any noticeable damage to you at all besides phantom and jellies since all they have are blast, staff, and hailstorm (half ice, half blunt).

Secondly, nightform/stoneskin/barkskin/trueshield + greatrobes would make this class much much more tanky than Mages and Druids, they need some additional physical protection, but this would be way too much.

Stackable web is just insane, someone could be perpetually entangled for an entire fight if web can be stacked.

Or just not have it stackable. Stackable web is insane, even if it can only be used at night.

*kick terenas*

I dunno... I like the idea of stackble webbing; because it seems bad RP to cast a web at someone and have them squirm out of it even if you cast another at someone.

It's like this: "Aha! You're wrapped up in five layers of this uber-sticky webbing! Muhaha!'
*person twitches* "You were saying?"



Just crazy. Although the time that it takes to writhe could be shortened for this particular instance of writhe.

And I agree; I should make it so that the shields only last for about 10 minutes real when handed off.

But the thing about the immunity: If the person is willing to spend 10 power and be restricted to fighting at night to be granted that immunity, then I think it's plenty fair. The COMPLETE immunity could be partially negated, but all in all I think that an immunity would still be a good thing for this to have.

And this class (I'd end up making a new class for this, by the way) would not be able to use uber-pumpy armour. I'd probably restrict them to leather or something, seeing as how they have Shadowbinding. I wouldn't give them Shadowskin AND stoneskin AND barkskin AND greatrobes, you know?

*glares at the uber-tanky knights with 18 constitution and full-plate armour*

Well.. most of these skills can only be used during the night, and thats 40% of the time. All it needs is some attacks that can be used during the day, and make the nighttime attacks shorter period to be at its greatest strength.

Well, you could make it usable during the day and make the skills weaker during the day, since it is called "Shadowbinding" and not "Nightbinding."

If you don't understand that then well... go to sleep.

Good point; I could add terrain modifiers too...

Something like:

Plains or open field: Unusable (or usable at 25% power)

Forests: Usable, 75% power.

Caves or underground: Usable, 90% power.

Nighttime: Usable, 100% power (subject to moon and time variables)
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Nighttime plains: 100%
Nighttime forests: 125%
Nighttime underground: 150%


And by the way, it's 3:05 PM...

I'm thinking.. If its after equivalent to 11:30 to.. the equivalent of 3:30 am.. the attacks are the most powerful, but during the rest of nighttime it is a little toned down, and during the day it is still useful but not at the strength of what it is compared to most powerful.

Kinda overpowered, no?

I suppose it could be lessened to a negation off 50%, yeah, but still:

Some of the knights I know do 1500 to 2000 damage. So 50% of that is still 750 to 1000 damage. I don't think it's THAT much of a loss to the tanks, you know?

Besides. You try hitting something made of something intangible. By all RP rights, it should be impossible

And notice how I boosted the magic damage too... I tried to balance it a little there.




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EDIT: Anyways, keep 'em coming, I'm going to be off my computer for about 4-5 hours or so, but when I get back I'll keep answering questions.
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Well... I didn't care much about the magic damage. I'm all for attack boosts, since I realize (Despite the staticness to it) that mage attacks, depending on type, are rather weak.

I think -some- knight damage is too extreme and that the fault lies in the code for weapons. People do waste tons of gold trying to forge perfect sets though, but eh.. I've seen weapons with 180 damage.

Doesn't seem like there's a decent limit.