Better than all of these speculations of what the new Archetype is... I have a much grander scheme that I hope the Admin would take into consideration.

The Mathemetician Archetype

Basically, they fight using numeric calculations among other things and can plan their battles before hand. Granted it would be difficult to code, but I think this would be a unique twist for Lusternia and have a very huge RP potential. Who says Scholars can't fight when the need arises? For those of you who played Final Fantasy Tactics, I'm sure you'd be familiar with what I'm talking about and could perhaps elaborate a bit more. Overall, I think this would be an excellent idea other than the silly "serpent" "monk" or "bard" classes. Something new and fresh for a revolutionary MUD

Aetolia did something like this, with Numerology. I heard they were overpowered.

God damn Aetolia

Umm,

Aetolia:

Cabalists -> Numerology...

cabalist's they were overpowered when they first came out, i think now though they are about as good as the occultists but don't quote me on that since i have never been either.

Ok, not everyone here has played Aetolia

Ahh, Numerology. I was there when Cabalists came in though I've never been one. They sounded well.. either odd or insanely overpowered at the time.

Essentualy, as you trained you learned particular numbers to 'focus' on. Focusing on a number gave you the power of that number and, thus, particular skills with that number. You have to focus on another number to do a different set a skills, thus letting go of the old number.

Eventualy, you get the power to focus on two numbers at a time, then, I THINK at trans, you can, for a little while, focus on all of the numbers at once, though it left you weak after it's done.

Sort of like Guardians, except you empower yourself instead of your ent. Also reminds me of Metamorph except there's no skill that lets you instafocus to let you use anything at will. They DID have two nasty skills that threw three ailments at you at once, and an instakill that required all 6 on you at once.

The more I learned about them, the more I was glad the Sysin (Shadowsnakes) were allied to them.

A Monk-type archetype, which wasn't focused on martial arts, but on mental/physical/magical discipline. One part Jedi, one part Bene Gesserit. Their first skill would be a combat skill that would let them use several weapons, so it would be very versatile (Like oriental monks, they'd be trained to use different types of weapons.) However, they'd have to choose (Switching weapons would take balance, so no juggling a quarterstaff and a katana.) This way, each monk would choose a fighting style and stick to it, but they would be able to change without specializing in a different skillset, like warriors do. The second skill would be a sort of mental/physical discipline, mostly defenses and a bit of offensive magic, that would enhance the first skill. And the third one would be a choice between astrology, dreamweaving, psionics and something else.

The second skill would specialize in Bindu (Mental discipline) and Prana (Physical discipline)

Like:

-PRANA QUICKENING

Controlling the fibres of your muscles, you set them to snap into action suddenly.

(Makes the character's next attack much, much faster.)

Or:

-BINDU AWARENESS

Training your mind onto small hints and signals, you enhance your senses.

(The user can detect hidden doors and players.)

Yes, this is a shameless rip-off from Dune. It's cool, though.

Or, a bard/swashbuckler archetype. Like the bards in Achaea, but less wimpy, and focused on group combat. Their music would generate ongoing effects that would follow them around and affect their allies or enemies, instead of sitting on a room.

Like:

-PLAY DIRGE

Tuning your lyre to deep, bass tones, you start to play a sombre dirge.

(Causes slight damage to enemies hearing the dirge, and instakills them if their ego drops below one fourth.)

-SING BATTLESONG

Singing powerfully an anthem of courage, you aid your friends in battle.
(Increases damage of allies hearing the battlesong)

-INSULT IXION

Using flair, wit, and panache, you skillfully make fun of Ixion, forcing him to lower his head and fume.

(Swashbuckling skill, causes ego damage. Can't be used in a debate (So people don't use it in influencing. Several bard skills would depend on the target's ego.)

Using rapiers and cutlasses would be fun, as long as it didn't suck like the Achaean bards do.

And finally, a 'summoner' archetype which would focus on summoning entities from different planes to fight for them (Invoking skillset) and summoning pure energy to make things go BOOM (Evoking skillset).

Of course, considering some of the players in some of the IRE muds, particularly Achaea, a 'wench' or 'geisha' archetype might be in order. I'll leave the skills as an exercise to the reader.

I'd also like to see a self-sufficient, cityless monk guild that is its own org and can influence villages, but doesn't get power or gold from it. (They would influence villages to become independent, rather than join them.)

NO MONKS.

Hajamin has said this already, and we all agree.

No cityless guilds. It goes against the original concept of the game.

I agree, Tekura/Kaido/Hypnosis monks don't really fit in Lusty. I was thinking more of something like a Jedi or a Mentat than a monk, though.

And yeah, cityless guilds do go against the original concept. But it would be fun having a small, less powerful, and entirely neutral org in the game.

With tracking, it's up to players to do this. They're fully capable of it.

If I had the resources, I'd be doing it myself. Still, a neutral org with special powers associated with it being neutral would be interesting. For example, they would be able to 'uninfluence' villages, making them declare independence and not pay power/tithes to anyone. It would severely unbalance the game, but meh. Would be fun.