User blog:The Dark-Eyed One/Conceptual game elements - up for discussion!

- Equipment/Ammunition
Shock Bolt: An alternative form of ammunition for the crossbow, the shock bolt temporarily stuns a target with a charge of electricity, allowing them to be insta-killed with a sword or easily choked into unconsciousness. An upgrade could allow the shock to arc to other enemies near to the target, allowing multiple people to be stunned at once, providing a very useful method of crowd-control. The Shock Bolt can also, with an upgrade, short-out and disable mechanical devices, such as security systems and Clockwork Guards, but does not arc between them.

Delirium Dart: Fired from the crossbow similarly to the Sleep Dart, the Delirium Dart causes the target to enter a state of manic delirium of hostility and fright, attacking their companions, running in fright, and/or committing suicide after a certain period of time. Upgrades could decrease the length of time to takes for the compound to take effect and increase the severity of its effects.

Noisemaker Bolt: A crossbow-fired bolt that, upon landing on a surface, sticks and begins emitting a noise that attracts hostiles to investigate, but at a low level of alert. It is a reliably carried alternative to glass bottles and other forms of throwable detritus that consistently draws the attention of enemies from a large radius, and can be launched at a greater distance.

Musical Device: A miniaturized version of the Overseer's Music Box that can either be thrown as a grenade or placed as a mine. When activated, it begins playing disruptive music with a visible radius to its effect. Magic-wielding enemies, such as Whalers or Witches, caught within its AOE are weakened, disoriented, and unable to use their magical abilities. This affects the Player as well should they enter the Device's effect radius.

Witch's Kiss Upgrade: A Masterwork upgrade derived from the Poison Blade idea. Upon landing  a successful yet not lethal sword strike on an enemy, said enemy begins to increasingly succumb to the poison's effects. These effects progressively increase in severity over a length of time, and include a decrease in attack and movement speed, a decrease in damage dealt, an increase in damage taken, the lowered ability to win contested interactions, and disorientation. Aesthetically, the sword gains a vial of liquid embedded in the hilt, as well as small conduits along the blade.

Steel Spirit Upgrade: A Masterwork upgrade that gives the Crossbow a mild homing ability, enough to compensate for a few degrees of offset, accomplished through a very visually appealing mess of electromagnetic machinery attached to said weapon. Canonically uses the same electromagnetic technology behind Arc Pylons, Clockwork Guards, etc.

Searing Bloom Upgrade: A Masterwork upgrade applicable to the Pistol, this gives its short-range AOE the ability to set people on fire, perhaps at the cost of some other feature for balance reasons. This is represented by a series of miniature whale oil nodules and other intricacies attached to the receiver and barrel.

Pistol Spread Upgrades: Another upgrade line for the Pistol, these increase the range, radius, and stun duration of the Pistol's spread effect.

Crossbow Upgrades: For variety's sake, this makes each crossbow upgrade a short line of upgrades like the pistol.

Armor Upgrades: Rather than reducing damage all-around, a variety of armor upgrades would protect against specific types of damage to a higher extent (e.g. melee damage, bullet damage, explosive damage).

- Combat
Disarm: Disarm an opponent by holding block and attacking at the opportune moment (such as right in the middle of an enemy's swing). Allows the fighter to handle multiple enemies attacking simultaneously by disarming them while block is active (thus remaining protected from strikes by other enemies) and allowing them to be handled one-by-one. Can be used to disarm an adversary of their sword, firearm, or other auxiliary weapon and preventing them from attacking until they regain their weapons. During this period, they can be insta-killed.

- Powers
Anticipate (passive): Predict oncoming damage and quickly activate a key-combination prompt to avoid it. The prompt occurs within a narrow window of time and acts similar to the Drop Assassination prompt. Anticipate can be used to dodge projectiles such as bolts and bullets, avoid fall damage, and give prior indication of a fast sword strike.

Soulbind (passive): Links your health and status in curious ways to your enemies; reflects a portion of damage taken back at attackers and saps health and/or mana from enemies when performing offensive actions against them (similar to the Raven and Falling Star bone charms). Higher stages result in more health and mana gained for each kill, KO, or related action, and in a higher percentage of damage that is reflected back at attackers.

Terrorize (passive): Alters and buffs the effects of delirium as caused by other abilities. Initially, delirium only manifests as a panic that causes affected hostiles to flee and cower from the player, much in the same way civilians do. An upgrade would also cause previously allied enemies to attack each other, perhaps if they pass within a certain distance of each other. Further upgrades would increase the length of time spent delirious, and even perhaps cause delirious enemies to commit suicide when the time runs out.

Improved Blood Thirsty (passive): A potential upgrade series to the base Blood Thirsty skill. Rather than simply giving the option to double-instakill when Blood Thirsty is upgraded, this upgrade/upgrade chain provides the potential for chaining several instant kills together by activating semi-QT prompts. Upgrades could involve increasing the number of kills that can be chained as well as the variety of kills available, such as chained kills from afar or above or below. In essence, the takedown chain skill from Far Cry.

Improved Vitality (passive): An improved version of the Vitality skill. Further upgrades to the baseline skill not only increase health and health gained from consumables, but also potentially adds increased resistance to damage and even mild to moderate regeneration, similar to mana.

Improved Agility (passive): In addition to powers already present in the original ability, this adds the ability to slide down and perhaps even climb/run up sheer faces and dismount with a jump, giving the player even greater mobility.

Improved Dark Vision (active): As a further improvement, this gives a higher level of Dark Vision the ability to visualize enemy patrol routes and see the countdown on their awareness levels. It could also show projectile trajectory and the point at which a grenade would detonate.

Rift (active): An alternative to Blink and Far Reach, Rift creates two short-lasting rift portals between the player and where they are directing. This confers the advantage of being able to attack, cast spells, throw items, and even walk possessed people through them. The disadvantage is that enemies can see and be alerted by an active rift, and even potentially spot the caster through it if they are facing in the right direction. Upgrades can include duration, placement distance, and visibility, the ability to place both portals wherever rather than just the exit portal (otherwise the entrance rift will automatically spawn in front of or near the caster), and summon multiple rifts for chaining.

Voyeur (active): An alternative to Dark Vision and Void Gaze, Voyeur gives the caster the ability to "disassociate" from their body, turning into an invisible and intangible entity capable of moving--or perhaps flying--from place to place in order to scout or map out a route ahead without being detected or exposing oneself to danger. The Voyeur cannot phase through walls, but can move through cracks, keyholes, vents, and other small spaces. The Voyeur can mark and track locations and enemies that can later be seen while outside of the ability, but cannot physically interact with anything. Upgrades can include duration of ability, speed of movement, and number of markers that can be placed. The Voyeur itself may or may not retain a Dark Vision style ability to see enemies and items through walls.

Marionette (active): Marionette takes control of an enemy from a distance and directs them to perform certain actions, such as disabling a security system, attacking others, or interacting with an item. Upon termination, Marionette can inflict a variety of effects on the hypnotized enemy depending on the chosen upgrade; Possession-esque nausea when not upgraded, a sudden lapse in consciousness, death via an unfortunate yet unforseen internal asymptomatic malady (those darn spontaneous heart attacks, amirite?), or even a state of severe delirium that causes the enemy to react with fear towards the player and hostility towards their allies.

Flooding Fog (active): Cast a dense, impenetrable fog over an area, decreasing visibility and dampening sound within its space and making stealth easier. Additional effects/upgrades can include a chokedust-like stun effect, a sleep effect, a lethally poisonous effect, or even induce a delirium that distract enemies or turn them against each other. An alternative route would be the cloud's ability to short out electronics and cause mechanical devices to malfunction, even having a corrosive effect on enemy weapons and lowering their damage. Further upgrades can increase the fog cloud's size and duration.

Parasite (active): Summon a parasitic shadow creature to infect an enemy at a distance. When infected, the enemy becomes actively hostile to all other foes, attempting to attack and kill them. A successful "kill" on part of an infected person spreads the parasite to the person they killed, restoring their health and causing them to begin attacking others as well. This can result in a cascade of infections with a possible upper limit in number of infected and time spent infected. Once this time span runs out, all infected with the parasite die. Potential upgrades would give the parasite necromantic abilities, allowing for one to reply to really old comments the resurrection of deceased bodies into infectious zombies, as well as increase the infection's virulence (infection time and max number), increase an Infected's combat strength, and even induce horrifying mutilation upon an Infected's demise, causing delirium in nearby observers.

Will-o-Wisp (active): Conjure an ephemeral void flame to perform a variety of diverging functions, depending on the playstyle. The Wisp can be used in a deadly fashion, setting fire to any enemy within a certain radius or even exploding with significant force, harming and expelling any enemy within its area of affect. Alternatively, the Wisp can serve as a distraction to draw attention toward it or as an interdictor that prevents enemies from entering its AOE. It can also act as a lasting flashbang/flare, shining brightly in order to stun enemies or even send them into a state of delirium.

Revenant: Become a terrifying wraithlike being made of shadowy fog, somewhat similar to Shadow Walk. While in this form, the player is invulnerable to damage, but is unable to become stealthed and is unable to directly kill people. Instead, the Revenant may attack enemies by grabbing onto them when in melee range and terrorizing them (represented by latching onto their shoulders and screaming into their face, which sends them into a state of fearful delirium (see desciption of delirium above). While in this form, the player is capable of using a Blink-like ability that is slower and visible in transit, likely similar to Far Reach, and can also utilize a Brigmore Witch/Windblast 1 scream to knock people back. Both can be used at no mana cost. but have cooldowns. Upgrades unlock the aforementioned auxiliary abilities, increase the time spent in Revenant form, and decreases the cooldowns.