"guard" skill proposal, and "switchtarget"

At the suggestion of several of the other imms, I have begun experimenting with the implementation of a new leadership skill called “guard.” (credit for this idea goes to Eliana)  I am looking for some feedback from you all, particularly the PVPers, on this one.  Here are the details

guard – level 100 leadership ability

When invoked, the player will begin to “guard” the leader of their group.  When “guarding,” the player has a chance to take an attack that would have otherwise hit their leader.  In essence, you “dive in the way of” shots.

Details
– You can only guard if there are exactly 2 people in the group
– Obviously, you must be in the same room as the person you are guarding
– You cannot guard against attacks from more than one player at once.  That is, if two players start attacking the leader, you can only guard against the attacks of one of them.
– Guard will never block 100% of shots, even if the skill is at 100%
– It levels about as slowly as flurry and similarly can’t be researched beyond a certain point
– I’m thinking about nerfing the damage the person being guarded can issue
– Any shots you block can’t be dodged (but they can be parried)

To make this ability more functional, I’m also experimenting with the implementation of a command called “switchtarget.” (credit for this idea goes to Troll)  Switchtarget would allow you to change which mob or player that is fighting you (or someone else in your group) that you are doing damage to.  That is, multiple people or mobs can be attacking you at once, but today you don’t have much of a say in which individual you are trying to harm.  This is an issue with ‘guard’ as you are only guarding against the attacks of the mob or player that you are fighting as opposed to the  mob or player who would be most dangerous to the person you were trying to protect.

Thoughts?  Would this lead to good pvp and rp opportunities, or is it problematic and why?

P.S. Eliana helped with “switchtarget” as well.

Not really sure if I understand the need to limit it to exactly 2 people or to limit the blocking against only one attacker. Neither really makes logical sense and just seems like a reach to keep the skill from being too powerful. Why not just lower the % chance of it working if there is more than one attacker and kick those two requirements out?

You’d have to put a lag on switch target or a cool down, I can see every group pk battle becoming a switchtarget/rescue fest otherwise

How would guard (as described) be better than (or even equal to) rescue? Switchtarget sounds like a good idea as long as there is some way to avoid the target switching contest. Would a guard skill that adds a buff to the party perhaps similar to, but not as large as the current leadership feats be a slightly better and easier solution? Could some of the feats be changed to skills? Why would guard be a leadership skill if it is going to be used to guard the leader? As written this sounds more like a combat skill. If someone in my party can use a skill to nerf my damage if I am the leader that sounds horrible. Nerfing the damage of the character that uses the guard skill would be better. If this is intended to only attempt to block attacks that have already gotten through the guarded characters’ damage mitigation (dodge/parry) and then just divert the damage to the guarding character,  I could see the usefulness but as written it sounds like the group using guard is taking more damage and dealing less… an overall loss. Would the damage be mitigated by the guard’s armor/resistances or the target?

Guard and Rescue serve different functions.  Guard is not as useful in a fight as Rescue is, but it does help you keep whoever it is you are guarding from getting pummeled to death before you have a chance to do anything about it.

Nerfing damage is kind of an open question with this one.  There are certainly balance issues to be considered.  This skill would not be intended to enhance squad combat, but rather provide a functional bodyguard mechanic.

Net net it would be a dps reduction for the group, but it would shift some of the damage intended for the person being guarded to the person doing the guarding.  Do you see the sort of mechanic we’re going for?  Details aside, does it make sense?  Would it be useful?

Just wanted to respond to this.

I really like the idea of “guard”, especially when you play a leader/diplomat and are entering a hostile situation. This MUD has a lot of PVP skill and a lot of people hide in their bases for fear of getting murdered. Anything that would allow a real bodyguard system to be implemented is great, in my opinion. You could finally have hutt gangsters, diplomats with bodyguards, etc. I play a diplomat with zero PVP skill but have a lot of friends that do have those skills, this would be great in those circumstances.

What confuses me: Why would this be a leadership skill? As others mentioned, it seems like a combat skill. Unless you’re a leader and you can use the skill to set someone as a bodyguard? That would be cool. And the higher the level you are in leadership, the more bodyguards you can appoint, with each bodyguard beyond the first adding an increased chance of intercepting attacks against the leader or something, and the bodyguard hit by the initial attack is random. I’m just thinking that VIPs usually have more than one bodyguard.

I do think it would make sense that if someone is on guard duty, that their offensive abilities (damage, hit %) is handicapped. The idea is that their attention is dedicated to protecting their VIP. So you would have a typical entourage being a VIP, two bodyguards to soak up hits, and then maybe another guy whos job is primarily to take out the attacker, so he’s not a bodyguard.

Just throwing out ideas. I love this. Anything that would allow a leader to be a little less fearful is great. Kind of like fleets or battlegroups or whatever.

I’m resurrecting this thread, because the code is here, and we need to come to a decision about what (if anything) to do with it.

The new skill ‘guard’ functions as described above.  Essentially it would give you a chance to take an attack for a player that you were guarding.  In attempts to prevent this from becoming OP, it only works if you are in a group of 2, and then only if you are guarding the leader.

It does not really fit into leadership as a result.  That was a kind of square peg round hole “leadership doesn’t have much” suggestion that did not pan out IMHO.

So, let’s reopen the dialoge.  The ‘guard’ skill and/or ‘switchtarget’ command are ready for re-imagining, or complete out of hand dismissal.  Your call, what do you think?

I like the idea, it just doesn’t make sense to me that it’s a leadership skill, yet it’s not the group leader using it, but it’s being used to protect the leader (which makes it more of a combat thing). Maybe it could be called deflect.. used by the group leader, but it would work with a syntax.. like ‘Defect Person – Do you accept for your group leader to deflect to you (Yes/No)’, or something. I’m all about making sense, sorry! 😛

The syntax could also be given a more leadership-y name.. like, backup, allyrequest <person>.  Hmmmmm

“guard” seems more a combat skill, really. Mercenary defending their boss, for example.

switchtarget would function as “I started fighting this person, but I want to switchtarget to attack this person instead” for reasons like they suddenly appeared and are a far greater threat, or I accidentally attacked the wrong person? Would there be a cooldown on it?

Baxtalo,

switchtarget could not be used to start combat  its like this  more than one person can be fighting you, but you can only be ‘fighting’ one other person at a time. this command would allow you to switch between people who are fighting you

We are on the same page, then. That idea sounds all right. But still, would there be a cooldown on it, or could you switch targets endlessly?

what if it burned movement?

I’d say it’d burn a lot of movement, or allow a free hit if you’re fighting with melee weapons. In what media, ever, has it been easy for anyone engaged in a swordfight to change focus on their enemy without consequences?

Burn 500 movement?