Template(Magic): High Human(Secret Background)

Base Stats:

Level: 0(0%) Health 80(Rec 4) Mana 210(Rec 14)

Str 8 Dex 8 Con 8

Cha 11 Wis 14 Int 21

Mem 21

Stat Points: 0(35)

Skill Points 11 Archetype Points 5

Ability Points 8 Template Points 3

I suppose I should explain. We were given the same info that a regular player would get in the public release plus extra for bonus template features. M60 as one of the earliest ever VRMMOs, perhaps a bit too early financially for the company, stuck to a relatively simple character system. If you are an old fart you might have played Dungeons And Dragons, and the system was roughly based on that as you can guess from the stat names.

Ability points correspond roughly to "Feats" in D&D while Template points might be similar to backgrounds or domains or something like that. Templates are sort of like classes or archetypes although in the case of Secret Backgrounds they are a bit more comprehensive and pretty unique. I was given a Secret Background as part of a lottery and it was a very strong one. Not only did I have special template options but I had access to special NPC interactions and so forth.

I really prefer to do crafting in RPG games but you can't always get what you want. M60 was a little early on to go full sandbox and run players farms and forges and all that, just a little bit more combat oriented than I prefer, but you don't get to pick the company who gives you an all expense paid 8 month VR deepdive. Even worse, my Secret Background was actually magic focused. Sure I wasn't a fighter, and magic classes had some synergy with crafting but not ideal.

Now every character gets access to the basic template features. Base stats are typically around 8 for all characters and then you select a template and assign points to other factors. My template and its points were pre-assigned as I had a special class. Since the system was loosely inspired by D&D you could gain new templates in the game in various ways. In the public release you would need to gain access to the special templates in game from actions or quests or other methods.

While my stat pointswere assigned automatically my other points were not, so I'll go over what I did any why. As a magic archetype High Humans gain access to the standard magic template options as well. A basic magic class like a Wizard would get Arcanist and probably another unique tier 1 skill, while Warlocks would get Summoning and Regresser. I'll highlight the basic template options in a different color.

Template points should typically be assigned first because they are sort of core build features and there isn't really a redo button. Here were the choices I had:

High Human Template Options|

Metamage(Tier 1): A master of higher magic, beyond ordinary practioners, you can boost components of spells to create shock and surprise

Chronomancy(Tier 1): A master of time magic, you can create unique positive and negative effects and achieve diverse results to make up for personal or party weaknesses

Bosonist(Tier 1): A master of weight and movement, gravity and other forces are your allies, providing unique effects which ignore standard protections

Arcanist(Tier 2): A master of arcane magic, which lacks an elemental alignment, versatile and with some unique effects but not as strong at pure damage spells and lacking the benefit of significantly countering an opposing alignment

Tarnishing(Teir 2): A master of exposing dark truths and peeling back the silver lining of the world, as well as corrupting effects, synergizes with poison, frost, regression, and other non-direct damage effects

Burnisher(Teir 2): A master of boosting magic, you can improve allies and yourself with temporary bonuses.

Warper(Tier 1): A master of space and control, the warper can both help and hamper movement and provides the capability for a less form of distant action than psionics, pairs well with control talents

Regresser(Tier 1): A master of corrupting magic, you can weaken and burden foes with penalties and limitations

Sustainer(Tier 2): Sustainers possess both powerful buffs and healing and have access to unique effects stacking with other buffs

Coordinator(Tier 2): A powerful talent for leading large parties and even armies, this capability stacks with administrative and buffing roles

Pyromancy(Tier 3): An adept at fire magic which primarily focuses on direct damage and area of effect spells

Stoneshaping(Tier 3): A talent focused on defense and buffs with a small array of direct damage spells

Thaumaturgy(Tier 4): A class focused on elemental damage, with access to all the basic elements but a small scope within each element

Illusion(Tier 3): A class focused on light and sound magic and their interactions, with a small ability in sonic damage and light based buffs and debuffs

Miasma(Tier 3): A mage focused on poison and smoke magic, with a decent array of debuffs and damage over time spells

Condenser(Tier 4): A magic with some healing and debuff talent as well as some damage and AOE ability using rain and frost

Abjuring(Tier 4): A magic focused on defense and clearing debuffs but with little offensive capacity

Conjuring(Tier 4): Conjurers have some of the same talents as illusionists but with less specialization and broader scope allowing for more damage application and the ability to use elemental magic

The High Human template was clearly designed for magical power and leadership and it possesses a far higher number of Tier 1 options compared to basic classes. Tier 1 is the best tier while Tier 4 is the worst. Basic classes would typically have mostly tier 3 and 4 skills with a few tier 2 skills that don't really synergize and maybe 1 or 2 tier one skills.

I always wanted to be a wizard, and it would be a bit hard to run the party boost talents when I'm keeping my Template a secret, so I basically went all in on magic. I had 7 picks according to my template, and this choice is basically a one off so I thought pretty hard.

I ended up taking Metamage because duh wizard build, Chronomancy because Time magic is the best magic, Warper and Tarnisher for debuffs, and Bosonist to round things out. I really wanted to pick Regresser for more synergy but it is what it is.

While a typical build gets 3 template points and 5 archetype points my Secret Background is a little stronger. When I get another template I can spend 2 template points to get a talent from a previous class so I might pick up Tarnisher later. A really good second template make might that not worth it but who knows. I have 3 archetype points as well, and I really need some direct damage options.

I pick up Pyromancy for damage application and it can benefit a lot from my Metamagic. I also grab Miasma for its syngergy with my debuff build as well as some poison damage. Finally I take Illusion because it syngergizes with some of my other control abilities and gives me some poison and acid damage options.

I chose not to take any Tier 4 talents because I have a wide array of control powers and utility from my Template talents and I suspect that the specialization factor works well for me as a Secret Background character. I actually only have 11 Skill points so I'll have to be careful about what Skills I take early. I currently have way more options than I can take advantage of.

It should be noted that Talents have "Phases" which open up as you level. Individual spells and skills do level but you need to advance your Phase to reach a larger array of spells.

I'm going to pick my Abilities first and then finally spells/skills. Abilities are sort of like D&D Feats and they aren't based on Talents at all.

High Human Ability Options:

Manawell: Your soul innately magical, boost your mana recovery by 40%

Highmage: 50% boost to metamagic spell effects

Bloodmage: Pay damage spell costs from health and add +20% damage

Charismatic: NPCs regard you as having 1 level more reputation than you do

Thoughtcaster: Ignore Silence and Restraint debuffs for the purposes of magic at a 50% cost penalty

Manaboost: Double recovery of pools but cap Mana at 50% max for 4 hours

Tricaster: Cast 3 spells simultaenously but become silenced for their combined casting time afterwards

Enigmatic: Gain an extra skill per level in a magical talent

Magic Archetype Ability Options:

Manapurge: Cancel 1 debuff for double the mana cost

Spellfocus(Talent): Ignore 20% of enemy magic resistance for spells from one talent

Cantrips: You can cast basic utility spells like Light, Cleanse Water, Clean, and Mend regardless of Talents

Spellsage: Your spell durations increase 20%

Identify: You can determine the nature of items based on your Mem

Arcana: You can determine the nature of enchantments, runes, and environmental effects based on Wis

Concentration: Your save on disruption when casting is doubled

Basic Ability Options:

Perception: See items, traps, doors, monsters, and players as though you had 10% intelligence

Linguist: Speak the common languages of the world and thus gain bonuses to reputation and bonus dialogue

Persuasive: Gain a bonus to interactions and cheaper costs

Geographer: Be aware of the world and its important locations

Historian: Know the history of the world

Skilled: Gain bonuses to skill growth

Cook: Get more from food benefits

Alert: Engage faster with circumstances

As a player focused on magic and with bonuses to knowledge and lore and interaction, most of my choices were pretty easy. Abilities are not one off choices, you never lose options, so this choice isn't super difficult.

I took a lot of Talents with debuffs and a smaller number with buffs, and also recurring damage. Spellsage was an easy choice for one of my 8 abilities as was Enigmatic for spells. I also took Cantrips and Concentration which would help in fights. For obvious reasons I grabbed Highmage from the Template tree as well as Tricaster, Charismatic, and finally Manawell since I was going to be casting a lot of spells. I would have loved to take Identify and Arcana, and I was iffy on Spellfocus. I had a lot of magic talents so boosting a single one wasn't my best option at least for now. Some of the Basic options would help me as well but ability points aren't incredibly rare based on our briefing so maybe once I start dealing more with high level NPCs.

All that remained for me now was to pick my Spells/Skills. I only had 11 points, which seems like a lot till you look at how many talents I had. You gain 2 skill points per level and I get an extra one specifically for spells from Enigmatic.

I decided to focus my spells in 2 areas, Pyromancy for direct damage and Chronomancy to have both buffs and debuffs. Pyromancy was a bit of a low level crutch. While it did combine well with Metamagic and to some degree debuffs, my other skills tended to have far more synergy. However it should be quite useful early on. My options were as follows:

Pyromancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Firebolt: 20 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Flamewave: 20 damage | cone | 10ft r/5ft w | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Fireball: 40 damage | sphere 4ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 4s | 100 mana

Fireblast: 50 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Chronomancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Timestop: Stasis 4s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Stagnation: Slow 8s | single target | ranged 20ft |Cast 2s | 40 mana

Quicken: Haste 8s | self | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Accelerate: Haste 8s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s |40 mana

Lag: Slow 8s | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 80 mana

Metamagic Phase 1 Spell List:

Reach: Extend | 3 spells | 10ft | Cast 2s | 1.25 spell cost

Twin: Copy | 2 spells | Cast 1s | 2.5x spell cost

Focus: Casting | 2 spells | -1s | Cast 2s | 1.25x spell cost

Boost: Increase | 2 spells | 50% | Cast 2s | 1.75 spell cost

Tarnishing Phase 1 Spell List:

Weaken: STR 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | 10% | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Clumsy: DEX 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | 15% | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Fragile: Armor 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | 10% | Cast 1s | 20 mana

Dull: Weapon 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | 15% | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Enervate: INT 10s | single target | ranged 20ft | 15% | Cast 1s | 25 mana

It turned out that I needed to dip into a few more talents to fill up my skills list but no big deal. I took Firebolt and Fireball from the Pyromancy list. The other spells didn't add a whole lot given my limited spell slots. Chronomancy had some more going for it. I had no allies and no feeling of being swarmed at my level so I went right for Timestop, Quicken, and Stagnation. That was a decent combination of options, especially with Metamagic. I went ahead and grabbed every one of those spells. They all had their uses. I could prebuff a bit drop my 2 spell combo from Chronomancy and then feel safe to start blasting away. It seemed like I was basically trading mana for health in a way. If I was smart I'd rarely get hit. I had taken 9 spells which left me two slots for Tarnishing. I went ahead and grabbed Weaken and Clumsy. Hits would be weaker and movement slower as a bonus from the DEX damage.

I did have 4 more talents but I felt like those weren't as necessary for low levels and the low numbers of monsters I'd have to deal with. I could abuse Tricaster if I had to, on top of Twin, so I had a sort of get out of jail free card. I intended to get started on Warper first thing to synergize with Chronomancy and give me some escapes.

For those of you who are more geeks than nerds, I apologize, I am sure this long character build section was tough. But have no fear, things are going to pick up quickly from here on out. There won't be another big section like this until I pick up my next Template, levels are important but not character defining so they won't be nearly as intense. I'm going to talk about about my plans but there won't be lots of numbers, and then the next entry in my little live journal will pick up when I get in the game.

So my basic plan is to become a very high level math heavy mage. I'll be minmaxing the hell out of my build synergies. Since this is about a game that launched and sunsetted decades ago I can already tell you that nothing quite this insane will be in the public game. In fact there will be a series of patches where the devs work on the numbers of various builds, especially the Secret Background templates. But for 8 glorious months I was a munchkin wizard reaching into the kernel of the world and hacking it to my will. Everything didn't always go my way but come on, Chronomancy *and* Metamagic? I feel bad for cats cause they only have 9 lives. Those are rookie numbers.

I'll show you guys the Talent spell lists for the other 4 talents when I start taking spells from them but they synergize quite well with what I've got. Especially when I pick up that Tier 1 Talent I didn't have room for this time. I am primarily a single target mage as far as combat even when I get to higher levels. I use a lot of DoTs and debuffs rather than deal direct damage although I keep fire magic handy for hordes. I mostly make up for this issue by killing stuff really fast, abusing battlefield control spells, and spell buffs.

Another major focus I had for my character was to get in really tight with the NPCs. In the old days we didn't have the super realistic AI characters modern games do but most games also didn't have millions of players like the Big 5 do now. Still things were definitely a step above non VR games and single player games. Obviously I'll be connecting with the NPC magic community and also maybe the nobility. It's not featured super heavily here but High Human, my Secret Background, has a lot of bonuses to knowledge and social interactions. I do also eventually get into crafting and markets a bit though its more of a hobby. I spend most of my time breaking the game with magic. When I get going in the public server I use the information I gain to become a top magic player but its not quite the same after the nerfs.

I think I can be honest and admit that I enjoy unearned advantages in games. Lots of people do. I didn't even have to feel guilty in the beta since it was on a timer and there weren't a ton of players. You could go pretty far without much impacting the other testers. I didn't, but I could have. Let's get it started.