On the whole, I don't think you've given much consideration to game balance with these abilities. Too many of them are overpowered in comparison to existing class abilities; others break the game in combination with the other abilities of their class.
MaximumSquid wrote:Class: TYRANT
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FEARED: after leveling up enemies permanently lose 5% of their max health (roughly 40% total by level 10)
DESTROYER: converting glyphs offers double the reward
UNYIELDING: cannot die from a single blow if health is full, immune to naga weakening ability
Feared is ridiculous. By level 7, every mob on the map will be at 73% of starting health. That would put SMM down to around 700 and the super-resist bosses to 234 - basically making them normal mobs. This would render challenge dungeons utterly trivial.
Destroyer is hugely overpowered too. A human Tyrant would easily be able to convert glyphs for 120% attack power, putting his damage somewhere in the vicinity of 130-150 per hit without items or boons; he would be able to kill Frank in three attacks and SMM in five, and one-shot Medusa or Gharbad. A goblin Tyrant would pretty much be able to level up at will, gaining two or three extra levels; combined with Feared, leveling becomes exponentially easier.
Unyielding is equally bad. Being unable to die from a single blow when at max health effectively gives the Tyrant a free CYDSTEPP with every level and every time he can explore or potion up to full health. That's basically an additional glyph slot plus double mana regeneration, and because you don't need to spend mana Tyrants can use the ability while worshipping Taurog.
Combining the three, you get a munchkin class with which it would be virtually impossible to fail. A level 1 Tyrant with no glyphs and no God could kill a level 9 Animated Armour by exploring just 90 squares, and could theoretically clear the Factory killing only that mob and the two bosses.
Class: SCOUT
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SCOUTING: while you have full health you can see 1 additional square
CROSSBOW: first attack against a foe deals +50% bonus damage and ignores physical resistance
TRAVELS LIGHT: gold and shops are replaced with power ups instead, -1 glyph slot
Scouting is an ability of negative usefulness. All it does it expose more tiles in a manner that is difficult to control, wasting regeneration. Just to rub it in, it only works when you don't need to regenerate health.
Crossbow is thematically unsound - why would a physical weapon ignore physical resistance? - but more importantly it's massively overpowered compared to the Thief's Stabber. Change to 20% and first strike and we're in business.
Travels Light I like the idea of, but replacing both gold
and shops is overpowered. When fully unlocked it would result in an additional 28 boosters appearing on the map, evenly split between mana, health and AP; this would give the Scout 9-10 extra mana and half again the health and AP of any other class (barring racials). Change to shops only and it should be OK - it might not even need the glyph penalty.
Class: RANGER
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PATHFINDER: all walls are revealed at the start and can pass through obstacles such as plants
LONGBOW: no retaliation from attacking an enemy with full health
NATURAL LORE: 20% resistance to physical damage, starts with +2 mana
Pathfinder is another negative ability, unless you mean it shows them shadowed so they can be explored like the Half-Dragon's increased sight radius. Even then, it would still be fundamentally useless as there's no advantage to knowing where the walls are.
Longbow is a good ability, but as ever care needs to be taken when designing abilities that allow a player to ignore an attack. I can't see it being too unbalanced - one-shots can only occur in circumstances where first strike would do the same. The notable exception would be Gorgons, which could be killed at will regardless of health, and some of the first striking bosses.
Natural Lore I feel may be too strong as is. It's effectively a double-ability, combining the Paladin's PR with the Sorcerer's bonus mana (while a fully boosted Sorcerer can cast three fireballs from his pool against Pathfinder's two, both of them can cast two when not boosted - not to mention that Pathfinder also starts out with his free attack, guaranteeing him attack-FB-FB against any mob). On Pathfinder as written this wouldn't be too unbalanced since as previously mentioned the class really only has two abilities, but I'm still wary of making a class that is as good at both combat and spellcasting as two specialists.
Class: HUNTER
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TRACKING: after defeating a foe enemies of the same type are revealed
ADAPTATION: permanently adds +1 base damage for every enemy killed
AMBUSH: no retaliation for attacking enemies with full health who are alone
Tracking is interesting, but I feel it lacks utility. Warrior and Vampire tracking is useful because it shows mobs you can kill. It does you no good to kill a level 1 snake at level 1 and be told where the other snakes are if they're level 5, 6, 7 and 9. In challenge dungeons it might be useful to help find the bosses without exploring the whole map, but there can be half a dozen mobs of that type and you don't know which is which.
Adaptation: let's just forget you suggested an ability that gives a permanent 50-80% boost to AP and move along, OK?
Ambush: I don't see where you're going with this. I'm presuming by "alone" you mean not having another mob in an adjacent square? Anyway, it's a weaker version of your Longbow ability and Longbow was fine, so the main concern is that this one may be too narrow.
Class: DRUID
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CHANNELING: spells cost only 1 mana while your mana bar is full
COMMUNE: 4 Extra temples in dungeon
PROPHET: Can be host to 2 deities at a time, start with 40 piety
Channeling - wow, and I thought Tyrants had it good with free CYDSTEPP. Channeling would potentially allow a Druid who found CYDSTEPP to kill any mob without mana burn as soon as the Druid could deal more than twice that mob's level in damage before dying; all you'd have to do is explore leaving a bunch of corners where you can explore a single square. Other combos like double-fireball plus APHEELSIK become available too, allowing a level 5 Druid to kill Aequitas or TOG while exploring less than 100 squares. Blue Bead would be an auto-win, allowing the Druid to easily chain six or more fireballs or CYDSTEPPs without using a potion.
The other two abilities go together, and are not a good idea. I'm assuming that the 40 piety from Prophet would replace any starting piety from prayer; if not, then the ability is beyond redemption. Even with that restriction, though, it's still obscene. With seven altars on the map it would be all but certain that you would get a pair of gods that are degenerate when their boons combine. Dracul and Binlor/Taurog give 45% resistance to magical or physical damage; Earthmother/Binlor is an instant catapult to level 10 (quite likely with Stoneform too); Mystera/Pactmaker would give 38 maximum mana.
Class: NECROMANCER
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NECROMANCY: defeating a foe 2 levels lower than you adds 50% of their hp and atk to yourself for your next fight
DEFILER: randomly covert blood into +1 exp, base attack, mana, or health
WEAK STAMINA: 50% less health regeneration
Necromancy is not well worded; it needs to provide its bonus only for the next attack, or in challenge dungeons killing one boss will guarantee killing the other as you toddle over with 300-600 health. As such, it's pointless for it to bestow health as you'll lose it after the attack anyway. The attack bonus is also too high; I would say just make it a flat 20% of your AP, or maybe 30%.
Defiler I don't like because it's random, and increasing the random element of the game reduces the amount of skill and planning you can do. The health boosts are also particularly poor due to Weak Stamina hindering your ability to take advantage of them, while the mana and base damage boosts are way too strong. Even on an average split of 20 kills, Defiler would be the Sorcerer's mana gain plus a free level's worth of damage.
Weak Stamina is a good thematic ability, but it needs to be partnered with a means of gaining health. Without such, the Necromancer is too weak in physical combat. To balance the class, I would replace Defiler with an ability that gave the Necromancer 2 health per level or 20% of health upon killing a mob.