Greetings Mercenaries!
The Pathbreakers: Roaming Blades staff is excited to present our first devlog! After an extensive design period, we’re ready to show our community, step by step, the various elements that compose the world of Pathbreakers.
Today, we are introducing you to one of the core aspects of our project: the Mercenaries.
Who are the Mercenaries?
Mercenaries are playable characters in Pathbreakers: Roaming Blades. They can be recruited to become members of your party and accompany you throughout your adventure in the Stormtossed Isle.
You will be able to recruit Mercenaries at any local tavern. Once recruited, they will join your group and have up to two starter “traits”, which can be either positive or negative. As the name suggests, traits are attributes that characterize the Mercenary, making them unique from one another. They are tied to their class and can be modified by visiting a Trainer Building.
Completing dungeons and exploring the world of Pathbreakers: Roaming Blades will allow you to unlock more powerful traits. But beware: every Mercenary can have a maximum of four traits, so choose your cohorts wisely.
For new recruits, regardless of their level when you recruit them, you’ll be able to allocate their stats and skills from level 1, just the way you want. Other than being more expensive, there is no negative for recruiting a high-level unit, since they won’t start with preallocated attributes you might find suboptimal.
New units will start with randomized 'starter traits' and gear, so even though they all have the same potential, they might have some extra advantages.
Each mercenary class has a single base sprite, but you can change the skin and hair color of a mercenary, as well as select different colors for many parts of their armor and equipment in the customization section of the Tavern. Mercenaries' names can freely be changed as well.
Also, don’t forget that these people are mercenaries, and they will demand a salary for their services. It will ultimately be your choice to decide who is worthy of your group!
The Classes
There are 8 different classes in Pathbreakers: Fighter, Knight, Scoundrel, Bard, Cleric, Mage, Ranger, and Monk. Your job as a leader is to find a synergy between these specializations depending on the situations you are facing and the duties that your Mercenaries will need to accomplish, from support to damage-dealing actions.
At every even level, the Mercenary will unlock a new active ability they can use in battle and a choice between 2 modifiers for said ability.
Ability modifiers can drastically alter how the skill works, allowing detailed customization options that will enhance your favorite approach during combat.
At every odd level, you can instead spend passive ability skill points. These have a wide range of effects and allow you to customize your Mercenaries uniquely.
Some passive abilities have simple effects, such as increasing damage or health. In contrast, others have complex effects, such as granting counterattack options, allowing a unit to survive a fatal blow, or equipping new gear.
At every level up, a mercenary gains a Stat Point increase to a specific attribute and another 2 points they can manually allocate to any 2 stats of their choosing. This allows you to direct their growth and specialty just the way you want.
In addition to having different abilities and passives, each class has different starting attributes, and will also differ in growth and the equipment they are proficient with.
Each of the 8 base classes has 2 different branches the player can take, leading to 16 advanced classes.
Basic classes can grow up to level 6, and then an advanced class can be selected, up to level 10, at which point their skill tree ends.
Starting at level 11, up to the level cap of 15, the unit becomes an elite unit. Each level gained past level 10 will not grant any more stat points, but the Mercenary will keep earning 1 skill point per level, which can be allocated to any passive they have.
Before that point, skill points could only be spent on passives gained at that level. This means that starting at level 11, a Mercenary can start picking passives that would have otherwise been mutually exclusive, unlocking a whole new level of customization.
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