Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The first thing that Thaden did was check out his Character Report, but other than his Class being changed Solitary Shaman from Lifewarden, the only differences he saw were additions to his bonus traits reiterating he new spells’ targeting functions and the solo and party effects that came with Class.

And the changes to his spells and Competency Advancements, of course.  All but Resurrection and Mana Rejuvenation were now at Greater strength, with those two at Major; to see the difference between the strengths, he looked at the only remaining spell he still had from when he first arrived on Tarth, Regeneration, and mentally compared what he remembered from its Major strength and its new Greater one; the other two spells, Healing and Repulsion Field, were completely gone along with all of his other channeled spells.

Greater Regeneration (Single Cast): Grants a target continuous healing energy that replenishes Health for a limited time.

Healing Rate: 5% of maximum Health (-27, +5%) Health every 5 seconds

Duration: 45 (+0) seconds

Number of Targets: 1 (+0)

Range: 75 (+25) feet

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 360 (+180)

The major difference was a change from a flat number to a percentage of his maximum Health, along with a doubling of the Mana Cost, but that was also just the base Healing Rate; it didn’t take into account any modifiers such as Competency Advancements or if he used it on himself or in a party.  If he was by himself outside of dungeon, wearing nothing that gave him extra Physicality, and not engaged in a quest – all of which could modify his stats – he would still receive 10% of his maximum Health instead of 5%, which would equate to 60 Health every 5 seconds.  If he was actively engaged in a Quest, had on his best gear, had boosted his Physicality via Mana Transformation, and was soloing a monster inside of a dungeon, his Physicality could shoot all the way up to 270 – which meant that he’d be gaining 270 Health every 5 seconds.  When he added in the Afterglow Advancement, which equated to an additional 2% of maximum Health every 5 seconds from all the bonuses, he would be healing 324 Health in that timeframe. 

Needless to say, that was quite the upgrade for him.  The percentage change would be less useful for someone who didn’t have a lot of Health, of course, but if he focused on what it could do for himself while fighting solo, it made a huge difference.

He didn’t go through all of his spells right now, other than to confirm that on the spells that had previously had the note, “cannot target self”, that restriction was now gone.  He even cast Greater Damage Shield on himself just to confirm it was accurate, and the spell settled around him immediately without any issues.

As he glanced through his spells, the only issues he saw that might arise, especially if he were to upgrade some of the more powerful ones, was that he might not have enough Mana to cast them.  In fact, if he wasn’t wearing any stat-enhancing gear, similarly to how he was dressed at the moment in his disguise, he barely had enough Mana with 289 Mentality to cast Greater Stacking Buffers with its recent upgrade.

Greater Stacking Buffers (Single Cast): When cast on an ally, they will begin to accumulate stacks of protective buffers for each instance of damage against an enemy; these buffers will be consumed upon taking damage and can negate all damage types up to a set amount.

Number of Targets: 1 (+0)

Range: 30 (+10) feet

Duration: 20 (+10) minutes

Buffer Stack Limit: 600 (+300)

Buffer Damage Protection: 18 (+9)

Casting Time: 10 (+0) seconds

Mana Cost: 2,400 (+800)

It was a powerful upgrade to the spell, as not only did each buffer mitigate twice the damage, but he could accumulate twice as many in a stack; the doubled duration combined with all of that was likely what pushed the spell to a 2,400 Mana cost.  Even if the Superior strength simply doubled that cost instead of tripling it like it had from Major to Greater, he would need 480 Mentality to cast it.  That could be accomplished right now with the aid of his Mana Transformation spell, but having to do that just to be able to cast something meant he couldn’t boost another of his stats instead.

But that was for future Thaden, as he had to get to that point first.

The other difference was that he was now missing two of his Advancements, Double Team and Extracurricular Toys.  Both of them were related to channeling spells, and he had been refunded the selections – one for Support Spellcasting and one for Defensive Spellcasting.  A quick look at the available Advancements showed that there wasn’t anything new to replace them, just the ones that were there before, but he held off on selecting a couple of new Advancements until he knew what would be most beneficial with his new Class.

The only other change that he saw didn’t necessarily have to do with his Character Report, but to his Access Slots.  He had thought that he would go from 9 to 11 because his new Class had 6 additional slots compared to his previous 4, but that apparently wasn’t how it worked; instead, it added an additional 6 Slots to his previous total, bringing his number of Access Slots up to 15!

After getting over the excitement of that spectacular news, Thaden finally turned to his accumulated PICK.  Now that he could Level-up again, he wanted to see what kinds of spells he could select from.  More than that, he wanted to get to the point where he wouldn’t be horribly under-Leveled for the SPECIAL Quest he was going to tackle next, which meant bringing it up to at least the minimum recommended Level of 70.

 He could always overshoot it and go as high of a Level as he could, but his latest experience in a weak dungeon left a bad taste in his mouth at that idea.  Getting absolutely now PICK from the monsters was bad enough, but also not receiving even a single piece of loot from them?  That hurt his inner loot goblin something fierce, reminding him of the old days when he didn’t know how to extract items from corpses or store anything in his Inventory.  He never wanted to go back to that kind of thing again, and while his delves with a party through the Crestline Gorge had a separate purpose, it still annoyed him.

PICK requirements met!  18,700/18,700

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

Level up!  You are now a Level 64 Solitary Shaman!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +5

Personality -3

Uh, oh.  His earlier worries about not having enough Mentality for future Superior strength spells was becoming a reality.  Instead of obtaining +7 Mentality and around 5 free stat points like he expected, he instead received +5 in Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality… and -3 in Personality.

A negative stat from a Level-up?  How is that fair?

While the other stats were actually welcome, as he’d been wanting more Celerity for speed and Physicality for a larger Health pool, the detraction from his Personality was worrying.  He could only assume that it was a result of being a loner and was one of the “devastating drawbacks” that had been mentioned in the Class’s description.  It was yet another thing that would work to prevent him from joining up with other people to form a party, because the negative Personality “bonus” from Leveling-up continued, it wouldn’t be long until he was back down to 1 – and he’d already experienced that enough in Ashcleft while he was wearing some of the items he’d obtained from the Mausoleum.

  If I’d only known this would happen… I’d probably still pick this Class, who am I kidding?

It sucked, but he could only hope that was the last of the unwelcome surprises.  He spent another 19,000 of his accumulated PICK, which had reached all the way up to just over 390,000 while he was stuck at Level 63 to reach Level 65, gaining another +5 in the same three stats – and miraculously only losing a -2 in Personality. 

Rolling the dice again, he used even more of his PICK to reach Level 66, which afforded him the first opportunity to see his new spells – and there was no reduction in his Personality, which was a bonus. 

PICK requirements met!  19,300/19,300

Increase Personal Level? Y / N

Note: This can only be completed while not currently in combat and while not in a dungeon.

Level up!  You are now a Level 65 Solitary Shaman!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +5

Celerity +5

Mentality +5

(2) Spell selection choices

With his previous reward of an additional spell selection choice, he now had three to choose from the list.

Please select (3) spells from the following selections:

Greater Resurrection (Single Cast)

Superior Resurrection (Single Cast)

Greater Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Superior Mana Rejuvenation (Single Cast)

Superior Regeneration (Single Cast)

Superior Mass Healing (Single Cast)

Superior Mass Regeneration (Single Cast)

Superior Protective Guards (Single Cast)

Superior Cure Physical Affliction (Single Cast)

Superior Death Ward (Single Cast)

Superior Cure Mental Affliction (Single Cast)

Superior Support Sprite (Single Cast)

Superior Defensive Sprite (Single Cast)

Superior Health Reduction (Single Cast)

Superior Negation Zone (Single Cast)

Superior Health Augmentation (Single Cast)

Superior Absorb Health (Single Cast)

Superior Dampeners (Single Cast)

Superior Aura of Life (Reserved)

Superior Protective Barrier (Single Cast)

Superior Damage Shield (Single Cast)

Superior Wild Health Leach (Single Cast)

Superior Sacrifice (Single Cast)

Superior Lifelink (Reserved)

Superior Wardlink (Reserved)

Superior Healing Burst (Single Cast)

Superior Stacking Buffers (Single Cast)

Superior Health Transformation (Single Cast)

Superior Mana Transformation (Single Cast)

Weak Overheal

……

Superior Overheal

Weak Affliction Shelter

……

Superior Affliction Shelter

Weak Pacification Aura

……

Superior Pacification Aura

Spells not selected will be available during your next spell choice selection

Thaden saw listed all of the spells he currently possessed and their next strength upgrades listed first, but he looked past him to see that he had three new spells in which to choose from.  The first two, Overheal and Affliction Shelter, seemed to be similar to the normal Support and Defensive spells he could choose from, but the third – Pacification Aura – seemed slightly different.  When he looked at it closer for more details, he had the impression that it was actually a Support-based spell, as it dug into the mental “health” of the target.

Superior Pacification Aura (Reserved): A persistent aura surrounds the caster that can pacify the violent impulses of anyone nearby for a limited time, preventing them from attacking; duration and effectiveness of the Pacification Aura is dependent upon Level differential and any mental resistances; any damage inflicted upon pacified targets will break the effect; after breaking free from the pacification effect, all targets cannot be pacified again for a limited time; in addition, there is a small chance of complete pacification through the healing of a target’s mind.

Pacification Duration: 90 seconds

Re-pacification Cooldown: 5 minutes

Complete Pacification Chance: Dependent upon caster’s Mentality/Fortuity as well as the target’s Level and mental resistances

Range: 120-foot radius of caster

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost (Reserved): 30% of Mana pool

The new spell was extremely interesting because it seemed more like it should be part of a Control Class’s repertoire of spells, but it made sense because it was designed to heal the mind of a target – at least temporarily.  What was even more interesting was the chance for the Pacification effect to become permanent, though from what he could tell as he concentrated on that part that the target would still defend itself, so it wasn’t like a monster was going to stand there like a brain-dead vegetable as it was killed.  Unfortunately, even though it said the chance of that happening was dependent upon his Mentality and Fortuity – both of which were fairly high – as well as the target’s Level and mental resistances, he wasn’t sure if that chance was 20%, 2%, or .02%; he might not ever know unless he took the spell and tested it out. 

Not making a decision on that yet, he looked closer at the other new spells.

Superior Overheal (Single Cast): Any additional healing done to a target over their maximum Health is converted to a temporary boost to their maximum Health pool at a ratio of 60 Health to 1 point added to their maximum Health pool; this spell does not affect any other stat, specifically Physicality.

Overheal Ratio: 60 to 1

Boost Duration: 10 minutes

Boost Limit: 9X

Spell Duration: 60 minutes

Range: 120 feet

Casting Time: 3 seconds

Mana Cost: 1,560

Superior Affliction Shelter (Single Cast): Creates a full-body protective shelter around a single ally that restricts movement while preventing all instances of afflictions from up to Level 150 sources; movement-restricted allies cannot move from their current location for the duration of the Affliction Shelter, but can still attack; can be canceled by caster or target at any time.

Number of Targets: 1

Range: 120 feet

Duration: 60 seconds

Casting Time: Instant

Mana Cost: 1,320

Cooldown: 90 seconds

Both of the spells were amazing, but for different reasons.  First, Superior Overheal was something that would allow him to increase his Health pool, even if temporarily; being able to increase it by 9 times its base amount was incredible, as right now that meant his 750 base Health could shoot all the way up to 6,750 – which would be the equivalent of having 675 in Physicality.  Of course, that didn’t actually mean that his Physicality was that high, so he wouldn’t be more resistant to being hurt or be strong enough to lift a bus, but the extra Health would synergize with some of his other spells and effects, such as Greater Regeneration and Afterglow, which based their healing on a percentage of his maximum Health.

The possibilities of what he could do with the Overheal spell were mind-boggling.  

The Superior Affliction Shelter, on the other hand, would be incredibly useful for an entirely different reason.  Once he lost his channeled Field spells, which prevented damage and damaging afflictions, he was more limited in his options of preventing those afflictions; both Protective Guards and Protective Barrier would do the same thing, of course, but they had a limited number of instances they could block before they were used up.  In the middle of a complicated fight, if he was being inflicted with dozens of afflictions simultaneously, something would inevitably get through because of the cooldowns and casting times for each of those spells. 

With Affliction Shelter, though, he could essentially maintain his immunity to afflictions again, even ones that weren’t damaging; in a way, it was even better, but the drawback was that he couldn’t walk with it active.  That meant that if he wanted to run through a dungeon again and gather up all the monsters along the way, such as he’d done in the Magma Dungeon or most recently in the Medial difficulty of the Crestline Gorge, he had better make sure they didn’t inflict any particularly nasty afflictions upon him.

Seeing as he had three spell selections and there were three new spells to choose from, it was a bit of a no-brainer to pick up all three.  As much as it might benefit him to upgrade his other spells, he figured it would be better to have something new that he could play with rather than make something that was already fairly good – especially with most of them being Greater in strength now – a little bit better.

After making those selections, he got back to Leveling-up.  Another just under 60,000 PICK was pulled from his accumulated reserves to boost him up to Level 69, giving him another +15 to Physicality, Celerity, and Mentality – and another -5 to Personality.  Unfortunately, while he did get another pair of spells selections for reaching Level 69, there were no new spells to choose from.  Instead, he thought about what he already had that might benefit from increasing in strength and eventually settled on two that he thought would be extremely important going forward, even if it might be considered strange: Support Sprite and Defensive Sprite.

He thought about specific spells getting a boost to their effectiveness, but it was only with the Sprites that he would be able to boost them all.  They’d really shown their worth when he’d been finally using them lately, and they were something he knew he would be using quite frequently in the future because of how versatile they were.

Superior Support Sprite (Single Cast): Summons a small, invulnerable Support Sprite that hovers around a living target; for each single target support spell cast upon the recipient of the Support Sprite, the effectiveness of that spell is increased by 125% (+50%).

Range: 150 (+60) feet

Duration: 15 (+5) minutes

Casting Time: 5 (+0) seconds

Mana Cost: 3,200 (+2,800)

Superior Defensive Sprite (Single Cast): Summons a small, invulnerable Defensive Sprite that hovers around a living target; for each single target defensive spell cast upon the recipient of the Defensive Sprite, the duration of that spell triples, any charges are increased by 6 (+4), and any damage mitigation is increased by 100% (+50%).

Range: 150 (+60) feet

Duration: 15 (+5) minutes

Casting Time: 5 (+0) seconds

Mana Cost: 3,200 (+2,800)

The two spells were extremely expensive at 3,200 Mana, just out of his range of casting them by 10 Mana at his base Mentality, in fact, but raising himself up to Level 70 alleviated that worry.

Level up!  You are now a Level 70 Solitary Shaman!

As part of the Leveling process, you have received the following:

Physicality +6

Celerity +6

Mentality +6

Personality -3

And with that, he stopped, even though he could’ve kept leveling-up for he estimated another 10 Levels or so.  As much as he wanted to unlock more spells to utilize, he wanted to see what he could do with what he currently have – and he didn’t want to out-Level the dungeons he wanted to visit for loot, especially the ones that would have more Support Class loot than others.  The information for that had come the night before and he’d brought it in with him, though he hadn’t yet found a chance to look at them.  It was something he’d be doing soon, however, because he was ready and eager to get back out there and work toward completing the SPECIAL Quests. 

His wanting to evaluate his current spells and how they worked together also made him put off selecting replacement Advancements for his two Competencies, as it was hard to tell what would be more important right now.  As soon as he got some experience being a Solitary Shaman under his belt, he was fairly certain that the right answer would be obvious.

Coming down from the high of Leveling, he calmed himself and spied the pile of books and papers that had been left for him, so he grabbed them and sat down at the table.  Within a minute, he was fully engrossed in what would come to be his next objective.