DUSKRUIN NEWS: GM Avaluka announced a new accessory in the Animalistic Spirits family – Totemic Spirits. Off the Shelf you can even change the appearance with certain items. Unlocks will be available for both Fluff and Mechanical, and those mechanical unlocks will let you choose your path: 2 different defensive path options and 2 different offensive options. They don’t stack, but why not buy one for each condition you may need! Wow! All the details:
Text of Discord Post follows:
GM Avaluka
[Duskruin] Animalistic Totems
on 13 Aug 2024 6:34 PM
from the Official GemStoneIV Discord
on #forum/paid-events channel
Debuting this Duskruin at the shop “Totemic Spirits” is a new item – Animalistic Totems. While they are capable of interfacing with the Animalistic Spirit items and hold some of the same flavor, you do not need to own Animalistic Spirit items to use a totem. They have both fluff capabilities and a passive combat benefit that can be unlocked.
Off the shelf Animalistic Totems:
Are pin-worn, wrist-worn, or neck-worn fluff items.
Can be POINTed at an animal-like creature, familiar, animal companion, or Animalistic Spirit item to absorb some of the spiritual essence they exude.
Have some ambient messages related to the currently attuned spiritual essence.
Can take certain fodder items to allow you to change the material (adjective) of the totem.
Can have certain items PUSHed into it to change the wording after the noun much like Veolas or Deck the Halls.
Available Fluff Unlocks:
Ability to also add fodder items, such as ribbons and skins, to change the totem’s “Accent Material” (Article in the 15/15/15). Once an accent material is added, you can toggle between several different articles based on that material.
Ability for the currently attuned spiritual essence to change how you look when you walk from room to room.
Ability to add up to 4 addditional “slots” to hold extra spiritual essences that can be switched between at will.
Ability to change the wear location at will between pin, wrist, and neck-worn.
NOTE: You can only wear one Animalistic Totem at a time.
Mechanical Unlock – “Bestial Power”
When unlocked, one of 4 paths is opened to your totem. Once a path is chosen, it can no longer be changed. There are 2 offensive paths and 2 defensive paths.
Totems with Bestial Power unlocked will be functional and will passively aid their wearer in combat.
Bestial Power abilities will happen at a standard flare rate in combat.
Totems with Bestial Power unlocked must be fed skins from creatures to gain charges to fuel the ability; they can hold up to 500 charges.
Bestial Power can be unlocked all the way up to T5.
Bestial Power “Paths”:
Animalistic Endurance (Defensive) +2 Crit Padding per Bestial Power Tier; activates on a successful hit. [20 charges]
Bestial Block (Defensive) +3 DS/+2 TD per Bestial Power tier; activates on physical and magical attacks against you. [30 charges]
Shifting Strike (Offensive) +3 AS/+2 CS per Bestial Power tier; activates before your physical or magical attacks. [30 charges]
Feral Ferocity (Offensive) +2 Crit Weighting per Bestial Power tier; activates on successful physical attacks. [25 charges]
Questions/Answers:
* Skin charges: around 100 silvers value = 1 charge
* It happens at a standad flare rate.
* Feral Ferocity works with ranged attacks.
* You can only choose one of the “paths”, mind. So once you lock in, say, Bestial Block … your totem will only do that “flare”. So choose wiseley
* POINT it at your existing Animalistic item for it to absorb the same look/color/alteration.
* Or point it at a creature, familiar, or animal companion.Or mount.
* No taming or attunement, just feed it skins, and keep feeding it skins
* There is no slot since it’s attached to a totem not a weapon. The flare is inside you.
* Charges: it is the same amount used no matter the tier.
* PUSH/PULL works with Bugs on Parade/Life Aquatic
Flares activate before the AS/DS calculations:
They activate before the AS/DS calculations, technically. I would think the ones that require a full hit (Animalistic Endurance – the +2 crit padding) would activate the least unless you’re a Warrior getting lots of little hits. But that’s why you can choose what works for you.
Change how you look when moving rooms – is tha travel messaging ?
The only other time we’ve seen this is on the Dramatic Drapery cloak. It is similar to that. And it is based on the spiritual essence yo uhave selected, though there are a few “styles” you can cycle through.
I believe it is +2 CER per tier on top of whatever may already be there. It’s like a brief phantom crit weighting boost for the one swing.
I am dealing with a minor snafu with the movement styles right now. But here’s a snippet of one of the ambients: The visage of a raven briefly obscures Avaluka’s face before the illusion shatters into motes of misty green light.
A trail of faintly glowing, misty green raven feathers follows GameMaster Avaluka as she moves west.
>
GameMaster Avaluka strides in with fluid grace, each footstep leaving behind a faintly glowing, misty green raven feather that twirls in her wake.
The color can be adjusted by any merchant. You /may/ be able to get the sound and descriptor (but not the noun) of the attuned spiritual essence adjusted by a Wilkes-adjacent merchant but, for now, you can transfer everything from an Animalistic Spirit item (even one not fully attuned to you) to your totem. So if you have a friend with an Animalistic Spirit you like – ask them if they can let you have some of the essence. Or use one of your mounts. Or find a giant rat in the sewers.
Hold the totem in one hand, the Animalistic Spirit item in the other, then POINT the totem at the Animalistic Spirit item. It’ll slurp up all the settings from it.
It is only ‘animal-like’ creatures. Look for things you can use the shank knife on for meat and such.
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