Mythic Item concept: Soul-Cairn Overlord Pauldrons.

Skullstachio

Placeholder Soul-Cairn Overlord Pauldrons.
Armor Type: Heavy Shoulders.
Aesthetics: Each Heavy Ebony pauldron encompasses a Dark Glowing Orb, primarily as a Phylactery betwee the first and second plate closest to the head of the wearer, magically fashioned to some tattered Raiments. upon closer inspection, the ebony pauldrons show workings similar to those of house telvaani, ironically never seen on ebony metal in Vvardenfell as most cities find necromancy abhorrent but fine so long as it wasn’t their ancestors being raised from the dead. Further inspection also reveals some unique leather strips of unknown origin on both of them, six of them on each shoulder etched with runic carvings holding the Tattered remnants to the ebony metal, Extreme Caution is advised as very faint whispers can be heard from them. Remnants of unholy bargains from the ideal masters of old.
Note: (Anyone who’s watched the Overlord anime will partly see where I’m going with this.)
Armor Trait: invigorating.
Enchantment: Prismatic Defense
Effect: all ultimate gains are reduced to 0%.(you cannot gain ultimate by any means necessary and resets your ultimate resource count to 0.) Every 30 seconds, the Pauldrons draw in a persistent soul from the soul cairn, up to a maximum of 1000 souls can be claimed and held at once, they are retained while transitioning zones and also persist in death. this effect can be expedited while in combat by dealing a killing blow to the target enemy to draw out their soul and siphon it into the pauldrons. As a Necromancer, you draw in two persistent souls every 30 seconds and yield an extra soul with each killing blow.
Every 4 souls claimed grants 1 extra damage to your damaging abilities (to a maximum of 250), 2 extra damage and healing effectiveness for your summons (for a maximum of 500) and grants powerful bonuses based on the number of souls you possess.
Note: Free cost ultimates such as summoning the wardens Feral guardian is an exception, you just won’t be able to use the savagery ultimate associated with it.
As the list of Soul based buffs, effects and Increments are long, the content within the spoiler box, should this or anything similar make it into the elder scrolls universe, can be tracked and read in the buff tracker of the Character Sheet under “Soul Cairn”, like stats for nerds.

200 souls: adds 100 Magicka and Stamina Recovery.
Adds 25 Health, Magicka and Stamina recovery for every 200 souls above the 200 soul threshold. as a Lich, this effect is doubled, gaining 50 Health, Magicka and Stamina Recovery for every 200 souls above the 200 threshold.
400 souls: Grants minor slayer at all times while this threshold is met, increasing your damage done to dungeon and trial monsters by 5%. As an Undead Lich, This changes to Major Slayer, increasing damage done to dungeon and trial monsters by 10%.
600 souls: while this threshold is met, Adds 2412 Max Health, 2192 points to your highest dominant resource and 1096 points to the other. as a Lich, these values are tripled to 7236 Max Health, 6576 to your highest dominant resource and 3288 to the other.
800 souls: While in Combat, enemies within 5 meters of you take 93 magic damage every second, healing you for 31 Health and Restoring 31 Magicka and Stamina. As a Lich, The siphoning aura ticks faster. Damaging enemies every 0.50 seconds.
1000 souls!!!: Your body emanates a cold misty aura of death. Granting you power unlike any other, near-comparable to the Ideal masters and granting the following bonuses.

• Light attacks fire a Necrotic spear scaling to your highest offensive stat.
• Fully-Charged Heavy attacks Trigger Soul Cage, summoning a triad of Lich Crystals at the enemy’s location which explode after 3 seconds, dealing [x] magic damage to enemies within 4 meters.
• While in combat, taking fatal non-oblivion damage will instead temporarily transform you into an Undead Lich over 5 seconds. Healing you for 50% of your Maximum Health, During this period you cannot be healed until completion. This can occur once with at least one full charge out of the two and can be manually triggered by consuming a potion of Ravage Health (the damage from such potions are completely negated by the pauldrons). Afterwards, they must be repaired either through an NPC merchant or by Charging the phylacterous components with two Grand Soul Gems. (One for each shoulder-mounted phylactery and cleverly indicated by a seperate purple meter beneath the armor durability meter.) you cannot trigger this effect if you are already in Lich form.
  As a Lich: You retain powerful variations of all soul increments and grants the following benefits.
  Note: Taking Fatal Oblivion damage will bypass the transformation and kill you. This also goes for group dungeon and trial Mechanics.
  Lich Form Bonuses
  • Your Necrotic Spear attacks apply Sundered or Overcharge, dealing minor physical or magical damage and applying minor breach or minor Magickasteal for 4 seconds. The debuffs applied is based on your highest offensive stat.
  • Your fully-charged heavy attack Soul Cage effect hits enemies in an 8 meter radius, summons an additional two Lich crystals, followed up by a Soul Rupture effect upon detonation, stunning enemies for 1.5 seconds.
  • the 200, 400, 600, 800 and 1000 soul thresholds are retained in addition to the extra damage done for the caster and their summons damage and healing done while the Lich form is maintained regardless of the number of souls remaining.
  • you can still claim souls on killing blows.
  • You will retain the form when transitioning between zones as well as any souls yet to be burned through.
  Lich Form Penalties
  • Being in Lich form is Considered a Criminal Act.
  • souls cannot be drawn from the soul cairn in this state.
  • Every 1.5 seconds spent in Lich form consumes one soul, effectively granting 25 minutes.
  • each necrotic spear attack consumes 4 souls.
  • each soul cage attack consumes 10 souls.
  • when all souls are exhausted to zero, You revert to mortal form and lose the soul increments associated with it and expend one of the two phylactery charges. Which can be charged with a soul gem, two if both phylacteries are expended.
  • Reverting to normal form will incur a 5 minute cooldown. Preventing the transformation until the cooldown has passed.
  • Dying in Lich form will revert you to normal form and prematurely release all souls collected, resetting your soul count to zero and also expending a phylactery charge.
  • Taking fatal damage in Lich form will also revert you to mortal form, freeing the remaining souls and expending the charge.

Lore: Hand made and Finely Crafted by an Unknown Sorcerer, only to be forever forgotten to time upon casting away their Mortal Shell and Becoming one of what lore masters call “The Ideal Masters.” Immortal beings that govern the Soul Cairn.

Final note: Overall, this is a concept for a Necromancer themed Mythic item that caters to granting powerful stats At the cost of disabling Ultimate Abilities through Reduced ultimate gains and resetting ultimate count to zero in order to effectively prevent its direct use, but said powerful stats have to be earned through soul increments, specifically either one soul every 30 seconds (Two as a Necromancer since some were involved in becoming Ideal masters of the soul cairn lore wise.) Or by killing enemies in combat or even both. The tricky part was trying to fit it into lore which is where the concept of the ideal masters comes in. Because, as quoted in the lore sector of the UESP, they existed in mortal form back in the Merethic era as an early order of sorcerers who practiced necromancy and trafficked in souls. They grew to become very powerful, and eventually found their physical forms to be unacceptably weak and limiting. Thus the need for transcension allowed said mythic to be “supposedly” forgotten to time, implicating that if all 5 pieces could be found through the antiquities system, it could be reforged anew.

ccfeeling

WW says YES .

WhereArtThouVampires

Seems a tad bit pointless to add in extra effects for Necromancers when they have a grand total of 2 temporary minions this would effect.

If this set also summoned two skeletal Warriors once reaching a certain threshold, that'd be another story.

Eedat

This item is ridiculously OP. This would be op as a 5 piece set let alone a one piece mythic. Free damage. 200 health, stam, and magicka recovery. Minor slayer. Tons of max stats. Even more sustain. Free procs. Then to finish it off you cant even be killed. Being killed actually sends you into god mode. Then it saves you from dying again. All on a 1 piece set. Kinda seems like an RP item made with zero thought to game balance tbh

Skullstachio

Eedat wrote: »

This item is ridiculously OP. This would be op as a 5 piece set let alone a one piece mythic. Free damage. 200 health, stam, and magicka recovery. Minor slayer. Tons of max stats. Even more sustain. Free procs. Then to finish it off you cant even be killed. Being killed actually sends you into god mode. Then it saves you from dying again. All on a 1 piece set. Kinda seems like an RP item made with zero thought to game balance tbh

Lemme just highlight some crucial points “you” may have overlooked.

• all ultimate gains are reduced to 0%.(you cannot gain ultimate by any means necessary and resets your ultimate resource count to 0.) This paragraph clearly explains that, with exception to the Wardens “summon Feral guardian” ultimate as it costs nothing, The Wearer literally loses any ultimate stored and is Prevented from gaining any ultimate from every source.
• While in combat, taking fatal non-oblivion damage will instead temporarily transform you into an Undead Lich. Implication that is bolded here being, If you take Oblivion damage, you still die as oblivion damage sources can bypass the transformation and outright kill you in a tough situation.

But there are some points I may need to add in.

Eedat

Skullstachio wrote: »

Eedat wrote: »

This item is ridiculously OP. This would be op as a 5 piece set let alone a one piece mythic. Free damage. 200 health, stam, and magicka recovery. Minor slayer. Tons of max stats. Even more sustain. Free procs. Then to finish it off you cant even be killed. Being killed actually sends you into god mode. Then it saves you from dying again. All on a 1 piece set. Kinda seems like an RP item made with zero thought to game balance tbh

Lemme just highlight some crucial points “you” may have overlooked.

• all ultimate gains are reduced to 0%.(you cannot gain ultimate by any means necessary and resets your ultimate resource count to 0.) This paragraph clearly explains that, with exception to the Wardens “summon Feral guardian” ultimate as it costs nothing, The Wearer literally loses any ultimate stored and is Prevented from gaining any ultimate from every source.
• While in combat, taking fatal non-oblivion damage will instead temporarily transform you into an Undead Lich. Implication that is bolded here being, If you take Oblivion damage, you still die as oblivion damage sources can bypass the transformation and outright kill you in a tough situation.

But there are some points I may need to add in.

Nope I saw those. Still insanely overpowered though

Ryuvain

Cool idea, but so many effects on one piece of armor. Also the necro bias for this seems so unneeded.

Mettaricana

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Seems a tad bit pointless to add in extra effects for Necromancers when they have a grand total of 2 temporary minions this would effect.

If this set also summoned two skeletal Warriors once reaching a certain threshold, that'd be another story.

Honestly wanted necros to summon a horde of attacking flayers that blast bone explode on death and keep resummoning like 10 secs after it died with a press again to cause them all to detonate.

preevious

This is unbelievably unbalanced. I could wear 10 thrassian's stranglers and not get near that kind of power.

+ 500 damage, + 200 recovery, + permanent aura dot, + necrotic spear proc, +soul cage proc, + needs to die 3 times to actually die, and I must forget other things.

Everyone will go into battle with 1000 souls and never transform into a lich unless killed.
Seriously, no, that's not well designed at all .. or for a solo game, maybe..

LadyNalcarya

Skullstachio wrote: »

Eedat wrote: »

This item is ridiculously OP. This would be op as a 5 piece set let alone a one piece mythic. Free damage. 200 health, stam, and magicka recovery. Minor slayer. Tons of max stats. Even more sustain. Free procs. Then to finish it off you cant even be killed. Being killed actually sends you into god mode. Then it saves you from dying again. All on a 1 piece set. Kinda seems like an RP item made with zero thought to game balance tbh

Lemme just highlight some crucial points “you” may have overlooked.

• all ultimate gains are reduced to 0%.(you cannot gain ultimate by any means necessary and resets your ultimate resource count to 0.) This paragraph clearly explains that, with exception to the Wardens “summon Feral guardian” ultimate as it costs nothing, The Wearer literally loses any ultimate stored and is Prevented from gaining any ultimate from every source.
• While in combat, taking fatal non-oblivion damage will instead temporarily transform you into an Undead Lich. Implication that is bolded here being, If you take Oblivion damage, you still die as oblivion damage sources can bypass the transformation and outright kill you in a tough situation.

But there are some points I may need to add in.

The power you would gain would still give you more than your ultimate, and oblivion damage is very rare. I can't even think of any of its sources in pve apart from Zmaja's orbs (though with this kind of buff you're unlikely to die to orbs). And the sets that deal it in pvp have been nerfed ages ago so it's not like it's gonna be common, either.
Even the resurrection power alone is already stronger than existing 5 piece sets (Phoenix and Eternal Yokeda).

Mythreindeer

Too OP for a single class IMO.

And if they are “cairns” shouldn’t they look like a pile of rocks on each shoulder?

WhereArtThouVampires

Mettaricana wrote: »

WhereArtThouVampires wrote: »

Seems a tad bit pointless to add in extra effects for Necromancers when they have a grand total of 2 temporary minions this would effect.

If this set also summoned two skeletal Warriors once reaching a certain threshold, that'd be another story.

Honestly wanted necros to summon a horde of attacking flayers that blast bone explode on death and keep resummoning like 10 secs after it died with a press again to cause them all to detonate.

I'd love for this too

Vevvev

Insert the sound of all Dragonknights screaming in horror at the negating of ultimate gain.

Mindcr0w

The idea of a Mythic that trades Ultimate for other effects is a decent concept, but this item specifically is severely overtuned.

Again, the concept is sound and I would like to be able to experiment with such an item if it were properly balanced.

codierussell

This would be thrassians v2.0. Everyone running it in PVE and literally no downside because the 500 extra damage for everything is stupid strong. This is comparable to something like stagger and that only gives what 190 extra damage that is pretty hard for most tanks to keep up?

ivelbob

Awesome flavor to this. It does seem overtuned in lots of ways. An almost certain chance of just avoiding death at least once even during vet trials? And you don't just dodge the lethal damage, you transform into a more powerful form? Heck yes. I can see lots of people happily slotting in one shoulder item for that. It would even negate some instant death mechanics.

Skullstachio

I did some fine tuning and here's a list of what was done.

• Added a 5 second timer to the Lich transformation and a 50% health heal, During the transformation period, you cannot be healed until that 5 seconds is up. This should create a vulnerability phase that will allow those in pvp to act accordingly, particularly ball groups.
• Toned up the number of souls required at base from 2 souls to 4, granting 1 point of extra damage for the caster and 2 points of extra damage and healing for the casters summons for every 4 souls achieved.
• added a 5 minute cooldown period when reverting to mortal form, the cooldown must pass before the wearer can transform again.

So just to sum it up, there is less bonus damage through the soul increments, a cooldown that can help a bit so as to keep the consistency of form usage to a minimum if someone were to find a way to farm kills in that time period, also the 5 second transition means that it would be a death sentence in the heat of a PVP battle if used at the wrong moment, so be strategic when considering the stakes.

Ceejengine

I say nerf the hell out of it then I like it. It does way too many things for 1 item. Ring of the Pale Order is an extremely powerful, very sought after mythic and it does 1 thing. Same with Bloodlord's Embrace.

I don't mind bonuses for certain classes. The main thing I would change is to reduce it to 1 effect. And don't let that effect be the lich thing, thats just nuts.

Maybe the damage thing could be "Each time you kill a creature or critically strike a boss, you gain x souls. While in combat, every 10 seconds, you consume up to x souls to increase your damage & critical by x per soul consumed. You cannot gain Ultimate points.

Or the Health could be "Each time you kill a creature or every 5th hit against a boss, you gain x souls. Each time you suffer damage that brings you below x% health, you consume up to x souls, gaining x health, x stamina, and x magicka per soul."

If you're really set on a revival aspect, you could say "When an Ally within x meters dies, you absorb their soul and gain the synergy "Return to Life". Using this Synergy costs 1 soul shard and x souls. Your ally is immediately revived with x stats. Can occur once per x seconds."

Honestly though everything but the balance is great on your design. I'd love to see it in game, if drastically nerfed first.

EnerG

Concept seems OP but I like the idea of a no-ult item. However, may I suggest moving it to the glove slot and calling them the Ideal Master's Mittens.