Flourishes: More than just flailing your weapon around

Let me preface this idea by saying this is just something I randomly came up with one day. But I though it was an interesting idea with some interesting concepts worth a bit of consideration in at least the later stages of the game.

To summarize. This idea is about taking weapon flourishes and actually making them a useful tool in both PVE and player interaction. It's about having a customizable weapon flourish that can get more impressive as your character advances.

Origins of the Idea:

So I am sure most of you have seen flourishes in some games. I know The Knights of The Old Republic (The original game not SWTOR)had them and I believe they might have them in WoW? Basically you press a button and your character twirls the weapon around. They are kind of cool at first, but utterly useless, and they don't change at all from level one to max level. Your character only controls them via choosing what weapon they own.

While reading The Wheel of Time I recently ran across a passage where the heros are trying to show a group of rough and not entirely trustworthy men that they are not an easy target for a robbery. Most of them just pull back their cloaks to reveal their weapons and try to act casual but one goes further: "Thom Merrilin stepped forward grandly and held up one empty hand, turning it slowly. Suddenly he gestured with a flourish, and a dagger twirled between his fingers. The hilt slapped into his palm, and, abruptly nonchalant, he began trimming his fingernails."

That got me to thinking. Why not make flourishes useful? A flourish of a weapon is a display of skill saying "I know how to use this, you may not want to mess with me." and on top of it they can be a form of entertainment. I put some thought into the subject and here was my idea.

How Flourishes Could Work:

You don't have a single move flourish. You have a customizable flourish you can put together yourself made up of many moves. There is a window where you can select and put together your flourishes moves. Moves themselves are unlocked by a combination of what items you have and what merit badges you have unlocked. Because of this you can save it so that you have different flourishes depending on what gear you are using, all saved away so you don't have to reconstruct them each time you change gear.

In order to activate a flourish you press and hold your flourish hotkey or type /flourish. Once you do your character starts to cycle through the moves of the flourish you have saved until they complete the entire flourish. Each move should take a single global cooldown to execute or possibly two for some of the grander and more complex moves. If at any point you let off the flourish hotkey, or press another button your flourish will end at the end of the move being executed. That way if you activate a 15 move flourish, and something happens in the middle of it, you aren't stuck there flourishing.

Now let's give some examples so you have an idea what this system would look like. Urg the Barbarian wields a greataxe. At the start Urg only has the arm flex move that comes from being a martial class, and a move where he raises his greataxe above his head and gives a battle cry, available to any great axe wielder. But as Urg unlocks new merit badges his options grow. He got a move for Great Axe Mastery that allows him to do a 360 degree chop and another for Improved Great Axe Mastery that allows him to twirl the great axe in front of him. For Greater Power Attack all two handed weapons get a move where the weilder smashes the ground in front of them sending up a spray of dust and leaving cracks in the ground where the weapon impacted, and at reaching level 10 barbarian Urg got a move where he reaches in his belt pouch then brings back his fingers with the tips covered in warpaint he then drags down each cheek.

Lazeem the wizard. Has a very different sent of moves he unlocked. He started simple with conjuring a flame and letting it hover over his palm. But as he unlocked the lightning storm spell he got a move where he sends massive bolts crackling between his finger tips while the wind tugs at his garments. At wizard level 10 he unlocked the ability to make himself levitate as he executes his flourish, and with the extended spell range badge he got the ability to shoot a flare up that soars high into the sky then explodes like a giant firework.

Serenthiil the ranger started with a simple nocking and arrow then letting off the tension without firing. As she gained the improved tumbling badge she got the ability to do a standing backflip. With greater multishot she got the ability to toss a three apples into the air then three arrows whistling through each one in one shot. When she got the improved beastmaster ability she gained a battlecry that is answered by the howling of wolves and crying of eagles.

But I'm sure the question a lot of you are asking is what practical use does this have in-game?

Why Flourishes are Useful in Player Interaction:

First off, while this is not confirmed, I highly doubt we are going to have levels above our heads in PFO. I could be wrong, but that is just my hope and opinion. This presents some upsides and downsides. It allows you to hide your level if you are a high level character and puts some randomness into things but as a high level this could be kind of a nuisance too. If you are geared down a bit because you are performing easier tasks those low level bandits may not realize who they are tangling with. Great if you are hunting bandits, not great if you are in a hurry to do something else.

When Urg the barbarian is out hunting his blood enemies and pesky little whelpling bandits get in his way. He doesn't always have to fight them. Sometimes when he sees them coming he just stops and does his flourish. By the time he's twirled his axe around and rended the earth with it. Then paints his face and lets out a blood-curdling roar, those bandits know they bit off more than they could chew and go running the other way to wash the urine stains out of their leggings. They know they are messing with a barbarian who's level 10 or greater with Improved Great Axe Mastery and Greater Power Attack. Either that or they know they are tangling with someone who has way fancier looking skills than them.

That, and Urg needs everything he can to help him with the ladies given his dismal charisma score, and his flourish sure turns some heads in the tavern.

Why Flourishes are Useful in NPC Interaction:

I'm sure most people have seen in games where once you reach a certain level, weaker NPCs simply leave you alone. So you can be out wandering through the middle of the goblin stronghold and they will all ignore you because you're a high level character... how freaking cheesy.

What makes a lot more sense is if NPC's come with a bravery score, and flourish moves come with an intimidation score. For every high level skill your flourish demonstrates you have, the more intimidating it is. If your flourish is more intimidating than the NPC's bravery score, the NPCs simply turn tail and run away when you use it.

This caused me to want the ability to have player-judged trick Drill.

I'm not sure if the benefits would be worth all the work implementing this would require, but I really like the idea =)

I'm not sure if the benefits would be worth all the work implementing this would require, but I really like the idea =)

Yeah unless this is WAY easier than I am thinking it would be, it would be a complete waste of time to have this system upon release. However I thought it did contain some good ideas so I figured I would throw it out there for consideration. It might be worth it a year or two after release or select features of it could be implemented much sooner such as perhaps a very basic flourish feature that can be used to scare off low level NPCs.

I have to admit I find the line about turning heads with axe-twirling a little humorous. I've never gotten a date on the strength of my fleche, nor thought, "Wow, look at the brisk salute on her!"

Kidding aside, it's actually a good idea, though I'm not so sure it wouldn't just be a stylized application of an intimidate skill. As one advances the skill, perhaps the character evolves and selects from ever flashier, "Back off!" animations over time.

Unless, of course, you're thinking of it almost being like a perk which a player selects and unlocks.

I have to admit I find the line about turning heads with axe-twirling a little humorous. I've never gotten a date on the strength of my fleche, nor thought, "Wow, look at the brisk salute on her!"

Kidding aside, it's actually a good idea, though I'm not so sure it wouldn't just be a stylized application of an intimidate skill. As one advances the skill, perhaps the character evolves and selects from ever flashier, "Back off!" animations over time.

Unless, of course, you're thinking of it almost being like a perk which a player selects and unlocks.

I know that is a joke, but I do have to say, in reality, yes it does work like that, just based on what the society and community values. Can you win a girl in modern highschool by masterfully demonstrating sword skills, probably not. Can someone in a modern highschool impress his peers via use of a basketball, throwing trick shots, dribbles etc..? Of course.

Onishi, of course, but to our eyes it's funny. Also, it was in the "Player Interaction" section, making it doubly so, as player characters are usually assumed to not be governed by the mechanics of social stats the same was as an NPC.

I'm reminded of Fable and how a few gestures made half the town want to marry your 90 year old pudgy sister-murdering self.

Yeah... that statement was mainly just a comical way of saying. "And flourishes are fun to show off to other players."