Maxwell skill tree

[goblinball]

I know a lot of ppl are dreading Maxwell’s skill tree because yknow he’s maxwell but I want to try and be more positive and see if we can come up with some fun ideas for it.

The first thing that came to mind for me was just allowing him to like create more stuff, although I’m not sure specifically what. He used to be on the nightmare throne and he created a decent bit of what we see in the constant iirc so even though he obv doesn’t have these powers anymore I think it’d be cool if he could like mimic them by making shadow versions of creatures or other stuff with the codex umbra, or maybe Charlie lends some powers to maxwell. 
id also like some magic trick themed skills because yknow he used to be a magician I don’t have any particular gameplay ideas for this, I was thinking maybe he could summon a shadow bunny which draws aggro that could be fun. Maybe something to do with cards too, you could divide this up into 4 skills, one for each suite perhaps?

Again I haven’t really thought this through much I mostly just want to see what sorts of ideas you guys have 

 

[somethin]

For his lunar side skill, he get's insta kill by Charlie on enter server for cheating on her (again)

[Wormboi]

give Maxwell the ability to teleport for giggles (:

[Ohan]

If theres one survivor who does not need a skill tree its maxwell. Hes already an overloaded abomination. 

his kit needs stuff taken out not even more things added on top. 

But devs dont care so he’ll prob get a cross shard teleport, ummm ability to create new tentapillars, a skill that summons a fully decked out shadow boat, official void walking on shadow cloud, innate bone armor effect, innate night armor effect, grass into nightmare fuel transformation, spells go from 5% codex durability to 0.5%, 1 nightmare refuels 100% of the codex, shadow prison duration lengthened to 2 minutes. 

Minor fun stuff like that 

[zhangsheng]

To be honest, Maxwell is already the most powerful character in this game, with cheap but extremely powerful combat power and collection ability, a universal box for all graphics, and an unlimited number of item squares, endless sanity recovery ability. Even if he doesn't have a skill tree, he is much stronger than other characters. So I hope his skill tree is more focused on functionality and entertainment.

[HeatAndRun]

Unsummoning every puppets is must-have for his skill tree imo.

[loopuleasa]

I have no idea what to give maxwell

He is already perfect in my heart, probably some QoL stuff and control

But ideally, maxwell should be the ultimate lazyest character, where all the shadow powers do your bidding while you just boss them around.

Automation without science, but with dark magic

[Dr. Safety]

Just take some of his current abilities and spoonfeed them back to him through a skill tree, as well as some in game hurdles. Ex: Shadow prison skill, unlocks the ability to upgrade the codex using thulecite to give him the ability to cast shadow prison. Maybe something similar with the amount of duelists/workers he can have out. Make the default 3 or 4. This way he won't have all of his power right out the gate. For compensation, give him more end game gear that boosts his duelists even further

[alphagem618]

Here are some ideas, some are mostly jokes and some are kinda balanced ideas I think -- 

Rose of Life -- When there is a Charlie's rose in Maxwell's inventory, his max hp is increased by one, allowing him to take two attacks from a depths worm instead of one.

Mastery of the Old Books -- Reduces the sanity drain a bit when reading Wicker's vanilla DS related book, like tentacles, birds, etc., while increases the sanity drain when reading new books related to things introduced in DST, like the lunar books, the crops books and the fishing books.

More Elegant -- Increases the sanity recovery to 10/min, which sounds useless or even nerfing for pro players, while probably a bit good for new players.

Most Elegant -- Further increases the sanity recovery to 20/min, but each time you attack, be attacked, hit a tree, dig a boulder or do whatever the chore, your sanity lower by 5. When ridding a beefalo or carrying a heavy object, your sanity lower by 40/min.

Greater Puppies -- All summoned puppets being stronger (ilke 2x), but draining a 20.5% or 21% max sanity. Hence, you need to find another way to further lower your sanity for fuels, instead of simply reading the book for 6 times. Now you can read the book for 4 times, and your sanity becomes 18% or 16%, which does not allow the shadow creatures to start to attack. Again, this might be good for new players, but not that good for pro players because shadow creatures are not that difficult to handle, and you lose opportunities to get fuels.

Portable Shadow Chest -- Can craft three pieces of a portable shadow chest seperately, which can be assembled into a portable shadow chest like the altar (can be dismantled back into 3 pieces), which basically functions the same as a shadow chest. This allows other players to teleport items at a cost of 3 slots and some time, which is good for team playing -- forgetting something after heading out is really annoying!

One-Time Use Shadow Hat -- Similar to above: a shadow hat that breaks after opening, for your teammates. Now it can be only used for once, but only costs one slot.

[Dr.Webber]

duelists should ride infused terror beaks 

i think when Maxwell refuels the codex with pure horror the next certain number of Spells are infused and looks slightly different do to being infused you know either the red adding more detail to the design 

shadow sneak:  bigger range 

Shadow prison: last longer 

Shadow servants: more health and range

shadow duelist: more health and attack strength

Charlie’s rose should have the same spike attack as bramble arm but with planar damage

Given him the ability to use spells without his book

Shadow Teleportation

Unique Interactions with the creatures he created such as having small birds that you raised stayed befriended Upon adulthood

crafting  new  types of shadows

Monster forms

New shadow tools and weapons

Maybe even creating new creatures

Taking the form of a shadow

While wearing the bone helm feeding shadow creatures, pure horror to befriend them

etc. 

 

[NPCMaxwell]

8 minutes ago, Dr.Webber said:

 

 

Monster forms

 

 

Monster Maxwell from the adventure mode = best creepiest Maxwell!

This is a good chance for Klei to remember this part. I am not a fan of skilltrees but if they add something nostalgic like monster-Maxwell I will like the skilltree at least for this detail. [such as I like Wilson's skilltree for the alchemy theme which fits his sciency background. And this for Maxwell would remind me of his creepy adventure mode transformations]

[Radicaljoe]

Only thing I can think of is making the work radius larger/ upgrading the tools of the shadows to work more efficiently.

I expect Maxwell to get a Wolfgang esqe rework because of his power.

 

[Uedo]

The only thing i'd actually want is him regaining some ability to recreate clockworks and some interaction with shadow moons (forgot what you'd call it, new moon?). I'd like to see maybe see him be able to infuse statues with NF and be able to summon a clockwork (maybe with dreadstone, a gem and 4 gears or something expensive), the benefit could be that his alignment (it's gotta be shadow only imo) would be a skill where you could corrupt a Maxwell clockwork (or perhaps only the maxwell built statue) with Pure Horror and get a ruined clockwork like in the caves/ruins. - Maybe you could have a purple gem as a cost so that people can't farm Bishops and it fits with the theme of shadows.

I feel this would encourage more use from the mechanic of gaining a clockwork follower if you use frazzled wires on a 'pile'. The difference here is that Max wouldn't need a wire, maybe it could be making a clockwork 'pile' instead of a statue - that way other players could also recruit them so long as Max has crafted and placed the 'pile'

[NPCMaxwell]

11 minutes ago, Radicaljoe said:

Only thing I can think of is making the work radius larger/ upgrading the tools of the shadows to work more efficiently.

I expect Maxwell to get a Wolfgang esqe rework because of his power.

 

Sigh....so they will focus on combat / strength once again? In that case I will probably not consider playing with the Maxwell skilltree at all.

Unless they limit those combat / strength advantage abilities for the SHADOWWAXWELLS only and leave Maxwell himself more or less untouched. [Unless if they actually include some Monster-Maxwell transformation branch, that could give him some physical advantages in combat then.]

[Frashaw27]

While I will dedicate an entire thread to my idea for a full maxwell skill tree down the line, the basic idea is that Maxwell slowly becomes less dependent on his puppets to do things. Thus the things already in his kit are largely unaffected besides minor buffs and affinity stuff and instead focuses on diversifying what he can do with magical things. I think the best course of action with the more powerful character's skill trees is to less amp up the power of their absurdly broken stuff already, and more focus on QoL things and adding cool interactions. They don't need to continue to amp the power and I'd hate for their skill trees to be half assed because they fear angering the hyper balance mob.

[Clopsy627]

Maybe 2 shadow and no lunar affinitys and his jacket from adventure mode?

 

[TizianOwO]

Literally just give him some random minor utility (preferably helpful to the team but less-so himself and his puppets, like Wolfgang's whistle)

They already gave a skill tree to what was already considered a fairly powerful character and it was fine.

[arubaro]

On 7/8/2024 at 11:43 AM, Dr. Safety said:

Just take some of his current abilities and spoonfeed them back to him through a skill tree, as well as some in game hurdles. Ex: Shadow prison skill, unlocks the ability to upgrade the codex using thulecite to give him the ability to cast shadow prison. Maybe something similar with the amount of duelists/workers he can have out. Make the default 3 or 4. This way he won't have all of his power right out the gate. For compensation, give him more end game gear that boosts his duelists even further

This.

There is no way of adding a fun skill tree (not Wolfgang's) without breaking even more a broken character

Is funny that his refresh came few time before Wilson's skill tree.. all of max's perks seems to come from a skill tree.

Having less ammount of workers and fighters by default, access to shadow inventory, his spell... they add that to his skill tree, add a couple of extra spells and some planar buff and you have an almost perfect tree if wasnt because would be op anyways