Let there be Gnomes!

Addon-content:

1. New subrace: Gnomes (included: own starter-zone and quest)

2. Additional zones and quests:
a) Midlevel zone & quest (15-20): starts near Last Hope, related zone has to be found on the worldmap
b) Highlevel zone (35-50): a hidden zone, that can't be entered by normal means / a quest starts inside, on the 2nd level

About Gnomes:

Gnomes are distant relatives of Halflings, albeit a tad smaller in stature and much weaker physique. In the world of Maj_Eyal, not much is known about them for simple reasons: they usually don't leave home to go on adventures, much less to take part in heroic endeavours. People commonly mistake Gnomes for extraordinary small and malformed Halflings, even if that is far from being the truth. The existence of Gnomes as a proper subspecies has passed history unnoticed for centuries, while they lived peacefully, silent and hidden within Halfling society, dedicating their lives to the study of the physical, magical and historical dimensions of Maj'Eyal.

In theory, however, gnomes make great adventurers. While they lack any of those physical attributes, that are commonly associated with a lifestyle dedicated to performing heroic deeds, they got the ability to gain advanced knowledge about almost anything related to skillful adventuring. They start their career with two instead of just one racial talent trees and are able to learn new talent types not available to their choosen class. As a result, they make for very flexible game play, but they are challenged by a low life-rating.

--- Major Revamp as of 20.12.2014 ---

! ! ! ! ! No compatibility with older versions ! ! ! ! !

Gnomes now offer a truly experimental game experience. Gnomes get two racial trees:

- one tree allows them to learn just about any talents associated to different meta themes (they can learn one type each of these groups: technique/cunning, spell/celestial/chronomancy, psionic/wild-gifts, cursed/corruption).

- the other tree provides general offensive and defensive benefits as well as resource (stamina, mana, psi, equilibrium) regeneration.

As a result, playing as a gnome makes it possible to spice up just about any class with new talent combinations normaly only experienced when playing the Adventurer class.

Additonaly, gnomes still start with their Gnomish Pocket Encyclopedia - an item, which at level 30 allows them to pick one further talent type from about just any category (excluding stone wardens talents).

Specifics - Stats and Racial Talents:

Stat modifiers: -4 Strength, +1 Dexterity, -6 Constitution, +1 Magic, +0 Willpower, +6 Cunning, +0 Luck
Life per level: 6
Experience penalty: 10%

Update (24.01.2015):

- added a visual distinction between generic and class trees in the dialogues where you choose which talent-type to learn

Allows characters to respec anywhere in game, not just in towns. This is a direct reversion of the change made in 1.2.3 to the way it was in 1.2.2 and before.

Many in Maj'Eyal have heard of "demons", sadistic creatures who appear seemingly from nowhere, leaving a trail of suffering and destruction whereever they go. Their Fearscape floats far above the skies, watching and waiting, but not idly; their agents scout the land, their legions build up their forces, and their scholars develop new spells and strategies. As the barrier between our worlds begins to crack under their scrutiny, helpless Eyalites have begun to disappear, whisked up to serve as their slaves and playthings. They imbue these victims with magical powers to better survive the ensuing stresses - can you use your new-found abilities to escape the legions of Mal'Rok?

Features:

• Start with a new class, the Doombringer! These avatars of demonic destruction charge into battle with massive two-handed weapons, cutting swaths of firey devastation through hordes of opponents. Armed with flame magic and demonic strength, they delight in fighting against overwhelming odds, softening up the crowd with waves of fire, then feeding on the flames and suffering of their surroundings to stay alive while quickly reducing any group to a pile of ash and gore.
• Unlock a new class, the Demonologist, with an all-new item enhancement mechanic! Bearing a shield and the magic of the Spellblaze itself, these melee-fighting casters can grow demonic seeds from their fallen enemies. Imbue these seeds onto your items to gain a wide array of new talents and passive benefits, and summon the demons within them to fight on your side! Ever looked at a gigantic demon-cursed minotaur and wished it was on your side for once? Well, now you CAN summon one to pound your foes into paste while you cast devastating spells from afar, or call forth a squad of Fire Imps to pelt your enemies to death while they exhaust themselves on your impenetrable defenses! Demons have persistent health, making them a little more precious than disposable necromancer skeletons or summoner beasts, but can be revived from death nonetheless.
• Two new zones, with all-new art, foes, and bosses! You've seen the plains of the Fearscape before, now see the lairs and headquarters of the demons themselves!
• Over 10,000 words of written lore to find! The demons were once an enlightened, peaceful race, hailing from a distant planet known as Mal'Rok; learn what drove them to plot Eyal's eternal torture! Discover monuments to each of the demonic species and noteworthy individuals, showing the place of honor each has among them! Get a glimpse into the culture and daily lives of these sadistic invaders and their brainwashed thralls!
• Unlock a new race, Doomelves: Shalore who've taken to the demonic alterations especially well, corrupting their typical abilities into a darker form. Blink away to safety, transform into a shadowy dúathedlen to hide in the shadows or prey on your foes with blasts of darkness, use your new resilience to soak up status effects and critical hits, and assault your enemies' minds to leave them unsteady in combat!
• Between the aforementioned classes and Doomelves, a whopping 75 new talents!
• Unlock two new cosmetic options! You know you've always wanted demon-horns.
• Two new events, appearing anywhere in Eyal!
• 20 new artifacts, with unique and interesting effects. Collect the Obsidian Treasures to amass more and more power! Slip your hands into the Will of Ul'Gruth and watch your sweeping blows smash down walls! Wear a giant hideous hell-mouth as a fashionable belt!
• 7 new achievements! Conquer the worst Urh'Rok's forces can throw at you, and hang their metaphorical skulls from your profile page!

Places the Sect of Kryl-Feijan event on the map as a zone entrance rather than an undetectable encounter.

Do you dislike it, when your escortees die on harder difficulties at the zone in, without you being able to help them? Do you sometimes feel as if money was worth little to nothing in Maj'Eyal? If so, this addon might help you. The library of Last Hope now sells seven Tomes with on-use-rewards, that mirror those of seven escort-types. The library of Elvala sells two (very expensive) tomes, that lead to even greater rewards after using them.

Fixed: talent types are now known, but not learned

This pack compiles several classes, with an emphasis on hybrid design. Not all classes are complete: the ones which I'm not satisfied with are marked as either INCOMPLETE or "in BETA".

The classes included in this pack are:
- The Transcendent Fist is an unarmed Psionic warrior, using a gem in his TK slot to hit with flexible energy types.
- The Storm Warden is a melee-and-ranged skirmisher with magical mobility and support spells.
- The Striker is a cunning and covert class, with a focus on delivering shock-and-awe thunderbolts from stealth.
- The Gravitic Infantry is a melee-focused Chronomancy user (formerly named the Heavy).
- The Creep is a stalker in the dark, cunning and covert in his hate.
- The Vector uses disease and debilitation to keep his foes at range while he snipes them to death.
- The Flenser is a Defiler whose knives debilitate and torture his victims.
- The Blood Mage is a Vim-based caster with a mild dip into staff-melee combat.
- ... and more!

(BETA) Shield Hero is an Adventurer who starts with heavy armor and a shield. Not very exciting unless you were annoyed about not being able to equip your Adventurer's shield right away.
(BETA) Prototype Hero is an Adventurer who starts with 1.3 mastery in every category. Not very useful for players, but it might be interesting for addon writers to spitball new category combinations.

(INCOMPLETE) The Flux Marauder is a Paradox thug, stealing time from his enemies.

x (Removed): The human-only Embers of Gerlyk are fire-using magical martial artists. Removed pending new content / 1.6 features.
x (Removed): The skeleton-only Fossils are geomantic martial artists. Removed pending new content / 1.6 features.

Adds Yaech as a playable race, as water breathing psionics with a leaning towards cursed.

This addon is now DEPRECATED and might cause bugs. Instead, please use the Inferno Race Pack!

Removes the restriction on how many talents you can respec.

INFO: This mod is *defunct*. Dead and buried. Been for years now.
Hope you had fun using it while it worked.

To be honest, I've been hoping something similar would make it into the main game but it never did. Which I will forever be miffed by :).

There are alternatives (for both, the alchemist part and the escort part), check the comments, search the addons.

I keep it here for those few who might want to play an older version of the game or for coding reference.

--- Old description:

A few things to make rng less random with regards to character build (because I really, really dislike it when a build is subject to randomness).

This includes and is limited to:
- no alchemist poaching,
- choose your own escort types.

It does make the game easier. Not in a significant way but use at risk to your own pride.

Formerly "known" as Succor and easement.

Makes alchemists focus on creating elixirs that you are not currently helping them with.
In the base game, when you hand in ingredients to an alchemist, another alchemist completes one of his remaining elixirs at random.
What this addon does is remove the elixir that you are already helping them with from the possible elixirs to be chosen unless it is their last elixir.

Allows you to choose which escorts you will encounter at the start of the game.
You may change the future encounters in the game menu (Esc).

There is an option to choose a random escort in case you just wanted to guarantee some unlocks before continuing with the base game's behavior.

Note: You're only supposed to be able to choose the lost tinker once. (Must have the Embers of Rage DLC and unlocked by playing in the Orcs campaign)
Note: Unfortunately the only time that addons can get the possible escort types is after the random escort quest is assigned.
This means escorts added by other addons will not be available for selection, but will still be possible to find using the random selection.

To reach me faster, please leave a message on the Steam Workshop page. I don't get notifications on te4.org so I may take longer to reply.

The Witherer is a Corruptor that focusses on slowly killing their enemies.

One year has passed since the one the Orcs call the "Scourge from the West" came and single-handedly crushed the Orc Prides of Grushnak, Vor, Gorbat, and Rak'Shor.  The Allied Kingdoms, now linked by farportal to their distant, long-lost Sunwall allies, have helped them conquer most of Var'Eyal.  The few remnants of the ravaged Prides are caged...  but one Pride remains.  Kruk Pride, isolated on an island, is the last orcish settlement that stands; they, too, face their impending doom.  The Sunwall has blockaded the only exit point from the island, and now, the technologically advanced civilization of Steam Giants have come down from the mountains to take their homeland with machines and weaponry unlike anything else on Eyal.  Kruk Pride has reverse-engineered their technology before; their only hope is to do it again and rise up against the Pride's foes.
 

Features:

• Explore a whole new campaign from level 1 to 50, one year after the events of the original Tales of Maj'Eyal campaign. Liberate the Orcs (or die trying) by rising up against the Sunwall, the Steam Giants of Atmos, and other dangers that may lie in wait...
• Play as one of three new races: the battle-hardened Orcs, the brutal Yetis, and the unstoppable Whitehooves. Discover their stories, their pains, their hopes... and their awesome racial powers!
• Risk your life in over 20 unique zones! Explore the ruins of a lost city, lay siege to the Sunwall forces at the Gates of Morning, and raid the Steam Giants' mining quarry - each has its own unique foes and hazards, leading each to feel and play different from the others.
• Play as one of the four new tinker classes: Gunslingers, Sawbutchers, Psyshots and Annihilators! Plus a class evolution: Technomancers! Crush and rend your foes with heavy metal, electrocute and immolate them with your gadgets, charge across the battlefield or nimbly strafe in style - each plays differently, and none provide any shortage of ways to slay your foes.
• Master steam technology to build powerful tinkers to augment your equipment. Need to close in a bit quicker? Turn your boots into rocket boots! Having a hard time deciding whether to shoot someone or stab them? Build a Hand Cannon into your gloves, or deploy a Weapon Automaton to do the stabbing for you! If you have a problem, steamtech has a solution, usually involving explosions; with over 80 different powerful contraptions to craft, enjoy unparalleled versatility and trying something different with every playthrough.
• Master the tactical uses of over 140 talents! Fire bouncing trick-shots and psychic-infused shots, use your steamsaws as shields or wheels, terrify your foes with long mechanical arms - there are no "boring" talents here, everything has its own special applications and properties!
• Use advanced technology in the world of Eyal! Burrow through sand, plant bombs to destroy tunnels, and discover that you aren't alone in using it...
• Infusions and runes are for puny humans; implant new medical injectors to pump an array of experimental chemicals into your body! Injectors can use any (infinitely reusable) salve in your inventory as long as they're off their cooldown, giving you versatility you've wished you could get with a couple of inscriptions.
• Loot over 70 new and powerful artifacts. Pump lead into foes with big guns, quick guns, and explosive guns! Shred them with saws that maim, saws that thirst for blood, and saws that aren't really saws! Violate common sense by strapping a rocket to your back and calling it a jetpack!
• Enjoy dying in horrible and exotic ways at the hands (or claws, jaws, guns...) of over 140 new creatures! Not mere piles of stats and chain-stuns, these foes will provide unique challenges - suffer the Sunwall's newest cosmic spells, the new breeds of ritches that infest and multiply, the Steam Giants' elaborate defense systems, and find new strategies to adapt to each!
• Earn a trunkload of achievements! Have your accomplishments recognized for liberating the Orcish people, displaying exceptional mercy or cruelty, or showing your prowess with impressive feats! Give a boss a fate worse than death, show Sunwall forces how frustrating it is to fight a Radiant Horror as a paladin, come out on top against impossible odds, display a suicidal lack of situational awareness, and wear a badge of pride or shame for each!
• Read roughly 27,000 words of new lore to immerse yourself in the world! Learn how things have changed since the Scourge's campaign, feel hatred and/or pity for your foes, uncover grand schemes and sinister plots, and notice the elaborate connections between Var'Eyal's numerous factions. Every zone has a story behind it, and every story ties into a bigger picture; enjoy a tale of horror and humor, of intrigue and glory, of despair and hope.
• Earn the right to use the classic (and Ashes of Urh'Rok) classes in Embers of Rage, and the new tinker classes in Maj'Eyal! Play a Brawler in the East to fulfill your life-long dream of suplexing an entire nation of giants, or play a Sawbutcher in Maj'Eyal to shred through Dreadfell in a whirlwind of sawblades and steam!

Various enhancements to escort quest NPCs:
- Escorts now follow the player when not close to the portal.
- Escorts occasionally say useful things.
- Escorts heal 5% of their maximum health per turn.

Adds many new spells for Necromancer and modifies many existing spells, effects and minions. See thread for full details.

Improves the "Press <control> to compare" functionality for objects.  New features:

• When pressing <control>, a note at the top of the text will tell you which object in your equipment is being compared against the current item.
• While holding <control>, tapping <shift> will cycle through the objects in your equipment that the current item can be compared to.  Useful when wearing two rings, dual-wielding, or using the second weapon set.
• (new in v3) Runes and inscriptions in your inventory or store inventories can be compared via <control> to corresponding inscriptions on your body.

Also available as part of the ZOmnibus Addon Pack and ZOmnibus Lite.