LORE
“Oblivion awaits.”
Maeve’s powers manifested with no prior warning, and the result of her awakening left a bloody scar in her mind. Thus she fled her home and traveled far across Althea, where she was sure she could not hurt anybody who didn’t deserve it. Years passed, and Maeve’s connection to the Void grew as she embraced her powers. Her name alone was enough to strike fear among the demonic forces that invaded the Realm, but it wasn’t until she met an emissary of the Underground Veil that she decided to join the cause against the demons.
OVERVIEW
Maeve is a Mage and Summoner built around creating an army of undead allies during combat.
Her toolkit revolves around applying Omen to enemies and consuming those marks with other abilities to summon skeletons, rewarding players for combining her skills and carefully managing targets.
DESIGN GOALS
- Introduce a distinct Summoner playstyle
Differentiate Maeve from the existing Mage roster by making summoned units a central part of her combat identity. - Make summoning an active gameplay loop
Require players to mark and defeat enemies to build their army, making summons something they actively work toward rather than simply creating on demand. - Reward planning and target management
Encourage players to spread Omen across groups of enemies and carefully choose when to eliminate marked targets to rapidly generate additional allies. - Allow players to specialize their summons
Use talents to expand Maeve’s default melee skeletons with ranged variants, giving players greater control over how they develop her summoner playstyle.
DESIGN PROCESS
Maeve began with the goal of creating a Mage who filled a niche that was missing from the existing roster. While the game already had several traditional spellcasters, it did not have a dedicated Summoner. I therefore built her toolkit around raising skeletons and controlling the battlefield indirectly through the units she creates.
Omen became the mechanic tying the toolkit together. Rather than summoning an army directly, Maeve marks enemies with Omen and creates a skeleton when a marked enemy is killed. This creates a repeating combat loop of marking multiple targets, eliminating them, and using the resulting summons to help defeat the next group. By default, Maeve raises melee skeletons, while talents allow her to introduce ranged skeletons and further specialize the army she creates.
Her narrative followed a similarly unconventional approach. Maeve’s powers first manifest violently, leading her to isolate herself rather than risk harming others. She eventually learns to control and embrace her connection to the Void, returning when the scale of the demonic invasion convinces her that those powers can be put to use against a greater threat.
ABILITIES
Autoattack
Void Bolt
Maeve hurls a bolt of shadow energy, damaging an enemy and reducing their magic armor. Every third attack also applies Omen.
Damage
Chaos Orb
Maeve launches a projectile that damages its target. When used against an enemy affected by Omen, the mark is consumed to summon a Skeleton Warrior to fight alongside her. Talents can modify this ability to summon additional skeletons or ranged Skeleton Archers instead.
Damage
Void Blast
Maeve unleashes an eruption of shadow energy around herself, damaging and silencing nearby enemies. Affected enemies are also marked with Omen and have their magic armor reduced.
ultimate
Emergence
Maeve creates a vortex of void energy that continuously damages enemies within its area. Casting Emergence also grants Maeve lifesteal, allowing her to recover health through the damage she deals.
ITERATION
Maeve’s earliest design allowed her to summon skeletons directly. While this fulfilled the basic Summoner fantasy, I felt that simply pressing an ability to create additional units offered too little interaction and risked making the core mechanic repetitive.
This led to the creation of Omen. By tying summons to marked enemies, building an army became a process rather than a single action: players first had to apply Omen, defeat the affected targets, and then capitalize on the resulting summons. This made Maeve’s different abilities feel more interconnected and created a stronger sense of progression during combat as a small number of summons could gradually develop into a larger force.
IMPLEMENTATION & TESTING
Testing Maeve highlighted an issue with the game’s existing summon behavior. Skeletons would correctly spawn and assist Maeve in combat, but once nearby enemies were defeated, they remained in place until they eventually despawned. This undermined the intended fantasy of gradually assembling an army, as summons generated during one encounter could not reliably contribute to the next.
I documented the issue and created a specification for improved summon behavior, working with engineering to allow summoned units to follow their summoner whenever possible. Rather than implementing the behavior specifically for Maeve’s skeletons, the change was made to the underlying summon system, improving the functionality for other content using the same mechanics.
TAKEAWAYS
A strong class fantasy still needs an engaging gameplay loop
Simply allowing Maeve to summon skeletons fulfilled the Summoner fantasy, but tying those summons to Omen gave players something to actively work toward and made building an army feel earned.
Shared mechanics can make individual abilities feel like part of a cohesive toolkit
Using Omen as the connecting mechanic encouraged Maeve’s abilities to be used together rather than as independent actions, reinforcing a clear combat loop of marking enemies, eliminating them, and growing her army.
Talents can expand a playstyle rather than simply increase its power
Allowing players to introduce ranged skeletons through talents provided a meaningful way to customize Maeve’s summons without changing the fundamental mechanics of her kit.
New content can expose opportunities to improve existing systems
Maeve’s skeletons revealed limitations in how summoned units behaved outside their initial encounter. Addressing the issue at a system level allowed the solution to benefit other summons rather than creating a one-off fix specifically for Maeve.