Here's how Shattered Pixel Dungeon's mobile hero select screen will look with the upcoming Cleric added to it. Some visuals are still a WIP, (the cudgel's sprite in particular is very rough) but all the important bits are in place.
You can see the info window for the Cleric here too, showing off some info about their abilities. Just like the Rogue, the Cleric has a unique artifact that lets them access class abilities.
Unlike all the other heroes though, the Cleric gains a wide variety of active abilities (spells) via the talent system! I'll be sharing more info about some of the Cleric's spells in the coming weeks!
(Image Description: A screenshot from Shattered Pixel Dungeon showing the hero select screen and the Cleric selected. On the left the screen is shown with no info window open, on the right the hero info window is open, showing various information relating to the new hero. Most notably: "The Cleric starts with a unique holy tome, which they can use to cast various spells. Most of the Cleric's talents are focused around learning or upgrading spells.")
Looks good!
Evan, for 10 years I'm playing pixel dungeon and shattered, of course, now I've started playing with my 4 years old son and he loves it! So thank you so much, you've brought so much joy to my son.
Thanks so much for the kind words! Hearing stores like this does make me feel a bit old, but it's great to hear you're able to share the game with your son.
So the tome is an artifact, and you use talent points to learn new spells for it? That's very RPG-like and I love it, seems like it's going to be a fun and creative class like duelist collecting weapons and switching abilities.
Yep, the Cleric is essentially an inversion of the other classes having talents that favor passive or triggered effects. Instead the Clerics talents are mostly new abilities, but they all share a resource meter and are activated from a single place.
Eventually you might want to have some small explanation for why the Sorcerer doesn't have a spellbook though, or change the Paladin's to be a holy icon or holy relic instead to keep people from wondering why the sorceror doesn't have one.
why would the mage have a spellbook? he can just memorize spells.
as for clerics & paladins, both of those use books/holy scripture as a conduit for their faith, to channel & borrow the powers of the deity/being they follow. they (usually) need the scripture on hand (or at least in hand) to cast spells for this reason. think of it like a lightning rod. sorta. kinda.
why would the mage have a spellbook? he can just memorize spells.
But mechanically, in Shattered Pixel Dungeon he doesn't, unless I missed something in an update (I don't usually play that class).
And yeah, calling it holy scripture would work fine. I just feel like calling it a spell book highlights the fact that the Sorceror is really just a wand/magic staff user and doesn't have much "spell" mechanics directly.