Parted Ways 2.0 Ability Details

[Eternal]

For those of you who enjoy analyzing my PW 2.0 threads for balance/thematic feedback, it's greatly appreciated. That's why I'm posting this topic: for you all to scour my skill ideas and hopefully provide some feedback as I'm making them. Listed below are the skills I have intended for each generic job and a basic description. Feedback is, of course, welcome!

spoiler: Devout

Cure: Restores a moderate amount of HP in a small area.
Cure II: Restores a large amount of HP in a small area.
Heal: Restores a small amount of HP to all allies.
Dia: Deals unevadeable Holy damage in a small area.
Dia II: Deals a large amount of unevadeable Holy damage in a small area.
Blind: Inflicts Blind in a small area.
Silence: Inflicts Silence on a single unit.
Faith: Inflicts Faith on a single unit.
Preach: Increases a unit's Faith by 3.
Holy: Deals Holy damage to a single unit and may inflict Faith.

spoiler: Psion

Fire: Deals Fire damage in a large area.
Fire II: Deals heavy Fire damage in a large area.
Confuse: Inflicts Confuse on a single unit.
Berserk: Inflicts Berserk on a single unit.
Imperil: Inflicts Imperil on a single unit.
Sleep: Inflicts Sleep on a single unit.
Float: Inflicts Float in a large area.
Gravity: Deals damage to Floating units and cancels Float.
Suggestion: Deals minor non-elemental, MA-based, Faith-ignoring damage to a single unit.
Empathy: Deals damage equal to the caster's lost HP.

spoiler: Necromancer

Dark: Deals uncounterable and unreflectable Dark damage in a small area.
Dark II: Deals heavy uncounterable and unreflectable Dark damage in a small area.
Raise: Revives a single unit with a small amount of HP.
Reraise: Inflicts Reraise on a single ally while removing half of their HP.
Doom: Inflicts Doom on a single unit.
Zombify: Inflicts Undead on a single unit.
Turning: Inflicts Charm on a single Undead unit.
Blood Oath: Inflicts Haste, Protect, and Shell on a single Undead unit.
Putrify: Fully restores an Undead ally's HP, reduces a non-Undead ally's HP to 0.
Banish: Inflicts Petrify on a single Undead unit.

spoiler: Scholar

Aero: Deals Wind damage in a small area up to 6 panels away.
Aero II: Deals heavy Wind damage in a small area up to 6 panels away.
Esuna: Removes all debuffs from a single unit and restores 20% of the unit's HP if a debuff is removed.
Dispel: Removes all buffs from a single unit and damages 20% of the unit's HP if a buff is removed.
Frog: Inflicts Frog on a single unit.
Bio: Deals Dark damage equal to 10% of a single unit's HP repeatedly quickly over time with a 20% chance to inflict Poison each time.
Bio II: Deals Dark damage equal to 20% of a single unit's HP repeatedly slowly over time with a 100% chance to inflict Poison.
Wild Tornado: Deals Wind damage to all units. Will likely be removed if the skill I'm working on works properly.
Force: Deals minor, MA-based, Faith-based damage to surrounding units.
Scourge: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike with a chance to remove all buffs and debuffs from a single unit.

spoiler: Magus

Blizzard: Deals Ice damage to enemies only based on the user and target's Unfaith.
Blizzard II: Deals heavy Ice damage to enemies only based on the user and target's Unfaith.
Stone: Deals heavy Earth damage based on the user and target's Unfaith.
Stone II: Deals tremendous Earth damage based on the user and target's Unfaith.
Poison: Inflicts Poison in a small area.
Poisonstrike: Deals weapon damage to a single unit with a chance to inflict Poison.
Atheist: Inflicts Atheist on a single unit.
Atheistrike: Deals weapon damage to a single unit with a chance to inflict Atheist.
Enlighten: Reduces a single unit's Faith by 3.
Shadowflare: Deals Dark damage to a single unit and may inflict Atheist.

spoiler: Seer

Thunder: Deals Thunder damage in a small area with reduced casting time.
Thunder II: Deals heavy Thunder damage in a small area with reduced casting time.
Water: Deals Water damage in a small area with reduced MP cost.
Water II: Deals heavy Water damage in a small area with reduced MP cost.
Regen: Inflicts Regen in a small area.
Stun: Cancels Charging, Defending, and Performing and deals 20% Thunder damage to a single unit.
MP Gift: Sacrifices 30 MP to restore 30 MP to a single unit.
Deprotect: Cancels Protect in a small area and deals 25% damage to those units that were dispelled.
Deshell: Cancels Shell in a small area and deals 25% damage to those units that were dispelled.
Meditate: Restores a small amount of MP to the user.

spoiler: Sentinel

Protect: Inflicts Protect in a small area.
Shell: Inflicts Shell in a small area.
Wall: Inflicts Protect and Shell on a single unit.
Reflect: Inflicts Reflect on a single unit.
Veil: Inflicts Veil on a single unit.
Steelguard: Inflicts Defending on the user and all allies within 3 tiles of the user.
Mediguard: Inflicts Defending and Regen on the user and all allies within 1 tile of the user.
Taunt: Inflicts Berserk and Immobilize on a single adjacent unit.
Transfusion: Sacrifices some HP to restore an ally's HP.
Resuscitate: Revives a unit with a small amount of HP with a low hit rate.

spoiler: Sage

Comet: Deals a heavy amount of unevadeable, unreflectable damage to a single unit.
Comet II: Deals a tremendous amount of unevadeable, unreflectable damage to a single unit.
Meteor: Deals a small amount of unevadeable, unreflectable damage to all enemies.
Quick: Raises the CT of all units to 100.
Delay: Reduces the CT of all units to 0.
Erase: Cancels all buffs and debuffs from all units.
Reverse: Fully restores the HP of all units and revives dead units.
Haste: Inflicts Haste in a small area.
Slow: Inflicts Slow in a small area.
Ultima: Learn Blue Mage style from a new enemy...

spoiler: Harbinger

Immobilize: Inflicts Immobilize in a small area.
Disable: Inflicts Disable in a small area.
Stop: Inflicts Stop on a single unit.
Break: Inflicts Petrify on a single unit.
Souleater: Deals physical damage to a unit within 2 tiles, damages the user by 50% of the damage dealt.
Dark Wave: Deals physical damage to units 2 tiles in a line in front of the user, damages the user by 50% of the damage dealt.
Dark Aura: Deals physical damage to units surrounding the user, damages the user by 50% of the damage dealt.
Execute: Instantly slays an HP Critical unit.
Curse: Inflicts Curse on a single unit.
Blindside: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike on a single unit, bypasses counters.

spoiler: Sniper

Armor Break: Breaks a unit's equipped body armor within weapon range.
Helmet Break: Breaks a unit's equipped headgear within weapon range.
Shield Break: Breaks a unit's equipped shield within weapon range.
Weapon Break: Breaks a unit's equipped weapon within weapon rage.
Aim: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike, can't be evaded.
Hide: Inflicts Vanish on the user.
Aim: Leg: Inflicts Immobilize within weapon range.
Aim: Arm: Inflicts Disable within weapon range.
Cover Fire: Deals random PA-based damage in a small area.
Artemis Arrow: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike on a single unit anywhere on the map- has CT and cannot follow the target.

spoiler: Corsair

Coin Toss: Heavily damages either the user or an adjacent unit, based on PA.
Felicity: Fully restores the HP of either the user or an adjacent unit, based on MA.
Roulette: Red: Damages up to 7 times within random panels, based on MA.
Roulette: Black: Damages up to 7 times within random panels, based on Unfaith and MA.
Gamble: Inflicts a random status on a single unit- can be either positive or negative.
Snake Eyes: Inflicts Poison or Regen on all units.
Lady Luck: Inflicts Atheist or Faith on all units.
Triple 777: Inflicts Slow or Haste on all units.
Fortuna Major: Inflicts Curse or Veil on all units.
Jackpot: Inflicts Doom or Reraise on all units.

spoiler: Elementalist

Green Boon: Replaces Pitfall, inflicts Shell and Regen on all units at the same height as the user.
Flood: Replaces Water Ball, deals Water damage to all units.
Poison Ivy: Replaces Hell Ivy, deals PA-based Earth damage with a chance to inflict Poison in a small area.
Stoneskin: Replaces Carve Model, inflicts Protect and Regen on all units at the same height as the user.
Gaia Breach: Replaces Local Quake, deals heavy physical Earth damage to all units on the same height as the user.
Raging Storm: Replaces Kamaitachi, deals magical Thunder damage and inflicts Silence on all units within 1h of the user.
Hellfire Gate: Replaces Demon Fire, fully revives all fallen units on the same height as the user.
Forest Curse: Replaces Quicksand, inflicts Undead on all units.
Sand Tomb: Replaces Sandstorm, deals magical Earth damage and may inflict Disable on units, perseveres.
Avalanche: Replaces Blizzard, deals 20% Ice and Earth damage and may inflict Immobilize on all units.
Tailwind: Replaces Gusty Wind, inflicts Haste on all units at the same height as the user.
Eruption: Replaces Lava Ball, deals 255% Fire damage and inflicts Death on all units.

spoiler: Berserker

Fervor: Inflicts Berserk with perfect accuracy on the user.
Scream: Boosts PA by 1 with a heavy MP cost and CT.
Vengeance: Deals damage equal to the user's lost HP within weapon range.
Hibernate: Fully restores the user's HP and inflicts Sleep on self- fails if the user is immune to Sleep.
Hamstring: Deal weapon damage to a single unit and may inflict Immobilize.
Throw Stone: Deals random, but potentially tremendous physical damage to a single unit and may cancel Charging.
Yell: Inflicts Haste on a single unit.
Threaten: Reduces a single unit's Fury by 3.
Infuriate: Increases a single unit's Fury by 3.
Blitz: Deals physical damage to units in a large area around the user.

spoiler: Ninja

Suiton: Deals Water damage to a single unit based on PA and MA.
Meiton: Deals Dark damage to a single unit based on PA and MA.
Fuuton: Deals Wind damage to a single unit based on PA and MA.
Smokescreen: Inflicts Blind on surrounding units.
Addle: Inflicts Confuse on surrounding units.
Envenom: Inflicts Poison on surrounding units.
Aphony: Inflicts Silence on surrounding units.
Blackout: Inflicts Sleep on surrounding units.
Waterwalking: Inflicts Float on the user.
Unspell: Cancels buffs on surrounding units.

spoiler: Valkyrie

Recruit: Inflicts Charm on an opposite-gendered enemy.
Heartstrike: Deals increased damage based on PA and WP, but has a CT and does not follow the target.
Power Ruin: Reduces a unit's PA by 1.
Lancet: Drains HP within weapon range equal to weapon damage.
Brace: Inflicts Defending, Protect, and Regen on the user.
Dragonslayer: Inflicts Doom on a Draconic or Tiamat unit.
Revive: Revives a fallen unit with a small amount of HP with high accuracy.
Restore: Restores a moderate amount of HP to the user.
Insult: Inflicts Berserk on a single unit, ignores Faith.
Jump: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike within 3 panels of the user.

spoiler: Templar

Recruit: Inflicts Charm on an opposite-gendered enemy.
Soulstrike: Deals damage to a unit's MP equal to a weapon strike.
Mind Ruin: Reduces a unit's MA by 1.
Syphon: Drains MP from a single unit.
Ward: Inflicts Defending, Shell, and Regen on the user.
Exorcise: Inflicts Death on an Undead unit.
Cleanse: Removes all debuffs from the user.
Replenish: Restores a small amount of MP to a single unit.
Distract: Cancels Charging, Defending, and Performing on a single unit.
Jump: Deals damage equal to a weapon strike within 3 panels of the user.

Thoughts and feedback are welcome- Alchemist and Performer have been left out because their skills are still being finetuned and balanced.

[Zero Dozer]

Heh, the job list is pretty much different, feeling as if you will need to have one of each to be able to multitask various things.

That said, I love the way you intend to put Dia and Aero into the game, it has a nice feel to it.

[Vaan]

• Necromancer's Reraise removes half of the current or total hp? And does that act like Wound in FFXIII-2 where it reduced total hp?


• Harbinger's Execute instantly kills, but is it evadable/blockable?


• I feel that Corsair's status inflicting skills should not target all units, perhaps a small area. Also does it work like FFTA2's Nameless Song where using that skill would give out a random status differently to all targeted units out of its possibilities or is it going to be like, for example snake eyes, going to poison all units or regen all units?


• Berserker's Throw Stone will be random between 1 and the damage cap or will it be based on a formula thats uses stats and a random number?


• Shouldnt Valkyrie/Templar's Recruit work like Orator's Invitation from Vanilla? Otherwise I think it should be named Entice or Charm.

[Selius]

1. Putrify says ally unit: I don't understand the point of making it kill a non undead ally. Flavor? pointless.
2. Too many mage jobs. You could stand to condense a couple and make more hybrid jobs like old Geomancer and Samurai were. (shoulda said this in the job topic but wtv)
3. Sage's spell costs are gonna have to be ridiculous to not be the de facto mage.
4. Quick - what kind of success rate? I can foresee stacking horoscopes for best affinity purely on this.
5. No one's gonna use Corsairs for anything but utterly cheesing jackpot.
6. Eruption - What does 255% fire damage mean?
7. Dragonslayer should be an instant death effect, not doom.
8. Infuriate sounds like an "add berserk" skill. maybe name it something like  Encourage or War Cry

Overall thoughts: my party will be 4x sage with seer subs, and a tank of some sort (probably agrias with valkyrie sub.

[Eternal]

Thanks for the feedback so far! I'll write a more in-depth post when I get home, but Selius, Putrify uses Death's formula, which inherently damages non-undead units and heals undead units.

Sages are potent but they'll be slow age their spells pricy. I'll get to the rest when I get home!

[Eternal]

Okay, now that I'm home I can properly reply to the feedback!

@Zero:

Dia and Aero are some of my favorite spells in the series. Of course they'd make a comeback!

@Vaan:

-Reraise deals 50% of a unit's max HP worth of damage to always inflict Reraise on the target. It works on allies only to prevent abusing it on enemies. It's meant to be used in situations where a heavy blow will almost certainly kill a unit, or early on in a battle where allies are close to a healing unit.

-Execute is not blockable/evadeable. It'd be kind of useless if it were.

-Corsair skills calculate the status on each unit individually. Poison/Regen, for instance, only Poison -or- Regen will target a unit. The game then moves on to the next unit and calculates it again.

-Throw Stone is based on PA, so it'll act like it did in Vanilla, albeit more potent.

-"Recruit" sounds thematically better for a Templar or Valkyrie.

@Selius:

-Putrify uses Death's formula to assure that it heals Undead units. That's the only reason it'll slay living allies.

-Most jobs in PW 2.0 are Hybrids, even if they at first don't appear so. Most physical jobs also have magical options. Sentinels have Protect/Shell, Harbingers have Immobilize/Disable/Slow, Elementalists have varied abilities, etc. Likewise, many Mages have abilities that benefit from being used by physical units, such as Poisonstrike/Atheistrike on Magus, Blind on Devouts, etc. PW 2.0 is definitely more skewed towards MA, but it's just a personal preference- which is funny, since Vanilla was definitely more physically inclined.

-Sages are slow and their spells cost a lot of MP. Sure, they'll have great MA, but they won't be able to cast a lot without help. Seer secondary helps, but that's a turn left to regenerate when any other mage could probably be casting still.

-Quick's success rate is not determined yet, though it'll be less accurate than Vanilla Quick.

-Corsairs are meant to be potentially very broken depending on luck. If someone is willing to spend upwards of 1500 JP to get Jackpot (which will likely be the cost of it) for a -chance- to Doom half of your own units and the enemy units, so be it. If I find it's too abusable, it'll be dealt with, of course.

-255% Fire damage basically ensures that even if you halve Fire damage, you're dying. Brutally.

-Dragonslayer being Add: Death instead of Add: Doom was something I'd considered, but like Exorcise, it uses time as a way to balance it. Exorcise causes Death on an Undead unit, but that unit will always come back in 3 turns. Dragonslayer will always Add: Doom on a unit, but it causes Death to take place 3 turns later.

-Infuriate. It boosts Fury. Common sense prevails here.

[The Damned]

As usual, I am jealous of your simple formating. I should really try that for once. In the meanwhile, I'll try to be as thorough about this as possible given both my absence and trying to get things done in as few posts as possible. So even if I have nothing to say about a particular ability, I'll put "no comment here" or something equivalent. Ergo, if I end up skipping something entirely, just assume I unintentionally forgot it while trying to hit everything rather had nothing to say about it (even if I go back and end up having nothing to say about it).

Needless to say, this will get rather long again. Like, really, really long. [/eloquence]

Please take however much time you need to reply to this if you reply to this at all:

spoiler: Devout

1. In general: Oh, so this is what you meant about Devout being more a unit with a few healing abilities rather than the standard White Mage "heal everything" unit that happens to have a few Holy nukes. It's...interesting. It reminds me of the FFV version of White Mage the most, actually, with all the varied spells it had, though this seems even more offense-oriented than that overall despite having fewer offensive status spells. Ironically, if you directly ported FFV's White Mage to FFT, that version of White Mage would likely be overpowered as [insert expletive here]. Your version not having access to any of the barrier status spells or Esuna or resurrection or Charm or Berserk helps me think that will be far less likely to be the case here though. (The further irony, however, is that the White Mage SCC in FFV is one of the toughest until towards the end of the game.)


2. Cure & Cure II: Pretty standard, so no real comment. It would be nice if Cure II didn't seemingly obviate the First version of it, but I'm guessing that's going to be the case with all of the Second versions compared to their Firsts. You can only do so much after all.


3. Heal: So this is basically "Pray" despite the current name lending itself more to possibly healing status. I'm rather fine with the name "Heal", even if "Pray" would actually still work well thematically. I am curious, however, as to whether it's instant or if it's the slowest HP cure Devout has given it hits the whole map.


4. Dia & Dia II: No comment here.


5. Blind: I'm a bit surprised this isn't relegated to a single unit as well, especially assuming it's still infinite in duration. I suppose I can "see" why given that unlike Silence it doesn't outright block certain actions and automatically render some types of units completely helpless. Still, it can be rather crippling, especially when the A.I. often refuses to heal it....


6. Silence: No comment here other than to say that it's nice to see your version of White Mage has it as per my FFV comments above.


7. Faith & Preach & Holy: While these are all thematically appropriate given both the name and general focus of the class, I can't help but worry that Faith & Holy will overshadow Preach even if Preach's effect is permanent. I'm guessing that Preach is at least generally more accurate than at least Faith. Would that be correct? I'm also curious of something else: Do you intend for this version of Preach to be innately able to affect monsters with Mediator gone (among generics)?

spoiler: Psion

1. In general: It still admittedly bugs me that this isn't the "I don't care about Faith" mage given how unusual it is, but meh. It's just nice to see a psychic that isn't a seer show up in fantasy in general even if that's arguably what magic already is to some extent. As far as I know, the only explicitly psychic class in any Final Fantasy game is that one in FFX-2--Psychicer?--that I think is only in the International version at that, so your take on "psionics" is interesting to see. The aforementioned class seemed rather overpowered from what I had little I've seen of it anyway, so it's likely best that your Psion has rather little in common with it.


2. Fire & Fire II: No comment here.


3. Confuse: I still formally object to Confuse status's continued existence in general, especially when you could just be using Charm status for most Confuse-adding abilities, but that's all I have to say about it. It's your patch, so I'm not going to nag you about Confuse still existing in it; I just won't be using any techniques that cause if I can avoid it and will grumble when I get hit by anything that causes it.


4. Berserk: I must admit that I'm slightly surprised to see this isn't on Berserker, but that's probably my own Berserker coloring things. It certainly makes sense on a class that's psychic, though I have to wonder how much the range is given I suspect that Psion is..."squishy" since it's a mage. Also, I'm curious about Berserk status in general: Have you made any statuses interact differently with Berserk than they did in vanilla?


5. Imperil: Did you find out what you needed to from FFMaster with regards to Oil now that he's thankfully back? I was going to reply and say that I could probably tell you, but then I took a hiatus from here for a while, so.... That said, I do still have to wonder how actively the A.I. might use Oil and Oil-like statuses. Said statuses probably won't take much priority just by themselves if they get used at all unfortunately unless you manipulate things a bit (or outright change the A.I.'s often dubious coding).


6. Sleep: No comment here outside of thanking you for keeping it at one unit since Sleep, by default, lasts a pretty damn long time unless you've shortened its duration. Granted, since this is magic(k)al Sleep, you could possibly get away with making it AoE if you wanted to since Sleep doesn't really benefit magic anyway.


7. Float & Gravity: As I said in the other general class thread, I like the synergy between these, especially since it doesn't seem forced despite the intention. That's my only comment on it currently. I'd have to see it in action to comment more.


8. Suggestion: I'd been wondering what Suggestion did ever since I saw it as part of Gossip's list of potential abilities, so it's good to have more details on it. I suppose as much as I've been kvetching about Psion caring about Faith, it's good to see it has at least one ability that doesn't care about Faith.


9. Empathy: I'm still uncomfortable with Shock-like abilities, though I suppose I have less room to grumble about this on given I just decided to let one of my own generic classes have one. Skipping ahead a lot to Berserker again, I'll ask a comparative question: Empathy goes by Faith and has Range 2+ where as Vengeance is presumably physical and has only Range 1, correct?

spoiler: Necromancer

1. In general: Hmmm...your version of Necromancer has less Undead support than even I was expecting despite my praising you for that earlier. I'm not rescinding that praise, but merely expressing my surprise at this revelation. Then again, given you seem to generally be trying to limit your classes to about 10 abilities per skill set, it's not too surprising. It's basically the same rule I've been having for a while for very specific skills in that I think it's best to only have three, maybe four, at best since then otherwise your skill set probably gets too specialized, which is bad on a generic unit.


2. Dark & Dark II: No comment here.


3. Raise: Hmmm...it seems as though you're generally lowering the HP recovered by revival. Given the mistakes I feel I made in planning for Embargo, I can't tell whether this will end up being a good thing or something that makes (the A.I.) inevitably trying to "sandbag" a losing battle even worse.


4. Reraise: I already said my piece wondering about whether the A.I. will use it at all in the other thread. I'm fine with it being meant only for player use I suppose. Thank you for making it ally only in targeting though. Otherwise people would totally use this as a version of Demi/Gravity, as you already pointed out in your replies to the others.


5. Doom: No comment here.


6. Zombify: I don't really have anything to ask about the ability itself per se, at least directly. I'm more curious as to whether you've any plans to change Undead status itself. For instance, is any Undead unit automatically going to absorb Dark element? Or does that still "only" apply to the Always: Undead monsters? (I'm fine with either answer for the record.)


7. Turning: No comment here.


8. Blood Oath: Hmmm...this seems a bit much, to be honest. Then again, having tried to think of what positive statuses actually are useful to and can affect the Undead when combined with the relative dearth of the positive statuses in general, I can understand why you're using the amount of statuses you are. Did I imagine you saying that you had planned to have this technique take HP from the user though?


9. Putrify: I am curious as to whether this can (still) target the user. If so, then while it could potentially still be obnoxious if the Necromancer has turned Undead, it could also be quite...fun to inflict anyone with Necromancer's skill set--Blood Magic?--with Charm or even Confuse.


10. Banish: I guess someone "has" to have a Seal Evil equivalent and I'm fine with it being Necromancer rather than people's slightly odd tendency to give it to the class with the most weapon range. It's a bit weird to have it called "Banish" though given that name makes me think of X-Zone/N-Zone/Telega. Still, I'm not sure what you could call it given that Break is already taken by Harbinger, so I guess I'll just have to get used to Banish being slightly different than it usually tends to be. The name does still fit though since it's presumably the only way to get rid of the Undead for "good" or at least the Always: Undead monsters.

spoiler: Scholar

1. In general: Hmmm...seeing how Sage apparently has a version of Reset, which I'll comment on much later below, and yet the thing that Wild Tornado is in place of apparently is still some type of attack, I suppose what I was thinking you were trying to do isn't what you're actually trying to do. Hunh. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see. As far as the class in general goes, I still look forward to it more than most of the other ones, if only because I liked most of the example spells and, outside of Bio's repetition, it's probably one of the easiest classes to "balance" relatively speaking. I'll admit that I am curious as to what you're planning to use for the female version of Scholar, provided you're changing sprites, given unfortunately only a male version exists still.


2. Aero & Aero II: No comment here.


3. Esuna & Dispel: Despite my above comment with regards to balancing this class, I'm still not sure how I feel about these healing and hurting respectively, especially by so much. Then again, it does nicely justify them being AoE 0 and also justify the A.I.'s tendency to obsess over Dispel at times. That said, Dispel's damage being percentage based bothers me for two other reasons: Does Dispel not work on the Lucavi and other bosses then? And does Dispel heal the Undead?


4. Frog: No comment here...assuming you've left its targeting and Skill Set A8 alone. If not, then we shall...have some (more) words when I go to cast Frog on myself as a frog to try to stop being a frog and find that I can't use Frog anymore for some reason while a frog. [/frog]


5. Bio & Bio II: Oh my, these look even more of a pain to balance than I had initially suspected, especially Bio II with that rather intimidating 100% chance of being Poisoned. You've my sympathies and what little empathy I am capable of with regards to these. That said, I'm not really sure the 100% chance of being Poisoned isn't overkill given the damage and it doubtless following the target. Relatively speaking, how much faster is Bio than Bio II? Regardless, while I still find this an interesting and good take on replicating Bio's tendency to add "Sap" status without wasting time and space on adding "Sap" to the patch, there's reasons other than laziness that I'd likely be fine with both making and using a Bio that hit only once. Still, it's up to you, so I sincerely hope it works out, though saying that doesn't actually help you; that's hope for you.


6. Wild Tornado: No real comment here that wasn't part of the initial "in general" comment, though I'll admit I find it a bit amusing that Wind, which tends to have the third least amount of elemental spells available, currently has the third most with this around given you've killed off the the Tier 3 of everything. As it is now, it's only behind Dark and probably Holy element.


7. Force: No real comment here. I'm just rather tempted now to make sure if I use a male Scholar, his name is Luke. (Also I'll admit that I'm surprised no one has thought to make this before. Then again, maybe one of the skills in in one of Celdia's patches is like this....)


8. Scourge: Hmmm...even after hearing your explanation above, I'm still not sure how I feel about weapon strikes on the mage classes. Still, as far as balance goes and at least somewhat interesting as far as design goes, I like this even as much as I complained about Octagon Rod in the other thread.

spoiler: Magus

1. In general: I can't say much here even in general that isn't a repetition of what I just said under Psion and Scholar with regards to UnFaith and weapon strikes, so...I won't. Surprise? This will doubtless have the least commentary of any class because of that fact.


2. Blizzard, Blizzard II, Stone & Stone II: "Only"? Does this not take MA into account then somehow?


3. Poison, Poisonstrike, Atheist & Atheistrike: No real comment here, though I must say that I'm surprisingly fine with "Atheistrike" as a name, if only because the words naturally flow into each other. Poisonstrike is less...smooth and yet due to Atheistrike I can't really say it would be better off spaced.


4. Enlighten & Shadowflare: The same issue seems like it would exist here as with Preach vs. Faith & Holy, only it's arguably worse what with Enlighten having to compete against three skills given Atheiststrike exists in addition to Atheist and Shadowflare. That said, as I above, I'm not sure how to deal with that and it's not like Enlighten would fit better on another class, so....

spoiler: Seer

1. In general: I don't really have much to say in general about this class either. I'm admittedly a bit surprised by the four abilities after Stun, but they aren't "out there" or anything; I just didn't consciously think you'd put them on any class, much less this one. I'm not consciously sure why I thought (or didn't think) that though. Shrug.


2. Thunder & Thunder II: No real comment here, though I am curious: Are you renaming "Lightning" element into "Thunder" element in-game as well? I've no real investment in the matter one way or the other.


3. Water & Water II: No comment here.


4. Regen: No comment here, though it's a bit surprising for some reason to see this is where it went rather than Scholar.


5. Stun: I was rather wary of this skill given I'm rather wary of these types of skills in general, but to learn that it actually does a not insignificant amount of damage on top of that.... That's it also elemental yet not Dark only worries me even more about it, both in regards to it working on bosses--even if your plans for bosses seem largely like mine in that they mostly won't be solo anymore--and it getting powered up by Imperil status. I guess we'll see if it's as overpowered as I think it will be....


6. MP Gift & Meditate: I'm guessing that in this context MP Gift's "sacrifices 30 MP" description just means the casting cost is 30 MP rather than an additional cost. Is that correct? Also, would it be correct to assume that this can't self-target for silly grinding shenanigans? I mean, the existence of Meditate makes that even less likely, but I just figure I'll explicitly ask to be thorough.


7. Deprotect & Deshell: No real comment here outside of what I said above. As..."clunky" as the names are, it's nice to see someone reference Debarrier from FFVII even as apathetic as I am to that game compared to most people.

spoiler: Sentinel

1. In general: Even hearing your reasons for including so many Faith-based spells, it's a bit weird to see how much of Sentinel's abilities are barriers. I'm not sure if it's due to being a version of Knight that makes it weird or if it's weird because most versions of Knights tend to have at least one type of physical strike or if it's just weird because I'm not used to seeing a class that isn't a form of White Mage or Green Mage have that many barrier spells. Still, Knights do tend to be the heavy-armored physical class that historically dabbles in White Magic abilities or abilities of a similar ilk, so this fits. It's just going to be take a bit of getting used to like a quite a few things in Parted Ways, though that's hardly a bad thing in most cases.


2. Protect & Shell & Reflect: No real comment here, though I "have" to ask if you've changed any status interactions with regards to these three statuses.


3. Wall: No real comment here, though I have to admit as much I do like Wall, it's always been slightly redundant. Then again, I could say the same about Protect 2/Protectga & Shell 2/Shellga and I'm still using those, so I suppose I can't really talk or at least complain about Wall still existing here.


4. Veil: No comment here.


5. Steelguard & Mediguard: Oh, so that's the precise difference between the two abilities. Good to (finally) know.


6. Taunt: We've already talked about this in the other thread. I've no further comments on it presently.


7. Transfusion & Resuscitate: No real comment here, though I will say that I find both of these fitting given everything else I've said about Knight historically.

spoiler: Sage

1. In general: Hmmm...I must admit, before your explanation to Selius, I was almost as worried as he was that Sage would end up rather overpowered. I still sort of am after your explanation, but for somewhat different reasons that I'll wait to get to in just a bit.


2. Comet & Comet II: I'm not sure how I feel about both of these doing heavy damage that's both unavoidable and unable to be affected by Reflect, even if it's just to single unit. Is said "heavy" and "tremendous" damage intended to be fixed or variable? To me, fixed damage would actually be more fair in this case or, in a vacuum, seem as much before a certain too high point. I'm not too sure how much better it would be in actuality though.


3. Meteor: Even with the RPG conventions of visually overkill-styled attacks that ultimately do comparatively little damage, arguably started by the Final Fantasy series itself, this doing "a small amount" of damage is going to require quite a bit of...adjustment. I'm also a bit surprised that this "only" does damage to all enemies rather than all units, but I'm relatively fine with that I suppose. At the very least, it's obviously not my chief concern with this ability.


4. Quick & Delay: I'm...actually fine with these I think, if only because part of Last Dance's "problem" in-game was using it to scam bosses into not having getting a turn at all. So it's nice to see that issue taken out of commission with Delay, even though you seem to have many of the Lucavi/Espers being accompanied by allies now as I do, which by itself mostly fixes the selective "CT to 00" issue. Quick has the same balance and looks rather fun as well, especially if you've Doomed a few people with Corsair's Jackpot beforehand....


5. Erase: Oddly, this ability is one I remember the most clearly from version 1.0 despite never having gotten around to playing it. I'm not sure why. Still, it's good to see that it's still around, especially on generic units.


6. Reverse: Okay, unlike Selius, this is easily the ability of Sage's that worries me the most for three reasons: it's seems rather overpowered, it seems like it's basically impossible to lose with this against the Undead and it just seems kind of obnoxious in general. The first and third worry, subjective as they are, seem to be innate attributes of anything named "Reverse" in a Final Fantasy unfortunately. The second worry though, you can at least assuage by answering this question: Have you found a way to make sure Reverse either doesn't affect Undead units or at least restores the health of Undead units? 

All that said, I *do* have to give you credit where credit is due for thinking of a way to replicate something as powerful as the even more busted FFV spell Reset. So bravo in that regard, though I really hope this doesn't cost 1 MP. Even with that being the case and even with as much as I like using status, which is another benefit of using Reverse since it only cancels Dead, I find that this ability is easily the most worrisome of the entire lot presented at this time. I also fear that it will be the most troublesome to balance if it's possible at all. Good luck if you decide to keep this around.


7. Haste & Slow: No real comment here. I'll just have to get used to the second tier of status spells generally not existing it seems, even if I can understand the possible reasons beyond such a decision.


8. Ultima: No real comment here either, though it is nice to know that it still exists even if it isn't on Ramza. I suppose it is a bit surprising to see generics have it, but meh--ARENA's Squire has made that a far less startling decision to me that it would have otherwise been.

spoiler: Harbinger

1. In general: This will probably be another class I don't have much commentary on, though in this case it will be because I commented on it a lot in the other thread already I suppose. I still look forward to trying to use a female Harbinger for the spells even if Agrias is the "light" version of that idea. Speaking of knights by their morality, I'm curious: Does Harbinger's existence affect Gafgarion's abilities in a way given how much Harbinger "borrows" historically from Dark Knight? (I'm just speaking in general, though I won't be affronted if you don't want to say or conversely offer up specifics.)


2. Immobilize, Disable, Stop & Break: No comment here.


3. Souleater, Dark Wave & Dark Aura: I see you've currently decided to indeed not have these be Dark element. I suppose I can't fault for you for that even this is among the things that take some getting used to because they seem "a bit weird" from a historical perspective. In this case, the name of the latter two doesn't help much either.


4. Execute: I'm still not sure how I feel about this type of ability, but I'll say that it's a lot more fitting on Dark Knight than I find it to be Archer, at least with the name "Execute". I'm guessing this still heals the Undead given the formula it uses though. Is that correct?


5. Curse: No real comment here, though it's nice to know where Veil's opposite lies and it really couldn't be on a more appropriate class. I must admit, though, that I'm a bit surprised Necromancer isn't the one to get it. Then again, given Harbinger is basically Dark Knight while Sentinel is still normal Knight, it really shouldn't be surprising.


6. Blindside: Speaking of things influenced by Archer's abilities, Faster/Lightning Strike/Greased Lightning being on Harbinger seems rather appropriate as well. Unlike Execute I wouldn't necessarily say it's "more" appropriate, but it's not exactly a competition in that regard, at least in this case. Additionally, it's nice to know that Harbinger has a physical ability it can rely on without suffering HP loss/recoil.

spoiler: Sniper

1. In general: Hmm...I must admit that, despite as much as I like archery, I don't really like this version of Archer. We already went over my wariness of the trial basis of Innate: Concentrate and my dislike of both Transparent/Vanish status and Cover Fire is well known enough. It also doesn't really help that I seem to be the only person not really enamored of giving the Archer class the Break equipment skills in patches should they exist, even if I can certainly understand the reasons why this might be appealing. Finally, Aim doesn't really sit right with me despite the elegant simple execution, though I'll elaborate more on that in a bit.

Still, as much as I seem to be vilifying this, on the whole I think the abilities fit together and this is at least better than the utterly overpowered Archers in FFT:A and its sequel. That may be damning it through faint praise, however, since I honestly still don't know what type of crack Square must have been smoking to think Cupid would ever be balanced, for starters. You've also my thanks for, as I said under Necromancer, not going with Seal Evil on this class and subsequently trivializing most encounters, whether natural or artificial, against the Undead.


2. Armor Break, Helmet Break, Shield Break & Weapon Break: No real comment here, though I'll point out that Weapon Break has a slight typo: "weapon rage".


3. Aim: While I applaud you for the elegant solution to the "Take Aim 'problem'", I have to wonder how obnoxious this would be if Sniper didn't have Innate: Concentrate currently. As it is, with Innate: Concentrate, this is oddly rather...superfluous despite seemingly being superior to a normal attack in every way possible way or, at least, it's superfluous on the current Sniper. Regardless of what happens with Innate: Concentrate, I have to ask a question: Does Aim currently have any costs or restrictions or it is essentially "Normal Attack+" like it seems from the brief description?


4. Hide: No real comment here, outside of my grumbling over Transparent status in general. Is the A.I. still completely ignorant to a unit with Transparent on as it is in vanilla?


5. Aim: Leg & Aim: Arm: No comment here.


6. Cover Fire: Now that FFMaster is apparently (finally) back, I wonder: Are you going to use the older version of Cover Fire's formula or the newest one?


7. Artemis Arrow: No real comment here, though I will say that this is easily the technique of Sniper I like the best in terms of ability, originality, usability vs. balance and even just in name. Good job.

spoiler: Corsair

1. In general: I'm not sure why, given my horrible luck and general dislike of guns, but Corsair is still one of the classes I look forward to the most in Parted Ways. It's probably just the masochistic part of me, especially given that part liked FFT:A's horrible Gadgeteer/Tinkerer class also. Regardless, I'm going to assume that all of these or at least all of the Whole Map abilities have additional costs beyond "can backfire horribly".


2. Coin Toss: No real comment here presently, though I still wonder what things would be like if we could actually make Gil Toss. Then again, it would probably be such a pain in the ass to balance, so it's probably better that this doesn't actually use Gil and have variable input.


3. Felicity: I'm still not all that keen on this fully healing the affected unit, especially when there's no reason to not use it on empty panels when possible and when it presumably still reverses on Undead. That said, if it doesn't reverse upon the Undead, then a significant amount of my worries about it go away.


4. Roulette: Red & Roulette: Black: No real comment here. I like these though. It's nice to see that Rafa/Rapha and Malak/Marach's original spell animations and formulas will still be getting use somewhere.


5. Gamble: I like this as well, though I am assuming there's a limit on at least some of the more extreme negative status. This can't add Crystal or Dead (or Invite) can it? (Or Treasure, I suppose. Does Treasure still exist in your patch? I'm just so used to it being dead between my own patches and ARENA that I pretty much never remember it still exists in some other patches unless explicitly talked about, like in Jot5.)


6. Snake Eyes, Lady Luck & Triple 777: No real comment here, though Lady Luck is a bit of an odd name considering the effects. Oh well. It still somewhat fits and there's no better name you could use really.


7. Fortuna Major & Jackpot: Going on the assumption that these lists are at least vaguely in order of JP cost and power level of skills, I find it a bit strange that Jackpot costs more than Fortuna Major. Granted, yes, Jackpot could horribly Doom every single unit on the enemy team and have you coming out smelling like Reraise-scented roses. That could, happen, yes, even without tipping the odds in your favor through some means of equipment or Veil, but it's also extremely unlikely. Additionally, it doesn't even work if you're facing bosses or ??? units or even just the Undead unless you're having Doom suddenly affect those types of units.

I'm not trying to say that Jackpot isn't potentially very powerful, especially as one of the few outright offensive techniques Corsair has. I'm just expressing that I find it weird that it comes after an ability with potentially longer lasting effects and something that generally enables "cheating the house" & thus significantly empowers half of Corsair's abilities. Not that it matters much, I suppose, since even if you switched the order, they would both still be the last two and presumably most expensive Corsair abilities as they deserve to be. I'm merely stating my thoughts on this as someone who is rather interested in the class.

spoiler: Elementalist

1. In general: Ah, I see what you meant about this possibly being the most complex class. I also see why you were talking about wanting to change Counter Flood to something else. For the most part, I find the changes quite interesting since they aren't the typical changes to Geomancer, especially since it's always been a class of "Attack! Attack! Randomly Attack!" surprisingly.

At present, I'm guessing all the terrain tied to whatever Geomancer ability the Elementalist ability in question is replacing currently remains the same. Is that correct?


2. Green Boon & Stoneskin: No real comment here, though I do like the reference to FFXI with the latter even if I keep forgetting FFXI exists; the same goes for FFXIV. MMORPGs are just among my many "not-things".


3. Flood: Good to see that Leviathan's animation will presumably still get used somewhere since Summoner isn't among the generic classes. I am admittedly still trying to get used to that despite all of the magic.


4. Poison Ivy: No comment here.


5. Gaia Breach: I should have asked under Flood, but I'll ask here since I have no other comments anyway: Do the damaging techniques hit the user? I'll be fine with your answer either way--it's just rather unclear presently.


6. Raging Storm: I...can't look at this name without thinking of SNK's Geese Howard and subsequently thinking of this video. That noted, I can't fault you for using the name given there's basically no Lightning--ahem, Thunder--element techniques in Geomancer historically to draw on aside from, ugh, Plasma from Mog's Water Rondo. "Raging Storm" a good name; I'm just going to have to disassociate it from the pretzel motion heralded by mob-boss birds. (No, not Honchkrow.)


7. Hellfire Gate: This is one of two Elementalist skills that I don't really like, but at least it's interesting unlike the other one I have an issue with. Thus I'm willing to see where it goes and how useful it ends up being.


8. Forest Curse: And thus begins the Elementalist abilities with names that don't make me think of SNK, but rather of Pokemon. I can't say said the names don't fit on any of them, however, and this particular one certainly looks interesting. If nothing else, then just gave me inspiration for a monster....


9. Sand Tomb: This being able to cause Disable in an AoE on top of damage seems a bit much, but it's difficult to tell. How many units are affected by this ability? All of the ones the user's levels? All units on the map? Or some amount mercifully more limited than either of those?


10. Avalanche: Even though this I'm still weary of multi-element abilities if we're still keeping vanilla's mechanics of elemental interaction, I like this quite a bit for the most part. Good job. It's a shame it will still basically be confined to the Colliery, though I imagine that's part of why it's so strong, relatively speaking.


11. Tailwind: No comment here.


12. Eruption: This is the second of the two Elementalist ability I don't really like, especially since it seems like such overkill in a vain attempt to make the confined-to-Bervenia-Volcano lava panels "relevant". It's especially bad to me because, if you are keeping terrain the same presently, then this is also currently usable in the final fights of the game since Lava Ball's other trigger panel was Machine; the only Machine panel in the game is on the airship where you fight Hashmal(um) and Altima/Ultima. I'm not sure if you're fine with that or not or even if you already knew or not; it's very easy to overlook and not remember it's there since it is a one-of panel I think.

Regardless, that should be some way to make this useful without having it be "Sod everyone without Fire absorb and Death protection! Burn!", however appropriate that may be. At the very least, it's probably best to keep this confined to Bervenia and move Machine to be a trigger of Tailwind or something. Then again, it's ultimately up to you, Talonflame.

spoiler: Berserker

1. In general: I see our newest versions of Berserker are both rather alike even though I started on mine before you posted this. That's not too surprising though since we seem to both be taking quite a bit from FFX-2's Berserker with smatterings of FFT:A2's Berserker. I rather like your re-purposing of Throw Stone to the point of it "inspiring" me to do something similar. Similarly, I'll likely jack Fervor in some capacity at this point too. Just telling you "ahead of time" (even though I'll likely have done it by the time of your reading this).



2. Fervor: No real comment here, though I will lament that this is one of those perfectly good skills that the current/default A.I. likely just won't use. It's a shame. That said, I suppose I do have to wonder, as with the other status skills, how much you've changed Berserk status, if any. I already know it's still infinite from what we've discussed or, at least, that's impression I had gotten. Still, despite already asking under Psion, I have to ask again: Has anything else generally (not) changed with Berserk though?


3. Scream: I'm a bit surprised to see such heavy restrictions on this, but I suppose you're not using Xifanie's stat limitation hack, so this is the only way to balance it. I don't really like that there's no MA equivalent, but I can understand that too I suppose.


4. Vengeance: No real comment here given both what I already said way back under Psion and that this is basically FFX-2's Berserker's "Hurt" ability. I'll admit I was tempted to use that as well; I still somewhat am despite not liking "Shock-esque" attacks.


5. Hibernate: Hmmm...going with one of FFT:A's Defender's skills on Berserker is a bit strange, but it does kind of fit I suppose. Being angry (in French) takes a lot out of you apparently--just ask Mark Ruffalo. So no real comment here other than what I said about Fervor in that the A.I. likely won't use this. Or have you tested it? I never got around to testing Ochu's equivalent, though I may yet given what I'm working on now.


6. Hamstring: No comment here.


7. Throw Stone: I'm a bit surprised this doesn't also cancel Performing, but then again, now that I think about it, Performing doesn't really exist anymore. Or does it? Outside of Bio, nothing really perseveres anymore, at least among generics.


8. Yell, Threaten & Infuriate: No comment here.


9. Blitz: No real comment here, though it's nice to know what this does now even if "a large area" of damage is not what I usually associate with anything named "Blitz". Of course, as of this posting, I saw that you already explained what it did in the generic monster thread, so....

spoiler: Ninja

1. In general: The names are going to take a bit of getting use to or, at least, "Aphony" is since I know I'm going to keep pronouncing it "A/phony". Still, I like the overall concept, Confuse status's continued existence and Addle aside, and self-Float & self-AoE Dispel certainly help win me over even more. Besides, I know Raven's probably going to make fun of the names of the skills for the version of Samurai I just made, so I have no room to talk there. It is a bit weird to go from Japanese to English in the same skill set though--I'm sure I'll manage.


2. Suiton, Meiton & Fuuton: I am a bit surprised you decided to only go with three -ton skills and have them seemingly only vary by element though. Hunh. I'd honestly thought you've borrow more from FFT:A from this given you usually tend to, but perhaps that's why you didn't. I do like that they go by PA + MA and presumably just outright eschew Faith or Brave.


3. Smokescreen, Envenom, Aphony & Unspell: These seem fine as they currently are, though it's difficult to tell without seeing how likely they generally are to hit.


4. Addle & Blackout: These are skills are I'm more worried about, though I imagine they are some of the less likely ones to hit or, at least, that Blackout is less likely to generally hit. Addle is...well, I'll just say I doubt I'll ever much like it, honestly, and I similarly doubt I'll ever be using it.


5. Waterwalking: I do like Waterwalking though. It does seem rather fair and it even fits with your Ninja currently have Innate: Fly. That said, I have to wonder if this means you're outright killing off Water on Walk as a Movement skill or just moving it some place other than Ninja.

spoiler: Valkyrie & Templar

1. In general: I figure that I might as well do both of these together. Even if it means the death of Bard & Dancer for the most part, Performer aside, I do still rather like the concept making of what's essentially Lancer be both of the sex-specific classes. Even if it doesn't solve the problem of being currently unable to get Jump to work without it needing its own skill, it does at least solve the issue of trying to recreate the historical Lancet that absorbs both HP & MP and that would show both, which currently seems impossible on at least that visual part unfortunately.

I also like that Valkyrie is arguably the more powerful of the two, which still gives female units incentive to use the more physical classes to open it up. I do have to wonder how much their stats vary though since even with the MP focus where Valkyrie has HP-focused abilities, Templar doesn't seem nearly as magical as Bard. Again, that's hardly a bad thing though.


2. Recruit: Although the name will take some getting used to, I do still rather like the idea of using Steal: Heart on the sex-specific classes to essentially simulate two different abilities while only having to use one ability slot. ...Which is why I've totally pilfered that thought. Mind taking! [/Mentok]


3. Heartstrike & Soulstrike: I normally dislike MP damaging abilities, but Soulstrike has the potential to be pretty good without necessarily being overpowered maybe. At the very least, it's nicely balanced against Heartstrike.


4. Power Ruin & Mind Ruin: No real comment here except my standard lament about the A.I. being too ignorant to use techniques like this properly for some reason.


5. Lancet & Syphon: No comment here.


6. Brace & Ward: Oh, so that's how these differ. Heh. That means I made similar abilities then rather coincidentally. Hunh.


7. Dragonslayer & Exorcise: I'm actually fine with the former being "only" Doom...provided, of course, that not every Draconic or Tiamat(ic?) unit has Dragon Spirit since then that would rather defeat the purpose most likely. Well, not that you couldn't easily remedy that with literally just one toggle click in FFTPatcher, but, yeah, Dragon Spirit being a Countergrasp reaction may potentially be an issue here.


8. Revive & Cleanse: This may be the one area where I would say that Templar gets the overall better ability. Not that revival is insignificant or anything, but being able to cancel any debuffs on yourself that don't outright stop your actions is pretty damn nice, especially if it's instant and without restriction.


9. Restore & Replenish: No comment here.


10. Insult: Oh, so this is where Insult went. A bit weird, I suppose, but I can definitely see why you put it up this high.


11. Distract: Oh, so Performing does still exist? I...see? I'm admittedly a bit confused now, but for now I'm going to assume that Throw Stone not canceling Performing in addition to canceling Charging is indeed intentional rather than an omission.


12. Jump: No real comment here, though I will again applaud being able to use one skill in two different classes and have it not come off as lazy. We've already lamented how this isn't the "real Jump", so no need to go through that again. I am a bit surprised it's only Range 3 though.

Good luck with figuring out Performer and Alchemist.

[Eternal]

I'm now in a sufficient mood to actually post on the forums again for a bit, so I'll take this rare opportunity to (belatedly) respond to your reply.

spoiler: Devout

Heal is a reference to FF1's Heal spell, which targetted the entire party, but cost more MP and healed less than the single-target Cure line. Similarly, it'll heal less, cost more MP, and take slightly longer to charge. To that end, if you want Heal to be effective, you'll need to take on either Half of MP, Short Charge, or Magic Attack Up to mend one of those downfalls. It's fairly flexible in that regard, in that based on your build, you can turn it into a potent spell.

You're looking at Blind from the Vanilla standpoint, where the AI pretty much just had physical attacks to use, therefore Blind was amazing. PW- as I'm sure you've noticed- has a much larger array of abilities, and Evasion isn't quite as prominent. To that end, Blind is still useful, but not gamebreaking.

Preach is instant, free, permanent (for the battle), and lasts past death, unlike the Faith status. And yes, it can be used on Monsters. Somehow. So it's a throw up as to whether you want a short burst of magickal might, or a steady uptick in power as the battle persists. Again, choices! :)

spoiler: Psion

Confuse inflicting Charm is a very definite possibility in the future if Confuse annoys me enough. It probably won't, though.

The Berserk spell -was- on Berserkers in PW 1.0, but I decided that I wanted them to be a bit more physically-focused than in PW 1.0.

Your guesses about Empathy and Vengeance are correct. I'm still torn between Weapon Range or 1 Range on Vengeance, but I think 1 Range will win out.

spoiler: Necromancer

I don't think Undead -ever- had Innate: Absorb: Dark except in Arena, and I don't really intend to start that now. It fits thematically, but it's just not something I really care about right this moment.

Blood Oath will likely consume a small amount of HP to imbue, but, again, that's not something I'm entirely sold on. Undead get crippled by enough as it is.

Putrify will affect -any- Undead unit, including the caster. That makes things like Undead Blood Magic Sentinels very dangerous. Naturally, however, this is to balance out how hard it is elsewise to heal Undead units.

Banish is based on Tactics Ogre PSP's Exorcism spells, and it's not weapon range. It'll have a set Range.

spoiler: Scholar

What I'm thinking to give Scholars is much... smaller... in nature.

I feel this is the best location to explain how dispelling/status + damaging skills work in PW 2.0: basically, if an enemy is immune to Death, they'll be immune to Dispel and any other skill that cancels/inflicts a status 100% of the time with set percentile damage. It's a glitch inherent to Death's formula that I'm taking advantage of. This means bosses won't be able to be Dispelled, but you won't be able to Stun them, etc. either.

Frogged units will be able to inflict Frog with their regular attacks. It's the downside to Frogging a unit- you leave yourself wide open to the frog plague spreading among your own units if you don't kill it fast enough. Frog also won't persist past death.

Bio II's Speed is slightly less than half slower than Bio's, meaning it's slightly more effective if the unit is going to be around for a while, and if it's vulnerable to Poison. It's something that'll likely be changed as I mess around with it.

Scourge, Force, and Wild Tornado will likely be killed off in the near future. Maybe.

spoiler: Magus

Of course MA will be taken into account, you silly goose. :P

As far as the -Faith skills go, see my comments about the +Faith skills above.

spoiler: Seer

I've always hated Lightning being the name of the element for some reason. I know it's not canon, but in all of my patches that I ever do, I rename it to Thunder Elemental.

Your guesses about MP Gift and Meditate are correct.

Deprotect/Deshell come from FFXIII, where they're some of the most useful debuffs in the game. Arguably, Deprotect/Deshell will be just as useful in PW 2.0's very heavy buffing emphasis.

spoiler: Sentinel

I've been tempted in the past to make only one barrier exist at a time- Protect cancelling Shell and Reflect, etc. but I've decided not to go that route since too many things in PW add multiple barriers at a time.

Wall exists to fully rebuff a unit that's fallen mid-battle while other units are alive and still buffed, so that you can get them back up on their feet (and stay on them) faster.

spoiler: Sage

Think of Comet and Comet II as PW's versions of Flare, but with slightly less boom and damage. That's really all they exist to be- a non-elemental, enemy go boom spell.

Meteor is the un-Heal from Devouts. It's meant to be cast by a sad little caster in the corner of the map to weaken enemies while the real troops go in and clean up the mess.

Reverse will likely use Chakra's formula, just super buffed for mage use. It certainly won't cost 1 MP, but I'm not sure about it cancelling all statuses since that kind of steps on Erase's toes a lot. Reverse in general is a very big experiment that might hit the curb later.

Trust me. Nothing about PW 2.0's Ultima will be generic. Just throwing out that a character -might- be able to use CT5 Ultima as part of the plot I have planned. Just sayin'.

spoiler: Harbinger

Gafgarion will have access to a few Harbinger skills, but not the debuffs. He'll still have Dark/Night Sword, of course, to repair the damage caused by said skills.

Execute will still heal the Undead because- again- it's a quirk in Death's formula.

spoiler: Sniper

Well, Innate: Concentrate will likely be killed, but everything else is really just a difference of opinion. It's equally likely that Vanish will be changed. *shrug*

Aim will likely have a short CT associated with it. The unit is taking its time to focus and concentrate, afterall.

Vanish is exactly as it is in Vanilla.

New Cover Fire. It should hopefully be more balanced than the old one.

spoiler: Corsair

Corsair skills will consume MP upon use. Therefore, it's really not in your best interest to keep rerolling unless you have a way to replenish MP.

Gil Toss is in PW. Balls/Shuriken become Coins which can then be Thrown by whatever unit I give Gil Toss to as their skillset.

Felicity might not reverse on Undead. Maybe.

Gamble won't inflict anything life-shattering. Death, Treasure, Crystal, Frog, Gossip, etc. won't be able to be inflicted via Gamble.

spoiler: Elementalist

Terrain/Geomancy synergy is still the same, yes.

The damaging skills will not hurt the user.

Sand Tomb works like old Geomancy, so only 1 AoE.

I'm well aware of there being a Lava Ball tile at the Airship and that's actually what inspired the skill. I wanted it to be akin to FFIII's Geomancer skill- Dud- that effectively damaged the user/party. Sure, you can use Eruption, but given that A) Ultima would be immune, B) Hashmal would be immune, and C) Most monsters at Bervenia would be immune, it's not really meant to be used super seriously.

spoiler: Berserker

Berserk status is still exactly as it was in Vanilla.

All of Mustadio's skills are considered Performing, but Performing's name will likely be changed to "Acting".

spoiler: Ninja

As far as -ton skills go, I'm toying with the idea of making one Faith based, another Unfaith based, and another based on Geomancy's MA/PA formula for some variety.

[The Damned]

(Meh. Delayed responses are fine. Yours at least had an excuse. My delayed response was just due to sloth as per usual.)

Given how much you had to read through, no one could blame you for taking a while either really. I mean, I had to look back just to see what you were replying to in some cases:

spoiler: Devout

I see with regards to Heal. I haven't really played any Final Fantasy games that came from before Final Fantasy V. Good to know. It sounds quite interesting. You may a good point about Blind as well.

That said, I'll remain skeptical about it and Preach until I play it.

spoiler: Necromancer

I'm pretty sure that Undead doesn't innately Absorb: Dark in even ARENA, hence why Cursed Ring has Absorb: Dark on it. I was merely asking because I think one of the ASM hacks floating around add that aspect to Undead innately; that or I'm confusing it with something Raven mentioned a while ago. Regardless, it's good have confirmation that you aren't using it, not that I would mind.

Similarly, I see and don't mind about Blood Oath, Putrify and Banish. Good to know.

spoiler: Scholar

I see. Guess I'll just have to wait to see what the mysterious mystery is like everyone else.

Oh, so ??? units being immune to the Death formula is a glitch? I thought it was just a feature. Huh. It's good to know that Dispel and Stun can't affect the bosses at least.

The Frog attack thing is...amusing and interesting. Never thought about changing Frog's attack. I'm somewhat tempted to "borrow" that. Good to know that you've made it not last past death too.

I see with regards to Bio II and Scourge, Force & Wild Tornado. I'm not particularly enamored of Star Wars, so the "Luke uses Force" thing isn't important to me.

spoiler: Seer

Renaming it Thunder element is fine with me, even if it weren't already completely up to you. I just wanted clarification.

Amusingly, I finally looked into FFXIII and its abilities only about a couple of days before you replied and, yeah, Deprotect & Deshell easily look like some of the most useful abilities in the game.

spoiler: Sentinel

I've recently faced the same temptation with regards to barriers and rejected it for lesser reasons, so I can understand you not going with that restriction.

I can see your reasons for keeping Wall. For some reason, I was just surprised to see you kept it, especially for generics.

spoiler: Sage

I see about Comet, Comet II and Meteor, even if Meteor is still going to have an odd disconnect visually.

No, I meant that Reverse doesn't cancel status, which is a good thing about it, even if I still think it's problematic.

Good to know about Ultima.

spoiler: Harbinger

I see. I expected as much about Gafgarion and Execute, though it's good to have confirmation as always. Abilities that a Dark Knight might have always end up being in a weird place in FFT patches between Gafgarion's existence and then the existence of the generic PSP-only Dark Knight class that can't really be replicated in the PSX-patches currently.

spoiler: Sniper

Oh, so Aim will have a cost. Good to know. I prefer that even if it will end up looking "strange" for non-projectile Aim users that move away from the target.

Good to know about Cover Fire.

spoiler: Corsair

Oh, so Corsair's abilities will use MP. I was thinking they wouldn't, sort of like how Gadgeteer's don't. Between that and learning about Gamble's restrictions, I'm far less worried about Corsair and can go back to be vaguely excited, which is the height of excitability for me.

Good to know about Gil Toss/Throw and Felicity.

spoiler: Elementalist

Oh, so Eruption is meant to mostly be a joke then. I see. I'm...admittedly not sure how to feel about that, but it's only a minor issue at best, potential Confusion or Charm on the Airship aside.

Good to know about Terrain and Geomancy though.

My apologies for my own delayed response given how much of that is me just saying "good to know" or something like it, but thanks for taking the time to reply like always.