Role | Description | Skill Ideas |
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Phys DPS | Deals damage against Physical Defense. | Increase Damage and Accuracy |
Magic DPS | Deals damage against Magic Defense | AOE, Apply Statuses, Elemental focus. |
Gimmick | Has a routine the NPC wants to complete in Conflict | Creating Clocks, Changing stances, Conditional Bonuses |
Synergy | Has abilities that get better when multiple of the NPC are present | Combo attacks, Status bonuses, Elemental synergy, triggers by allies |
Support | Has abilities that enhance allies | Buffs, Protection, Healing Others |
Debuff | Inflicts Status effects and deals bonus effects to those affected | Additional effects with Statuses, Buffs when enemies affected |
Tank | Absorbs lots of damage | Phys Resist, Healing Self, Protection |
Every NPC should leverage a Synergy (see below) of some kind to keep combatants on their toes. Synergies are either Active or Passive.
Active synergies have a Trigger. That Trigger looks for a specific combatant (The NPC with the skill, an ally, or an enemy) to do a particular action. Some Trigger actions are listed below to give you an idea. The Trigger also will specify who to apply the effect of the skill to (The NPC with the skill, the Enemy or Ally who triggered the skill, all Enemies or Allies, etc).
The effect of an Active Synergy applies to one of the States on the affected Creature. States are values (either numeric or “have/don’t have”) on a Creature, some are listed below. These things are important to the game so a Trigger modifying them can be good. Some States can be custom, setup to specifically interact with other skills on this NPCs.
Passive synergies look at a specific State on a Target (the owner of the skill, the Target of an action the owner of the skill is taking, etc). When that State meets certain criteria (has the State at all, is above or below a certain value) the synergy will apply an effect.
The Gimmick Triggers when… |
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(Choose one: This Foe; A PC) changes the the die size of their (Choose one: Dexterity; Insight; Might; Willpower). |
This foe suffers damage from a specific element. |
This foe suffers damage from a (Choose one: Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Offensive Spell). |
this foe suffers damage it’s (Choose one: Vulnerable to, Neutral to , Resistant to, Immune to, Absorbs). |
This foe enters Crisis for the first time during a scene. |
One of this foe’s allies (choose one: loses Hit Points; is defeated). |
This foe suffers a specific status effect for the first time during a scene. |
This foe starts their (choose one: first; last) turn in the round. |
a PC recovers (choose one: Hit Points; Mind Points). |
a PC is buffed by a spell with a duration of “Scene”. |
a PC uses a potion, elemental shard, or magisphere. |
a PC uses the (Choose one: Attack, Equipment, Guard, Hinder, Inventory, Objective, Spell, Study, Skill) action. |
A Clock on the scene has segments (Choose One: filled, removed). |
State Changes can be “hard coded” to apply directly, or can be done via a game mechanic. IE: Damage State being changed could be an automatic loss of HP, or an attack being performed that may or may not hit. State Changes can also be thought of as the effects of attacks.
All triggers should specify who needs to perform the trigger (Self, Ally, Enemy) and who is affected by it (Self, Ally, That Enemy, All Enemies).
Target should always be clearly identified in these templates. Remember that Triggers can be on pretty much anyone in the conflict, not just enemies attacking the NPC.