Post by Cielmira on Jun 30, 2016 6:19:58 GMT -8
For general info on how things work, see our Basics of Li thread
There is no limit to the number of characters that you can play, however, you are required to buy extra characters as noted in our Basics page. To start, you get your first 3 characters for FREE! You must by followup characters over in the Character Slot Shop. Characters are provided with free very basic housing (Think, single bedroom apartment without much in it) and technically edible food if they need it, though they may be so inclined to invest in something a bit better. Old world currencies have lost their value, so few can claim to arrive in the Life Sphere rich.
Characters that primarily utilize minions such as pokemon trainers or digimon tamer have lower stats per character/minion and may bring up to 3 of their minions on a given mission, switching between them as need be but normally only being able to use one at a time.
To begin making your character please use the appropriate Character App Template.
CANONS
We accept any canon character that has EVER appeared on, or if they are from a game series that has appeared on, a Nintendo system or is itself a Nintendo IP; EXCEPT if that character did not originate from a video game with case-by-case exceptions for characters whose series originated from a video game but they did not.
Characters from New Releases may not be Applied for, Until Two Weeks have passed from the Games Initial Release (Global if Applicable). This is to prevent characters being played Early and Poorly as a result, and to give everyone time to experience the game before potential spoilers.
Additionally, Characters from Deliberately Unfinished Stories (Such as Episodically released games), or Characters who have been unexplored so far, may be denied due to Lack of Further story, And to prevent inaccurate portrayal.
For our purposes, a valid video 'game' to use characters from is one in which the player is required to succeed at some minorly complicated task in order to progress. Whether that be slaying enemies or completing puzzles doesn't matter, as long as there is some venue of gameplay beyond reading the game script and pressing the A button from time to time. ADV [Adventure] Visual Novels, such as Phoenix Wright, are the edge in which characters are allowed. NVL Visual Novels, the ones that are effectively Choose your own Adventure Books such as Fate/Stay Night, are not.
Duplicates of characters are allowed only under the condition that permission is given by the person playing the original version of that character. These characters should have an explanation as to their existence as part of their "History on Li" section. Permission may be revoked at any time prior to the duplicate's approval, but may not be revoked afterward unless staff deem that this is an appropriate punishment for some form of serious rule violation related to the character.
For a list of franchises that are banned despite otherwise meeting our apping guidelines, see: Ban List.
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
You are allowed to app your own custom characters provided that they either originate from a canon universe or a fictional universe of your own creation. They may not originate from illegal franchises or real life. Try to avoid creating OCs that are too similar to specific canon characters or who make a habit of one-upping the characters from the series they're based in, as this is often perceived as bothersome by other players.
VILLAINS
If you want to play a villain you are more than welcome to come up with your own criminal schemes and plans of grandeur; creating missions to help toward the character's end goal. However, keep in mind the majority of the Life Sphere is full of Heroes and the Starvia Infected are still against you. Thwarting missions or criminal activity will put you on the Wanted List, which could mean missions will be created to try and bring you into police custody or employ other consequences such as community service. If you want your villain to join an existing 'Hero' mission with intent to thwart their plans and make them fail the mission, just speak with the Mission Creator to work something out.
There are three kinds of transformations to consider for characters:
The first kind is unlocked via a dedicated "transformation" special attack. This attack functions to let you transform into and back from your new form. Only one transformation may be used in a given mission thread. You may add more transformations for free, provided you have an IC reason to have them. Do note that you may find it painful to think up new moves for a bunch of different moves, however.
The second type is indistinct from a regular buffing move except for flavor text. You may find that this suits you better if your "transformation" shares the same fighting style as the original. These are usually temporary unless there's a net gain of zero for the changes.
The third type is generally reserved for super over the top stuff like Super Sonic that can't reasonably be constrained to normal transformations. They can have extra stats, damage output, or even be invincible for a short time! They are also not restricted by the regular transformation limitations, rather being limited by final smash limitations instead.
Companions are helpful allies to Player Character who can aid in combat when they’re needed, in addition to participating in threads like regular Player Characters. However, owning a companion of a canon character does not give that member ownership of said character, they are still free to be apped. A Player Character may only have 1 companion per thread/mission and must specify which they are bringing along. The GM of the mission is free to set whether companions are permitted in their mission and how many will be allowed to tag along. Companions may still accompany a Player Characters if the GM does not permit them, however, they cannot participate in combat. Companions may not be swapped out mid-mission.
Most rules that apply to Player Characters will also apply to companions. HP and Bubble Shields are determined the same way, but the bases for them are 100% and 30% respectively. The stat total for Companions will vary from how they are acquired, most having a stat total of 56 and 2 primary/special attacks, while Legendary Companions will have 60 and 3 primary/special attacks. Companions also abide by the Haste Penalty; however, they can only make 2 Combat Actions before Haste sets in.
Additionally, you can have a Companion with you as a Pokémon Trainer in addition to having your Pokémon and the standard rules of being a Trainer. However, even if your companion ends up being a Pokémon they cannot be added into the normal rotation of your regular trained Pokémon; they must be kept separate.
Characters cannot start out with a Companion, unless that Companion is a notable sidekick from their games that arguably cannot be apped on their own. For example, a character like Spyro can have a Sparx, but a character like Sonic cannot have a chao as a Companion since it is not a notable sidekick. Tails cannot be used as a Companion either as he is a character that can work independently from Sonic. If a character does start off with a Companion, they cannot have Legendary Companion attributes and stat points cannot be given to the Player Character from the Companion and vice versa. The only other way to acquire a Companion is through the Mirage Portal or as a special gift (resulting from the completion of a mission thread focused on acquiring them, etc. Must have the permission of an Admin).
Powergaming, sometimes known as munchkining, is the art of trying to make a character as powerful as possible, especially mechanically. This section of the guide is going to briefly outline certain behaviors that are associated with power gaming by the staff policies. If you find yourself reflecting and realize you're falling into multiple of these categories frequently, that might be a reason for concern.
Sometimes, we all make mistakes in our apps. Sometimes it's just one move, or sometimes we want to change things up and re-do our character. This is allowed, and the process for doing so is generally posting the changes as a reply to the character's character sheet and getting it approved, or in the case of a full rework just editing the character sheet and asking for it to be re-evaluated. However, there are good reasons and bad reasons to rework a character/move.
Examples of good reasons to rework something:
Examples of not-very-good reasons to rework something:
Generally speaking, the staff will not refuse a rework just because it was down for less than perfect reasons. But at the staff's discretion, they may temporarily ban specific characters from future reworks after the current rework is approved, Until they feel the app desperately deserves one. So, it's always a good idea to abide by these guidelines when you can, and to be sure that when you put in for a Rework, It's a Rework you will want to be using for a long time from now.
NOTE: This topic can be updated to Staff discretion at any time. Last updated on 2/25/21
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONSIDERING YOUR CHARACTER
There is no limit to the number of characters that you can play, however, you are required to buy extra characters as noted in our Basics page. To start, you get your first 3 characters for FREE! You must by followup characters over in the Character Slot Shop. Characters are provided with free very basic housing (Think, single bedroom apartment without much in it) and technically edible food if they need it, though they may be so inclined to invest in something a bit better. Old world currencies have lost their value, so few can claim to arrive in the Life Sphere rich.
Characters that primarily utilize minions such as pokemon trainers or digimon tamer have lower stats per character/minion and may bring up to 3 of their minions on a given mission, switching between them as need be but normally only being able to use one at a time.
To begin making your character please use the appropriate Character App Template.
CANONS
We accept any canon character that has EVER appeared on, or if they are from a game series that has appeared on, a Nintendo system or is itself a Nintendo IP; EXCEPT if that character did not originate from a video game with case-by-case exceptions for characters whose series originated from a video game but they did not.
Examples: Harry Potter, Goku, anyone from the Marvel universe, etc.Cameos and Guest Stars do not count toward the series inclusion as they are not canon to that series.
Characters from New Releases may not be Applied for, Until Two Weeks have passed from the Games Initial Release (Global if Applicable). This is to prevent characters being played Early and Poorly as a result, and to give everyone time to experience the game before potential spoilers.
Additionally, Characters from Deliberately Unfinished Stories (Such as Episodically released games), or Characters who have been unexplored so far, may be denied due to Lack of Further story, And to prevent inaccurate portrayal.
For our purposes, a valid video 'game' to use characters from is one in which the player is required to succeed at some minorly complicated task in order to progress. Whether that be slaying enemies or completing puzzles doesn't matter, as long as there is some venue of gameplay beyond reading the game script and pressing the A button from time to time. ADV [Adventure] Visual Novels, such as Phoenix Wright, are the edge in which characters are allowed. NVL Visual Novels, the ones that are effectively Choose your own Adventure Books such as Fate/Stay Night, are not.
Duplicates of characters are allowed only under the condition that permission is given by the person playing the original version of that character. These characters should have an explanation as to their existence as part of their "History on Li" section. Permission may be revoked at any time prior to the duplicate's approval, but may not be revoked afterward unless staff deem that this is an appropriate punishment for some form of serious rule violation related to the character.
For a list of franchises that are banned despite otherwise meeting our apping guidelines, see: Ban List.
ORIGINAL CHARACTERS
You are allowed to app your own custom characters provided that they either originate from a canon universe or a fictional universe of your own creation. They may not originate from illegal franchises or real life. Try to avoid creating OCs that are too similar to specific canon characters or who make a habit of one-upping the characters from the series they're based in, as this is often perceived as bothersome by other players.
VILLAINS
If you want to play a villain you are more than welcome to come up with your own criminal schemes and plans of grandeur; creating missions to help toward the character's end goal. However, keep in mind the majority of the Life Sphere is full of Heroes and the Starvia Infected are still against you. Thwarting missions or criminal activity will put you on the Wanted List, which could mean missions will be created to try and bring you into police custody or employ other consequences such as community service. If you want your villain to join an existing 'Hero' mission with intent to thwart their plans and make them fail the mission, just speak with the Mission Creator to work something out.
TRANSFORMATIONS / ALTERNATE FORMS
There are three kinds of transformations to consider for characters:
- Completely seperate forms with their own stats and movesets.
- Powered up forms that function as buffs to your original moveset/stats, rather than full transformations.
- Super powerful transformations of the final smash variety
The first kind is unlocked via a dedicated "transformation" special attack. This attack functions to let you transform into and back from your new form. Only one transformation may be used in a given mission thread. You may add more transformations for free, provided you have an IC reason to have them. Do note that you may find it painful to think up new moves for a bunch of different moves, however.
The second type is indistinct from a regular buffing move except for flavor text. You may find that this suits you better if your "transformation" shares the same fighting style as the original. These are usually temporary unless there's a net gain of zero for the changes.
The third type is generally reserved for super over the top stuff like Super Sonic that can't reasonably be constrained to normal transformations. They can have extra stats, damage output, or even be invincible for a short time! They are also not restricted by the regular transformation limitations, rather being limited by final smash limitations instead.
COMPANIONS
Companions are helpful allies to Player Character who can aid in combat when they’re needed, in addition to participating in threads like regular Player Characters. However, owning a companion of a canon character does not give that member ownership of said character, they are still free to be apped. A Player Character may only have 1 companion per thread/mission and must specify which they are bringing along. The GM of the mission is free to set whether companions are permitted in their mission and how many will be allowed to tag along. Companions may still accompany a Player Characters if the GM does not permit them, however, they cannot participate in combat. Companions may not be swapped out mid-mission.
Most rules that apply to Player Characters will also apply to companions. HP and Bubble Shields are determined the same way, but the bases for them are 100% and 30% respectively. The stat total for Companions will vary from how they are acquired, most having a stat total of 56 and 2 primary/special attacks, while Legendary Companions will have 60 and 3 primary/special attacks. Companions also abide by the Haste Penalty; however, they can only make 2 Combat Actions before Haste sets in.
Additionally, you can have a Companion with you as a Pokémon Trainer in addition to having your Pokémon and the standard rules of being a Trainer. However, even if your companion ends up being a Pokémon they cannot be added into the normal rotation of your regular trained Pokémon; they must be kept separate.
Characters cannot start out with a Companion, unless that Companion is a notable sidekick from their games that arguably cannot be apped on their own. For example, a character like Spyro can have a Sparx, but a character like Sonic cannot have a chao as a Companion since it is not a notable sidekick. Tails cannot be used as a Companion either as he is a character that can work independently from Sonic. If a character does start off with a Companion, they cannot have Legendary Companion attributes and stat points cannot be given to the Player Character from the Companion and vice versa. The only other way to acquire a Companion is through the Mirage Portal or as a special gift (resulting from the completion of a mission thread focused on acquiring them, etc. Must have the permission of an Admin).
Avoiding Powergaming
Powergaming, sometimes known as munchkining, is the art of trying to make a character as powerful as possible, especially mechanically. This section of the guide is going to briefly outline certain behaviors that are associated with power gaming by the staff policies. If you find yourself reflecting and realize you're falling into multiple of these categories frequently, that might be a reason for concern.
- Believing your character deserves to have the top character in Balance.
- Arguing with or Belittling staff in response to balance feedback or Requests
- Attempting to entirely circumvent stat balance such that any stat simply becomes useless to one's character.
- Excessive front-loading of a character's abilities such that learning new ones is largely a lateral move, Or rather, Making a Move that does everything.
- Fudging or Lacking details of how moves work in a way that makes them stronger without the consent of a thread's GM.
- Directly ignoring Lore to make your characters abilities stronger.
Reworks
Sometimes, we all make mistakes in our apps. Sometimes it's just one move, or sometimes we want to change things up and re-do our character. This is allowed, and the process for doing so is generally posting the changes as a reply to the character's character sheet and getting it approved, or in the case of a full rework just editing the character sheet and asking for it to be re-evaluated. However, there are good reasons and bad reasons to rework a character/move.
Examples of good reasons to rework something:
- It is dysfunctional, meaning it does not function properly or functions in a way you did not intend or want it to.
- It is dramatically underpowered such that it does not feel like it meaningfully contributes
- A move no longer fits your vision of a character and you want to replace it with something new
- Your Current App does not properly Reflect the Character, And you wish to make it closely resemble the character proper.
Examples of not-very-good reasons to rework something:
- It's slightly underpowered.
- You found a weakness in the characters' kit and want to plug it up.
- There's a new mechanic fad you want to hop on.
- Alternating a move to be the exact same power, But only a Minor Difference.
Generally speaking, the staff will not refuse a rework just because it was down for less than perfect reasons. But at the staff's discretion, they may temporarily ban specific characters from future reworks after the current rework is approved, Until they feel the app desperately deserves one. So, it's always a good idea to abide by these guidelines when you can, and to be sure that when you put in for a Rework, It's a Rework you will want to be using for a long time from now.
CHARACTER MOVES & ACTIONS
NOTE: For a summarized version that is easy to understand, here is a table to plug in your standard move attributes and calculate their balance! Feel free to download and use at your own leisure; but if more explanation is required, please read the more detailed notes below:
Balance CalculatorThe Long Version....
Characters can only make 3 Combat Actions in a round without penalties under normal conditions. Combat Actions can be anything from performing a move, using an item, switching out a Pokemon/Minion, etc. Defensive rolls such as Dodging or using your Bubble Shield do not constitute as Combat Actions. Characters that make more than 3 actions per turn will be subjected to a Haste Penalty that stacks for every additional action they make, decreasing that roll by -5. The haste penalty prevents any move that does not require an accuracy roll from being used. Additionally, if the haste penalty ever causes you to roll below a 1 on an attack, your character messes that attack up badly and you cannot make any additional attacks that turn due to the mishap.
Eg: If a character performs 4 actions in one turn, their fourth attack will suffer a -5 penalty. If they perform 5 actions, their fourth attack will suffer a -5 penalty and their fifth attack will suffer a -10 penalty.
Attacks have various ranges of damage % & effects that we have separated into 3 categories as detailed below:
Light Attacks (1 - 8%) No cool down needed w/o effect
Light Attacks can be comboed in order to bypass the Combat Actions per post limit, allowing a player to perform three light attacks on one opponent and only have it count as one Combat Action (dubbed the Combo Effect). This can only be done once per turn, however, with additional light attacks consuming a full action. They cannot be comboed if they have a secondary effect that has a more than a 10% likelihood of activating. If they do have a secondary effect they must be on the lower end of the damage spectrum, max 5% DMG.
Medium Attacks (9 - 18%) No cool down needed w/o effect
Medium Attacks that have a secondary effect will do reduced damage, at a 1% damage per 10% effect chance conversion rate. The higher the likelihood of a secondary effect the lower the damage output will be allowed to be. Additionally, medium attacks with a secondary effect but no cooldown will start at 15% damage and 10% effect chance as a baseleine compared to the 18% normally possible. Medium Attacks without a secondary effect are allowed to be anywhere within the damage spectrum.
Heavy Attacks (19 - 22%) 1 turn cool down needed w/o effect
23 - 26% 2 turn cool down needed w/o effect
27 - 30% 3 turn cool down needed w/o effect
30%+ 3 turn cool down needed with additional consequences w/o effect
Heavy attacks have a wider range on the damage spectrum, but the higher the damage is the heavier the penalty for the user will have to be (recoil, cool downs, etc).
Final Smashes (Sometimes known as Ultimate Attacks) get to do a lot more damage. 60% is standard for a single target final smash and 40% is standard for an AoE final smash, with 80% being the absolute maximum possible with heavy consequences. These attacks auto hit their target and ignore all forms of resistance barring a huge logic error. However, they also do not benefit from any buffs on the user. Some final smashes do not deal direct damage at all, and are instead healing final smashes or transformation final smashes. The latter will temporarily pause outside buffs when activated until it is finished, their durations conserved.
For more info on using FS's please see the Using Final Smashes on our Basics page.
PRIMARY & SPECIAL MOVE TYPES
Primary moves are meant to be your most basic of attacks. Imagine if your character was an actual character in smash brothers. Your Primary Attacks would be the moves used at the push of an A button. They could be very open in their detail, to be used in a lot of ways. For example, a character like Link would have the following Primaries:
Primary Move Examples
Sword and Shield Style: Link fights off the foe with basic sword and shield techniques for either swift blows or more concentrated swings. This can be used as a light combo or medium attack. (8-18% STR Attack)
Hero's Bow: A bow that Link has found in a dungeon and mastered swiftly. He can either fire off a shot normally or enhance the attack by drawing back for a more powerful shot with 6% extra damage. However the enhanced shot causes his next dodge roll to decrease by 1. (Medium Dex Attack, 18%)
Fire Rod: A magic rod that can fire mighty flames from itself even if you're not a master magic user. 40% chance to leave a lasting burn and hits hard but requires time to recollect mana. 2 turn cooldown. (Heavy Wisdom Attack, 22%)
Special Moves on the other hand are meant to be much more flashy with a very specific use. They are like the B button moves from the game. Very specific in detail, being used mostly in only one way, but having much more than the average primary attacks to make them, well, Special. Using Link as an example again:
Special Move Examples:
Golden Gauntlets: Link's gauntlets give him a magical surge of strength to lift and slash through any obstacle in his way. Raises his STR Mod by 3 for 3 turns, 3 turn cooldown to regain their power.
Red Potion: Link downs a potion with healing properties to regain his strength and heal his body. Heals 1d15+Charisma. 3 turn cooldown.
Bomb: Link pulls out and throws a bomb that explodes when it hits it's destination or it's fuse reaches it's inner contents. 3 turn cooldown. (Heavy DEX attack, 30%)
These are way more specific in a one use matter, but have things that make them more unique. You can even use them in conjuncture with Primaries. Such as pushing an enemy back with the Hylian shield then throwing the Bomb when they're at a safe distance, or finishing a sword combo with a special.
COOL DOWNS
Cool downs are one way to help balance out certain moves as it means that it cannot just be spammed every round. Notably, the start of a cool down's timer does not begin until all the effects of a move are finished. Unless it's a special feature, a move can only be used once until its cool down is complete. This means that any [de]buffs, shields, fear/mind effects, etc. etc. that last multiple rounds cannot be reapplied until after their duration + cool down time. So if the character uses a move to turn an enemy into a friendly that lasts for 3 turns, and it has a cool down of 4 turns, the character cannot activate that ability again for 7 rounds.
IMMUNITY MOVES & BUBBLE SHIELDS
Immunity moves, sometimes known as invincibility moves, are attacks/abilities that block most if not all damage from any attack thrown at the user without the risk of needing to beat the attacking roll. These mechanics were disallowed entirely a long time ago due to their tendency to cause rage and generally ruin people's fun. For blocking attacks, you may want to consider a bubble shield instead! A bubble shield is a separate slowly regenerating health pool you can use to block attacks. It can be given flavor text to look like / behave however you like, such as being an actual shield or blocking with your arms or a sword. However, once your bubble shield runs out of strength you won't be able to block anymore.Your bubble shield's health pool, often just called your shield, is influenced by your Constitution stat. If you want to block more, just put some points in there! Your bubble shield can block 25% damage with a CON modifier of -5, plus 5% damage for every point added to your CON modifier up to a maximum of 75% at +5
PASSIVE, NON-COMBAT ABILITIES
These abilities are part of a character's entire being of existence. Such as their skin being incredibly hard or tough. Or the character having wings automatically grants them flight. However, it does not do anything stat or damage wise, this is more for logic and fluff.
For example if your character is a robot, like ROB, or perhaps has a tough exterior like Metal Mario, moves that target flesh bearing specimens like humans or animal hybrids will do nothing to it unless stated specifically in the move description. Such as a poison fume attack would not poison a cybernetic being but might poison a mortal or human or a beast. UNLESS the character's move specifically states this upon being created in the app process.
Most characters that are app have at least 1 move that can combat these kinds of passive traits. Which is why this is not conducive to stats or damage. If there was something that triggers things like harder skin to raise defenses or an attack that requires flying in the air, that would be placed in the special or primary move category and therefore be able to do damage or raise stats.
IMPROVISED ACTIONS
A player can attempt to justify the use of a non-standard stat when making skill checks, provided there is a semblance of logic to which stats are used. Your local GM will decide if your improvised actions check out logically, else you may simply fail them regardless of your roll.
Examples:
- Using STR to break a lock instead of trying to pick it.
- Using INT to escape a grapple by exploiting a weak point (like pulling back the pinky finger).
- Using STR to intimidate an NPC into cooperating instead of CHA
Balancing Your Attacks
As a rule of thumb, you're allowed to get creative with the mechanics of your attacks. Many popular types of moves were originally just something someone thought up and worked out for themselves, and even some of our statuses used to be personal mechanics used by certain individuals. However, that can be hard work--especially for someone that is just joining. So below, I'm going to give some examples of what would be considered balanced attacks. There is some nuance to it. But for example, here's a good idea of the principles the staff are trying to keep in mind when judging moves.
- We don't want to approve moves that are strictly better than the standard curve of power. The standard being a move that does 18% damage and has no downsides. If we did that, everyone would want those better moves instead!
- We want a strong offense to defeat a strong defense...eventually. Ideally, it should be impossible for a fight to go on "forever" unless the ridiculously bad luck clause is invoked. Healing moves should be weaker than damaging moves and defensive moves should mitigate rather than block attacks.
- We don't want to reward bad rolls or approve moves that either allow characters to disregard attack rolls or make attacks without rolls of their own.
- We don't want attacks to use stats or target enemy stats without proper justification. For example: If it doesn't target dexterity, why can't they dodge it? If it's meant to destroy data, why does it do equal damage to flesh? We want them to make logical sense, not just mechanical sense--to the limited extent logic may apply to the Nintendo universe, of course.
Cooldowns, Damage and Effect Chance
That being said, here are some examples of how to balance a move. For the most part we'll be covering basic things to get you started. For example.
For attacks that do not have cooldowns:
A 15% damage attack with a 10% chance of causing your weaker standard statuses such as burn or paralysis is fine.
A 10% damage attack with a 50% chance of causing the same statuses is fine.
A 5% damage attack with a 100% chance of causing the same statuses is fine.
And 16%+ attacks don't get to have an effect chance unless they have other balancing factors
Therefore, if you've followed along with that pattern, you may have noticed that for the most part 1% damage is worth 10% effect chance. The two noteworthy exceptions for are 11% and 13%, which yield only a 5% effect chance profit. Think of it as diminishing returns. Attacks with cooldowns work differently, however. Because the presence of a cooldown at all nerfs the effectiveness of the effect chance in and of itself (using the same move with a 30% effect chance 3 times has a much higher effective success rate than using a higher damage move with a 30% effect chance only once.) you are allowed to start with a higher base damage.
So for example:
An 18% damage attack with a 1 turn cooldown would be allowed to have a 40% effect chance with a weaker standard status or an 80% effect chance with a 2 turn cooldown. 1 turn of cooldown is equal to 40% effect chance for weaker statuses, which you can then apply to what you already know and determine that 1 turn of cooldown is equal to 4% damage. So for example, you could have a 22% damage attack with a 1 turn cooldown.
Buffs
Buffs are simple in design. The idea is that you can't have more than a 50% uptime unless the buff has some form of risk involved in using it, and the standard of balancing is: You can raise two stats by 4, translating to an additional +2 to their modifier, for 3 turns with a 3 turn cooldown. Or for 2 turns with a 2 turn cooldown. Unlike regular attacks, a buff's cooldown does not begin until after the buff has ended. A regular attack with a 2 turn cooldown only prevents you from using that attack for the rest of your turn and the next turn. A buff with a two turn cooldown, however, remains on cooldown for 2 entire turns after the buff has worn off.
Healing Moves
Healing moves have a couple of nuances to them. We do have a healing stat (charisma) that we want people to use, and so any healing move that doesn't use the stat is must be significantly weaker than moves that do. Moves that heal for flat values also must heal for less than those that heal using a roll on average, as the risk of rolling poorly justifies some extra punch. For example, for 3 turns of cooldown you could have a healing move that heals for 1d15+Cha health. Or, as a flat value, you could have it heal 8%. If your charisma mod is pretty bad you might opt for the latter, but a good healer with a half-decent roll will always just about meet or exceed the flat roll. For example, they could roll a 12 with a +4 mod and heal twice the flat roll. For some examples of balanced healing attacks:
1d15+cha to a single target with 3 turns of cooldown.
1d8+cha to a single target with 2 turns of cooldown.
1d5+cha to the entire party with 3 turns of cooldown.
Nuances
There are some strange quirks to the system that might not be immediately obvious, but you might want to keep them in mind while balancing attacks.
- Two stats, Constitution and Charisma, have no worth in balancing. This is because the main downsides of lowered constitution (Less max HP) retroactively undo themselves once the debuff wears off and it's exceedingly difficult to punish a character for lowering their charisma. (There is no such thing as an attack that targets charisma and charisma checks during combat, when you're likely using your moves, are pretty hard to do without a GM railroading them.)
- No move may hit a target without beating a roll by the target somewhere in the mechanics and no move may grant immunity to damage from a target without likewise beating a roll somewhere.
- Buffs, items and debuffs do not obey the damage cap on moves. For example, a combo'able light attack does not become a medium attack if you're under the effect of a damage buff. You can still combo it. Likewise, attacks can exceed 32% damage via things like buffs, items, or simply just crits.
- Copy moves, such as Kirby's inhale ability, are allowed. However, certain restrictions apply to them. For example, a copy move may never copy another copy move or any move acquired by a copy move. Additionally, copy moves may never acquire final smashes unless they are also a final smash. Conversely, it is illegal for any move to specify that it cannot be copied. If there is a dispute over whether a move should be copied it must be handled via a moderator, not mechanics.
CHARACTER STATS
Stats are used to affect dice rolls, of which are only necessary in the Stadium or when an Admin/Mission Creator say so. Please note that while these are broken down to their most basic core areas for a general purpose use on the site, it is at the GM's discretion to decide if the environment or situation calls for the use of a different discipline or if one of their players has opted to try and use an improvised action (see above).
(CHA) Charisma: Very much a utility discipline, CHA is key for strong leaders rallying forces and is often generalized into simply how likeable someone is. However, it also governs a character's ability to persuade, bluff, intimidate, charm/distract, perform, as well as determines how strong their healing moves are.
(CON) Constitution: Determines a character's stamina, the amount of damage they can take, resisting knock backs & recovery, and their ability to handle physical status effects. For each mod of CON +/- from 0, add or subtract 10 from 150% for a character's total damage threshold.
(DEX) Dexterity: The measure of a character's finesse and acrobatic capability (think bar routine), DEX is all about using what bits of strength a character has efficiently; often making use of other objects to accomplish feats. It governs how accurate a character is, such as with ranged weapons/throwing, and their ability to make quick, precise, movements to dodge/escape. DEX fighters are about balancing, acrobatics (flips/spins/flexibility/etc.), stealth, and precision. For our simplified purposes it is also considered the general 'speed' stat.
(INT) Intelligence: A character's INT is more than just their learning capacity. It tells of their ability to negate debuffs and stave off mind effects, such as fear or charms, as well as dictates knowledge based checks whether they be understanding new languages or being able to deduce a creature's weakness at a glance. This also affects a character's move learning rate, see How Missions Work.
(STR) Strength: STR is the measure of a character's muscle/physical/bodily strength. It governs things such as melee attacks, grappling, or more athletic skills like jumping, climbing, and swimming; noting that there are different avenues of physical strength. So feel free to fluff someone like Bowser not being able to 'swim' well because of his dense mass and tiny arms/legs despite being a high STR character, but once he reaches the bottom he has no problem moving himself around. This discipline could also be used to help with an intimidating appearance.
(WIS) Wisdom: This discipline covers a character's common sense, perceptiveness, insight, and magical aptitude. Often those who just 'go with their gut' are using WIS. Ability wise it affects the power of mystical/elemental energies and their respective attacks (non-physical material based).
All characters start with 10 in each discipline, except for Pkmn/minions who start with 7. Depending on the character type there will be Stat Points that can be added to any discipline of your choosing (noted above the Stat table on the App Template). Normal characters get 10 points, Masters/Trainers themselves get 0, Pkmn/Minions get 14, Transformations get 10 per form, and Duo characters get 0. You may also lower a discipline below 10 in order to favor another. However, you cannot put one below 1 (With case by case exceptions) and the highest a stat can go is 20 when assigning points. Items & temporary buffs could allow a character to go beyond these limits. Please stick to a build that makes sense for the character (Eg: High STR & CON, Low DEX for Bowser -- Tanky Bruiser that moves slow).
For an idea of what each stat # means RP wise, refer to this Stats in Simple Language write up.
(This will be replaced in the near future with a more accurate Value - Desc write up)
Stat values have modifiers that affect dice rolls. The Stat Total is where you add/remove Stat Points, and the Modifier is what is added to dice rolls. These values correspond as follows:
Stat Total | 0 | 1 | 2 - 3 | 4 - 5 | 6 - 7 | 8 - 9 | 10 - 11 | 12 - 13 | 14 - 15 | 16 - 17 | 18 - 19 | 20 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Modifier | -6 | -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 |
*Note: If a stat is temporarily buffed above 20, continue the pattern of every Even STAT # is a + MOD. Stats cannot go below 0
STAT TUTORIAL
First off, let's start with picking a character to mold around the stat table. Let's see... let's go with everybody's favorite elderly ape, Cranky Kong!
Good, now we can move on to creating his app and this dastardly, though wonderfully crafted, table:
10 total points to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 10 | +0 |
DEX | 10 | +0 |
CON | 10 | +0 |
INT | 10 | +0 |
WIS | 10 | +0 |
CHA | 10 | +0 |
I dunno about you guys, but between that Basics page and this Build Guide we could probably use that to defend our site from invading forces. Anyways, we got this table, what do we do now? It says that we have 10 stat points to distribute, but what does that mean? Well, we just look at the Stat Pts column for now -- modifiers will come later and we don't really need to think about those until we have some decent stats for this prime ape.
We have 10 stats to distribute, so if I were lazy I would just do this:
0 points left to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 10 | +0 |
DEX | 10 | +0 |
CON | 10 | +0 |
INT | 20 | +0 |
WIS | 10 | +0 |
CHA | 10 | +0 |
BAM! Distributed all the stat points without even thinking, that's my favorite way of doing things.
While Cranky Kong may be a smart little monkey, we can do better than this. He's a wise cracker so we should also invest in Charisma, and no one can doubt that Donkey Kong's Grandpa is wise, so instead of just lumping it all into one discipline let's distribute it to multiple ones instead...
0 points left to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 10 | +0 |
DEX | 10 | +0 |
CON | 10 | +0 |
INT | 14 | +0 |
WIS | 12 | +0 |
CHA | 14 | +0 |
I decided that I should put 4 points into Charisma and 2 points into Wisdom since that is what makes most sense for this character. In addition to that, his high Charisma means he would make for a decent support character with buffs and healing abilities, not to mention he's a smooth talker that'll pickup all the ladies.
If he's on his own though, he can still dish out some damage with his Wisdom stat by using magic based attacks. I still wanted to keep some of that Intelligence though, so I gave it the remainder of my distributive stats.
Now this is all good, but I can still do more here. Being that Cranky is pretty old and rather frail, his Strength and Constitution should be lower than average, not to mention that his other Disciplines could be better off with those stats. I'm going to remove some from the before mentioned Disciplines to boost the other ones...
6 points left to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 7 | +0 |
DEX | 10 | +0 |
CON | 7 | +0 |
INT | 14 | +0 |
WIS | 12 | +0 |
CHA | 14 | +0 |
I lowered both Strength and Constitution by 3, which gave me back 6 points. Now I can now use those points to distribute elsewhere...
0 points left to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 7 | +0 |
DEX | 11 | +0 |
CON | 7 | +0 |
INT | 17 | +0 |
WIS | 14 | +0 |
CHA | 14 | +0 |
Alright, now we got some nice looking stats here. I decided that good ol' Cranky should have a bit more power in terms of Wisdom so I added 2 of my extra stat points into there, as well as 3 more onto Intelligence because I regretted my decision of making his Intelligence so low. One thing you'll notice is that I added a bit to Dexterity, by that I mean 1 point. Well, I had 1 stat point leftover and you know I felt Cranky was a bit faster than the average Grandpa Gorilla. Yep, this should be all good, I can go get this app approved by a mod.
Wait, no! Not the Modifier (MOD) column! Anything but having to do math! Wait I can still turn back, I can delete my account and no one would be the wiser. Wait, that wall of text I ignored earlier, YES! No math for me after all!
Yes, all we have to do is check that chart shown up above...
Stat Total | 0 | 1 | 2 - 3 | 4 - 5 | 6 - 7 | 8 - 9 | 10 - 11 | 12 - 13 | 14 - 15 | 16 - 17 | 18 - 19 | 20 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Modifier | -6 | -5 | -4 | -3 | -2 | -1 | 0 | +1 | +2 | +3 | +4 | +5 |
Ah yes, let's start with Strength. We have a stat total of 7 in that Discipline... that it makes our modifier -2. Alright, let's move on to Dexterity, which is at 11. Oh, it stays at 0. That's anti-climatic... Anyways, now we're moving on to the bigger ones, Wisdom. My nifty highlighter shows me that anything with a stat total of 14 gets a +2. That's all well and good, but I wanna see what my Intelligence modifier is. 17 has a +3. Not as high I wanted it to be, but give it time, it'll become better as Cranky kicks butt across Li and ranks up. Cranky Kong shall become the smartest ape on Li! As for Charisma and Constitution, they are at the same stat level as Wisdom and Strength respectfully, so we already know what Modifier they will be getting.
Let's see what that looks like:
0 points left to distribute
Discipline | Stat Pts | MOD |
STR | 7 | -2 |
DEX | 11 | +0 |
CON | 7 | -2 |
INT | 17 | +3 |
WIS | 14 | +2 |
CHA | 14 | +2 |
Finally, something that looks presentable in an app. Not only that, now whenever a Mission Creator asks me to make a roll all I need to do is roll myself a 20 sided die and add/subtract my modifier!
NOTE: This topic can be updated to Staff discretion at any time. Last updated on 2/25/21
Last Edit:
Aug 25, 2023 17:18:20 GMT -8 by Mr. Game & Watch: Fixed some broken code