[MakeshiftWalrus]

Here's a hot take that hasn't been properly discussed yet. Stat-padding is lame, and this is just stat padding, the buff.

For example the skill could be:

Minor Demon Translation:
-3m Cost, Some HP/FP Cost
-Grants 15% Damage Reduction, +3 all stats for 4 rounds, counts as a transformation skill
-5 Round Cooldown

Demon Translation (Potential)
- Uses 3M and 20% of maximum FP to forcefully release Minor Demon Translation for 4 rounds. +3 to all stats.

Demon Translation (Wrath)
- When lowered to 50% or less HP, unleashes Minor Demon Translation's proposed bonuses for 4 rounds. +6 to all stats.

Demon Translation (Rebirth)
- Upon being lowered to 0 HP, recovers Character LV * 3 HP and unleashes Minor Demon Translation for 4 rounds. Can only happen once per fight. +9 to all stats.

These are disgustingly good. Why wouldn't you run something like this on every build? In that regard, if everyone has their own, special transformation, nobody has a cool, special transformation, because then it's just 'What flavour of meta transformation did this person design?'

To even make it remotely fair, these buffs would need some serious drawbacks that isn't just 'Lose 20% of your health/FP', because if the cost is in-fight, it'll be healed back.

So here's what I would change about this idea, because it admittedly is a cool idea:

- Cost should be 7 momentum, at minimum; From these proposals, you're getting minimum 33 free bonus stats from this, which is a gross amount of stat points. My actual opinion is just just remove the stats in the first place, and replace them with something much cooler, like actual abilities, or gimmicks. Stats are terrible for RP, cool skills/spells are fun for RP, prove me wrong.

- Cool variant abilities: There's talk of having different variants, and that's cool, having multiple ways to use things is good in terms of broad scope, and RP. Have each variant apply different buffs that change how they play, like dropping Dark Cinders when they walk, or making your basic attack hit the three tiles in front of you like Pillawag, and destroy tiles, or apply some nasty debuff unique to the form on-hit that, I dunno, seals skills at random. The point is to create hard differences between the forms, and to stop it from being just another way to become an awful stat-stick.

- Potent drawbacks depending on variation: They should be specific to what kind of transformation you've got going. One example could be a huge weakness to specific elements, or debuffs that could potentially ease how oppressive the forms are, like a weakness to Clumsy infliction checks if your archetype is highly mobile, etc. I don't think you should be able to dispel the status, but you should be able to fight it with generalist skills, so you're not at a massive disadvantage because you didn't roll one of the local stat-stick builds that circulate the meta at the moment.

- It should not be easy to get: I don't want it locked behind LE'ing, because the Lord knows we're definitely not going to enjoy grinding up just to unlock it. It adds another unnecessary, unpleasant hurdle to an already daunting task when you decide to roll a new character. I also don't think it should just be a trait anyone can pick up, because then we will just see everyone using it. I don't have any real proposals for how one should attain it, I don't think there's presently a good system for it in the game.

If I could design a new one, I'd probably make it similar to how custom tomes are made, but without the need to actually carry a specific item on you. We would get a new location, or NPC who could slot in various enchant catalysts for various effects, and drawbacks. I'd finalize it by making the thing that gives you the skill in the first place a torso enchant simply because then you couldn't run it with Boneheart, or Giant Gene, and would need to actually make a decision.

- Moonblade gains a 100% bonus damage to the transformation: 200% if it's orichalcum.

I'm all for the inclusion of interesting skills, but I'd like the skills to actually be interesting too. It's no offense meant to the original idea, but I've made it no secret my distaste for stat padding.