[Neus]

As promised, here's some War talents to fill the time. Here are four of the seven; the other three are slightly more complicated and may need their own posts (and one of them needs an interface designed and programmed for it) so they will be coming later and probably alternatively with occult talents.



March
2 SP per Rank

• Health - Every 15 steps while out of combat, if you are below 75% of your maximum HP, you recover SR * 1 HP.
  
• Stamina - The amount of Physical Stamina recovered every hour is increased by SR * 1.

March is the same as always. There isn't too much to say about it, really.


Bravery
1 SP per Rank

• Will - Grants resistance to the effect of Fear by SR * 25% (min. of -1 Hit). Reduces the duration of Fear of Death by SR * 1 rounds. (Max SR: 3)
  
• Determination - Unfaltering courage grants resistance to the effect of Hesitation equal to SR * 15%. (Max SR: 3)
  
• Heat of Battle - While not at the edge of the battlefield: Power increased by SR * 1, and Phys & Mag Def VS monsters increased by SR * 1%. Bonuses doubled if enemy is at the battlefield's edge. (Max SR: 3)

Bravery is a new talent and a required skill in war, because war is quite scary. It offers some good bonuses, but 1 SP per Rank is lower than most other talents. Heat of Battle can give you an edge over people who like to camp the edges of the battlefield and some small defensive bonuses against monsters.

Will mentions Fear of Death, which is a new mechanic. When you take damage that exceeds half of your maximum HP, or any damage that takes you to or below 15% of your maximum HP (even if you're already below that threshold), you receive a Fear status from the person who damaged you for 3 rounds. Any 'normal' person in that situation of getting cornered or suddenly taking such a massive blow would probably be shaken, and if your character isn't one of those, then Will helps you negate it.


Two-Hand
1 SP per Rank

• Full Swing - While you do not have a Shield nor Sub-Weapon equipped: increases the Scaled Weapon ATK of Swords, Axes, and Spears by SR * 2%. Doubled for Heavy weapons.

Two-Hand is a simple talent; it lets you use one weapon more effectively, giving you some reason to do so. Heavy weapons are a size classification that currently only applies to the Axe family; when the beta is live, people can post a suggestion for which Sword and Spear weapons should receive the classification, because there's probably more than a few. I could have gone through and changed them already but I am more concerned with finishing programming the talents first.


Chivalry
2 SP per Rank

• Honor - Recover SR * 1 FP when hitting an enemy with a basic attack from their front. (Does not apply if target is knocked down or your party outnumbers them.)
  
• Smite - Increases Hit by SR * 3 when attacking an enemy from their front. (Does not apply if target is knocked down or your party outnumbers them.)

Some might say that chivalry doesn't win wars, but... at any rate, these two subpaths are what Chivalry has to start with. They don't play nice with the things rogues like to do, for example, flanking. In fact, Smite's Hit bonus is probably a lot smaller than what you'd get from flanking, but for characters with low GUI, or who won't be trying to do so anyway, this offers a nice alternative.

Any new bonuses from Chivalry will probably follow similar constraints. Hit your opponent where they can see, don't hit them when they're down, don't gang up on them. It's not a knightly thing to do.

[Rendar]

A thing I see with issues so far is the fact a lot of the talents are losing the current bonuses that they give in favor of other things. Cooking for instance lost the benefit to have a good personal chef at your home unless they are using a campsite to do it. Not entirely, but it does make it kinda meh to do since cooking at a fire does make it better.

Initiative lost its bonus move for 3 rounds, and march lost its move bonus too. These dont seem like much, but certain classes needed that. Some people NEEDED that to counter stuff like... archers firing 3 to 4 times upon you before you can get in melee (which promptly leads to getting blowback cannond and wrecked anyways). Id love if march gave bonus move to make it a bit better to even think about using... hopefully initiative follows suit to be awesome for people who dont do turn 1 buffs.

Also, fluency before gave 2 will for a tome equipped. Id love to see this come back. Not only did it make spell casters feel like they were loved in the slightest, but it also gave them some extra maneuverability with tomes to use because. Lets be real. Most spell casters these days will simply resort to using spell edge weapons because they have way better scaling qnd generally, a lot higher weapon power. Give the tome some love, man.

[Sawrock]

March should get maybe two new things- Traveler (+1 move, max point of 1), and Armor Adaption (+1 to move cap, max point of 1).

[Snake]

Chivalry (eyes sparking, I loved this one!) should get something to counteract Stalemate/Eviter too! Since they're attacking head-on like proud warriors, and being head-on is exactly what these damage denying passives want you to do, to nullify all the damage thrown at your face.

I love the idea of having two fighters facing each other in a tense fight, instead of what we have currently, people running to other's backs after Flank/deny stalemate and eviter.
Which pretty much makes it a mandatory thing to do in this meta for rogues, or basically everything. I failed to see a Soldier facing another head-on because if anything happened, their attacks can just be lol-stalemated/lol-eviter'd.

I'd say something to lower the chances of triggering Parry effects by 50% if you attack them on the face.

[Egil]

Chivalry (eyes sparking, I loved this one!) should get something to counteract Stalemate/Eviter too. Since they're attacking head-on like proud warriors, and being head-on is exactly what these damage denying passives want you to do, to nullify all the damage thrown at your face.

I love the idea of having two fighters facing each other in a tense fight, instead of what we have currently, people running to other's backs after Flank/deny stalemate and eviter. Which pretty much makes it a mandatory thing to do.

I'd say something to lower the chances of triggering Parry effects by 50% if you attack them on the face.

Maxing out Chivalry could make it so that Stalemate/Eviter/etc now block back-attacks instead of front-facing attacks. That'd be dope.

[Snake]

Maxing out Chivalry could make it so that Stalemate/Eviter/etc now block back-attacks instead of front-facing attacks. That'd be dope.

Way too dope, lol. I'd see it as some Soldier promotion class' parry skill, though. Something that parries all the blind sides but the front.

[Neus]

Here's a new(old) talent from the Occult category.


Devotion
1.5 SP per Rank

• Divine Sign - Increases chances of successfully enchanting and increases the effects of Exorcism and Blessed enchantments. Success rate is increased by SR * 3%. Blessed bonus to hit is increased by SR * 2. Exorcism damage bonus is increased by SR * 5%.
  
• Prayer - Lets you use an altar or religious symbol to pray, granting a Prayer status for SR * 5 rounds that persists through battles. Praying requires some Mental Stamina.
  
• Intervention - While a Prayer status is active, grants a SR * 1% chance that any damage you take will be reduced by your Scaled Faith.

Devotion lost its original rank up purpose in GRP1 because Faith growths were no longer a thing, so all it had going for it was the ridiculous boost it gave to enchanting Blessed/Exorcism and the too-generally-useful 'protected by something' effect. Now it's been reworked a bit, to make it fit with the new systems and to make it a bit more roleplay oriented. Now your divine protection requires some divine awareness instead of being always on, as your prayer status needs to be active for it to have a chance of activating.

Let's talk about Prayer a little bit because it's slightly more complicated than it seems. There are a variety of 'religious symbols' in the game now that all represent a different God (5 as of this post). When you use one outside of combat, you begin praying for about 6 seconds, and afterwards you gain a status effect that persists through battles based on what God it is. For example, praying to Mercala will give you some Light ATK and Critical Evade for its duration. Praying to Glycon gives some HP Regen and Status Resistance. And so on. Praying costs 25 Mental Stamina, and you can only have one prayer status active at a time (old ones are overwritten.)

Furthermore, there's a factor to how strong the prayer status is, which is your God Loyalty. God Loyalty is increased by praying to the same God over and over; for example, if I pray to Helondis 5 times in a row, my God Loyalty will be 5, up to a maximum of 100. If I pray to any other God, my loyalty is reset to 0, because I am no longer loyal. When you pray to a God, the power of the prayer is within a certain range, initially LV 1 - 3, determined by roll. As your God Loyalty goes up, so does the minimum and maximum LV, up to a maximum of LV 5, as well as the duration of the status (up to +10 rounds). I wanted to strike a balance between being beneficial for both the staunch followers and the ones who pray to whatever god is relevant to their situation at the time.

Also, praying to a God may have secondary benefits, depending on some other factors. For example, if I pray to Helondis as a Phenex, I also recovery 15% of my maximum FP. If I pray to Mercala as a Curate main class, then everyone in my party without an active prayer status also receives the same status. You can check your religion status by clicking the tablet in the occult box (I want to make a better button for this that isn't just the Faith symbol but no real inspiration hit me.) as shown in the screenshot.

Currently there are 5 different 'religions'; Amiras, Glycon, Mercala, Helondis and Zera. They all have prayer tools that you can buy from shops at various locations. I plan to add more Gods in the future. There's also no 'altars', as described in the text, but I would also like to add those to static locations where appropriate, when possible.

[Neus]

Nothing to say about my love and care towards Devotion, eh? No matter. I'm sure I can get a few of you whining with this new War talent reveal. Technically I previewed this a bit back (and no one really disliked it at the time, oddly), but here it is, officially.


First Aid
1 SP per Rank

• Healing - At the end of a battle, all party members are healed for SR * 2 HP, up to a maximum of 90% maximum HP.
  
• Treatment - At the end of a battle, you automatically treat afflictions party members are suffering from, up to a certain severity based on SR. 1 = Minor, 2 = Moderate, 3 = Major. (Max SR: 3)
  
• Prevention - Decreases the chance of everyone in the party from suffering afflictions in battle, by SR * 10% of the normal chance. (Only the highest Prevention in the party takes effect.)

Medics and Mercalan followers might be interested in this one. Healing's recovery amount is rather low compared to HP values, but it will be useful for low level characters, and it does stack. Plus, if it healed for significant amounts, food would be less useful and I've always been against 'free' sustain. So a little is better than none. As for what Treatment and Prevention are talking about, this also somewhat ties into the Harvest subpath Experienced. Basically, SL2 now has an 'afflictions' system.

This is the health panel, which shows your staminas and hunger, as well as a little booklet of what afflictions you're suffering from. There are four categories; Open Wounds, which are things like cuts and stabs. Skin damage, which are things like burns/etc. Internal damage, which would be things like bruises and broken bones. And Pathogens, which are things like fevers or colds or what have you. In the health panel, you'll see the list of your afflictions; if the text is 'red', it means the affliction is untreated. If it's black, it means it has been. The percentage to the right of the affliction name is how far along it is to being healed.

Afflictions System
What It Is
This is a roleplaying system, mainly, although it does have some impact on combat as well, since it affects your stats in various ways. However, it's intended (and will be balanced around) to not be a huge inconvenience. The simple version; when you take damage, depending on the amount and type of damage, you can suffer from afflictions.

Gaining Afflictions
While in combat, when you take damage, if there's an affliction associated with that damage type, there's a (damage taken/20)% chance that you will suffer from an affliction. The only times this can't happen are during a new PvP setting called 'Sparring', which will prevent wounds from being applied. If you suffer from an affliction, it has a severity linked to the amount of damage dealt; These can be; Minor, Moderate, Major, Severe, Crippling. The severity of the wound is equal to (damage dealt/30), rounded down, to a maximum of 5. It determines how hard it is to treat, as well as the impact it has on your stats. Treated wounds have a much less noticeable impact.

Non-PC entities, such as youkai, mercs, etc. can't suffer from afflictions.

Treated VS Untreated
Wounds have two stages, treated and untreated. When you get a wound, it is untreated (of course). It can be treated using Treatment item(s) which are bought from Hikari (you might be able to craft them as well). Depending on the severity of the wound, you will need from 1 to 3 of the item. You can treat a wound by going into the health panel and clicking the red cross next to the untreated wound's name; you can use the arrows at the bottom to cycle through party members, so you can easily treat the wounds of anyone in your party. Treating a wound also requires a small amount of Mental Stamina depending on the severity, but also grants you a small amount of roleplaying EXP.

Treated wounds and untreated wounds have different effects. For example, let's take a look at this one:

Severe Cut Wound
Effect: -4% Maximum HP. Can become infected.

While untreated, this wound cuts (no pun intended) your max HP by 4%, which can be a lot. It can also become infected, which sounds bad. So let's treat it and see what it does now.

Severe Cut Wound
Effect: -1 Maximum HP

Well, that's a lot better. Now it's hardly even noticeable.

NOTE: Afflictions treated automatically via the Treatment subpath do not cost items or mental stamina, but also do not give roleplaying EXP.

Healing & Infections
Wounds heal naturally over time. This refers to in-game time, not real time; if a wound is treated, it heals -much- faster. The base duration for wounds is (severity level * 5) in-game hours. This may seem a little short and it can be adjusted rather easily if so desired, but that's the number I went with for starters.

Open wounds are special in that they can become infected if left untreated. Bite wounds from monsters are especially dangerous for this, because they can become infected faster. If you let an open wound become infected, several things happen.

1) The duration of the wound is reset, meaning if it would have lasted 10 hours, it now takes 10 more hours to heal.
2) The severity of the wound is increased by up to 3. This will let the wound go into levels of severity not possible from just taking damage, IE if a Crippling Cut Wound gets infected, its severity level goes from 5 to 8.
3) You become inflicted with a fever. Fevers are the worst affliction you can get. Its severity will fluctuate over time, but it decreases both your on-map movement speed as well as the amount of Momentum you receive at the start of your turn; the highest amount a Fever will reduce it by is 3 if it's at the peak of its severity. This means if you are over-encumbered by items, you may not get a chance to fight back against enemies at all. Thus, it's in your best interest to make sure you treat open wounds as soon as possible, and if you find yourself suffering from a fever, to rest for a little while. You can treat fevers like other afflictions, but it only limits the maximum level of severity by half, which is still quite bad compared to other afflictions.

Racial Adjustments
Depending on your race, afflictions might affect you differently.

1) Dullahans and Liches cannot suffer from any afflictions at all, since they don't have normal bodies.
2) Mechanations are immune to open wounds, and by relation, fevers.
3) Shaitans have a 50% less chance to suffer from open wounds due to their unique physiology.

Once the beta is live, if you have any ideas for other, similar racial resistances (or weaknesses) to certain types of afflictions, you should post a suggestion thread. You can discuss it in this thread too but since I'm still finishing everything, you're better off doing as said above (when the beta hits!) so it's fresh and I actually have some time to implement it.

[Egil]

The changes to Devotion seem very fair, since it gives a boon to the religious without being wholly unfair to atheistic characters.

Wounds? I am optimistic but I believe that more variety is in order for different races? Specifically, do Doriads even have blood in order to get infections? Aren't vampires immune to pathogens as well? Etc etc Certain races should have either other issues to deal with instead, like Glykins being able to recover quicjly from infection but more prone to get hurting in the first place.

More racial uniqueness would be very cool. Otherwise, what I see so far is awesome.

[Autumn]

I had nothing more to say about devotion other than I like it, and that's not a very constructive post.

But I don't really mind the injury system, just hope it's implemented well and in a non-annoying way.