Some FB Rules

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Aside from the long list of FB characters, here's the meaningful parts of my FB Rules document.

FB Rules:

Combat Rules

In the process of designing rules for combat, I have selected from numerous game systems and my GMing experience. I hope it is flexible and truly communicates the nature of combat.

Phases of Combat:

I. Initiative:

All characters are placed into a order of combat. Every turn is of differential length depending on the type of combat and the number and variety of people involved. Some characters may be able to act multiple times throughout each round due to a simply amazing preponderance of speed or through skills that allow them a few options to strike. Different characters will also obviously be able to do more with less time.

2. Actions Are Taken:

Characters will now take their active turns in the order prescribed by the initiative phase. It is important to recognize, given later rounds, that these things are happening simultaneously, but for ease of accounting we are segmenting the real time into discrete chunks.

It is important to note that a character can Delay his action. Delayed actions are explained at the end.

3. Intervening or Responding Actions

There are a number of possibilities for characters to assault opponents.

Dodge/Parry/Evasive Action: The potential target of an attack moves out of the way, blocks the strike, or similar. Notice that this is not having a barrier or defense up beforehand that intercepts the strike, but actually taking evasive action of some type.
Intercepting or Simultaneous Attack: Someone who is being targetted can, in lieu of a dodge, attempt to strike at the person hitting them before or simultaneous with the strike. A full success is when the character stops the opponent completely, a partial success typically involves the two characters trading blows, and a failure means the character misses or fails to launch the attack.
Attack of Synergy: After an ally strikes, a sufficiently skilled character may do something automatically to augment the action taken.
Attack of Opportunity: This is taken from the D&D lexicon, as a side note. There are times when someone, say, turns their back to one foe and strikes another, or runs past one enemy to hit one just past them, or so on. In this way, they may incur an automatic attack from the target they are ignoring. This is an advantage, for example, of large melee weapons: though harder to use and bulkier, their longer range allows one to intercept a person with very little difficulty.
Counters/Reaction Abilities: These are abilities triggered by a catalyst event. It may be an automatic counterattack or an automatic minor heal or use of a restorative item after being struck.

4. Delayed Actions:

Those who choose to delay their actions may gain a number of benefits, depending on their Merits.

Boosted Action: The character uses the extra time to wait for others to make their move and gather information. Another version is when someone charges for an ability to be able to launch it with more gusto closer to the end of the actions.
Cooperation Tech: Cooperation Techniques typically require the fastest member of the Cooperation Technique to wait some for the slower members. Delay and timing is essential for Cooperation Techs, and this is in fact their greatest downfall unless they are mastered. Cooperation Techs require a few checks to perform:
1.Knowledge check: All characters involved must know that the other characters are planning to do this particular ability. This means some type of communication must occur. If it doesn't, the Tech is impossible to perform; the player must try something else
2.Timing and synergy check: The two characters must align with each other, performing all the appropriate actions at the right time. This requires a check for each character. Certain Techs have redundancy built into them that allow rerolls or for one or two characters to fail.
3.Normal performance checks:
Enhanced Response: In lieu of taking one's turn or preparing whatsoever using Delay, the character can simply elect not to take their turn and have enhanced opportunities for attacks of opportunity, synergetic attacks, and other responding actions.


Hit Points:

HP is divided into two sections: Vital and Secondary. Think of boxing matches. A number of blows are traded that are undoubtedly painful, perhaps bruising, but nothing life-threatening. After some abuse, however, the body's resilience has been worn down, and real dangers such as knock-out, hemorrhaging, and death can occur. Secondary HP is the HP gained from body hardening, training, even differential stances. It can be battered down with little risk of serious injury. Vital HP, however, is far more connected to race and level than to many other factors. When someone has been beaten down to Vital HP, they are usually suffering some kind of Stamina leak and are at risk of deadly blows.

Resistances:

Formulae for resistance include:
Threshold: Subtracts X damage from the attack. Thresholds are excellent against multiple bursting attacks and multiple opponents.
Percentage: Multiplies (1 - .X) and the damage from the attack. Percentages are reliable, reducing damage by a consistent percentage.
Logarithmic: Reduces damage by some logarithmic scale that reduces larger damages more than smaller damages. For example: A log 10 scale would make 100 damage 2 and 1000 damage 3. Typically, the logarithm is not nearly so drastic, but it does have the benefit of reducing larger damage quite a bit. However, smaller levels of damage are better covered by Threshold or Percentage.
Random: While this is rare, the character for whatever reason may have a randomly shifting defense against a particular attack.

Types of resistance include
Blunt
Blade/Cutting/Tearing
Electricity:
Energy/Laser:
Light/Lumina/Wisp/White:
Fire/Heat/Red/Salamando:
Luna/Moon:
Dryad/Nature:
Darkness/Shade:
Magic:
Mentalic/Charm/Emotion:


Random Encounters:

The bane of RPG fans: random encounters. Though there's a certain kitsch factor to a strange blurring transition screen and battle music kicking up, FB runs a little differently.

A Note About Ongoing Continuities

GMs should feel free to expand FB as they wish to include an incredible variety of foes and quests. After all, the Fate's Guardians don't simply have to fight the All-Monster; that's boring and ignores the whole point for FB. That having been said, a GM doesn't want to make her characters lose track of things or have so many foes to fight that they feel overwhelmed.

It becomes harder when we consider how many continuities we're working with that have not been completed. Just off the top of my head, at the date of this writing, I can think of Naruto, One Piece, Charmed, Inuyasha, Samurai Champaloo, and so on. So what are the alternatives?

Option 1: The GM can put the character's interaction with the continuity after all the relevant events have passed. Characters have settled down, gotten married, maybe had children. The bad guys are mostly gone and things are quiet. (Or maybe not: It depends on the world). This means the characters are typically asking the Fated Ones they're trying to recruit to step out of a comfortable mold and back into a world where death and hardship is a tough reality. A GM can choose this option if:
She wants to reduce the amount of things on her player's plate
She wants to stress the difficulty and intensity of the quest
She wants to reduce her own stress and difficulty by reducing the number of things in operation
Any other broad thematic or metagame reason

The difficulty of option #1 is plausibly predicting what happens after the continuity has told its story. In the case of an ongoing continuity, the GM has to be willing to accept that there's a sporting chance she will get it all wrong.

Option #2: Alternatively, the GM can place the character's arrival at any reasonable part in the continuity's progression. The Fated Ones now meet the main characters (or perhaps vice versa, or perhaps the characters are looking for power and want to, say, find the Shikon Jewel and are totally unaware of Inuyasha) in the midst of the development of the story. The reasons are fairly obviously the opposite of the reasons for #1.

The difficulty here is that the GM has to be willing to plausibly figure out what the impact of adding this ongoing continuity to the FB world will do. Will Avatars become involved? Will existing forces, such as the US/Excelsiors/Monolith/Xenosians, have geopolitical interests? What of economic ties? And so on.
A Note on Lore/Reputation

The FB world does mash together most continuities, yes. And I think I've managed to make it do so in a holistic manner, with logical extrapolations. But there is only so much of this I entertain. Why?

From a writer's perspective: It's simply bad writing to have, say, every demon or demon hunter who encounters Firebrand deliver the same “Oh no, it's the Red Blaze” speech. It gets boring real fast: Yes, we know he's a badass, can we move on already? In this case, I reserve such occasions for when they're important. In the Firebrand/Hiei fight, thematically I wanted to do a few things: Underscore the diametrical nature of the forces that Hiei and Firebrand manipulate even if, to a human eye, they seem remarkably similar in demeanor; establish the stakes around the question surrounding Firebrand's true identity; make it clear why Team Urameshi has a vested interest in winning the fight.

Now, from a more logical perspective. Many anarchists could not tell you if Noam Chomsky, Mikhail Bakunin, John Zerzan, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Rudolf Rocker or Murray Bookchin are anarchists, let alone about what they are defined by within the anarchist movement. This is a small, relatively insular movement that does not have mounds of important names, yet even here ignorance abounds. Many ordinary Americans may not be able to tell you who their representative is, find their state on a borderless map (possibly not even their country), and similar. A few years between teenagers can have massive impacts in terms of what pop star and what pop actor is popular and well-known. In my day, Animorphs and those horrible Goosebumps books were in vogue; now, it's Harry Potter (and thank goodness for the literary upgrade). Avid sports fans may not be able to distinguish between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Pelé. And so on.

It's not that people are ignorant; people typically know an incredible variety of things. It's just that the world is so big that it's hard to keep track. See if you know all these names and their historical significance:

Sir Isaac Newton
Sigmund Freud
Kubla Khan
Immanuel Kant
Lao Tsu
Siddhartha Gautama
Vlad the Impaler
Catherine McKinnon
Cary Grant
Francisco Franco

And so on. Yet all of these have had their impact on history, philosophy, science, etc. etc., and people within these diverse fields (no small number) know their names by heart.

The FB world is like that, but bigger. We're not even discussing galaxies; we're discussing multiple dimensions worth of galaxies, in addition to time and planar travel. There is simply so much to know.

Siva, Vishnu and Brahma may know intimately of the Wyld, Weaver and Wyrm (and if you don't know any of these names, my point should be hitting home), yet that doesn't mean every Hindu will automatically be able to detect Wyrm-taint or comprehend why cities reduce some forms of spiritual activity. A demon who has been cooking in Hell for millenia may not be aware of The Source or the Charmed Ones (again, if you don't know what I'm referring to, my point is being made), despite The Source's incredible significance in demonic affairs.

This is essential for GMs to remember for a few reasons:

1.It lets you keep your players out of the dark regarding your particular campaign. If you decide to have an alliance between Pentex and the All-Monster, say, not every Dick, Harry and John (even in the supernatural community) will even be close to perceiving it. Players can't have it both ways: They can't expect that the villains will be unaware of their plans and that the universe is so massive that they can find anything that they need or want while always having the requisite knowledge to deal with anything you throw at them.
2.It prevents a clusterfuck of quests, characters and equipment falling into the hands of the players just because they may be able to find some tangential way for X one of their characters to know about Y one of their goals. Even when people have encyclopedic knowledge, they don't always instantly draw on it out of convenience, even when it is a matter of life and death. Think about the difficulty many of us have with remembering a song we really liked or a punchline from one of our favorite movies. Now imagine the difficulty these characters must have in remembering a rumor about lost treasure when the team happens to be in a financial jam.
3.It lets you make villains who are vulnerable and attack your heroes' vulnerabilities. Maybe even a team of good demon hunters may never have heard of X demonic tribe or Y spell, and thus will lack the wherewithal to immediately handle a foe the GM has cooked up. Now the players have to creatively utilize the knowledge and resources that their characters and they can scrounge together.
4.It allows you to not have to sketch out an entire world and imagine the conflicts. Yes, so many continuities imagine an underground race of people; no, that does not mean you have to necessarily research every “Mole People” race in all of sci-fi and fantasy and imagine how they'd arrange their geopolitical struggles. If you think this will generate fun quests and will likely throw your players' parties for a loop, go ahead; if it'll cause you a headache, don't worry your pretty little head.
The Universe

(Dimension is width, time is length, planes are height
(Like a funnel branching out from the Big Bang – each universe is an almost unpunctured sphere, a totality – someone shooting an infinite ray could shoot “out” of the sphere but there “is not out” so it disappears or it could wrap around, so space time can be a ton of different things – all these spheres are narrowly linked together on a thick tapestry of beads, dimensional pockets inbetween each spheres

Each one of these whole universes in 'beads' that are in some kind of consistent motion (thus a 'line' of beads, in the wholly geometric sense) has a certain vibration. This vibration accounts for chaos. Even in the same universe, events can play out slightly differently without broaching wholly into another universe because of this slight vibration. One way to identify a dimension or plane is to see the exact form of its vibration.

This perspective helps solve a lot of dilemmas of time travel. Is history alterable? Yes or no. A timeline is never dead, merely less selected. Some actions in the past may

The most important thing to remember is the What If maxim. A close timeline or dimension is something like, “What if Kennedy wasn't shot?” A somewhat further one would be, “What if the Earth was hit by a meteor?” An even further one would be, “What if the Earth was in fact a black hellpit with a 'sun' that could not be seen but nonetheless casted some sort of 'dark light' and was ruled by kings given names of pagan gods from our Earth?” One that's almost impossible to see could be, “What if the Second Law of Thermodynamics went the other way?” And ones that are no longer even separate dimensions but are actually planes are, “I wonder where we go when we die.” or “I wonder where fire comes from.”

It gets worse. The universe is, on some level, sentient. God in this sense is the sheer totality of the universe, the Watchmaker who is also the Watch. As the universe progresses, its various aspects reconcile themselves, hopefully on the side of advancement (advancement meaning the combination of “good” and evil to form a complete unity of all things, rather than wars between good and evil or, worse, domination by evil). That means that the universe can turn a blind eye to some things. It can allow the very laws of life and death to be broken, say, if an evil monster wants to control Fate to cause the destruction of everything and the reshaping of the very fabric of all possible reality to a bizarre combination of tyranny, chaos and destruction.

Types of Planes/Dimensions:

Things become way weirder when you begin to factor in bizarre types of planes or dimensions. To stick with the metaphor of a massive conical tapestry of beads ballooning outwards in all directions: Many of these types of dimensions are found in weird places, some linked to another VERY far away bead by the same thread, others trapped inbetween beads, etc. Please note: Some of these categories overlap, others don't make sense. Trust me, this all works out.

Afterlives: Hoo boy, there's an assload of these. When “souls” (i.e. combined mystic residue) leave their corporeal trappings, they go a ton of places in the Spirit Realms. These places are everything from the Judeo-Islamo-Christian Heaven to Valhalla to the Happy Hunting Grounds to the Plains of Elysium to the Banbar kingdom of the Dash Empromo Ulcre. The afterlife portion of the Spirit Realms is a scary, nasty place to be. Wraiths, ghosts, undead of all types either have their essences stored there or are fully there. Winds of oblivion randomly pick up. Time doesn't mean anything; every person who walks through it tells an incredibly different tale. In that sense, the afterlives themselves are islands of sanity: typically ruled by gods or some underlying force, safe and sound, with rules. Shamans are in high demand all over the Spirits Realms, but especially here. There's only a limited number of Valkyries, angels, Hermes', and other divine guides and messengers out there, and most of these are on call to a particular afterlife and their servants. Those who are neutral parties (shamans, planeswalkers, masters of astral projection, bodhisattvas, or just people with the sheer paranormal power to do what they damn well please) can extract a pretty penny for those who wish to travel through the lands of the dead.

Demon Realms: Extricating these from Afterlives is pretty hard. Hell is so connected to Heaven; the giants to Asgard; etc. However, not only are these places also complex innately, but there are realms that are connected to them and similar to them but are not connected to an Afterlife. Oftentimes, they are connected to actual physical worlds. For example: In Yu Yu Hakusho, the human world is governed by the spirit world, while the demon world is parallel to the human world, diagonal and under the spirit world, and under the now-defunct Netherealms. If this sounds complex, it's not, it's a simple square. Writing out a complete list of every relevant demon kingdom, powerful god who slayed demons and thus changed the Hells/Hades'/Demon Realms, etc. etc. is a task that has driven many good men mad.

Elemental/Ideal Planes: These are planes that are simply incarnations of some powerful concept: Fire, love, what have you. There are indeed planes of the Ideal Chair or the Ideal Desert Eagle, but these are mundane, hard to find and not really worth the time (at least, until Forbidden abilities enter the picture). Note that there are Elemental Shadow or Mirror dimensions: Worlds that are not simply the mirror of something, but the very concept of Mirror or Shadow. Those are scary places. In these dimensions, the nature of fact is rather up to challenge: Is there a fire kingdom named R'afhaa? Maybe, maybe not, depends on who you're talking to, why are you on fire? That means that all those smarmy Rifters you have that tell you about the Shadow Realms aren't really that useful. Hell, even the Afterlife is a matter of much furious debate.

Shadow/Mirror Dimensions: These types of dimensions are typically shadowy versions of another relevant dimension. Sometimes, they are completely opposite; other times, some things are identical and others opposite; other times, things are just very disturbingly different and darker (or lighter, depending on the dimension and on which way you're looking). These dimensions typically require special spells to get to. Dimensional barriers that separate these types of dimensions are typically given cool names like Mirrorwalls or Shadowbreaches, but they're pretty much very, very goddamn thick dimensional walls created by the similarity of the two dimensions despite their incredible distance in terms of the “What If” maxim.


Time Guardians:

Sometimes, people really do wreak havok with the timestream. Kids who develop time machines sometimes like to do pranks: kill their grandma, go back in time and plant a tree, etc. Most of the time, a little creative chaos factor control deals with this, but other times, entire timelines must be erased, memories must be altered, miscreants must be fought, etc. There are many who devote themselves to defending time: generic guardians who cover all the bases, mad scientists, rogue magicians, good creatures of magic, and so on. But there is a small group who do the job full time. They are typically living creatures of time: the being known as Techmage is the prime example.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Equipment

Treasure of Trials

Vile Gloves: These gloves look like intimidating dragon leather and, upon identification or initial inspection, contain massive powers.
Trap:
When the gloves are put on, they manifest a horrific series of teeth, suckers, acid, and so on, making themselves into a magical stomach and mouth! The character must defeat the gloves by whatever means they can: smashing the gloves against the wall, breath or eye weapons, attempting to slash one hand with the other, magic, whatever. If they can do so, the Vile Gloves are defeated and become a permanent part of the character's body.
Abilities:
The character can at any time emulate shark's dentricles, acid, or similar in their grasping or fist attacks.
The character gains bonuses to manual dexterity and fine work.
The character can block attacks with their hands and gain bonuses to their punching damage.
The character gains Alter Limb for their arms, able to change their forearms to blades, shields, and guns.
The character gains Eschew Somatic Gestures and also gain bonuses to hand seals or hand gestures.

Coal Dancer/Body Building Equipment

An entire series of items, magical and otherwise, have been developed for those fastiduous martial artists who demand new ways of toughing up their bodies. All such items do have disadvantages if the character is caught off guard while wearing them, but fighting with these items on boosts Exp and grants automatic ABP towards relevant abilities. (As an aside: Ideas from this can also be used for disadvantages or curses for magical items, which can make body hardening specialists quite happy in that they get a useful magic item, a body hardening aid and a cheaper product. It should also be noted that enough experience with magic Body Building equipment can be used to derive experience from cursed items).

Gradual Damage Wear: While appearing in a variety of forms, the fundamental idea of this type of wear is the same. Upon physical contact or use of a power word, the item does gradual damage, usually both painful and actually injurious, to the body, in the hope that doing so will develop the character's resistances.
Uses:
Develop a general pain and damage resistance
Raise particular damage resistances and thresholds
Possibly used to intimidate or demonstrate power
Raising Experience
Types:
Heat/fire (gradual burning)
Poison (gradual low doses of poison)
Harm (simple damage)
Cold/ice (gradual exposure to cold)
Gravity (rarer; a type of gravitic magic designed to do damage; sometimes also worn as Personal Gravity Enhancers)
Lightning (gradual shocking)
Sound/vibration (low intensity vibrations or damaging sounds)
Acid (low intensity acid; leaves the skin raw and pitted, so curing spells will be handy)
Disease (a light infection)
Eating (items that slowly swallow the character)
Dynamic?: Sometimes. Most items of this type do not adjust to their wearer's new resistances, meaning they become eventually obsolete and are usually sold or given; but some (such as most of Xenocratis' designs) adjust to match the growing power of the wearer.
Other Modifications:
Logarithmic resistance lowering: The garment reduces the resistance to the relevant damage on a logarithmic scale, making the item less likely to turn obsolete.
Harm others: The garment or item can be made into a double edged sword, sometimes literally. A character could get a sharp blade that does incredible damage but also harms the wielder with every strike.
Disadvantages:
If the character is forced into a dangerous situation with this item on, they will have reduced resistance thresholds (since some of the resistance is going to combat the baneful effects of the armor), slower regeneration, and other disadvantages concurrent with being slowly attacked.

Projectile Attracting Wear: By inverting Protection from Normal Missiles, the character's garment or item becomes a virtual magnet for projectiles! The degree to which this is the case may differ. Smart characters can design this spell less as body hardening and more as an intelligent item: perhaps by designing a tall hat or a plume on a helmet to divert the bullets to some place where they shall do no damage, or making a shield absorb arrows.
Uses
Make the wearer a projectile damage sponge for the party
Harden the body
Dynamic?: Rarely.
Other Modifications:

Disadvantages
Patently obvious ones.

Unconventional Melee and Ancient Weapons

Rasp Stick: The Banbar use thick staffs with rasped edges.

Rubber Weapons:

Paradox Line: A trapped timeline in a gun
Magic

Magic is divided into roughly three categories.

Common spells are spells that are simple enough or within most mages' repertoire so that they can be cast by virtually any spellcaster. For example, the Fire spells are basic magical effects that can be learned by almost any magician and further are incredibly common on Hael and abroad. Other spells, such as Haste and Slow, while not simple spells, can be emulated by any number of schools of magic and thus should be considered Common. Some classes, such as Dweomer Mages or shamans/priests, eschew either partially or completely common spells, but unless noted otherwise, most classes will be able to access these spells. (For convenience's sake, common spells are listed first independently and then in their respective schools. This does mean some spells will be listed multiple times.)

School spells are spells that are specialized so that a spellcaster must be of that school to cast them. School spells are overwhelmingly not the domain of one type of spellcaster. They instead are focused spell energies that are difficult to channel and thus require the spellcaster to have some degree of focus in that area. Common spells listed under Schools are stronger than the Common version. Clearly, an Earth Warlock casting Stoneskin will be far more potent per level than a Black Mage.

Discipline spells are spells that can only be cast by a small group of spellcasters, usually a specific class or group of classes. Those use these spells often think of themselves not as ordinary magicians but as a member of a very elite fraternity or sorority, or are the result of different cultures, occupations or species trying their hands at magic. Biological limitations, such as in the case of Dolphin spells, may make even learning these Discipline spells excruciatingly difficult. Other times, the spells are doled out by a small group or a higher power and thus membership is tightly controlled.

Schools:
Biomancy
Cognition and Perception
Conveyance
Curing and Restoration
Elemental Magic
Illusion
Ki Arcanism and Jutsus
Mechanical and Technological
Metamagic
Nature Magic
Necromancy
Ocean Magic
Spatial and Scientific
Summoning
Temporal
Transmutation
Umbral

Disciplines:
Trapping Elements
Axis Magic
Koral Shaping
Storyfishing
Cloud Magic
Dolphin Magic/Spellsongs
Culinary Spells
Vampire Blood Magic

Magic-Specific Glossary:

Innate Magic Ability: An ability of magical nature that can accrue to a particular race, class or character.

Magic-User: Anyone who uses magic on a regular basis. This does not include those who use magic weapons and items but it does include magicians, Magis, talented individuals who can channel magic without formal training, fairies, supernatural beings, etc.

Magician: Refers to anyone who uses spells. Being a magic-user is a necessary but not sufficient condition for being a magician.

Stack: A case where two or more spells are operating simultaneously. Some spells can be cast so that one supersedes the other after duration, some can be cast for cumulative benefits, some can be cast for reduced cumulative benefits, and some cannot be cast on top of each other whatsoever. More experienced spellcasters will be able to stack more spells and keep more duration-based spells in play at any one time.

Spell: In general, a specific form of magic energy codified in some transferable form and not an innate ability of a race or class.

How Is Magic Cast?

A full discussion of the sources of the four Affinities can be found elsewhere. In general, spells are different from innate magical abilities, though in game terms the two may be identical as far as their immediate effects. Spells are formalized constructions of magic energy to produce specific effects. Some combination of hand gestures, arcane phrases, and symbolic or energy-holding components (herbs, incenses, holy symbols, wands, crystals, talismans, etc.) serve to channel magic into recognizable and useful forms.

In general, some of the following techniques are usually followed:
Chanting: The character will utter some arcane chant, perhaps a fast series of various phrases (like in Naruto), a wide hodgepodge of words (like in traditional casting), a rhythmic chant (like the Tao Magicians from Outlaw Star), or power words (like DBZ, Sailor Moon, etc.) The problem with chanting is that more complex spells usually have much more verbage to get through, and considerations such as timing of phrases, speed, precise enunciation, and similar come into play.
Somatic Gestures: Any kind of physical motion, usually from the hands but not always, that gathers magical energy. Somatic gestures hold a lot of promise. Certain spellcasters have found ways of enhancing their X-Magic abilities by casting spells from the arms and legs or even from individual fingers and toes, and of creating katas that incorporate their somatic gestures. Some spellcasters can also cast more spells if their gestures increase in speed: Naruto ninjas, for example, using hand seals corresponding to certain animal symbols to channel chakra either for magic or ki purposes.
Space Creation: Things like painting a protection circle, sprinkling various aromatic substances, writing runes on walls, and so on help to channel the ambient energy in particular forms and directions and thus facilitate better spell casting. Space creation usually is used for rituals for obvious reasons and helps to enhance the duration and potency.
Material Components: By burning, shattering, mixing, drinking, or doing any number of other things to certain components (gems, incenses, potions, stones, pieces of a target's body or important personal effects, etc.), the mage is able to represent a monetary or personal sacrifice made in the acquisition of the objects as well as tap into certain symbolisms and use innate molecular and chemical properties of the object to bridge the gap between the real and the magic world.
Wand or Focus: Spellcasters often require some form of wand, rod, staff, or other spellcasting implement.

Where Does Magic Come From?

The magical energy that a sorcerer can draw upon can come from a few sources:
The magician's own energy supplies. Usually, mages cultivate some degree of internal magic energy. All objects have magic moving through them, and through training, experience and the acquisition of power, the mage expands the internal energy in her body. Both efficiency and amount of energy play into the number called “MP”. A mage can become more efficient at MP usage in general – this leads to an increase in the amount of MP, which is determined by multiplying the magician's waste rate (usually below 1) by her amount of available energy. If a mage becomes more efficient in a specific school, then that is represented in cost decreases for that school but not represented in a rise in the MP total in general.
Ambient magical energy. Magic flows almost everywhere, and a magician can use this ambient magic to refill her own stock, make the magic energy move through a medium (magic, like light, needs no medium to move through, but unlike light benefits from the presence of one) and thus let the energy build, and so on.
Batteries of magical energy. These can be talismans, scrolls, special items, or similar.
Chrono Cross Elements. These are unique to the Chrono Trigger world and are spells that are placed into purchaseable slots called Elements. Elements are insubstantial, but can be traded, bought, and sold like items. However, their power and the amount that can be equipped at one time is dependent on the magic-user's level.
Drawn Spells (see the relevant sections on Guardian Forces and Drawing).
Energy doled out by a higher power or ideal. Some priests or shamans partially or completely are dependent on this.

What of Magic Null Zones?

Some areas are null zones or even nega-zones of magical energy. In these areas, magic energy is either not present, is so dormant as to be effectively not present, or is actually of a negative parasitic form.

Magicians with the Growing Mana Merit have a type of magic energy that slowly regenerates without external magic flow. These individuals can regenerate magical energy even in null zones. They may even be able to regenerate energy in anti-magic zones if their regeneration rate is high enough.

Spells in anti-magic or null-magic zones will behave differently. Sometimes, the caster's spell style is sufficiently riddled with errors and/or not redundant enough (see the section on efficient vs. inefficient casters) that spells fizzle or worse, malfunction. Duration spells may see their durations cut down substantially or eliminated, depending on the functioning of the spell. Ranges and damage will be cut down because of the lack of a medium. Spell costs are likely to go up, and so on. Depending on the severity of the conditions, the area could hamper spellcasting or make it impossible. As noted earlier, magic is like light in that it can travel without a medium; it is unlike light in that it prefers not to.

Also note that all living beings generally require at least very slightly non-negative TP, MP, KP, and PP to survive. Effects such as the Dim Mak death touch and soul leakage can occur when someone's Affinities are reduced below zero. These null zones can therefore be deadly even to fighters.

What Happens with High Waste Rates?

Some magicians or magic-users have massive amounts of energy but very little efficiency in using that energy. While their MP will be identical to a similar but more efficient caster who has less reserves of mana, spell style will be different. It is often the case that the inefficient user is less graceful, in control, and so on.

There are upsides. Someone with lots of energy can be hard to drain from and does best with spells that one can simply throw more energy into. Spells that have direct conversions in units of power per MP point are best, for example.

But a magician who is this inefficient is less in control of her energy. Repeated spell casting will leave at lower levels a magical residue, a trail that the experienced can follow. This is simple waste energy that is recycled back into the magic supplies of the universe. It has a distinct “aroma” that experienced stalkers can immediately detect. Worse, at higher levels, the magician will begin to generate effects not unlike in anime such as Dragon Ball Z. While magic is usually relatively free of blinding auras of light and massive expulsions of force resulting from the simple usage of the energy, truly inefficient yet powerful spell casters can create such an event. Such energy can be used by others or can create unpredictable effects.

There are a number of Merits, both Unique and Common, to deal with waste energy after it has been created, but it is in general more worthwhile to reduce it by becoming more efficient.

And Efficient Spell Casters?

Efficient casters do gain a number of advantages. Their style tends to be very polished and hard to interrupt, their energy is very clean, and some spells require a substantial amount of efficiency or they begin to incur MP penalties.

Yet if a player has to choose between developing efficiency or energy, it is not always best to go with efficiency. Efficiency is very hard to cultivate. It does not top at 100%, oddly enough, but even reaching 90%+ is an incredible feat that most sorcerers only dream of. Cultivating efficiency also means that the amount of raw energy available is smaller. In cases where there is a one-to-one transfer, for example, raw energy is useful. Also, in cases where the user is being drained, while a more efficient spell caster generally gains a higher saving throw, they will be more harmed if the drain attack is successful.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Also note that efficient spell casters may strike redundant energies for ease of use, but in the case of chaos effects (such as Fred's Power Magnet or intelligent usages of Osmose, Warped Space, Dweomer Magic curses, being surprised or confused, etc.), those lost redundancies are essential. Costless Redundancies: Magical Merit will be essential for these spellcasters.

What Spells Can Be Read and Scribed?

Most Common and School Spells can be written down and transferred to those mages who can read magic. Bear in mind that not every magician can read the complex hodgepodge of variant languages and symbols that make up magical tracts, nor can every magician use this information usefully even if they can read it. Shamans and mystics, for example, often can only gain new spells through different means: spirit quests, gifts from gods or elementals or demons, experience, inspiration, and similar. To them, the scrolls and books of normal spellcasters are useless: they cast spells differently and amass and process magical energies differently. This does not mean that they can learn nothing from any style of written scrolls or books. For example, shamans and mystics of all types can read the Banbar Siprt-e-Sicrpt language and learn spells from it if they learn the language. In this sense, Siprt-e-Sicrpt is the analog of shamans to the written language of wizards. Even normally written scrolls can give some idea or inspiration or advice on how to cast the spell in question. A shaman could read a scroll on Lightning 3, and while not learning the spell because he has not yet intuitively derived it or done a spirit quest for it, could nonetheless draw some tips for channeling the lightning and thus make the search easier. Other times, the mage will simply not know the relevant Hebrew, runic, Latin, Chinese, Japanese, Muslim, African, etc. phrase. Note that these spells can be rewritten, not by direct translation generally but by careful uses of analogous symbols. That is, one can find a Fire 2 scroll written in Swahili, French, English, and Hebrew relatively easily. Many can scribe a spell, but spell translators capable of turning spells from one medium or language to another are rare indeed.

Discipline spells are trickier. Even when they can be codified, they often make no sense to those not of the Discipline. Spellsongs and Dolphin Magic, for example, could be scribed by bards or dolphins in some appropriate manner, but it would only be useful to those who could read magical music notation or understand clicks and whistles. Others must be learned by intuition, spirit quests, exploration, and experience. A scroll on the topic would only be vague hints and ideas.

Scrolls can be made of virtually any spell, even Discipline spells, and be in any language, but that is because a scroll is similar to a magical grenade. Scrolls contain magical energy sufficient to power the spell: they are essentially a heuristic of the spell. Just as a heuristic only is useful if one understands the methodology to get to the proof, so is a scroll only useful for learning only if one can understand the language and the methodology of the school or discipline evoked. However, to use the scroll as a spell charge once (afterwards, the scroll either crumbles or loses all magic and becomes useful only to those who read, and even then only of much less utility) requires much less experience. Some scrolls can be used by anyone who can read and pronounce the words; others can be used by those with some small degree of magical experience.

It should be noted that, because scrolls are of mixed intent, reading from them and failing to understand can often lead to the magician destroying the scroll or at the least not being able to use it. Good spellbooks not only describe exactly how to do the spell, but why certain elements are chosen, where to put emphasis, how the spell can be inverted or changed, and other commentary. Some spells will be a sentence long and have two pages of commentary.

What Role Do Spellbooks Play?

For some more ideas, see What Is Magic An Analog To? For now, we shall use the music analogy. Imagine learning a new song. Even with sheet music in front of you and an understanding of sheet music, you may bumble or play a passable but by no means phenomenal song. With practice, the song will tighten up, and eventually you will have memorized it and will no longer need the sheet music. Yet you may keep the sheet music around, either to boost your performance or to make sure you don't forget.

Magic is much like this. When learning a new spell, having the book in front of you (and not simply a list of gestures, words and components, but also explanation of how the energy can be used in arcane terminology and a list of similar spells, if one truly wishes to make a useful spellbook) is quite useful. Some magicians are better at memorizing spells. Like jazz musicians, they memorize a few songs and get better at improvisation. Others are more like classical musicians and play from sheet music more heavily. Both usually learn the spell.

Some spells do wipe themselves from the user's memory after casting. Only with greater experience will the memory be retained. And some magicians have a limit to how many spells they can memorize at any one time. Just as an inexperienced piano player will not be able to memorize twenty complex songs, so too will an inexperienced wizard not be able to memorize twenty spells except perhaps for cantrips (the equivalent to scales or arpeggios).

There are a few levels of mastery of any particular spell:

1.None: The spellcaster simply does not know this spell and could not cast it, except perhaps in scroll form.
2.Heuristic: The spellcaster could learn and cast the spell with relative ease from a scroll or book, but right now does not know the spell. If they had the book in front of them, they could make either a weaker spell or a spell with a much longer casting time than usual.
3.Learning: The spellcaster now may be able to cast the spell without the spellbook at the same level of proficiency as the Heuristic level with a spellbook. They can cast the spell with it in front of them at fairly close to normal level of proficiency.
4.Memorized: The spellcaster can cast the spell normally. The spellbook is useful for polishing the spell.
5.Master: The spellcaster can write a thesis on this spell. At this point, they can scribe the spell for others, and their spellbook copy is simply for posterity and for notes as to cast the spell with even more efficiency. The spell is more potent than an average caster or an average scroll.

Most magicians will begin a new spell at least at Learning if not at Memorized, mainly because they will be researching a spell that is easy for someone at their level of experience. Both shamans and magicians can reach for spells that are possible but difficult at their level of experience. Magicians can do so by acquiring powerful scrolls or spellbooks or seeking guilds/pacts with outside forces, shamans by taking dangerous spirit quests or seeking out powerful supernatural forces.

I'm Concerned About Certain Spells Stacking. How Do I Deal With It?

This can be a problem. If a smartass magician stacks Armor of Ithan, Invincible Armor, Mage Shield, Mage Armor, Protection from Missiles, etc., they may become very difficult to harm. How can a GM rectify this?

1.Not All Spells Will Operate Concurrently: In the above example, Protection from Normal Missiles would not prevent Armor of Ithan and Invincible Armor from being damaged by ranged attacks. Only when the barriers are destroyed would Protection from Normal Missiles take effect.
2.Magicians Have Limits To The Number of Duration-Based Spells: Any mage can only form so many spells that have a duration at any one time. The mage's will, though not being actively enforced, nonetheless has limits, and even if a number of low-cost spells could be cast without depleting the mage's MP supply, he may not be able to cast all of them at the same time.
3.Some Spells Can Only Be Stacked Finitely: It requires massive skill to be able to arrange multiple barriers, for example, in some logical order. If a player tries to stack too many spells, they can be forced to make a Spellcraft roll and thus see if their character can figure out a clever way of accomplishing the goal. If not, any number of penalties could ensue: the magic energy being wasted, the spell simply fizzling and not working with no further effect, two barriers colliding and destroying each other, etc.

These are guidelines to prevent magicians from creating truly unstoppable combinations of lower level spells. Multiple defensive spells should be used intelligently for different purposes, not as a “stack everything together and watch as we become invulnerable” attempt.

What Is Magic An Analog To?

Magicians use a number of differing analogies to describe their art.

Some say that magic is like music. Like music, magic can be found in an infinite variety, not all of which is pleasing to everyone to learn or hear. A layman can read magic scrolls and not understand a thing, just as a layman can recognize sheet music but not be able to play from it. Like music, improvisation plays a role, but there is something to be said for learning formally and codifiying the art into a language. Like music, differences in style between two practitioners in the same song can be massive and obvious, and practice is essential.

Others compare magic to weaving. A mage picks and chooses particular threads of energy. They attempt to force order out of chaos by taking scattered strings and forming them into something new and beautiful.

Cryptography is a relatively uncommon but interesting one. Like in cryptography, the same phrase can be said in a million different codes and yet still have the same effect. Yet there are differences between codes, some harder to break, some easier. And some phrases do acquire their meaning from context.

Art is also often used as an analogy. The magician will use raw materials and even sometimes literally paint or create art.

Cooking is sometimes compared to magic. One splices together ingredients (energy, in this case) to produce new effects. In both cooking and magic, there is a technical language to be learned when reading cookbooks (or scrolls), but even if one can read the recipe (or scroll), one may not be able to carry it out.

How Powerful A Force Is Disbelief Against Magic?

For someone to use a force, someone must generally believe in it. Even if someone is born with natural magic talent, it will rarely progress to anything spectacular unless the person stops believing in coincidences and starts exploring their abilities. In that sense, disbelief on the part of the caster can be deadly, at least in formative stages. Later, perhaps through trickery, a mage could not “believe” in magic and quite possibly be able to cast it. Perhaps they believe it is a superpower or something similar. (Bear in mind that this would not be unimportant. Even if the magician's powers were very close to a superpower's, the source of the energy being Magic and not Tech would have real implications).

Individuals who don't believe in magic can sometimes gain benefits to saving throws, but it is rare for someone to be able to disbelieve a fireball. However, some beings, such as Nega-Psychics, are able to exert their disbelief and will to wish away magical effects, with real efficacy. But these individuals are quite rare.

What if an entire society does not believe in magic? Magic is both like and is not like electricity. Like electricity, it does exist irrespective of human belief and can incarnate despite the preferences of sentients; unlike electricity, the form it takes and its power can be affected by disbelief. Magic also can go through phases, which can establish a vicious cycle. Waning magic reduces people's belief, which in turn causes magic to wane ever more. However, a society that is open-minded, encourages creativity, is freedom loving or curious, or similar can enrich or at least not affect magic even if they do not believe in it or find reason to take it into account.

Ironically, some magicians like to go to areas where magic is not believed in. Why? Their rivals will not know what hit them; local authorities will have difficulty tracing or explaining the effects; but, most importantly, an area with a lack of belief is one where there is often a build-up of unused magical energy.

How Can Spells Be Powered?

Spell casters can choose a few routes to cast spells. Most spell casters have a battery of energy, wherein each spell depletes a certain amount of that battery. Some spell casters, however, notably those trained on Faerun or other Dungeons and Dragons worlds, instead use spells cast per time period. In this case, they take advantage of the symbological and energetic significance of per-day (or similar) time spaces in order to divvy up their spells.

The first type of spellcaster has obvious advantages. It is relatively easy to use Ethers or similar restorative items to restore magic if it is not divvied up into discrete chunks as in the case of per-day casters. A spellcaster of this ilk can also sometimes regenerate enough energy in battle to cast an emergency spell. They also tend to be able to more effectively use abilities like Life Source or Stamina Source to power their magic, as the conversion between two point systems is easier than between one point system and a per-time-period system.

But per-day casting does have its advantages. The symbolic importance of time periods cannot be overlooked in magic, and these spell casters also tend to be able to more effectively maximize the effect of equinoxes, solstices, full moons, eclipses, or other cosmological and astrological effects on magic. Per-day casters also can exhaust much more of their spell supply at one time. A reasonable Faerun Wizard can cast Fire 2, Lightning 2, Barkskin, Stoneskin, Ice 2, Magic Missile, Mage Armor, Mage Shield, Protection from Normal Missiles, Safe, and Shell without exhausting themselves whatsoever. Per-day slots are also somewhat harder to drain or eliminate, though easier to disable. And when the time period is complete, the spellcaster usually regenerates quite a bit of their spell casting abilities.

Notice that this is not a matter of differences in memorization. Wizards in Dungeons and Dragons do cast mostly from a spellbook, and are thus among the most flexible spellcasters in terms of reading new scrolls and adding them to their repertoire (superior even to the normally unmatched Ley Line Walker). Sorcerers, on the other hand, learn a certain amount of spells per level but have limited abilities at reading new scrolls. Both, however, use per-day limitations.

Also note that some spellcasters do not use either system. Those from Lennus (Paladin's Quest), for example, simply power spells through HP. Others from Arcanum power spells with their stamina, the same physiological energy that can be depleted by running or engaging in strenuous activity. Some fairies can cast spells with virtually no limitation except that they cannot cast the same spell on the same person twice in a particular time period. Those from the planet of Final Fantasy 8 could Draw a limited number of spells from opponents. And so on.

These abilities can also be used in combination with the appropriate training and Merits. One could, for example, be trained as a Lennus Spiritualist, a Faerun Wizard, a Faerun Sorcerer, a Secret Mystic and a Ley Line Walker and thus have a wide variety of ways to power their spells.

How Does Drawing and Junctioning Work In This Context?

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the mechanics of Drawing and Junctioning, see any FAQ on Final Fantasy 8. I will only briefly go over the relevant applications.

It should be noted that Drawing is fundamentally designed to be a replacement for formal spell casting. For whatever reason, the world from which Drawing and Guardian Forces hailed from was a world almost bereft in magic; only a few (Edea, most notably) seemed capable of normal magic as seen on Hael, Rifts Earth, MD Earth and elsewhere. Essentially, with a finite amount of magic in the world, paranormal combat erupted to stockpile whatever magic was there.

Though some may think having 99 slots of Ultima in store is nonetheless useful, a few things should be noted. For one, Drawing was only cultivated by the Guardian Forces. The limitation should be obvious, but see Guardian Forces under the Summon section for more exploration of other weaknesses. Also, for whatever reason, that planet had not developed ways of shielding one's paranormal stockpiles, yet most other worlds do so quite extensively. Someone reliant on Drawing may therefore find a dearth of appropriate slots. (More experienced Draw experts can, however, effectively disable spellcasters, particularly those running on per-day training). Drawing and casting Drawn spells is also a drain on Technique (which goes a long way to explain that that world also was almost bereft of Techniques aside from those granted by the Guardian Forces), risky, not too likely to get anything useful from most monsters (most monsters will carry at best a smattering of spells from the Common selection), limited both in that the stockpiles don't regenerate and in that the stockpiles have a finite cap, and in general inferior to ordinary ways of spell casting. Draw also is limited in what type of spells it can dredge up. (However, where Drawn spells are sold, they are often far cheaper than even scrolls, an obvious upside).

Drawing is useful in that it can be used to Junction far more effectively than normal magic. Junctioning is the process of attaching spells to one's attributes to boost them in appropriate manners. When Junctioning, limitations on the spells Junctioned are incurred. Aside from the fact that Junctioning is in general also Guardian Force dependent, Junctioning a spell limits its use and reduces its power or limits the available MP of the Junctioner.

Someone who both Draws and learns spell magic normally may, through enough repetitions, learn the spell.

Common

Normal

Aero 1:

Aero 2:

Aero 3:

Agility-Up:

Armor of Ithan: A more armor-shaped shield of energy. It is identical to Barrier in most ways, but it is better for efficient characters. It has a longer duration but is harder to cast on others.

Attribute Source: This spell allows one to temporarily lower their attributes in order to gain magic energy.

Barrier: A spherical shield of energy that absorbs physical and energy blows. It will not absorb telekinetic effects happening inside the barrier, curses, or any other “conjure-on-target” effects. Barrier tends to have a MP-HP conversion, making it better for less efficient mages.

Barkskin: The character gains a bonus to physical and water damage resistance. In addition, for combat purposes, their skin has a mild abrasive effect.

Bio:

Blinding Flash: A very low cost spell that simply generates a sudden, blinding flash of light.

Charismatic Aura: Spells that raise non-physical attributes like Intelligence and similar are much harder than spells that raise physical attributes (Strength, Agility, etc.) or skill-based attributes (Guts, etc.) Charismatic Aura, therefore, does not actually boost Charisma, but instead makes a magical buff that serves to augment the mage's existing Charisma. In this sense, it bears more resemblance to an illusion spell than an attribute-modifying spell.

Cleanse: When cast, this spell will clean a certain area of grime, rust, and similar. A character's clothes and body will become clean and pristine, a car will be shining as if waxed, a gun will be polished and completely clean of clogs. It does not clean any more than superficial problems. Dust or other clogging items in pipes (such as in a car), unclean guns, clothing, skin, and so on will be cleaned, but not anything more than superficial dents, rips, scratches, and so on. Cleanse in general only uses the equivalent of readily available soaps, detergents, and so on. If a wound is infected, it will clean the irritant, but not necessarily cure the wound.

Cloak of Deception: A type of invisibility that shields from most optics, basic invisibility-detection skills, most motion detection and echolocation, and covers up footprints and fingerprints, but wears off the moment the character makes a violent motion.

Cloud of Smoke: Generates a dense cloud of smoke over a wide area. It is not as thick as real smoke, so one can breathe somewhat more easily, but it is as blinding and painful. It also generates a normal heat signature.

Cure 1:

Cure 2:

Cure 3:

Cure 4:

Defense-Up: The spell raises the defense of the character. Defense-Up, unlike Mage Armor, does stack with worn armor.

Fire 1

Fire 2

Fire 3

Freeze 1: Unlike Ice spells, which do cold-based damage and have a freezing effect as a secondary aspect, Freeze uses

Freeze 2:

Freeze 3:

Globe of Daylight: Generates a spherical field of daylight. It can be made into almost a daylight missile, moving on until something sufficiently absorbs or diffuses the light; an instantaneous or very brief burst of sunlight; or a long-lasting sphere around the caster that can be moved around within a limited area. As true sun-light, it will harm vampires vulnerable to sunlight and reveal demons and similar, but it has no other special qualities.

Haste:

Ice 1:

Ice 2:

Ice 3:

Invisibility:

Lantern Light: Generates a small lantern-like sphere of light that travels with the spellcaster and can be transferred like a normal item during its duration. It is equivalent to a low light lantern and thus does not generate sunlight.

Life Source: A spellcaster operating under the influence of this spell can convert their Hit Points into Magic Points. Hit Points used in this manner are much harder to cure (so no Life Sourcing to be able to cast a full heal spell), and the process is reasonably painful.

Lightning 1:

Lightning 2:

Lightning 3:

Mage Armor: A spell that emulates normal armor (kevlar, plate, etc.) depending on the power of the mage, but is superseded if normal armor is worn. For example: If the Mage Armor is equivalent to full kevlar and the recipient of the magic wears partial kevlar, they will only get the bonus of full kevlar, not the bonus of both concurrently. Mage Armor offers no skill penalties or bonuses, does not conflict with armor

Mage Shield: A spell that emulates a shield and raises the effective armor of the recipient. Unlike Mage Armor, Mage Shield does stack with armor. Mage Armor and Mage Shield can be worn concurrently.

Magic Missile: A stock spell. Magic Missile launches a certain number of low-damage, difficult to intercept missiles depending on the user's level. It is a great, very efficient spell and can either target one or many opponents.

Muddle/Confuse: A spell that will induce a Confuse status effect if the target fails a saving throw. In general, it can only muddle or confuse things with a modest amount of intelligence. Most spellcasters can only confuse organisms including humans and other organic sentient beings, birds, mammals, insects, etc. In the case of insects or flocks that are swarming together, one can confuse the communal mind of the flock. Depending on the swarm, internal warfare or a partial or complete dispersal can occur. Spellcasters can, with experience or the proper specializations, extend Muddle/Confuse to automata such as Golems, truly alien or supernatural beings like elementals, or artificial intelligences. Items animated consciously by others (for example, telekinetically hurled items) cannot be muddled, nor can anything that is not sentient in some way.

Poison:

Powerball: A simple detonating sphere of energy. It has a moderate conversion factor.

Protection from Normal Missiles: Either reduces or neutralizes the damage from normal arrows, slingshot bullets, crossbow bullets, firearm bullets, etc. Grenades, rockets, energy blasts, and so on will operate normally.

Shocking Touches/Grasp: A spell that imbues electric damage into hand to hand attacks.

Sleep:

Slow:

Stamina Source: Magicians operating the influence of this spell can turn their stamina directly into mana. This is distinct from using Endurance as the focus for Attribute Source. Just as hit points are derived from Endurance, Willpower, Strength, Classes, Merits, and other relevant things but is distinct from all of them, so too is Stamina derived from Endurance, Willpower, etc. but is not therefore congruent with these things. Stamina Source magicians face the same dilemma as in Arcanum: if they use up too much of their stamina, they artificially put themselves into a situation in which it is easier to pummel them into unconsciousness or exhaust oneself through physical activity.

Stoneskin: A spell that raises the physical and fire damage resistance of the character. In addition, the character's melee attacks will have a slight bonus from the new hardness of the body. It requires a decent level of experience in Stoneskin to allow it to stack with Barkskin.

Strength-Up:

Water 1:

Water 2:

Water 3:

Necromancy

Forbidden

Final Bone Spirit, Flesh and Arsenal of the Damned, Death's Icy Arrow, Black Spirit Skeleton Warriors, Black Spirit Skeleton Mentalists, Black Lotus Skeletons, Black Spirit Skeleton Archmagi...

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Culinary Spells

A very rare Discipline. Iron Chef or other chef characters (Orcha from Chrono Cross, for example), magicians with a real knack and interest in cooking, or other odd individuals may learn these spells. Notice that there are spells that have utility for cooking under Common or other areas. These are spells that instead replace common and specialized spells with some cooking theme.

Boil:

Boil 2:

Boil 3:

Breading: Coats a target in breading. This can be used obviously in cooking to make a near-perfect bread coating for tempura or fry jobs. It can also be used as a low-cost and high saving throw petrifaction.

Butchering Hands: A spell that turns the cook's hands into a sharp surface especially fit at cutting flesh. Chefs love this spell because it allows them to make incredibly subtle and beautiful cuts without risk of harming oneself.

Chill:

Chill 2:

Chill 3:

Fry:

Fry 2:

Fry 3:

Rinse: Similar to Cleanse, but specialized to

Sear 1:

Sear 2:

Sear 3:

Skewers: This spell fires either heated or room temperature metal skewers at high speeds. This can be used to perfectly skewer meats simultaneously and from a distance or for a more obvious combat application.

Tenderize: A surprisingly useful combat spell, tenderize can make virtually any substance become softer and more tender (and thus have a lower defense and hardness), as well as make more vulnerable to organic-only effects.

Wok Trap: Puts a target into a large wok fit for their size, filled with hot oil.

Ki Arcanism and Jutsus

These abilities combine MP and Ki, leveraging one against the other. Ki is used to make magic-like abilities, and magic is used to manipulate and alter ki flows.

Psionics


Kinetics:

Electromagnetic Psychic Dampener: Whenever a government gets a smart idea to use amassed electromagnetic energy as a way to dampen potential psychic attacks by creating essentially a field of static, electrokinetics get the same idea. Mentalists typically choose to be electrokinetics as a secondary specialty, and this is one of the reasons why.

Mentalics: The field of mentalics is one of the fields that drastically goes through a paradigm shift. Beginning psychics tend to be capable of telepathic communication, a little bit of mind reading, perhaps some empathy or empathic transmission. They get the keen idea that, hey, they can hurt other people with these things! Then they discover other psychics, magicians with effective defenses, supernatural creatures, martial artists with powerful ki cleansing forces, and similar, and the ball game changes quickly. Mentalic combat eventually becomes rather like real combat, with a variety of feints, thrusts, parries, slashes, punches, kickes, throws, and so on. Matters become more complex when there is also an accompanying physical battle, and yet more complex when the weapons used also have a mentalic impact (at the simplest level, tazers or stun rods; later on, psychic weapons).

Dream Shield: Initially developed by psychics when they figure out that they are vulnerable in dream-like or trance-like states, the Dream Shield begins as simply a way for the psychic's dreams to have some kind of defense. Whether this means creating Elysian dreams of pleasantry that act as beacons of positive energy or indulging in nasty nightmarish dreams, the Dream Shield protects the sleeper. Later on, the psychic can awake their subconscious more fully and use this as a constant mind block.

Empathic Transmission: It is surprising that this ability is typically thought of as potent, as it is the obvious flipside of empathy. Being a receiver implies at least a possiblity of being a broadcaster, as well. Empathic transmission involves borrowing from the psychics' emotions and projecting them outwards to others. This does mean that the potency of the transmission is typically dependant on the degree to which the psyshic actually feels this emotion.

Exhaustion Siphon: This skill has a variety of potential applications. In general, it focuses on the relationship between physical/paranormal exhaustion and the mental state of exhaustion: despair, depression,

Fetish Mind: No, this does not involve thinking dirty thoughts. The Fetish Mind instead involves conjuring up an image of someone strong or important to the psychic: a mother, girlfriend or good friend. This emotional reassurance lets them partially divest themselves and feel that they are not alone, reducing their despair; it also creates a partially autonomous psychic defense. Fetish Minds work best if the character's relationship with those individuals is actually healthy.

Field of Emotional Repulsion: A very basic field effect, the psychic simply creates massive emotional energy so much so that it becomes very difficult to stomach being in the location.

Mental Force Distribution: Against “blunt” mentalic strikes like Mind Hammer, a psychic can attempt to distribute the force evenly across their psyche. Mind Hammer can knock chunks out of the mind, so this is an excellent defense, as when the force is distributed, it becomes almost worthless.

Mental Lasso: This is a string of telepathic capacity that attempts to constrict aspects of the opposing psyche. Because it is striking the mind, it may, through excessive application, be able to physically shut down parts of the brain and even prevent blood flow. This is unlikely, however, and is not typically the intent. Rather, by segmenting the opposing psyche, it is possible to avoid nasty usages of things like the Id, Super-Ego, Ego, and various powerful events and emotions.

Mind Block: The most basic form of mental defense, mind block is a simple spherical field of mental energy that protects the spinal cord, most nerves and, most importantly, the brain.

Mind Hammer: A very inelegant yet often effective psychic attack. It is a simple, sudden blow that seeks to hammer down mind blocks and strike the mind.

Mind Hook: This subtle move is typically done under a smoke screen of other assaults. It is a roundabout, curve-ball-like form of mental energy that attempts to strike a part of the psyche at an oblong angle. This is often combined with Mental Lassoes, but in general it serves to provide grasping points for mentalic attacks.

Mind Lash: One of the more effective subdual attacks, particularly against non-psychics, Mind Lash is what it implies: a quick, snapping application of mentalic force. Typically, it involves stimulating nerves and brain functions in a crescendo or wave very briefly. Mind Lash has very little permanent mental damage capacity, but quite a bit of ability to subdue through pain and gradual deadening of the body.

Nerve Barbs: This move typically requires some pain, as nerves are brought to keen sensation to make almost mentalic quills. When a mentalic strike is inflicted, the quills are severed and launched into the source mind. Ingenious psychics use Nerve Barbs to drive out Mind Hooks.

Rift of Despair: This is a relatively nasty psychic feedback attack. The character opens up their mind, particularly their emotional wells of despair, frustration and depression. Most psychic attacks simply fuel this widening abyss, and most observation skills (such as see aura, mind scan, and similar) lead to a brutal experience. It is an exhausting move, but incredibly effective.

Telepathic Mental Overflow: Possibly the most basic mental assault in the book, TMO simply involves essentially “ping-flooding” the opposing mind, to borrow from computer terminology. The psychic dredges up, using total recall or simply thinking, an array of random garbage that is tossed into the opponent's mind. The combination of sheer mental force and garbage information confuses and harms the opponent. The move is hampered by its obvious simplicity, its telegraphing nature (i.e. it is fairly obvious to other psychics when it is being done), and its lack of permanent damage.

Telepathic Relay Network: Defensive: This network is used during mentalic combat. A web of mental energy that discharges opposing attacks among the members of the web is constructed. This is typically done with strong-willed party members.

Toxin of Hate: A nasty part of an experienced mentalists' arsenal, this is a form of mental energy that uses the corrosive part of hate, prejudice, and fear to inflict lasting emotional damage to the target. Its use is frowned upon by those in the know, and those who use it frequently either run the risk of falling prey to their hate or have already done so and are thus hunted.
Summon Mechanics

Certain special spirits and beings (Bahamut, Ifrit, Chupon/Typhoon, Shiva, Odin, etc.; collectively known as Espers) can be used as Summons, powerful allies to be brought to the battlefield. Different planets in the Final Fantasy dimensions developed different summoning techniques. All of these can be used concurrently, but there is an opportunity cost between them.

Instantaneous Summon: The most common Summon style, this is fairly basic. Simply summon a powerful being to perform one of a few attacks and be done with it. Instantaneous Summons are no-frills damage or effect abilities.

Duration Summon: Other summons, especially non-Esper summons (i.e. those spells that summon a generic member of a category), usually last a particular time period, sometimes indefinitely.

Magicite: All Espers are capable of creating a calcified form of their energy known as Magicite. In the Final Fantasy 3 world, the aspects of the Espers were limited enough that the process of generating Magicite was associated with and required the death of that dimension's Esper. This is because magic was a rarity in that world, only doled out by affinity with Magicite or power stolen or gained from Espers or the Three Statues. Cultivating an Esper as Magicite allows one spells culled from the Esper's mystic specialization as well as bonuses attained when one goes up a level. The tradeoff is that Magicite Summons, while generally doing as much damage as Instantaneous Summons, can only be used a certain number of times per battle at normal spell cost.

Guardian Force: Guardian Forces are possibly the best way of getting close to an Esper. Part of the memory capacity in the brain and cells of the body is replaced with the abilities of the Esper. Relevant Abilities, special attribute bonuses, Merits and other things (though usually not spells) are offered by the Guardian Force. This form of spellcasting is made even more enticing by the fact that GF casting is far less taxing on MP than most other Summoning techniques. Unfortunately, some disadvantages are also incurred. The process of linking the Guardian Force to the memory can induce a form of amnesia that can be quite debilitating, as the memories of the Guardian Force expand and replace the memories of the users. This is a limitation of having non-magically attuned individuals channel Espers and can be overcome with proper training or proper application. Summoning a Guardian Force also takes time as the mage becomes a conduit for the GF, and there is a Technique or Stamina cost. GFs do teach Junctioning and Draw (see the discussion on Magic). However, GFs can only impart a finite amount of abilities that the synergy between them and the channeler has caused the channeler to learn, and only a finite number of GFs can be equipped at any one time, and a GF can only be equipped a finite number of times. GFs hail from a planet that was technique and magic starved, and the design betrays this fact.

Aeon: Developing an Esper as an Aeon is fairly simplistic. The spellcaster will either replace themselves or the entire party with the Esper, or will sometimes simply summon the Esper. The Aeon's power is developed through the experience of the summoner. The advantage is duration, but the disadvantage is less instantaneous oomph and sometimes being forced to only use the Aeon. Using Espers this way also makes them far more vulnerable to attack.

Blessing: Shamans can try to gain the Blessing of these Espers. In this case, the shaman may be given slight bonuses to attributes, skills, abilities, the ability to transform into a simulacrum of the Esper or a form inspired by the Esper, etc. See the discussion of Totems and Spirit Blessings for more details. Using Espers this way does require shamanic training and often performing tasks or besting the Esper in spiritual combat, but the advantages are obvious. However, shamans who cultivate many spirits for blessing will often be asked to perform certain favors for several of them periodically.

Element Mechanics

The Elements of El Nido are potent concentrations of six types of energy. The six types are:

Black: Black Element is the opposite of White Element and is associated with darkness, shadow, demons, hell, the moon and night. Black Elements include many instant-death attacks.
Blue: Blue is the opposite of Red. It involves water, ice, cold, . Blue abilities typically have some kinetic impact (ice or water accelerated at high speeds) and include some curing abilities.
Green: Green is the opposite of Yellow. It involves wind, plants, animals, and life. Green includes entangling attacks, piercing attacks, and healing.
Red: Red is the opposite of Blue. It involves heat, flame, . Red is mostly fire-based attacks.
White: White is the opposite of Black. It typically involves light, restoration, daylight, energy attacks, . White has healing and energy abilities.
Yellow: Yellow is the opposite of Green. It involves lightning, earth, sand, shockwaves. Yellow attacks have both energy and physical aspects.

Every person is classified by one of these Elements. People's personalities, interests, and abilities/talents help define their Innate Element (termed just Innate).

When someone equips Elements, they automatically set aside some MP or spell slots and TP. This may sound like a disadvantage, but it is similar to preparing spells, and being able to have a discrete amount of spells at the ready that can be used easily is incredibly useful. To use an Element, a character must develop, through a series of physical blows or similar, their Element Bar (connected to but distinct from the Limit Break Bar). When their Element Bar is developed to the proper level, they can launch an attack. Chrono Cross characters thus tend to have high multi-attacks though relatively low hit rates, as they wish to gain a number of hits (irrespective of how small) to develop their Elements. While all this may sound as if Elements are disadvantageous, they have a number of key benefits:

1.Irrespective of the amount of Stamina Points the character has remaining, she may still launch an Element strike provided her bar is high enough.
2.Effective combinations of physical blows and Elements (particularly Techniques) can yield brilliant Combos, and, even better, Cooperation Techniques.
3.Developing Elements makes one more in tune with their elemental powers, allowing them to more intelligently and strategically use elements against others.
4.Having costless techniques and spells available is always convenient.


Job Mechanics

Jobs are some of the best ways of expanding a character's repertoire of skills. They are in fact so good that most of this section will be describing their limitations.

What Is A Job?

Simply, it is an Occupation, a Prestige Class, whatever have you. While a character may or may not start with Jobs, Jobs are not their innate skills and defining abilities. They are further trainings that augment these things.

How Are Jobs Acquired?

There are quite a few options. Sometimes, training in the Job can be bought. Martial arts, easily transmittable schools or disciplines of magic, and similar can be acquired by simply spending money or finding other ways of having trainers teach it. However, there are limitations. Jobs are classified in roughly three levels:

Novice: The character is still learning the ropes. Unless they have some sort of inborn talent or deep understanding, or unless the class itself is conducive to intuitive learning from the ground up (shaman or mystic classes being good examples), the character can advance no further unless the Job is Equipped (see Equipping Jobs, later). In martial arts terms, Novices are lower belt colors, anywhere from white to purple or green.
Proficient: The character is reasonably good at the Job. In many cases, they can reach Master on their own; at the least, they are good enough to at least innovate somewhat and are part of the community. They may or may not need to keep the Job Equipped, but in general they will suffer ABP penalties for the ABP going into the Job unless it is Equipped. In martial arts terms, Proficient characters are green to perhaps brown or low-level black belts.
Master: The character has fully incorporated the Job into their repertoire. They do not need to have the Job Equipped anymore and can continue to learn and innovate. Masters are black belts or higher in terms of martial arts.

When being trained, as long as one is in Novice, the Job can only be Equipped either during the training sessions or to the next level of Job. If Red Ram decides to learn Kenpo, he will only advance further in Levels (signified by belts with achievement tests or an appropriate out-of-class substitute) during the class or out of it to the limit of what he's been taught. His instructor may have given him the manual for that belt examination or may have taught Red Ram some Katas that required practice, but when that information runs out, the character will have to return to class, and even when he can still learn, he suffers massive ABP penalties. When the character reaches Proficient, they know enough about the art to advance on their own, Googling whatever surprises them or similar.

Jobs can be given by particular items. In this case, the Job Level is typically capped. The Shield of Prator from Faerun, for example, automatically makes the character a Master Paladin.

Sometimes, Jobs are given by rare items such as Crystal Shards (FF5), special gems, etc. In this case, the character will Equip a Job, usually a limited amount at any one time, and develop it to Master.

Other times, the character will learn other Jobs that are peripheral to their intrinsic abilities. A Ley Line Walker, for example, could learn Zone Wizard, Ley Line Berserker, Ley Line Leech, Faerun Wizard, etc. (assuming they had interaction with or knowledge of those Jobs). In that case, they could also develop it to Master by using some of their Automatic ABP. A good rule of thumb is to think of Prestige Classes from D&D.

What Is Automatic ABP?

This question is relevant not just to Jobs but to innate character development, Aeons, GFs and Magicite. Whenever ABP is created, some is automatically distributed to each ABP source the character has. A character with 10 Aeons, 20 Jobs, and 3 pieces of Magicite will give roughly the same ABP to each as someone with half as much. However, Automatic ABP does subtract from the Discretionary ABP the character can choose to put where he wishes. It is not a one-to-one correlation (other things balance this out), but there is a penalty. This allows someone to develop, albeit slowly, all of the aspects of their character while focusing on whatever they with to focus on with DABP.

What Is Equipping A Job?

Equipping a Job is actually a fairly simple and logical process. If you were to try to learn to hack, you would try as much as possible to get experience with hacking, read books on the topic, focus on that rather than on learning other things, and would even try to behave as a hacker in combat (if that term held any meaning).

Characters can equip multiple Jobs and be developing them concurrently, but there are limitations. A character may, for example, only be able to develop one Job that their own skills opened access to, two Jobs from training, and four Jobs from various magical sources.

When a Job is Equipped, depending on the degree that the character is focusing on it, their attributes (including HP), available abilities, per-level growth patterns, etc. change. Someone with Eternal Berserker (a class from FF5) equipped, for example, will constantly be in a berserker rage. They will equip different weapons, will gain less Intelligence, Paranormal Ability, MP, PP, and Charisma but more Willpower, Strength, HP, TP and Endurance per level, will fight differently and won't be able to use certain non-passive abilities. Some Jobs can either only be equipped one or two at a time or only make sense to do so this way. Eternal Berserker is an excellent example of such a case.

What happens when one equips multiple Jobs? This is the balance for the Automatic ABP distinction made above. While the character will develop all of their Jobs more quickly than someone with only one (ignoring Discretionary ABP), the changes in style, attribute gain per level, attributes, etc. will be largely cancelled out. If a player actually wishes to gain a lot of benefit from the Job they equip, they will only equip a few. If their goal is to move the Jobs to Proficient or Master as fast as possible, they will equip as many as possible.

When a Job is Equipped, it is generally helpful to use as many of the classes abilities, study all one can about the Job, etc.

What Happens When A Job Is Mastered?

When the character has Mastered a Job, they no longer need to equip it. Equipping the Job can be done to focus ABP towards more abilities from it, if desired. When this is done, Automatic ABP develops further abilities from the Job and Discretionary ABP can be set to certain Job abilities. Attribute growth is also changed, but it is rarely as high as the Job when equipped. Why? When the character is developing the Job, their per-level growth changes as they attempt to change their attributes and style to fit the new Job comfortably. When it's done, they no longer necessarily need or want to continue boosting their attributes in such a manner: they've mastered the prerequisites and are hitting the cap.

Does this mean that a character with a lot of Jobs will have better per-level growth rates than someone without? Yes, usually. Though the bonuses are usually also retroactively rewarded, the character with Jobs has a number of ways of developing his attributes and skills and a number of techniques.

Is A Job Level A Character Level?

No. Job Levels are relevant only during the infantile stage where the character is still Mastering the Job.

Items that give Jobs at particular levels will generally give the Job and then add levels.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Methods of Limit Breaks

Limit Breaks are, simply, powerful techniques that a character can only use in dire situations. There are a number of different ways Limit Breaks can be set up.

Low HP Attacks: LHPAs, as they're known in the biz, are Limit Breaks performed randomly when the character is at low HP. Most characters can use LHPAs; the problem is that they are overwhelmingly random, though a number of things can raise the probability of LHPAs. The character will automatically use an appropriate LB, i.e. not use a fire attack on a fire-absorbant opponent, and if the character was trying to Cure, then they'll do a Curing ability. LHPAs are nice in that they deplete little to no stamina or EP.

Limit Breaks: A simple concept. Characters have a Limit Break bar with a number of thresholds at which they can use ever more powerful techniques. The bars can be filled through a number of means, depending on the character:
1.Damage Inflicted: Some more offensive characters can gain a momentum from inflicting heavy damage and unlock a powerful technique.
2.Damage Taken: Most characters get aggravated from absorbing heavy damage and release that rage.
3.Emotion:
4.Exhaustion:
5.Other:

Ikari Points: Those from the Lufia world and a few scattered other weapon specialists gain IP. Ikari Points essentially divert Limit Break points towards abilities found in items and weapons. Sometimes, it's worthwhile to keep around obsolete weapons because of rare or powerful IP Techniques and Draw Out skills.

Gods, The Nature of Things and the Faithful

One paradox of the Final Battle world is that, in some sense, all things exist in some way, shape or form. The question is not “Does [God or any other nebulous entity] exist?”, but “In what way does this existence impinge upon the universe?” There are a few forms.

Non-Existence: This may seem like a contradiction, but non-existent things do exist. These things in turn take a number of forms, roughly four:
1.That which was permanently lost (the past). These things can typically be found sealed away in forgotten places, so forgotten that the universe itself has almost wiped away their existence. For example, some long-dead Hells still torture a few souls long after any kind of mandate for said Hells' existence has disappered.
2.That which is potential (the future). There are things that have the capacity to exist but simply don't at this 'time' (time being understood from a personal sense not an 'absolute' sense).
3.That which is
4.That which can never exist (the 'other'). These things are locked away by virtue of being at direct contradiction with the very universe. They could be logical impossibilities (a cat Perfect in all ways except it has no tail, or a sun that is not on fire), entities whose logic defies the universe, or even beings from previous universes such as Mr. Excelsior. The chains that tie Fenrir are made of such things, so it is not impossible to broach this barrier.

Worshippers of gods who do not exist may be disappointed, but such beings

Ideal Existence: Chaos Phoenix

Extradimensional Existence: Asgard, Olympus

Altered or Mistaken Existence: An alien masquerading as or falsely worshipped as a god

Actual Existence:
Enlightenment and Ultimate Personal Power

Literature is rife with characters who achieve an incredible measure of power or skill when they make a personal revelation. In Lord of the Rings, both Aragorn and Gandalf become far more dangerous foes after they achieve new understanding. In Gundam Wing, Heero Yuy's nemesis Zechs Merquise becomes far more dangerous when he discovers what he truly wishes to fight for, overpowering the previously dominant Heero. In Witch Hunter Robin, Robin has a realization that propels her to a previously-unheard of understanding of the Craft. And so on.

Ultimate personal power indicates this. It is possibly the most important Merit a character can have. When a character discovers or understands something deep and pivotal, it transforms them completely. They usually gain new abilities, Limit Breaks, attribute bonuses and permanent modifications (a UPP-capable character's attributes mean quite a bit more than a non-UPP character), etc. Depending on the form of the UPP, they also gain new abilities.

Bodhisattvahood:

Some characters, particularly good or troubled characters, seek peace. They want some kind of release from suffering. Eventually, they achieve enlightenment in the Buddhist style. The traditional Bodhisattva is in complete and total command of their feelings, thoughts and emotions. They are always serene and have completely escaped suffering. They have compassion for all living beings and seemingly infinite reserves of will. Bodhisattvas gain access to the following powers:

Consciousness of Past Lives: Characters who have been cast out, transformed, or reincarnated in some manner acquire total or near-total consciousness of all of their past lives. This can include abilities if their former selves were powerful. They can also channel energy and power from their past lives. Since many past lives are animal or plant, they can also use the mentality and the ki or even the form of these past lives.

Complete Emotional Control: A Bodhisattva cannot be taunted, angered, harmed, or distracted. They are constantly present and aware and constantly serene and happy. Their very ebullient presence (sometimes like the Maitreya, joking and laughing; other times like Gautama's image, simply grinning in a friendly manner) exerts transformative effects on other people, making their enemies question their motives and their allies feel powerful and loved. Such a foe can fight with every reserve of power they have, being immune to pain and fear.

Holy Being: The very visage of the Buddha is supposed to chase away evil spirits and create a cleansing force. A Bodhisattva is an incomprehensibly holy creature. At will, they can act like holy symbols to beings like vampires, spirits or some demons. They can generate tremendous amounts of positive ki and other energies, being like a beacon of holy energy. They can perform healing miracles, and their bodies are considered to be living holy weapons. They also gain astral projection and various other forms of disassociating their body from their mind. The Golden Child offers excellent examples of the abilities of Bodhisattvas: The child was able to create spiritual guides (a bright-plumed parrot) to lead Eddie Murphy's character to him as long as he was not surrounded on all four sides by evil; he was able to bring out the kami of objects, such as a Pepsi can that he made into a dancer; he was able to turn people to good with a simple touch; he could use telekinesis and could resurrect creatures.

Empathy: A Bodhisattva can feel other individual's pain like his own. He is capable of bearing the world's pain on his shoulders, being a living antidepressant. At will, a Bodhisattva can perform incredible acts of empathy, feeling everything about another with incredible clarity and detail.

Spiritual Awareness and Connection: Bodhisattvas have incredible spiritual powers, able to delve into spirit realms. They can be mediums for spirits. Characters who are Bodhisattvas gain an incredible boost to their skills, aside from all of the knowledge of their past lives to assist them.
My Philosophy of FB Party Constructions:

Hometown Construction: I generally like to put quirky and fun characters in my city, even if that may be fairly limiting in terms of their utility. When I do choose based on utility, I tend to think in the following way.

Early on, the point is to get the Hometown to build. Thus, recruiting individuals who can broaden the industrial, resource and living base of the burgeoning town is most useful. I may choose a General Shop owner over a specialized Weapon Shop owner because the usefulness for both exports and internal trade of a basic shop is going to outweigh the gimmick trade value the specialist provides. While the Weapon Shop owner may be more useful to me in the Hometown, if I can get the town booming, then I can afford to put him in. If I feel I'm on a good footing in that regard, I then will usually pick specialist trainers for any of the four Affinities before anybody else. Items can usually be discovered somewhat more easily than abilities.

Later on, of course, tradeoffs as far as who can fit are less important. At this point, I try to create a form of governance that'll attract the type of people I want. The sheer amount of money and resources FB parties can rake in makes trade rather superfluous, so I prefer designing the Hometown's various institutions to invite unique and empowered individuals. I also keep up the hunt for Hometown members.
Jobs: In general, when assigning Jobs to my characters, I use the following checklist:
1.Assign Jobs where they have a unique combination effect with the character. This doesn't happen all too often, but it's worth it when it does. For example: A Counter ability given by Monk and other classes is great for characters with high multi-attack, who can leverage the Counter to interrupt opponent's turns and maximize attacks of opportunity. It's also worth it to give Counter to people with abilities such as Cyan's Sword Tech that can be plausibly used in counterattacking.
2.Compensate for the character's flaws. One can use Jobs to further augment someone's innate skills, and while this makes sense from an attribute-boosting perspective, splitting Ability Points to gain multiple weaker versions of the same ability isn't the best use of one's hard-won experience. In addition, someone with those skills can easily learn the related Jobs or the Job Abilities. Plus, there's no reason to augment further massive per-level growth of particular attributes and let some languish.
3.If I have to choose among Jobs, I in general pick a class that has a wider variety of abilities or abilities that are passive or can be used concurrently with other abilities. For example, a more basic class like Thief rather than a roguish advanced class is likely to have a wider range of skills and thus be more useful in the aggregate. A class like Dark Templar with largely passive cloaking, plasma shields, and costly psi-blades will be more useful than High Templar. Remember that turn lengths are only so long, so each new ability is competition for that turn length slot. Jobs should therefore be picked to either grant new capabilities or be abilities that can be useful irrespective of turn length.
4.Finally, if I still can't choose, I will try to choose something that augments the character's current abilities. If the choice is between something totally outlandish that that character will never be really in the position to do and something fairly close to their field of interest, I'll choose the latter. A character who is designed to be an aerial combatant and is not likely to be on the field aside from a pure air fight may only deserve one ground combat class and the rest assistance classes, for example.
Junctioning: When I do Junction (something I only do sometimes), I do so for a particular battle or scenario or do so to correct a glaring flaw. Sometimes junctioning a spell is worth it, anyways. For example, while some party members will find little utility in Ultima 2, Junctioning it to Paranormal Ability can be a great way of raising all ability damages through the roof. (Incidentally, developing Espers both as GFs and Instantaneous Summons can be used to Junction Espers to attributes!) This is often the case for people with low Magic Affinities or Paranormal Ability.
Party Design: I focus on getting a lot of characters. Though it is tempting to pick a smaller and more poweful party, having a large party is useful for variety and insuring that one has a specialist for any particular situation, experimenting with combinations of Jobs and similar, intimidating others, having extra characters to fill roles (for example, to offer as defense to others), and training the party internally.
Summons: I take a mixed approach to Summons. Certain high-damage summons I develop as Summons, whereas Summons such as Sylph, Chocobo, Remora, Goblin, Illithid Wizard, etc. I develop as Aeons or Guardian Forces, either to profit from abilities or get a variety of abilities. Some Summons, like Cactaur, are worth developing as Aeons just for the duration that Aeons allow. Magicite is a nice tradeoff. If the summon itself is of limited utility or is such that it can be cast only a few times per battle without really impacting its utilty (Carbuncle is an excellent example: Reflect doesn't stack well and its duration is usually long enough), then being able to learn spells and gain attribute bonuses per level is worth it. These Espers are also worth to cultivate as Guardian Forces.

Martial Arts Training

Bone Spirit Water:

A strange and rare Body Hardening exercise. This is listed here because the procedure is less an augmentation and more body hardening. A heavy, often pseudo-mystical metal is ground into fine dust or melted, then placed into a special liquid that will deposit it into the body. The recipient suffers through various stages of poisoning as well as a variety of other pains

Control Revulsion:

The character is exposed to torture and snuff videos while eating popcorn, encouraged to sleep in a grave, visit a mortuary, eat food they despise (including bugs and raw liver), be forced to smell vomit and blood, etc. For people expecting to fight demons or be in truly horrific war zones, this training can be a fast track to cultivating the sensibility that avoids shell shock and PTSD.

Dam Sum Sing:

Enough other Body Hardening type trainings will get this certification. Someone with Dam Sum Sing simply has had their ass kicked. Thus, their HP and Endurance are higher.

Demon Digestion:

The character is forced to eat as much as possible with incredibly strong flavors (garlic, MSG, buckets of soy, wasabi, chiles), down it with powerful and cheap alcohol, and take a small bit of poison. In addition, they are taught how to vomit or expel toxins in other ways at wil, leading to faster poison recovery. The character will be able to gain extra nutrition from food, survive on bad and limited food, vomit at will, and be tougher and more resilient physically and mentally.

Double Edge Doctrine:

This training is for more pacifist arts, such as Aikido, Lee Kwan Choo, etc. The character is placed into a full body suit that transmits pain proportional to the degree that they are inflicting it. (Magic spells are also often used). The character quickly learns to subdue their opponent with a minimum of raw damage.

Expanding Gum Diet:

The Ultimate Shop and other specialty stores sell a type of gum that explodes massively when put into the mouth. It grows so large that the character's mouth is almost completely obstructed. The character learns to breathe through their nose more comfortably, but more importantly, they learn how to chew like no other, developing a diamond jaw.

Feign Death Training:

If a character wants to truly feign death, they must be accustomed to placing their mind into a state of nothingness while their body attempts to drag them down. Typically, this involves the character being asked to lie still and feign death while he is beaten brutally. The graduating exam is to throw the character into a pit of violent animals or some similar exercise. Characters trained in this fashion can Feign Death at will, and be almost completely plausible, gaining huge bonuses and betraying not even subconscious responses to pokes and prods. Characters with another Feign Death ability become even more undetectable, often evading powerful magic and technological detection.

Feather Grace Training:

The most common form of this training involves the pupil running across fragile items such as glasses, plates or cups. As time goes on, the student learns to control their body weight so as to not break the items below. Enough training along these lines (often also including running across lotus pillars) develops their ki's light body characteristics. (See the Ki section for more details). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon portrays beautifully in Li Mu Bai's character the potential of this training: a body so light it can hover, walk across water, scale high walls, etc.

Flux Striking:

This technique trains speed by striking at objects that are in motion. For example: In The Count of Monte Cristo, the main character moves his hand in and out of the path of dripping water. Other ways of doing this are to punch at candles. This develops fast, precise and properly timed motions.

Fury and Fright Doctrine:

Emotions powerfully impact ki flows and signature. Being unconscious of one's emotions leaves one vulnerable to assaults on one's ki, and being unconscious of one's ki leaves one vulnerable to emotional assaults. Fury and Fright Doctrine places the character into a high ki zone and attempts to force them into a wide variety of emotions. The tumultuous rollercoaster that foll ows makes the character become accustomed to the way her ki operates under emotional pressure. Characters will gain bonuses to rage checks, empathy checks, fear checks, etc. and will be more conscious and potent with their ki.

Gravity Training:

The character trains under heavy gravity or pressure. It's a general workout of the entire body, though one must be careful to avoid the bends, explosions in the ear drums and similar results of high air pressure, and permanent muscular or bone damage.

Half Man Training:

The character is placed into some sort of hole, pit or contraption to completely prevent their legs from moving, often simply dug into sand or dirt. The character thus learns to rely less on mobility and more on upper body strength and blocking, as well as to fight at a lower height.

Hallucination Training:

Also known as “bad trip exercises”, various magic or hallucinogenic drugs are given to the trainee. They are then asked to perform particular feats. Techniques of compensating for illusion and limited sensory data are learned from these exercises.

Hypnotic Training:

This is often derided as the rich man's shortcut to martial prowess. The character is taught a specific technique, a kata or whatever have you, in a hypnotic state where short-term memory is bypassed and the data is immediately stored in either long-term memory or the subconscious. The problem is that, to be useful, the move must be simple and the situations in which one will use it clearly defined. Hypnotic training is an art, and those skilled at it rake in cash. If a character is hypnotically trained and then wishes to learn proper martial arts, they may find it both a boon and a curse. While they will generally be familiar with the subject material to a degree which is not normal, they will also need to have severe deprogramming done just as any martial artist must unlearn certain instinctual motions. Those with a Superconsciousness Merit can truly reap the benefits of hypnotic training.

Impossibility Training:

Characters training in this exercise are told to attempt to dodge the rain or leap across incredibly wide chasms or beat their way out of a reinforced steel vault or dodge a rubber bullet or similar. Oftentimes, the character is then punished or admonished for failing to complete the task and told to leave. The character will be allowed entry if he says, “Wait a second, that was impossible! That's bullshit!” Taoists in particular often teach this exercise. While the exercise has peripheral benefits from attempting to do the impossible, the point is to simply teach the student that they have limits, and that no amount of effort will let them accomplish the task. It is a way to profoundly teach some humility to brash and headstrong pupils.

Iron Hand Training:

The character grinds their fist into materials of ever-increasing toughness and abrasive character. The intent is to accustom the hands to brutal treatment. Characters with Iron Hand training punch harder and are capable of holding hot, sharp or abrasive items without damage or ill effect. Oftentimes, Senseis teaching this hardening principle will have their students play Bloody Knuckles to further hone their hardening.

Irfry Poker Blade Training:

Blado Randce of the Irfry school train with hot pokers in lieu of swords. This body hardening serves a number of functions. It raises pain and fire resistance, grants benefits of the Iron Hand training, and most importantly teaches the student the Switch-Up abilities, allowing them to change their entire stance, sword hand, etc. as quickly as possible. This training also often includes putting a hot stone in the shoe of the character to encourage foot mobility and injuring the character in vital locations to teach them to defend their body (a perennial weakness of the Irfry Ahmoqa.)

Joint Hardening:

The joints are the weakest points in the body, by simple mechanics: anything flexible must be less tough. This training is a cocktail of means to strengthen every joint in the body. Joint Hardening includes Neck Beefing, breaking and dislocating as many joints and bones as possible without causing permanent harm, and similar. It allows a character to use disproportionate strength in small parts of the body (for example, fingers and toes), twist and bend her joints in painful ways to get out of locks and bonds, and lock her joints to hold onto something or stand still.

Kangeiko:

Literally “summer training”, this body hardening exercise involves training naked and/or wearing heavy clothes in the middle of blazing deserts or similar arid and hot regions. The character attempts to become accustomed to rapid sweating, sunburns, high heat, bright sun, and other conditions associated with summer or hot areas. Benefits include increased endurance, fire and heat resistance, discomfort and pain resistance, etc.

Laughing Pain Training:

This delightfully masochistic training is very simple. The pupil is pummeled and inflicted with horrific wounds and told to laugh. The character eventually associates pain with laughing and simultaneously becomes accustomed to ever-higher degrees of pain. Notice that the character will still feel pain biologically, and can even be crippled by it; she is just able to laugh and make jokes about it.

Life Stone Training:

This requires access to a small piece of incredibly powerful material and thus is a relatively new exercise. The stone is beaten in by massive force into the body, being pushed closer and closer to the heart. Eventually, the character becomes almost dead. When the character recovers, his HP has increased by quite a bit.

Lotus Pillar Training:

This training, immortalized in Karate Kid, involves standing on high platforms that are scarcely wide enough to hold one foot. The training is often done with spikes below, and schools differ as to whether the instructor should be ready to save the pupil or not. The training combats fear of heights, induces proper balance and equilibrium, accustoms the student to one-leg combat (great for making checks against sweeps), and in general improves grace and poise.

Low Oxygen Training:

The character fights high on a mountain, in bad air, or similar to learn how to fight while holding their breath or operating on low oxygen. The character also learns how to breathe out when facing no air or toxic situations.

Neck Beefing:

People are surprised to learn that boxers attempt to build muscles in their neck. Why? Knockouts are caused by some trauma to the head. Stronger neck muscles can allow someone with even a glass jaw to keep their head stable even under powerful blows.

Running the Gauntlet:

The Native American exercise of running between two rows of armed warriors, evading and enduring every blow.

Sensory Deprivation:

A relatively simple concept. The character is blindfolded, has her ears or nose plugged, is placed into a rubber bodysuit, etc. With training, the character learns to compensate with other senses.

Shochu Geiko:

The flipside of Kangeiko, Shochu Geiko

Spirit Cuffs:

The spiritual analog to weight training, Spirit Cuffs are used by Genkai in Yu Yu Hakusho among others and are constraints that will either immobilize or kill the recipient unless a degree of spirit energy is used constantly.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Stroboscopic Combat Practice:

A relatively simple but deceptively difficult exercise, the martial artist trains under a strobe light, sparring with others or practicing hitting moving targets. The training improves perception, coordination, reflexes, dexterity, etc. It allows the martial artist to respond quickly and decisively to rapidly changing and incomplete information, reduces the reliance on any one 'frame' of sight and on being able to view motion, and accustoms the character to disturbing sensory environments.

Tabula Rasa Doctrine:

Often, a major obfuscant to both effective martial arts and effective thinking are presuppositions that are either encoded into instinct or are the byproduct of particular cultural norms. Whether good or bad, they are osbtacles to particular behaviors. Tabula rasa doctrine, from the Latin for blank slate, is practiced in particularly brutal monasteries and martial arts schools. The character is punished for doing practically anything, especially things that seem normal. Daily, what is expected of the character changes, and one day they will be taught a kata and the next day told to unlearn it. Eventually, the character's worldview becomes completely broken and they're able to easily unlearn and learn new things. This extends particularly to habits of motion, bearing, posture, etc. Benefits to Will checks, fear checks (as the character is used to terrifying or new spaces), etc. are concurrent with this training. It also allows a character to more easily learn, raising ABP accumulation. Characters also often find themselves more physically flexible as well.

Total Perspective Vortex:

Found currently on the desolate and evil Frogstar and only a few other places, the Total Perspective Vortex juxtaposes the entire infinity of creation against the infinitesimal consciousness of the person in the Vortex. Most who do it have their mind irrevocably shattered

Weightlessness Training:

This type of martial arts training is essential for those who frequently venture into space. The dynamics of space make fighting interesting: For example, violent motions will propel the moving person helplessly around thanks to the incredibly reduced friction caused by there being no medium and no gravity. Fighting in weightless conditions requires careful motion that is counterbalanced at all times, subtle strikes, etc.

Weighted Clothes Training:

Used by Goku, Piccolo, Pikkon, and a slew of others, the idea behind this training is eminently simple. By putting weights on one's body, one will become accustomed to higher degrees of weight and improve muscle tone and power.

Yoke Training:

The character trains himself as an oxen would, pulling heavy loads strapped to him. Obviously, this training is used to raise total body strength and stamina as well as add more of a hard frequency to the character's ki.

Martial Arts Skills

Making a compendium of martial arts skills seems to be an exercise in futility, as so many skills are the province of only one school or even one person. Nonetheless, there are common strands, and the list will begin with those, then listing more specialized and rare techniques. Take 'martial arts' in the broadest sense: gun techniques, melee skills, body hardening, special fist strikes, and similar will be in the purview of this section.

Dodge and Movement

Internal Dodge: Dodge without moving

Resist Parry: Take a hit but don't get fazed (still take damage but not move, can keep doing this even way below zero), raises defense and resistance

Shuffle Slide: A subtle way of getting closer to an opponent involving moving the feet and legs back and forth to inch along.

Zanzoken: The blurry boost of motion that characterizes high-speed combat. Those without this ability may vary somewhat in their speed at any given moment, but they typically don't get the near-teleport effect of this ability. Remember that this is not a teleport: The target is still moving, though at an incredibly high speed. They can still potentially trip traps, run through monofilament wire, be clotheslined, etc.

Hand Strikes

Backhand:

Ear Clap: A disorienting blow against most human and human-like foes. Slamming both ears simultaneously delivers a nasty head blow and shakes the fluid responsible for controlling equilibrium, leaving to a debilitating headache and a substantial reduction in control of motion.

Half-Fist: Involves a partial folding of the knuckles. Used primarily to target soft tissue, particularly the neck (Adam's apple, carotid artery and windpipe).

Hammerfist:

Inverted Fist: A common technique used to boost the power of the basic fist strike, the Inverted Fist involves spinning the arm about 180 degrees during the launching of the blow. The addition of torque can greatly increase the power of a punch.

Palm Strike:



Shift Internal Organs: Those with sufficient skill at body hardening and control can actually shift the position of their internal organs and important bodily parts! Stabbing and piercing weapons are particularly reduced in efficacy by this skill, as a stabbing attack that pierces no major arteries or organs does much less damage. Blunt weapons inflict a more widespread trauma, but even they rely to some extent on being able to cause damage to internal organs.

Hard Ki Skills

Soft Ki Skills

Adhesion:


High Speed Combat

It's important to bear in mind some things that occur in high speed hand to hand combat, though it can be important in other areas too.

Speech Limitations:

If someone is fighting at relatively normal speeds, they may be able to speak normally. However, if every second is essentially a minute of normal activity compressed, this does not change the speed of conversation. During the course of one sentence, a thousand blows may have been traded. There are obviously a few ways around this:
Speaking quickly: It is indeed possible to talk incredibly quickly. Unfortunately, to listen to someone speaking this quickly, one needs to be able to understand (and even worse, understand through the sounds of battle).
Telepathy. Telepathy and other paranormal communication methods are either instant transmission or close. One can hold a conversation through such a mechanism.

Observation Limitations:

Someone watching individuals fighting at high supersonic speeds is going to have an interesting experience. Unless they have similarly toned their perceptions, they may see at first an entirely ground based combat, with both fighters walking at a normal pace but only a cloud of motion coming from the arms and legs. Then the two fighters may begin to run, leaping at each other, trading flurries of blows. All the observer would see would be two slightly distinct blurs running about, then momentary glimpses of still motion as the two remain relatively stationery. Finally, the two may begin grappling, and the observer may think that close to nothing is happening.

Utility of Projectiles:

If someone can outrun a bullet, shooting bullets at them typically isn't entirely effective. To speak more generally, the speed of projectile weapons becomes a major factor in battles involving incredible speed. Two incredible gun masters may find that using their weapons as cudgels will be more effective than firing the bullets, because bullet speed is akin to walking speed to them. This doesn't mean that projectiles have no use. If, say, the high speed opponent runs straight into a bullet, some enhanced harm may be done by the increased combined speed. A sufficient rain of artillery can change almost any fight.

The typical answer to this dilemma is to raise the speed of projectiles. Physical projectiles suffer obvious limits in this regard, so energy is often preferred, as most energy projectiles travel at somewhere around the speed of light. 186,000 miles per second is hardly a slouching speed, and it takes quite a bit of power to attain FTL speeds (as in, Forbidden attributes).


Positive or Negative Ki:

Biological Effects on Ki:

Different creatures have different types of energy that can be positive or negative, hard or soft, but are defined by their unique body chemistry and biology. It is possible to alter one's aura, but typically some residue is left or one Affinity is used to mask another and thus is left bare, which means that these unique signatures are pretty decent ways of identifying individuals and races. There are also some races with very malleable signatures.

The best known example is reiki, the positive ki typically found in humans, and youki, the negative ki typically found in demons. Some beings, Zengz included, generate some combination; others generate one or the other, with maybe a slight racial modification (most of the near-human sub-fae races like elves, dwarves, gnomes and orcs have similar ki patterns to humans); and some have entirely unique signatures, such as Magis, whose ki signature is inextricably linked to their magic signature. It is important to note that a negative-ki generating human will still be using spiritual energy (reiki) while a demon who generates positive energy, like Firebrand, is still using youki.

Hard or Soft Ki:

Also known as Shao Jin or Chi Ji, this refers to the shape and capacity of the user's ki.

Hard ki manifests in bubbles, squares, and similar basic geometric shapes. It is, as the name implies, typically spiritually and even physically “hard”. When used defensively, it is typically a hard shield or barrier; when used offensively, it is typically used to add kinetic impact. Hard ki as propulsion is characterized by motion like a locomotive or exploding bubble of force, leaving a swath of destruction in its path. Hard ki is developed by most formal military training, body hardening and other combat-intensive brute force exercises. However, even the toughest fellow will not have any visible ki abilities unless they are trained in using it, even in the more basic fashion of hard ki.

Soft ki, on the other hand, typically matches the contours of the body or forms into wings or other elegant shapes. This is the type of ki practitioners of aikido and, to a lesser extent, judo and jiujitsu develop. When used defensively, it typically manifests as either a liquid force that absorbs and redirects the force rather than outright stopping it (often linked with a physical lock, grab or throw); when used offensively, it typically magnifies the technique and precision of the strike plus allowing it to slip through defenses. Hard ki is best against physical objects, while soft ki does well against the intangible and the paranormal. An excellent example of soft, graceful ki is the type seen in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and soft ki is typically developed through meditation.

A master of soft ki and a master of hard ki could potentially race on the ground, through the water or in the air. On the ground, the hard ki practitioner would simply smash through all obstacles in her path, while the soft ki practitioner would use an elegant combination of jumps, flips and rappeling leaps from various parts of the environment. In the water, the hard ki practitioner would probably simply barrel through, leaving a massive wave in her path, while the soft ki practitioner would elegantly run across the surface of the water. And in the air, a soft ki practitioner would hover, bob and turn, while the hard ki practitioner would propel themselves like a rocket.

Too much hard ki can make the character clumsy, inflict a huge degree of collateral damage and be vulnerable to effective throws and locks. Too much soft ki is less risky, but can still make a character vulnerable in certain situations.
Races

Notes on Artificial Intelligence, Constructs, Simulacra, etc.

The ethical problem of how to treat robots, clones, automata, and various other artificial or radically distinct forms of life is one that is daunting. FB answers these questions in the way that allows the most interpretation.
What is the soul? Is it something granted by a Creator to a select few races? In the context of FB, this may be a way to look at it, but it is not wholly accurate. Rather, the soul is the paranormal energy that is present in any object. This paranormal energy can take an infinite number of forms: emotion imbued into a favorite object from frequent use, the power of memories staying behind after the bearer of the memories is dead, the historical significance of a legendary weapon, ki inculcated into objects through association with a master, etc. etc. This energy takes roughly four forms (at this stage of universal advancement): Magic, the energy most closely associated with the soul/Ideal form of an object/myth/legend; psionics, the energy most closely associated with the power of the mind/observation/rationality/will/memory/complexity; ki, the energy most closely associated with dualities/life and unlife/breath; and technique, the energy most closely associated with the physical nature of things in their complete historical, scientific and innate senses. These forces are obviously awe-inspiringly massive; indeed, they are as essential to the proper function of the universe as gravity and entropy.
Biological life incarnates all four principles: it has, at some level, something akin to a mind (that is, something that responds to external stimuli in a new way based on not just innate programming but something distinct), something akin to a soul, something akin to a lifeforce/spirit and an incredible innate physical complexity. However, other things, while perhaps having very different souls, nonetheless typically have something in them. Objects gain power based on everything from historical significance to emotional sway to proper development to contextual usage (i.e. a knife can become stained by being used to kill too often) to an innate spirit residing in them. The FB world is animistic: There are spirits residing in everything, though perhaps incredibly alien spirits, incomprehensible to virtually anything. Further, their “heavens”/afterlifes bear no resemblance whatsoever to anything a sentient mind can imagine. Nonetheless, all things when destroyed leave behind a residue. No matter how much of this residue is sapped by everything from magical ritual to technological capacity, the residue remains by the mere virtue of the object existing. In the spirit realms, there are entire swaths of things that could have been, were and can never be, one place where this residue always goes.
This brings us to analyzing, say, a robot. Just because a robot did not arise out of typical biological means does not mean that it is necessarily any less authentically “alive” (in the emotional and metaphorical term, not the literal term) or sentient than something birthed from traditional organic means. After all, two parents “designing” a child are very similar to two inventors creating an AI program: both created something new with the capacity to handle complex tasks from physical principles, though the physical principles were massively different.
A robot that lives for millenia, goes through numerous hardships, expands its reason to exist and finally steps beyond its initial boundaries is, in cosmic terms, no less qualified (and in fact probably far more so) to pass into the same place that other sentient lifeforms go.
To be concrete, let's make an FAQ!

1. Can robots and automatons go to heaven or hell, or maybe Valhalla?

Yes. If sufficiently similar to an ethical moral agent (or even perhaps having surpassed the wildest expectations of their creators to do evil or good), these objects will have gained a spiritual residue similar enough to a sentient lifeform to pass into these parts of the Spirit Realms.

2. Will they?

Not necessarily. A pen does not go to a Heaven fit for humans. It will leave behind a residue that, say, can be read by a psychic with Object Read; it can acquire massive amounts of ki, releasing its inner kami and becoming hugely powerful; and its existence will always be registered in the deepest oceans of the Spirit Realms. That having been said, they will not go to a place where suffering does not exist: the concept of suffering has no meaning to them. They're pens.

The basic line is: If a character plays a robot, clone, golem, or even living sword NPC with enough beauty and power, don't feel bad in giving your player rewards.

3. Can robots learn magic/become dynamic of their own accord?

It's a commonly stated myth that, while machines are limited and created to do their task (they only go to 100% and that's it), humans can surpass their limits. The fact is that the human body is incredibly powerful and complex, yes, but most of the time its true abilities are locked away by a variety of very important blockages. Breaking those blockages is what people call “giving 110%”, but it is not literally possible to give more than the actual physical capacity of the body can handle. This is in a world such as the real world where Technique is so heavily dominant.

In the world of FB, where that is not the case, machines can cultivate Technique just like humans; can learn to tap into their intellect/will for Psionics, their “soul”/magical residue for Magic and their “life”/ki source for Ki.

That having been said, things are different in their internal dynamic nature. Some things have incredible innate potential; others are fairly limited, at least at first. But even that degree of dynamicism, if you will, can be expanded. So if you went for a cyborg instead of a mage and you're feeling gypped, don't.

4. What about clones? Or doppelgangers?

Clones are, in most matters, treated like anything else. The fact that they're seeded directly from something else is irrelevant. However, clones, mystic doppelgangers, Split Forms, etc. do have odd second-order effects, just like twins have odd pseudo-mystical connections even in the real world. This doesn't mean that a clone can't go to Heaven, though it certainly won't if it's an evil clone; rather, that, say, for a See Aura ability, a clone can mess with things.

5. But it doesn't make sense that a robot can learn to feel when that's not part of its programming!

Objection! Not a question. [Editor's Note: God, that joke is old.]

To answer your argument: It doesn't make sense that people shoot lasers from their fucking eyes or are born with genetic superpowers or can be 300 feet tall even though they haven't gained any bone strength or can use multiple forces that most real world scientists think never existed. It's a fictional world. Because of the drama of something that surpasses its ingrown limitations is so cool, we allow it with robots and with humans. Okay? You fucking bigot?

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Rangers

The Rangers at first glance seems like a gentleman's club for adventurers or perhaps a glorified mercenary outfit or temp service. Yet the reality is far more complex.

The institution of the Rangers is composed of a variety of cultural strands from all over the universe. Thus, the pretenses of centralization are rather minimal. Only on Hael and the planets close to it is there much communication between the central authority and the rank-and-file. The matter is complicated by the fact that there are other institutions and occupations called Rangers, so the formal name of the Rangers organization is the United Charitable Ranging Adventurers, or the UCRA.

Most of the jobs an average Ranger will take begin this way: A community or an individual contacts their local Ranger's office and explains the problem they are facing. They offer whatever they can plausibly afford. Some people try to cheat the Rangers, and in the case of poor people or communities, this is allowed, but the Rangers will punish those who truly have the wherewithal to pay. Punishment can take a variety of forms, mostly including refusing to ever take a job again, but sometimes substantially more malevolent payback and seizure of assets. The cheating issue is fairly uncommon, though, because of the nature of the jobs the Rangers can take. Communities can obviously also offer trade or services, meaning that some organizations that have for whatever reason called upon the Rangers frequently become day spas or vacation locations for Rangers. For these kind of discretionary jobs, the cost is gauged, as noted, to the degree the community can pay in cash and carry, goods, information or services. While this may seem to encourage the stronger Rangers to take jobs that pay more and are thereby coming from richer communities, there are a few institutional mechanisms to prevent this. Rangers who are detected doing this are docked points for promotion, and the amount of money offered by a community is not directly linked to the amount that the job will provide. This means that even Thrash and Badcat will occasionally do the “find our little Suzy's cat” level of jobs, and Thrash and Badcat lead the way in fact in doing so. After all, such a forthright and proletarian attitude serves to make the Rangers appear truly just and egalitarian. The Rangers get by with leadership as much as rules, and this is what makes them so loved as well as effective.

The Rangers mandate forces them to be, as an organization, politically or economically neutral. While individuals can and do harbor particular outlooks, these ideas are not normally supposed to dominate the general outlook of the broader institution. There are exceptions, of course: in the case of obviously injust actors such as Nazi Germany or various interdimensional conquerors, the Rangers can act. When a job is called in, every Ranger has an obligation to investigate the truth of the situation. If, for example, a group of criminals have legitimate grievances or have been framed, then the Ranger must change their strategy. For this reason and others, the cost of a mission is often paid in part in non-refundable cash or immediate services or trade, in case the Ranger turns her attention to matters that the employer would prefer not be examined.

Obviously, some missions must be taken immediately with no hope for immediate pay. This is the cost of being a Ranger. During natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies, Rangers must be on the front line, protecting the weak through whatever means necessary: rescue operations, cooking and getting out food, imprisoning looters, and so on. For this reason, the Rangers stockpile what they can for eventual pay of those forced to go out on a crap job.

Rangers also are expected to pay some of their proceeds back to the organization (who will take some and give it to charitable organizations, and stockpile others; typically, under Xenocratis, 5% of a Ranger's tithe goes to immediate bills for the Rangers, 70% to other organizatiosn, and 25% to the coffers and stockpiles), “taxed” progressively with the richer paying more proportional to their income, and offer some degree of free community service. Rangers are expected at all times to stick to the values of justice, equality, friendship, and peace. There is a Ranger code that is expected by frequent members to be memorized. And, if a Ranger slips in conduct, then they can be censured or expelled by the Office of Administration.

What, then, could possibly induce some to be Rangers in the first place? There are a number of perks to the job. Being a Ranger is like being a Mountie, although better: the Rangers are viewed by virtually everybody as being above petty political concerns and striving for a deeper goodness. Many businesses offer discounts to Rangers, and, as Thrash and Badcat have shown, the moniker also can provide someone with no small degree of romantic involvement. “Chicks dig Rangers”, as Badcat put it. Being loved and trusted has many benefits and advantages.

Rangers also get something akin to diplomatic immunity. While they cannot abuse this privilege too much, they can get away with illegal activities and be censured almost exclusively by the central offices alone. This can give players some room to move, as countries are loath to deny the Rangers full access and privilege. They are similar to the International Red Cross, only with enough destructive power among their members to destroy entire countries.

Rangers get free food and board, and as they are promoted based on their sacrifices for the organization (not necessarily on the degree of success they show, as Xenocratis has decided that he prefers people to try to be involved all the time and fail rather than be stingy in their involvement), they get access to libraries of spellbooks, computer banks of information, stockpiles of the best armaments and a substantial degree of discretionary income.

The formal structure of the Rangers is divided into two parts: the Office of Leadership and the Office of Management. The Office of Leadership is headed by a beautiful ebon-skinned elf, Alissandra, and is more about the public image and broad organizational countours of the UCRA. Alissandra has done her fair share of Playboy photo shoots for PR, among other things. Meanwhile, the Office of Management is a more traditional bureaucracy, headed by the ineffable Xenocratis. Xenocratis also gives regular press conferences, and he is chosen when a situation has come up that requires an even keel. Reporters trying to coax information out of him are regularly humiliated (he has become known as a simultaneously witty and very dry individual), but he keeps a good relationship with all important press outlets, and the Rangers are genuinely open to the press, good or bad. Even this more traditional bureaucracy, of course, is different: it is headed by a former demon hunter Battle Mage who comes into work after having taken a bath in molten lava and who regularly gets aides to forge his signature so he can slip out. Strangely enough, while Xenocratis occasionally heads into battle and is incredibly active in humanitarian crises and such, sometimes serving as a living human shield for communities, he rarely does actual combat, a matter of much gossip. Nonetheless, he is well loved by his underlings. The bureaucracy is remarkably free of office politics and furthermore almost free to run: Xenocratis cuts administrative expenses to the bone, starting with himself.

Thus, the Rangers stand as a relatively small though powerful force against injustice and war, fighting the good fight where they can

Linked Planets:
All Final Fantasy planes
MD Earth
Lennus (Paladin's Quest)
Naruto World
Ticondera, (Seventh Saga
Chrono Trigger world
Weyard (Golden Sun)
Seiken Densetsu world
Mario world (Mushroom Kingdom

Times/Dimensions:
Chaos Earth
Rifts
Aftermath of the Megadeuces (Big O)
Wormwood
Crystalis (Crystalis)
Systems Failure
Bio F.R.E.A.K.S. Future
Star Wars Galaxy/Past

Cyberspace

Cyberspace is fun to explore, especially in a world with magic. After all, how many rituals require communities, conjuring gods and cultural concepts? Stories, myth, culture, interactivity between people, all form minor spiritual links. The Internet serves as a massive focus for the spirit world, a repository of almost infinite culture and stories, and a place that is ethereal almost like the spirit realm yet exists in the physical world.

The Contours of Cyberspace

Most people still access cyberspace through normal means: A Mozilla or Firefox or Internet Explorer window. Granted, those with money can get more and more depth of media, but those who really know cyberspace are usually not very rich at all.

Jacking in involves a procedure where the individual's consciousness, and sometimes entire body (through teleportation technology), is transmitted into a digital form. Just as, say, the human mind is vulnerable to head trauma or psychic attack, so too is the digital form vulnerable, except it is possible to back up the mind and have it ready to flash back into the debilitated individual. Corruption, virus programs, and so on can do permanent damage to the cyber-image.

Those with better technology have a wider range of options in the continuum between cyberspace and the real world. Paranormal abilities may also offer some shielding, but as always, the best experience is always the most dangerous.

For those who create avatars and travel cyberspace that way, the world becomes a stream of hazy to incredibly vivid visualizations, dreams, open portals, pulsing and flowing data and other intellects. There are designs to make a cyberspace more “cozy” or “cramped”, such as chat rooms or particular site designs, while others (particularly frequently travelled sites, such as search engines) invest in ways to widen the space between individuals. That having been said, one will see other avatars on a regular basis. Communication may or may not be possible: it may be in the form of telepathy (usually analoged in the real world as instant messaging), envelopes (e-mail), word bubbles over one's head, etc. Unlike in the physical world, the degree to which one can communicate to others without their consent is sharply hampered and is contingent on the degree of skill and equipment all relevant parties have.

Areas such as search engines are like wide freeways, where the avatar is raced across (or drives, or does whatever) to various locations. Low connection speed is registered as slower speed for the avatar; this does mean that one may look at someone and see them blazing along. However, in some areas this is equalized. For example, in peer-to-peer transfer (visualized as the transfer of gifts or packages), because the connections are only as good as the slowest one's pipeline, the two equalize in speed first. These freeways have millions of exits and road signs, but they are scarcely confusing. People take the exit into “hittips” (see glossary), walk through the link and are in a new page, where their avatar may or may not change.


The information encoded for those vizzing into cyberspace is spectacularly more useful. Pages can be navigated and read in seconds, time can be slowed down and speeded up to allow the person faster research (even considering a slow connection), information in the code of the page can easily be seen, archives considered lost can be read (say, if someone posted a blog note and deleted it), web pages can be traced to their real geographical source, vizzers can listen to “radio” or conversations or whatever they want, and so on. In fact, it makes Internet addiction even more likely.

One is typically in little danger on the Internet... if one sticks to the preferred routes. But there are many areas where one can experience pain or even death in a number of forms: overzealous security barriers, corruption in unstable areas, falling into pits of unreality, etc. For example: If one wishes to hack into modern NORAD, one will face corporealized real soldiers and defense robots; defense programs taking the shape of toxic gasses, laser webs, dragons, goblins, turrets, walls, electric fences, and pure streams of malevolent data; multiple redundancy firewalls and defenses that can take multiple hacker attacks; Ann Kyker's cyber cops and all their chained programs; Cryos who are angered at being cooped up; and perhaps even the trapped and lobotomized Cyber Armageddon. There are some former MMORPG players who, seeking a real challenge, “mob” NORAD as if a boss in a game.


Glossary:

AK: Avatar kill. This refers to the process of killing someone's avatar, typically in a situation where that is not normally possible (say, on the Google Freeway).

AKer: Avatar killer. Avatar killers typically are viewed as total scum, violent snakes worthy of a virus or two. They are hunted down by Ann Kyker's cyberspatial police force.

Avatar stability: This refers to the degree that the appearance of one's avatar is changed by the website. The best example is a MMORPG: If someone walks into one, they may either be fully transformed into an available character type or will stay the same. (This does mean that sometimes other players will see a futuristic samurai in the MMORPG; there are various mechanisms adopted by companies to avoid this problem.)

Hittip Portals: Also known as just “HPs” or “hittips”, this refers to HTTP portals or to links. It is considered the sign of a newbie to be constantly going through hittips.

Impies: These refer to viruses, worms, spyware programs, and other nasty program-denizens of cyberspace.

Megaloud: A person or thing who has the wherewithal to force conversation upon almost anyone and break through ignore barriers. Also used an adjective for anything with megaloud qualities.

Vizzing: Short for “visualizing”, it refers to the process of travelling cyberspace as an avatar.

Wastes: Open areas of cyberspace with no information. Vagrants can walk here, and people can go through wastes to discover obscure websites, fragments of information, etc., and to access many sites without going through link systems. The Wastes have the feel of data graveyards

Mystical Cyber Realms

Now I'm getting to the good stuff. Because the Internet is, as noted, such a potential source of power and is also a bridge to a semi-ethereal world, it is possible to construct mystical cyber realms. Technomancers, demons of a sufficiently technological orientation, Mech Dreamers such as Vincento, and so on create their own semi-mystical, semi-cyberspatial realm. What are the advantages?

1.The realm is difficult to access. Set, say, inbetween the astral realm and cyberspace, or between the dreamscape and cyberspace, or wherever, the realm straddles two aspects of reality, both of which require skill to reach. Worse, the skill to crawl cyberspace is difficult to acquire alongside of dimensional travel. Someone making a mystic cyber realm can defend against astral incursions by virtue of the realm being partially grounded in cyberspace and through applying cyberspatial networks of barriers, while netcrawlers trying to break in will find paradoxical and impossible stretches of reality. To siege such a realm requires a team of skilled hackers and skilled psychics or magicians acting in concert.
2.The realm is easy to shape by the proper user and difficult for anybody else. Even those with amazing stores of paranormal force will find conquering and converting the territory difficult because the basic contours of the realm are backed up in true reality, and those who destroy the memory files will be surprised to find the file appearing back, like magic. Meanwhile, because the creator and owner of the realm can perform changes both in the astral and cyber realms, from either a computer or through meditation, the wielder can build an incredible edifice.
3.Information can be stored easily here and encrypted twice, both by magical and by programmed defenses.

Unwary cyberspatial travellers can find themselves inside one of these kingdoms and unable to jack out.

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

Superhero Community

Comic books have changed from their pre-World War II days. Being around at least 70 years (aside from Japanese manga and French bandes dessinees, both of which have been around even longer), the form has changed quite a bit. The FB world's heroes reflect this pattern.

Ancient heroes of the Achilles, Hercules, Thrash, Badcat, Xenocratis, etc. mold are typically heavily based in their culture. Their powers are most often based on technique and magic, mastery of a particular set of skills, plus perhaps some innate talent or ability (Achilles' invulnerability, for example). Their signature outfits are whatever armor and equipment they feel most comfortable with. They are typically ambiguous in terms of ethics: while TBX are obviously heroic, they have their flaws (particularly Xenocratis), and some of the heroes like Achilles and Hercules had their downright villainous aspects. Trickster characters are common here as well, such as Coyote and Ananasi. Ancient heroes who are alive in some form today, such as the ambiguous Galahad locked away in Gramercy Island, are considered the ultimate form of elder statesmen of the superhero community. With the exception of TBX and a few others, heroes of this mold are often not well known among the populace. (People typically assume that anyone claiming to be, say, the Sundance Kid or Genghis Khan is either deluded, joking or an imposter).

Heroes of the pulp days are typically almost saintly in terms of their ethics. They wear Golden Age outfits that have less of a spandex feel than later heroes (the old Flash, for example, had a hat instead of a hood). These people founded organizations like the Justice League, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and even the Teen Titans, some of which are fairly ossified and need an infusion of fresh blood. They are typically well known among the general population and regularly teach and watch for rising heroes and paranormal influences of all types.

Later heroes of Silver Age and past typically have the full spandex bodysuits. Here, some angst and confusion was tolerated, and there were even anti-heroes of the Swamp Thing/Ghost Rider/Deathlok/Punisher variety.

Modern heroes are usually not of the spandex variety. Because of the work of previous heroes to make superheroism popular, many people (Fred Lumina-Weise being a prime example) adventure as themselves. The problem is, of course, that their loved ones often get hurt, but with powers of scrying available to anybody who can hire a reasonably expensive private investigator, even shapeshifting may not protect one's loved ones. Thus, modern heroes have run full circle from the ancient heroes who wore what they practically could.

Remember that the public is regularly exposed to Superman, Thrash, Martian Manhunter, Spiderman, Daredevil, Badcat, the administrators of the Rangers, the Justice League, Captain American, the X-Men, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and their various rivals... a complete list would be voluminous and would indicate how difficult it is to track. Further, these are mostly Earth heroes; this puts aside the numerous important kings and heroes (say, as a small list: Queen Rydia, King Edge, King Cecil, King Edgar, and Queens Lenna and Faris) of the various other worlds. In such a situation, any one hero will only get a few moments in the limelight. Many heroes are well-known only within particular circles or in certain regions: Dakota, for example, is well aware of Static Shock, Soul Power, etc., even though those heroes are fairly obscure outside of Dakota.
Classes

Hero/Heroine

Yes, some individuals can draw on the simple legacy and power of being a heroine or hero.

Level 1

Heroic Luck

Level 2

Heroic Experience

Level 3

Heroic Will

Level 4

Heroic Spirit

Level 5:

Heroic Life:



Blado Randce:

Of all of the Banbar occupations, perhaps the most famous is the Blado Randce. The swordsmen and melee combatants of the Banbar have been featured in many a pulp novel (remember that, despite the Banbar being viewed as barbarians, they are nonetheless considered exotic, and the Twanchen in particular have many a tale of a Twanchen maiden romantically ravished by a dashing Blado Randce). They are perhaps the most multifarious of all Banbar skills. Whereas one's school as a Taing Stif or Siprt Limbce or Maymon Slaytker may be important, for a Banbar it is vital. (This is a unique feature of the Banbar: most cultures have a variety of mostly hand-to-hand fighting styles and only a few distinct varieties of broader melee combat). No history more strongly emphasizes this essential culture than the Ranaris: both Ranari and Thrash are famous for their incredible bladework, using the Neutral Excalibur to wreak havoc on thousands of enemies.

Blado Randce Common Skills:

Sword Ki:

Technique-as-Energy:

Irfry Ahmoqa: The Irfry Ahmoqa is a very bizarre school. It is unabashedly violent, and quite a bit of the mythos of the marauding Banbar comes from Irfry bandits and maniacs. It is also inerrantly offensive, and thus has a high turn-over rate. Yet those who master it (like, in the post-FB period, Jin Taing-Slaytker) are unstoppable offensive powerhouses, combining speed, deadly technique, an incredible array of powerful stances, positioning, and raw gusto to prevent an enemy from ever even thinking of launching a counter-attack. Training typically involves hunting and lots of work with very human-like dummies (corpses if at all possible), training with hot pokers and on coals to encourage constant motion and stance switching, and all sorts of sadistic body hardening to compensate for the lack of defense the school engenders. Not even Thrash's mother survived Irfry training; only the Wuldrak Ortise had the patience to stand it. As one Irfry Ahmoqa Strasma said, “Flame is a tempestuous mistress with a deadly dual nature. Be warm to those who you protect, yet burn those who scorn you – they are always surprised that the tamed flame can still burn. Fire comes from every direction, devouring all in its path that it can consume, at once predictable and unpredictable, ubiquitous and focused, directionless and channeled.” Because of this, Irfry School techniques stress constant motion, an infinite variety of stances to test an opponent's weaknesses, inerrant perception of any point of vulnerability, etc. In multiple-opponent combat, Irfry School specialists typically kill or eliminate the weakest first as kindling to get their blood pumping. Irfry School specialists are also deadly because, like Firebrand and others, they get stronger as battle goes on.

Dowsha Ahmoqa: Lubash Antarand

Gailned Ahmoqa: A school of the Blado Randce designed to complement legendary weapons.

1.#347
2.Aang
3.Aaron
4.Abatwa
5.Abdul
6.Absorbing Man
7.Adamant Avalanche
8.Aeris Gainsborough
9.Agent Heather Bionic
10.Aguro
11.Aisha Clan-Clan
12.Aku
13.Akuma
14.Alcedes
15.Allen
16.Allen Quatermain
17.Alphonse Elric
18.Al-Rashid
19.Alton Brown
20.Alucard (Castlevania)
21.Alucard (Hellsing)
22.Amagon
23.Amakusa
24.Amala
25.Amon
26.Amuro Ray
27.Anarakis
28.Android #13
29.Android #16
30.Android #17
31.Android #18
32.Android #19
33.Android #20
34.Angel
35.Angela of Altena
36.Angela Belti
37.Anguirus
38.Anji the Shining King
39.Annie
40.Annie Hamilton
41.Antonidas
42.Aoshi
43.Apple Kid
44.Apollo
45.Apollo Creed
46.Aqua
47.Aqualad
48.Aquaman
49.Aragorn
50.Archon Blade
51.Ardent McGee
52.Ardeth Bey
53.Argo Gulskii
54.Ariel
55.Arisu Reiji
56.Arma
57.Armitage
58.Artea
59.Arthur Dent
60.Asato Kido
61.Ash
62.Ashrah
63.Ashtar
64.Asridinius
65.Astar Reeves
66.Asterix
67.Atropos
68.Aurelor
69.Auroch
70.Auron
71.Aximili
72.Aya Brea
73.Ayame
74.Ayane
75.Ayeka
76.Ayla
77.Azrael
78.B. Orchid
79.Baarttk Krror
80.Badcat Xiang
81.Badu
82.Bag Lady
83.Baiken
84.Bakken
85.Balrog
86.Balthazar
87.Balthazar
88.Bane (Batman)
89.Bane (Weaponlord)
90.Bang
91.Banon
92.Ba-Oh
93.Baragon
94.Baraka
95.Bartimaeus
96.Basil Karlo
97.Batman
98.Battle Unit Zeoth
99.Battrah
100.Bean
101.Beast (Kung Fu Hustle
102.Beast (Shaq Fu)
103.Beast
104.Beast Boy
105.Beaver
106.Beckett
107.Beezwax
108.Belome
109.Bender
110.Beorn
111.Berter
112.Besshimi
113.Beta Ray Bill
114.Big Barda
115.Big Boss
116.Big Dozer
117.Bill
118.Binary
119.Biollante
120.Birdman
121.Black Bolt
122.Blackforge
123.Blackie
124.Black Canary
125.Black Cat
126.Black Knight
127.Black Mage
128.Black Manta
129.Blanka
130.Bleu
131.Blind Current Rider
132.Bliss
133.Bloodrayne
134.Blue (Saga Frontier)
135.Blue (Wolf's Rain)
136.Blue Beetle
137.Bo
138.Bob
139.Bob_12
140.Boba Fett
141.Bobby Flay
142.Bojack
143.Bongo Bongo
144.Bonk
145.Booster
146.Booster Gold
147.Bo'Rai Cho
148.Boro
149.Bow
150.Bowser
151.Bowyer
152.Boy
153.Bravo
154.Brigitte (Guilty Gear)
155.Britannia
156.Brock Samson
157.Brother Bludd
158.Brother Voodoo
159.Bruno Templar
160.Bubsy the Bobcat
161.Buckaroo Banzai
162.Bufo
163.Bui
164.Bullzeye
165.Bumblebee
166.Burger-Face
167.Buzz Buzz
168.C. Andreas
169.C. Bombardi
170.C. Fahren
171.C. Kalikashvili
172.C. O'Grady
173.C. Sattel
174.C. Spencer
175.C. Terric
176.C. Vanavuli
177.C. Vincento
178.Caffeine Nicotine
179.CAIN
180.Cairne Bloodhoof
181.Caleb Vulcan
182.Cammy
183.Candle Man
184.Cannonball
185.Captain America
186.Captain Britain
187.Captain Ginyu
188.Captain Nintendo
189.Captain Planet
190.Cara
191.Carlie
192.Carlos Miyamoto
193.Carmen Dillo
194.Carpet Bomber
195.Case
196.Casey Jones
197.Cassidy
198.Cat Cora
199.Cecil
200.Celes
201.Chainsaw
202.Chambara
203.Chassey Blue
204.Chaotsu
205.Charlotte
206.Chen Kenichi
207.Cherry
208.Cherry
209.Chewbacca
210.Chezni
211.Chipp
212.Choji
213.Christie
214.Chukka
215.Chun Li
216.Chuu
217.Cid
218.Cid
219.Cinder
220.Cloak
221.Cloud
222.Cocktail
223.Cole Turner
224.Colonel
225.Colonel Scott O' Conner
226.Colossus
227.Commando Ed
228.Conan
229.Congo
230.Conner McManus
231.Conspirator
232.Controller
233.Convoy
234.Coppertop
235.Cookie
236.Coop
237.Corgan
238.Courage Paw
239.Cpt. Choyear
240.Crazyface
241.Crimson Witch
242.Croco
243.Crono
244.Cyan
245.Cyborg
246.Cypher
247.Cyrax
248.Dagger
249.Damsel
250.Dante
251.Daredevil
252.Darrius
253.Darth Maul
254.Darth Sidious
255.Darth Vader
256.Dash Render
257.David della Rocca
258.Dean
259.Deathlok
260.Decoy Octopus
261.Dee Jay
262.Dekar
263.Delta
264.Deltron Zero
265.Demolitia
266.Denwyn Ironheart
267.Denzel Thorns
268.Desdemona
269.Destroyah
270.Detective Ed Green
271.Detective Elliot Stabler
272.Detective “Fin” Odafin Tutola
273.Detective John Munch
274.Detective Lennie Briscoe
275.Detective Mike Logan
276.Detective Olivia Benson
277.Detective Reynaldo Curtis
278.Detestai
279.Devon
280.Dhalsim
281.Diane
282.Diesel
283.Divada
284.Dizzy
285.Doc
286.Doctor Plastic
287.Dog
288.Dogmeat
289.Domin Smithe
290.Donatello
291.Dorsey Pentecost
292.Douglas 'Duddits'
293.Dr. Billy Quizboy
294.Dr. Blast
295.Dr. Chang
296.Dr. Emmett Brown
297.Dr. Fate
298.Dr. Henry Devlin
299.Dr. Ichigaki
300.Dr. Jekyl
301.Dr. Karen Jenson
302.Dr. Light
303.Dr. Light (Teen Titans)
304.Dr. Myuu
305.Dr. Neil Connery
306.Dr. Orpheus
307.Dr. Strange
308.Dr. Venture
309.Dr. Wheelo
310.Dr. Wily
311.Draggy
312.Dragobo
313.Dragon Lancer
314.Drahmin
315.Dreadnaught
316.Duke Togo
317.Duke Nukem
318.Dungeon Man
319.Duran
320.Earthquake
321.Earthworm Jim
322.Ebirah
323.Ebon
324.Eddie (Guilty Gear)
325.Edgar Rene Figaro
326.Edge
327.Edward of Damcyan
328.Edward Elric
329.Egg Shen
330.E. Honda
331.Eikre
332.Eldrad Ulthran
333.Elie
334.Elric of Melniboné
335.Emperor Palpatine
336.En
337.Enishi Yukishiro
338.Entram
339.Erik
340.Ermac
341.Esuna Busy
342.Eve
343.Evelyn Carnahan O' Connell
344.Eyedol
345.Eyespy
346.Eyola
347.Ezekiel Chance
348.Faith (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer/Angel)
349.Falco
350.Fang
351.Fatman
352.Faust (Guilty Gear)
353.Faust XIII (Shaman King)
354.Faye Valentine
355.Fei Long
356.Felix
357.Fencerasha
358.Fenix
359.Fighter
360.Finn
361.Firebrand
362.Firefly
363.Fonnie
364.Forge
365.Forte
366.Fox McCloud
367.Frank Martin
368.Frank Rhodes
369.Frank Smaczne
370.“Fred” Winifred Burkle
371.Fred
372.French Twist
373.Freya
374.Frodo Baggins
375.Frog
376.Frost
377.Frylock
378.Fugitoid
379.Fuji
380.Fujin
381.Fulgore
382.Funguy
383.Furion
384.G Razav
385.Gaara
386.Gaia
387.Gala
388.Galahad
389.Gama
390.Gamera
391.Gandalf
392.Gar
393.Gar Gundrunson
394.Garai
395.Gargos
396.Gasser
397.Gau
398.Gearz
399.Gen-An
400.Genjuro
401.Gene Starwind
402.General Viper
403.Genkai
404.Getafix
405.Ghost Dog
406.Ghost Rider
407.Gigan
408.Gilgamesh
409.Gill
410.Gimli
411.Gizmo
412.Glacius
413.Glenn
414.Glenn Darkmoon
415.Gobi
416.God Slayer
417.Godspeed
418.Godzilla
419.Goemon
420.Goemon (Mystical Ninja)
421.Gogo
422.Gohan
423.Goku
424.Gordon Freeman
425.Gore
426.Goris
427.Goro
428.Gorobei
429.Goten
430.Granamyr
431.Grant DaNasty
432.Gray Fox
433.Grate Guy
434.Gravender Henchu
435.Greco
436.Green Arrow
437.Green Hornet
438.Green Lantern
439.Greg Gates
440.Grendal
441.Grim
442.Grobyc
443.Grom Hellscream
444.Groo
445.Guile
446.Guldo
447.Gunn, Charles
448.Guts
449.Guy
450.Guy
451.Guybrush Threepwood
452.Gylach
453.Gwen Raiden
454.Hagan Lonovich
455.Hagane
456.Haggar
457.Haggis McMutton
458.Hagrid
459.Hannibal Lecter
460.Hannya
461.Han Solo
462.Hari Seldon
463.Harrier
464.Harry Potter
465.Haru Glory
466.Hattori Hanzo
467.Havik
468.Hawk
469.Hawkeye Mihawk
470.Hawkeye
471.Hawkgirl
472.Hazanko
473.Hazmat
474.Hatomi
475.Heart
476.Hedara Musica
477.He-Man
478.Heihachi
479.Helena Dolph Jackson
480.Hellboy
481.Henson Hick
482.Henya Kariwa
483.Hero
484.Hiei
485.Hiro Protagonist
486.Hiroyuki Sakai
487.Hotaro
488.Hothead
489.Hotstreak
490.Hsu Hao
491.Human Torch
492.Hyottoko
493.Iago
494.Ignatius
495.Ignavier
496.Il Duce
497.Inspector Gadget
498.Integrity
499.Invisible Woman
500.Inuyasha
501.Irenes
502.Iron Crawfish
503.Iron Fist
504.Isaac
505.Ishmael
506.Izzy Buttons
507.J Razav
508.Jack
509.Jack-in-the-Box
510.Jack Burton
511.Jack Frost
512.Jack Lantern
513.Jack Ling
514.Jade
515.Jade
516.Jago
517.Jaime Sommers
518.Jaina Proudmoore
519.Jake
520.Jake (Shadowrun)
521.Jake (Totally Awesome)
522.Jakotsu
523.Jam (Guilty Gear)
524.James Bond
525.Janenji
526.Janice
527.Jason
528.Jason Voorhees
529.Jaquio
530.Jax
531.Jayna Stiles
532.JC Denton
533.Jean (BOF2)
534.Jean-Jacques Mondue
535.Jeff
536.Jenny Sparks
537.Jen-Tai
538.Jerim
539.Jet Jaguar
540.Jigen
541.Jim “Jam” Anderson
542.Jin
543.Jin the Wind Master
544.Jinx
545.Jinx (Teen Titans)
546.Jiraiya
547.Joanna Dark
548.John Preston
549.John Torque
550.Johnny
551.Johnny Blaze
552.Johnny Cage
553.Johnny Rancid
554.Joker
555.Joker
556.Jonesy
557.Jubei
558.Juggernaut
559.Jukai
560.Julian Amici
561.Julie
562.Jumbo
563.K's
564.Kabal
565.Kabuto
566.Kael
567.Kaeli
568.Kagome
569.Kai (Lexx)
570.Kai (Yu Yu Hakusho)
571.Kaijinbo
572.Kain
573.Kain
574.Kakashi
575.Kalyed
576.Kamaitachi
577.Kambei
578.Kamil
579.Kano
580.Kanti
581.Kaori
582.Karasu
583.Karinka
584.Karma
585.Karn
586.Karnov
587.Karsh
588.Kasumi
589.Katara
590.Kato
591.Katt
592.Kauron
593.Kazuma
594.Kazuma Kuwabara
595.Keith Wayne
596.Ken Masters
597.Kenshi
598.Kenshin Imura
599.Kevin
600.Kiba
601.Kibano
602.Kickle Cubicle
603.Kid Icarus
604.Kidd
605.Kikaider
606.Kikyo
607.Kikuchiyo
608.Kim-Wu
609.King Arthuu
610.King Ghidorah
611.Kirby
612.King
613.King Kong
614.Kira
615.Kirol
616.Kisentite
617.Kitana
618.KJ Roll
619.Knife Guy
620.Knives Millions
621.Kobra
622.Koenma
623.Koga
624.Kojak
625.Korr
626.Komei Nakamura
627.Korcha
628.Korr
629.Kotono
630.Koyasha
631.Kraid
632.Krillin
633.Kung Lao
634.Kurama
635.Kuro Momotaro
636.Kuroko
637.Kurumi
638.Kuronue
639.Ky Kiske
640.Kyuzo
641.Lady Arson
642.LaGrace
643.Lamia
644.Lara Croft
645.Laria
646.Lazarus Vespers
647.Le Baron Magnifique
648.Leah
649.Leena
650.Legolas
651.Leilong
652.Lejes
653.Lenna
654.Lenny
655.Leo Wyatt
656.Leon
657.Leon (RE)
658.Leonardo
659.Leotsu
660.Lexis
661.Li Mei
662.Li Xue Hu
663.Lianna Ingram
664.Liberator
665.Lieutenant Stone
666.Lightning
667.Link
668.Liquid Snake
669.Little Mac
670.Liu Kang
671.Lizardman
672.Lobo
673.Lobo
674.Lolo
675.Lone Ranger
676.Long
677.Low G-Man
678.Lord Coake
679.Lord Darcia
680.Lord Garithos
681.Lorne
682.Lucca
683.Luccia
684.Luke Skywalker
685.Luigi
686.Lulu
687.Lupin
688.Lupine
689.Lux
690.M-308 Gunner
691.Mace Windu
692.Macha
693.Mad Max
694.Maiev
695.Maggot
696.Magnus
697.Magus
698.Mai Shiranui
699.Major Kusenagi
700.Maki
701.Malik Savant
702.Mammoth
703.Man-At-Arms
704.Marc Remillard
705.Marco
706.Marcus
707.Marcy
708.Mario
709.Mario Batali
710.Mark/Bert
711.Marle
712.Marrow
713.Martian Manhunter
714.Marvin the Paranoid Android
715.Masaharu Morimoto
716.Mas and Menos
717.Masahiko Kobe
718.Master
719.Master of the Flying Guillotine
720.Master Anthra
721.Master Higgins
722.Master Roshi
723.Master Shake
724.Mathayus the Scorpion King
725.Matrix Cutter
726.Mavado
727.Max Payne
728.Maxim
729.Maya
730.Maya
731.Meatwad
732.Mecha-Godzilla II
733.Megalon
734.Mega Man
735.Megaguirus
736.Megawatt
737.Megera
738.Mei Ling
739.Mel
740.Mephis
741.Meryl Stryfe
742.Metamacha
743.Metamira
744.Metroid Prime
745.Michaelangelo
746.Mickey Scymon
747.Midia
748.Midvalley the Hornfreak
749.Miguel Roedor
750.Mike the Ghoststalker
751.Mike Jones
752.Miki
753.Mileena
754.Milly Thompson
755.Minatek
756.Minos XIV
757.Mire
758.Miria
759.Miroku
760.Misao
761.Mitarai Kiyoshi
762.Mitsurugi
763.Moguro
764.Mojo
765.Momiji and Botan
766.Morbius
767.Mordenkainen
768.Mordos Kull
769.Morpha
770.Morphix
771.Mother Brain
772.Mothra
773.Mouth
774.Mr. Fantastic
775.Mr. Freeze
776.Mr. Legato Blusummers
777.Mr. Miyagi
778.Mugen
779.Murphy McManus
780.Myne
781.Myron
782.Nadir
783.Nails
784.Naksarab
785.Namira
786.Nancy Matakiri
787.Naota
788.Nappa
789.Narion Moonwood
790.Naruto
791.Nemo-2
792.NeoFio
793.Ness
794.Nezu
795.Nick Fury
796.Nightwolf
797.Nijrik
798.Niki
799.Nimrod
800.Nina
801.Nines Rodriguez
802.Ninja
803.Ninja
804.Nitara
805.Nitro
806.No-Face
807.Noob Saibot
808.Norris
809.Nova Blade
810.Obelix
811.Olga Gurlokovich
812.Olvan
813.Omega Red
814.Ominae Yu
815.Onaga
816.Optimus Prime
817.Orcha
818.Orga
819.Organic Fission
820.Orko
821.Orlando
822.Orlha
823.Otacon
824.Otane Goketugi
825.Oume Goketugi
826.Paige Matthews
827.Palom and Porom
828.Panthera
829.Pattrick Galloway
830.Paul Atreides
831.Paula
832.Pell
833.Pete Moore
834.Phoebe
835.Phoebe Halliwell
836.Piccolo
837.Pico
838.Pierre
839.Pierre
840.Pierrot Le Fou
841.Pikkon
842.Pimple
843.Pip
844.Piper Halliwell
845.Plasmus/Cinderblock/Overload
846.Plue
847.Podder-Head
848.Pojo
849.Polterghost
850.Poo
851.Popeye
852.Portia
853.Poshul
854.Potemkin
855.Princess Dagger
856.Princess Leia Organa
857.Princess Peach
858.Professor Dragonbreath
859.Professor Lupin
860.Professor Proteus
861.Promethea
862.Prue Halliwell
863.Psyclown
864.Psycho Mantis
865.Punchinello
866.Punisher
867.Purge
868.Quasar
869.Quatre Raberbas Winner
870.Qui Gon-Jinn
871.Quicksilver
872.Quinn Hart (VICE: Project Doom)
873.Quistis
874.Qui Gon-Jinn
875.R. Daneel Olivaw
876.R. Giskard
877.Race Bannon
878.Radagast
879.Radius
880.Rage
881.Ragman
882.Ragnar Bloodaxe
883.Ragtag
884.Raiden
885.Raiden
886.Rain
887.Rain
888.Raijuta
889.Rajah
890.Ralph Bellamy
891.Ram-Man
892.Ramza
893.Rand
894.Ranger
895.Raphael
896.Raptor Red
897.Rash
898.Rat King
899.Raven
900.Ray
901.Ray
902.Razorfish
903.Razzly
904.Reckless Kelly
905.Red
906.Red Mage
907.Red X
908.Redeemer
909.Redline
910.Reiji Oyama
911.Reka
912.Relentless
913.Relm
914.Remeer
915.Reptile
916.Resha Valentine
917.Reuben
918.Revolver Ocelot
919.Rex O'Herlihan
920.Rexxar
921.Rich Hunter
922.Richard O'Connell
923.Riddel
924.Ridley
925.Riese
926.Rikochet
927.Rikku
928.Ripley, Ellen
929.Riptor
930.Risho
931.Riviera
932.Robert the Robot
933.Robin
934.Robin
935.Robo
936.Robocop
937.Robo-Ky
938.Robo-Ky II
939.Rock Lee
940.Rocket Dog
941.Rocky
942.Rocky Balboa
943.Rodan
944.Roger Blaster
945.Roger Smith
946.Rogue
947.Rokhan
948.Rokusabarou Michiba
949.Rolento
950.Rooks
951.Rosa
952.Rostigor Dur Grola
953.Rugby
954.Runaway
955.Runner
956.Rydia
957.Ryoko
958.Ryou
959.Ryu
960.Ryu Hayabusa
961.Ryu Hoshi
962.Ryuji
963.Sabotage
964.Sabrewulf
965.Sagat
966.Sai Saici
967.Sailor Jupiter
968.Sailor Mars
969.Sailor Moon
970.Sailor Pluto
971.Sailor Uranus
972.Sailor Venus
973.Saito Hajime
974.Saizo Hattori
975.Saki (Steel Angel Kurumi)
976.Sakura (Naruto)
977.Sakura
978.Salamander
979.Salkind the Metal Mage
980.Samurai Jack
981.Samus Aran
982.Sango
983.Sanji
984.Sanosuke Sagara
985.Sara
986.Sara Pezzini
987.Sasaki Heihachiro
988.Sasuke
989.Savage Dragon
990.Savage Fury
991.Scalibrus
992.Scarlet Witch
993.Scorpion
994.Seamount
995.Seijurou Hiko
996.Seiryu
997.Sektor
998.Selan
999.Sensui Shinobu
1000.Seras Victoria
1001.Serge
1002.Serpentina
1003.Sesshoumaru
1004.Sett
1005.Setzer Gabbiani
1006.Sgt. Vasili Raznlik
1007.Shadow
1008.Shadow
1009.Shadowman
1010.Shang Tsung
1011.Shao Kahn
1012.Shatterhand
1013.Shatterhands
1014.Sheena
1015.Sheriff Gray Smith
1016.Shichiroji
1017.Shien
1018.Shikamaru
1019.Shikijou
1020.Shino (Naruto)
1021.Shiori
1022.Shishi Wakamaru
1023.Shiv
1024.Shujinko
1025.Shunran
1026.Shura
1027.Shuuran
1028.Sieg Heart
1029.Sigma
1030.Silver Sentry
1031.Silver Surfer
1032.Simon Belmont
1033.Simon Templar
1034.Sindel
1035.Sirius Black
1036.Sir Dalmatian
1037.Sir Deerhound
1038.Sir Dregan
1039.Sir Galston Kurbod
1040.Sir Long Arm
1041.Sir Taloquin
1042.Skeletonic
1043.Skelly
1044.Sky
1045.Skynet Bot
1046.Slash (Chrono Trigger)
1047.Slash (Combatribes)
1048.Slash (TMNT)
1049.Slash (X-Kaliber)
1050.Slayer (Guilty Gear)
1051.Slipstream
1052.Slugg
1053.Smiling Hummingbird
1054.Smoke
1055.Sneff
1056.Sniper Wolf
1057.Sofia
1058.Sogg Mead Mug
1059.Sojiro
1060.Sokka
1061.Solar Scarab
1062.Sol Badguy
1063.Solid Snake
1064.Solidus Snake
1065.Sonia Belmont
1066.Sonic the Hedgehog
1067.Sonic Blastman
1068.Sonya
1069.Soul Power
1070.Squish
1071.Space Ghost
1072.Space Godzilla
1073.Spar
1074.Sparkster
1075.Spartan
1076.Spawn
1077.Speed Racer
1078.Spiderman
1079.Spiderman 2099
1080.Spike
1081.Spike McFang
1082.Spike Spiegel
1083.Spinal
1084.Spinnerette
1085.Sprigg
1086.Spuke
1087.Ssapo
1088.Stalwart
1089.Starky
1090.Static Shock
1091.Station
1092.Steena
1093.Steiner
1094.Sten
1095.Steve Austin
1096.Stewie
1097.Sticky Pete (Gramercy Island)
1098.Storm
1099.Strago
1100.Stratos
1101.Stray Cougar
1102.Strider Hiryuu
1103.Strong Bad
1104.Strong Bad 20X6
1105.Strong Guy
1106.Strong Mad
1107.Stryker, Kurtis
1108.SubZero
1109.Suikotsu
1110.Sulik
1111.Supergirl
1112.Superman
1113.Suzaku
1114.Suzuka
1115.Suzuka
1116.Swamp Thing
1117.Sylphana Rossis
1118.Sylvanas Windrunner
1119.Synch
1120.T260G
1121.T-1000
1122.T-800
1123.Taizo Hori (Dig Dug)
1124.T. Hawk
1125.Takeshi Tsunami
1126.Talazia
1127.Talon
1128.Tamara/Monster
1129.Tango Foxtrot
1130.Tannhauser
1131.Tantrum
1132.Tanya
1133.Tao Pai-Pai
1134.Tassadar
1135.Tast Hasra Kampion
1136.Tattoo
1137.Teela
1138.Tenchi
1139.Terra (Teen Titans)
1140.Terra Bradford
1141.Tessa
1142.Testament
1143.Thardus
1144.The Atom
1145.The Confessor
1146.The Creech
1147.The Cuttlefish
1148.The End
1149.The Flea
1150.The Fury
1151.The Fury, Jr.
1152.The Huntress
1153.The Joker
1154.The Laughing Man
1155.The Pain
1156.The Sandman
1157.The Shadow
1158.The Sorrow
1159.The Tick
1160.Thief
1161.Thin Nen
1162.Thonolan
1163.Thor
1164.Thrall
1165.Thrash Ranari
1166.Thrion
1167.Thunder
1168.Thunder
1169.Thunder and Lightning
1170.Tia
1171.Tidus
1172.Tien
1173.Tifa
1174.Tiga
1175.Tiger ə-1
1176.Tin Star
1177.Tiny
1178.T.J. Combo
1179.Tobias Rasmusson
1180.Toguro, Elder
1181.Toguro, Younger
1182.Tomahawk
1183.Tom Rickles
1184.Tom Strong
1185.Tomoe
1186.Tony
1187.Tony Stark
1188.Toramaru
1189.Torian Kel
1190.Totosai
1191.Touya
1192.Toxie
1193.Treebeard
1194.Trent Haranasik
1195.Triskelion
1196.Tristram
1197.Triton
1198.Trowa Barton
1199.Tsukoyama Yutaro
1200.Tsukoyomaru
1201.Tsukioka Tsunari
1202.Tsunade
1203.Touya
1204.Turnip
1205.Turok
1206.Tusk
1207.Twilight
1208.Tyler
1209.Tyler Durden
1210.Tyler Weast
1211.Tyrande
1212.Udo Jin'e
1213.Underdog
1214.Ura Urashima
1215.Usagi the Yojimbo
1216.Ushi
1217.Usui Uonuma
1218.Valentina
1219.Valerie
1220.Valsu
1221.Vamp
1222.Van
1223.Vargeld
1224.Varian
1225.Vash the Stampede
1226.Vega
1227.Venkar Amon
1228.Venom (Guilty Gear)
1229.Venom (Marvel)
1230.Vic
1231.Vicious
1232.Victor Dominguez
1233.Videl
1234.Vincent
1235.Vincent Valentine
1236.Virgil
1237.Vivi
1238.Voldo
1239.Voodoo
1240.Vulcan Raven
1241.Wallace Herman
1242.Walter
1243.Waluigi
1244.Wampo
1245.Wan-Fu
1246.Wang Chi
1247.Wario
1248.Warlord Scard
1249.Warlord Stygian
1250.Washu
1251.Watts
1252.Wesley
1253.White Buffalo
1254.Whitie
1255.Wilme
1256.Will
1257.Wind Walker
1258.Wins Without A Knife Yakuno
1259.Wolverine
1260.Wonder Woman
1261.Wormwood
1262.Worthless Mutt
1263.Wyatt Matthews Halliwell
1264.X the Eliminator
1265.Xardion
1266.Xena
1267.Xenocratis
1268.Xerxes Maurice Alexander
1269.Xiao Long
1270.Xiaomu
1271.XxX #1
1272.XxX #2
1273.Y the Alien
1274.Yahiko Miyogi
1275. Yamiko Readman
1276.Yamucha
1277.Yang
1278.Yanno
1279.Yoh Asakura
1280.Yoshi
1281.Yuffie
1282.Yu-Gi
1283.Yuna
1284.Yusuke Urameshi
1285.Yuu Kaito
1286.Zanashita Yazahika
1287.Zangya
1288.Zaphod Beeblebrox
1289.Zappa (Chrono Cross)
1290.Zappa (Guilty Gear)
1291.Zarak (Weaponlord)
1292.Zarathos
1293.Zatch Bell
1294.Zauriel
1295.Zazie the Beast
1296.Zechs MerquiseZen
1297.Zenmuron
1298.Zelda/Sheik
1299.Zephyr
1300.Zerah
1301.Zeratul
1302.Zero
1303.Zeru
1304.Zidane
1305.Zipperhead
1306.Zippo
1307.Zitz
1308.Zlay
1309.Zoah
1310.Zonnie
1311.Zuran

[Frederic Bourgault-Christie]

How to Customize A Character

It is possible, with creative outlays of Jobs, spell selections, summons, accessories, equipment, and training/quests, to take a generic character and make her quite specialized and useful. Let me offer some examples.

Inuyasha:

At first glance, Inuyasha is a fairly basic party member. He has a few sword techniques and a few techniques derived from his claws. Though half-demonic, he seems to have more raw youki and attributes and less ability differentiation. How could one take Inuyasha and make him highly effective?

The first thing to notice is that Inuyasha uses the Tetsusaiga, a weapon with a unique skill set (the Wind Scar abilities), a particular function (slaughtering mass groups of demons in single decisive blows), and a high degree of legend and myth behind it. Further, cultivating the Tetsusaiga cultivates Inuyasha's unique human and half-demon skills. Twanchen Soul Smith, Samurai, and spirit quests to cultivate his blade can give it a new mettle (for example, in the show he breaks a barrier-generating orb to improve the Tetsusaiga's power to cleave through barriers), making those Jobs and quests a high priority for me. Since it is such a unique blade, Draw Out and Sword Soul could be quite deadly. The Tetsusaiga is a large weapon that Inuyasha does not use with a stellar degree of skill. Since his techniques seem to be largely derived from wind or air, I would have Thrash train him as an Ayrt and Rath Ahmoqa Blado Randce, followed by training in Dowsha (to augment Inuyasha's multi-attacking and defense as well as improving his single-strike abilities and giving him an extra pair of arms for purposes of wielding shields or defensive weapons), Irfry (to leverage the heavy friction generated by the sword), Felsch (to offer him a wide variety of techniques, particularly Attribute Cripple) and Thrum (to improve its anti-demon skills). The Tetsusaiga is also a transforming sword, turning from a small katana into a large blade

The Wind Scar set of skills deserve their own comments. The wind scar is the interplay between the ki signatures of two opponents. This has advantages and disadvantages. When an enemy does not generate ki (as with Badcat) or has ways of blocking the wind scar, Inuyasha is left virtually defenseless. However, the Wind Scar has the huge benefit of being able to partially bridge the gap against a far more powerful opponent or group of opponents. It also is especially effective against undisciplined opponents, particularly armies of demons or similar powerful creatures with little formal training. To allow Inuyasha to use the Wind Scar when facing an opponent such as Badcat, teaching him ambient ki control and multiple bodies techniques can help him create a wind scar from elements available to him.

Inuyasha has severe emotional disturbance, a desire to prove himself and a nasty ability to transform into a full-fledged and incredibly powerful demon. Any Berserker, Beastmaster or other class that cultivates or utilizes rage would be on the top of my list for training. This also will help cut at his weakness in human form.

Inuyasha's Blades of Blood technique indicates an affinity with blood magic. Training by Gama or a Tremere thaumaturgy expert and Blood Shaman or Biomancer Jobs could help him integrate this more fully into his fighting style.

Inuyasha does have a powerful protective coat, but it suffers from being simply cloth. I would place enchanted light armor underneath the cloth to augment his defense. He also suffers from the fact that the Tetsusaiga is so large and requires two hands, so that he is left open to flanking attacks or close combat. Aside from training him in the usage of Tetsusaiga in innovative ways (transforming it to smaller sizes or using Blado Randce techniques), and from gaining additional arms to wield shields or close-range weapons (through Dowsha Ahmoqa training or blood magic), I would give him instantaneous barrier generation skills and equipment (perhaps a Green Lantern ring, if I'm in the luxurious position of having extra), forearm mounted small to medium shields and a backup attack of some type (perhaps a breath attack or fang-based attack).

Inuyasha suffers from a weakness when in human form. Even though it is only at the new moon, particular enemies could generate a false new moon or use other magic to turn Inuyasha into a normal human. Aside from this, increasing his demonic power risks him losing his humanity and sanity. I would thus train his human body through various means, with a focus on raising reiki, endurance and speed. It might even be strategic to cultivate human form-only abilities so that I could deliberately turn him into an ordinary human and thus make enemies overconfident. Combined with the speed and reiki training and the other Jobs and skills he's received, he would thus be able to deliver a single killing blow while the enemy's tactics erroneously change.

If only because “Ironreaver Soulstealer” gets rather old, I'd want to give Inuyasha Monk and martial arts skills. Doing so would improve his ki control and general discipline, give him Counter, raise his HP, broaden his claw skills and give him self-healing and close quarter skills for where the Tetsusaiga is just too large.

Depending on whether or not I intend Inuyasha to be used for specialized purposes in the party only or to be a more general fighter, I would also aug ment his general magic, psychic, ki and technological/formal skills. He's not of the temperament to be a primary healer or Cooperation Technique fighter, so I would train him to be reasonable in these areas but no more. High willpower could make him an excellent Ilwil Worot or similar psychic, as well as facilitate augmenting his pitiful psychic defense.

Element-wise, I stock Inuyasha with healing, support and as wide a variety of attacks as I can muster. In particular, controlling Field Effects can be vital to making his Wind Scar even more effective. An all-white field, for example, is incredibly deadly to undead and demons. I develop Summons as Guardian Forces and Magicite. I want a wider range of abilities, so getting more magic, higher attributes, and restricted summoning is the most useful.

As time went on, I'd have Totosai design Inuyasha a second blade or item much as Sesshoumaru got Kaijinbo to forge him the Tokijin. Improving Tetsusaiga by undergoing quests would also be on my list.

Thus, from a relatively basic half-demon with a spiffy sword, I managed to cultivate a deadly opponent against either masses of enemies or against one preponderantly powerful enemy, with skills in raging, blood magic and martial arts.