Breath of Death VII: The Beginning

[Pyro]

- Yes I know it isn't exactly an ordinary game but it was fun so shut up.

- Level taken as 32.

- At every level-up you choose one of two options the game gives you for some bonuses in addition to ordinary stat-gains. I went for the ones that optimized the PCs for dueling. I'll list another option if it matters a lot. I built Dem as a straight-up fighter with HP and offense buffing (he can go for defense-buffing alternatively), Sara as a healer with tankishness (sacrificing Magic at times), Lita went for HP and Magic. She isn't breaking average Agi even if she wanted to, sadly. Erik is all about CHOPPING OFF HEADS FOR EATING TEH BRAINS.

- System: Supertypical turn-based RPG. No random variation for speed. As a PC attacks they build up a "combo counter" which keeps track of the # the PCs land over time. Moves with "Combo Boost" in them get a buff to their attack equal to # hits/10. So a 15 hit combo count would result in a Combo Boost move doing 250% damage. Combo Break moves reset the Combo counter to 0.

- Stats:

HP: Lose these and.... what happens when undead lose their HP? Where do they go? Who knows.
MP: Used for Techs and magic. There is no real difference between them.
Strength: MOAR PHYSICAL DAMAGE.
Magic: MOAR MAGIC DAMAGE.
Agility: Good old fashioned turn-based speed. No bells or whistles!
Vitality: Physical damage reduction. Works screwy. Doesn't mean too much really.
Will: Magic damage reduction. Works screwy. Doesn't mean too much really.

- Enemy damage reduction taken as 30.

- Status:
Sleep: Target can't act until they take damage. Once damaged, target can act on the turn they were damaged if slower than the one that damaged them. Target doesn't wake up for debuffs/other status attempts.
Blind: Reduces enemy hit-rate to 1/3rd.
Seal: Enemy can't use magic.
Poison: Repeat the damage done when the poison was inflicted, indefinitely.

- All buffs/debuffs are permanent and work on all bosses. The game has no status-blockers for the PCs. Note that buffs stack additively, including this combo boost one. You can't stack the exact same buff on top of itself, although you can stack two different buffs that happen to affect the same stat...


- Averages up top!:
HP: 439
Agility: 230 (62.7 stdev)
Vitality: 302
Will: 220

Damage: 1586 (2.5x kill point of 3965)



DEM BONES:
"... (Everyone around me is insane.)"

HP: 430
MP: 205
Strength: 420
Magic: 180
Agility: 240
Vitality: 370
Will: 200

Equipment:
Giant Sword
Aegis


Attack: 348 damage in one hit.

Techs:
Multi-Strike (5): 1049 damage over two hits.
Deathblow (15): 1079 damage in one hit. Combo Boost. Combo Break
Attack Stance (15): +75% Strength, -25% Vitality
Blade Dance (30): 1734 damage over 4 hits. Unfocuses (3280 w/Heroics) [4440 w/both]
Holy Strike (30): 1835 Holy physical damage in one hit. (3388 w/ Heroics) [4554 w/both]

Magic:
Fire Flurry (10): 50 fire magic damage over three hits.
Sandstorm (10): -50% agility for all enemies.
Heroics (20): +100% Strength and Magic, Regen 15 MP at the end of every round.

Passives:
Sword Aura: +20% Atk for Dem and any fighting with him. (already factored in)
Shield Aura: +10% Def for Dem and any fighting with him.

(Note:
If Dem goes for defense buffing, he sacrifices 10% off Sword Aura and can buff as follows...
120% initial -> 195% (Defense Stance)
or trade in Shield Aura for Rally...
100% initial -> 175% (Defense Stance) -> 225% (Rally)
End note)

Comments: HOLY UNDEAD SWORDSMAN. Anyways, Dem is a little above average at speed and generally has good stats, doesn't suck for offense but isn't special, can kill his opponent's speed, and can buff to OHKO given time. Middle works. The fire damage is so bad it isn't even worth mentioning.




Sara the Ghost
"I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was! To explore ruins is my real test, to learn stuff is my cause! I will travel across the land, searching far and wide. Teach DEM to understand, the love he feels inside!"
HP: 426 (476 w/ Health Ring)
MP: 436 (386 w/o Magic Ring)
Strength: 160
Magic: 420 (370 w/o Magic Ring)
Agility: 310 (360 w/ Speed Ring)
Vitality: 260 (250 w/ Speed Ring, 240 w/ Health Ring)
Will: 300

Equipment:
Caduceus
Magic Ring (Health Ring or Speed Ring as alternates)


Attack: 360 damage over 4 hits.

Techs:
Research (5): +50% Magic for the rest of the fight. Affects healing and damage basically directly.
Boo! (3): 100% Stun on one enemy. Stun only lasts for one turn so this is of little value.
Hailstorm (30): 1056 ice magic damage over 4 hits. Unfocuses.
Freeze Blast (12): 642 ice magic damage in one hit. -25% to target's Agility permanently.

Magic:
Heal (4): 420 healing. Removes all status ailments.
Escape (30): 100% Escape from a fight!!!
Holy Blast (30): 1650 holy magic damage in one hit.


Comments: Fast healer with durability that isn't bad and the ability to select a Ring for the appropriate situation. Speed Ring and Freeze Blast ensure that even other gamebest speedsters will end up slower than her, and Health Ring can give her the extra oomph to avoid an OHKO or something. Research turns her into a fast fullhealing 2HKOing monster. Middle/Heavy?




Lita the Vampire
HP: 342
MP: 382
Strength: 220
Magic: 400
Agility: 210
Vitality: 190
Will: 270

Equipment:
Laser Gun
IQ Glasses


Attack: 495 ITD physical damage over 3 hits.

Techs:
Sleep (10): 80% accurate sleep on one enemy. Sleep is permanent until the target takes damage.
Sniper Shot (10): 630 physical damage on one enemy.
Seal (5): 80% accurate seal on one enemy
Blind (8): 80% accurate Blind on one enemy

Magic:
Drain Life (16): 210 draining magic damage to all enemies. Heals Lita (and allies) for the damage done.
Bury Alive (12): 855 Earth magic damage.
Lightning (30): 290 Lightning magic damage to all. 30% chance of Stun.
Call Wolves (15): 146 damage to all at the end of every turn. Repeats indefinitely.
Death (30): 40% Instant Death, Multitarget.

Comments: Status whore. The stats aren't good but hey, status whore. Sleep -> Spam the 40% damageless ID move till it hits works pretty much like Turn 1 ID (that checks sleep immunity as well). Or the person wakes up a Silenced/Blinded target that Lita can drain down, if they immune ID. Instead of the 40% ID she could have taken a move with better damage, but that sure ain't winning her any matches.




Erik the Zombie
HP: 558
MP: 111
Strength: 550
Magic: 180
Agility: 160
Vitality: 390
Will : 110

Equipment:
CHAINSAW AXE
Platinum Suit


Attack: 383 damage in one hit.

Techs:
Smash! (20): 2005 damage in one hit.
Call Horde (25): 1428 damage in three its. Unfocuses.

Magic:
Puke! (10): One hit of 78 poison magic damage. Poison repeats the 78 damage indefinitely.
Regenerate (8): 72 regen for the rest of the battle.


Comments: Slow but durable and damaging. Limited resources sucks vs. Healers, but at least the likes of Mint run right into Regenerate. Middle.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Lita's physical build does notably more ST damage (I think the projected number with Sniper Shot is 1070 in my file, so... 1040? Still obviously the worst due to everyone else's damage spiking late, she wants a Langsong damage average). Not sure exactly what stats she needs to give up for it, and/or if it would be worth it. I assume Drain Life's healing focuses? It only heals 1/4 of damage dealt with a full party, but I didn't test with any allies dead. (Not that any of this really affects her main strategy.)

[Dhyerwolf]

Well, since the topic has been bumped anyways, actually there are a few other differences I've noticed overall (I confirmed with the gamemakers that there were no changes between the two versions; they are very responsive!). Lita's Sniper Shot has a mult of 2.8, which would be around 100 extra STR?

I have actually meant to do a little topic refresh for a while (which is mostly ready to go), I just wasn't sure if I should repost a new one.

[Pyro]

lita is better off on damage with another spell but she prefers Instant Death I believe.

If she goes for a strength build her parasitic healing will get worse? Probably not worth it?

[Dark Holy Elf]

I don't think Magic has much effect on the draining, since I had almost the same number. (Also, restating my original question: did you test that it focuses?)

[Dhyerwolf]

Oh, I don't believe the MT version focuses, but I believe the ST version that heals only Lita has the same multiplier. I'll check on that soon.

[Dhyerwolf]

I was wrong on the mult. 0.3x for ST, 0.6x for MT. So while ST is still better healing than the MT version, it serves very little DL function (And granted how I weigh status now, she wants Sleep+ anyways.

[Dhyerwolf]

Reprepping my notes: NEB, was your Lita under Sword Aura? Your number looks similar to what it would look like under Sword Aura. Granted, I would probably see all PC damage in the DL as under Sword Aura (it's the obvious choice that DEM will make every time and then you won't see any physical damage without it).

Struggling on finding the best balance for Sara on 7 Level Ups:
20 hp/10 Str vs 20 Mag 10 Wil
30 Mag vs 20 Agi, 20 Wil
10 Str/Mag/Agi/Vit/Wil vs 20 HP/MP (4x)
20 Mag, 20 Vit vs 20 Agi, 20 Wil

The obvious DL choice is HP; the obvious in game application is either AGI (for all that Sara is fast, there are still plenty of faster enemies where I wouldn't mind more AGI) or MAG (which is what I tend to think should be prioritized), but given the large differences I wanted to see if anyone had any opinions? For reference, if she takes all the MAG, she has 2000 damage (assuming Magic Ring as default); if she takes none, it's more like 1500. No HP=86% HP, all the HP=103%...AGI...well, the way SDs are calculated makes this muted. Granted...I think that whenever I eventually get to tweaking speed (likely by methodical placement of extra "dummy" PCs in small casts to better weight them) that this would change and the AGI really is worth something in game. My thought was taking everything on the left side (that's at least what I would likely take in game).

[Dark Holy Elf]

I totally forgot about Sword Aura, so yes it would have been. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about factoring in Sword Aura for other PCs. On the one hand I agree with you, that's how you always see damage and that's a big plus. The harsher side of me wants to disallow it because the main person it helps is Erik, who is wretched in-game. Or something about how by pure mechanics other PCs shouldn't benefit it from alone. But on the whole I lean towards agreeing with you.


Re the Sara choices, hmm. I tend towards left side sweep as well, although it'd depend a bit on how low her HP falls, since the lower her HP is at the time the more likely I'd be to take one of those 20 HP/MP choices.