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Final Fantasy TRPG: Legend Edition

A customization-centric interpretation of the long-running series of Final Fantasy TRPG fan projects. · By Mildra The Monk, TheMemorySlot, Xanatrix Zadare, NamiNomi

White Mage Limit Break? (and other questions about the SAGE Demo)

A topic by xColdxFusionx created Sep 06, 2024 Views: 253 Replies: 7
Viewing posts 1 to 4
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Let me preface this post by saying that I am in LOVE with this system! As a veteran of Returners 3e who loved the style but always felt bogged down by the fiddly math, seeing the same core ideas with much smoother-looking mechanics has gotten me excited to round up a party once again.

That being said, I do have one major question with regards to the SAGE rulebook. White Mage's Limit Break, Holy, reads that you gain access to the White Magic Spell List, and can swap spells during downtime. Given that this text is nearly identical to their Sphere 1 ability (Spellcasting), I'm not sure I understand the intent here. Is this a typo and White Mage is intended to have a very different Limit Break? Is this an intended mechanic that I'm not fully grasping the implications of?

Regardless of the answer, congratulations on the release, and I'm looking forward to jumping back into the worlds of Final Fantasy once more!

EDIT: I came across another question and figured I'd put it here instead of spawning another thread. If I invoke Damage Spiking (e.g. a Magnum weapon) against a source of Damage Resistance X (e.g. Protect), which takes priority?  Does DR X still apply to all dice, or does DS somehow reduce the X and allow dice to go through unchanged?

Developer(+1)

Holy was a typo, the White Mage's Limit Break is meant to be a mirror to Black Mage's Ultima limit break.  Also, X-type damage modifiers always take priority

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Thank you for the reply! I suspected that Holy was meant to work like Ultima, but it's good to have confirmation.

While I'm here - and now that I've had a chance to sit down and give the book a more thorough read-through - I have a few more questions to add to the pile:

  • Do Consumables start with limited charges, or are they always infinite use? The wording in the Character Creation section is somewhat unclear and initially seems to imply that there are charges, but never specifies how many you start with and then says a few pages later that there is no limit.
  • On a similar note, HP/Level and MP/Level state that they're the result of multiplication (and that Vitality less than 1 is treated as 1), but every instance of their respective formulas shows addition. What's the proper formula for these?
  • What happens if a character gets more Trained Skills than there are Skills available? (an Expert with +3 Mind can reach 7 Trained Skills, which is exactly the number available - and given one is automatically marked as an Origin skill, that means you can only reasonably train 6 of them.) Are the extra "training points" just lost?
  • The progression table mentions that you gain an "Ability Modifier Bonus" (AMB) at Level 1, which is not mentioned anywhere else in the character creation process. Is this in addition to the bonus from your Race, or is this the same bonus? On a similar note, I would assume that you're intended to put the four ASBs you gain from leveling up into different stats?
  • Am I correct in assuming that an Extra Effort Die is the same size as your Weapon Die? I've checked through the whole book and I don't believe the size of the die is ever specified. (Update: I was wrong, the effect of Pounce and Holy Judgment mention that Extra Effort is d4's by default. Strange that this information isn't in a readily accessible place, though...)

Apologies for the barrage of questions, the system looks very cool and I'm excited to give it a whirl! I've already got character concepts pouring out of my ears over here, which is a very good sign for a system like this...

Developer(+1)

To answer your questions...
- Consumables are equipment slots, we're working on the wording.
- Artifact. Working on fixing
- This will be addressed in an update.
- At certain levels you get a progressive modifier to a chosen ability, that chosen ability is locked. For example if you pick Vigor for AMB 1, you get +1 to it at 1st level, +2 at 7th, +3 at 12th, and +4 at 17th. This is not cumulative.
- Extra effort die is d4

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Thank you again! 

One last batch of questions for now and I should be out of your hair:

  • Cosmic Magic: Meteor's listed damage is 1d8, which seems exceptionally low for a spell that can only be cast at 9th tier. Is this a typo? (My assumption is that it should be 3d12 as per the other T9 Spells, though that does put it at odds with Recall Death. Given that they're both High Magic and subject to GM-determined availability, though, perhaps this is less of an issue...) (EDIT: Found on the Discord, should be 3d12)
  • Blue Magic: Bad Breath states that its duration is based on rank, but the rank effects column displays damage - which, given the description itself doesn't mention damage, I suspect is a copy-paste error; I'm assuming it should be 1 Round +1 per Rank, like the other status spells?
  • On a similar note, Black Magic: Bioja states that it deals Poison 1 in its effect description, but says Poison 7 in its Rank Effect. Which duration is intended?
  • White Magic: Bless and White Magic: Esuna seem redundant; both start at Tier 3 and have identical costs and effectiveness, but Esuna covers all negative conditions and not just Seal. Would it make sense for Bless to start at Tier 2 like the other single status spells, or is there another errata in mind?
  • Dragon Art: Dragon's Eye grants "Damage Penetration 10", a mechanic which appears nowhere else in the book and is otherwise undefined. Is this intended to be a level of Damage Spiking, or should this move have a different effect? (EDIT: Found on the Discord, it reduces Damage Protection.)
  • Black Magic: Flare lists that its damage can explode as a special property of the spell; however, according to the Power Surge section on Page 205, all damaging spells should have this effect by default. What's the intended ruling here?

Apologies again for the deluge of questions, I'm really looking forward to getting some friends together and putting the system through its paces.

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I'm gonna add to this because a friend of mine and I realized something while discussing the Yokai class.

What is the exact definition of a Weapon Attack? Are attacks gained from Yokai Circles Weapon Attacks? If not, is it because they are "special Attacks" and if yes, does that mean the Samurai's Limit Break does not work with Hissatsu techniques as those are "special Attacks" too? (Nevermind the latter part, Yokai Circles are special actions, not special attacks, so there is no real connection . A definition will still be appreciated, but I will assume Weapon Attack and Attack are interchangeable until further notice)

This is an innocent-looking conundrum that could make or break the entire system imho.

Addendum: What does the wording of  Fighter's "Omnistrike" mean? My understanding is that, since it's a single attack, you pick a template that is present in your Master of Arms set for the attack and then add all Tags into one. Said friend reads it as also adding the damage of each weapon into one damage roll, but that still leaves it open how the "Physical or Magical Attack vs. Physical or Magical Defense" part of an attack should get resolved in case of mixed templates. (Now that I'm more awake, I believe the Limit Break simply means that you can essentially decide which Master of Arms weapon you have equipped before and after each Attack that involved a MoA weapon? Essentially removing the limitation from Variation and the various Multi Cuts/Grandmaster. Nope. You can already switch between MoA weapons for free. Back to Square One with the question)

Also is it intentional that a Level 20 Samurai has a 50% chance of Iai Striking any enemy, including End Bosses, into oblivion? Admittedly I haven't crunched high-level numbers yet, but the possibility of effectively dealing 900 or 1000 true unavoidable damage on the first turn seems rather broken.

...That's a good question, actually. 

There's some cases where it seems like it'd be relatively clear; Samurai, for example, uses Hissatsu techniques as a modifier for their basic attack, so it makes sense to still consider those Weapon Attacks. Things like Spells or Companion Attacks, on the other hand, likely wouldn't count since your weapon's basic attack stats aren't factored in at all. That being said, in cases like Ifrit's Hellfire where the attack uses your weapon's Metatype to determine its damage type, does that count as a Weapon Attack or not?

Re: Samurai, Bosses are typically immune to effects like Iai Strike in FF so it wouldn't be an unreasonable houserule to say that Bosses and End-Bosses are immune.

As for Fighter's Omnistrike... Yeah, I've got nothing. What's the difference in properties between "making an attack with a weapon" and "having the weapon equipped"? You obviously get the benefits of Martial Flexibility on every weapon (since they're all equipped), but do you get the tags? The damage? The range?