The Dunhurst Custom Dungeon ~ 13 Floors Deep?!: RP Interest / Guide Q&A Thread

[Aldurin]

I like the races. Are the Physical/Technical/Magical supposed to be build paths we choose at creation, or are they something we choose at each level-up?

Also, I don't think the forum leaves notifications about when a thread gets edited, so you may need to double post to get people's attention (I only found out about this update to the rules because I decided to manually check the thread.)

[Astral Harmony]

They're builds that you choose when you create your character.

No updates to the guide so far. Been having a bitch of problems creep up on me, internet connectivity issues being the least of it. Once the Umbral post is done, I'll try to smash into it full force.

[phil_]

Could you put some priority on them there pixie fairies? Seems like the only small race, so I'd like to see what their deal is beyond flavor.

[Astral Harmony]

Roger that, m'lord. I think I can squeeze something out before I have to go to work this afternoon. Right off the bat, you can expect them to be difficult to hit, able to fly at will (usually), often very fast, and weak versus explosive force. Explosive force is one of the best tools you can have against small opponents, which will also be some of your very first enemies.

[phil_]

Cool beans. Another thing to think about: you mention elves a lot in racial descriptions and in the signup, but only elf-like Zephyron are available to play as. Was this intended or an oversight?

[Astral Harmony]

Kind of intended, but I'm not against creating elves. I guess I'm just more excited about it when I'm created races you don't see in nearly every other RPG you come across. I'll probably end up doing some work after I'm done with the other races. But all I can think of are the Elder Scrolls Wood, High and Dark Elves. And if I recall correctly, the Orcs in that game are an elvish race as well, just...horribly, horribly disfigured by their god being eaten and partially digested or something similar. I forget.

I'll update the guide with the statistical setups for the Sprites right after this, but I'll just go and put it right below here to help.

- Base Stats (Magical): HP 25 / MP 50 / SP 15 / Pwr 3 / End 4 / Fcs 18 / Res 20 / Spd 8 / Tek 80% / Rfx 50% / Dsp 10% / Imm 10%
- Base Stats (Technical): HP 35 / MP 30 / SP 21 / Pwr 5 / End 6 / Fcs 5 / Res 5 / Spd 15 / Tek 105% / Rfx 70% / Dsp 15% / Imm 10%
- Level Up Stats (Magical): HP 1-2 / MP 8-12 / SP 0-1 / Pwr 0-1 / End 1-2 / Fcs 4-6 / Res 5-8 / Spd 1-3 / Tek 0-5% / Rfx 5-10% / Dsp NA / Imm 1-2%
- Level Up Stats (Technical): HP 2-3 / MP 2-3 / SP 2-3 / Pwr 1-2 / End 1-2 / Fcs 1-2 / Res 1-2 / Spd 4-6 / Tek 5-10% / Rfx 10-20% / Dsp 0-1% / Imm 0-1%
- Racial Characteristics
* Runic Burst (Once/Battle): +50% Dam to HP, Half of dam also applies to target‘s MP, Fire Element
* Lightweight Attribute (Passive): Nullifies Tek bonuses from enemy attacks, weapons and spells and the “Must Hit” bonus. 70% Weak to explosives.
* Aerial Attribute (When flying): Nullifies some Earth element magic. 70% Res to Earth element. 70% Weak to Ranged weaponry. 50% Immune to “Wing Injury” as opposed to most flying units. 100% Immune to Gravity.

Guess I'll point out some stuff for this one:

- Some attacks offer bonuses to your Tek (chance to hit your target), like the dagger, the blunderbuss, all that jazz. Small enemies can nullify those bonuses just by being tiny. And there are certain attacks that both you and your enemies might possess also have a Must Hit bonus, which ignores the user's Tek and the enemy's Rfx and hits regardless.

- Not all Earth elemental spells with affect the ground level, and individual spells will be listed as whether they're resisted to the ground or could hit things in the air.

- Wing Injuries and Gravity are two different status effects that both ground the victim, but through different means. Creatures of the Lightweight attribute cannot be grounded by Gravity. But damage to the wings (or gas pockets or whatever they use to fly) will drop them. Fortunately, you are small, and your wings are also small, and aren't as exposed as they are for most creatures, so you gain some immunity to be dropped hard.

[phil_]

Originally Posted by Armored Bishoujo

I'd appreciate it if y'all fine folks might have a gander at it whenever it's updated (plan to update it daily) and see if you can't pick out any possible balancing issues or generate some additional ideas. I'm not a licensed RPG creator, after all, and I'm basically creating this guide from scratch.

So, I've done a little of this with what's there. So far, compared to Humans, no base stats or stat growth is better in every attribute. Every stat block is better than human some places, worse is others. So, that bare minimum of balancing is there. While you could balance more, I'd let it slide, just because one, we're not fighting each other; and two, this isn't going to be cracked apart by the entire internet nor sold, so some unbalance is fine. Getting it done is more important for now than slotting everything into a perfect DMGTANKHEAL DPS equation.

Asking for a clarification, but "X% Weak to Y" is subtracted from Res or End when applicable, and "X% Res to Y" is added to Res or End when applicable, right? Also, "X% immune to" is added to Imm; whereas "Immune to" with no percentage given means actually, fully, "I can stand here all day" immune, no dice rolled, right?

Also, is there natural healing, like "Rest 8 hours for +xHP +yMP +nSP" or "Everyone dusts off and is ready to roll 100% after each battle" or "Use TENT to rest;" or do we need to burn healing spells and potions until we die?

[Aldurin]

Originally Posted by Armored Bishoujo

70% Weak to explosives.

Now I can only think of a Borderlands character, hunting down Sprites using an explosive shotgun.

[Astral Harmony]

Characters should have their HP, MP, and SP fully restored between battles. Status effects, whether benefitial or negative, will also be negated.

As for consumable items, those won't be replaced until you clear your mission (aka all battles for that day complete and you exit the dungeon). You'll encounter treasure chests that will have some items and some enemies will be holding items that you can steal or will be dropped upon their deaths, and I think there may come a time I'll throw certain other situations (like maybe a strange merchant monster that allows trading or a cute mascot NPC who functions as an item bank of sorts).

As far as items are concerned, you're going to have a lotta slots that I think will differ between physical, magical, and technical types.

*thinking* Regardless of type, you're going to have multiple slots for weaponry. I guess...oh, maybe 6 or 8 for physical, a little less for technical, and only so much for magical. Some weapons, like daggers, 1H-sword, and bombs only take one slot. Greatswords and rifles will take two, and there'll be some ridiculously big weapons that occupy more slots.

I'm not sure how much more effective some weapons will be than others. Many of them might just be weaker, but have benefitial effects (like being far more effective against certain attributes). For example, a Silver Sword won't do as much damage as a Steel Sword, but against Vampires or anything else weak to silver weapons, it can be pretty damn devastating.

You'll have other slots for various pieces of armor, accessories, and consummables. I imagine technical types will have more consummables than the magical, and magical maybe a little more than physical. And when it comes to weapons, armor, accessories, and consummables, Dunhurst will be outfitted to provide you with refilling and swapping out all of these between missions. Dunhurst is going to have a lotta weird shit. Got this idea for a bakery called Epic Cake Time (run by Chizuru Suzuki the Black Kimono, ha) where she can bake a kickass herbal cake for you once per mission that can offer significant boosts for the entire party when battle isn't going well. Also plan to create some combat NPCs that you can drag down there with you to supplement your abilities and take advantages of enemy weaknesses you aren't equipped to deal with at the time.

The way I see it as far as weaknesses and strengths go, I think I'll do the resistance or weakness before the defensive stats come into play. For example, oh, let's say the enemy's total offensive effort (weapon/spell/attack damage + appropriate offensive statistic) ends up being...for simplicity, 30. You got 30% resistance to the attack's element or attribute, so uhhh...*calculates*...9 out of 30 is shaved off before you take damage. That leaves the enemy with 21 and your appropriate defensive statistic is 9. 21 minus 9 is 12 so that's the damage you end up taking. If there's something to the right of the decimal, I usually round up regardless of what it is. That's what I do in Umbral, anyways.

EDIT: The guide has been updated with four new races because I let my imagination run away with me again. Two of these are elves, one is for Spriggans and another for half man, half spider Arachne. But that's my limit! You want more races, you'll just have to request them specifically. Once I'm done with the Umbral post, I plan to pound the shit out of that guide.