Zelda Universe RPG

The deal with Thunderspark and other armor-based damaging attacks - Printable Version

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The deal with Thunderspark and other armor-based damaging attacks - Orithan - 01-23-2015

Thunderspark 1

REQUIREMENTS: Nature (Level: 1)
COSTS: 2 Magic
DESCRIPTION: Fire off a small orb of Lightning (Nature sub-type) that shocks protection. Hits one target.
- Roll your Wisdom +1 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  - Damage: None
  - EFFECT 1: Target takes 1 Shock Damage (Neutral) for every point of Physical Armor he has.
  - EFFECT 2: Target takes 1 Shock Damage (Neutral) for every point of Magical Armor he has.

Thunderspark 2

REQUIREMENTS: Level 10 and Nature (Level: 3)
COSTS: 4 Magic
DESCRIPTION: Fire off a small orb of Lightning (Nature sub-type) that shocks protection. Hits one target.
- Roll your Wisdom +2 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  - Damage: None
  - EFFECT 1: Target takes 2 Shock Damage (Neutral) for every point of Physical Armor he has.
  - EFFECT 2: Target takes 2 Shock Damage (Neutral) for every point of Magical Armor he has.

Back in the ZURPG before the hiatus, Thunderspark was balanced because of the armor values that characters had were low compared to now. Even now, it is balanced in the low-levelled portion of the game. Now that the armor values have gone up, often being close to double of what they were before, while Thunderspark hasn't changed, it is now a very powerful weapon in the and is strong enough to 2HKO (or even OHKO if their Hearts are low enough) most players wearing generic armor of their level tier in the later portions of the game. Thanks to it being Neutral Damage; there also aren't many ways to stop it outside of increasing Hearts, which doesn't really do much to soften the impact of it, and Wisdom, which can be gotten around through the use of certain skills, or having a high Fire affinity. This results in a spell that requires special measures to actually stop if you don't wish to invest in a particular stat/affinity spread.
Mind you, this is just the base level version. The second version is more broken than the first and this is supposed to cover more than just Thunderspark, but anything that deals Neutral Damage based on armor.

This is my supposed nerfs:

Thunderspark 1

REQUIREMENTS: Nature (Level: 1)
COSTS: 2 Magic
DESCRIPTION: Fire off a small orb of Lightning (Nature sub-type) that shocks protection. Hits one target.
- Roll your Wisdom +3 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  - Damage: None
  - EFFECT: Target takes 2 Nature Damage (Magical) for every point of Physical Armor he has.

Thunderspark 2

REQUIREMENTS: Level 10 and Nature (Level: 3)
COSTS: 4 Magic
DESCRIPTION: Fire off a small orb of Lightning (Nature sub-type) that shocks protection. Hits one target.
- Roll your Wisdom +5 dice vs. targets' Wisdom dice
  - Damage: None
  - EFFECT: Target takes 2.5 Nature Damage (Magical) for every point of Physical Armor he has.

And even then I don't think this is balanced enough against the higher tiers *shrug*

Thoughts?

RE: The deal with Thunderspark and other armor-based damaging attacks - WindStrike - 01-23-2015

Agreed. I was thinking about nerfing it as well, you just beat me to it, lol. Let's just roll with one version of Thunderspark that hits Physical Armor only, and 1 point per. I might be fine with a Super Thunderspark that does 2 per, except it's got a 1-turn charge-up attached to it along with a higher Magic cost. On the new system, you technically could roll out a Super Thunderspark every round except the first one, cause you'd just spend your Support Action doing the charge-up every time. But, at least the enemies have a chance to react to seeing something really strong like a Super Thunderspark charging and can find a way to counteract it.