#gsar

Critical Hits vs Unleashes

First we must clarify the difference between a Critical Hit and an Unleash:

A Critical Hit specifically refers to a powerful blow that bypasses a foe's defenses.  There is nothing psynergetic about it, and it's not necessarily more powerful.  It just strikes a vital part of the foe, and thus does more damage.

An Unleash specifically refers to the channeling and unleashing of psynergy embedded within a weapon, either passively during an attack, or directly by channeling it as though it were a spell.

Not all weapons have an unleash, but all weapons are capable of landing a critical blow.  But what about Dark Dawn, and how it handles unleashes?

Dark Dawn vs the Expanded Forumverse System

Dark Dawn did something... interesting.  Not bad, per se... but interesting.  It assigned multiple unleashes to every weapon.  Not just artifacts, either.  It did away entirely with critical hits, and replaced them with unleash type effects.  However, this method presents a few problems with what the Forumverse system aims to do - namely that Inepts cannot use unleashes, since they cannot channel psynergy.

In other words, while the DD system is interesting from a gameplay perspective, when you add Inepts into the mix, it doesn't work from a lore perspective.  And while yes, I know, DD wasn't exactly something that paid attention to its own lore, as a Roleplayer I expect people to follow and adhere to the lore, and I'd be a mighty big hypocrite if I didn't hold my own system to the same standard I hold other people to.

As a direct result, a sort of... compromise is made.  There are Two Types of Unleashes, and Three Types of Criticals.  Adepts can use both of the unleash types, and the weakest of the criticals, while Inepts can use the three critical types, but none of the unleash types.

Types of Unleashes

The two types of unleashes are rather simple to understand - the Howling Unleash is the traditional type.  It triggers randomly when you attack.  The Bestowed Unleash, however, acts as though it were a psynergetic spell.  By actively channeling the spell, you are able to purposefully use an alternate version of the weapon's base unleash (with some exceptions to be covered in a later article).  This effectively gives two similar, yet techincally different unleashes for the adept to use in battle.

Essentially, this is Garet's idea from the original Golden Sun of mastering a passive power made real.  Through discoveries and techniques that happened in the New Golden Age, you're able to actively tap into that particular power.

Types of Critical Hits

Standard Criticals - In this system, critical hits work much differently than in the original games.  In the original games, for some god forsaken reason, the extra damage you dealt was based on the target's level.  I'm not even kidding.  How that makes sense is beyond me, but... I figure it's easy to rework it so that it's based on the attacker's strength instead.

As such, how I approached it is this.  Please don't shy away from the math, it's rather simple once I explain it.

CritMod = Attacker Level / 3 Damage = (((Attack - (Defense * ((100 - CritMod)/100)) / 2 + CritMod) * ((100 - CritMod)/100)) * Elemental Modifiers

So what does this great headache of math mean?  Well, take a third of the adept's level.  The attack pierces that percentage of an enemy's defense, does that much more damage on top of that, and then does that much percentage extra damage for good measure.  Basically, the stronger and more experienced you are, the harder you hit.  A newbie's critical will barely register, while a seasoned veteran will hit hard.  It should be noted, though, that even with this extra damage, these attacks are generally less powerful than unleashes.  They straddle a kind of middle ground between a standard blow and an unleash.

Energetic Criticals - Inepts train for combat as a pure physical endevor.  As a result of this focused training, they're able to hit harder with their physical blows.  Instead of using their Unleash Rate to determine their chances of using an unleash like an adept, they use it to determine the chance of putting extra might into their attack.  These extra-powered critical hits are the only way that an Inept will ever use their PP reserves.  So why PP if they don't cast anything?  Well, it's a bit more clear when you look at the Japanese name for the stat - Energy Points.  Basically, they're putting a lot more energy into this blow, and as a result, their CritMod uses two thirds of their level instead of one third of it.  Still weaker than many top tier unleashes out there, but it still packs one heck of a punch.  So what happens when they're out of PP?  It reverts to a standard critical blow  (the amount of PP used is roughly equal to a third of their level).

Mystic Criticals - Some weapons have unleashes that deal Spell type damage instead of Physical damage.  Anyone who read the previous entry probably guessed that was coming, but it will be explained properly which types of weapons do this in a later entry.  Mystic Criticals work by using an Inept's Casting and the target's Warding stat instead of Attack and Defense, and strike with the power and energy consumption of an Energetic Critical.

Between Energetic and Mystic Criticals, an Inept's PP and Casting stats are put to good use and not completely wasted.  It's entirely possible to have an Inept that specializes in dealing Mystic Criticals, dealing the same damage type as Pure Casters, even though they can't cast a single spell.

Building Up Your Inept

So now that you understand the special properties that Inepts have available to them, it's time to actually consider building one.  So, let's look at adepts to see how they're done, shall we?

Pure Casters have strong spells, and use 3 weapon types Physical Adepts have physical spells, and use 4 weapon types Inepts have no spells, and following the pattern, would use 5 weapon types.

Makes sense, right?  So what builds does an Inept have available to them?  After all, adepts tend to have a set group of weapons for each particular build.  Well, the answer is... any five you want.  Unlike Adpets, which must choose between one of six builds for their type, Inepts get complete freedom when it comes to picking their weapons.  The reason for this is simple - you sacrifice the ability to customize your spell selection, to unleash djinn in battle, to summon, to use weapon unleashes... That's a lot of stuff they don't get to do!  As such, it's only fair that they get access to the one thing adept's don't - complete freedom in weapon choice.

Want an inept who uses Axes, Bows, Staffs, Swords, and Scythes?  Feel free, totally valid.  One who uses Martial Weapons, Spears, Claws, Ankhs, and Daggers?  Totally fine.

It doesn't just apply to weapons, either.  Inepts get free range over ALL equipment, with the exception of Sigils, which require a caster's specialized proficiency in channeling psynergy.  That means you can mix Heavy Armor and Robes if you want.  Try to be reasonable, though - you don't wanna be tripping over your own gear in combat.

Next up is classes.  Clearly they don't have them... right?  Wrong.  Inepts most certainly have classes.  They don't have spells, granted, but they do have classes, and they can both upgrade their Class Tier and change their Class Line by equipping djinn just like an adept can.  They may not be able to wield that djinn's power, but they aren't element neutral either.  All living beings have an elemental affinity, and Inepts are no exception.  Because of that affinity, djinn can be used to enhance and modify that affinity, and thus, you can have a fast attacker with one djinn type, but a healthy tank with another.  Like with Adepts, an Inept's Base Stat multipliers are based upon their Final Level 99 stat targets.