Muddy's Puddle of Creations (With Commentary!)

"Welcome to Muddy's Character Compendium!", is what I would say but I guess it's too small to be called a compendium so let's theme it a bit with my username and call it a puddle. Also theming. Theming is a theme I like to go with.

So, I'll be posting two versions of each character, one version's just gonna be the character itself and the other version is going to have creator comments! creator being me if you couldn't guess.

Spoiler: Level 7 Judit Staunton

Name: Judit Staunton
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Level: 7
Progress: --/--
Appearance:

Spoiler

Profession: Pawn - A Queen in training, this odd profession entitles the user to conjure up chess pieces and inherit some of their moves. [Basic Attack: Physical] [Pawn Influence]
Pawn Influence: A single diagonal space can act as an adjacent space once per turn.

Weapon: Soldier's Lance: A common medium ranged weapon frequently used in combat. Feels a bit heavy. [+3 ATK / Range: 2 Cells, Straight Line]
Armor: Light Armor: Durable armor made to be especially light to unhinder movement. [+3 DEF]
Accessory: Magic Gloves: Although not completely fit for a knight, Judit is a fan of how comfortable it is. [+15 Max MP]

A-Ability: Soul of the Game

+ Pawn Strike: User embodies the strategical strength of a Pawn and strikes the opponent with force in an attempt to destabilize them. If paired with Pawn Influence, the force of this attack is increased. 140% ATK damage, 120% otherwise. Chance of Immobilize. Range: Adjacent cell. 10 MP

+ Castling: An evasive maneuver that can only be used on Allies on the same row or column. The User moves up to the Target and swaps Cells with them. Consumes Move command if used before moving. Can only be used if the path is unobstructed. 8 MP.

+ Knight's Gallop: The User charges through the battlefield, plowing through foes and building up speed to increase attack. 80% + [Steps taken]*20%. Formula is reset on each hit. Range: User's cell while in movement; Adjacent Cell at the end of the movement. Note: Attack cannot end on an Enemy's Cell and it must be activated before moving. 9 MP

R-Ability: Check: When Health is less than half, Unit gains +1 Movement.
B-Ability: Bishop's Teachings: The User is reminded of their teachings by the academy bishop and calms down. Bestows Regeneration on self.
S-Ability: Unconventional Attacker: Non-Adjacent attacks gain a 15% boost in critical-hit rate.

E-Trigger: Three Moves Ahead: The user gains a sudden boost in their mental capabilities and quickly studies their surroundings, foes and allies. This boosts their strategic capabilities, allowing them to know where to strike and when to dodge. Increases ATK by 20% and Evasion by 30% for 3 turns. 5 X-Levels.
X-Ability: Checkmate: The user of this fierce attack yells "Checkmate!" at the top of their lungs while ferociously striking a target in an attempt to destabilize nearby foes. 180% Piercing ATK damage. High chance of Immobilize to all enemies. Range: Adjacent cell. 10 X-Levels. (Pawn Influence: OK)

Spoiler: Commentated Judit Staunton

So, Judit. Well, Judit's my first character. She was conceived while Eebit was writing the Statplay Character Creation Tutorial (Which I highly recommend to newcomers!). She was based off of a chess theme. Why? Well, it's because I always liked to call Fire Emblem "RPG Chess with weird characters" and since Statplays reminded me of Fire Emblem...! Chess is also something I know a bit about so I thought that coming up with skills and attacks based on something I know about would make it a little easier.

As a character, Judit is an inexperienced knight. She's kind of stern, but really cares for her companions (Despite giving them silly nicknames). I'd say she falls into the Neutral Good alignment.


So that's all I have about the theme and reasoning behind Judit as a whole, now it's time for the finer details!

Name: Judit Staunton

Why Judit Staunton? Well, Judit is the first name of Judit Polgár, who is considered to be the strongest female chessmaster in history. And her last name is Staunton because that's the last name of Howard Staunton who created the most famous style of chess pieces and are actually used in competitions.

I also have to credit Nate for her last name, so thanks for telling me about the Staunton set!

Gender: Female

She's a girl because I dunno. Strong female knight? Having a girl as a chessmaster used to be weird a long tme ago? I dunno, those reasons may have influenced her gender. Or not, I really don't remember why exactly.

I actually remembered the main reason after writing most of the commentary, if she were a guy, she'd eventually become a King. And the King piece is the one that can only move one space and what you're trying to defend in a game of chess. Not exactly prime statplay material for me at the time. (Though I do have ideas for this class.)

Age: 19

I wanted Judit to be an inexperienced and somewhat naive knight in training, so I think 19 was the perfect age. I was 19 when I wrote her (Or at least close to that age) and inexperienced with Statplays (I still am though!) so I wanted to reflect that in her somehow.

Level: 7
Progress: --/--
Appearance:

Spoiler

I was actually between two designs, the other one had a girl in regular knight armor holding a sword and shield on chessboard (Which I sadly lost so sorry I can't show you guys!). She looked nice and the background was perfect but... A sword. I didn't want a sword. It had to be something different because screw swords man. i don't need more anime swordsmen in my statplays

Profession: Pawn - A Queen in training, this odd profession entitles the user to conjure up chess pieces and inherit some of their moves. [Basic Attack: Physical] [Pawn Influence]

So! This is where it begins. Alright, so, it should be obvious why she starts out as a pawn. Pawns are the 'weakest' pieces but hold extreme potential. That part with the potential is why she's "A Queen in training". The ability to conjure up chess pieces is something that I haven't put to use yet. This class originally could summon up large chess piece familiars that would hinder and attack the opponent but that never came into fruition and I just never changed the flavor text. But hey, that might become an ability sometime I think maybe.

Also, this class has two variants, a male one and a female one. Female Pawns are physical attackers with a low amount of support skills (They upgrade into Rooks and then finally Queens) while Male Pawns stay on the backline with magic attacks and healing spells (These upgrade into Bishops and then Kings).

Pawn Influence: A single diagonal space can act as an adjacent space once per turn.

Ah, Pawn Influence, my favorite thing about this character. And it didn't even come from me! I didn't really know about how to go about the class's passive skill and originally had it to simply double movement every X turns (Since Pawn pieces can move twice the usual distance on their first turn). I noticed how not very useful this was so I changed it to make it so Judit could move diagonally once per turn. But then Shadow comes along and goes "Why don't you have the passive work with attacks too?". And bam, there was Pawn Influence. Such a cool skill. Thanks for that, Shadoo.


Weapon: Soldier's Lance: A common medium ranged weapon frequently used in combat. Feels a bit heavy. [+3 ATK / Range: 2 Cells, Straight Line]
Armor: Light Armor: Durable armor made to be especially light to unhinder movement. [+3 DEF]
Accessory: Magic Gloves: Although not completely fit for a knight, Judit is a fan of how comfortable it is. [+15 Max MP]

Well, nothing really special in the equip section. But I should mention that I didn't plan to have lances actually attack 2 cells. That was totalle Eebit's idea I think. (Might have been Cerberus'). I should also mention that Judit really likes feeling comfortable and light (She evens complains about the weight of her weapon), since a lot of her stuff is movement-based. Theming!

A-Ability: Soul of the Game

"Pawns are the soul of chess" -The Wisest Things Ever Said About Chess, Andrew Soltis. no I did not read the book, I just came upon this quote once a long time ago and it just stuck with me.

+ Pawn Strike: User embodies the strategical strength of a Pawn and strikes the opponent with force in an attempt to destabilize them. If paired with Pawn Influence, the force of this attack is increased. 140% ATK damage, 120% otherwise. Chance of Immobilize. Range: Adjacent cell. 10 MP

Well, we need a Pawn-based attack so let's just strike like a Pawn! In chess, Pawns can only attack in a space diagonal to where they are now so I reflected this by having the attack do more damage when you pair it with Pawn Influence. It also has a chance of Immobilize because I wanted a status effect for some reason at the time. Not sure why it's immobilize of all things. Maybe I saw it as a blunt attack that destabilized the inflcited? Who knows.

+ Castling: An evasive maneuver that can only be used on Allies on the same row or column. The User moves up to the Target and swaps Cells with them. Consumes Move command if used before moving. Can only be used if the path is unobstructed. 8 MP.

I like this skill. Essentially, Castling is a weird move in chess where you move a Rook up to a King and places it next to it. It has a bunch of restrictions so it's not something you see a lot in Chess. But yeah, it's kind of an evasive maneuver where you use your Rook to protect your most important piece. Which is kind what the above skill does.

+ Knight's Gallop: The User charges through the battlefield, plowing through foes and building up speed to increase attack. 80% + [Steps taken]*20%. Formula is reset on each hit. Range: User's cell while in movement; Adjacent Cell at the end of the movement. Note: Attack cannot end on an Enemy's Cell and it must be activated before moving. 9 MP

I wanted a movement-based attack so what's better than referencing the horse-shaped Knight piece! The fact that is goes through enemies is actually referencing how Knight pieces don't care about what's between their starting and target positions. They just jump there.

R-Ability: Check: When Health is less than half, Unit gains +1 Movement.

Check is also a chess mechanic. Whenever your King is in danger, but has a way of saving itself, you're put in check and forced to defend your King that turn. (The opponent can't just destroy your king, they have to trap it) Since players in check are careful and weigh their options, I tried to have Judit gain an extra movement stat to be able to flee from a possibly incoming attack. I considered upping evasion or giving her some kind of limited extra Act command or something but I think the first would be too annoying and the latter didn't feel balanced.

B-Ability: Bishop's Teachings: The User is reminded of their teachings by the academy bishop and calms down. Bestows Regeneration on self.

Just a basic healing spell referencing the Bishop piece and some of Judit's training.

S-Ability: Unconventional Attacker: Non-Adjacent attacks gain a 15% boost in critical-hit rate.

This is based on how pieces in chess are weird and their movement options are unconventional. Like geez, who was the genius that came up with the rule that Knights have to move in an L-Shape? That's just weird.


E-Trigger: Three Moves Ahead: The user gains a sudden boost in their mental capabilities and quickly studies their surroundings, foes and allies. This boosts their strategic capabilities, allowing them to know where to strike and when to dodge. Increases ATK by 20% and Evasion by 30% for 3 turns. 5 X-Levels.

This is referencing how chess players have to be constantly thinking three moves ahead. They constantly weigh in the position and tactics of their opponent to try to minimize their loss and maximize their attacks! it's also perfect since skills usually last 3 turns.

X-Ability: Checkmate: The user of this fierce attack yells "Checkmate!" at the top of their lungs while ferociously striking a target in an attempt to destabilize nearby foes. 180% Piercing ATK damage. High chance of Immobilize to all enemies. Range: Adjacent cell. 10 X-Levels. (Pawn Influence: OK)

Aaaaand finally, Checkmate. This /had/ to be her ultimate move, right? Wellll, this name was originally going to go to an R-Ability. It was essentially going to boost Judit's next attack if she downed an opponent. I said screw that because coming up with an X-Ability is hard and Checkmate would be the perfect name for an almost sure kill attack. So I wrote a powerful attack that would strike fear into the hearts of the other enemies and immobilize them.

Whew, and there's Judit. Next time, I'm going to talk about electric and eclectic Farah Hariden. When? Whenever I feel like it. Or whenever asks me for the next one. That might give me motivation to do more.

 

Welcome to the second installment of my Puddle of Creations! This time, I'm gonna be talking about my second character, Farah Hariden!

Let's start things off with her uncommentated profile!

Spoiler: Farah Hariden

Name: Farah Hariden
Gender: Female
Age: 20
Level: 7
Progress: --/--
Appearance:

Spoiler

Profession: Voltic Hunter - Those who claim this profession are ruthless hunters that employ the use of Needles and Thunder Magic. [Basic Attack: Magical] [Tagger]
[size=small]Tagger: Needle Skills and Basic Attacks have a chance of causing Tagged.
Tagged: Reduces thunder resistance by 20% and causes all thunder attacks to have a small chance of Spasm. Duration: 3 turns.[/size]

Weapon: Barbed Needles - The ends of these needles are barbed to maximize damage and to hurt when extracted. [+3 INT/Range: 3 Cells]
Armor: Sparkling Dress - This may look like a gaudy outfit, but the sparkles are actually crackling electricity. Feels tingly. [+3 SPR]
Accessory: Mana Battery - This magical battery stores Mana instead of electricity. [+15 Max MP]

A-Ability: Lightning Needle

+ Rail Shotgun: By using the electromagnetic properties of Thunder Magic, this Needle Skill imprecisely fires five needles at a foe. 5 hits. 80% INT damage. Range: 3 Cells. Accuracy: 90 - 5*[Cells Traveled]. 10 MP.

+ Electroburst: A powerful short range burst of electricity is blasted from the User's hands. On Tagged foes, this attack has a larger range at the expense of power, but can directly hinder the enemy. Element: Thunder. 10 MP.
Target is not Tagged: 150% INT damage. Range 2 Cells.
Target is Tagged: 140% - max(0,[Cells Traveled] - 2)*15%. Chance of Paralyze. Range: 4 Cells.

+ Corona Discharge: The user discharges small amounts of Thunder Magic on the Target's equipment to bestow Static Electricity. Range: 2 cells. 8 MP.

[size=small]Static Electricity: Received Physical Attacks are countered with 30% Piercing Int damage and all dealt Basic Attacks gain the Thunder Element.[/size]

R-Ability: Natural Static Electricity: Due to constant use of her electrical abilities, Farah constantly has a current flowing through her, causing physical damage to be countered with 30% Piercing INT damage.
S-Ability: Static Absorb: By standing next to someone, Farah can recharge her Mana by absorbing their naturally emitted electricity. 8% Max MP recovery at the end of the turn if Farah is next to a Unit. Does not stack with more than one Unit. Furthermore, if Farah is next to Tagged Enemy Units, this ability deals 8% MP Drain on all of them.
B-Ability: Electrotherapy: Farah places her hands on a target and lightly shocks them, relaxing muscles and improving blood flow. 50% Max HP healing. Range: Adjacent and Self.

E-Trigger: Overcharge: Farah points to the sky and is then struck by a minor thunderbolt. She then uses the energy to boost her casting capabilities. Bestows Doublecast and Focus on the User.
X-Ability: Luxcalibur: The User of this devastating attack charges themself up with a massive thunderbolt and releases it forward in a shape resembling a gigantic blade. Element: Thunder. 180% Piercing INT damage. Range: 4 Cells in a straight line. 10 X-Levels.

Spoiler: Commentated Farah Hariden

Allllrighty then, Farah! She's the second character I created and I wanted her to kind of be Judit's 'opposite'. Judit is pretty basic gameplay-wise, she basically just walks up and stabs people with her oversized stick from weird positions to maximize damage. I wanted Farah to be some kind of mid range magic wielding character that could use certain methods to increase damage output. While I had this idea in my head, I came across a game called Azure Striker Gunvolt. The game plays like Megaman Z, but instead of directly damaging enemies with a blaster, the MC has to lodge pins into them and then use these pins to focus his electricity on the weakness he created. This was exactly what I was looking for Farah, so I essentially translated these mechanics into a statplay character!

I'm just gonna skirt around the term rip off for this comment session. Ha ha yes, no ripping off whatsoever.

So, as a character Farah simply doesn't care about others, she's always making sarcastic comments, being snide and joking at the expense of others. She does take her job somewhat seriously, though (But maybe because she actually likes it). Probably falls into the Chaotic Neutral alignment.

Name: Farah Hariden

Well, her name's pretty simple and came sounding better than I expected it to. So, Farah comes from Faraday which was that one guy with the electricity and stuff. Hariden is a combination of Hari and Den, which is Japanese for needles and thunder respectively.

Originally, her last name was going to be Nightly to reference the Day part of Faraday and how 'night and day' she is from Judit, but I chose not to go with it since it'd be too obvious.

Gender: Female

She's a girl because yeah sure why not.

Age: 20

I wanted her to be slightly older than Judit so I just added a year, though in retrospect, I think she should be older than what she is now.

Level: 7
Progress: --/--
Appearance:

Spoiler

Not sure what tags I used to find this picture, but it's perfect. It has electricity, she's wearing flimsy clothing and she's purple. Which is the best color.

Profession: Voltic Hunter - Those who claim this profession are ruthless hunters that employ the use of Needles and Thunder Magic. [Basic Attack: Magical] [Tagger]

Alright, now where the actually interesting details begin. Why Voltic Hunter? Well, I didn't want her to be a generic mage that simply says "Thunderbolt!" every turn. I wanted her to be somebody that hindered her opponents and chased after them if they ran away to recover. I wanted her to debilitate enemies and run in to strike them at point blank range whenever she forced an opening. I Wanted her to be stronger when fighting alongside others (While constantly belittling her teammates). I wanted her to be a hunter. So yeah, that's basically why she's a hunter.

[size=small]Tagger: Needle Skills and Basic Attacks have a chance of causing Tagged.

This is where the Gunvolt inspiration actually starts. Instead of having a gun that fires pins, Farah uses her thunder magic to propel Needles through the air and attempts to lodge them in enemies. And what happens when they have a Needle stuck in them...?

The fact that this only has a chance of happening gives me more leeway for making the actual status effect more powerful. And I can write an expensive skill that guarantees Tagged. (Or at least increase its chances.)

Tagged: Reduces thunder resistance by 20% and causes all thunder attacks to have a small chance of Spasm. Duration: 3 turns.[/size]

This is what happens. The Needle creates an opening, making it easier for electricity to course through the opponent's body, which increases damage and might cause the opponent to act erratically.

I'm not sure how overpowered Spasm would be in practice, but that can be found out eventually. Oh, and the fact that this works with any electric skill is a reflection of how Farah's most suited to work with other people (Mostly Thunder Magic users).

Weapon: Barbed Needles - The ends of these needles are barbed to maximize damage and to hurt when extracted. [+3 INT/Range: 3 Cells]

You know, I considered making every Needle weapon have their own Tagged duration, but I think that'd be a bit too much. For example, this Needle would add to the Tagged duration at the expense of damage or range, while a Poison Coated Needle would have a low chance of Poison but would stick to the enemy for a lower amount of time. Might be something to consider for the future.

Armor: Sparkling Dress - This may look like a gaudy outfit, but the sparkles are actually crackling electricity. Feels tingly. [+3 SPR]
Accessory: Mana Battery - This magical battery stores Mana instead of electricity. [+15 Max MP]

As a mage-like character, she wears really light armor, and tends to carry stuff that increases MP. So, the usual, I guess.

A-Ability: Lightning Needle

Most uncreative A-Ability name ever probably.

+ Rail Shotgun: By using the electromagnetic properties of Thunder Magic, this Needle Skill imprecisely fires five needles at a foe. 5 hits. 80% INT damage. Range: 3 Cells. Accuracy: 90 - 5*[Cells Traveled]. 10 MP.

What's a character that can control electricity but doesn't use electromagnetism to simulate a Railgun? an uncool character that's what. This attack is clearly Flem's signature flurry attack but with lower accuracy to reduce MP costs. Oh, and this attack should be used when you want to practically guarantee Tagged to happen due to it striking five times.

+ Electroburst: A powerful short range burst of electricity is blasted from the User's hands. On Tagged foes, this attack has a larger range at the expense of power, but can directly hinder the enemy. Element: Thunder. 10 MP.
Target is not Tagged: 150% INT damage. Range 2 Cells.
Target is Tagged: 140% - max(0,[Cells Traveled] - 2)*15%. Chance of Paralyze. Range: 4 Cells.

Ok, Electroburst. This probably works better on paper than in action, but basically I wanted something that was actually stronger against non-tagged enemies than Tagged enemies. Originally, instead of the attack strength degrading by the amount of cells traveled, it was supposed to attack every Tagged enemy within range, but then I thought "How frequent are there going to be Tagged enemies close to me?" and scrapped that idea (Maybe something to be explored in the future). Maybe it's something for the future. Also, notice the Chance of Paralyze, that's supposed to reflect on how she's trying to impede her prey from running away; just as Hunters should.

+ Corona Discharge: The user discharges small amounts of Thunder Magic on the Target's equipment to bestow Static Electricity. Range: 2 cells. 8 MP.
[size=small]Static Electricity: Received Physical Attacks are countered with 30% Piercing Int damage and all dealt Basic Attacks gain the Thunder Element.[/size]

Remember how I said that she's well-suited to work with other people? Well, if other people aren't well-suited to work with her, then she'll make them! With this skill, she can basically create an honorary hunter to help her out for a while with their now electrically charged Basic Attacks.

R-Ability: Natural Static Electricity: Due to constant use of her electrical abilities, Farah constantly has a current flowing through her, causing physical damage to be countered with 30% Piercing INT damage.

Just a basic auto-counter skill. Think twice before touching an electrical socket, guys. I actually mind change this to somehting else eventually. Maybe some kind of opportunitist R-Ability that reacts the instant an enemy is tagged. Have her automatically chain into Corona Discharge if a Tag procs and have the MP cost reduced in the chain. Something to look into.

S-Ability: Static Absorb: By standing next to someone, Farah can recharge her Mana by absorbing their naturally emitted electricity. 8% Max MP recovery at the end of the turn if Farah is next to a Unit. Does not stack with more than one Unit. Furthermore, if Farah is next to Tagged Enemy Units, this ability deals 8% MP Drain on all of them.

A way of encouraging Farah to stick to Units and have enemies think twice of stopping next to her. Encourages teamwork and good positioning while still giving full control to the enemy to avoid the drain.

B-Ability: Electrotherapy: Farah places her hands on a target and lightly shocks them, relaxing muscles and improving blood flow. 50% Max HP healing. Range: Adjacent and Self.

You know, quite a boring skill. Especially for a B-Ability. This could just be an A-Skill if it were weaker. I think I was worried about her not having some kind of healing skill and just put this here. And yes, Electrotherapy is surprisingly an Actual Thing that exists.

B-Ability: Electric Gutbuster: Farah carefully places Needles between her fingers and forcefully injects them into a vital body part with a shocking punch, immediately cauterizing the wound and leaving the Needles in them. 130% INT damage. Electric Element. Causes Tagged on a target for 5 turns. Adjacent Cell.

This skill! I love the name of this skill. The name's from Xenoblade Chronicles. Some guy with a sword can learn this and it's basically an energy kick in it. Which is weird because there's no gutbusting in it and there's no electricity involved so what gives? So yeah, I basically took the name and rewrote the skill to be more fitting and I think it came out pretty great. I actually like the imagery of Farah just punching a guy with needles in hand. Though! I think this should become an A-Skill too like the one above. I guess I just wanted some way of guaranteeing a tag and thought this up. I need a better B. Maybe a strong-ish AoE sure-tag skill. Or have it do no damage and have the B recharge in a couple of Turns.

E-Trigger: Overcharge: Farah points to the sky and is then struck by a minor thunderbolt. She then uses the energy to boost her casting capabilities. Bestows Doublecast and Focus on the User.

Of course she's gonna buff herself with a lightning bolt, how else is she going to buff herself? As for the effects, I just wanted two buffs that would work well with her. She's a mage so doublecast for sure, though I'm not sure why I put Focus in there. Maybe swap that out for increasing the chance of Spasm in her innate. Or give her Static Electricity for the duration and pass it along to adjacent allies.

X-Ability: Luxcalibur: The User of this devastating attack charges themself up with a massive thunderbolt and releases it forward in a shape resembling a gigantic blade. Element: Thunder. 180% Piercing INT damage. Range: 4 Cells in a straight line. 10 X-Levels.

LUX.. CARIBAHHHH. I think I was watching Fate/Zero back when I wrote this. It's also the name of a super strong skill from Gunvolt too (NOT RIPPING OFF AT ALL HA HA). I like imagery in this one, sky suddenly darkens, thunder ripples the air and suddenly a flash of light and in an instant later, a huge blade of lightning appears from Farah.

And that's it! Next we have the quiet and soulfully corrupted Erfor Dusan!