Tapestry Tuesday #20 - Targeted and Mark SageArts
Hello all, its Ohms once more.
We’re coming to the final days of the Tapestry Tuesday series on Thread skills! Its been a long series, but the results have demonstrated the categorization and the flexibility provided by the Sagecraft System in providing players an understanding of abilities and how they function.
That being said, there is still more to cover, as today we focus on the next pair of SageArt Forms, Targeted and Mark abilities.
While these two forms are not complicated in execution, they are in implementation and potential strength when compared to something as simple as a Projectile or Zone form ability. Despite that, visually they are fairly straightforward to explain and demonstrate.
Targeted abilities are straightforward in a simple sense: They automatically target enemies to deal near-guaranteed damage (enemies can only avoid damage by evasion or invulnerability). The effects of a targeted attack are generated upon the targeted enemy, only activating when struck by the projectile, as shown above.
Where it gets complicated is the flexibility and the nature of the targeting mechanic. Does it target the furthest enemy? The nearest? How many? are there additional conditions? All of these factors need to be taken and have been taken into consideration when developing this ability, allowing for a great number of uses. Additionally, the Targeted ability, as shown above, demonstrates the application of a Mark on enemies, which is key to the next Thread Form demonstration.
Mark Thread skills, by contrast, are static, providing no immediate benefit until activated by a Mark ability (as shown above) or reacting to the effects of other abilities. The implications are enormous for this type of ability. What applies a Mark on an enemy? What triggers the Mark? Is the Mark consumed upon being triggered? Is its duration refreshed/maintained and if so, how? The answers to all of these questions is what provides the potential variety of applications for Marks in combat. Whatever the implementation, the usage of Marks can provide substantial supplementary damage in combat!
That is all for this week’s post on Thread Skills! tune in next week for the final set of Thread Forms developed as part of the Sagecraft System!
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May the Branches light your path!
- Ωs Emmanuel