Chaos RPG Archive
Fusing all the RPGs I've ever played into one comic...
Or at least trying to...
Many people have already figured out some of the basics when it come to Black Magic. Earth beats Air beats Water beats Fire beats Earth. But, there are also a lot of other comparisons. Light beats Shadow beats Darkness beats Color beats Light. Well, the opinion of the author is that Color is the opposite of Shadow and thus is the realm we exist in. Strange, huh? But it does make a kind of logic. He's full of weird concepts.
One thing many people don't really realize is the amount of restraint and control put into Black Magics. It takes a lot of effort to cast a spell like Aero or Comet and make sure you nail the right target without catching your friend in the blast. I mean, Aero creates a whirlwind. Do you know how hard it is to create and control a WHIRLWIND? It's a rampaging force of nature. We require a lot of control to make sure our buddies don't get a stick through their foreheads or a rabbit through the torso.
For good guys, it's even harder to maintain that control. So often, it's tempting to just cut loose and blast the monster with a full power Meteo. But, in truth, what you see is a highly controlled, and thus vastly diminished, version of the spell. After all, a Meteo spell at full power would wipe out the monster, but also the kingdom and possibly us as well. As we go up in levels, our control improves and we can call down more of the spell's full power without worrying that we'll be baked in the process.
For White Mages, they have to restrain themselves in power to make sure they're healing their allies properly, otherwise the mangled mess that used to be the hero will be stuck in that shape until he's re-mangled. And it's easier to focus the energy into healing a single person than a group, thus why focusing a healing spell into a single person is so much more powerful than casting it on a group.
The funny thing is how almost-universally useful the Fire Spells are. Not only can you use them to cook steaks, but they can be used to heat water, light campfires and toast attacking monsters. It's rather unusual how often fire magics pop up. Only a few games have characters unable to use fire magics and usually that is for a short-time or because they specialize in a different element. Nash of Lunar: The Silver Story Complete, for example, can only use lightning magic. Rydia of Final Fantasy 2 (4 in Japan) can only use Fire magic after being gently prompted by Rosa. In Thousand Arms, if you make no progress with any of the girls who have the Element of Fire, you'll lack Fire Magics. It's a true oddity that so few games go without fire magic.
Non-Combat Entropy spells are another angle of Black Magic, so I'll cover it here. You may or may not notice them, but spells like Weak, Glare, Toad, Piggy, Imp, Mini, Debarrier, Venom, Psych, Confuse, Drain, Berserk and such are Non-Combat Entropy spells. Weak and Glare (for those with no knowledge of Final Fantasy) reduce your opponent's HP by a certain amount, usually by 3/4ths (or 15/16ths in Weak's case). Toad, Piggy, Imp and Mini are spells designed to reduce your fighting capabilities and remove certain options. Debarrier reduces one's magical protections. Venom and Drain both reduce HP, but Drain gives the subtracted HP to the spell's caster. Psych is the equivalent of Drain, but takes MP instead. Berserk and Confuse are meant to remove the option of player control over the character, which is very debilitating.
Now that you've got an idea of what Non-Combat Entropy spells are, we'll move on.
Summons. Ah, summons, the coolest thing invented. Limit Breaks look sad in comparison and it's a serious morale booster when you can summon Bahamut to blast your foes.
Among the many things that will be unique are Tasty Fish and Lamp Oil. That's right, the two items are actually the names of the Water and Fire summons. Aren't you glad? Leviathan and Ifrit are getting the boot this time around and there is no way they'll be in this comic (unless it's a crossover).
Among the common summons getting their pink slips, Bahamut and Chocobo will, sadly, be kicked out. The Author knows they've been used way too often. Carbunkle, Ramuh, Shiva, Titan and Odin will be sent elsewhere. One may wonder: Well, if the Author is kicking out nine of the most common summon monsters, what's he going to replace them with? Tasty Fish and Lamp Oil are two, so the others will have replacements as well. Carbunkle's replacement, Sun Tzu, is expected to be far more devastating than the cerulean...thing was. Here's a handy list of their names and their effects when summoned:
Lamp Oil = Ifrit
1) Grease (reduces enemy agility); 2) Slick (increases ally's to hit ratio); 3) Explode (explains itself)
Tasty Fish = Leviathan
1) Calm (removes enemy ability to cast spells for 1-8 rounds); 2) Barnacle (reduces enemy attack); 3) Flood (defeats all enemies or does severe damage)
Sun Tzu = Carbunkle
1) Large Army (ally's get three attacks instead of just one); 2) Bad Food (poisons all enemies); 3) Sweeping Plain (defeats/does severe damage to enemy)
Wotan = Odin
1) Sacred Runes (prevents enemy from killing heroes. i.e. the lowest a hero's HP can go is 1.); 2) Break Will (enemy is unable to attack physically for 2-16 rounds); 3) Valhalla Army (does damage equal to all current allies' most powerful attack combined)
Antaeus = Titan
1) Resurge (All allies' get Regen for duration of battle); 2) Earth Skin (all allies' get increased defense); 3) Earth Rage (does Magma damage to all opponents)
Niddhogg = Bahamut
1) Chew Root (heals damage from the last enemy attack); 2) Gouge Root (removes a spell from enemy's memory for duration of fight); 3) Rend Yggdrasil (all characters have their HP and MP reduced to 1 in exchange for dealing all-elemental non-healable damage to enemy)
Chameleon = Chocobo
1) Change Color (allies are harder to hit); 2) Adapt (all allies conform to the enemy's elemental, thus healing from every attack); 3) Gulp (One enemy is defeated, all others are paralyzed for 1-4 rounds)
Logic = Shiva
1) Harsh Reality (Neither side may deal damage more than three digits for 8 rounds); 2) Razor Wit (all Magic, Limit Breaks, or innate special attacks are negated for 8 rounds); 3) Disbelieve (all enemies suffer damage equal to the heroes' current HP)
Marduk = Ramuh
1) Broken Mirror (all enemies have their Magic or Physical defense reduced to 1); 2) Sacrificial Lamb (A single enemy receives damage equal to all the HP restored/removed during the fight); 3) Justice (each ally can choose to deal 9999 damage to a single target or heal an ally for 9999 HP)
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