Clouded Horizons:Eighth Realm Combat Mechanics

This page lists details of the combat mechanics of the Clouded Horizons series' Eighth Realm, as featured in Clouded Horizons: Planeswalker Chronicles.

Class Usage

The variety of classes present in Planeswalker Chronicles may be applied in several different ways to the character's statistics. Classes may be freely rearranged at any time outside of battle into one of three categories: Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary. A Primary class is the main class of the character, and will always provide one of the two available in-battle skillsets for the character. A Secondary class confers its passive bonuses to the character's statistics, as well as providing its skillset for use in battle if desired. A Tertiary class simply provides the use of its skillset in battle; no passive bonuses are provided from a Tertiary class. Characters may have one Primary class and up to six Secondary classes at any time; all other classes achieved are set to Tertiary. This can be changed at any time from the party menu.

Combat

Active Time Battle

The Active Time Battle feature of Planeswalker Chronicles is very familiar to RPGs - each character has a gauge that steadily fills over time, the ATB Gauge, which allows them to take an action once the bar is completely full. Once taken, it begins refilling from empty. Skills also have a recast time, which is different from the ATB Gauge; once a skill is used, a certain amount of time must pass before that skill is available for use again, in order to prevent attack spamming and encourage diversity and planning.

Combat Position

Characters in Planeswalker Chronicles, during combat, are placed onto one of three "lines" as predetermined by the player in the party menu. These lines - the frontline, midline, and backline - confer certain attacking restrictions on melee attacks.

• The frontline may attack the opposing frontline or opposing midline; the attacker incurs a 50% penalty to damage done for attacking a character on the opposing midline from the frontline.

• The midline may attack the opposing frontline at no penalty.

• The backline may attack the opposing frontline; the attacker incurs a 50% penalty to damage done for attacking a character on the opposing frontline from the backline.

The above applies only to melee attacks; ranged attacks and spells may target any line from any other line, with no penalty incurred. Also, a special condition applies:

• If all enemies on the opposing frontline are killed, the opposing midline can be attacked as if it were the frontline, and the opposing backline can be attacked as if it were the midline.

Players can move their characters around freely on a line, or even to different lines, but doing so uses that character's turn. Their ATB gauge, however, will begin filling from halfway instead of empty.

Limit Breaks

Limit Breaks are extremely powerful attacks used when the character has landed enough hits in combat. Attacking successfully accrues Energy, which is used to perform various Limit Breaks. Up to 100 points of Energy can be stored at a time; excess Energy is discarded as it is acquired. Certain skills and passive abilities allow increased Energy gain, such as the Samurai's Oversoul passive, potentially making these skills even more dangerous than normal.

Regeneration

Characters, while in combat, can regenerate Stamina and Mana each turn depending on the amount of regen they currently have. Regen is denoted by "pips" of regen; while there is no maximum limit to how high or low these values can go, characters will only receive benefits or detriments from 10 pips. Races have different base levels of regeneration, and abilities can modify these values. For each pip of regeneration, a character will gain or lose 1% Stamina/Mana each turn, depending on whether it is a positive or negative value. For example, if a character has +3 Stamina regeneration and -2 Mana regeneration, they will recover 3% Stamina and lose 2% Mana each turn. If they were to have -15 Stamina regeneration, they would only lose 10% Stamina each turn, but it would take more effort to offset the degenerative effect.

Status Effects

Status effects are enhancing or debilitating effects that can be placed onto characters while in combat. These range from increasing or decreasing damage, to poisoning a foe, to inflicting a terrible wound to decrease their total Stamina. These are grouped into positive and negative effects, with the negative effects further split into four sub-categories: Poison, Wound, Disease, and Fear effects. These are usually denoted, for example, as "Poison (effect) Resistance" or "the Disease group," to avoid confusion with the Poison, Disease, and Fear status effects themselves.

Positive

Positive status effects are designed to enhance and supplement allies, ranging from making them faster, stronger, or more resistant to damage, even reviving them after death.

Effects in this group: Aura, Blink, Bravery, Bubble, Cover, Faith, Haste, Protect, Refresh, Regen, Reraise, Shell, Spell Immunity, Spell Absorption, Vanish

Aura
Effect: Energy gained from attacks and abilities is increased by an additional 10 points.

Blink
Restriction(s): Single-target, allied-only
Effect: Grants two shadow images that each randomly absorb a single-target physical attack or ability. If the target is damaged by a multi-target effect, remaining clones are also expended.

Bravery
Effect: Increases Physical Damage by 50%.

Bubble
Effect: Increases the maximum Stamina of the target by 50%.

Cover
Restriction(s): Single-target, allied-only
Effect: The target only takes half damage from physical attacks, and the user receives the other half.

Faith
Effect: Increases Magic Damage by 50%.

Haste
Effect: Increases Agility by 50%.

Protect
Effect: Increases Physical Defense by 50%.

Refresh
Effect: Increases Mana regen by 4 pips.

Regen
Effect: Increases Stamina regen by 4 pips.

Reraise
Effect: Automatically revives the target one time after dying.

Shell
Effect: Increases Magic Defense by 50%.

Spell Immunity
Restriction(s): Self-target, enchantment-only
Effect: Prevents the user from being the target of, or affected/damaged by, spells.

Spell Absorption
Restriction(s): Self-target, enchantment-only
Effect: Prevents the user from taking damage from, or being affected by, spells, and instead restores the user's Mana by 30% of the base cost of such spells.

Vanish
Restriction(s): Allied-only
Effect: Renders the target invisible and untargetable to unallied creatures that require sight to target.

Negative

Negative status effects are designed to hinder foes in various ways, from poisoning or draining their Mana to reducing their offensive or defensive capabilities.

Poison Effects
Effects in this group: Blind, Confuse, Oil, Paralyze, Poison, Sleep, Slow

Blind
Effect: Decreases Accuracy by 90%.

Confuse
Effect: Causes the target to make a basic attack against a random creature.

Oil
Effect: Coats the target in a flammable liquid. Reduces Agility by 10%. If a target with this effect receives fire damage, the target's Stamina regen is reduced by 6 pips for 8 seconds.

Paralyze
Effect: Decreases Accuracy by 10% and causes any action made by the target to have a 33% chance to fail.

Poison
Effect: Decreases Stamina regen by 4 pips.

Sleep
Effect: The target becomes unconscious, unable to make any actions until it takes damage or the duration of this effect ends.

Slow
Effect: Reduces Agility by 50%.

Wound Effects
Effects in this group: Cripple, Deep Wound, Disable, Expose, Immobilize, Shear, Stun

Cripple
Restriction(s): Attack skill-only
Effect: Reduces Agility by 15% and Evasion by 50%.

Deep Wound
Restriction(s): Attack skill, enemy-only
Effect: Reduces maximum Stamina by 50%.

Disable
Effect: Prevents the target from making attacks.

Expose
Effect: Reduces Physical Defense by 50%.

Immobilize
Effect: Reduces Evasion by 15% and prevents the target from shifting.

Shear
Effect: Reduces Magic Defense by 50%.

Stun
Restriction(s): Single-target, attack skill-only
Effect: Reduces Evasion to 0. If the target takes any action, there is an 80% chance that action will fail.

Disease Effects
Effects in this group: Disease, Freeze, Heat, Reverse, Sap, Stop, Weakness

Disease
Restriction(s): Single-target, spell-only
Effect: Reduces all positive Stamina regen to 0 and prevents the target from regaining any Stamina.

Fear Effects
Effects in this group: Berserk, Charm, Curse, Doom, Fear, Provoke, Silence