Battle Disciplines

[Student of Trinity]

These are a very interesting feature that makes life a lot more interesting for fighters. But I was slow to catch on, and never bothered trying to get them for my non-fighters. Also, once I got the final discipline, I rarely used anything else for my melee slith. But I used the shieldbreaker with my archer quite a lot, to weaken tough monsters before hitting them with everything else. And occasionally something else would be worthwhile.

 

Overall I'm amazed at how well balanced these things are. They don't seem to overpower the game, but they are consistently part of it. Monsters use them a lot, and you notice it, but they don't annihilate you. Jeff must have put a lot of thought into them.

 

Or did I just underuse them so badly that I've missed how they overpower the game?

[Randomizer]

I hate to comment on this since every time I told Jeff about them they got changed. The first time was 5 days into beta testing while waiting for chapter 2. Critiquing the first 7 disciplines while still in the demo really got to him. It didn't help when half way through chapter 5 I was commenting on the last.

 

Well Aimed Blow is great for starting since you get 50% more damage. Neat for everyone. On area attack spells it only increases damage for one target.

 

Shieldbreaker weakens your foe so you can pile on more damage for several rounds. It acts like a weaken spell.

 

Leg Sweep is better in normal games where you make a difference with the monster's ability to hit since it acts as a curse.

 

Beserker Fury is okay when you don't have time for blessing and shielding.

 

Focus Spirit is useless since you probably will be fatigued when you need it.

 

Mighty Blow is great for 100% more damage.

 

Adrenaline Rush helps spellcasters more than fighters since the extra AP are only for a single round and it has a high fatigue cost.

 

Bladeshield is weaker than the much abused original, but still helps in melee battles to shield fighters.

 

Stunning Blow works well for nonboss fights where the script doesn't give an automatic attack every round. It's nasty against you since you lose a round.

 

Battle Rage is the best for hasting and extra damage for several rounds. My fighters go for it as quickly as possible. Really great if you lose your sanity and run Anama.

[Randomizer]

*bump*

 

Some people are missing out on a great thing since they don't use it. So for those that haven't tried it, use them.

[Californian]

Could somebody give a little tutorial about how you acquire battle disciplines? I've finished one game and am starting my second. In my first game both my fighters got all the disciplines--I never really figured out how--but my spellcasters never got any.

 

Obviously, I spend my spellcaster skill points on spell stuff. How much do I need to put into battle skills to get the disciplines? I can certainly see how shieldbreaker would be good for archers, which I'll be using this time. I'd like to get that one for them at least.

 

Thanks!

[Randomizer]

You need combat skills to acquire battle disciplines. The minimum is 5 and maximum is 20. Each level of swords and/or pole weapons counts as a point of combat skills. Each level of bows and/or thrown weapons counts as half a point of combat skills. Nephils and sliths start at 2 combat skills and gain 1 every 8th level.

 

This is why non-human spellcasters are better for the free combat skills. Dixon in the lower level of Tranquility's southeast quadrant trains weapons skills. There are certain items that give levels of different weapon skills that you could equip a character with to raise their battle discipline level.

[Californian]

Thanks Randomizer!