The Little Things That Every RPG Should Have

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Written by BuckGB on October 7th, 2009

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Status spells that actually WORK:

This is the biggie. Everybody knows about status spells: Poison, Sleep, Frog, etcetera. The kind of spells that don't deal direct damage to an enemy, but have all sorts of unique, interesting and potentially powerful effects. In theory, these are the kind of spells a brilliant tactician or long-haul player should be permanently stocking in their deck of cards. In practice, however, these spells are nearly always worthless.

What happens in reality is that every boss in the game will be immune to the effects of status spells. They can't be poisoned, put to sleep, confused or otherwise manipulated. What's worse, a fair few regular enemies will also shirk off these spells as if they're nothing. Naturally, however, if an enemy possesses the exact same spell, it'll work on YOU every bloody time. It's not fair, and it's not right.

Of course, many games would be too easy if these spells worked all the time, but there has to be a compromise. Maybe a Sleep spell will work on a boss, but only for a turn or two. Maybe the Poison damage isn't very much against strong enemies. Either way, it's upsetting to have such great and disruptive magic while lacking the ability to use it effectively.

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