Special Ability Submissions Thread

Malady

I like this ability a lot. It's different from the other characters in the game, and it has the potential to be interesting.

In order to be useful (but not overpowered) we'll have to worry a lot about balance, particularly with the ease of setting up the situation where the ability can be used. In FF6, and square RPGs in general, the more esoteric, situational, or difficult-to-set-up abilities tend not to be used. For instance, players rarely cast offensive debuffs. Also, there are existing near-fatal attacks for every character in FF6, but I've personally never seen one go off through normal gameplay.

Basically with FF6's style of game balance it's usually better to just use more conventional strategies (damage / heal / maybe buff). If the setup for the attack or strategy is too cumbersome or risky, it just isn't worth it. Even if the ability is good, the game is easy enough that you can just win with straightforward strategies anyway. You forget the ability even exists.

(This is unlike a certain brand of "hardcore" game design, in which there are sometimes bosses designed as puzzles, in which you need to use some esoteric strategy with a complicated setup, or you just can't win.)

But anyway, this kind of ability might be used more often than, for instance, desperation attacks in the vanilla game. Being afflicted with poison or blind is more common than being near-fatal for a long time, and less risky to maintain. If the attacks/abilities she gets are good enough to be noticeable, people are fairly likely to just let her "keep" minor negative statuses when she receives them. And maybe even cause them on purpose, after it's happened by accident a few times, if they realize it's useful.

I'd also suggest she might receive a benefit where she doesn't suffer certain annoying side-effects: I'm thinking in particular of the damage out-of-battle from poison. With the need to watch your health as you walk, and the terribly annoying mosaic that happens in this particular game when you're poisoned. It's all in the name of stopping it from getting so cumbersome it isn't worth it.