Special Ability Poll

We've got a lot of great ideas for Iris' abilities, but sadly, only 3 can move on to the final poll and only 1 will make it into the game... So here are your top 3 picks for the 15th Man's abilities:

• Aether (Click to View)

  Ability Name: Aether
  
  I think she should use the "Tools" mechanic. In that, you get items (however many) and those will serve as her "abilities" HOWEVER, these are not tools in and of themselves, but rather the manifestation of mana and spirit that grants her access to hitherto unknown power.
  
  I would say that you would receive these Mana Orbs (or whatever) from certain enemies, a few littered in storyline bosses, other powers (and probably her more significant of them) could be from optional bosses.
  
  Now for what will make her abilities different from Edgar's Tools.
  
  All her abilities are random, split among three different possibilities. Imagine for a moment a sort of combination of Edgar's Tools, and Mog's Dances. You stay in complete control of her, use whatever ability you want, but what happens is completely up in the air.
  
  For example:
  

  15man is in battle, you go to her ability selection window, let's call it Aether (why? Because aether is the manifestation of both life energy and spiritual energy, in a sense for this game, magic and spirit).
  You choose 'Wyrm Mana'.
  
  now there are three abilities that can happen with Wyrm Mana:
  
  1. Dragon Breath: 15man summons the ferocious fire of a great dragon to decimate her foe. Powerful (fire) or (non-elemental) damage to a single enemy.
  
  2. Dragon Skin: 15man releases her chaotic energy to give her party Shell and Protect, but at the cost of burdening them with the weight of her spirit. (Casts Protect, Shell, and Slow on party)
  
  3. Entrap: 15man's energies have run out of her control, paralyzing a random person with her ill intent.

  
  With this example, I show that 15man can easily be a powerful ally, but at the same time she could hurt you as well. This would show how her very nature is twisted up, warping her powers and possibly harming the very people she is trying to help and protect. In this way, even in battle it can show just how desperate she is to get out of her troubled situation.
  
  Plus I think with that kind ability she could add a whole new level of tactics to battling, since you never know if she is going to do something helpful or harmful. And I just love gamble type characters in my battle party.
  
  
• Malady (Click to View)

  Malady
  
  It's a multi-skill ability that has no menu. The way it works is when you select Malady in battle it will automatically choose a skill based on her current status ailments. So if she's poisoned, she uses a certain ability, if she's blinded, another, near fatal? yet another. I think 6-8 abilities is a good working number and also works with the status effects in place.
  
  Dark
  Poison
  Imp
  Near Fatal
  Mute
  Slow
  Berserk - optional
  Muddle - optional
  
  I try to stick with abilities that don't cause loss of control of the character, but maybe we can make exceptions for berserk and muddle if we are smart about how we build the ability mechanics, i dunno. There would have to be a hierarchy to determine which spell gets used if 2 or more of these are in place, or maybe it randomly chooses between any current afflictions.
  
  My reasoning for this mechanic is that it capitalizes on the 15th's man afflicted side. It encourages the player to use her in a way that's different from the other characters they play with. By allowing or placing status ailments on the 15th Man, we are accepting these afflictions in exchange for power, and the balancing game will make single-ailment curing items useful for setting up the 15th man with the best mix of risk vs. reward for the situation, making it a good strategic ability as well. The only potential downside to this is that some afflictions and abilities will need to be set up in-battle, costing turns to set up. We can counteract this with the quality of the abilities obtained from each ailment.
  
  
• Fuse (Click to View)

  She would "Fuse" with an esper. I guess it could be with the equipped one, or within a list of 6-8. The esper could appear behind her, like with sketch. Thereafter, a second battle menu appear, like with "control", and she use ability related to the esper, not necessarily the spells she gives. Like Gau, she would gain status ailment and elemental resistances of the esper. Part of her pallette could change depending on the esper with a custom status ailment.
  With this, you have great versality and you will be able to discover new things with each esper.
  Also, another possiblity is, we could make the ability a lot stronger, but make it that a magicite is required to use the ability
  
  Also, are we discussing about a relic that change the ability? Like fakemustache?
  If so, i suggest that the relic change "Fuse" for "Wild Magic", which cast a random magic black magic, but alot stronger than the normal version. It could also rarely cast esper attack.

Here's what we have for the 15th Man so far:

Name: Iris Havengard

Concept (Click to View)

Code:

The Implacable Experiment

This character is an individual who has had close contact with the Empire after being used for human (or esper) experimentation in the Magitek Facility and has taken on a grotesque appearance. This character is aware of their disturbing appearance and their primary drive is to seek vengeance against those who have wronged him/her and to see that they are brought to justice.

This character would work well in FF6 as they would serve to show the more cruel and inhumane side of the Gestahlian Empire, especially when you consider how much Terra's past is lacking in filling in the darker parts of the Empire's history. This character would also ideally have a somewhat strange fighting style which would vary from the other characters, they also by merit of being a Magitek experiment could have a natural magic learning list.

Background (Click to View)

Code:

The Betrayed Young Citizen
Gender: Female.

Back history: This daughter of a South Figaro sailor was raised by a lonely old woman from Vector after the boat transporting her and her father sunk near the Southern Continent. She was then taken prisoner by the Empire in her teenage years after the old woman died an that Emperor Gestahl adopted a secret law to capture homeless [and unwanted] citizens for Magitek experimentations. During her captivity, she developed her hate towards the Empire that she was considering once her second home.

Possible encounters: She might have been in contact with Cid and/or Kefka and/or Celes during her captivity. She might also have been in contact with some Espers and talked with them. This all depends on how we want to develop her back story and the game events.


Pros:
- Rich backstory and relations with the actual characters of the game if we want any.
- Explain well why the character feels doubly betrayed by the Empire and explain her hatred.

Cons:
- Might require a lot of event creation, but isn't this the goal of this hack? ;)

Theme Music