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Hello fellow role players and fighters. I’m *Censored* and while I haven’t been here as long as a few of the other oldies, I’ve been here for quite a while Rping and fighting in Leviathan Stadium. Now, I don’t claim to be all knowing, or any kind of genius, but over the time I’ve been here, my character has been through a lot of changes in the way he has been structured. And with each change, it brought him closer to what he is today. Here in this thread other members of this place have posted information that they believe is important in helping you become a more balanced and well-rounded fighter. And after a lot of debate and thinking on it, I’ve finally decided to add my own two cents in along with the rest of them.

Alright, first things first, as mentioned in the first post by my good friend, and trainer, a lot of people here use a system called the “Trifecta Balance System.” That isn’t to say that it is the best way, or the only way to level out someone’s character, but it does add a scale for you to go with that is relatively easy to understand. Now, also mentioned above, and shown in the drawing below, the Trifecta system works on three basic stats. These stats are…



Power – This stat, put simply, is your character’s attack strength, as well as their physical strength. Can your character lift a bus? Or can they have trouble lifting even a hundred pounds? This stat will help you to determine that.

Speed – This stat is pretty self-explanatory. How fast are you? Can you run as fast as a car, or do you trot along at a basic pace? This also deals with how fast you can launch your attacks at your opponent.

Defense – How well can you take a hit? Do you shrug off a punch, or do you go flying end over end with a single kick? This stat can also be linked to weight depending on your character’s makeup.

Now, you may be wondering why I’d post this bit of information again. Well, to put it simply, the old Trifecta scale didn’t give me enough flexibility when it came to making a character, and in some cases it just didn’t seem to make sense. Now, remember, this is just my opinion, and if you like the other scale more, then by all means, feel free to use it, but I will say that my scale is slightly different than the one above, and, in my opinion, makes more sense in some cases than the original.

Now, in the original Trifecta system, in order to raise certain stats, you had to drop others. In fact, you were able to have two high stats, and one low stat. However, you could have one high stat and two medium stats if you wished, or two low stats and a very high stat, though that last one was looked down upon. In most cases, in order to have two high stats, the low stat would often be lower than that of the average human. Which makes sense for the most part, if your character is a human. However, for the most part, many characters aren’t human. We have demons, anthropomorphic beasts, beasts themselves, dragons, vampires, elemental spirits, and a host of other beings that run around in here. I personally wouldn’t put a wolf on the same scale as a human would I? Or pout a dragon on the same scale as a dwarf. These combinations just wouldn’t make sense in some cases. To me, this meant that the scale had to be changed in order to fit the wide variety of characters that we see in Leviathan.

Basically, what I did was add a logical step to the process to make it fit. If your character is a wolf, then you base your stats on what is normal for a wolf. If you are a golem, you base your stats on what is normal for a golem. And, if you’re a human, you base your stats on what is normal for a human, that stated, you will almost always have a lower stat, unless you opt to be even in all categories. In the case of this scale, your lowest stat will never be lower than the lowest stat of your normal being. Now, obviously, in extreme cases, it will HAVE to be lower to make sense, for instance if you have a very high defense stat because you wear plate armor, then your speed WILL be lower because the weight of the armor will weigh you down a bit. But even then, it won’t weight you down to such a degree that you can’t move at all, because chances are you’d have a high strength stat to hold that armor, and your weapon while wearing that much weight. Now, this isn’t to say that everyone can always fit perfectly into the scale, but at least this way, it makes it a little more reasonable, and balances the characters out a bit more.

Now, since *Censored* talked about it in his post, I think it is only fair that I mention it in my recap of the system as well. Transformations can be very distressing and confusing at times, however, there are just some things that make sense that need to be taken into logical consideration. If you were just a human, and decided to turn into a “demon form” or something of that sort, your stats ARE going to change. Now, in most cases, a change like that is going to boost your stats to a degree. And, in my opinion, you are free to boost all of your stats by a little bit, as long as it is within reason. I mean, we don’t want thirty-foot dragons moving at light speed, or a normal human turning into an invincible god. Stat raising, if done wisely and with consideration for fairness can, and should, be accepted, as long as the change isn’t so extreme as to defy logic or reason.

Charge System / Casting Time

And now for something completely different! Now, I know that many people here have some sort of a system for charging time for their attacks, or casting time for their spells. However, some people do not, and enjoy throwing as much energy as they want around with no hindrance or cost to speak of. This might be fun for a while, but it really makes you seem like a n00b. Now, anyone who’s here in Leviathan wants to avoid that image as much as possible, or so I believe. Anyway, after much consideration, I finally settled on a charge/damage system that I use for my characters. Unfortunately I don’t have an official name for it, so I just call it, “Ryugi’s Charging System.” Now, keep in mind this might not be how you want to do it, but I will highly recommend that you do use some form of charging system or casting time in your fights.

Now, my system is simple. Each set of opponent posting, and your post responding to their post is called a “turn”. In my most basic system of charging, each “turn” gives you one “turn” of charge. So, each time you post, you can gather a turn of charge. These gathered turns of charge count as energy towards energy based attacks. Each attack you have requires so many of these “turns of charge” to unleash them. For example, Ryugi’s “Supernova Attack” costs five turns of charge to unleash. This means that I would have had to save up five turns of charge before I could use that attack. After using that attack, I would subtract the cost of the attack, from the total amount of “turns of charge” that I had. So, if I only had five turns of charge saved up, I would subtract those five turns that the attack cost, leaving me with zero turns of charge. This means that I would then have to gather more energy before I could unleash another attack of that strength.

Now, energy attacks obviously come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and strengths. This is reflected by how many turns of charge it takes to unleash an attack. “But Ryugi,“ you might ask, “how do I know how many turns of charge it would take to unleash my attack?” Luckily, I have a scale that helps to base these attacks on. And in order to do that, I mist explain the HP scale to you.

Now, when most people in text based RP’s hear “HP” they generally want to run and hide, however, this HP Scale isn’t totally based on how much HP your character has, though if you chose, it can be used as such. The HP Scale is used mainly to judge how much damage this energy attack would do to your average fighter. And by “average fighter”, I mean your average fighter with powers and abilities that is balanced well on the Trifecta Scale I mentioned earlier.

The “Average Fighter” has around 1000HP points. Now, this isn’t to say that your character or opponent has 1000HP points, but it does give you an idea of how much damage these energy attacks should do to an opponent that you use them on. Essentially, each “turn of charge” can do anywhere from 100-199HP worth of damage. Two turns of charge should do 200-299HP worth of damage, and so on, and so on until you get to ten turns of charge which can do 1000-1099HP worth of damage. So, a 5 turn charge attack should essentially be capable of taking down about 50% of the average fighter’s HP, while a 10 turn charge attack should essentially KO him completely. Now, this is only if the opponent takes the full brunt of the attack, and doesn’t attack with his own energy attack to lessen the damage sustained. Now, on my bio, you’ll see that if I post the actual damage amount that my attacks do, I round up to whole numbers, but generally it is at its regular base of 1 turn = 100HP damage.

Now, in Ryugi’s case I actually keep a basic idea of how much HP he has left, which actually comes to a grand total of 2000HP. Now, the way Ryugi is set up, he started at 1 turn of charge per turn of posting, but he will soon/has since, leveled up to what I call a “Level 2 Elemental”. Ryugi’s body is connected to the Elemental Planes of Fire and Light, and it is these planes that he draws energy from. His body draws the energy in at a constant rate each turn, and filters the raw energy to be used for attacks. If he wants more energy that turn he can take as much as he wants, but at a cost. For each additional turn of energy that Ryugi takes from the planes, he loses 100HP/Stamina in order for his body to filter the extra energy. Since he leveled up, he can now pull in up to 2 turns of charge for each turn of battle. This is so because his body is able to handle the larger load of energy. This isn’t to say that he’ll always pull in that much more energy, but he is capable of doing it. Ryugi also has a maximum natural energy charge limit of 20 held turns of energy, however, his sword can hold an additional 5, allowing his limit when equipped with his sword to be 25. This means that at maximum, Ryugi is capable of doing 2500-2599HP damage to the average fighter with 1000HP. Now, as I said before, your fighter may have more, or less HP when completely balanced out, this is just an example of how Ryugi is balanced out when it comes to his energy attacks.

Now, since not all fighters gather energy from the elemental planes to use their attacks, there are other ways that you could balance out your characters. Instead of gathering the energy over time like *censored* does, a mage character could have so many “turns of preparation” instead of “turns of charge”. The mage could wander around the battlefield preparing the energies and spells needed to unleash the desired attack. Or, instead of that, a character could have a set MP limit of so much MP that could transfer into HP damage. For example, 50MP points could transfer into 100HP damage. So essentially, a mage could drain so much from his MP bar to attack an opponent, but after that MP was gone, he would have to resort to hand to hand combat. This means that a mage character could essentially unleash a massive attack by using all of his MP at once, but if his opponent survived the attack, he’d be virtually helpless.

This brings another factor into play. Energy can be used to deflect energy, or energy absorbed can now easily be added to a person’s total. This system can essentially eliminate all those arguments of, “My attack is stronger than your attack because…” There is nothing to discuss with my system, because it would all be laid out for all to see. Here’s how.

Both fighters have 5 turns of charge and 1000HP.

EXAMPLE 1:

Fighter A – Unleashes an attack worth 5 turns of charge at his opponent.
Fighter B – Has no energy to block the attack with.
Outcome - Fighter B has no energy to block the attack with, and therefore has to take the hit from Fighter A’s attack if he cannot figure out a way to avoid and or lessen the damage from the hit.

EXAMPLE 2:

Fighter A – Unleashes an attack worth 5 turns of charge at his opponent.
Fighter B – Unleashes an attack worth 5 turns of charge at his opponent’s attack.
Outcome – The two attacks are of equal charge, and therefore of equal damage, they collide, if they cannot avoid each other somehow, and cancel each other out.

EXAMPLE 3:

Fighter A – Unleashes an attack worth 5 turns of charge at his opponent.
Fighter B – Creates a barrier using 3 turns of charge, which is capable of sustaining exactly 300HP worth of damage, and then, after taking minimal damage (200HP) from Fighter A’s attack, fires a blast of energy worth 2 turns of charge at Fighter A.
Outcome – Fighter B takes minimal damage from Fighter A’s attack, but is still able to attack with a blast of lesser energy that Fighter A no longer has energy defense against.

EXAMPLE 4:

Fighter A – Unleashes an attack worth 5 turns of charge at his opponent.
Fighter B – Absorbs the 5 turns of energy from his opponent’s attack, and then unleashes an attack worth 10 turns of charge towards his opponent.
Outcome – Fighter A is most likely KO’d or heavily damaged by Fighter B’s attack.

These examples show how this system can be used to effectively reduce, if not eliminate many arguments that you may currently face within Leviathan Stadium. Now, once more this is just one example that could prove very effective if used correctly in balancing your character, even WITH their powers and stats being a little different than normal. Barriers can now be used fairly because they can take only so much damage before having to collapse from subsequent hits. Energy arguments will also become less frequent if you choose to use this style. Of course, this is only my way of doing things, and not everyone uses it. So, if you decide to use this, please be aware that not everyone will make use of this system like you will. But, if nothing else, it will help you to create a more equally balanced character, and help to balance out your attacking power with a rough idea of how strong your energy attacks should be.

I hope that this long spiel of mine will prove helpful to you at least in some way. If you have any questions about the system, please feel free to contact me via PM, AIM messenger, or MSN messenger. Until next time, happy Rping!
3nodding