Posted January 28, 2022 by Ouro
Dev's Notes: Hex Education Part Four
Most of Trismegistus' skills are bound up in her class-swapping mechanic, between Theurge, Astrologist and Alchemist. The three new skills she'll be receiving in the update will be no different. One for each!
In her Theurge form, she'll have the new Void skill OIVZ. OIVZ is an Instant-cast skill that, upon being cast, acts a little like Three Masteries in that it'll present you with a list of options. Those options are:
After selecting, Trish will call down a 'minister' to bind itself to her and to speak, granting her a state where she channels the chosen element for the rest of the battle (she lacks the expertise for elemental Crab or Physical however). Once she's channelling an element, Trish is immune to damage from that element and all of her skills that deal damage of that specified element deal 25% more damage.
Being in this state also unlocks a temporary skill called Hermetic Cannon. Like Hermetic Bullet, the elemental damage of this skill changes depending on Trish's current nature. In this case, the element of Hermetic Cannon will match the element chosen by OIVZ. Hermetic Cannon is a mana-intensive spell that releases the element you're channelling, dealing massive AoE damage and cancelling the 'channel' state.
Trismegistus can only use OIVZ once per battle so you better pick your element and your Cannon timing wisely!
In her Astrologist form, Trismegistus will gain access to the new Void skill, Cardistry. This skill lets Trish draw a card from her opponent's fate, draining their MP for an amount equal to her LCK stat and drawing a random card. How many possible cards are there?
Seventy-Eight.
Trish's deck is comprised of four suits: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. There are 14 uniquely named cards in each suit and 22 Trumps that sit above them. Drawing each card is mostly without fanfare, though each of the Trumps has a unique on-draw effect. But once Trish has assembled a 3-card spread, she reads the future and attains an 'Ascendency' state that lasts for five turns. The exact details of this state depend on the elemental makeup of her Spread and how many Trumps make it up.
For example, if the Spread is predominantly Water and has no Trumps, Trish will gain the 'Water Ascendant' state that will grant her +20% M.DEF. But if there was a single Trump in the hand, it would be 'Water Ascendant+' and grants +40 M.DEF instead. And on for all the four elements like so:
As you may note from this picture, which shows Trismegistus in Rubedo form while also being in Astrologist form, Rubedo temporarily unlocks two additional Void Skills and they both have alchemical costs. Immortal Metal costs 1000G to use but, provided that you can meet that cost, will provide a full heal to any ally. And Sun/Moon Master, somewhat cheekily named given the circumstances, allows Trismegistus to apply a state called 'Dyad' to any ally, including herself. This gives the target an extra action for this turn only, allowing for all sorts of godawful nonsense. Sun/Moon Master is also an Instant-cast spell, to allow Trish to bestow Dyad upon people who go before her in the initiative order and instead of costing MP or TP or HP, it costs a single regular Potion.
Who knows, maybe carrying around those basic Potions long after they've stopped being relevant might be useful now?
This game has always been about a character who can basically do anything. That's Dorothy's whole deal. But Trismegistus should never be that far behind. But like anything to do with Trish, why would it be easy and simple when it could be needlessly painful instead? That's the price she pays for being merely human.
I hope you enjoyed this monstrosity of a dev-log.