Subtypes

Well, Subtypes are unbalanced. No denying it. So, the whole cave put their heads together and figured out a nifty way to balance them.

So we did.

Then, whilst our heads were together, we said to ourselves, "There sure ain't that many Subtypes. We should make more."

So we tripled them.

THAT'S RIGHT. There are now a grand total of FIFTEEN subtypes. The level of customization just went through the roof!

Full details are in the rules section, but a bare bones outline is this: All subtypes have a passive ablity and an activated ablity. The quickest description of these are as follows:

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Sword -
P: Sword Mastery: No accuracy penalty with Slashing attacks.
A: Swordplay: Free parry/dodge after 2 consecutive Slashing attacks. (Once Per Turn)

Melee -
P: Melee Mastery: All Melee attacks gain an additional accuracy rank. Does not apply to Slashing attacks.
A: Bash: Add Impact to a chip attack as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

Wind -
P: Airstep: Jumping grants you High Altitude status.
A: Gust: Add Knockback to a chip attack as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

Speed -
P: High Gear: Speed Types gain a 10% bonus to Base Evasion. (This is their evasion value before RP, Statuses, Movement, and Dodges are factored in. Not Applicable in some situations.)
A: Afterburner: As a free action, sacrifice 1 action from the next turn to add 1 additional action to this turn. Sacrificed action carries over between battles, and this can't be used in the same turn that the sacrificed action is being spent. (Once Per Battle)

Cursor -
P: Marksmanship: Increased accuracy by 1 rank with Shot type attacks, even when under the influence of status down effects.
A: Snipe: Add Seeking to a chip attack as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

Break -
P: Mass Destruction: All AoE chip attacks have their area of coverage upgraded one level. This only affects Splash, Spread, and Blast.
A: Smash: Add Break to a chip attack as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

Summon -
P: Masterwork: Every time you summon one or more objects, one of the summoned objects gains +20 HP.
A: Fusion: Spend an action to combine the HP, abilities, status, and effects of two objects into one object. (Once Per Turn)

Shadow -
P: Stealth Encoding: You are a lower priority target than other allies, and are more capable of successfully hiding with a non-standard action.
A: Ambush: Add Phasing to a chip attack as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

Ground -
P: Unanchored: Ground attacks gain 1 Accuracy rank versus flying targets.
A: Terraform: Attach to an attack as a free action and create a Small Area Terrain Change around yourself (always) and target (or wherever the attack hits), based on the element of the chip used. (Once Per Turn)

Guts -
P: Thick Skin: Reduces damage taken by 10%. Weaker amounts of damage may seep through.
A: Taunt: Convince an enemy to attack you for the next turn as a free action. (Once per turn)

Shield -
P: Defender: Increased chance that impromptu RPed defense actions, such as parrying with a weapon, will succeed.
A: Guardian: Anchor down and create a 1 Hit Shield as a free action, but reduce dodges to the lowest rank for this turn. (Once Per Turn)

Recover -
P: Medical Mastery: Changes the cost of Healing to 1:1 (1 HP for 1 point).
A: Paramedic: Spend an action to end all instances of any one status effect or bug (except zombie) on a target, and heal them for HP equal to your level. (Once per turn)

Bug -
P: Infected: Every five levels, (starting with Level 0) you gain one free Glitch sig effect to use for sig attacks.
A: Randomize: Activate as a free action on an attack chip to randomize its damage dealt from anywhere between 1 and double its original value. (Once Per Turn)

Team -
P: One for All - Damaged inflicted on allies in physical contact with each other is evenly split between those allies.
A: All for One - Donate 1 Action for this turn to an ally. Allies can only receive one action per turn. The action donated is the action spent to activate this effect.(Once Per Turn)

Variable -
P: Debuff: Support abilities with a + in their names may be used on an opponent's next attack as a - instead.
A: Buff: Add (Level) damage to any one chip attack as a free action. (This is treated as a Support ability.)

THAT'S A LOT OF SUBTYPES.

Of course, everyone will get a free chance to change their subtype based on this major change.

Other things to note:

There's a new sig effect called Glitch. It's almost totally random what happens when you use it, so it's bound to be fun to play around with! Bug type Navis even get some uses of it for FREE!

We've added Attack+10 and GunDelSol1 Battlechips to the store. Now you can have the power!

The 'Normal' subtype is gone now. The closest thing we have to it now is the Variable subtype, so go with that if you're feeling indecisive.

THAT SHOULD DO IT. Who knows what crazy ass things the staff will come up with next?!

OH I FORGOT! We're even planning to expand these things in the future with EVEN MORE ABILITIES!

There's also a possibility of a SIXTEENTH Subtype (Custom) in the works!

NOW THAT'S REALLY ALL!

And, almost 3 months later, the balancing tweaks to subtypes are complete. Changes are as follows:

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Sword:
Sword Mastery now adds a flat accuracy bonus with Slashing attacks instead of negating Slashing's accuracy penalty. This is because said accuracy penalty only exists in sigs, so old Sword Master did not assist Slashing Battlechips at all. Swordplay is unchanged.

Melee:
Bash loses its chip attack only restriction and can now be applied to sigs, buster, SP attacks, etc. Melee Mastery is unchanged.

Wind:
Airstep is balanced through an attack-redirecting updraft (see ability description for details). Gust loses its chip attack only restriction and can now be applied to anything or be thrown out on its own.

Speed:
No mechanical changes, but Afterburner is reworded to be more concise.

Cursor:
Marksmanship allows the user to boost the accuracy of Shot-type attacks beyond A rank. Keep in mind, though, that S rank accuracy is not undodgeable, and will only go exactly where you target. Snipe loses its chip attack only restriction and can now be applied to sigs, buster, SP attacks, etc.

Break:
Smash loses its chip attack only restriction and can now be applied to sigs, buster, SP attacks, etc. Mass Destruction is unchanged.

Summon:
Masterwork becomes the active ability as a one-shot HP boost. The passive is Blueprints, which lets the user make object sigs for less points.

Shadow: Ambush loses its chip attack only restriction, and can now be applied to sigs, buster, SP attacks, etc. Stealth Encoding is unchanged.

Ground:
The passive becomes Terraformer, which lowers the cost of terrain-changing sig effects. The active becomes Anchor, which grounds airborne targets.

Guts:
The passive becomes Vigor, which gives the user an HP bonus for each HP Memory they have. The active becomes Gatling Attack, which lets you get a free buster attack/SP regular attack after 2 buster shots/SP regular attacks.

Shield:
The active becomes Reinforce, which lets you add extra hits to a shield you have equipped. Defender is unchanged.

Recover:
The active becomes IV, which heals the target by the action while it is equipped. Medical Mastery is unchanged.

Bug:
Unchanged. (Funny that this is the only one, of all things, to not need it)

Team:
One for All's damage splitting is reworked a bit for the sake of balance and ease of use. The active is still named All for One, but lets the user freely transfer a Battlechip to any targetted ally, be it your SP or a friend's Navi or their SP.

Variable:
Debuff is expanded and clarified to allow the use of attack-boosting chips, Buff, and the Strengthen sig effect. Buff now allows itself to be used on an SP's regular attack as well.

Since some of the subtypes were upended rather thoroughly, everyone is allowed one more switch of subtypes if they aren't satisfied with what happened to what they were previously using, no questions asked. Hopefully this is the nail in subtypes's coffin.

And, some 15 months later, more changes!

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Summon -
New Passive: Mobilize: Summoned Objects have a one-use Movement action.

Shadow -
New Passive: Metaphysical: Illusions extend to sense of touch.

New Active: Clone Technique: As a free action, create a Decoy of yourself. (Once Per Turn)

Ground -
Active-Turned-Passive: Anchor: Chip attacks and SP regular attacks cause one target per attack to be unable to come off the ground or fly for one turn. FloatShoes, AirShoes, and ShadowShoes are also disabled for the duration of the grounding, if the target has them. Instances of this ability do not stack with each other.

New Active: Geomancer: Imbue to a non-elemental Ground attack to have it take on the element of the terrain the target is standing on. (Once Per Turn)

Guts -
Clarified Passive: Vigor: HP Memories grant an extra 5 HP per upgrade. SP HP Upgrades grant +5 HP every other upgrade, starting with the first. If this ability is lost, the bonus HP is taken off the maximum, not the current (if applicable).

Shield -
New Passive: Shield Bash: Equipped Shields have the ability to reflect attacks for half damage at the cost of an extra hit after defending. This ability fails if the Shield does not have enough hits remaining. If an attack makes the Shield take double hits, then double hits must also be expended to use this ability.

Recover -
Tweaked Passive: Medical Mastery: All Healing actions restore an extra 20% HP. This ability does not apply to IV.

Bug -
New Passive: Contagious: Targets afflicted with Glitch by the user can afflict other targets with a new instance of Glitch upon physical contact. Contagious targets can't transmit to the same other target more than once, and the user can not transmit or be afflicted with any instances of Glitch via this effect.

New Active: Hack: Add Glitch to the next action as a free action. (Once Per Turn)

With the removal or changing of the sig effect discount abilities (Blueprints, Terraformer, Medical Mastery, and Infected), anyone who had those abilities will find themselves unable to afford all of their sig pool. Obviously that's a problem, so anyone who runs into sig pool problems as a result of this gets a free full sig change.