THE FLOW OF COMBAT
THE START OF BATTLE:
Generate everyone's starting initiative by rolling 1d6 + the total WGT of all equipped gear. (Monster don't have weights exactly, but they do have initiative rolls listed which work the same way.)
Arrange the turn markers according to the initiative rolls, with the highest rolls on the BOTTOM of the initiative list, and the smallest rolls on the TOP. In the case of ties, characters with smaller weights/init bonuses go first, and if still a tie, PCs before monsters, and if still a tie, then however the GM feels like. Lighter characters generally act sooner in each round.
After turn order is decided, the actual numbers used to determine initiative become irrelevant and you don't need to remember them - in play, only relative positions of the initiative markers matter.
Pick a row to sit in! If you don't have a Firearm or any Spells, you probably want to be in the front row so you can actually hit things. If you have one or both of those, you probably want to be in the back, where it's harder to get hit. The flow of battle is measured in "rounds". You can think of one round as the time it takes for everyone to perform one action. Once initiative has been generated, the turn markers have been arranged (prompting the discarding of the freshly-generated initiative), and all combatants are in their rows, you're now ready to begin round one!
TURN ORDER:
If the round has just begun, then the first turn goes to the character on top of the turn marker list.
They take their turn! After they're done, the character below them on the list takes their turn. Repeat until everyone has taken a turn.
After everyone has taken their turn, the round is over and a new round begins. At this time, remove all momentum from the table, trigger all effects that are activated at the start of the next round, and remove all statuses that expire at the end of the current round.
ROWS:
As alluded to earlier, in SEED there are multiple rows that combat takes place in - a front row and a back row for players, and a front row and back row for enemies, arranged like so:
- ENEMY BACK ROW
- ENEMY FRONT ROW
- PLAYER FRONT ROW
- PLAYER BACK ROW
When a player or enemy is in the back row, they cannot target or be targeted by melee attacks, making it a safe place for spell casters and firearm users to sit, generally speaking.
Characters and monsters that focus on melee damage, or defending their allies and tank damage, on the other hand will want to be in the front row in order to hit targets, and protect their allies.
If there are ever no targets in the front row for either side, their enemies can target them with melee attacks.
TAKING A TURN:
The flow of the turn is as follows:
Reposition Phase -> Overdrive Phase -> Quick Phase -> Action Phase -> End Phase.
Reposition Phase: At the very start of your turn you may choose to reposition, if desired. More often than not you won't want to, but it can be useful. When you reposition, you immediately drop your initiative marker to the bottom of the turn order! Don't act immediately either - you're now the last person to act in the round! When your new turn comes up, you can then Retreat or Dash, before moving onto the Overdrive Phase. You can only Reposition once per round.
Overdrive Phase: If your Drive Gauge is full, empty it immediately (unless you're a Maxwellian, whose passive gives them the option to save them) and OVERDRIVE, using one of your Overdrives provided by your race and class.
If your Drive Gauge isn't full, skip this step.
Quick Phase: You may then use one of your Quick abilities, gotten from your class or an accessory. Remember that each quick can only be used once per battle, so you might not always want to activate them as soon as possible!
Action Phase: Afterwards, you get to the real meat of your turn: your Action. With this you can either perform a Basic Attack, Defend, use an Item, or use one of your classes action abilities. These are also the abilities you perform combos with, and the only part of a turn you'll be doing every single round. If you're somehow incapable of performing an available action, or simply don't wish to take one, you can skip your turn.
End Phase: You've finished your turn at this point, and just have a little bit of book keeping left to do. You'll generate +2 Drive first and foremost (let your friends know you're fully charged and ready to unleash and Overdrive next round when you max out your drive gauge!). This is also when you'll mark damage from damage over time effects, like the Burning and Toxin status effects.
CHOOSE AN ACTION:
BASIC ATTACK - Perform a very basic attack with one of your equipped weapons, or with your fist. A basic attack has no MP cost, counts as a [T]echnique, has 80CoS, and generates momentum based on to the equipped weapon (either Pin, Rush, or Launch).
ABILITY - Use an Action Ability you know! Abilities will either be marked as either a "Technique" or a "Spell". We'll cover this in a little more detail below. Most abilities have an MP cost that is deducted from your character's MP. If you don't have enough MP to pay the cost, you can't use it. You can't use [OD] or [D] abilities as your normal action, either!
DEFEND - Reduce incoming damage by -5 until your next turn. Reload a firearm (refill its Ammo capacity back to max!) if you have one. Quicken 1 as well, if you want. It's optional!
ITEM - Use a single item from one of your inventory slots! Characters can't hold very many items at once, but they generally have fairly potent effects to make up for it.
ABILITY TYPES:
ACTION ABILITIES
Action abilities are abilities that you spend a turn performing, most of which are either Techniques or Spells.
Techniques: Techniques use your character's weapon as part of the attack! You can choose any weapon the character has equipped to use with each Technique you use on a case by case basis. If you want to use a Firearm, though, you need 1 Ammo (which is consumed with each firearm attack made) in order to attack. Any other weapon property from a weapon will apply to the technique, as well. Abilities listed on your class's page that are marked with a [T] before its ability name are Techniques. Generally speaking, when you use a Technique, you need to be in your front row, and your target must be in the enemy's front row as well, unless using a firearm.
When you attack with a Technique, roll d100. If the result is equal to the CoS or below it, you hit and deal damage! If you roll above the CoS, you miss and deal no damage. If you roll 0 or lower (often through luck expenditure), you deal a critical hit! Critical Hits add +4 damage to the attack, and allow you to roll an additional damage die, as well.
If a technique allows you to hit multiple targets at once with it, roll to hit/crit/miss with it separately for each enemy.
Techniques usually deal physical damage. If your ability specifies that it deals a different type of damage, use that instead.
Basic Attacks are special Techniques with no MP cost, available to anyone with a weapon.
If you use a Technique without being equipped with with a weapon, you make an unarmedattack, which only deals 1d4+2 damage (which generates Rush momentum if used as a basic attack).
Spells: Spells are any attack made by your character without the use of a weapon. Instead, when you cast a Spell, you can select one of your equipped Implements, each of which give various bonuses when casting. Abilities listed on your class's page that are marked with a [S] before its ability name are Spells. When you use a Spell, you can target anyone you want, regardless of rows (unless the spell lists specific targeting restrictions, of course).
When you cast a spell, roll d100. If the result is equal to the CoS or below it, you hit! If it rolls above above the CoS, it misses. If the roll is 25 or lower, you score a Burst! When a spell Bursts, add +3 potency to it (if it has a potency), and reduce its cost by -1MP.
Even if a Spell allows you to target multiple actors at once with it, you still only roll to hit/burst/miss with it a single time, then apply that result for to targets.
Spells usually deal elemental (Fire, Water, Air, Earth) damage. If your ability specifies that it deals a different type of damage, use that instead.
Dazed Actions: A Dazed Action is a special action that may only be used when Dazed. A character is considered Dazed when they have had their current HP reduced to 0HP. When Dazed, remove all the status effects currently on the combatant. While Dazed actions are not typically very powerful, they do prevent characters that have been 'defeated' from become completely removed from the action. Dazed actions are marked with a [D] before their names, and while they generally are not spells or techniques, a few of them are.
OVERDRIVE ABILITIES
An Overdrive is a special ability that can only be used on rounds where the character starts a turn with a full Drive Gauge. Using an Overdrive is typically non-optional - as soon as the gauge is filled, you fire one off from your list of overdrive options - but use of an Overdrive does not prevent you from taking your normal turn during that round. They're free, bonus actions! And typically fairly powerful to boot. You inherit one Overdrive from your character's race, and learn other options from their class. Overdrive abilities are marked with [OD] before their names, and are typically, but not always, also techniques or spells as well.
If you're in a situation where you really don't want to use your Overdrive just yet, you can put it off by exactly one round by defending. You have to use it on your next turn, though, or reduce your drive to 0!
MOMENTUM AND COMBOS:
All abilities have a type of Momentum associated with them. There are 8 kinds: Launch, Pin, Rush, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Recovery. Launch, Pin and Rush are usually attached to physical damage abilities, Fire, Water, Air and Earth with their elemental attacks, and Recovery with defensive maneuvers and healing effects.
When you use an ability, make a note of the momentum type it generates, and let the rest of the party know, as available momentum can be used for combos within the round. Each time a person uses a specific type of momentum to perform a combo, remove that momentum - it's been expended. At the end of the round, remove any unused momentum, as well. There is no limit to the amount of momentum you can generate besides what your characters are capable of!
Note that even if your ability misses, its momentum still gets generated, and your allies can still use it to perform combos!
Momentum+: Sometimes an ability will generate Momentum with a + and a number attached to it. When momentum with a bonus is used to power a combo, the ability in question gains potency equal to the bonus listed on the momentum. If you have other effects that grant multiple increases to the momentum generated by an ability on a single turn, add them all together before creating the momentum.
Additionally, PCs and Monsters use separate momentum pools.
Combos: Most abilities list two different types of momentum you can combo with. If someone else has used an ability earlier in the round which generates that kind of momentum, you can choose to cash it in (and remove it from play) and receive that combo's bonus effects.
If your ability has multiple momentum types available to combo off of, choose a single one to consume and benefit from. You can also choose to forgo comboing, if you wish to save the ability to combo with it for later in the fight, or even if you want to let someone else after you use that kind of momentum. Combos are optional!
Each ability can only be comboed with once per battle, regardless of how many momentum options they have with it. Try and use your entire ability kit to get the most out of them!
PASSIVE ABILITIES:
Passive abilities different from other abilities in that you do not select them to use on your character's turn. Instead, these are special effects that your character is constantly benefiting from at all times! Passive abilities cover a wide range of effects, from offensive, to defensive, or even support. Pay close attention to what they do when you learn one, and keep them in mind anytime your character is engaged in battle. You inherit one passive ability from your character's race, and learn other options from their class. Passive abilities are marked with [P] before their names.
QUICK ABILITIES:
Quick Abilities denote special abilities that can be used before a character takes a turn each round. The usage of a Quick ability does not prevent the character from taking a normal turn - instead think of them as bonus actions, like Overdrives, except usable even when you Overdrive! A character can only use a single quick ability once per round - in the event that the character takes a Reposition action, they may opt to use their quick action later on in the round, right before they take their normal turn, rather than immediately before they reposition.
Each Quick Ability can only be used a single time per battle. Make sure to spend them wisely, when you need them! Quick abilities are learned from a character's class, and can be granted by equipped accessories as well. Quick abilities are marked with a [Q] before their names, and while the overwhelming vast majority of them are not techniques or spells, there are a handful of them that are.
POTENCY AND ABILITY DICE
Potency is a sort of catch all term, that refers to how much damage or HP restoration an abilities does, in the form of a dice roll + a static value. When something grants an ability extra potency, increase the static by that amount. Occasionally an effect will tell you to roll additional dice - when it does so, simply roll the die in question that many more times, and add the values all together.
Rarely, something might tell you to increase the size of a die roll (typically from attributes or implements). When this happens, you roll once die size category larger. Die sizes go in the following order:
1d6 -> 1d8 -> 1d10 -> 1d12.
If an ability references a weapons "base potency", it means the flat, static damage from the weapon, without it's damage die or any SFX. For example, the Agent's passive ability Rapid Fire allows them to occasionally True Strike secondary targets with an equipped firearm's base potency. So if the Agent was wielding a Pistol, they'd True Strike the secondary target for 6 damage and automatically hit, rather than rolling to hit, or rolling the 1d6 from its damage die.
TRUE STRIKE / HEAL
Sometimes abilities will have effects that tell you to True Strike or True Heal a target. A True Strike will always hit its target - you don't even roll to hit or damage! On the flip side, True Strikes will never benefit from weapon or implement properties, nor from Criticals or Bursts. True Strike is used when the ability in question deals damage, and True Heal when it restores HP. True Strikes still have a damage type, and follow all the normal rules for those. Additionally, they are effected by status effects. They are not, however, effected by things that increase Potency.
SCRATCH DAMAGE
Occasionally an ability - most often techniques - will have a Scratch value listed. What this means is that when you miss with that ability, rather than having no effect, it instantly True Strikes the target for physical damage equal to its Scratch value.
So for example, if you use an ability with 80 CoS that happens to have Scratch 6 on it, if you happened to roll a 83 and didn't feel like spending any LP on it, you'll still True Strike the target of the ability for 6 physical damage, rather than missing completely. Scratch damage won't apply any other effects from your weapon or the ability you use, but the consolation damage is still better than having no effect at all!
Most monsters have Scratch values on their techniques, in lieu of wielding weapons and gaining their SFX, so watch out!
DAMAGE TYPES, ARMOR, ELEMENTAL WEAKNESS AND RESISTANCES:
In SEED, there are six distinct types of damage, groups into two separate categories.
KINETIC DAMAGE can be either PHYSICAL or SUPREME, and though they share the types of statuses that affect them, they function fairly differently.
Physical damage is affected by Armor! If a target has Armor and is hit by physical damage, it reduces the amount of damage taken from the attack by the armor value.
Supreme damage on the other hand, can only be reduced by status effects. Not only that, but it even destroys any Barriers or Bubbles the defending target might have on them, before applying damage! It also ignores any other damage reduction, be it granted by the Defend action, Armor, or Shields! Supreme damage excels at cutting through enemy defenses and delivering unmodified damage.
ELEMENTAL DAMAGE can be either FIRE, AIR, WATER, or EARTH, and all function basically the same way.
While elemental damage isn't effected by Armor, it is affected by target weaknesses and resistances.
Characters and Monsters alike each have a weakness to a single element, and a resistance to another element.
When a target is Weak to an element, they take +5 damage from the attack.
When a target Resists an element, they take -5 damage from the attack.
Note that any time an attack is made, it will always deal a minimum of 1 point of damage, regardless of any armor, resistances, barriers, bubbles, or other methods of reducing damage a target might possess.
STATUS EFFECTS:
There's a wealth of status effects in SEED, both positive and negative, each with specific effects. As there are quite a few of them and they'll need to be referenced often, they're listed on their own page.
Statuses come with both a duration and a power level. Short statuses only last until the end of the round in which they're applied, where as Long statuses last for the remainder of the battle. A status can then either be the normal, default version of the status, or it might have "II" written after it, making the status vastly stronger. Both normal and II versions of statuses are listed on the status page.
STATUS PROTECTION
Sometimes an ability of piece of gear might give you Status Protection. When you have protection from a particular status and are inflicted with it, you can less its effects in one or two ways when it's applied. First, you can degrade its power from II levels to normal levels. Alternatively, you may choose to shorten its duration from Long to Short. Only pick one of these options when inflicted by the status, not both! You can choose either option each time it's applied, however.
DISPEL / CLEANSE
When an ability tells you to dispel or cleanse a status, it means to remove a status effect. If it says to dispel a status effect, it means to remove a good/positive one, typically from an enemy. If it says to cleanse a status effect, it means to remove a bad/negative one, typically from an ally. On rare occasions an ability might simply say to remove a status - if it does, you're free to treat it as either a cleanse or dispel effect as suits your needs.
BARRIERS AND BUBBLES:
Two similar but different things, which reduce damage taken from direct attacks (but not from supreme, or statuses). You can only benefit from a single barrier and a single bubble at any given time - keep the best of each if someone tries to give you a second. Damage reduction stacks with armor in the case of physical damage, and is calculated after weaknesses and resistances in the case of elemental damage.
When something grants your character a Barrier, you gain damage reduction against physical and elemental damage until either the end of the round, or the end of your next turn, whichever is longer.
When something grants your character a Bubble, you gain damage reduction against physical and elemental damage for a single hit; after you're hit and the Bubble reduces damage taken, it pops, vanishing.
DASH / RETREAT
If a move tells you to Dash, move into the front row while using it! If you're already in the front when you use it, well, you're already there so nothing happens.
If a move tells you to Retreat, move into the back row while using it, instead!
Dashing/Retreating as part of an ability that tells you to do one or the other is mandatory.
QUICKEN / SLOW
Sometimes an ability will say to quicken an ally or slow an enemy. When an ability quickens or slows a target, it doesn't have to be that exact value - it can be from no spaces or any number of spaces up to a maximum of the value from the ability, chosen by the user of the ability. When a targets turn marker is changed in the initiative order, it remains that way for the rest of the battle. Remember that precise initiative values get discarded at the start of the battle!
When you Quicken a target, you move its initiative marker up in the initiative list that many spaces, leap-frogging over other actor markers, and allows them to act sooner in future rounds.
When you Slow a target, you do the opposite, dropping the initiative marked that many space down the list, and making them later in the the round and future rounds!
If you Quicken or Slow multiple targets with the same actions, the order in which you move them becomes more important.
When Quickening, start from the fastest target, then make your way down the init list quickening as needed. When Slowing, do the opposite: start with the target lowest on the init list effected, and move your way up.
When you both quicken and slow with a single action, the user of the action can choose which order to apply quick or slow in (but do all quicks or slows at the same time, before moving on to the other).
DRIVE SUPPRESSION
When an ability says it suppresses drive, it means that it directly removes that many points from the target's Overdrive Gauge.
REFRESH
Occasionally you might run into an effect that says it "Refreshes" one of your abilities. When an ability is refreshed, you regain the use of it! Typically this applies to an ability with a combo that has already been used, but it might also allow you to reuse a previously spent quick. When it tells you to refresh something, it'll list the specific ability in question to refresh.
WHAT IS LP FOR?
You spend LP to modify dice rolls! 1d100 CoS (Chance of Success) rolls specifically. Anytime you use an ability and think the result could be just a little bit better, spend 1LP, and increase or decrease the value by +/-10 as you see fit. You can spend as many LP as you have to enact bigger changes. You can spend LP to adjust the rolls of abilities which target your character, too! Spend your luck.
LP can also be used to modify skill check results in a slightly different manner, covered in more detail on the skill page. It might have other uses as well, but if it does it'll be clearly marked!
Monsters use LP as well, but they use it different from PCs. Rather than modifying CoS rolls, monsters need to spend LP to activate their combo effects (which aren't limited to a single activation per battle!), or effects that function similar to Quick abilities.
THE END OF A BATTLE:
The battle ends when all monsters, or all PCs, have been Dazed. Generally speaking, the players want to be on the winning end of a fight.
When you successfully complete a fight, EXP are awarded based on the enemies defeated. Sometimes they might even drop gold or items, but this is uncommon.
Certain attributes, equipment or abilities may grant characters HP or MP recovery upon winning a battle, make sure to do so when rewards are given.
If a player ends a battle while Dazed, they remove it and recover with 1HP. Depending on circumstances, they may also take on a CONDITION. If this happens, the GM will let you know.
HEALING OUT OF BATTLE
When not directly engaged in battle, healing abilities work a little bit differently from normal. Rather than rolling to hit/burst and then rolling the actual value healed, any ability that can be used out of battle will have a "Field" entry below it, listing a flat value of HP that using it out of combat restores. Note that field effects are uneffected by any gear the characters might be equipped with.
You can also use your classes Endurance passive ability to convert LP into HP recovery when out of battle.