Strategic Battles List Options

[Titanhex]

Figured out a few more strategic ideas:

-Discourage Low Damage-
Every time the enemy is damaged, it will heal itself for a set amount.
Ex. A Jelly-King appears. You try to lay into it with poison, which normally does the best damage to the lesser-Jelly's high defense. Suddenly you realize this is a bad idea, as every time the poison deals damage he heals for more damage then it did. The King also casts regen on itself, which amplifies his healing. Luckily you have a few stat-down spells which he isn't immune to and a dispel, so you dispel the King after the poison wears off and let loose with stat-downs. From there, you pull out your high-damage spells and let loose.

Optionally: Absorb
Every time you attack an enemy with a Physical/Magical attack they are healed a set amount or by a %. Thus you switch your strategy up for this enemy.

Battle Difficulty: Medium-Easy.

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-Soul Swap-
Every played one of those cup games? Someone puts a ball under a cup and you have to guess where it is? Well this is a battle based on that.
Ex. Six inanimate statues or "golems" are the enemy. The true enemy is a soul that plays puppet-master to these objects. When the battle starts, it's pretty easy. He pops into and out of each object randomly in a rather slow method (Show Battle Animation on the enemy sprite.) You deal no damage to the enemy the soul isn't inside, and whats worse is the enemy does a counter attack. This can make AoE spells a VERY bad idea.
It starts out easy, until the soul begins popping in and out rather rapidly, making it harder to track it. Failure to pay attention may lead to a quick demise.
Additionally: The possessed enemy will perform a move at the end of the turn while the others will do nothing.
Additionally: Each statue has an elemental affinity.
Additionally: Some statues cast buffs/AoE buffs. Trying to debuff a statue that isn't possessed will trigger the counter-attack.

Optionally: The soul can take damage that is tracked in a variable. Once the variable reaches a certain amount the battle ends. Alternatively you could give each statue life points, and victory is achieved when all statues are defeated.
Additionally: The final statue left could be boosted and fully healed.

Optionally: There can be 8 statues and 2 souls.

Battle Difficulty: Medium-Hard to Very Hard.

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-Stat-Switcher-
The enemy bounces between a 10/10/90 ratio on it's stats. Every x turn he will change that ratio around. Best for a Real-Time TBS.
Ex. You are battling a mutating slime. This little bugger will change colors depending on it's stats. It starts out 50/50/50 on the first turn. Then it turns blue, with a 10atk/90def/10agi. You take the opportunity to recuperate since it's defenses are so high. Then it shifts to red with a 90atk/10def/10agi set up. You lay into it while it's slow, trying to time it properly to defend against it's hard hitting attacks. Then it shifts to green, with a 10atk/10def/90agi. It's getting turns constantly, letting loose a number of spells and debuffers. This becomes a time to lay into it while not getting taken down by it's abilities. It then switches to defense and you recuperate. Rinse, wash, repeat.
Difficulty: Hard

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-Simon Says-
This one is a tricky beast of a battle. If you're not on your toes, it's game over.
Ex. Simon appears. He starts off with Heal. Someone now HAS to cast Heal or Simon will instantly kill someone. He then casts a Fire spell. Someone now HAS to cast that Fire spell or Simon will kill.

Optionally: The spell can be memorized for 4 rounds, or can be forgotten after it's cast. Ex. He casts heal, your priest has to cast heal. He cast Fire, your mage has to cast Fire AND your priest HAS to cast heal. He casts High Jump, your Dragoon now has to cast High Jump, your Mage Fire, your Priest Heal. He casts Dispel. Your priest now has to cast Dispel instead of Heal, and your Mage has to cast Fire, and your Dragoon High Jump. This could make the battle increasingly difficult as you try to keep track of your spell casts.

Battle Difficulty: Easy to Hard

This post has been edited by Titanhex: Mar 17 2011, 11:41 PM

[psychofreak]

Need Sleep spell- An enemy keeps using debuffs that lower your stats(att/def/spi/spd) but is only temporary. Put them to sleep and guard until the debuffs wear off. One of my more strategic bosses.

This post has been edited by psychofreak: Mar 18 2011, 05:07 AM

[Titanhex]

That reminds me of a set up I've seen before where the only way to perform certain moves is to have a debuff on.

For example, a skill that only does damage if you're blinded.

Thus, you could have a medusa battle where the only way to defend against her gaze which hits 100% of the time is to be blinded. Or say you have a weak poison spell. An enemy has an incredibly strong poison spell. You inflict yourself with the weak poison which prevents that strong poison from landing.
These scenarios are good because they force a player to think outside the battle.

==Additional Edit

Also imagine a dungeon where there's some Magical Entities flying around and the main boss is a giant manifestation of that. Red Entities vs Blue Entities.

Every time you kill a blue entity you absorb it. (Adds +1 to a variable.) Every time you kill a red entity, it destroys one blue entity inside you. When you get to the Giant Entity, it does a special move. For every blue entity you've absorbed it does bonus damage. The strategy is, before the boss fight, try to avoid killing blue entities. Or perhaps every time you attack him you do bonus damage based on blue entities. The idea now is to collect the entities.

Also why does a boss in a dungeon have to be single battled and confined to one room. Lets use the previous example. ANY time you kill an entity it increases a counter by +1. When that counter hits a certain amount, the dungeon boss appears to fight you, probably out of vengeance for those you've slain. This occurs every time you reach that amount on the counter. To compensate the boss may not be a very efficient fight, so your strategy would be to avoid this encounter.

Variants here are numerous too, use your imagination and experiment within the gamescape.