7DRL 2013 day 5: Skilled Labor

Today I added skills to TriQuest. Skills are basically special abilities that a hero can use that affect a whole formation. Most of them are used against enemies, although the Priest's Heal Wounds skill is used on the heroes, naturally enough.

To use a skill, first you need to maneuver your party so that it is directly adjacent to and facing whatever enemy formation you want to use it against. Then you press the "s" key to bring up the skill menu. Next you choose which hero is going to use his skill - only one skill can be used per turn, even though there are three heroes. Finally you choose which skill the hero is going to use - each hero has two to choose from.

No screenshots today, since the game hasn't really changed much - OK, I did add a display of how much mana your heroes have next to their health (mana is used to perform skills), but that's nothing to write home about! Instead, I'll describe each of the skills, though a short description is also available in-game in the skill menus.

Warrior skill 1: Omnislash - This attack hits all targeted enemies with a physical attack which never misses, regardless of range.

Warrior skill 2: Berserk - This skill temporarily increases the Warrior's Attack and Body stats, at the expense of his Defense and Mind stats. Using it again while it is still in effect will extend the duration.

Mage skill 1: Fireball - This attack hits all targeted enemies with a magical attack which never misses, regardless of range.

Mage skill 2: Slow - This skill permanently reduces the speed of all targeted enemies by half. Note however that it only works once on each target; casting it twice on the same target will not slow it any further. It would be wise to save some mana to use this on the final boss...

Priest skill 1: Heal Wounds - This skill heals some HP to all of the heroes. Heroes with more Body stat will be healed more, though, so it will be hard to heal the Mage and easy to heal the Warrior.

Priest skill 2: Banish - This skill teleports the targeted enemies to a random location. Handy for when you're surrounded!