Introduction

Neutral	Striker	Defender	Controller	Supporter
Base Spells	Burst Spells	Counter Spells	Debuff Spells	Healing Spells
Focused Spells	Lingering Spells	Intercept Spells	Ailment Spells	Buff Spells
Utility Spells	Enchant Spells	Shield Spells	Geomancy Spells	Cleansing Spells
[Cannon Spell Conversion] (https://www.reddit.com/r/GoldenSun/comments/6ncewm/an_adept_is_you_neutral_spells_omake/)	Ailments Primer	Fundaments Primer	The Break Problem	Omake

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Ailment Spells

^(Controller Association, 1 slot per spell, Variable Family Size and Makeup)

While debuff spells attempt to reduce a foe's strength, Ailment Spells add on effects that make it more difficult for the target to fight. This could range from effects that make the target less able to act and target an ally, to spells that drain an enemy of their health and energy, to even spells that punish a target's aggressive actions. Ailments range wildly in how they debilitate their targets, as well as when they become available.

Ailment Families

Ailments often come in sets - but what specifically makes up a set is a matter of interpretation. Some may interpret that Delusion and Sleep work as a pair, basing them on gaseous spells. Others may say that Sleep, PP Drain, and Sprites work as a set, using the basis of an energy draining nightmare. So long as a set of ailments can be explained, it's okay to take them as a set. It's only when seemingly random ailments are taken that an issue arises - if you can't explain why Poison, Delusion, and PP drain go together, maybe you're better off putting those effects in different classes.

Ailments and Aspects

The ailments available to a character should also have a degree of justification. For instance, an ice-wielding adept can easily justify delusion with blinding blizzards, and sleep with hypothermia. However, it's a little more difficult to justify poison. The general rule is that if you can convincingly say why a class has access to certain ailments based on its native aspects, then the class can have access to it. If it's a tough sell, it may be better to aim for a different ailment.

Fundaments and Ailments

Unlike most other types of spells, manipulating fundamental alignment through djinn will have little effect on what Ailment spells do or how they behave. Ailment availability is based on native aspects, so changing which aspects an adept can wield won't affect which ailments they use. It also has no effect on range, potency, or rate of infliction. As such, an adept doesn't have to worry about whether changing djinn will change an ailment spell they tend to use, and can do so without worrying about this type of spell.

Volatile Ailments

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Does not stack with greater counterparts. Limit one of each.)

Volatile Ailments are a class of ailments that follow a certain type of behavior. Spells of this type always affect a small area (Range: 3 in the games), the effects last up to 4 turns (~30 seconds), they are cured with Volatile Recovery spells, and the body's own resilience can shake the effects of these ailments off early.

Delusion:

^(Class Tiers 1 and Above.)

Makes it difficult for the target to see, reducing their accuracy by roughly 30%.

Seal:

^(Class Tiers 1 and Above.)

Seals away the target's ability to cast spells. Any ability that consumes PP to use cannot be used.

Sleep:

^(Class Tiers 1 and Above.)

A psynergetically induced sleep prevents the foe from acting. Cured by taking physical damage.

Daze:

^(Class Tiers 1 and Above.)

Knocks the opponent into a daze, rendering them unable to act. Cured by taking spell damage.

Volatile Ailments: Greater

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Overwrites lesser counterparts. Limit one of each.)

A more potent form of volatile ailments, these are single-target spells that last up to 4 turns (~30 seconds) before degrading. In most cases, they turn into a lesser form of volatile ailment. These can be cured via Volatile Recovery spells, and can be degraded by the body's own resilience.

Blind:

^(Class Tiers 2 and Above.)

Blinds the foe, making it difficult for them to perform actions. This reduces their accuracy down to only 30%. Degrades to Delusion.

High Seal:

^(Class Tiers 3 and Above.)

A stronger seal that locks away the target's ability to cast spells, use djinn, summon, or trigger unleashes. Degrades to Seal.

Paralyze:

^(Class Tiers 3 and Above.)

Renders a target unable to act - is not cured by damage of any kind. Does not degrade, but cures upon end of duration. Sleep and Daze are lesser counterparts.

Vital Ailments

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Does not stack with greater counterparts. Limit one of each.)

Ailments that directly affect the vital stats of their target, directly damaging the target's health or energy reserves. These spells affect a small area (Range: 3 in the games), and are cured with Vital Recovery spells. These spells last until they are cured.

Poison:

^(Class Tiers 2 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a psynergetic poison, damaging 10% of their health every turn.

Sap:

^(Class Tiers 2 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a psynergetic poison, sapping away 10% of their energy (PP) every turn.

Disease:

^(Class Tiers 3 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a psynergetic disease. Damage health and energy equal to 10% of their average. The target's Attack, Defense, Casting, Warding, and Agility are reduced by 10%.

Vital Ailments: Greater

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Overwrites lesser counterparts. Limit one of each.)

Stronger versions of Vital ailments, these spells target a single foe and drain the target of their health and energy at twice the rate of their lesser counterparts. As with their lesser counterparts, they are cured with Vital Recovery spells.

Venom:

^(Class Tiers 4 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a strong psynergetic poison, damaging 20% of their health every turn.

Blight:

^(Class Tiers 4 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a strong psynergetic poison, sapping away 20% of their energy (PP) every turn.

Plague:

^(Class Tiers 5 and Above.)

Target is inflicted with a psynergetic plague. Damage health and energy equal to 20% of their average. The target's Attack, Defense, Casting, Warding, and Agility are reduced by 20%.

Spiritual Ailments

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Does not stack with greater counterparts. Limit one of each.)

A strange type of ailment that calls upon ambient spirits to harass the target, causing the occasional retributive damage upon the target's aggression. These spells strike a small area (Range: 3 in the games), and are cured with Spiritual Recovery spells.

Haunt:

^(Class Tiers 2 and above.)

Angry spirits hound the target, inflicting damage 25% of the time the target inflicts damage for 25% of the damage inflicted. Damage is dealt to the target's HP.

Sprite:

^(Class Tiers 2 and above.)

Mischievous faeries harass the target, inflicting damage 25% of the time the target inflicts damage for 12.5% of the damage inflicted. Damage is dealt to the target's PP.

Spiritual Ailments: Greater

^(Can stack with one another, but not with themselves. Overwrites lesser counterparts. Limit one of each.)

A stronger version of Spiritual ailments that call on stronger spirits in the area - with effects triggering more often and with greater potency. Spells of this nature target a single foe, and are cured with Spiritual Recovery spells.

Poltergeist:

^(Class Tiers 4 and above.)

Angry spirits hound the target, inflicting damage 50% of the time the target inflicts damage for 33% of the damage inflicted. Damage is dealt to the target's HP.

Pixies:

^(Class Tiers 4 and above.)

Mischievous faeries harass the target, inflicting damage 50% of the time the target inflicts damage for 20% of the damage inflicted. Damage is dealt to the target's PP.

Spiritual Ailments: Impending

^(Can stack with one another. Upon repeated inflictions, reduces timer by 1. Limit one of each.)

A version of spiritual ailment that calls upon a strong spirit in the area to seek out a target to inflict an effect. These spells are single-target, and upon repeated inflictions will hasten the process. This effect is cured with Spiritual Recovery Spells.

Reaper:

^(Class Tiers 2 and above.)

A 3 turn (~22.5 second) countdown is placed upon the target, at the end of which a powerful spirit will drop the target's health to 0.

Nymph:

^(Class Tiers 2 and above.)

A 3 turn (~22.5 second) countdown is placed upon the target, at the end of which a powerful fae will drain the target's energy to 0.

Spiritual Effects: Instant

^(Limit one of each.)

Stronger versions of Impending spells that instantly call on the appropriate effects. These spells are single target. As they are an instant effect, they have no real Cleansing spell counterpart.

KO:

^(Class Tiers 4 and above.)

Instantly drops the target's health to 0.

Energy Purge:

^(Class Tiers 4 and above.)

Instantly drops the target's energy to 0.

Channel Effects

^(Limit one of each.)

These are spells which tap into and drain the health or energy of a target. These effects are considered to be related to ailments in nature, and as such as associated with them despite not inflicting an ongoing effect.

Health Drain:

^(Class Tiers 1 and above.)

Drains health from the target. The strength of this spell is dependent on the caster's Element Level, Element Power, and Casting stats.

Energy Drain:

^(Class Tiers 1 and above.)

Drains energy from the target. The strength of this spell is dependent on the caster's Element Level, Element Power, and Casting stats.

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Common Q&A:

There seems to be a lot more ailments than in vanilla. Is this just to make it harder for our heroes?

No, it's mostly because GS has surprisingly few ailments compared to other games. Some ailments exist as counterparts to existing ailments, such as the ones that inflict PP damage like Sap and Energy Purge. Others are done to make ailments more distinct. In vanilla, Sleep and Paralyze are nearly identical - the effectively do the same thing. Here, I've tweaked sleep so that it behaves like you see it in other games, and created a physical counterpart.

Why are the drain spells considered Ailments?

Honestly, because I didn't know where to put them. At one point they were part of Cleansing spells, back when I called it "recovery", but with the new name it isn't as easy to shoehorn in there. Either way, they're being buffed compared to vanilla, now that they're actually being tied to a stat (casting). Maybe now they'll actually get used.

There's a lot of ways to get rid of PP now with these new ailments, as well as some of the other effects from before. Is this an attempt to nerf spells?

Wha? Spells needed buffing, not nerfing. Nah, this is an attempt to buff items. Think about it - how often did you use PP recovery items, even in Dark Dawn where they had a larger presence? Not at all, right? I figure we make PP recovery items as common as HP recovery items, and encourage more item use.

Will these spells still be useless in the hands of Adepts?

Assume that they play a much larger role in battle, especially for spells like Delusion. Because of how accuracy worked in the original games, delusion was mostly useless all around - who cares if your attacks are less accurate if abilities never miss? Well, now abilities miss, "evading" a spell can happen to notably decrease damage taken, and we can logically assume that we can find some artifact armors and accessories that boost evasion or accuracy. Thus, Delusion becomes worth considering. Ailment-only spells are also going to be more effective than before, so you're just going to be wasting your time casting that Sleep Spell, and bosses can't just assume immunity to everything so spells like Haunt may actually come in pretty handy.

You mentioned Spiritual Recovery. What's that, exactly?

It used to be that the only way to cure Haunt was either with a djinn or by going to a sanctum. I figured if you can cure poison, why not haunt? I moved Reaper's cure from Volatile to Spiritual due to them being related in theme and now we've got three types of ailment healing to match the three types of ailments.

Is it possible to equip something to resist a specific ailment?

Honestly, that's an equipment type that was sorely missing from the original games. I figure it should make sense for you to have a helmet that gives you a huge resist to Delusion and Blind, so why not?

How to resistances work, anyways?

Four rules:

1. If an adept can cast it in their current class, they have some resistance to it.
2. If an adept can cure it in their current class, they have some resistance to it.
3. If an adept has equipment that resists it, they add that resistance.
4. The higher an adept's Luck, the higher their overall resistance is.

This means that if you can cast Attack Up buffs and a Psy Seal, that you resist Attack Down and Psy Seal. For the sake of resistances, spells like Break don't apply to debuffs, but rather to the Dispel effect that break triggers. Note that you aren't granted immunity by any one thing - you can certainly gain an effective immunity, but it's by a combination of factors.

 

If you have any questions or comments, leave them down below. Your comments are a major motivating factor for me and are what help keep me doing this, so if you want to see more be sure to tell me down below.