Preview: Nightsea Magic

Nightsea magic is the next school of magic being added to the game! This school is more defensive, but also has pretty high burst damage, and those bursts can come quicker than a lot of other burst-y schools (though I wouldn't say it's quick enough to be classed as sustain damage). 

I'm proud of how this one turned out. It feels very different from other schools both aesthetically and in terms of gameplay! Please note that everything presented below is still potentially subject to change.

Overview

A spell school with a focus on defensive play. In exchange for elevated MP costs, the caster gains the ability to inflict high levels of madness quickly to prevent enemies from acting, with opportunities for burst damage as well. Pairs well with lunar magic for high damage, or sky magic for easier MP management.

• Astral Fringe: Deals moderate magic damage and inflicts 20 madness stacks if none are otherwise present on the target. If there are madness stacks already present or if it's nighttime, this spell additionally inflicts 3 eclipse stacks. Base MP Cost: 83

• Stellar Tide: Deals moderate magic damage and grants 3-6 seafoam stacks to the caster. If the caster already has seafoam stacks, this spell grants 3 additional stacks. If it's nighttime, this spell grants double the number of seafoam stacks. Base MP Cost: 81

• Starsea Mirror: Deals heavy magic damage. Consumes the madness stacks on the target to deal bonus damage, then grants the caster half the stacks consumed as eclipse stacks. Damage is further enhanced at nighttime. Base MP Cost: 136

Aura: Seafoam Significantly increases the MP cost of most spells and causes magic damage from the caster to additionally inflict a number stacks of madness; both of these effects scale with the number of seafoam stacks present on the caster. MP spent by the caster while under the effect of the seafoam aura is converted into stacks of the eclipse aura.

Aura: Eclipse When targeted by an attack, all of the caster's eclipse stacks are consumed and the attacker gains a number of madness stacks equal to half the number of consumed eclipse stacks.

Expertise Ranks

• Rank 1: When the caster's eclipse stacks are converted to madness stacks on a target, the caster regenerates a small amount of MP for every eclipse stack consumed.

• Rank 2: When the eclipse aura would cause the madness stacks on a target to exceed 99, the stacks over 99 are converted to seafoam stacks on the caster.

• Rank 3: When Iris has at least one seafoam stack and the enemy has at least one madness stack, Iris can perform counterspells as though the target was under the effect of the sanction aura.

Gameplay and Design

Seafoam and Eclipse 

Nightsea magic allows you to stack the seafoam aura on yourself, which increases the MP cost of all of your own spells, but converts your spent MP into stacks of the eclipse aura, and also passively generates stacks of this aura at the end of the round. 

When under the effect of the eclipse aura, if you are targeted by an enemy attack (you do not need to be hit by it), you'll automatically consume all eclipse stacks and place half that number of madness stacks on the target. 

Nightsea Magic Damage Cycle 

Casting the spell Starsea Mirror will deal heavy magic damage enhanced by consuming the madness stacks on the enemy, then refund you half the number of madness stacks back as eclipse stacks. 

First, cast Astral Fringe to place some starting stacks of madness on the enemy. Then cast Stellar Tide once or twice to gain some seafoam stacks. At this point, the seafoam stacks will do the work themselves to generate eclipse and madness. You can help them along with more casts of Astral Fringe or Stellar Tide, or switch to casting another school of magic, like lunar magic to build madness and speed up the damage cycle, or sky magic to help offset the effect of the seafoam aura. 

Once the enemy has sufficient madness stacks, cast Starsea Mirror to deal heavy damage, refund some of your eclipse stacks, and start the damage cycle again with a head-start. Because of the refund of eclipse stacks, subsequent cycles are quicker, making nightsea magic suitable for long fights in spite of mostly being oriented around big bursts of damage.

Nightsea Magic Utility 

If you're using another school of magic for damage, weaving in enough nightsea magic to maintain a healthy supply of eclipse stacks can allow you to generate madness to control enemies, though you'll have to contend with the increased MP costs from the seafoam aura. 

Still this is a powerful way to more passively generate madness than lunar magic, so may be more effective for spell schools that require a lot of setup to deal damage, like dryad magic, and can obviously also be used to support lunar magic. 

Seafoam stacks also can allow you to spend MP more rapidly, which may be beneficial when paired with certain future mantra effects, or for purposefully triggering manableed. 

Field Uses of Nightsea Magic

Once you acquire nightsea magic, you'll gain the ability to spoend some MP to summon the dark primordial waters of the starsea to...wash the nut off yourself at any time! What an appropriate use of a primal cosmic force.

I'm also experimenting with an ability that may allow the player to temporarily blot out the sun by summoning the starsea in a small area for one time period, which would functionally make that area "nighttime" until the effect ends, but I didn't design the day/night cycle with this idea in mind, so it may take some time to implement if I do go with this.

I might also make it so you can summon some magical clothing made out of the pretty, star-filled purple water similar to how the dryad vestments work, but this one will be more like an elegant (if a bit see-through) ballroom dress.