Dragon Updates?

[Nayru Al-Saiduq]

While dragons aren't in a bad spot powerwise by any means, there's a lot about them that is pretty clunky - some problems we've never really been able to fix previously, and some issues that came up after past changes. Chief among them is awkward progression for both castes and a lack of a fleshed out identity for manaketes, but there are also some... what could charitably be termed 'abusive edge cases' that could use fixes. I'd also like to see a lot more clarity in what dragons in general and various upgrades actually DO - the current rule topic is woefully lacking in some regards. I remember how much it sucked ass to play a nub dragon in the days of yore back when there were almost no real guidelines on the subject, and while things are a lot better now, I think we can still look to improve.

I would like to note that these changes, as a whole, ARE NOT meant as a request to buff dragons - and in fact are almost all nerfs for Dragon PCs (including Nayru) and a mix of buffs and nerfs for Manaketes; they lose a level of endgame range and physical power in return for a better earlygame by far. I realize that as 'dedicated dragon chick' my objectivity may be called into question - but I believe that most of the changes stand on their own as being reasonable, and the number of what are effectively nerfs (albeit mostly minor) would make it very, very hard to say that I'm just looking for dragons/Dragons to get stronger. I have some other future ideas for similar buff+nerf combos but for now I'd just like to get the basics out of the way.

If or when any of this gets accepted, I also demand "offer" to rewrite the dragon topic for overall clarity, both existing stuff and shiny versions of accepted suggestions. PLEASE GOD LET ME HAVE THIS actually even if you shut down all of these suggestions can you still let me rewrite it? Pretty please with hookers on top?

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Anyways first of all, I'd like to talk general, non-caste-specific changes. I'll summarize each one and then explain my reasoning in detail.

1. Rename Dragon class to something else. Drake, Behemoth, Tianlong, Coatl, Ryu/Ryuu, Tarrasque, Wyrm, Leviathan, and Tarragon come to mind. As-is, we have Dragon the class/caste and dragon the species. This is both very f**k**g confusing for newer players and kinda makes Manaketes the bitch caste. It's cool (and expected) if IC humans only know the name dragon, but OOC players and IC dragons/manaketes should know the difference. I will continue to use the Dragon/Manakete caste split for this topic, but pls people we can do better. Alternatively we could always rename the species and have Dragon be the class name, but EVERYONE knows dragons as dragons so I don't think it'd work in setting.

2. Prohibit fullshift entirely until 100 posts. Yes, this kinda sucks/is a nerf, but it also forces people to commit to the RP aspect of things and weeds out Draxes, and allows 100 posts to be a huge, meaningful milestone that suddenly unlocks a METAL AS HELL new approach to combat in both forms. Much like prepromotes, this could potentially be waived for established players with good reason (maybe dragon alts? idk, that seems a bit self serving currently)

3. SEVERE limits on dragon form size - I recommend a 5, maybe as high as 8, meter height cap that ignores wings and length. In all the GBA FE art I could find, dragons are only about 2-3 times a human's height. See this Scouring image and Myrrh transforming, as well as Dracozombies for examples of of those numbers - and note that the Scouring image is of a rearing up dragon to boot and appears to be closer to 2x on all fours. Even the final boss of FE7 is only roughly 3x a character's height. The War Dragons and the Demon Dragon herself from FE6, video here, are ~1.8-2x human height (WD) and ~4x height (demon dragon, most powerful/largest GBA dragon ever). Given that men are ~1.7 meters on average, that gives us ~3.4-5.1 meters or approximately 11-17 feet tall, with one exception being the demon dragon herself at ~7 meters/23 feet, while some (ex. Fae here) appear to only be about 10-14 feet comparatively given that they're friggin' tiny so being 3x their size isn't the same as being 3x an average adult male. ~4 feet for Fae/Myrrh puts their dragon forms as low as ~2.5 meters/8 feet for Myrrh and roughly 3.5 meters/12 feet for the bipedal Fae.

The whole thingy measuring competition of dragons getting bigger and bigger is ridiculous - we put limits on Taguel to avoid it, we can do the same to dragons. Grima sized dragons is a cool concept but completely noncanon for Elibe. You can still be f**k**g scary despite only being 3x human height, Nayru herself was only ever really intended to be about 4-5 meters tall transformed and aint nobody fucks with her regardless. Supersized dragons can also pretty much ignore dragonslayer weapons - a 1 meter blade is only roughly equivalent to a literal pinprick to a 50 meter dragon. I'm not saying dragons should just get dunked on by any fool who spent 760 gold on a Wyrmslayer - when you have diamond hard plating, super strength, and all sorts of elemental BS, a Divine Dragon like Nayru is still going to be incredibly hard to put down. But it's kinda silly to have the average size literally be four times what it is in the games for absolutely no reason.

4. Possible time limits or repercussions for dragon mode? I don't really see this going over well with existing dragons especially and I'm not super attached to it myself, but it has been a theme throughout the games and is the ONE downside of moving away from limited-use stones - everyone just transforms forever with the only downside being MAYBE NPCs finding out. Maybe the magic-lean air of Elibe constantly leeches magic causing exhaustion over time. Maybe Dragon form isn't super limited, but de-transforming leads to exhaustion and locks dragon form for a while? Perhaps spending too long in dragon mode and bestial instincts begin to take over the mind? I don't mean this as a major nerf, more an RP aid than anything, but I do kinda feel like it should be more of a nuke button rather than something you casually do. At the risk of sounding like I just want to f**k everyone but Nayru, Divine Dragons could potentially have infinite time (that used to be their 500 upgrade after all) as a reward for sticking with the character that long, or even have it be a 750 post upgrade to REALLY drive home the idea that dragons start off slow and take forever to scale to max.

5. Can we just reduce or remove the dragon alt requirements? The existing one was aimed specifically at me, and not in a good way, and I don't think other people deserve to suffer for it. I don't wanna see anyone with 15 crappy dragon alts either, but we have a grand total of 3 dragons+manaketes ever over 200 posts, 6 in the history of the site that got past 100 posts, I think 100 posts would be fine. Won't effect me anyways considering Nayru herself could fuel two more dragon alts under current rules.

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Now, for the individual castes...

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Dragons are the punchy caste - physical brutes with limited ranged ability who channel their power to turn into Goku, and then eventually turn into Broly. A more apt comparison could be Fairy Tail's Dragonslayer magic - usage of your element mostly for melee enhancement and linear/limited short to midrange offense. By and large, the current class fits the fantasy pretty well so I don't want to add/remove powers much, but there's a desperate need for clarity in some of them and frankly I feel like halfshift progression is a little awkward - 250 posts is gigantic, 500 has nothing. So the changelog is basically...

• Moved fullshift dragon 100 post element upgrade to 250
• Split 250 post halfshift upgrade into 250/500 upgrades
• Added cooldowns to breath attacks in both forms
• Added more clarity and examples to existing powers
• Made the 500 post storm thing more clearly a (very cool) downside - with great power comes GREAT responsibility
• Earth dragons have no breath attack at all, but superior durability.
  

While somewhat implied by the current topic, I'd also like to clarify that magic and dragonslaying weapons can penetrate their hides far more easily than other weapons, but natural durability gives them good staying power nonetheless. So dragons don't have a WEAKNESS per se, you can still tank a Volcanon nuke to the gut, but a barrage of those will still put you down a hell of a lot faster than an Iron Sword.

Abilities

0 posts
Human

• Minimal halfshift (hardened skin that can resist basic weapons/spells, peak human strength, but no superpowers)

Dragon

• Can transform into full dragon form for 1 post and launch a weak, short-range breath attack, but doing so ends the transformation immediately

100 posts
Human

• Moderate halfshift - clear draconic/unnatural attributes like scales, reptilian eyes, sharp fangs, pointed ears, and similarly obvious effects, but in return you wield strength far beyond mortal ken
  

Dragon

• Can transform for up to 3 posts into a durable dragon form with a powerful but linear breath attack that can be used once per transform

250 posts
Human

• Halfshift mastery; can transform limbs entirely for unbelievable strength and durability, but this induces massive changes like completely scale-covered arms, glowing tattoos in the pattern of scales covering entire limbs or full body, and other blatantly draconic shifts.
• Gain the ability to physically conduct/extrude their element in human form, but not expel it (flame kick, thunder punch)
• Can launch a breath attack in human form once per page

Dragon

• Dragon form can now emit its element within a very short range (melee-range bursts or just being on fire, not giant nova)
• Transformation lasts up to 5 posts

500 posts
Human

• Can expel element short distances in human form in linear bursts and novas (shoryuken/flame kick/ice nova/hadouken, but not kamehameha/spirit bomb, and no utility/control a la tomes)
• Can use a powerful breath attack up to twice per page

Dragon

• Gains diamond-hard plating that can ablate most attacks, and strength that can casually rend castle walls
• Power so vast it bleeds out into the world around them, affecting nearby weather. The dragon has minimal control over the effect and CANNOT turn it off.
• Transformation is now unlimited

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Manaketes have always been the more magey caste since inception, but do kind of a weird job of it - they're basically worse Dragons until 250 and then hilariously overpowered even by old Mage standards at 500 since they have basically no limits at all. This is more of a major rework than a minor rebalance a la Dragons, intended to solidify the Manakete caste's slot as a mix of basically dragon and mage, but with significant downsides to each - you don't get to punch anywhere near as hard as a Dragon or take half as many hits, and you have none of the utility, range, staff access, or subtlety of a Sage, and even at your best only hit a bit harder. In return, you can do a bit of both... and you don't get hunted down by Etruria every time you do anything in human form. The latter may be more useful than even the former. Overall more of an Avatar vibe of short to midrange magic, with reasonable melee but a focus on magic. I won't list a full changelog cuz it'd be too big, but one thing is worth noting...

• Earth Manaketes don't have a breath attack, but channel their power through the earth to shape walls and projectiles a la Gaea magic / Earthbender stuff. LOOK WE ALL KNOW BREATHING ROCKS IS STUPID, LET'S JUST ADMIT IT AND MOVE ON.

While they have no specific weaknesses save to dragonslayer weapons, mediocre durability ensures that both weapons and magic are effective on them in both forms, and dragonslayer weapons in particular will **** them up pretty fast.

Abilities
0 posts
Human

• Can use a weak breath attack roughly on par with beginner-level magic, but cannot manipulate their element otherwise beyond party tricks
  

Manakete

• Can transform into a weak draconic form for 1 post, gaining the ability to launch a weak, short-to-mid range breath attack that immediately breaks the transformation

100 posts
Human

• Beginner halfshift (a la 0 post dragon). Using this ability reduces the range of your magic due to the shared power source.
• Can now create and manipulate the equivalent of Basic level magic within their immediate vicinity
  

Manakete

• Can transform into an offensive draconic form for 3 posts, gaining a powerful breath attack that can be used once. Only minor durability is granted the transformation.
• Gain the ability to manipulate your element within a short range

250 posts
Human

• Can now manipulate their element freely within a short range
• Launch powerful breath attacks on a 4-post cooldown

Manakete

• Manipulate their element with power akin to Advanced magic within a medium range around them
• Can launch powerful breath attacks on 2-post cooldown

500 posts
Human

• Can now generate extremely powerful magic at medium range, matching and exceeding Advanced magic in power albeit lacking its range and utility
• Breath is now on a 2-turn cooldown

Manakete

• Divine Manaketes generate unfathomable quantities of raw elemental essence that warps the weather in their vicinity, causing freak firestorms, tornadoes, blizzards, etc.
• Can control these environmental effects at will and use them offensively
• Refined self-control also allows Manaketes to quell these storms, but any use of offensive magic causes them to rapidly resurge.