Shining Force III RPG System Pages - Weapon Skills
Like in Shining Force III, this system employs the use of weapon skills. This is where as they use a particular type of weapon, they gain points and eventually, levels of proficiency in it. Gaining levels in this way increases a character's overall attack power and available critical hits, and in the case
of spellcasters, their magic becomes more powerful.
Weapon skill points are gained when you inflict damage to an enemy. The amount of points are determined by the the percentage damage caused relative to the target's maximum hit points.
Successfully casting Confuse, Slow, Sleep or Weaken on an enemy counts as a melee attack, and will grant a gain of 1 weapon skill point.
Weapon Skill Milestones
Level 1 is reached at 100 points
Level 2 is reached at 200 points. This is the limit cap for unpromoted characters.
Level 3 is reached at 320 points.
Weapon Skill Bonuses
Quality
Weapon Bonuses
Magic Bonuses
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
Level 1
Level 2
Level 3
A
5
9
15
3
6
12
B
4
7
11
3
5
8
C
3
6
9
2
4
7
Quality refers to either an Attack Up or Magic Up statistic that each weapon present in the game system has. They can be found, along with the other details weapons have at Jumesyn's Shining Force III website.
The Weapon Advantage System
Much like in the Fire Emblem games, the Shining Force III system employs a gameplay style where particular weapons are strong against some kinds of weapons and weak against other kinds. Weapons can also be more effective than usual again specific kinds of targets. In this manner, weapons are said to have a 'class' and targets are said to have an 'attriubte'. The class a weapon has can be found in its description.
Note: Some classes (such as rangers) can equip more than one type of weapon class, namely swords, polearms and axes. Therefore, it is the currently equipped weapon that determines the weapon class a character currently has. In a similar fashion, some characters can have more than a single attribute. For example, Lichs are both flying and evil!
Weapon Effectiveness
Weapon Class
Effective Against
Sword
Axe class
Axe
Polearm class
Polearm
Sword class
Arrow
Flying attribute
Holy
Evil attribute
Magic
Monster attribute
Disrupt
Animated attribute
Vandal
Vandal attribute
Notice that Disrupt has replaced the Demon property.
• Magic: strong against living magic creatures/monsters like griffins, cerberus, dragons, etc.
• Holy: strong against evil/darkness embodied (often necrotic) creatures like skeletons, liches, cult peoples, etc.
• Disrupt: strong against animated magic creatures or creatures possessed by magic like golems, liches, skull mage, etc.
Weapon Properties
A property is, in essence, a secondary class some weapons have. Sometimes this is in addition to the original class and other times it overwrites the original class. Whichever it is, it will be listed in the weapon's description. An example is the Arrow Axe, which has an axe class and an arrow property. As such, it has an advantage against polearm classes and flying attributes, and is weak against the sword class only.
Bonuses and Penalties of a Weapon Advantage or Weakness
If a character attacks a target and they have a weapon advantage over them, they gain the following bonuses against that target:
+3 damage if they have no weapon skill level.
+5 damage if they have a level 1 weapon skill.
+7 damage if they have a level 2 weapon skill.
+10 damage if they have a level 3 weapon skill.
+25% critical hit chance.
If a character attacks a target that they have a weapon class weakness to, their opponent gains the following bonuses against them:
+10% evade chance and a +20% counter chance.
