I know a lot of people already know this, but I'll post it here for convenience.
Skills
Skills are always going to be weaker than Magic when the Effect Points are the same. Let's say you have Magic A and Skill A. They both have 999 for Effect Points. Unless the user's Magic Attack is 0, the Magic will be more effective. This isn't to say that skills are entirely useless. In fact, skills cost HP, not MP, and since HP can go as high 99999 (though I doubt anyone's character will have that much during the real game), while MP can only reach 999. Also, you can use this to determine mor efficiently how the skill will work at with a certain amount of Effect Points. You can use it to keep healing and such in a smaller margin (instead of healing 500-1200, heal 550-750). There is a price to pay. As mention before, since skills have nothing but Effect Points to back them up, they will be less effective than Magic, but they can always fit in in their proper place, earlier levels. Another note is that since it costs HP, it could be used on the user to heal for free (though there's always Magic with 0 MP Cost). All in all, Skills aren't really best suited for attacking/damage, but will find a nice home to do other things, like disarm traps, escape dungeons, pump up stats in battle, without it garbling up MP. And since there's no way to create an Osmose spell, sacrifing HP to heal MP sounds pretty good, instead of making a Magic that costs 0 MP, which may or may not suit you. The best plus: if your monster's have defense stats (unlike mine), they will be bypassed when damage is done, so they can still fit to damage enemies. The worst thing about Skills, though, is probably because they can miss, like normal attacks, since Skills aren't supernatural, my hunch is.
Magic
Magic, on the other hand, will have the chance to be much more effective, but the cost of MP will hit hard depending on how much MP you choose to put for cost. They, unlike skills, seem fairly wasteful as extra effects, like disarming, escaping, and the like, but will fit nicely as damage and healing moves. Since their effectiveness is based on Magic Attack and Effect Points, they will mostly have higher power. Take Magic A again. Magic A has 999 Effect Points, and is an attack Magic. The user also has 999 Magic Attack. It can do roughly 2500 damage to a 0 defense monster, but unlike skills, they can't bypass defense stats, so if you face a monster with 400 Magic Defense, that stat will be calculated into damage. On the other hand, monsters that have low Mag. Def. will take much more damage than if a Skill was used. I prefer to use Magic to heal HP, while Skills heal MP, to make sure that players aren't getting free recharges. Of course, Magic, like Skills, are always going to be welcome when pumping stats in battle, but they will as usually gobble up some of that resource stat that has a max 2 digits smaller than the Skill brethren. Magic can fit easily toward game's end, where people will probably have characters reaching high MP, while in the beginning (depending on how you shaped your game), they will maybe need to sit out. At least when they enter the field, they will never miss, resulting in your MP never being wasted.
If I made any mistakes during this thread, please inform me.
Skills
Skills are always going to be weaker than Magic when the Effect Points are the same. Let's say you have Magic A and Skill A. They both have 999 for Effect Points. Unless the user's Magic Attack is 0, the Magic will be more effective. This isn't to say that skills are entirely useless. In fact, skills cost HP, not MP, and since HP can go as high 99999 (though I doubt anyone's character will have that much during the real game), while MP can only reach 999. Also, you can use this to determine mor efficiently how the skill will work at with a certain amount of Effect Points. You can use it to keep healing and such in a smaller margin (instead of healing 500-1200, heal 550-750). There is a price to pay. As mention before, since skills have nothing but Effect Points to back them up, they will be less effective than Magic, but they can always fit in in their proper place, earlier levels. Another note is that since it costs HP, it could be used on the user to heal for free (though there's always Magic with 0 MP Cost). All in all, Skills aren't really best suited for attacking/damage, but will find a nice home to do other things, like disarm traps, escape dungeons, pump up stats in battle, without it garbling up MP. And since there's no way to create an Osmose spell, sacrifing HP to heal MP sounds pretty good, instead of making a Magic that costs 0 MP, which may or may not suit you. The best plus: if your monster's have defense stats (unlike mine), they will be bypassed when damage is done, so they can still fit to damage enemies. The worst thing about Skills, though, is probably because they can miss, like normal attacks, since Skills aren't supernatural, my hunch is.
Magic
Magic, on the other hand, will have the chance to be much more effective, but the cost of MP will hit hard depending on how much MP you choose to put for cost. They, unlike skills, seem fairly wasteful as extra effects, like disarming, escaping, and the like, but will fit nicely as damage and healing moves. Since their effectiveness is based on Magic Attack and Effect Points, they will mostly have higher power. Take Magic A again. Magic A has 999 Effect Points, and is an attack Magic. The user also has 999 Magic Attack. It can do roughly 2500 damage to a 0 defense monster, but unlike skills, they can't bypass defense stats, so if you face a monster with 400 Magic Defense, that stat will be calculated into damage. On the other hand, monsters that have low Mag. Def. will take much more damage than if a Skill was used. I prefer to use Magic to heal HP, while Skills heal MP, to make sure that players aren't getting free recharges. Of course, Magic, like Skills, are always going to be welcome when pumping stats in battle, but they will as usually gobble up some of that resource stat that has a max 2 digits smaller than the Skill brethren. Magic can fit easily toward game's end, where people will probably have characters reaching high MP, while in the beginning (depending on how you shaped your game), they will maybe need to sit out. At least when they enter the field, they will never miss, resulting in your MP never being wasted.
If I made any mistakes during this thread, please inform me.
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