Skills

[Duel]

Never used them so...

Special attacks(depletes HP) don't seem to appear in the player's Special Attack menu after setting them to a level higher then 0 in the Skills menu. Why is that?

[Draygone]

As far as I know, that's actually levels gained while you were in that skill, which is why they're listed as +0, +1, etc. instead of just 0, 1, etc..

So, if there's a special attack learned at +0, the character should learn it immediately upon equipping the skill. After gaining 1 level with that skill, the character should should learn the special attack at +1. And so forth.

RPG Maker keeps track of how far characters have progressed through skills, too. So if you gain three levels in a skill, swap to another skill, and come back later, you won't be back at +0, you'll continue from where you left off at +3.

RPG Maker's skill system is probably the most refined part of the entire tool. Kind of a shame that it doesn't seem to get much use. Heck, even I'm not using it to its full potential.

[orius]

Yeah, you have to gain levels for them to show up. So a level +2 Special ability under a skill is gained after the character gets the skill then gains two levels.

Personally, I find the whole magic/Special ability divide in RPG Maker to be damn frustrating. Magic is given to the characters individually as they level, but special abilities require skills. Personally, I dislike that restriction, I'd rather be able to assign either magic or special abilities to a skill level so the player could make choices about character building instead of just having the characters get the same spells every level. It doesn't make as much difference with stuff only used in combat, but you can't use special abilities outside combat, so healing ones are less useful, and you can't do stuff like teleporting. You can actually set up a special ability that teleports, but the palyer will never be able to use it.

[Duel]

I apologize for reviving this thread.

The "No Skill" in the game menu bothers me a little, if I were to create a skill and not edit the stats in it, would I be able to attach it to a party member without it changing the character's base stats? I'm thinking yes, but I just need someone to confirm this.

[Draygone]

Yes. But are you planning on having skills in your game? If not, you could always hide it by turning skills off in an event.