The New Yonder of Disease (Part 1: Perks)

(+Affinities!)

Hello there~

I've decided to skip Madeline for now because I'm still waiting on some assets for her. So let's jump straight into the Princess of Blight and we can return to our Lady later on.

Starting with Narcissa's perks, the Blight playstyle revolves around heavy enemy debuffs through Poison (predictably). Poison isn't a very damaging DoT, but applies debuffs to enemy damage and (to a lesser extend) accuracy. Stacking Poisons on the enemy will progressively make them less and less threatening, missing their attacks or weakening them sufficiently when they do hit. When combined with the Dodge focus of the perk tree, it actually gives you a fair bit of survivability, which is needed because Blight doesn't offer much in defensive tools otherwise. The term here would be "glass cannon", but you aren't much of a cannon; instead of singular overpowered attacks, you have possibly the highest Feral Instinct stat in the game, which eventually allows for 5+ actions per turn. Your damage with the Claw (Narcissa's preferred weapon) is very low in pure numbers but - depending on your perks - can keep piling Poison stacks with multiple actions per turn, reducing enemy stats to the minimum and burying them under neverending DoTs. Meanwhile, your high Dodge and their reduced Accuracy make them miss half of their attacks when their turn does arrive.

The playstyle reflects Narcissa's view on pain and suffering. Contrary to someone like Katrina who enjoys more brute-ish and direct methods of damage which usually end fast and bloody, Narcissa considers agony almost sacred and methodically crafts afflictions and ailments that last as long as possible, while keeping the carrier alive to maximise pain. Combat with the Blight playstyle will feel fast and furious with multiple actions and combos per turn, but in its root will be slow and methodical with inflicting virus and disease on your enemy and looking while it slowly eats them from inside out.

In other news, the Affinity system is also ready. Affinities are gained (or lost) through Devotion and/or perks. Each Affinity is tied to its Domina, changes your Damage Type to hers, and gives you small buffs/debuffs thematic to her realm and personality. Devoting yourself to a Domina and tying your soul to her will actively affect your strengths and weaknesses. You may also have a Sub-Affinity at the same time, which doesn't require Devotion, and is usually gained by items or plot decisions. Sub-Affinities are identical in effect to full Affinities, but weaker. Dominas may recognize when you have a Sub-Affinity that aligns to them, but they will view this as only a partial alignment on your part instead of full devotion. The Affinities (and their Dominas) are:

• Katrina: Blood

• Madeline: Nature

• Narcissa: Blight

• Mary: Abyssal

• Rosita: Nurture

• Franziska: Chaos

• Twins: Elemental

• Raa: Arcane

• Hora: Abyssal

• Ruby: Infernal

• Freya: Wild

• Lillith: Corruption

• Llavanya: Dawn

• Selena: Abyssal

This system basically replaces the standard elements of Fire/Thunder/Dark/Light etc. I have also gone ahead and renamed the perk trees to the Affinities instead of the Dominas' names ("Aspect of Blood" instead of "Aspect of Katrina"), because all perk trees will be available from the start (before the MC gets to meet the respective Dominas) and it makes more sense to align to a concept than someone you haven't met yet. Devotion Perks are still locked behind Devotion (enslavement) though; this means that Devotion perks for Ruby+ will be unlockable very late in the game, and thus I am making them sufficiently stronger.

Also adding the list of the full Stats available in the game now, previously posted on Discord.

That's all for now. Hoping to showcase Narcissa's maps next. Cheers!