Everlong

author=DJC
In response to a last used skill of type Life, the Blob either casts Reversal, Pentagram, or Death. Players could actually try to exploit this counter by intentionally casting Life spells when HP is low so Reversal heals, but it's 1 /3 chance and Fatal protection is required.

author=DJC
In response to a last used skill of type Summon, the Blob either casts Vulnerability, Demolish, Backfire, Disaster, or Pharaoh's Revenge. Therefore, using ANY summon spell by Vixen or Drakeor is a huge gamble best avoided.

author=DJC
Otherwise, the Blob only casts Backfire every 72x+12 turns (after HP affecting skill turn followed by Swallow), and Reversal every 36x+24 turns (one turn after Ultima followed by Swallow). That's still a really long pattern to deal with, but the complexity of the Blob battle is a huge outlier even among optional bosses.
It's the only enemy that always hits you with Backfire or Demolish three times, which is a guaranteed wipe without all four heroes alive. I'm going to change Backfire to two hits since it's part of the pattern and unavoidable.

author=DJC
The Blob's Overpower damage is 4/5 of maximum HP prior to reduction, but combined with Sammy's poor equipment selection for boosting defense and therefore lowering the damage, he's a hero that's going to suffer from this skill.

author=DJC
Physical or elemental attacks are probably a better choice against the Blob considering the skills this causes the enemy to then use. With the right equipment and spells, you can make the Blob heal you frequently with it's random attacks. Example: Drakeor with Water protect armor + casting Aura, or White Wizard spell Water Shell.

author=DJC
If players think Reversal is too punishing a skill, I'm open to changing it's effect to reducing HP to 1 instead of instant death when the target has full health. Or perhaps I'll make that change only for Default and Easy difficulty levels.

author=DJC
You're correct about the Golem Gear. Terror is the last condition on the list, so I just failed to check it along with everything else. I'll correct this bug in the next update, thanks! Let me know if you catch any other errors

author=DJC
Have fun writing your guide, I'm sure a current version would be much appreciated by other players. I hopefully won't implement any new major overhauls that will eventually make it obsolete similar to a few past efforts.

author=DJC
These attacks have different likelihoods, but the regular attack is tied for most likely with 3 other skills. This also only accounts for the Blob's random turns. The boss pattern takes priority. The Blob only responds to the LAST action type before it takes a turn. If you attack with one hero, but then cast a spell with another, only the spell counts.

author=DJC
There's actually already a skill that trades HP and AP - Swap. Bosses sometimes employ this skill with AP drainage beforehand. Low or extinguished AP is swapped for HP. An AP of zero thus results in a dead target. Usually this is a single or double hit skill, but I think the Uber Daemon targets the entire party after casting Blackout for instant defeat unless the player restores AP between turns.

author=DJC
Power Duel compares the caster's Attack against the target's value, much like Psi Duel with the Magic statistic. Damage is based on the difference, multiplied by a fixed fraction that varies by monster. If your hero's Attack is higher, the monster is damaged. This makes inflicting Atrophy a priority, to halve the foe's Attack value. Caster heroes can still achieve respectable Attack when dual wielding or enchanted with Might.

author=DJC
I'm happy to answer your questions, and will do so to the best of my ability (and memory)!

author=DJC
My only idea was yet another skill tier, where reborn casters get a boosted damage version for each spell. That's just a static increase, however, which won't grow with the hero's Magic.

author=DJC
By the way, which story scenes do you think could use a rewrite the most? I was thinking about addressing the most egregious of these in the next update if I find the time.

author=DJC
If the last skill used against the Blob is type Magic (non-elemental): Plasma, Solar Beam, Dissolve, Mana Font, Exploder, Telekenesis, Quasar, Arcane Blast, Magnetron, Meteor, Ultima, and Caster's Folly. If the player equips Magic resistant armor, or casts the spell Shell, damage from these skills could be mitigated. No conditions to worry about either, and mostly single target

author=DJC
Currently Captain Jack chests only reward GP, but you raise a good point. It won't be difficult to include additional non-monetary treasures, similar to Memory Beacon hunting with Peregrine.

author=DJC
I have an idea, however, that might work to upgrade the drops, but it will require some testing to make sure the DynRPG hack functions correctly.

author=DJC
Fungus Stump- several mushroom enemies, common to Meridion Caverns, Eridwell's Refuge, Nemus Aevum.
Ivory Horn - Meridion Caverns, enemy Hybrid.
Jelly Glob - Jellyfish in Progidium Nidus, bonus dungeon below Solus Insula, only accessible once Atlantis has risen.
Shark Fin - ship graveyard Sepulcrum Profundus, Shark enemy. Or find them in the beach hunting grounds.

author=DJC
I did some testing yesterday to confirm the game's current algorithm setup. For this bonus tier, I can make spells gain extra damage from the hero's Magic attribute while also ignoring the reduction from the target's Magic. This will help make spells more viable against bosses and super monsters.

author=DJC
Frankly, Flidais is an unnecessary battle that has no plot significance and was added so the dungeon has a boss. I have a few ideas to change her motivations while adding some backstory about the dying of the land and the extinction of her kind in the war of the legendary heroes.

author=DJC
This is a new scene not necessarily meant to channel any prior works, but I can definitely understand any parallels. It replaced an old speech aboard the Inceptum after the failure at Auctus. I'll try to differentiate the scenes from when the artifacts are stolen to this moment, excising redundant dialog.

author=DJC
Glen had a further arc with his lost love, more flashbacks, dialog with Meredith during their scenario, receiving a sapling at the Dreaming Forest to plant at Kathryn's grave. Sammy's backstory would elaborate upon the Tyr-Anox occupation of Eridwell, what happened to his master and other students from the forest monastery, with a cleansing of his shame in the ruins of Eridwell Castle. Meredith's mother had dementia and lived in a sanitarium. Her wizard mentor would link her parentage to a dark past. These are a few examples, but I don't have the time to implement the scenarios and integrate them into the existing plot frame.

author=DJC
That's actually a difficult quest to complete since it's easy to forget or miss talking to the principal characters. It's the only quest that cannot be completed later. I'm not a fan of locking unique rewards behind plot dependent actions. I will change the reward, but will have to consider a suitable replacement. Perhaps early access to a Soul Seal.

author=DJC
Aegir is a boss I'm frequently asked to nerf by players. Currently, his HP is not that high above Liquid Flame or Dokkalfar, but perhaps I should lower their totals across the board slightly. Aegir's weakness to Bolt elemental attacks can be exploited to great effect with Glen's Thunder Slash and Vetu's magic if the player then follows with a low damage hit (ex: physical attack by Meredith) to mitigate the counter skill Retaliate. Maybe it's too early in the game for complex strategy.

author=DJC
If your levels changed exactly after using the Stone Knight to heal for free, there must be an error in the Story Mode level adjustment. What levels were your heroes prior to using the Stone Knight? Were you actually playing in Story Mode? Level 95 is the correct value heroes should adjust to in the second half of Nemus Aevum.

author=DJC
I think there's 40+ locations, I have them in a spreadsheet along with Memory Beacon locations and anything else included in the Finder Display visual.

author=DJC
Once the player starts using the rebirth mechanic to gain levels past the normal limit, it's assumed this difficulty option will be turned on, hopefully restoring some challenge to these types of super enemies.

author=DJC
The upgraded drop mechanic will only work for monsters encountered solo or with others of the same type, but this includes most foes I intend to adjust. Improved drops will probably consist of stat boosters and powerful medicine, but I might sneak some ores or other rarities in there with a low percentage to be selected as the item.

author=DJC
The reading and exposition is far too excessive. I totally understand and forgive players who run out of patience and skip through the dialog. I'm still (pleasantly) surprised when some players talk about how seriously they considered the plot and characters. The JRPG cliches used to be much more numerous, but there's still a number produced by lazy or rushed development. Definitely breaks the narrative when juxtaposed with newer dialog and scenes. Fixing the Flidais and Return to Auctus scenes is much more realistic a goal than inserting the lost character arcs.

author=DJC
There's plenty of Soul Seal items, and ways to acquire them. This would provide the item earlier, making battles against condition heavy foes easier, but not reducing the challenge to trivial. I was more concerned if the reward was enough motivation for a tedious quest.

author=DJC
The Aegir battle is pretty early in the game to have Fusion, so I wouldn't expect most players to have access to that spell, but it's definitely superior as a non-elemental spell unlikely to trigger counter attacks.

author=DJC
Your heroes were definitely underleveled, but 95 is the upper adjust limit for Nemus Aevum. I checked the code and the logic is sound, but it's possible some other script is operating in parallel and causing issues. I made some modifications to prevent this, but if you have a save file from just before this error occurred, that would be extremely helpful in ensuring the error is eliminated. Otherwise, I'll have to try and recreate it.

author=DJC
I will be on vacation until late next Sunday and unable to respond to players or continue working on the next update until then, but keep gathering more bugs and suggestions to post later! It's a tremendous help!