VERSALIA'S PROFILE

And FYI, your original method probably doesn't require a switch to be turned on to call another event; simply call a Common Event.

author=Pladough
That being said, there's nothing wrong with having a dedicated healer. If someone has to sacrifice their turn, it might as well be the priest or the doctor of the group. Having a dedicated healer just makes things simpler for everyone.

This is kind of dumb. Yes, in order to heal, someone's turn must be used, but in the scenario where you have no dedicated healer, and/or the only healing available is through items, it actually creates more strategy: WHOSE turn do you sacrifice when someone is NOT your obvious heal-slave, or in a boss fight where everyone is equally important? You need to have a reason to use different characters dynamically.

author=Pladough
With a dedicated healer, you told me that there's no strategy involved. When there's strategy involved, it's better to put in more strategy? I don't think players like being tested too much.

The game becomes easy when party members can do everything. It's also hard to design and balance battles to maintain a good level of difficulty. Having a dedicated healer gives you a leg up on how a player is going to react and what actions they're going to take based on what you have designed.

Who ever said that all your characters can do everything equally well? I guess if you're not that good at balancing battles, being able to predict which character is used for what role consistently would be a good crutch, but it can oversimplify things.

I'll give you an example of how a character can be a mixed physical/magical offense unit and still have healing options. Check out V&V's blogs for some skills that illustrate perfectly how someone who is not a dedicated healer can be given HP-restoring skills. Here's an example from my game, in which there is a girl with equal ability in Sword skill (costs HP) and Water spells:
Lifespring - For 3 rounds, whenever you deal Water damage, you will regain HP.
Mists of Avalon - For the rest of the battle, if an attack that costs HP misses, that HP is refunded.

She doesn't get any direct healing spells, but she has ways of regaining HP. Those spells don't cost MP either, they're a separate skill currency (something like Rage).

author=LockeZ

author=Versalia
something like Empowerment (which I can use every single battle, and have no reason NOT to use every single battle) completely devalues the weaker Victory Blow.

Oh, you're fully expected to use Empowerment in most battles, once you learn it. The strategy will be in choosing when to use it. If you need to use any buffs or items for the next three rounds, it's going to lower your overall damage output, even if it saves you MP.

Okay, but, why use Victory Blow then? I can use Empowerment on the very first round of the next fight I get into, and use the 0 MP cost to throw out all my most powerful moves D: It's only really strategically important not to waste it in a boss battle... but that's okay I suppose.

I support changes to the Ebon Gambit ability but maybe it should have a dichotomy of punishment/reward. If it kills them you gain X awesome thing; if it doesn't they have +50% defense for a round or three

I have a few fundamental issues here. Ebon Gambit is majorly flawed. It's an attack that deals quite a bit of damage, but punishes you for not waiting until the last possible moment to use the ability. Compare to Victory Blow, which deals very little damage, but rewards you for waiting until the last possible moment to use the ability - V.Blow is done properly. You should have a reward incentive as to which finishing blow to choose. Ebon Gambit offers nothing except possibly ending the fight a bit faster. I appreciate the idea of a gamble, but that's not really a gamble; it's "this attack kills them or you get punished." Not only that, but something like Empowerment (which I can use every single battle, and have no reason NOT to use every single battle) completely devalues the weaker Victory Blow.

Also this looks almost exactly like V&V's blog

re:FF12

yes, because allowing you to build AI for your party members to not be standing around like assholes while you hit pause every 2 seconds to give orders is 'severely lazy'