Yeah, that's the difficult part of deciding on the two. It is easier to balance, that's for sure, but making sure they appear when they won't break the game is another thing. The POSSIBLE earliest you could obtain them (since the HP/MP boosts are only on accessories) are from the SDM at the start of beta2 after you get Marisa back, since there's a +10% Max HP, +10% Max MP, and a +20% Max HP/MP accessory in that hidden room. The next chance is possibly after getting Nitori (very unlikely since it takes a lot to get all the materials), and then after that the next chance is at Road of Reconsideration. After I get the coding fixed up, then I'll see about whether or not to go with fixed, %, or both.
For the record, if you're curious, the "fixed" values would be +500 HP on the first +HP accessory, up to +2500 on the highest one, +20 MP on first +MP accessory, up to +100 on final one, and then +250 HP/+10 MP on first +HP/MP accessory, up to +1250 HP/+50 MP on the last one (if it has 5, which I don't think it does).
On that note, I forgot that I needed one more skill for Hope's version of Death's skillset. Whoops! I need to do that before I continue on with the game. On that note, I ALSO need to update Hope's version of Pestilence's skillset. So here's what I have for each of those:
For Death:
*Extinction: Costs 100% MP. Kills all enemies (excluding bosses) and ignores resistances, kills all allies, and leaves Hope at 1 HP.
*Doomja: Inflicts Doom on all enemies. Starting timer varies. 30% accuracy.
Only one of these can make it in. Doomja's easier to code, but less interesting I feel, while Extinction, whilst being really freaking powerful, is also really costly on resources and the like (1-Ups (revives with 10% Max HP) and Bs (restores 100 MP) cost 500 yen each, and Ps cost 200 yen and restore 200 HP. That adds up after a while, and that doesn't include using MP for recovery too. Extinction also wouldn't be too hard to code. Of note, both would require yet another battle event page to do. Extinction could POTENTIALLY be given to Chaos's or Pestilence's skillset for Hope too, if all else fails.
Pestilence:
Current skillset is this:
Fear: Inflicts Fear: 50 turns to one target. 16 MP.
POW Hammer: Inflicts Debrave: 50 turns to one target. 8 MP.
Deprotect: Inflicts Deprotect: 50 turns to one target. 12 MP.
Defaith: Inflicts Defaith: 50 turns to one target. 8 MP.
??: Unused slot.
Bleed: Inflicts Sap: 50 to one target.
MP.
Mind Bleed: Inflicts MP Sap: 50 to one target.
MP.
Lock: Inflicts Lock: 50 turns to one target.
MP.
And the three abilities you must choose from once you get the skillset:
Reverse: Reverses statuses with the complete opposite version (i.e. Poison becomes Regen, Regen becomes Poison) to the party. 50 MP.
?: Unused slot.
Diseased Tempest: Pestilence's Limit Break, requires Hope to be under 25% Max HP and a 10% chance each turn to show up. Inflicts 1500 Wind-elemental magic damage, Fear: 50 turns, Debrave: 50 turns, Deprotect: 50 turns, Defaith: 50 turns, Sap: 50 turns, MP Sap: 50 turns, and Lock: 50 turns to all enemies. 100 MP.
Of note, Diseased Tempest and Reverse are staying for Pesti's skillset. The rest needs updated badly I feel, since they're...kinda not that useful? I still want to make the skillset very status-oriented though, so that's going to be interesting.
*Disease: Halves status resistances on all enemies for a set amount of time. This is actually something that I'm debating if I want to do. I mean, I would LIKE to, don't get me wrong, but dealing with status resistances for enemies OR allies is...really cumbersome due to how many statuses there are unfortunately.
*Pox Alleviate: Removes all statuses from Hope and heals her based on number of statuses removed. This would be one of the three abilities you could choose from.
So, any ideas for skills to give to Hope for these two skillsets in particular??