Turn a mindless battle into a thinking sport. Without it, fights would be a simple damage race and after a few rounds the player would know the battle outcome. Positive and negative status effects are a way to spice up what happens in battle.

Types of status effects

• Buffs/Debuffs: Stat changes
• Damage over time DOT: Poison, Burn, Bleed
• Heal over time HOT
• Loss of turn: Fear, Stun
• Debilitations: remove a few options of what a character can do
• Loss of control: character actions not decided by player
• Shields: Nullify/ protect from moves
• Set ups: Make a character vulnerable to some specific moves
• Transformations: Transform a character into a different character with different abilities
• Instant Kills

Status effects can make a player plan and wonder

Should I lose a turn to poison an enemy? Will the battle go for long enough for it to be worth?

Will increasing agility make me attack and kill an enemy before he can retaliate?

Is it better to lose a turn to boost attack and to attack twice in a row? What would deal more damage?

Dangers when designing status effects

• Making them too weak or too situational.
• Boss enemies cant be immune to it or some characters would be completely useless. Yet at the same time a status effect shouldn't trivialise a hard boss battle.
• Making them too strong