Spirit Beast/Alterations guide

The below guide offers additional information on what aspects can be altered on a spirit beast by an applicable merchant. This guide only covers the cosmetic alteration information.

BEAST verb - Alterations

A handful of merchants are able to alter your Spirit Beasts.  A few Spirit Beast aspects are able to be customized, including their 15/15/15, their LOOK description, and their non-special attacks and flavor messaging.  Applicable merchants can also enhance a Spirit Beast, granting it a +5 boost to all stats.  These services are available from willing merchants with the following guidelines in mind:

    * The type of Spirit Beast cannot fundamentally change--wolves cannot become dingos or dogs, for example

    * Merchants will always err on the side of caution when changing a Spirit Beast's noun

    * Attacks must make sense for the Spirit Beast type: dingos cannot belch sprinkles at their foes or throw fireballs

    * A service consists of one of the following: modifying 15/15/15 and LOOK; modifying both attacks and flavor messaging; Spirit Beast enhancement

    * Unless explicitly stated in advance, merchants will offer only one service per player and Spirit Beast per session

    * Merchant enhancements cap at +20 to all stats

    * Merchant enhancements stack with all other improvements

Service Breakdown

As noted above, a single service consists of one of the following:

• Modifying the base 15/15/15 and LOOK description
• Modifying the attack and flavor messaging
• Spirit Beast enhancement

Explanations and Examples

Name

While not outlined in the services above, players can name their spirit beasts. This is separate from the base 15/15/15 and LOOK description and will show up in the first line when BEAST INFO is typed and a spirit beast is selected by the player.

Unnamed Spirit Beast Example

The Spirit Beast is a common ashrim revenant of 1 training with the following traits:

Named Spirit Beast Example

The Spirit Beast is Tsurara, a modified fox of 13 trainings with the following traits:

Base and LOOK Descriptions

Like other alterations, a spirit beast can have its base and LOOK descriptions altered. The base description will always be 15/15/15, with the last 15 being reserved for the noun only. The LOOK description retains a character count limit of 511 max. Because these are "spirits," there is more flexibility in their alterations and may have descriptions that do not strictly adhere to alter rules. However, there are some things to keep in mind:

• The alteration cannot change the "essence" of the beast. For instance, you cannot alter a fox into a dog or wolf. Likewise, you cannot alter a casting humanoid into a warrior/melee humanoid.
• If you use BEAST MANIFEST, your spirit beast's article will be replaced with "an incorporeal" for the duration of the beast's manifestation.

Attacks and Flavor Messaging

The attacks and flavor messaging modifications are required to be done at the same time. It is an all or nothing situation.

Example - Default Fox Messaging

          Attack 1:   nips hungrily at
          Attack 2:   slashes with its little claws at
    Flavor Message:   letting out a series of high-pitched yips

Attack Messaging

The attack messaging for spirit beasts follows a specific format and cannot deviate from that when modified. Attack messaging must indicate targeting the opponent's beast.

Format

Your (spirit beast) (attacks) (opponent's spirit beast)!

Battle Example

Your fox nips hungrily at Draugmir's war griffin!  Focused on defending itself, the war griffin parries the attack.

Your fox slashes with its little claws at Draugmir's war griffin!  A clean miss.

Flavor Messaging

Flavor messaging is used to add a little more oomph! to a spirit beast's attack. Similar to the attack messaging, it must follow a specific format style, as it is used to start a sentence and should make sense in that context.

Format

(Flavor message), your (spirit beast) (attacks) (opponent's spirit beast)!

Battle Example

Letting out a series of high-pitched yips, your nine-tailed fox attacks Draugmir's war griffin!  A good, solid attack!