Ahoy hoy long time no interaction, a wild Ziggy appears. Hur hur.
Special or SPECIAL, it’s for the lack of a better word “special”.
No, really, of all the character sheet stats, it’s the least intuitive(and the others already were quite vague). To understand it, understand what it is not (given the limited builds we have for data). This requires some broader analysis but let’s attempt to do so anyway:
Special is not connected to magical job classes alone ( Zenberu and Zaryusu Special stat has increases despite no them having no magic job classes)
Special is not connected to just racial level skills alone (Aura has a large special stat)
Special is not connected to base/template race alone (Mare vs Aura different Special rating)
Special is not connected to overall level alone (Victim, Neuronist, Krusch, hamusuke)
Special is not connected to dedicated job classes only like Monks, Warrior, or Priests (Lizardmen, Pe Riyuro vs Sebas)
Special is not linked to dedicated “Monster” level users (Hamusuke, Olasird’arc, Iguvua, and Ankylurus Lord ‘Our Sus Lord’)
Special appears related to dedicated versatile classes / Wild Cards (Demiurge, Ainz, Pandora’s Actor)
Special can be raised by class skills buffs for summons (Ainz buffs Iguvua)
Special is high on races that can transform (Albedo, Demiurge, Sebas, Pandora, Lupu)
Special grows more with crafting classes than combat classes (Lv. 11 Gondo vs Lv. 38 Pe Riyuro, Zaryusu, Zenberu, Krusch, Shihoutou)
Special is connected to users with strong non-’combat’ (non-evocation, melee, projectile) based skills (Ainz, Victim, Demiurge, Aura)
Special is not connected to mana influenced abilities alone (Pe Riyuro, Zaryusu, Zenberu, Victim, Neuronist)
Special is not connected to Mag Atk alone (Aura, Zaryusu, Zenberu, Pe Riyuro, Gondo)
Special Note: stats like Magic Attack seem to increase based on different magic systems so confounding does exist to an extent between classes and stats (and we’ll see which ones might confound for SPECIAL if you have a split build). People with no casting or mana tend to have no Magical Attack stat however. Ankylursus Lord however shows you can still cast spells without it (and why that is even now continues to astound anyone who pays attention to it).
So what can we infer? Well there is a pattern for Special. It seems to reflect the strength of indirect abilities, or at least characters with “indirect” abilities tend to have high SPECIAL. Aura is a Command type, Victim is a one trick pony (but damn it’s a good trick), Demiurge’s entire build is built on queer debuffs, non-mana summoning, and transformation type abilities. Of note how Gondo’s Special suggest crafters also have Special influence, and this was later supported by Head Chef’s SPECIAL stat. Indirect abilities are thus a sort of ‘everything else’ type stat for numerical calculations it seems with how broad the range of who has SPECIAL and what their abilities are.
Ainz does fit the Demiurge model, a build focused on indirect means like manaless summoning, racial abilities, and instant death or debuffs(abilities that do not scale off his normal evocation or magical stat damage). It’s difficult in his case given his spell list may factor in, but Special might reflect all or nothing abilities like this. Against Decem we see him casually mention how his attack power was lacking compared to dedicated assault mages. Also the possibility exists Demiurge was inspired by Ulbert’s own fondness for the general utility of Ainz’s build.
Let’s pursue the crafter angle though. We know in YGGDRASIL and New World crafters are not particularly strong.
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People that can make strong magic weapons have no combat ability [sentou nouryoku] at all. A person dedicated and amazing at both would be called a monster. In
relation to this, although they are called mages they don’t generally get powerful.
[Blog]
Back when there were still only a few guildmembers everyone had to fight, so he abandoned his blacksmith class levels. However, after conquering the Nazarick dungeon, he ultimately rebuilt his character into a crafting specialist.
[Amana’s character sheet - V12]
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We know certain races and classes were just better at crafting. In the vein there were numerical bonuses. For example, Sage is a production and buffing class (Twitter).
From Mare and Narberal, two supposedly mostly dedicated job class magic users, there does seem to be about a ⅔ approximate link to SPECIAL for Druids and Evocation arcane casters ignoring some of Narberal’s classes (warrior and doppelganger are so minor it may not significantly affect it). That might reflect the non-damage type power of their spells but since they are not specialized it doesn’t scale 1:1 with their level perhaps? Basically just as there is a ⅓ parity between Arcane job classes and Warrior ‘stats’ there is about a ⅔ parity for SPECIAL and spell caster job classes (roughly).
Neuronist and Victim prove though builds don’t always correlate Special with Level in terms of normal fractional parity, where their Special is extremely large for their levels, surpassing their own Level and job class number easily. Shihoutu’s SPECIAL also is slightly below parity but still quite high even with some Warrior classes. Both are noted for not being combat builds as well but Shihoutu has a few combat classes. Victim is also known for a very strong disabling ability, but given Demiurge a demon has very large Special, Victim’s Special could come from his Angel racials.
Of note though is how Demiurge possesses many strange debilitating abilities, racial levels, and classes. That shows a possible link to the stat - it’s used for computations that are all or nothing - given instant death also is an all or nothing type ‘check’ in the game engine of YGGDRASIL. This is better clarified by retranslating a few parts of Frostfire’s translation(sorry broski broham - Ziggy left the raws so others could see the nuance). There you can see how Maruyama categorizes SPECIAL ABILITY as a very specific designation - something applied to other abilities.
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He did not specifically react to her jeering, but Demiurge’s eyes rumbled and changed into a cracked gold. Demiurge had a CLASS called [Gazer]. It was a class that only those with a gaze ability considered a SPECIAL ABILITY could acquire. While this class could learn multiple sight-based abilities, it only had one SPECIAL ABILITY—Petrification. Sight attacks count cause various effects even without meeting their eyes. The cons were that its range was short, but the pros were that they could target multiple people in view. In the game of Yggdrasil, there would be terrible looking effects occurring within the effect range, but nothing like that occurred in this world. If they failed to resist, they would be turned to stone. Such a powerful gaze was turned towards them
[WN]
なんらかの凝視能力を特殊能力として保有する者しかなれないクラスだ。様々な視線能力を得られるこのクラスの特殊能力の1つ――石化の視線。
視線攻撃は別に視線を合わせなくても、その様々な効果を発揮することができる。難点は距離が短いことだが、利点としては視界内の複数を同時にターゲットに出来るということだろう。ユグドラシルというゲーム上では効果範囲を示すかっこ悪いエフェクトが起こるのだが、この世界ではそのようなものは起こらない。
[WN]
Shalltear was a priest-type, Aura was a Beast Tamer-type based on a druid and Cocytus was a warrior-type. Demiurge also had a certain type of his. It would be fine to call it the MONSTER-type. A gaze attack, a blaze, monster summoning, curses, an ability to give bad statuses like poison or illness. He was made of classes that could provide such [SPECIAL] abilities. The earlier Gazer and Demonic Essence was a part of that
[WN]
デミウルゴスの服の下の肉体が隆起する。
『デモニックエッセンス』の悪魔の諸相の1つ。おぞましき肉体強化。そのままだが、筋力を一時的に増大させる技だ。これで大瀑布の術をぶち破るつもりなのだ。
シャルティアは神官系、アウラがドルイドからの派生したビーストテイマー系、コキュートスが戦士系とあるようにデミウルゴスにも保有しているクラスの系統がある。
それはモンスター系統といっても良いものだ。
凝視攻撃、ブレス、モンスター召喚、呪い、毒や病気などのバッドコンデション。そういったものを得るようなクラスばかりで構築されている。
先ほどのゲイザーもデモニックエッセンスもその一環だ。
デミウルゴスの強い攻撃手段は得てして、範囲攻撃が多い。『内臓が入し香炉』、『明けの明星』、『ソドムの火と硫黄』などの特殊能力に代表されるように。
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With a more accurate translation hopefully SPECIAL ABILITIES or Demiurge’s specialization at least is a bit clearer? It’s understandable why Frosfire would of streamlined his translation (he probably didn’t know how important SPECIAL was at the time and just thought it could be rephrased without problems). Sadly, Maruyama’s word choice is often very intentional. MONSTER here likely meaning here the connection to MONSTER racial type levels or Magical Beast or Dragon type levels. MONSTERs tend to have these strange abilities more than non MONSTERs in many games after all.
As an aside, Aura also has such abilities as a Tamer, namely her breaths. Maruyama’s logic appears to be for spells like Necromancy and SPECIAL skills to operate off a slightly different ruleset for resolution and when effects can proc.
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“What if Mare was your opponent?” Mare’s body trembled as he shrank away. He shook his head with moist eyes, and he looked very afraid. Aura sighed as she saw the way he looked. As Aura sighed, a sweet scent filled the surrounding air. Unlike the fragrance Albedo radiated, this scent seemed somewhat persistent. As he remembered Aura’s ability, Momonga took a step away from the scent. “Ah, sorry, Momonga-sama!” As Aura noticed Momonga’s strange reaction, she hurriedly dispersed the scent with her hand. Among Aura’s skills as a Beast Tamer, there were certain passive skills that had buffing and debuffing effects. These abilities acted through her breath and had a radius of several meters, some even up to ten meters. With the effect of certain skills, that radius could be enlarged to unbelievable proportions. In Yggdrasil, icons representing buffs and debuffs appeared in one’s field of vision, so one could see if they were under the effect of an ability. However, no indication of these changes appeared before him, which made things quite troublesome. “Ah, it should be fine now, I canceled it!” “Is that so…” “…Although you’re undead, so mind-affecting effects shouldn’t work on you, right, Momonga-sama?” That was true in Yggdrasil. The undead were immune to mind-affecting effects, whether positive or negative. “…Was I within the effective radius?” “Mm.” Aura lowered her head in fear, and so did Mare beside her. “…I’m not angry, Aura,” Momonga said in as gentle a voice as he could manage. “Aura… You don’t have to be so afraid. Do you think such a simple skill would inconvenience me? I was simply asking if I was within the effective range of your skill.” “Yes! Just now, you were within range of my skill.”
“And what was its effect?” “Ah, the effect just now… should have been fear.” “Umu…” He did not feel afraid. In Yggdrasil, one would not be affected by attacks from the guild or party to which one belonged. Although, there was a very real chance this rule no longer applies, so it would be best to verify that now. “Aura, I was just thinking that your skill should not have an effect on people from the same guild… the same group.
“Eh?” Aura’s eyes went wide, much like Mare’s did from the side. Judging from their reactions, Momonga realized that they did not agree with him. “Am I mistaken?” “Yes… Could it be you mixed it up with the ability to freely change the range of one’s skills?” So it seemed the rule disabling friendly fire was no longer in effect. Mare was not affected while being near Aura, but that might be because he had equipped an item which negated mind-affecting effects on himself. In contrast, the undead Momonga’s divine class items did not have any data which protected against mind-affecting effects. But in that case, why did Momonga not feel fear? There were two possibilities. He might have resisted it with his base stats, or resisted it with his immunities from being an undead creature. Because he was not sure which hypothesis was correct, Momonga decided to conduct an experiment: “Can you try using other effects?
“Yes, they are. Now, include me in the radius of your skill.” “Eh? Really?” “It’s fine.” Momonga’s insistence was so great that even the dubious Aura went ahead with it. Given that they were no longer in the game, there was a possibility he could not ignore, which was that Aura’s skill might not have activated properly. In order to rule that out, he had to expose himself to the skill with a third party, which was why he had summoned the Moonlight Wolves. After that, Aura exhaled several times, but Momonga did not feel affected in any way. He tried relaxing or turning around in the middle of the skill, but he felt nothing strange. However, the Moonlight Wolf behind him was affected. Thus, he concluded that Aura’s skill had taken effect. From this experiment, Momonga learned that mind-affecting effects did not work on him
[V1]
Ainz sported a full set of divine class items and all sorts of cash items, while Shalltear only had a single divine class item, her Spuit Lance. Ainz had a massive advantage in terms of equipment quality. However, what Albedo had left unsaid was the reason why Ainz’s chances of victory were slim. Ainz was fully aware of that reason as well. It was because Shalltear Bloodfallen was the nemesis of Ainz Ooal Gown. Ainz role-played an undead magician, and his character build focused on necromancer-type classes. In other words, his character had been built for entertainment. Shalltear, on the other hand, had been made with an optimized build. In addition, Shalltear’s divine magic caster classes could use many spells which were very effective on the undead, and she was adept at melee combat. These two reasons were bad enough, and on top of that, the necromantic spells Ainz favored did not work well on Shalltear. Ainz could not use his specialty against Shalltear, and Shalltear had an advantage when fighting the undead
[V3]
He truly is a Supreme Being. One could call him an extraordinary undead… a super undead… no, a godly undead. That said, she still did not think that she would lose. Perhaps it might be different from the other Guardians, but to Shalltear, Ainz and his enhanced necromantic attack spells were hardly a challenge for he
Ainz could enter this class because he was not fixated on pure power, but had instead focused on role-playing a necromancer to the hilt. Had he pursued character power, he would not have discovered this class — which required a very unorthodox build — by chance
[V3]
“Yes, yes,” Ainz carelessly cast a [Silent Magic – Death] on the female demihuman as well. “―Hmmm?” She did not die. Ainz’s [Death] had been resisted. In the moment he realized this, Ainz’s mind immediately switched gears, entering a mental state that could be considered a combat mode. Was it a defensive racial characteristic? A protective spell she had cast on herself? Had she resisted it normally? Had a magic item protected her? Or was it something else? While one could not completely rule out the possibility that it might have been a coincidence, surely she could not have resisted it under her own power. Ainz had observed the three of them as they fought. While he did not think that he had the full measure of their abilities, Ainz was certain that they could not resist the power of his magic in a direct contest.
[V13]
While most spells had an effective range, some spells had a range that was practically zero. Such spells needed direct contact with the target to be cast, so only people with levels in spellcaster and warrior classes could use them well. It was because they were so inconvenient that they were more powerful than spells of a similar tier, being roughly a tier more effective. Ainz’s specialty was necromancy, and this was an eighth-tier spell from that field, [Maximize Magic – Energy Drain]. It was a spell that drained the opponent’s levels and granted various benefits depending on the number of levels drained. Naturally, this spell had also been maximized. He beat the Evil Lord’s spell resistance and drained his levels. Thanks to that, he recovered almost all the damage Yuri had inflicted. That said, the healing provided by this spell was only supplementary in nature. Ainz’s parameters were all temporarily enhanced, and he received a special buff which would fade in a short time. In turn, the Evil Lord had received a leveldown debuff which could not be removed by the passage of time
[V13]
From the enemy’s right hand, a brilliant green light shot out, flew towards Albedo, and struck her. Suddenly, Albedo’s body — and armor — began glowing with the same light. However, the light did not have any effects and soon disappeared. She was not hurt. In fact, she did not feel anything at all. This was not because she was actively defending against that spell, but because that spell could not even get through Albedo’s passive magic resistance. It was likely that this was one of her master’s specialties, necromancy, specifically an instant-death spell. Those types of spells were not only affected by ability scores, passive skills, special skills, and equipment abilities, but were also affected by resistances gained through levels, penalties, and so on. If they were cast on an opponent of similar level, it would be hard for those spells to have any effects at all if they were not enhanced through any means. Not only was Albedo created as a level 100 NPC, she had equipped multiple items that strengthened herself. Spells of that Powered Suit’s level could not affect her at all.
[V14]
It was impossible for them to have not taken any damage at all. It was hard for Ainz to believe that it had taken the full brunt of his [Explode Mine] but all it did was sully that eye-catching armor with dust. Even with Ainz’s necromancy job classes, it was still impossible for him to gain complete immunity to the damage of a high-tier spell. It was impossible without underhanded tricks, especially because [Explode Mine]’s damage type was nonelemental, it could not have been nullified so simply.
[V14]
A storm of shockwaves hit Behemoth who stood between Decem and the undead as a rain of light rivaling the downpour from before pierced its body. The Elemental Guardian of the Land’s health was being blown away by the second. It didn’t bleed or lose parts of its body like a living being, but Decem, as its master, knew Behemoth was standing on its last legs. Confusion. Nothing but confusion. Behemoth was the greatest elemental. No one was on par with it. Even though it received damage in fights until now, they were no more than a few scratches considering its enormous health. And that — Like this — Not once was its health reduced to the verge of death like this. “N-no way...” “Well now. I didn’t expect that even six hits weren’t enough to take it down even though I triggered its weakness. Would it have been different if I was more specialized in offensive magic?
[V16]
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For instance let’s use a fixed race for comparison and SPECIAL stat values, the Lizardmen with Zenberu, Zaryusu, and Krusch, we see:
Warrior<Monk<Druid*
*Krusch does have a slightly different racial class
We can infer being martially talented doesn’t factor in as much as having abilities (like magic or ki skills). Zaryusu has a larger level but notice how Krusch with the lowest level has the highest Special.
And finally Pandora’s actor. He has variable stats but notice how besides MP and hp, his Special isn’t variable. Iguvua’s Special rose but how come Pandora's Actor doesn’t change based on his form? One idea is Shapeshifting cannot copy SPECIAL abilities or SPECIAL stats - they are difficult to specialize in but are far harder to simulate or copy. That may be why they are ‘special’.
What gives? Well Ziggy believes it stems from Special being not the original term. It’s actually 特殊. Peculiar or Unique are also possible translations. Pandora’s Actor really solidifies it. Iguvua as well helped though. So what conclusions can we draw?
First, we know Special isn’t tied to level alone, that is it can rise by a summoner’s skills. Iguvua certainly didn’t gain more Monster Levels or anything. SPECIAL Rises not from gaining more techniques or abilities alone(as we see with Igvua), and as we see with Neuronist and Victim it doesn’t require parity nearly as much as other stats, classes, and levels correlating. Now secondly, consider PA. Why is his SPECIAL fixed?
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>Pandora’s Actor cannot copy the World
Champion’s official cheat ability.
[Maru]
Q:
So Pandora’s Actor can use 300 magics per form right? So he’s a perfect
cheat that can use 13,500 spells for all his forms. But if the magic he can
use is the same between a Wizard and Monk will be less useful.
A:
Theoretically it is possible. If you copy Spellcaster A-san B-san C-san
……the type of magic they can use will change completely as well. However
the can’t use Super Tier.
[Maru]
Special doesn’t appear to perfectly correlate with usable abilities or spells. Pandora’s Actor gains variable spell list but his Special doesn’t increase or decrease. We can conclude the things he, a doppelganger can’t copy, are connected to the Special Stat.
This strange character —and Narberal —were both Doppelgangers.
His name was Pandora’s Actor, and he was a level one hundred NPC personally
designed by Ainz and placed in charge of the Treasury. His talents lay in
disguise, and he could copy forty five separate forms and even their abilities
—though only at eighty percent of the original’s potency.
[V3]
Since it was a monster Doppelganger, it was not very strong.
Even when transformed, it could only copy level forty abilities, and it was even
weaker without transformation. Its more potent abilities was how it could
freely make use of karma-restricted gear. That said, it could not use magic
items above legacy class.
[V12]
Greater Doppelgangers can imitate people of up to level 60. However, unlike
the NPCs, they can only copy up to 90% of the originals’ abilities. Even
[V13]
“If that is the case. Ainz-sama, because I can also summon Doom Lords, perhaps Ainz-sama had already noticed ~arinsu. It felt like its combat abilities were weakened significantly, was it because Pandora’s Actor was the summoner ~arinsu?” “That would not be the case. While Pandora’s Actor’s transformations are weaker than the original, his summons should not be any weaker. In addition, he had been instructed to not use any special abilities of mine to strengthen the summons… In any case, shall we both summon Doom Lords for you all to observe after this? Perhaps you could figure out what had been bothering you.”
[V14]
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Event based abilities at least seem barred from copying. Assuming it’s not just an event barrier, ie super tier can’t be used since the user is an NPC, then it’s also possible PA can’t copy trump card abilities (TGOALID or say Einherjar) perhaps to prevent rotating through every form and spamming daily limited abilities. Spells still draw on MP so it’s not as spammable even with form changes.
If that’s true, then trump card daily use limited abilities would be great contributors to and reliant on SPECIAL - SPECIAL being used perhaps in tandem with the Skill. Victim does fit that description. Demiurge, Ainz, and Aura all have strong summoner based abilities which seems to also contribute. And we learned in Volume 14 Pandora’s Actor has no penalty for his summons unlike his own stats, where even when he copies Ainz’s Necromancy the stat bonuses do not diminish even if the personal stats are inferior after copying him.
Pandora’s Actor can have large SPECIAL because he can access many other unique abilities. It’s unknown if quantity factors in for Special’s value. This somewhat matches how SPECIAL tends to not need to correlate with overall level. Though it’s strange how this value is displayed even if you should have many SPECIAL abilities that may not all be as potent. Perhaps you can only learn SPECIAL abilities all from one type of sub-system, and so the stat applies to all in that one sub-system? That might be also why it seems to be so limited in type and people tend to only have one speciality with it. Necromancy SPECIAL would encompass all the undead SPECIAL abilities for instance, meanwhile humanoids like Aura or races like Victim tend to only have one potent ability from one sub-system.
If Aureole has a high Special that gets revealed in a future character sheet then we can say with some confidence Commander based skills fall into the Special Stat, as Aura seems to suggest . Same for any stronger dedicated crafter or enchanter.
That’s my current stance on Special/Peculiar at least.
Coming back to this article a few years later (really over three years later when Ziggy first jotted down some notes), Ziggy did find one elaboration on the mechanics in an outside source that might explain SPECIAL better in generality than just our inference it’s weird All-or-Nothing abilities(the more bullshit ones too). Namely, it’s a more generalized ‘This IS How To Deal With Everything Else’ type of rules calculation and resolution for special case abilities. And there SPECIAL is categorized with the same verbiage even as ‘SPECIAL’.
First, SPECIAL abilities often are not augmented by things that might otherwise buff all your powers. So a spell has to explicitly mention it bolsters the SPECIAL ability to work in most cases (otherwise as a SPECIAL ABILITY it’s often written to be an exception). So for example many Magic Attack boosting spells or potions wouldn’t have an effect on Necromancy’s instant death spells (which makes sense, what does 10 percent more damage from instant death even mean other than increasing the odds it triggers?). Seeing as Demiurge has Gazer-type eyes as well still, Petrification follows the same logic as Instant Death if you might reason.
For rules, there are special saving rolls to ‘dodge’, ‘resist’ or ‘evade’ SPECIAL ABILITIES. The caveat here is the opponent or user of the SPECIAL ability can increase the difficulty of the saving roll as well to make it harder to save against. If that sounds confusing basically one can resist the SPECIAL ABILITY but the user can also increase the likelihood of the SPECIAL ABILITY working using their own skills in a tug-of-war against each other. For Ainz in particular this manifests as his Instant Death working easier on people, but especially on those weaker than him. This is precisely why in terms of DPS Ainz is actually not as strong as other Arcane casters - his classes buffed his summoning and necromancy SPECIAL ABILITIES instead. In this generalized analysis hopefully that makes sense why there is a tradeoff - specializing in SPECIAL ABILITIES results in sacrificing strength in other fields.
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Momonga pointed his finger, preparing to cast a spell on the straw man in the corner of the arena. Momonga did not know many pure damage spells. Instead, he focused on instant death spells with additional effects. As a result, he was less effective against non-living entities. He should have selected a simple damaging spell against a target like the one before him, but Momonga’s levels were largely in necromancy-type classes, which strengthened his necromantic spells. However, the effectiveness of these spells was several notches below a character whose class levels enhanced combat spells
[V1]
“Well now. I didn’t expect that even six hits weren’t enough to take it down even though I triggered its weakness. Would it have been different if I was more specialized in offensive magic?”
[V16]
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In YGGDRASIL the clearest part of this saving roll against SPECIAL ABILITIES is Level can be used in addition to one’s job classes or racial abilities counter it - hence why against people of the same level it’s often not as effective or can be impractical. You can’t just use damage mitigation to resist them but they are harder to get results with in general. You can see it as a way to balance All-or-Nothing (sometimes called ‘Resist/Save-or-Die’) abilities in the game though many would find the notion of YGGDRASIL having balance at all to be laughable.
Reanalyzing all the character sheets we can reinterpret SPECIAL then as how potent weird debuffs or attacks can be from those characters, and for crafters it might affect how their items pierce through stats or overcome resistances- that is it affects the power level of the items they create and would explain why strong magic casters are not always strong enchanters. For Monster-types or Magical Beasts, these would include racial abilities (things like fear auras, or special status debuffs of a fashion). SPECIAL ABILITY is measuring what level these weird ABILITIES are operating at for that character. Neuronist for example might have such high SPECIAL as a Brain Eater for a special grapple debuff of some sort. Victim shows how sometimes SPECIAL can reach nearly twice the character’s actual level. They might be severely limited like Victim is, but their one trick is a very good trick (for their level).
For others like Solution or Ainz, SPECIAL might also affect the potency or ease they have in poisoning opponents.
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“Really, Evileye? Ah… if it was their Disciples, then I’d be out of luck. It’d be really hard to beat them after fighting so deep into hostile territory. Make one little mistake, get poisoned or paralyzed, and the show’s over for you. How did the two of them heal themselves? Potions, maybe? Who knows, that Momon warrior might be able to use divine magic like our leader. Or perhaps that Beautiful Princess girl could use it.
[V5]
“Climb-kun, you’d best be careful. Unless you have a magic item that resists poison, don’t let them nick you so much as once.” Someone with Brain’s level of physical prowess was pretty much immune to poison, but people like Climb might succumb to strong toxins
[V5]
here were apparently some martial arts which could delay the effects of poison and the like for a while, but Climb had not learned them and neither did he have any antidote potions on him. He had to consider being poisoned to be a fatal condition.
[V5]
For example, Ghouls had a claw attack that could paralyze their opponents via poison when they inflict damage with it
…
“Aye. We used five types of poison, didn’t let her wear her gear, used debuff magic, and yet still had to rely on luck to see if we could charm her. That was why we had to go through all of this trouble, if even one of those elements was missing, we would have failed. Now then—” Evileye clapped her hands together, “After Tina comes back, we’ll head back to the inn with [Teleportation], pick up Lakyus’ equipment, and teleport out of this city.
[V14]
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Revelations about poison actually do reflect these outside rules about SPECIAL ABILITIES. In particular how Brain shrugs off poison mainly due to his Level alone (which is precisely one of the main ways to resist SPECIAL ABILITIES - a saving roll based on Level). When Lakyus was poisoned the logic behind using multiple poisons also makes sense - Lakyus would have to resist each one separately so they needed to increase the odds of getting at least one working by using many at once. These poisons might vary in effect, but some would have special status debuffs like how Ghouls have a special Paralysis that can trigger.
It’s easy to say pure warriors and some monsters would have low SPECIAL stats, but SPECIAL is strange with how some builds can have ridiculously high values for the stat (and it’s mainly gimmicky Heteromorph builds). The scaling disparity matters less if the abilities that use the stat are not based on damage but rather on all-or-nothing type abilities.
To summarize this more concisely, special status ailments would fall under the umbrella of SPECIAL ABILITIES and the mechanics used to compute if they succeed or not. Does that make sense? It’s a very vague stat but hopefully this is a good foundation for you all to interpret and postulate on all the nuances for your own works or head canons. It may be an under-developed aspect of the rules but there appears to be enough evidence to tie it all together. Sorry if you dislike using outside rules as reference for understanding Overlord - Maruyama is a writer who heavily defers to pre-existing writing, rules,and mechanics due to his bias for inter -textuality. If you wish you may disregard all these findings but hopefully mentioning how SPECIAL might work based on a broader system makes more sense with systems that inspired Maruyama?
Putting these ideas together, we can attempt to elaborate on a few niche topics in Overlord. For instance, all-or-nothing abilities being tied to a distinct set of computations might also explain a strange caveat or facet of the New World- Curses. Extremely rare, at least in this region, people afflicted with Curses cannot be treated by conventional methods, even the panacea of Tier Magic. But why? If you have a Curse Disease, shouldn’t Cure Disease treat it? Yet it does not. Therefore, one mechanical explanation is just as Heteromorphs can have very high SPECIAL stats, these Curses are utilizing the SPECIAL stat to inflict their effects. As a result, SPECIAL not scaling on parity with level, results in some creatures having SPECIAL ratings anywhere from 10 to double their own level unlike most of their other stats. This is most clear with Victim and Neuronist, but what matters is creatures can have this strange stat 10-20 levels higher than their own next highest numbered stat.
If a healer lacks raw number of levels (their level cap is not high) then SPECIAL curses in theory would be difficult to dispel even with their tiers of spells - as it’s operating less on the Attribute system (eg if you are poisoned use Cure Poison to treat it). This ties into the theoretical framework of this stat - it scales and operates on a slightly different set of mechanics where a person’s level is one significant factor in resisting and successfully inflicting these ailments onto others. This is slightly different from how Attribute resolution works in the series.
As an aside, the Attribute system works off an ‘Attribute’ logic - to counter a fire spell, like [Fireball] one can use an Anti Fire spell like [Protection From Energy - Fire] or an Ice or Water Attribute spell that has pre-determined interactions with the Fire Attribute. This is how Icy Burst interacts with Fire Attribute spells for instance. Elemental strengths, immunities, weaknesses basically are scaled modifiers to damage or resistance based on analyzing what Attributes an ability or spell has. An Earth Elemental like Behemoth is resistant to or immune to any Earth Attribute spell by it’s nature - and this gets convoluted as we expand the number of Attributes and the unique interactions they have. Acid Attribute abilities for instance are sometimes defined as Energy sub-Attributes but have unique interactions with equipment and sundering bonuses. That’s very brief but that’s the core idea behind the Attribute system - in programming this would be something akin to Class and Sub-Class type logic with Attributes and Sub-Attributes as the ‘Classes’ not to be confused with JOB CLASSES in YGGDRASIL and Classes in other game systems.
Wild Magic has a WORLD attribute on it (for some reason) meanwhile World class items give their users a universal Anti WORLD attribute protection field and their effects are often WORLD attributed. As a result, World class item holders accidentally resist or are immune to Wild Magic spells.
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“—[Icy Burst]!” Zaryusu shouted as he leapt from behind Rororo, swinging Frost Pain as he ran beside it. The air before the swing froze in an instant, forming a wall of white mist. This was a gout of supercooled air; the frozen wind of Frost Pain. That was one of Frost Pain’s abilities. That was a special move which could only be used three times a day — [Icy Burst]. It snap-froze everything in an area in front of it and caused massive damage. The wall of frozen fog was solid, and it blocked the oncoming [Fireball]. The orb of ardent flame met the wall of chill mist — by the laws of magic, allowing them to collide was the wisest choice. It hit— The scorching flames burst forth, warring with the frozen mist of ivory. It seemed as though two serpents, one white and one red, were trying to consume each other. After a moment’s resistance, both powers vanished. The undead creature was shocked, and its surprise showed on its face. That was a natural reaction to seeing the dissipation of the spell it had discharged
…
Zaryusu was still some distance away, but he could see the white light coruscating around Iguva’s finger — [Lightning]. Frost Pain’s [Icy Burst] could defend against cold- and fire-elemental attacks, but Zaryusu had never used it against lightning strikes, and he did not know if it would work.
[V4]
While engaged in close combat that was slowly melting his armor, Momon once again reached into nothingness and drew forth a strange weapon. “Frost Pain Modified — [Icy Burst]!” A wave of frigid air rushed forth from the weapon, dropping the surrounding temperature instantly. Although it seemed as though the cold could even freeze fire, Jaldabaoth’s hellfire burned hotter than normal flames. Still, for a moment, the heat was suppressed. Jaldabaoth’s surprised exclamation reached Evileye’s ears. “What was that? It was like the spear from just now.” “Since I can’t use magic, I made up for it with elemental weapons. Although this was a copy of Frost Pain made as an experiment… well,I should count myself lucky it turned out stronger than the original. Granted, it’s a tool that lets me use a high-level spellthree times a day, butwithout skills to powerit up, it should be nothing to you.”
[V6]
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The distinction between SPECIAL skill and Attribute systems seems to be an ANTI attribute doesn’t necessarily counter SPECIAL skills as easily. This is why it seems things like Energy Drain can be hard to undo and the debuffs are not as easily treated from these skills, prevented by items, or so forth. The devastation caused by Victim’s skill seems to be a synergy of his a bonus from dying and his innate SPECIAL stat ( the most likely conclusion being his Patriot and Martyr Classes grant bonus multipliers to a skill when used on death or requiring death to activate).
Needless to say, we do have examples of Curses in the series. In the main canon, Leinas is infamous for her curse. Meanwhile, in the Web Novel, in the reviled Academy arc(GASP), Jet’s mother bears a curse disease as well. The commonality between them is for some reason there is no treatment in their societies or known in their nations at least (the Theocracy and it’s affiliated churches are all nearby yet no knowledge of a treatment seems to exist for sure amongst the lower echelons).
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However, while subduing a powerful monster she was smitten by it’s death curse, an ungodly affliction that covered the right side of her face in a hideous malady which continuously oozes pus. In spite of every attempted remedy, the curse has so far proved to be unbreakable.
Ultimately, Leinas made breaking the curse her raison d’etre and became so devoted to her goal that her personality warped to the point where she would do anything to achieve that end.
Cursed Knight Lv.?
[V10]
After careful thought, the image of a vampire appeared in his mind. Those special abilities were similar to the skills possessed by Shalltear Bloodfallen, who had levels in the Cursed Knight class. Cursed Knights had the backstory of being corrupted cleric-knights who had been cursed, and they were considered to be a very strong class in Yggdrasil. However, they had a lot of drawbacks, so they were not very popular. Among the skills Cursed Knights could learn was the ability to release waves of darkness, inflict cursed wounds which could not be healed by low-level healing spells, instant death curses, and so on.
[V2]
The reason why he was saving money was to purchase a magic item that would cure his mother’s illness. But there was a high probability that she would die before that happened.
Jet’s father had died young, forcing Jet and his mom to rely on each other. Death was a normal part of life, but he thought that it was far too early to surrender to death.
Sadly, Jet did not know how to cure his mother.
According to what he heard from the temple, it would be very expensive to pay for such a spell. The money he earned through his usual work, no matter how much he worked, would not be sufficient. If Jet really wanted to gather that amount, he would need to become an adventurer. Or more likely, a worker.
One might believe that by becoming an adventurer, one would be able to receive at least basic healing services for free. But the priests would never do so and would ask for an appropriate price. This was the law set by the temples. The Adventurer’s Guild supported this stance.
However, this was impossible for the low-leveled priests who would be willing to partner with Jet.
Certainly, if one had cast the divine spell, <Cure Disease>, most illnesses could be cured instantly. But there were exceptions to everything. The illness that afflicted his mother was one of the exceptions, requiring the use of higher-tier healing magic.
[WN]
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We can infer that Jet’s mother may or may not have a Curse but mechanically it is similar in how odd it is in administering treatment. Still, Leinas definitely has a curse - as it most likely was a factor in her acquiring the Cursed Knight job class. Shalltear’s curse is likely Vampirism, but Leinas just has a Death Curse that is mainly cosmetic. Here we see another link - Curses in the New World can meet class prerequisites for advanced job classes like Cursed Knight.
Mechanically that means curses and the like from SPECIAL abilities may be a distinct category of debuff or ailment not only for treatment but even in the game of YGGDRASIL. Our main examples of Petrification and Vampirism are both extremely potent and treatment resistant ‘curses’. There are degrees of severity in both, Vampirism is almost untreatable ( yet a variant called True Vampirism also exists) and Petrification is slightly less difficult to remove in comparison though it is not as easily treated as poisons and the like. Vampirism is so debilitating as it alters the template of the creature itself (and normally has no cure) meanwhile Petrification is a game ending curse basically. With how poisons appear to operate on SPECIAL as well, they would be an even easier to treat ailment, falling into the umbrella of what lower tier tier magic can treat. Poison also do not often have influence on what classes you can acquire unlike the Curses.
As the New World is a non-game world YGGDRASIL systems still try to interpret New World abilities in their own framework - this is why Wild Magic that uses Attributes is affected by Tier magic. Curses would be an example of something distinct to the New World that try to correlate to concepts in YGGDRASIL but vary widely in potency and scope likely in part from the power of the Curser.
If we generalize a bit more, Victim relying mostly on SPECIAL, we can infer another connection - Victim’s ability mainly triggers upon his death. That isn’t so different from a Death Curse is it not, like Leinas suffered from? A New World death curse might not be exactly the same - if it’s an ability or curse you can only use as you are dying it actually might have mechanical ties to Soul Ignition and Blood Bought Miracles - where you are basically using your own life force as you die to inflict or buff the Curse you are inflicting. So here, SPECIAL may not actually be the only factor in why these Diseases are so hard to treat - it’s a fusion between YGGDRASIL mechanics and New World mechanics.
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“I will let the Head Librarian handle that. Next, Victim.” “Amas-znia, sey. (Yes, Ainz-sama.)” “I have summoned you here for only one reason. If something unexpected happens, I may need you to protect us and the other Guardians with your skill… I apologize for that, and I promise I will resurrect you immediately. I hope you understand.” “Syaw fo tsethgils eht neve ni Sgnieb Emerpus eht dia ot naht em rof yoj retaerg on si ereht os, htaed si efil ym fo laog eht, noitidda ni. Tnavres ruoy osla ma I, lla retfa. Amas-znia, yrrow ton od esaelp. Taht tuoba em dlot ydaerla sah egruimed. (Demiurge has already told me about that. Please do not worry, Ainzsama. After all, I am also your servant. In addition, the goal of my life is death, so there is no greater joy for me than to aid the Supreme Beings in even the slightest of ways.)” “Is that so… still, forgive me.” Victim gasped in surprise as he saw his master bow to him.
“Erad ton dluow I! (I would not dare!)” “If special circumstances arise, we may need to kill you in order to keep the foe from escaping. Even in that case, I hope you will accept that we are not killing you out of malice. You are one of my beloved children and I do not wish to hurt you, but we may all suffer if we let an unknown enemy be.” “Snoitnetni ruoy fo erawa ylluf ma I. Amas-znia, nialpxe ot deen on si ereht. (There is no need to explain, Ainz-sama. I am fully aware of your intentions.)” “There is a phrase used in one of Nazarick’s mechanisms. It goes, ‘Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’[7] That phrase describes you perfectly. Thank you for your love.” Ainz’s gaze moved from the Guardian who had pledged his loyalty to the death, and shifted to another Guardian
[V4]
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This suddenly got a lot more convoluted with the inclusion of speculative, obtuse New World mechanics huh? So you might not agree with the existence of Soul Ignition and Blood Bought Miracles - but Death Curses surely exist. If you are not as familiar with these ideas if you have the stomach for it, try reading Magical Natural Philosophy (may whatever God(s) and beliefs you adhere to forgive you the madness and sanity draining that will surely follow). One way to see a Death Curse is as an offensive Blood Bought Miracle - you are using a curse as you are wounded and dying. Another is it’s just another way to augment a curse via the ignition of your own life force or soul like how Brain stacked more Martial Arts than was allowable. In this case, a Death Curse would be stacking curses and augmenting their power to inflict it on someone else.
It is unclear exactly how Death Curses work exactly - it could be either, both or it’s own mechanic. What do you think? If undead spawn from malice and negative type energies, then in theory Death Curses could be using the power that could spawn undead as well - cursed items are thought in the New World to arise from influence of the dead, bestowing magical enchantments (in theory). That might actually explain Ankylursus Lord’s casting as well - he’s harnessing the same energy (what could fuel a Death Curse someone uses in their last moments) from the enemies he tortures and eats alive. That would in theory be the same energy Blood Bought Miracles operate on as well before it’s tainted into undead spawning energy.
So how to categorize that? Well in that perspective, freshly bled Olde Mana (as we have labeled before) is related to Soul Ignition, Blood Bought Miracles and ENERGY (as it was defined in YGGDRASIL). Undead spawning Olde Mana negative energy would effectively be stagnant ENERGY(or spoiled and festering Olde Mana that went unused collecting into areas via concentration from mass death). Death Curses would fall under these mechanics then where even non-casters can use these ‘mana’ types to inflict a curse in theory. Ankylursus Lord casting spells is just him using other’s Olde Mana or ENERGY via his ritualized process. Given what Blood Bought Miracles can do, scaling with level to an extent, it isn’t so outlandish to consider that Death Curses are a branch in this broader system.
That is a theoretical observation at least.
However, amongst the non-humanoid nations there appears to be a logic related to curses and names.
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Although it was essentially pure wilderness when those lands came under his rule, they had still gathered quite a bit of intel from the demi-human residents of that land. Of the intel they gained, one was about the connection some had between their true name and soul, and how one could become more susceptible to curses should their true name become known. However, after much investigation by Nazarick, they could not find conclusive proof of such a phenomenon. They had relegated this intel as plain folk legend
[V14]
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Nazarick found no connection here, but given further reflection we can hypothesize that in the past Death Curses might have been used more often in various ways and so culturally people began to make countermeasures against them. Logically and rationally, one way to oppose higher level or far stronger beings could have been to rely on how Death Curses can not only cripple enemies but resist treatment. In that case, even if classes did not exist, this primitive or wild form of magic may have always existed where instead of tier spells it was mainly weaponized via curses either via rituals like Ankylursus Lord uses or it was taught in combat. That remains speculation, but the historical anecdotes and mechanics suggest that it was at one time a somewhat known practice in certain regions.
We do have another connection with Demons of all things as well - Diabolists who summon Demons have strange rules related to the Demons: they cannot go by false names. Therein lies a connection with Curses and Names. In that case, this might prove Diabolists are using Blood Bought Miracles or ritualized sacrifice (thus why they are tainted by evil or whatever makes up negative energy). It might just be a mechanic related to YGGDRASIL however why it would cause despawning is very strange.
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“Maybe we could summon demons to learn about Jaldabaoth… But that will stain the soul… And even if we summon low ranking demons, it’s quite likely that they won’t know anything about high-ranking demons. In that case, we’ll need to contact a summoning adept…” “Unfortunately, we don’t know anyone who’s good at summoning demons.” Evileye had been the first one to supplement Lakyus’s words, followed by one of the twins. Surely nobody would, at least not under usual circumstances, Neia mused. Diabolists were typically evil beings, and fortunately very few of them were powerful in their own right. That was because most of the time, they either destroyed themselves or they were slain by death squads. Of course, there might be some experts in the field who had submersed themselves into the darkness, but they typically hid themselves and did not make friends.
“I doubt that. To demons — this applies to angels as well — their names are a very important part of their very being. If a demon wants to show up, it has to engrave its name into the world. Therefore, they can’t use false names. Experiments show that using a false name might even cause them to disappear on the spot.” Neia knew next to nothing about demons and angels, but if an adamantiteranked magic caster said so, then that ought to be the case.
[V12]
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If we see Diabolism as another facet of Blood Bought Miracles and ENERGY usage (via sacrifice), it’s a Pseudo magic casting system, Ziggy called it Savage or False Magic in the past. Again we see a strange connection with New World only logic and what seems to be a precursor step or vestiges of the Olde World system. Was the fact anyone could do this something you could train in and Dragon Lords were just the only ones who unlocked the advanced form of the system via Wild Magic and Dragon Exclusive Job Classes? Was it a universal mechanic and still is independent of levels? Does Diabolism use Job class levels like Martial Arts?
There’s many questions we can ask here. Sadly there are not many answers other than the strange commonality of ignoring certain rules of YGGDRASIL amongst all these mechanics. How it worked in the past is doubly confusing. Still, we can use the label of False Magic or Savage Magic to sort of tie all these mechanics together (being mainly class independent as far as we know - Diabolists being of questionable inclusion).
This reinvigorates the idea that Wild Magic might just be the advanced form of Savage or Blood Magic as well. Humanoids, Magical Beasts, weak or strong, this is a possible system anyone can tap into but the stronger you are the more of it you can use - Dragons just happened to maybe be the only ‘magical beasts’ in the past. In theory we can even speculate that Martial Arts using Focus is just accessing Savage Magic without Blood - mainly just ENERGY in the derivative form of FOCUS. That might be why Martial Arts are tied to Job Classes - it’s the same for Wild Magic and it’s job classes (at least in the present). If you specialize enough in the way you harness Savage Magic you acquire a Job Class tailored to the way you access it - souls and Wild Magic, FOCUS and Martial Arts, sacrifice and Diabolism in theory, so even in theory Blood Bought Miracles (harnessing ‘miracles’ via blood) could eventually lead to a job class series where you use blood to fuel or augment spells, skills or abilities. It’s unlikely anyone could specialize in Soul Ignition - you have to destroy yourself to use that form of Savage Magic so how could you acquire job classes in it?
Death Curses are tricky - if the only way people know how to use them is via the Soul Ignition method ( as they are dying) you might not be able to specialize in them. But if you can use it like Blood Bought Miracles or sacrificial Savage magic, in theory a class could exist for it mainly like Diabolism where instead of strange rituals to summon other worldly beings you spill blood of others to inflict curses and ailments on others.
If you recall the Wild Magic Fragmentation Hypothesis, one idea is Wild Magic was ‘fragmented’ into many possible sub systems others could learn. Another idea however is to acquire Primitive Caster one would need to learn all of these sub-systems before acquiring the proper ‘caster’ class. Certainly you can see the commonalities - using the olde mana of others to fuel spells(ritualized Savage magic), all sorts of augmentation effects (Martial Arts), Soul Ignition, and even enchantment(Runesmithing and Totemic engraving and using classes).
Death Curses might be a separate piece of this system or a facet of what can be done using one of the others. What we know for certain is Martial Art users and enchanters don’t use the Death Curses at least. How it can be weaponized is something that only exists in speculation right now. Dragonic Necromancy appears to be based on New World only undead mechanics as a branch of wild magic at least so that might be it’s own system as well others could use, just in a lesser form. That or Dragonic variants exist for all these ( in theory Tsa might be a Dragonic Runesmith of some sort with how he seems to ‘enchant’ things and uses mainly items to work through autonomously).
It’s WILD (kek) how many branches make up this possible New World exclusive system. Har har. How Base Ten theory fits into it also is very convoluted as not everything people can do leads to new Job Classes (Decem didn’t appear to get unique summoning classes) and Ankylursus Lord lacks Classes as well it seems. Is it that the feats or skills can be learned but people cannot normally gain CLASSES in these powers unless you are of Dragon Lord descent? You can however learn LESSER versions of the power if you use some other magical fuel ‘mana’ source (like Runesmiths and Fighters). What everyone is doing is basically altering reality using different methods and fuels at the end of the day. Wild Magic is so special because not only does it have it’s own job classes it even is treated as a unique branch or system of magic as far as Talents are concerned. Martial Arts sadly are never quite at that point(it’s basically self-augmentation type magic only). Why goes unstated. Death Curses might be in a similar position especially if they are using SPECIAL mechanics (it would be like using Soul Ignition like in Martial Arts but to ‘cast’ a debuff with using your life force as the fuel).
That begs the question however - does magical resistance influence Death Curses(as a weird form of Soft or Pseudo magic ie Savage magic)? We know World Class items just counter most Wild Magic spells (for whatever reason you think). It seems closer to a synthesis between SPECIAL and New World mechanics though so perhaps it’s not so easily understood… How does the Savage Magic of Ankylursus Lord work for example? One idea was he learned spells and the skills to cast that magic without having the ability to generate his own tier magic mana. He has no magical attack stats but he does have SPECIAL. Is that the distinction between Savage Magic versus Martial Arts - Savage Magic can use SPECIAL and ENERGY, Blood, or rituals to fuel itself meanwhile Martial Arts do not use anything but the users own FOCUS, not even SPECIAL stats? Perhaps Wild Magic is the synthesized ability to use all of these fuels and powers at the same time - something like Fluder’s TRIAD magic casting just so generalized it becomes it’s own magic system and job class series? The distinction here is it’s not fusing separate job class series for Dragon Lords - rather they may have had the powers first and then fused them into their job classes (if job classes did not exist in the past as they do now).
Therein lies a mystery as well with Normal or Average Job Classes - those classes can mutate into new variants like how Job Classes can fuse into new ones in theory as well(such as Academic Wizard or Holy Queen). Was Primitive Caster the result of fusing all these branches into one system over time naturally? That might explain why only Dragons are known as wild Magic casters then - it would take decades to centuries to even begin to learn and master all these systems before you could even begin training as a Primitive Caster. If you had to master them remains debatable - you might only need to learn their basic skills.
Still, why is it Dragon exclusive? The meta reason is easily answerable but what is the in-universe mechanical reason? One thought is Dragon Lords as a ‘race’ possessed a natural skill or some sort that was tied to magic, souls, or etc in some way. This was seemingly ‘lost’ with the changes the Greed Kings made to the world. The common explanation is their innate ‘magic’ was seemingly transitioned from one system to the other. Why Dragons alone had innate wild magic is a bit odd. Aspects of the system appear universal, so how did this Primitive Caster system come to be? An alternative explanation is Dragons originally got the precise sequence of feats and base ten bonuses naturally that would then unlock the natural ability to use Wild Magic as a job class, having enough life force or olde mana to use the system. This amounts to them effectively by pure nature getting what would normally require a hyper specialized process and sequence to achieve at specific timings.
Another idea was always Wild Magic required minimum Level 50 to even unlock (as in that amount of Life Force). That was always possible too. The theory could then be that you need a high level cap, specific Savage magic abilities gained in a specific order, and then you also need to have an affinity for ‘magic’ like Dragons do. Like with Antilene, this would normally require extreme amounts of luck to get naturally even if it’s not impossible. But few races would have the required levels to ever even dream of getting classes. And perhaps in the past the only race with skills in magic were dragons? Others could learn traces of Savage magic but as they lack job classes in them it seems, the lack of Affinity may just not have existed back then in any other race? This might also explain why Dragon Lord descendants are still special even in the modern era - whatever this ‘Affinity’ is for magic, it’s still bloodline inheritable and operates like Player Awakening to an extent (it’s a bit different however).
And so we circle back to whatever Awakened Elder Blood means for Lizardmen… If Blood can be used for miracles, and Awakening is based on heritage, it seems Awakening originally was connected to some strange special power born of the fusion of these different sub-systems.
We’ve gotten pretty far from Death Curses but the idea is perhaps Dragon Lord heritage was more common in the past and so there were Death Curse users in many races based on using the power granted by those bloodlines? In this case, many people can use what was originally bloodline locked thanks to ‘magic’ becoming both learnable, racially universal for certain magical beasts, and something you could even have Aptitude or Affinity for in degrees. Death Curses may now just be using SPECIAL in combination with this new generalized Aptitude for magic to become usable more so than it was in the past.
There’s too little data to go on. Sadge. Much sadge.
Anyway, back to Death Curses specifically.
The fact you can achieve the spells or effects of curses with what seems like either Blood Bought Miracles or Soul Ignition means Curses are tapping into effects likely from Wild Magic. This is similar to the idea of how Climb’s Limit Break resembles the Wild Magic Limit Break spell enchantment. Or perhaps all New World abilities have a broader set of attributes, mechanics, and so forth they all derive power from? There are numerous explanations regarding this. In theory how Cure Elim used his Wild Necromancy job classes or skills to then count toward Tier magic necromancy suggest a mechanical linkage between tier and wild magic that though not normally related can be forced into connection it seems under special circumstances (likely a Base Ten bonus of some sort similar to how Dyad and Triad casting works) or requires someone to possess job classes in both systems (something normally impossible unless in special cases like Cure Elim’s an undead dragon lord).
With no character sheets it’s difficult to draw a concrete conclusion. However what we can say is in theory it can work either off pure Monster racial levels (seeing as how Ankylursus Lord can use Savage magic with no mana or job classes possibly only from skills alone) or like Blood Bought Miracles is a more general application of a universal mechanic. There is evidence for both pathways. These stories of demihuman culture suggest the Monster or racial level aspect might be a factor, though Death Curses might just be offensive Blood Bought Miracles as well - requiring the user’s death to activate. Dragon Lord and those related to them aside, modern users likely use the SPECIAL stat rules to harness the power explaining their potency and fitting into the YGGDRASIL system as best as it can given the rules overhaul caused by the Greed Kings. Whatever cursed Leinas was not extremely strong however the troublesome part of Death Curses is they persist indefinitely and resist treatment. Given how New World abilities like Wild Magic and Martial Arts can ‘stack’, Death Curses can be potent tools because in theory someone could get continually Death Cursed and have no way to treat these stacking debuffs until the point they become overly debilitated.
From just one part of character sheets to jumping to obtuse mechanics and finally the land of speculation and head canon. Fans of Overlord sometimes do not overlap in all the different divergences among the fan-base. Some people only like to understand the mechanics, some people like to answer all the unanswered questions, some people just enjoy the power fantasy, and some people just want fuel for their own writing and creations. This article certainly went all over the place huh? If nothing else, you might have fun trying to explain what SPECIAL means in response to this article. Given these background mechanics, often as readers we are left to only postulate with the little evidence we have to make sense of it. If you have no taste for inference, Ziggy hopes the breakdown and SPECIAL and the mechanics it is based on provides a firm basis to evaluate all sorts of mechanics both in the novels and maybe in your own creations!
Anyway my smol children, it is time for Ziggy to return to his planet. Stay well and remember - Maruyama is wrong and you are right whenever you disagree with him! That applies to any of this drivel you read from Ziggy as well! Now go! There will be time for head canon whenever we wish!
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