Abilities
While +stats gives you your ability names, types, elements, and costs in a brief format, it doesn't go in depth about what your abilities do. This is the job of +attacks! It provides a handy reference list to not only names and costs, but also elements, attack levels, and any special added effects.
Provided here is a sample ability list.
This is what would pop up if one were to use the regular +attacks command. Up top is listed one's weapon attacks, followed by one's Special attack, followed by a section indicating the abilities on one's currently-equipped Persona. But what do they mean?
Abilities are listed as follows: first comes the Name, then the projected Accuracy (taking into account buffs and debuffs on the character), then a Type, an Element, and a Damage Level. Next up is a list of Effect tags on the abilities, and then an SP cost. If there are a lot of tags or effects, the display expands to encompass them.
There's also a Group display in the ability list, which displays the groups a Persona has as well as the ranks to which it can access those groups.
The attack types are:
Physical (phs)- Uses PATK! Defended against with PDEF.
Magical (mag)- Uses MATK! Defended against with MDEF.
Primal (pri)- Uses the highest of either MATK or PATK! Defended against with MDEF. May not be used for a character's Special or custom moves.
Ailment (sup)- Uses MATK! Defended against with MDEF.
Recovery (sup)- Uses MATK! Modified by target's REC+.
Weapon (wpn)- Uses WATK! Defended against with PDEF.
Passive (pas)- Passive ability, operates automatically.
As might be apparent, Ailment and Recovery are both classed as Support abilities. They are undodgeable: evasion and accuracy are ignored for these abilities.
Accuracy is determined primarily by an attack's power level. One could say that it's easier to more precisely hit with weaker abilities that require less focus, or simply that those weaker abilities can be executed more quickly. Whichever is easier to understand and pose is fine. The meaning is that low-level attacks are more accurate than high-level attacks, and some tags and passives have an effect on accuracy as well. Evasion modifies this value for specific targets, so try to pay attention to your opponents!
SP Costs, meanwhile, are determined by the attack's power level and by the grade and count of its tags. More powerful attacks cost more! Weapon attacks are a special case as regards cost, however: these tend to restore, rather than cost, SP. This is modified by tags and power level as normal, but on a different track from other effects. As a further note, boss mode modifies all of these costs in accordance with the level of boss healing used.
Tags and effects are covered in Effects. Keep an eye out for what your abilities do!
In general, a character will have multiple abilities, in roughly three categories: Self, Groups, and Discretionary List. Of these, the first is derived primarily from the character herself, albeit empowered by her supernatural abilities if she has them. The second and third are the same from an IC perspective, but are organized and chosen a bit differently.
Self abilities include one's weapon attacks and one's Special attack. Weapon attacks come in three basic forms: a Low attack, a Mid attack, and a High attack. These are all using the same weapon, but representing a tiered set of attacks, from more conservative to full-out. The theory behind their restoration of SP is that spending time using one's weapons is easier on one's concentration that continued direction of one's Persona, and thus offers a chance for a character to regain some of that spiritual energy. The more involved the weapon attack, however, the less true this is. Weapons has more details on these. One's Special attack, meanwhile, is a unique technique that can be fully mundane or even mystical in nature: either way, it's boosted by the powers of the character's Persona or Shadow, if any, but can be executed without summoning or transforming, or even while a different Persona or Shadow than one's main is active.
Persona abilities include both groups and the discretionary list, and overall encompass the varied things the character's Persona or Shadow can do in combat. All of these require either summoning or transformation, respectively, and all of them involve the use of that supernatural quality. Posing that one attacks along with one's persona, or attacks as the Persona empowers them, are both fine though. The only exceptions are those characters who have such a list without a Persona or Shadow, and those cases are rare, typically empowered by some other force or meant to represent trained and deadly but mundane fighters. In general, these abilities can be fantastic things no normal person can do: spectral blades of force, an extra affinity for critical strikes, or a spontaneous gale-force wind are all examples.
