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Takeover Rules wrote:Take-Over allows the user to, essentially, use the power of an entity and use it to fight. This magic is limited to a single element and can't create buff spells but instead has a passive buff that is applied to the user when transforming.

So just here we have a couple of issues. The first one is that TO is element locked. It wouldn't be so bad if the other issue wasnt here, which is to say the lack of the ability to create other buffing spells.

TO on this forum is subject to the bonus damage granted by slayer magic. That's not a problem per say, but it does mean that it shouldn't be bad on top of having a hard counter in the magic department.  If a TO user meets their soul's slayer and the two share an element you can see where the elemental lock becomes a more serious issue, but it's a fair one. Though we've seen TO that has no element, and we've seen it have dual elements sooooo... Yeah...

Still, I digress. What I want to focus on right now is the lack of buffing magic on a magic that's key feature is buffs and subspells.

There doesn't appear to be any rules against buffing for other magics, even ones that aren't specifically made for them, so why would TO be any different? This is a limited magic, yet it's rules are limiting the player rather than empowering them.

In the animals the first taste of TO we get is when Elfman goes bull beast mode, gaining an impressive increase to his physical strength as well as his durability. The next big show we get, and whom I'll be focusing on largely throughout my argument is Mirajane.

In her first use of takeover against freed Mirajane's transformation enables her to soundly beat the shit of him. She's faster than him, AND stronger than him. Implying that soul she used was both fast and strong. Two buffs, if one were to translate this to a mechanic. You could argue that Elfman's transformations also provide a host of buffs to himself as he takes on his monsters.

If take over can't be allowed to multi buff than it should be allowed at least 3 or more buffs. For a complete TO it'll offer them all in a package deal, 3 for the price of 1 and in the case of partial species spells they can use multiple parts of the same TO that each offer a buff related to that part, and a supplementary spell effect such as flight, or armor.

Or ya know... TO could just be allowed to multi buff. Because that actually makes sense.


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Rules on sustained spells wrote:The max duration a spell can be sustained is 6 posts but it has to be mentioned when registering the spell.

This is a blatant flaw in the TO design that seems to have been overlooked. It isn't specified if it ignores this rule. If it doesn't, this would mean every TO, regardless of spell strength only lasts 6 posts. Furthermore, subspells you have would have to be cast in these 6 posts otherwise you've effectively wasted the potential of the transformation.

I'm not entirely certain how spell cooldowns work, but if they begin when the spell is cast then this shouldn't be a huge problem. But if they begin from when a spell ends than this would make anyone using TO a sitting duck after 6 posts as they wait for their forms to come off cooldown. That in itself isn't a problem but with the way TO is currently set up its just too costly a sacrifice to be left ineffective 6 posts into a fight.

Not only that, but it could argued that this makes it a poor idea to create higher ranked spells. The problem here is that TO lacks scaling for higher ranked makes, which is absurd as we see the mages who practice this magic hold their own, and often times beat, a supposedly stronger opponent.

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Speaking of lack of scaling;

Dragon Soul rules wrote:This particular form of Magic allows the user to Take Over dragon-type creatures. Dragon Slayer magic does one rank extra damage when the magic is being used. The difference with other Take-Over magics is that sub-spells cost 5 mana less to cast

I would have loved to picked dragon soul. I practically invented it back on ftrp. But this difference is insulting. 5 less mana to cast is pitiful, especially once spells start costing more than 10 mana. This should be 5 per rank of spell, so that way this option doesn't make high rank TO absolute garbage in comparison to Mecha or Daemon soul.