Commander Cruz
Charger battalion commander

With over 50 skills, Riftforge offers a unique RPG experience.

Fans of MMORPGs will quickly recognize most skill effects.

Pen-and-paper roleplayers will soon find that classic D&D effects like entangled or asleep have been preserved in their original form, even if the names are a bit different.

Without further ado, the 30+ skill effects that add tactical depth to Riftforge's gameplay.

Direct damage and DOTs

Direct damage effects are part of many skills, even some that could be considered pure Utility - like the Charger's Reveal.

Remember that each type of damage can be reduced significantly by adding armor (physical damage) or resistance (elemental damage).

Buffs

Buffs are effects that improve one of the target unit's battle stats. Note that buff and debuffs can both be active at the same time.

For example, your Charger will be accelerated, when you activate Charge. On the next turn, however, the Charger is slowed down with a Barrage from a Ranger. The result is that the Charger is still faster than normal but not by much.

Debuffs

Debuffs are effects that reduce one of the target unit's battle stats. Only several stats can be reduced via debuffs, but since debuffs are fully stackable, it is possible to end up with a unit with so many slowed effects that it cannot move at all.

Crowd control

Crowd control effects disable the target unit in some way. Your unit might find it impossible to move (immobilized) or perform any actions (dazed and stunned).

There is an important difference between a daze and a stun, that is worth noting. The dazed effect breaks easily on damage, so it's best to to deliver all damage to a unit before you daze it.

Stun works in the exactly opposite way - any damage to the unit has a chance to refresh the duration of the stunned effect, thus putting the unit in "stunlock" indefinitely. Use both to your advantage.

Opportunity actions

There is a separate class of effects that result in attacks during your opponents turn. It is important to time this effects correctly, if you want to get the maximum benefit from their activation.

For example, the Ranger's Ambush skill bestows the Ranger with extended range and enables the autoattack effect. Most players would use this skill defensively, when they anticipate that an enemy unit will enter their range in the next turn. However, if your enemy doesn't attack you (or just moves invisible assassins in range), your Ambush skill would be wasted.

Autoattack works just as well as an offensive skill. When you have an enemy unit that is low on health, your opponent will be tempted to move it out of you range on his turn. Pop Ambush and watch his unit die from an arrow in the back.

Conversely, if you expect a Ranger ambush, activate whatever defensive skills you have at your disposal (blocking, dodging, protected, or shielded effects) on one of your units and use it to draw the Ranger's first salvo.

Miscellaneous

The effects in this section are pretty self-explanatory. It is worth noting that in order to remove the hidden effect from an enemy unit, you must use either Reveal (if you are Guardian) or rely on area-of-effect spells that damage everyone in the area. Rangers can use Incinerate and Fireball; Raiders can use Gas Grenade and Steel Rain.