Rising Storm OOC

[Saria]

A kneader looks nothing like a shillelagh. A balmwood staff does, however. Considering a shillelagh is a type of knotted walking stick/club. A kneader looks more like a back massager/scratcher plate staff with a crystal tied to it - I think it's a crystal since it glows when used - it's probably just low quality and presents with inclusions that give it a cloudy look, and a lower healing ability.
Shillelagh - Back Scratcher/Massager
The kneader would actually be even worse potentially - depending on the quality of the massager used, it could splinter and snap. Either way, human skulls are very strong in most areas.

@Lorelei
*pets softly*

[MageLorelei]

Whoops. Either way, both would make a somewhat effective weapon. Well, if I got hit in the hand by one I would probably drop my weapon if I wasn't wearing any sort of gauntlet. Break a man's hand and he'll probably be too distracted to kill you.



@Saria
*purrs*

[Saria]

Actually it'd be very unlikely for a kneader (or even a balmwood staff) to break your hand, not unless there was a very large force behind it - more so for the kneader. On bare hands at most it would probably just make them lose their grip on their weapon briefly, since as fighters a foe would be fairly decent with pain not to mention hyped up on adrenaline, which would reduce the pain they notice. And then you have to consider that most units where gloves of at least some kind - some are light ones like priests, some wear metal gauntlets like knights.

@Lorelei
The Lorelei purrs like a kitty!

[Foleo]

But that's another universe haha

[Saria]

That's a mechanic that was present for one game, and replaced in the next (original) game.
Too many people complained about it being too hard to keep their staff-wielding units alive without the ability to counter-attack, so it was implemented - as counter-attack only, since staves are not supposed to be used to fight physically. However by Awakening, we can see that's been changed to a more realistic approach, in that units only with staves cannot attack, but those who have another weapon that they can use will automatically switch to that to counter-attack, regardless of if they were left at the end of their phase holding a staff. For example, a sage with a heal staff could switch to their thunder tome if attacked.
I'm not saying it's completely impossible to attack with a staff but I am saying that if you plan to do that keep in mind how that would actually work and other such logic.

[Foleo]

Yes, of course. Plus, the staves in Tellius look MUCH sturdier than the little binky ones in Ylisse.

Linden will certainly not be massacring armies with his staff. I will keep this discussion in mind while I'm writing!

EDIT: What are y'all's opinions on how heal staves work? Do they turn back time to reverse the damage, expedite the healing process (speed up the division of cells) in that area, or speed up time to when the wound is already healed?

The first option would be a bit overpowered? I feel like people would take that magic to do some arcane, messed up things involving playing with time. If they could harness the magic they could become immortal.

The second option seems like it would cause cancer. And would require lots of concentration/skill so that the cells don't grow wayy too much. Also requires all foreign objects to be removed first.

And the third option means the person ages really fast? And would probably reduce their lifespan if used repeatedly. Plus, like the first option, it involves messing with time.

[Iliad]

I don't think it'd be the rewind/fast forward time options because those seem too hazardous, but I have no idea on the second one because I don't happen to be smart...

[MageLorelei]

I assume that healing staves work by regrowing the cells in a localized area for a short amount of time. Like, increasing the body's natural healing.

[Saria]

Staves don't influence time at all, they just...well I wouldn't say just rapid division, it's probably restoration that uses that, as in it can heal a wound but it won't go "overboard" as such. They aren't capable of miracles (like regrowing a lost limb) and are highly dependant on the user's ability (a strong healer using a weak staff could still do a better job than a weak healer using a strong staff, most likely, as the staves act to channel the magic into a useable form I guess).

I don't see how it'd cause cancer at all. Cancer itself is a disease caused by the uncontrolled division of abnormal cells. The healing staff isn't altering the cell DNA or causing harmful mutations, it's causing natural cloning basically (mitosis - each cell is the same as the one it divided from). Therefore the cells aren't abnormal. And rapid =/= uncontrolled. Since the two criteria of what defines cancer aren't being met, there's really no link here. It's the rapid, controlled division of healthy cells for a temporary time period. And of course foreign objects would need to be removed first. The staves don't harness telekinetic energies to move objects, they just heal.

[Foleo]

Ah yes, that makes sense! The removing-foreign-objects thing makes it a bit hard to heal in the middle of a battle, though, right? On the battlefield it would be hard to make the wound sanitary, and with such rapid division I would infer that the body couldn't naturally push out the debris? Wouldn't that cause infection in the future?