Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay, let's see here. There are some things bothering me, here.

First and foremost, everyone's been really helpful overall. However, there are issues with the suggestions.

Arrien, thus: http://www.life123.com/home-garden/flower-guides/flower-meanings/cherry-blossom-meaning.shtml
Googling cherry blossom lore turned that up within the first page or so. That ties the self-sacrificial part in beautifully. Also, a lot of what you suggested would be impossible to accomplish.
Making someone contemplate anything, for me, approaches the realm of godmodding and if a senshi had an attack that would make my character think a certain way, chances are I'd avoid rping with that senshi. Because, honestly, some characters couldn't give a care about the beauty or mortality of life and cherry blossoms. I mean, hell, my quest character, Dominic, is so ADD that he'd see them and be like 'cool' and off on something else in no time flat.

What it boils down to is quantification. For any battle system to work consistently and reliably, there need to be rules. Otherwise you get chaos as you have to rework logistics over and over again in every new situation and abilities get inflated and deflated at irregular intervals. Structure. It's all about structure.

That said, a lot of what I've seen in general cannot be quantified. There's no way to reliably have it roll out time after time. Yes, certain variables will affect the outcome, but the basic attack itself has to be unchanging.

Now, there's something else, and this is to everyone in general, but more specifically Roma.

There are four basic types of attacks (though abilities is really the right word) that are pretty much widely standard in battle systems and games. Offensive, defensive, augmentative, and deflection/protection.

That's it, four. You have attacks that hurt, attacks that reduce the hurt taken in the future, attacks that boost other attacks, and attacks that transfer or reduce damage already taken.

That being said, I understand that deflection/protection is pretty much it of what Virgo can do, but in my opinion, you cannot 'selfishly' lay claim to such a broad concept as damage absorption and transference.

For example, my quest (which was stamped ok'ed) deals with powdered sulfur clouds that inhibit breathing and cause damage to eyes, etc.
There's Pomona who uses pepper to do... pretty much the same thing. But causing breathing issues is a broad concept/effect.
Elektra uses clouds. My quest uses clouds. Of sulfur, yes, but clouds all the same. And what about a senshi who uses dust or poisons?

See where I'm going? Overlap is not only inevitable, but if this shop is to survive with an ever increasing population, you can't lay claim to oversweeping umbrella concepts. Laying claim to damage transferal is like laying claim to healing. Which, there are several senshi that all heal/rejuvenate/etc. So... yeah.

Not to mention, there is historical evidence to back up the relationship between cherry blossoms and the protection/deflection aspect. See that link I posted in my reply to Arrien.

...Okay?

Let's pull some quotes, here.

Pumona::
Effects: Peppers release a bigger puff of smoke on contact, effecting a larger area. Effects of smoke are more potent, but still depend on what areas are exposed. It can cause stinging watery eyes, "burning" mouth, mild to moderate "burning" skin irritation, and coughing and/or difficulty breathing.

I.e: eyes burn, skin burns, breathing really sucks. Also burns, given the bit about coughing.

Arrakis::
- contact with skin results in irritation
- contact with mucous membranes and eyes results in inflammation and temporary blinding, respectively

I.e: skin burns, eyes burn, and breathing really sucks. Also, there would be coughing, because it's sulphur. I mean, c'mon.

So even if the breathing issues, which, honestly to me, boil down to more of a difference in descriptive semantics than actual effect, are different, there's all that eye and skin irritation which is pretty much the same.

And if there were to be an issue with Pomona v. Arrakis with the staff, that's more of an issue with how the shop and battle system are run. If everyone is really going to be that ridiculously proprietary about it, it's going to get frustrating and boring really fast for anyone at all who tries to come in.

Also, you never addressed the bit about how Lacrimosa's sphere actually has lore and history that allows self-sacrifice, links provided for it, even. It's a bit of a moot point, but I don't see how 'innocence' connects to self-sacrifice except in a rather vague manner.

Also, Sailor Moon canon has overlapping spheres :/ Saturn, Usagi, and Chibi Usagi, anyone? The effects overlap.

The fact that they have the same effects is more due to, in my observation, the fact that the scope of available effects is so limited. You...can't really elaborate on damage transferral to oneself. It's pretty cut and dry. And that still brings up the issue of the numerous healing abilities/etc in the senshi already in play now. It's the same thing.

TL;DR:: You're still laying claim to a very, VERY broad aspect of abilities. Besides, how would you quantify transferring the damage to objects that would continue to bear the marks? Will that oak tree take the same damage as a pine? and if so, would the marks from the transferral (or the obliterated stump, even, in a small enough tree) be there forever, standing on the street corner?

Have you ever played a TCG? There are always effects that take damage from an ally and use it towards oneself. Same in video games and oh my GOD the amount of abilities that do that in D&D.

So are you saying that if the final attack did more than just transfer energy to Lacrimosa, you'd be kosher with that? Also, I'd like to point out that I very much doubt Bunni's 'stealing' Virgo's abilities, so the shortness you've been using is sorta :/

I in no way think Bunni was purposefully trying to steal Virgo's abilities. If I came off as curt, I'm sorry--that's the stock response I use when I see an attack that overlaps too much. There are about a hundred and fifty upgraded characters in the shop, it'd be impossible for anyone to have every senshi's attack memorized. The shop's rules are that attacks cannot overlap to the degree which you're saying they should be able to.

This argument really isn't even valid any longer, since the attack has been edited to remove this aspect.

Thing is, is that brings in my point of where else would the damage go? Transferring it to buildings, cars, trees, etc, with oft disastrous results would have the senshi go from being vigilante scapegoats to terrorists.

Plus, if it was an issue of strength, that's fine. That, I imagine, could be worked out. No one said Lacrimosa had to be as strong as Virgo.

Virgo's attack is written too broad for this sort of proprietary behavior, in my opinion, which, I suppose, fault on that lies with whoever wrote the attack. What about, again, those healing senshi? There's a healing SPHERE and yet senshi have healing powers outside it and how many different ways, really, are there of healing someone? Damage transfer doesn't even really have a connection to innocence that I can see, honestly, except in a misty-eyed vague sort of oddly-nostalgic way.

I agree, turning it the opposite way is also a good idea, but in my opinion, ALSO.

Arrakis's and Pumona's effects are essentially the same when you get right down to it, down to the burning eyes and skin. The sulphur vs. peppers argument, to me, is the same as the petals vs. whatever it is Virgo uses.

But, roma's right- it's been edited so it'll end here.

Unfortunately, I expect this same issue will come up again in another incarnation, but we'll see.

I'm sorry, but I have to disagree. What if Bob doesn't care about beauty or cherry blossoms or the transient nature of life? What if the enemy has no higher consciousness or is so enraged that they can't be turned away? Plus, like I said, 'reflecting on life',etc. would be all but impossible to quantify :/ 'Entrancing' someone falls along the lines of dazing them, which is different, but making someone think a certain, narrow way is too close for me.

Also, I'm confused as to where I listed status effects as an attack style. It would fall under the offensive category mainly, but I didn't list it as an independent type.

Bunni, I'll take this discussion to the admin guild.

No more posting about this in here guys, and Bunni we'll get your input after the GMs have discussed this issue for a bit.

Okay looking at your eternal attack: that's a great improvement, but I'd recommend against the willpower dice roll and have the entrancing quality / calming effect be a consent-based thing. The "willpower" stat is nested in a character's virtues and flaws: using my own characters for an example, Atlas has almost no willpower while Uranophane has the willpower of a bullet train, and the attack would affect either of them very differently.

And do you mean it makes the character generally reminisce, or were you going for villains getting hit by cherry blossoms and looking back on their bad behavior and feeling bad about it / deciding to change their ways? The former would be a lot of fun and a neat tie-in to the romantic / nostalgic qualities of cherry blossoms, but the latter is something I recommend against because it is more than a little twinkish.

Have you also thought of, for the Eternal attack, summoning a cherry tree in full bloom and giving the effect a field radius instead of just targeting one enemy with a flurry of blossoms? Same idea, attack ends when all the blossoms have fallen off, but it's an AoE instead of focusing on just one target, and that could be a more interesting shift to the battle dynamic - think of the Eternal attack as your Final Smash, it's encouraged to be kind of epic. You are by no means required to change how many targets Lacrimosa's final attack has, it's just a thought. XD

You aren't godmoding with this if you don't have it work with 100% efficiency 100% of the time, and that's what you're trying to do with the dice roll, right? But you don't need to do a "willpower save" with a dice roll to make the will-save work, because people are already writing and describing their characters having a certain amount of willpower -- and THAT'S what they're pitting up against the attack, not random chance but the advantage or disadvantage they'll get with their personality traits.

Like, if Uranophane were pitted up against this attack she'd be able to resist its effects a bit more because she has an extremely strong willpower, but if Atlas were somehow caught in it I would most likely write him succumbing to its effects almost completely because he's a pushover.

So instead of "forcing" characters to be affected in a certain way, you could say they're strongly enticed towards it, and having stronger willpower = more resistance works fine without a dice roll.