Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!

A question of how to differentiate Fighter Skills from Mage Spells has been brought up in the IRC chat. One of the thoughts that occurs to me is introducing a new statistics to be included in the sidebar below the Fighter's current MP stat called "Rage" (or something similar).


-=The Basic Basics of Rage=-

• A fighter would start the day with zero rage (empty Rage counter).
• The basic Rage counter could would go from 0 Rage to 100 Rage.
• Each fighter special attack has a certain rage cost and can be executed as long as the fighter has Rage to pay for it.
• If we imagine that Grunty Swing (GS) has a Rage cost of 2, then a fighter will only be able to execute the GS when his Rage Meter is at 2 or above.
• A fighter can only use an attack if he has the Rage to pay for it.

-=How to Increase the Rage Meter=-

• Get hit by a monster in combat.
• Use a consumable that gives a fighter a certain number of Rage points.

-=How to Decrease the Rage Meter=-

• Regardless of how much Rage you have, healing at the Healer will set your Rage to zero.
• Using an attack decreases your Rage Meter by that many Rage points.

-=Rage Meter Advanced=-

• If the cost of an attack that you use sets your Rage meter to zero, the Fighter counts as temporarily exhausted and is unable to gain any Rage through consumables or taking damage until a certain number of combat turns (attack exchanges between you and a monster) pass or until he is healed by the Healer.
• The Rage counter can be extended beyond 100 by special items in order to allow the Fighter to perform more powerful "Finishing" attacks that cost more than 100 Rage.

-=Notes on Rage=-

• To compensate for being unable to spam a special attack like mages spam spells, Proficiencies can be added to fighter special attacks, thereby gently boosting their effectiveness with use.
• Fighters would still retain their MP stat so they can cast spells (e.g. Rage would not replace MP).

-=Questions that Still Need to be Answered=-

• Question 1: How and how much Rage does a fighter gain from being hit?
  I doubt making the damage to Rage conversion 1:1 is a good idea. Since my character is only level 13 I'm clueless as to how much damage high-level fighters take. Maybe a percentage-based approach is best here.
• Question 2: For how many turns will a fighter be unable to gain Rage if they use an attack that sets their Rage to zero?
  I would like to say three turns (to me a turn is an exchange of damage between you and a monster), but I'm just pulling that number of out the air.

Feedback and thoughts appreciated!

One problem is see with this description of "Rage", is that it doesn't really add anything to a Fighter's abilities, it only handicaps them. The possible exception is the "finishing" moves enabled with the advanced Rage bits.

(The other thing worth noting is that <0 Rage could be Depression.)

This idea came about because I understood the discussion to be about fleshing out the differences between fighters and mages - given each their own twist or approach to an admittedly similar concept (clicking a "special move" button instead of "attack" button).

In my view, a fighter would be able to start using Rage powered special moves on his second turn or even on the first, if s/he preps by using special items or consumables to increase their Rage before-hand. Adding proficiencies to special moves should also help fighters adjust.

The overall goal, besides making each class a bit more unique, is to try and add more strategy into Game! and cut down on the routine. To take the idea of Rage a step further (and to address concerns of weakening fighters), a fighter could learn to "overload" his moves by spending more than their base rage cost in order to increase the moves' effectiveness.

I like the idea of Depression. Special regular monsters could have a chance at draining Rage (either to zero or below, like 1337 DOODZ can drain MP). Furthermore Bosses could have a low-chance at draining a fighter's entire Rage bar. I should note the difference between having your Rage bar drained by a monster versus by a player action is that you can begin regaining rage immediately if a monster was at fault.