Hey folks. :) Time for another preview of what's coming in the next build! This time we're looking at Leadership skills.

Most Leadership skills follow a similar format: they make the character who learns them count as a Leader, provide various benefits to non-Leader allies, but inflict penalties on non-Leader allies if the character dies. This encourages, though does not require, a single "Leader" in a party, though I have added some skills that specifically encourage multiple Leaders as well.

Here's a preview of some of what's coming. :)

Vanguard Leader: You count as a Leader. If you are in the front row, you heal recent HP damage for non-Leader allies on the front row at the end of each round of battle. The amount healed is based on your Will. If you die, inflicts Fear on all non-Leaders.

Campaign Leader: You count as a Leader. At the end of battle, you restore a tiny amount of FP to all non-Leader allies. The amount of restoration is based on your Will. If you die, all non-Leaders lose a large amount of FP.

Standard Bearer: Gain the Raise Banner technique, which can be used when in the front row to randomly draw enemy attacks towards you while increasing all non-Leader party members' attack accuracy, evasion, and action speed. The effect lasts until you become unable to act or die: if this occurs, the bonuses granted to non-Leader party members become penalties instead. Notably, this skill does *not* make the character who learns it a Leader, though it still only affects Leaders.

Archery Captain: You count as a Leader. Gain the Prepare To Fire technique, which can be used from the the back row to grant Poise to all non-Leader back row allies. If all allies on the back row have Poise, you gain Poise as well. If you die, all non-Leaders on the back row lose all Poise. (Poise a stacking buff that improves the overall performance of ranged attacks, but is lost if you take any damage, or take any action other than ranged attack or something that generates Poise.)

Still a decent chunk of work left on the new build, but I am on a lengthy break from work now for the holiday, and while I do plan to spend some of that time relaxing, I definitely will also spend a fair bit of it working on the next update, so progress should speed up a little for the next couple of weeks. :) Not quite willing to commit to a build release yet, but we're getting there!

Until next time, cheers, and good luck on your adventures!