YMMV / The Aethra Chronicles

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• Game-Breaker:
  • The Deadly Strike skill makes almost every other type of attack redundant. It can instantly kill most enemies and deal massive damage to the others, but more importantly, it also allows continued movement and refreshes the number of melee attacks left, so instead of the expected combat style of making a single attack per round, you can just walk through hordes of enemies and Deadly Strike them all in one round. Best of all, you get a free thief with upper-tier gear who tears through common enemies once you have at least one party member of a high-enough level. Enemies who are immune to instant-death simply get repeated beatdowns, since Deadly Strike still refreshes the number of attacks left. The only real limitation is the number of movement points (and with the right gear, that can be very high).
  • Power Rings give +10 MP, which is fairly normal, and +10 bow attacks, which is not. It isn't a +10 modifier on attack rolls, it's ten extra attacks per round. And there is one for sale, within your budget, in the very first town. Since a level 1 character will normally make only a single bow attack per round, this means that the ring makes them eleven times as effective, killing mooks in a single round and even making short work of bosses. And once you travel to other towns and acquire multiple rings, they stack, allowing your character to make dozens or (with enough rings) even hundreds of attacks until the target falls. (Note that the Ring of Power is the same thing except with a larger MP bonus, and it stacks too.) This also synergises well with the Deadly Strike skill; once your character runs out of moves and can't keep making critical hits, they can still use a bow to deal ridiculous amounts of damage to one more target.