Scope RPG

Charges ​

Charges are the resource that gates soldier (and avatar) skills. Every player unit has their own charge pool and earns charges by taking turns and performing actions. Skills spend charges - the bigger the skill, the more it costs.

All four skills for a soldier class are available from level 1. The big ones aren't level-gated - they're charge-gated. You just have to save up.

Charge-cost skill

How Charges Accumulate ​

Charges are per-unit, not shared across the party. Each soldier (and the avatar) builds up their own reserves.

  • Start of battle - every player unit begins with 2 charges.
  • Turn-start gain - each time a unit starts a turn, they gain 1 charge.
  • Action gain - each time a unit resolves a basic attack or a skill, they gain 1 additional charge on top of the turn-start grant.
  • Maximum - charges cap per unit. Excess charge gain is lost.

The turn-start + action combo means a unit using free basic attacks each turn is netting +2 charges per turn. That's the baseline tempo - a unit content to spam basics will accumulate charges quickly.

Charge Costs at a Glance ​

Every soldier skill has a fixed cost. The full pattern:

CostSkills
0All basic attacks - Sword Strike, Arcane Bolt, Staff Strike, Inspiring Strike
3Taunt, Healing Touch, War Cry
4Fireball, Frost Spike, Purify, Discordant Note
6Heavy Blow, Shield Wall, Come Closer, Rallying Anthem
8Arcane Surge

A skill can only be cast if the unit has enough charges.

Strategic Rhythm ​

The charge economy creates a deliberate three-beat rhythm:

  • Early turns. Basic attacks. Every one deals modest damage and builds toward the bigger plays.
  • Mid-fight. 3-4 charge skills come online - utility, healing, mid-tier damage.
  • Late-fight. 6+ charge finishers land - Heavy Blow, Shield Wall, Rallying Anthem, Arcane Surge.

Pushed aggressively, a soldier can land a 6-cost skill by turn three (2 starting + 1 turn-start + 1 action + 1 turn-start + 1 action = 6). Played patiently, a Mage sitting on Arcane Bolts can have 8 charges saved for Arcane Surge by turn four.

Read the fight before spending

Big skills aren't always the right answer. A 6-charge finisher on an enemy about to die anyway is three turns of basic attacks you could have spent on a bigger target. The charge economy rewards thinking one or two turns ahead.

No Cooldowns on Top of Charges ​

Soldier skills don't have cooldowns. If a unit can pay the cost, they can use the skill again the next turn. A Knight with 12 charges could theoretically Heavy Blow twice in a row - though only if something else fed them charges in between.

This is the key difference from monster skills, which are gated by cooldowns instead.

Charges Reset Between Battles ​

Charges don't persist across fights. Each new battle - including each encounter in a multi-phase dungeon or adventure quest - starts fresh at 2 charges. Multi-encounter dungeons are sequences of independent charge economies, not one long buildup.

Speed Makes Charges Flow Faster ​

Because charges come from turns, and turn frequency is driven by Speed, a fast unit accumulates charges faster than a slow one. A high-Speed Bard can use skills more often than a low-Speed Knight, and the Bard's Rallying Anthem - doubling party Speed for a short window - effectively doubles the party's charge generation during its duration.

Mana Siphon - The Charge Counter ​

Some monsters carry Mana Siphon, which blocks a target's charge gain for a short duration. The target keeps their existing charges and can still spend them, but no new ones accumulate.

This is the monster roster's answer to "save up for a big spell" play patterns. Against a heavy Mana Siphon enemy, you need to either spend charges before they're siphoned or tough it out with basic attacks until the debuff expires.