These are the Effects that Arts may have along with their additional AP cost and their function. Effects fall into four main categories:
Attack Enhancers: Improve your attack that turn.
Reaction Modifiers: Modify your reactions next turn, in addition to other effects.
Healing and Support: Restore LF, up to a per-fight limit and with depreciating success as that limit is approached, and apply persistent buffs.
Debuffs: Apply persistent debuffs. Debuffs are further divided into three subcategories -- Standard, Transformation, and Hexes -- explained below.
ATTACK ENHANCERS
Crush (CRU): 10 AP. Reduce opponent's chance of blocking this attack. If the attack is successfully blocked, increase the block penalty accrued.
Sweep (SWP): 10 AP. Reduce opponent's chance of dodging this attack. If the attack is successfully dodged, increase the chance of a Glancing Blow (partial damage).
Priority (PRI): 15 AP. Reduce opponent's chance of interrupting this attack. If this attack is used to interrupt, increase the chance of success.
EX: 100 EX, -5 AP. Increase points available to distribute to Force and Accuracy for this attack and reduce AP cost, but expend a full EX meter.
Drain: 20 AP. If an attack is not dodged, the attacker heals themselves proportionally to the damage they inflict. Note that this healing counts toward the attacker's per-fight healing limit.
Dispel: 10 AP. If the attack is successful or endured, remove one random buff from the target.
Strain: 5 AP. Damage oneself in exchange for inflicting more damage on a successful hit, relative to the AP cost of the action.
REACTION MODIFIERS
Rush (RSH): 5 AP. If this attack is not used as an interrupt, increase its accuracy. However, until next action, all reaction chances slightly decrease.
Weave (WV): 5 AP. Slightly decrease the accuracy of this attack but increase the chance to dodge until next action.
Brace (BRC): 5 AP. Slightly decrease the accuracy of this attack but increase the chance to block until next action.
Bait (BT): 5 AP. Slightly decrease the accuracy of this attack but increase the chance to interrupt until next action.
Long-Range: 5 AP. For attacks especially effective at long distances or as suppressing fire. This attack is harder to interrupt with non-Ranged attacks and, if not dodged or successfully interrupted, inflicts a "knockback" accuracy penalty to the target until their next action. In exchange, slightly decrease both the attack's accuracy and all the attacker's reaction chances until next action.
HEALING AND SUPPORT
For reasons of balance and simplicity, all Support Arts must heal: there are no Arts with 0 Force, i.e., that do not affect the target's LF either positively or negatively. Support Effects persist for 3 actions unless Dispelled. All are also compatible with each other, e.g., Haste and Blink stack.
The Force of a healing Art determines the baseline of how much it heals and its Accuracy determines how much its output varies. Thus, a low-Force high-Accuracy heal is consistent and a high-Force low-Accuracy heal is potentially powerful but inconsistent. Multi-target Heals, like multi-target attacks generally, divide their LF impact between their targets. E.g., an Art that would have healed 200 to one target would heal 100 to two targets each.
Additionally, however, all Support Effects have their AP costs multiplied by their number of targets. Trying to put too many Support Effects on a single Art will thus render it cost-prohibitive to target multiple allies.
Heal: 10 AP. Restore LF instead of inflicting damage. Prerequisite for other Support Effects. May use this Art with the "heal" command instead of "attack."
Cure: 10 AP. Removes a random debuff or a specific debuff by modifying the "heal" command with "heal/[name of debuff]".
Revive: 15 AP. Remove the Recovering status inflicted when a party member falls to 0 LF, thereby saving them the turn they would otherwise have lost by being required to "pass."
Serendipity: 10 AP. Apply a random Support Effect listed below.
Regen: 15 AP. Heal the target over time. This healing counts toward the target's per-fight healing limit.
Vigor: 15 AP. Increase Power and Knowledge.
Protect: 15 AP. Slightly increase Parry and improve damage mitigation when interrupting Power-type attacks, significantly when the interrupt is successful and moderately when it fails.
Reflect: 15 AP. Slightly increase Barrier and improve damage mitigation when interrupting Knowledge-type attacks, significantly when the interrupt is successful and moderately when it fails.
Acuity: 15 AP. Slightly increase Speed and improve chance of critical hits.
Bless: 15 AP. Increase resistance to all Debuffs.
Purity: 15 AP. Grant immunity to all non-Standard Debuffs, i.e., Transformation and Hexes.
Haste: 15 AP. Quicken body and mind. Slightly increase Speed and improve the effectiveness of the Aim command.
Blink: 15 AP. Be trailed by illusory afterimages. Slightly increase Speed and improve the effectiveness of the Feint command.
Note that because SCSMUSH's combat system involves reactions, which tends to make players more deliberative and thus combat slower, Support Effects are designed to avoid dragging out combat too much. Defensive benefits therefore tend to be specific and to encourage risk-taking, like interrupts, or engagement with the game's mechanics, like Aiming and Feinting.
DEBUFFS (STANDARD)
All standard Debuffs cost 15 AP and persist for 3 actions unless Cured. Like Support Effects, they have their cost multiplied by the number of the attack's targets. Note that some standard Debuffs have a mixed positive and negative impact.
Poison: Inflict damage over time.
Wound: Whenever this character acts, inflict damage relative to the AP cost of their action. Actions with no AP cost or that regain AP, like Normals, do not inflict damage.
Injure: Lower the target's Power and Parry and slightly lower Speed.
Muddle: Lower the target's Knowledge and Barrier and slightly lower Speed.
Miasma: Halves the effectiveness of heals on the target.
Berserk: Increase the target's Power, Knowledge, and Speed, but the AP costs of all Arts below a Force/Damage of 50 increase by 10, making more accurate attacks harder to use.
Petrify: Lower a target's Speed and greatly reduce their Dodge chance specifically, but somewhat improve their Block and Endure chances.
Slime: Lower a target's Speed and greatly reduce their Block chance specifically, but somewhat improve their Dodge and Endure chances.
Curse: Decrease a target's resistance to all debuffs.
DEBUFFS (TRANSFORMATION)
Transformation debuffs have dramatic effects but serious limitations. First, they only last for 2 rounds. Second, a target can only be affected by one Transformation debuff at a time. Third, being affected by a Transformation debuff greatly increases the target's resistance to any future Transformation attempts during the fight. Finally, these debuffs have the highest AP costs of any Effects.
Morph: 25 AP. Inflict a random Transformation Effect.
Bird: 35 AP. Turn the target into a bird, effectively halving their Power and Parry.
Frog: 35 AP. Turn the target into a frog, effectively halving their Power and Barrier.
Pig: 35 AP. Turn the target into a pig, effectively halving their Knowledge and Parry.
Pumpkin: 35 AP. Turn the target into a pumpkin, effectively halving their Knowledge and Barrier. Somehow, they can still hop around.
DEBUFFS (HEXES)
Mechanically, all Hexes cost 10 AP and have the same Distraction effect, persisting for 3 actions: they moderately reduce the target's reaction chances multiplied by the number of different Hexes on the target. Being Hexed also moderately increases the target's resistance to being Hexed again during the fight, a bonus which depreciates with each action.
Hexes differ from one another entirely through RP flavor, which may differ depending on the character or the circumstances. The player of the Hexed character is free to interpret the specific results. Finally, unlike other Debuffs, using the "pass" command removes all Hexes, representing the character taking some time to somehow shake off the effects. (If a player just doesn't want to deal with RPing out the Hexes in question, they thus do not have to.)
Hex1/Hex2/Hex3: 10/20/30 AP. Inflict X number of random Hexes.
Blind: RP as though the character cannot see. If appropriate, use "attack/wild" to greatly reduce accuracy but increase critical hit chance.
Silence: RP as though the character cannot speak, avoiding the use of Arts that would require it.
Amnesia: RP as though the character has become very forgetful.
Sleep: RP as though the character is sleepwalking while dreaming. If appropriate, use "attack/wild."
Charm: RP as though the character is smitten with the first person they see upon being charmed.
Confuse: RP as though the character cannot tell the difference between friend and foe.
Fear: RP as though the character is stricken with terror.
Bind: RP as though the character cannot easily move, but can, e.g., wriggle or roll around.
Zombie: RP as though the character has been zombified, literally or psychologically.
Doom: RP as though the character is confronting their own mortality or otherwise having an existential crisis.
Dance: RP as though the character is compelled to dance. If appropriate, use "attack/wild."
Stinky: RP as though the character emits a terrible stench.
Itchy: RP as though the character is extremely itchy. If appropriate, use "attack/wild."
Old: RP as though the character has been considerably aged.