What is Destiny?
Destiny is the power to exert your influence upon the world, performing spectacular feats that only those with exemplary impact on the narrative can do. These movers and shakers of the world are both heroes and villains; when two such forces stand in opposition of one another it’s always a dramatic sight to behold.
The maximum Destiny any creature can hold is one plus its Force modifier - the more force the more one can influence the world in spectacular ways.
The maximum Destiny any creature can hold is one plus its Force modifier - the more force the more one can influence the world in spectacular ways.
Earning Destiny
A newly playable character will start with 1 Destiny point for every 5 levels they have above level one - A 6th level character introduced to the party will start with 1 Destiny while a 23rd level one will have 4 Destiny. Level 1 characters start with 0 points of Destiny.
Defeating a tough monster usually grants Destiny to at least some of the party. If the monster is Notorious, pick one player in the party to gain a single point of Destiny if one player went above and beyond in the battle (randomly determine who earns the Destiny if not). If the monster is a Boss, the entire party gains a point of Destiny instead. A Superboss instead earns 3 points of Destiny for the entire party due to the severity of the combat.
Dramatic heroism can earn a point of Destiny. The watch‐word here is ‘dramatic’ – this means disarming a city‐leveling bomb at the four second mark, leaping a fifty‐foot drop to catch a rope dangling from the side of a getaway vehicle, supporting an entire two‐story house with nothing but muscle power while it burns AND a party members rushes inside to save the trapped occupants….y’know, that sort of thing.
Certain Abilities earn or transfer Destiny. Some examples of these abilities are Absolute Power, Destined for Greatness, Draw Out, Grand Finale, Master Thief, Raw Power, Tempt Fate, and Victory Pose.
Ideals allow individual characters to gain Destiny as well. One point is awarded when an ideal gets challenged or reaffirmed, while FIVE points are awarded for seeing the end of a lifelong dream (such as building the world’s first airship, becoming a Chocobo knight, finding true love, taking the throne, and so on). Once an ideal has been used to gain Destiny it should be removed or modified based on the character’s new ideals that they have driving them onwards, though a lifelong dream won’t get replaced in this way.
Defeating a tough monster usually grants Destiny to at least some of the party. If the monster is Notorious, pick one player in the party to gain a single point of Destiny if one player went above and beyond in the battle (randomly determine who earns the Destiny if not). If the monster is a Boss, the entire party gains a point of Destiny instead. A Superboss instead earns 3 points of Destiny for the entire party due to the severity of the combat.
Dramatic heroism can earn a point of Destiny. The watch‐word here is ‘dramatic’ – this means disarming a city‐leveling bomb at the four second mark, leaping a fifty‐foot drop to catch a rope dangling from the side of a getaway vehicle, supporting an entire two‐story house with nothing but muscle power while it burns AND a party members rushes inside to save the trapped occupants….y’know, that sort of thing.
Certain Abilities earn or transfer Destiny. Some examples of these abilities are Absolute Power, Destined for Greatness, Draw Out, Grand Finale, Master Thief, Raw Power, Tempt Fate, and Victory Pose.
Ideals allow individual characters to gain Destiny as well. One point is awarded when an ideal gets challenged or reaffirmed, while FIVE points are awarded for seeing the end of a lifelong dream (such as building the world’s first airship, becoming a Chocobo knight, finding true love, taking the throne, and so on). Once an ideal has been used to gain Destiny it should be removed or modified based on the character’s new ideals that they have driving them onwards, though a lifelong dream won’t get replaced in this way.
Spending Destiny
Destiny has a lot of different uses, as noted here:
Enhancing a Roll allows a character to add an extra d6 for each Destiny spent to any roll that allows it. This can be damage rolls, resistance rolls, many job abilities, spells, skills, and more. This can be used either before or after knowing the result of a roll, allowing you to keep enhancing a single roll until you achieve the result you want.
Enhanced rolls have special rules for critical hits and complications; you choose any 2 dice that you have rolled for the purposes of determining if it was a critical hit or complication. For example, if you have a critical range of 10-12 and rolled a 4, 2, and 6, the 4 and 6 would add up to 10 and count as a critical hit.
Introducing Facts allows you to modify the world around you slightly by spending a point of Destiny. Maybe a guard is on break at just the right time, maybe there’s a small opening in the castle wall, maybe a chandelier is exactly above who you want it to be. Any facts introduced this way are conveniences you just so happen to notice and act upon - they don’t necessarily come without their own problems that need to be worked around. These facts must be agreed upon by both the GM and a majority of the players - a GM may have this cost more than one Destiny or veto this outright depending on how much it overwrites the narrative or removes a threat (it’s VERY unlikely that the Archmage happened to forget their staff or that the evil king is completely unguarded, for example).
Certain Abilities and Spells that are on the flashier side will often have a Destiny cost associated with them.
Limit Breaks cost 1-3 points of Destiny to use, depending on the point cost spent to make these Limit Breaks. More information on Limit Breaks can be found within the next section. A Limit Break may only be used once per round by a character.
Summoning costs 1-5 points of Destiny depending on how powerful the summon being conjured is. This goes for both Individual and Group Espers.
Changing Jobs costs a minimum of 3 points of Destiny and may only be done out of combat and usually when specific conditions are met. Job changes often require careful planning as many abilities from different jobs may or may not have good synergy with one another.
When selected a character selects a new job and recalculates their HP, MP, ACC, and AVD based on this new job. Their innate ability, ultimate ability, and defining abilities all get replaced with ones from this new job. Spells, skills, weapon proficiencies, and armor proficiencies all recalculate as well to match this new job as well, meaning a character could potentially lose skill points when job changing in this way, losing skill points as evenly as possible from all skills they know.
Each Destiny spent above 3 for a job change allows the character to replace one already known ability with one from their new class.
Blaze of Glory allows a character to shape the world in some way with a last declaration before their own permanent death. By spending 5 points of Destiny the character sacrifices its own life to do something that the majority of the party agrees with. This always kills the character in some dramatic fashion, never to be seen again. For example, just as a general looms over the party ready to deal the killing blow an Inventor may pull out a bomb built of time magic, making everything nearby get sucked into the void of an alternate dimension.
Enhancing a Roll allows a character to add an extra d6 for each Destiny spent to any roll that allows it. This can be damage rolls, resistance rolls, many job abilities, spells, skills, and more. This can be used either before or after knowing the result of a roll, allowing you to keep enhancing a single roll until you achieve the result you want.
Enhanced rolls have special rules for critical hits and complications; you choose any 2 dice that you have rolled for the purposes of determining if it was a critical hit or complication. For example, if you have a critical range of 10-12 and rolled a 4, 2, and 6, the 4 and 6 would add up to 10 and count as a critical hit.
Introducing Facts allows you to modify the world around you slightly by spending a point of Destiny. Maybe a guard is on break at just the right time, maybe there’s a small opening in the castle wall, maybe a chandelier is exactly above who you want it to be. Any facts introduced this way are conveniences you just so happen to notice and act upon - they don’t necessarily come without their own problems that need to be worked around. These facts must be agreed upon by both the GM and a majority of the players - a GM may have this cost more than one Destiny or veto this outright depending on how much it overwrites the narrative or removes a threat (it’s VERY unlikely that the Archmage happened to forget their staff or that the evil king is completely unguarded, for example).
Certain Abilities and Spells that are on the flashier side will often have a Destiny cost associated with them.
Limit Breaks cost 1-3 points of Destiny to use, depending on the point cost spent to make these Limit Breaks. More information on Limit Breaks can be found within the next section. A Limit Break may only be used once per round by a character.
Summoning costs 1-5 points of Destiny depending on how powerful the summon being conjured is. This goes for both Individual and Group Espers.
Changing Jobs costs a minimum of 3 points of Destiny and may only be done out of combat and usually when specific conditions are met. Job changes often require careful planning as many abilities from different jobs may or may not have good synergy with one another.
When selected a character selects a new job and recalculates their HP, MP, ACC, and AVD based on this new job. Their innate ability, ultimate ability, and defining abilities all get replaced with ones from this new job. Spells, skills, weapon proficiencies, and armor proficiencies all recalculate as well to match this new job as well, meaning a character could potentially lose skill points when job changing in this way, losing skill points as evenly as possible from all skills they know.
Each Destiny spent above 3 for a job change allows the character to replace one already known ability with one from their new class.
Blaze of Glory allows a character to shape the world in some way with a last declaration before their own permanent death. By spending 5 points of Destiny the character sacrifices its own life to do something that the majority of the party agrees with. This always kills the character in some dramatic fashion, never to be seen again. For example, just as a general looms over the party ready to deal the killing blow an Inventor may pull out a bomb built of time magic, making everything nearby get sucked into the void of an alternate dimension.
Destiny and Enemies
Tougher Monsters will often have Destiny of their own and are able to use it in similar fashion to players, potentially having Limit Breaks, summons, and powerful abilities of their own. They may also increase die rolls with this Destiny.
A special aspect of monsters with Destiny is that they may spend 1 point of Destiny to immediately take a Standard action, acting out of order and potentially getting the drop on players who aren’t prepared for it.
Bosses and Superbosses may also spend 1 point of Destiny to kill an unconscious character as a Slow action. If this kill is prevented, they regain this Destiny. Allies to the character have the chance to jump in and hopefully prevent this unfortunate fate. When a player is killed in this way they may still go out in a Blaze of Glory. This is one of the only ways for a Final Fantasy character to truly perish.
A special aspect of monsters with Destiny is that they may spend 1 point of Destiny to immediately take a Standard action, acting out of order and potentially getting the drop on players who aren’t prepared for it.
Bosses and Superbosses may also spend 1 point of Destiny to kill an unconscious character as a Slow action. If this kill is prevented, they regain this Destiny. Allies to the character have the chance to jump in and hopefully prevent this unfortunate fate. When a player is killed in this way they may still go out in a Blaze of Glory. This is one of the only ways for a Final Fantasy character to truly perish.