Overview

This genre pack targets action role-playing games (ARPGs) in the Diablo / Path of Exile mould: a character defined by primary attributes, equippable items that roll stat modifiers, signature abilities, and — above all — a multiplicative damage pipeline that has to stay sane as item counts grow.

It is the practical, copy-and-extend companion to the ARPG (Diablo-style) case study in the core specification (Section 15.3). Where the case study explains the Damage Bucket architecture, this pack ships the matching schema-conformant Attributes, Tags, Abilities, and Effects in entities/, plus a worked hero in entities/gameplay_controller.yaml.

Relationship to the core specification

This document is additive. It defines genre-specific Attributes, Tags, Abilities, and Effects on top of the core Universal Gameplay Ability System specification.

  • It MUST NOT redefine, override, or contradict any concept in the core spec.

  • All entities in entities/ validate against the same schemas/*.json as the core.

  • It reuses core state tags (State.Alive, State.Combat, State.Dead, State.Debuff.Stunned, State.Buff.Regenerating) by reference — it never re-declares them.

  • The damage-bucket stacking it relies on is the core modifier Channel mechanism (core spec §5.3 and §15.3), not a new construct.

Genre Attributes

Defined in entities/attribute_set.yaml as the RPGCoreAttributes set.

Attribute Category Role

Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Vitality

Statistic

Primary, player-allocated stats that feed everything else.

MaxHealth / Health

Statistic / Resource

Health is clamped to [0, MaxHealth]; reaching 0 kills the character.

MaxMana / Mana

Statistic / Resource

Mana is clamped to [0, MaxMana] and spent by ability costs.

WeaponDamage

Statistic

The aggregated outgoing-damage stat targeted by the damage buckets.

Armor, CritChance, CritDamage

Statistic

Derived combat stats. CritChance is clamped to [0, 1].

Level, Experience

Meta / Resource

Progression. Experience accumulates toward the next Level.

Damage buckets (the core RPG mechanic)

ARPG power scaling is multiplicative across named channels and additive within a channel. This pack uses three canonical channels, all aggregating onto WeaponDamage:

Channel What goes in it Stacking

MainStat

Primary-stat scaling (e.g. Strength → +damage)

Additive within

DamageBonuses

Conditional / item damage bonuses (fire, vs. elites, while healthy …)

Additive within

LegendaryPowers

Item-set / legendary multipliers

Additive within, multiplied across the others

Because channels are part of the core modifier pipeline, the stacking is expressed declaratively in Effect YAML — no custom calculation code is needed for it.

Worked example (entities/gameplay_controller.yaml)

With Strength = 50 and the Fire Sword equipped:

  • MainStat factor: \(1 + (0.01 \times 50) = 1.50\)

  • DamageBonuses factor: \(1 + 0.20 = 1.20\)

  • Final WeaponDamage: \(10 \times 1.50 \times 1.20 = 18.0\)

This is exactly the CurrentValue recorded for WeaponDamage on the example hero.

Genre Tags

Defined in entities/tag_registry.yaml (additive only):

  • Damage types — DamageType.Physical|Fire|Cold|Lightning|Poison.

  • Ability types — Ability.Type.Melee|Ranged|Spell.

  • Combat status — Status.Vulnerable, Status.FightingElite; immunities Immunity.Physical, Immunity.Fire.

  • Items — Item.Equipped., Item.Type., Item.Rarity.Legendary.

  • Classes — Class.Barbarian|Sorcerer|Rogue.

Genre Abilities

  • entities/ability_basic_attack.yaml — GA_BasicAttack: free single-target weapon strike; plays a montage and applies GE_BasicAttackDamage on the hit window.

  • entities/ability_whirlwind.yaml — GA_Whirlwind: signature melee AoE. Tagged Ability.Type.Melee + DamageType.Physical, blocked while State.Dead / State.Debuff.Stunned, applies the damage effect to every target in radius while skipping Immunity.Physical targets. Models the GA_Whirlwind tag-query example from §15.3.

Genre Effects

  • entities/effect_mainstat_strength.yaml — GE_MainStat_Strength: infinite; +1% WeaponDamage per point of Strength in the MainStat channel (AttributeBased).

  • entities/effect_weapon_firesword.yaml — GE_Weapon_FireSword: infinite equip effect; +20% WeaponDamage in the DamageBonuses channel and grants item/element tags.

  • entities/effect_basic_attack_damage.yaml — GE_BasicAttackDamage: instant; subtracts the source’s fully-aggregated WeaponDamage from the target’s Health.

  • entities/effect_regeneration.yaml — GE_Regeneration: HasDuration + Period; restores 5 Health per second for 5 seconds.

Using this pack

  1. Copy genres/rpg/ into your project (or load entities/ directly via the ugas-schema-author skill).

  2. Keep, rename, or extend the RPGCoreAttributes set; add classes/skills as new Abilities and Effects.

  3. Author new damage modifiers by choosing the right Channel — additive bonuses go in DamageBonuses, set/legendary multipliers in LegendaryPowers.

  4. Validate with python scripts/validate_schema_examples.py before committing.