Talk:Paradox/Advanced Races/@comment-27917537-20171104071814/@comment-26979215-20171104230822

To me, they sound likes debuffs on the enemy rather than on the self, which makes sense considering it would be pointless to give the artificial spirits the same or similiar to effects as the real spirits. As you said, they cost the same and do the same amount of damage so you'd never use the skill that debuffs you when there's another just as strong that also buffs use. Element Rate probably lowers their resistance like how some Taoism skills do. Finally, I believe almost all user target skills proc 100% of the time and create a state icon, so if it doesn't do those two things, it's probably a enemy debuff.

The simplest test would be to boost a character's crit rate to 90-100%, cast Gnomaren and attack a few times. If you never crit, you know it's a self debuff. But considering everything you've said, I cannot see them as self-debuff as everything other self-debuff in the game comes with some advantage. Even Edging, the joke ability from the VN, gives you a slight buff in Paradox. This would require a gigantic oversight in basic game design for them to include this unless we're missing a piece of the puzzle here.