Tactics

Tactics are a group of special non-skill actions available throughout the Epic Battle Fantasy series that characters may perform during the battle.

Defend

"Defend" redirects here. For the status effect with the same name, see Defend (status). For the (physical) Defence stat, see Stats#Defence.

Available since the first Epic Battle Fantasy. Defend makes the user create a barrier to protect themselves from incoming attacks, halving the damage received for the duration of one turn.

Each character has an unique casting animation:

Matt summons a shield with four runic symbols on it.
Natalie summons a circle with a compass in the middle.
Lance summons a square with a cross.
Anna summons a small Wooden Idol with transparent energy around it.

In first three games, other than halving the damage taken, each character's Defend has an additional unique bonus:

Matt's protection against physical attacks is twice as effective, thus reducing the damage taken to only one quarter (25%). Magical attacks still deal 50% of damage.
Natalie recovers MP if hit by a magical attack while defending.
Lance slightly increases his Evade stat.

In Epic Battle Fantasy 4, Defend no longer has user-specific special bonuses and always simply reduces damage received by 50%. Defend's effect is now classified as a status effect, it is represented by a yellow shield icon over the user's head. This status effect can be Dispelled, although it is possible to avoid this with Dispel resistance. Additionally, players can use the Ancient Monolith summon to give the entire party the Defend status without having everyone use their turn.

In the Battle Mountain update, the Diamond Golem can give itself and its allies Defend status with its version of the Genesis skill.

Switch Player

Added in Epic Battle Fantasy 2. It allows the player to change the order in which player characters perform their turn, enabling the later character to take a turn before the former, which is especially useful for setting up combos and synergies. The default order always starts with character atop the screen and proceeds downward. Switch Player was called simply "Order" in EBF2 & 3.

Flee Battle

Introduced in Epic Battle Fantasy 3. It allows the player to escape from the current encounter, back to the overworld. Any damage done to the group of enemies will reset upon fleeing. Using Flee Battle has no penalty on the player and it works without fail (except for special ambush battles in EBF4 that can not be fled from such as the Godcat ambushes and the Glitch).

Skip Turn

Available since Epic Battle Fantasy 4. Skip Turn makes the currently selected character skip their turn completely, performing no action at all.

Move to Backup

Added in Epic Battle Fantasy 4. Move to Backup swaps the selected character with an ally in the backup slot. Only characters that haven't taken a turn yet can be moved to backup, so the character that enters the battlefield may take their turn instantly. Freeze and Slimed status effects prevent character from switching out.

While in the backup slot, character takes no active part in battle, but instead gradually regenerates both HP and MP at the start of each turn. They aren't affected by any area-of-effect buffs, attacks, and such. If a character has any buffs or status effects prior going into backup, they will decay over time at the same rate as usual. While in backup, character receives no damage from Poison and Burn status effects, as well as timing out Doom won't kill them.