magnetic_cactus

Academy clothes for Byleth.

Will try this out as soon as I get home, but I wonder - can anyone give us updates on what Maddening has changed, or is it exactly like the datamined version?

For your units, yes.

I disagree that IS really understands how powerful MOV is. If they did, you would not see units like Wyvern Lords be given not just high MOV but also high offensive and defense power. The bow weakness is inapplicable to all but the most casual of players because of the presence of divine pulse, the fact archers cannot fight back in melee, and the fact that all flying (and mounted) units have not just Canto to escape but free dismount. Late game classes should be based around 5 MOV. +1 MOV should provide major drawbacks - less damage, less survivability, less utility. -1 MOV should provide major benefits - higher damage, higher survivability, higher utility. Units like Fortress Knights, which are low damage (won't be doubling) and low MOV should be essentially unkillable, with skills like "cannot be doubled by enemies regardless of AS", and have high utility, with skills like "dealing damage to the enemy prevents them from moving for a turn". Units like Wyvern Lords, which are high damage (good bonus/growths on Str and Spd, axefaire) and high MOV should be super frail (Avo -10, not +10; what were they thinking?) and provide next to no utility beyond their MOV, while Falcon Knights can retain the avoid-tanking at the expense of damage.

True Ironman: Save lost, too bad. This is the best way to implement Ironman and is what, by definition, Ironman is meant to be. Soft Ironman: MC cannot "die" but instead retreats. Can be re-used next map. MC "death" is simply not a lose condition. If you want, you can attach penalties to this (money loss, XP loss, another unit sacrificed, etc.). In terms of "objectives failed" moments, such as a character you need to defend being killed, you simply have to design the game around the possibility of players failing to achieve those goals. At its simplest, you block players from receiving rewards, but advance the story as necessary (perhaps the NPC you were meant to protect is depicted as injured in the next cutscene but the story can otherwise progress as needed, minus the rewards you'd get, for example); in a more complex, branching game you could have the storyline adapt to accommodate at least some of these fail states.

I suspect some of the characters discussed in this thread will be made available in DLC, with partial route lock. Possibilities:

Bans Banned Classes: Pegasus Knight, Wyvern Rider, Wyvern Lord, Falcon Knight, Wyvern Master, Barbarossa, Bow Knight. Banned Items: Chest Keys, Door Keys, concoctions, elixirs, stat boosting items, Thyrsus. Banned Battalions: All battalions that provide non-attacking gambits. Restrictions Paladin is allowed, but must dismount at the start of battle and can not remount. Classes may only use weapons in which they are proficient. Direct heal magic (Heal, Recover, Physic, Fortify) may only be used by "Healer" classes (Commoner/Noble, Priest, Bishop, Holy Knight and Enlightened One). If NG+, renown may be spent only on support raising (for purposes of month 1 recruiting) and statues.

I could see it. The Dancer class Sword Avo skill would also do a little to help with the fact you're dropping a relatively squishy character on the front lines (although I think an MS-caster should be played cautiously anyway, and works fine without worry of being blown up in that capacity; it's just not a good LTC class then).

FWIW, I believe Mortal Savant technically out damages Gremory for a Marianne and Dorothea when it comes to spell damage because Black Tomefaire offsets the the higher Mag bonus Gremories get. It's pretty minimal (+2 I think) but it's there. You also gain +1 move and Swordfaire for Hexblade/Soulblade-boosted Rapiers against cavalry or crit-"casting" Wo Dao+/Cursed Ashikaya Sword+ or whatever, I guess, although obviously all of this comes at the expense of somewhat weaker growth rates, needing to cross-level Sword, and loss of x2 casts. I'm not saying Mortal Savant is a great class, because it it isn't, but it's probably a little bit better than literally pure meme, at least on paper. I'd never run it on a Lys, but I could see a Dorothea or Marianne MS for shits and giggles not being a total self-gimp.

I don't think the game really portrays LA as significantly weaker than the other two nations; more decentralized than disunited, and militarily still quite competent. There is a more mercantile approach to the LA (in the GD route, there's a few merchant who mention that the LA is better for business), although that can just as easily be interpreted as a reference to the real life Hansa. Classifying the LA as the Italy also ignores the Almyran/Mongolian conflict, which is a central focus of the LA's characterization and Claude's and Hilda's stories, and doesn't work as well geographically. I suppose you could argue that in the Italian context it may be reflective of Moorish invasion of Sicily or similar, but the scale doesn't seem to match, and the cavalry association with Almyra isn't then reflected. But ultimately since it's a fantasy, I think some elements of other areas were included in creating each locale, so it does not surprise me that others see different things than I do (the devs probably very likely looked at both of these places in creating the LA). The HRE was SUBSTANTIALLY more decentralized than Adrestia is; Edelgarde is portrayed essentially as a complete sovereign. You are correct that there was an uprising which neutered her father's effective authority, orchestrated by nobility, but I see this as reflective of the power struggles that characterized Byzantine politics (Doukas, anyone?). The HRE also did not claim to be a continuation of Rome in the same way that Byzantium did; until its collapse, Byzantines literally called themselves Roman and held themselves out 100% not as a successor state to Rome but as literally Rome itself; a few HRE emperors paid lip service to the idea that the authority of the Roman empire had been by papal decree conferred to them, but this was nowhere near the same (in fact Russian Tsars made a similar claim, which was taken about as seriously, with respect to the movement of Roman authority following the collapse of Byzantium). The conflict between Byzantium and Rome (the city) was also worlds more serious (in fact, the HRE was essentially responsible for the creation of the Papal States through land gifts) - see the Great Schism, the Fourth Crusade (and the subsequent creation of the Latin Empire), etc. ERE seems to also match better geographically (right down to the (somewhat enlarged) Bosporus separating the "Greece" part of Adrestia from Morfis). But again, I grant you that there are obvious non-ERE influences here, including HRE influences, such as Edelgarde's design and Germanic sounding name and some of the imperial stylings, such as the black eagle (actually more reflective of the Kaiserreich than HRE, in my opinion). I don't think I over-focused on geography. Most of my post discussed flavor in the context of real life history and political dealings. If anything, I think over-focus on things like names and colors is the oversimplified approach. In reality, I suspect that the devs took inspiration from many places in many ways - for example, taking the history and geography of one place, and overlaying place names and such of another. In this regard I think I can get on board with the idea that, for example, Adrestia is politically the ERE (Byzantium) but culturally the Kaiserreich/German Empire pre WWI (not really HRE). Edit: For what it's worth, I doubt the devs had a professor of history, or even a college history major, fact checking or providing advice when they created Fodlan, so I acknowledge fully that some of what I see may be a function of overanalysis. It's entirely possible that, for example, Adrestia is meant to just be "Yet Another Autocratic German-like", without specific reference to any historical, or at least non-modern, time frame - an amalgamated entity combining elements of the Nazi regime with its pre-Weimer predecessor, I suppose, in the same way that laypeople probably internally characterize WWI era Germany - and its numerous similarities to ERE are entirely coincidental (wouldn't surprise me; I'm not sure how much the average person knows, or even cares, about medieval history outside of pop-TV like Vikings or Last Kingdom). When you're a hammer, though, everything looks like a nail. Edit 2: Don't get me wrong, I suspect many people in this thread know their stuff; I'm just not entirely sure IS deserves quite that much credit. They couldn't even balance Wyvern Lord! 🙂

I don't know why I can't edit my last post, it's spitting a weird error, so sorry for the double post. Just wanted to note that Morfis probably corresponds, at least in shape and location, to Turkey (probably Seljuk or possibly Ottoman - we don't know much about this place either).

Looking at the map in this way more would seem, to the surprise of noone, to confirm that Fodlan is indeed based on medieval Europe. Adrestian Empire: Rome (specifically, the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian, aka "the Byzantine Empire"). A once continent-spanning empire to which the other main nations owe their genesis. It is still wealthy and powerful, steeped in tradition, but it is a shadow of its former glory and its influence over the continent has waned. The current Emperor seeks to reacquire lost territory through warfare. Its capital, Enbarr, seems to be located on a pseudo-peninsula that corresponds roughly to Athens, Greece in location and design, an obfuscated analog to Constantinople. The antagonistic relationship between it and the Church may be an analog to the Great Schism and division between Eastern Orthodox Christianity (headed essentially by the Emperor of the ERE, here Edelgarde) and Western Roman Catholic Christianity (headed by an independent and powerful Pope, here Rhea). Leicester Alliance: Holy Roman Empire. Like the real life HRE, this is not really a unified empire/nation but more a coalition of individually strong landed nobles who owe nominal allegiance to a suzerain elected from among themselves. The fact that not all nobility is invited to vote on the next leader of the Alliance reflects the fact that only certain counts/dukes were afforded elector status in the HRE. It has dealings with Almyra at its farthest eastern reaches, mirroring the Mongolian incursions of the later middle ages. The mountains that circumscribe much of its territory may be an analog to the Alps. Faerghus: Francia (specifically, the Carolignian Empire at its greatest extent, somewhat prior to the Treaty of Verdun, but not including Aquitaine (which shows up in game as Oche, Hevring and Fodlan's Fangs (Fodlan's Fangs being the Pyrenees), all of which are under ERE/Adrestian control). A large composite nation located in what was once the Western reaches of the Adrestian Empire. It is closely tied to the Church, mirroring the close ties between the Frankish Kingdom and the Catholic Church (see the practice of crowning Frankish kings, like Charlemagne). The Leicester Alliance essentially split off from it, just as the HRE (as Francia Orientalis, later Germany) "split" from the Carolignian Empire (with the "true" successor state being Francia Occidentalis, later France). Albinea: England. We don't know much about this place, but it's location relative to the mainland and its name (essentially Albion, aka Great Britain) can't be ignored. Almyra: The Mongolian Hordes (specifically, a composite between the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate, circa 1350). "Outsiders" that are seen as intrinsically warlike, they worship different gods, have a darker complexion, and seem poised to invade the Leicester Alliance. Claude's design, and especially his concept art, seems to reflect an Islamic motif (the Mongols by 1350 had converted to Islam), and Cyril's post-timeskip portrait seems to be based on a Mongolian horse archer; further, both Claude and Cyril lend themselves naturally to a horse archer role, with Claude even having a unique horse (technically wyvern, because it's fantasy) archer class. Brigid: Muslim Spain and Morocco (specifically, the Umayyad Caliphate circa 1100). Like Almyra, Brigid worships its own gods, and the people are of generally darker complexion. It's geographically located where Spain and Morocco would be (albeit in the form of islands). In Three Houses, it has recently lost a war to the Adrestian Empire (reflecting Justinian's successful western conquests, although in our world those would not have coincided with the the Umayyad Caliphate's existence but rather Visigothic Spain). Sreng: Scandinavia (specifically, the various pre-Christian chiefdoms/petty kingdoms circa 800). We don't know really anything about this place. Seems to me they just took the "cold wasteland" concept of a pre-Christian Scandinavia and inverted it to a "hot wasteland" concept. Garreg Mach: Rome (specifically the Papal States, now known as the Vatican). An independent theocracy that exerts great influence over the ostensibly secular politics of the continent. Almost every native Fodlan believes its teachings, and otherwise powerful lords may cowtow to the "requests" of Rhea (the Pope), or at least seek her favor. It is at odds with the Adrestian Empire, reflecting the Catholic/Orthodox Great Schism, and its detractors decry it as suppressing information for its own gain, while its proponents laud the relative stability it provides (at least until now) to the continent.

One thing I don't believe you mentioned were the stat bonuses/maluses, which are separate from base stats. Hero: 3 HP, 2 Str, 2 Spd, 1 Lck, 1 Def. Swordmaster: 1 HP, 2 Str, 1 Dex, 4 Spd, 1 Def. Assassin: 3 Dex, 5 Spd, 1 Lck. Mortal Savant: 1 HP, 1 Str, 2 Mag, 1 Dex, 1 Spd, 2 Def, 2 Res. I think in at least the above regard, Hero and Swordmaster are not so bad, probably being at least on par with Assassin and clearly superior to Mortal Savant. That said, I think all of the sword classes you listed need a buff, not just Hero and Swordmaster, especially when you consider we don't really have sword Master Class equivalents (Mortal Savant is more of an alternate class). Here's some quick thoughts that'd it'd be great to see, although I'm sure we'll never see them since a balance patch is almost certainly never happening: Hero: +2 bonus HP, +2 bonus Str, +3 bonus Def, +5 HP growth, +5 Def growth, +5 Res growth, add ability Sol (Passive: Dex% chance to heal for half damage dealt). Swordmaster: +4 bonus Str, +1 bonus Dex, +1 bonus Def, +5 Str growth, improve Astra to 5*0.5 at -5 Durability. Assassin: +2 bonus Str, +1 bonus Dex, change Stealth to Magekiller (Passive: Hit/Avo +20 when using any weapon vs. tomes). Mortal Savant: +2 bonus Mag, +10 Spd growth. Because Hero, Swordmaster and Assassin are Advanced, not Master, Classes, I don't think increasing their move further is appropriate. I think, to address the move inequities between infantry and cavalry/fliers, the better approach would be to reduce the 8 move mounted and flying units to 7 move and remove Canto entirely from flying units (and nerf their Spd growths by 10 while we're at it). I also think if we see the above buffs, Fortress Knight deserves some love as well. Anyway, as it stands, I do agree that Assassin is probably the best Swordfaire class, provided you have decent base Str growth on the character in question and/or had good Str levels on the way up. It and Mortal Savant are both perfectly viable endgame classes (although, of course, inferior to something like a Wyvern Lord). Swordmaster is hamstrung by its poor movement, but it's still situationally powerful on certain small maps, and incredibly strong in the mid-game (at least insofar as it comes attached to Catherine). Hero is probably a "nope," especially since Vantage is just not needed, even on Hard, and if you REALLY want it, you can lift it from Mercenary in the Intermediate Classes on the way up.

Meh, I have to disagree. The game is really easy on Hard, arguably one of the easier FEs. And partly because of how easy Avo is to obtain in a game with low hit enemies, even on a non-grind run (wouldn't call it LTC, but I did next to zero non story battles and did not go out of my way to obtain mastery skills), I had no issues at all with Felix's survivability as a Swordmaster, including, for example, 1v3 enemy phase scenarios. In the few circumstances where I truly overextended, I could always use another character to snipe one of his would-be attackers, rescue him, dance-in a backup unit, etc; at some point about halfway through the difficulty just doesn't keep pace with your options. Perhaps there are a handful of corner cases where range+canto might have enabled a substantially riskier play (with a commensurately higher reward), but missing out on these handful of *maybe* 1-turn timesaves is, in my opinion anyway, essentially inconsequential in the grand scheme of a non-LTC game. Of course, like I hinted above, obvious misclasses (or, although not mentioned above, doing plainly stupid things like running a full team of Lance-using Bishops), will clearly hamstring you. But playing reasonably and catering sufficiently, even if not exclusively, to your units' general strengths should be more than enough in almost every circumstance.

Nice. Sylvain is a very flexible character (and that's actually saying quite a bit, since this game is already full of flexibility). Will be a fun topic.