Equipping staves ala Radiant Dawn, Potentially Useful, Funny or Pointless?

[Jotari]

So usually staves aren't considered a weapon by the game. You have weapon exp but you don't equip them when you use them. The (I believe sole) exception to this is in Radiant Dawn where they are fully considered a weapon (though you still can't initiate an attack with them). This allows units with staves to counter attack but since staves have practically no might they almost always deal no damage. The downside to this is that a healer cannot really attack on enemy phase if they healed that turn. The upside is the fact that a stave user can automatically heal themself at the start of turn if they have a staff equipped (without losing that turn).

But you're probably aware of all that already. I'm not really sure why I even explained it :p. What I want to know is your opinion on this system. Is it something you'd like to see back and are there things you'd like to see introduced to it (maybe combat oriented staves you can attack with so Clerics aren't such a slog to promote)?

Edited August 9, 2016 by Jotari

[Gradivus.]

It's mostly bad/annoying if using a staff forces me to equip it. It could work with some fine-tuning, but its usefulness would be pretty limited since units who can only use staves can't really take hits on EP, so they wouldn't get much exp nor damage output out of it.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Kirie]

I think it's hilarious. I love the idea in concept, but I think it could have been tweaked to actually be useful in practice.

[The Draco Knight]

I hope It won't: It forces to equip a "weapon" that can't do anything in the hand of a healer, since, most of the time, they will have pathetic strength and, when they get tomes, they can't counter attack properly just because they used a stave.

It's funny when the healer is able to do at least 1 damage tough, I'll give it that.

[Magical Glace]

It really was kinda useless in practice after promotion.

Maybe if they had decent Mgt.

[Nym]

At least not promote healer vs healer would be more interesting to watch.

[Enaluxeme]

You can make everything via skills: there can be a skill that lets a character use a staff on themsef at the start of their turn and/or a skill to use staves as actual weapons.

Speaking of using staves as weapons, they should have low might, alright, but if the game allows to attck with them, the healers should have a respectable strenght stat. Status effect staves should be able to cast the status with the attack and healing staves could be effective against monsters.

...What about making a staff lord?

[CT075]

it was a horrible idea as implemented in RD

so, of course, i loved it and would heartily clap if it came back. devising ways to kill things with staff counterattacks is fantastic

[Anacybele]

Oh, I'd love to see this back if it got tweaked a little. lol Seeing it do zero damage nearly 100% all the time was kinda bad. :P

[Refa]

It was the worst for Elincia.

[SageHarpuiaJDJ]

Considering that we have units like Sakura, Azama, and Jakob, seeing this again would definitely be possible. Also I'd fucking love to see clerics get unique animations for twacking people.

[sirmola]

I wouldn't mind it if staffs only equiped when you manualy equiped them, instead of auto-equiping when you used them. I actualy perfer the ways that fates handled squishy early game healers. (divine retribution on azama, and a passive crit evade +10 on the 2 staff only classes).

[Sunwoo]

I liked having equipable staves. It was pretty hilarious to see your healers actually doing damage. Giving the staves some actual might may have fixed the problem of them doing shit damage, though.

[NekoKnight]

I could see it coming back if the staves could inflict status effects on the enemy. Damage-wise it's completely pointless, especially if they have actual weapons to use.

[Raguna]

Thwacking people with staves using Rhys and Laura was a thing of beauty especially when it did 3 damage on criticals. All that gusto and bravo as they reel in that staff for the blow just to hear the chink damage or that gratifying crit sound. It was a wonderful thing to see.

Plus, staves could have crits now due to units like Azama who would have personally loved doing something physical in his base clase as his mag growth wasn't going to be winning any contest as a healer. Although he'd still win in magic against even the male royals sibling due to the weird 0% mag growths on some units but I digress. Staff critting is super fun and I wouldn't mind it coming back, but I'd relegate again to counterattacks only since a healer class isn't suppose to really be fighting up front unless they're promoted.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Raguna

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I wouldn't mind it if staffs only equiped when you manualy equiped them, instead of auto-equiping when you used them. I actualy perfer the ways that fates handled squishy early game healers. (divine retribution on azama, and a passive crit evade +10 on the 2 staff only classes).

pretty much this, i loved how staffs had effects on the player phase depending on which one it was, or stats for equipping them.

i just wish they weren't auto equip when i used them.

[TheAstraWolf]

It was pretty funny but it shouldn't come back as despite this their combat utility in inflicting status effects (Sleep, Berserk) is already there. Not to mention they would probably still do very pitful damage even if tweaked just a little bit because healers with a few exceptions have terrible strenght.

[DragonFlames]

Seeing as how Mist actually killed someone (Edward) when using a staff crit when I played Radiant Dawn, I'd love to see it back.

Imagine your staff user of choice thwacking Grima or Anankos to death. I just made myself laugh at that thought.

[Loki Laufeyson]

I liked having equipable staves. It was pretty hilarious to see your healers actually doing damage. Giving the staves some actual might may have fixed the problem of them doing shit damage, though.

yeah. Plus it was a really fun and quick way to up staff rank.

[TheVinceKnight]

It was a neat idea but they do nothing.

Especially when you heal with an Sage and then get stuck on staves after using one.

[Lord Raven]

Well, I liked how much it boosted staff level. Though, it was still pretty useless, considering the mages are frail.