Ideas for having Fallout-like Traits in Fire Emblem

[Hawkwing]

So I've been playing Fallout 1 lately (fun game, even if it's bit more savescummy than I'd like), and I'm reminded of how much I like the idea of traits. For the basics of what they are, when creating a character, you get to choose up to two traits. Some are mutually exclusive, but they all follow the same pattern: They provide a positive effect and compensate with a negative one. Examples include Gifted (you get more S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, but all your skills are reduced), Fast Shot (Firing a gun takes less action points, but you can't target specific areas), Good Natured (reduces combat skills while increasing skills like doctor, speech, bartering, and the like), Jinxed (Everyone suffers from more critical failures, including you), and so on. While not perfectly balanced, I find it to be an interesting concept, and that it could work in Fire Emblem rather well with some tweaks.

Note that the ideas I give here are based on the presumption that they will be picked when creating the Avatar unit. Partially because forcing a player to adjust to a certain trait on a normal character would be questionable game design, and partially so I can use "you" when writing the flavor text. Also, It's pretty obvious which ones are mutually exclusive, so I won't bother bringing that up. I aimed to make the skills able to broadly fit any game, although there are times when it's clear it works in one game better than another.

Hard Hitter

Flavor Text: While war is uncertain, it is unwise to rely on luck. You ignore all the fancy spins of your peers and instead focus upon delivering strong, reliable, and damaging strikes. 

Effect: Increases Normal Damage; Reduces Crit Chance and Damage

 

Finesse

Flavor Text: Every opponent has a weakness somewhere, and you aim to exploit it any way you can. You're good at ending fights quickly with a masterful stroke, but struggle with dealing damage any other way.

Effect: Decreases Normal Damage; Increases Crit Chance and Damage

 

Close Combat

Flavor Text: Even though you can attack from a distance, your enemies will try to close that advantageous gap. You prepared for those days, and thus are more competent at engaging an opponent one-on one rather than far away. Unfortunately, the subtle differences between hitting someone at point blank range and from several yards away are great enough that you struggle with the latter.

Effect: Allows Archers to counter at 1 range. Increases Hit/Avoid when attacking/defending at 1 range for 2 range (and above) weapons; Decreases Hit/Avoid when attacking from 2 range and above.

 

Guardian

Flavor Text: You focus on everyone getting out alive rather than on personal glory. Many have been saved by your dedicated defense, even if it's at the sacrifice of a lower kill count.

Effect: Increases Dual Guard Chance/Activation; Reduces Dual Attack Chance/Activation/Damage

 

Synchronized Partner

Flavor Text: The flow of combat between you and a partner is almost seamless, even if you've never worked with them before. Delivering one strike after another has felled many a strong foe

Effect: Increases Dual Attack Chance/Activation/Damage; Reduces Dual Guard Defen

 

Renowned

Flavor Text: Whether through legend, actions, speeches, nobility, fame, fanservice, you have a mighty presence on the battlefield that cannot be ignored. Regardless of the reasons, fellow soldiers, even those farther away, are inspired to fight stronger than they otherwise would. As with what happens with most great figures, however, your deeds outpace your character, and inspirational legends can only go so far.

Effect: Increases Support Effect Range; Decreases Support Bonuses

 

Close Supporter

Flavor Text: You are good at noticing the depths of others and bringing out the best of them. While you may not be able to inspire large crowds as some others can, the people you do support benefit greatly from your encouragement.

Effect: Increases Support Bonuses; Decreases Support Effect Range

 

No Kill Rule/Combat Pacifist

Flavor Text: For one reason or another, you have sworn to never kill another human being. While many would consider this unwise in war, in truth your abilities were only sharpened as you learned how to pull punches, exploit weaknesses, and capture foes without an issue.

Effect: Reduced/No Penalties for Capturing; Cannot Kill Enemies (except maybe monsters/terrors. Can still damage opponents to a minimum of 1 HP, however), Cannot Crit.

 

Valentian Weapon Techniques

Flavor Text: In a foreign land called Valentia, swords and lances were so common that instead of having an advantage over each other, they fought on even ground. Intrigued, you studied and applied these techniques. Regardless of what weapon you wield, you are never at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, you never have the advantage, either.

Effect: Weapon Triangle is ignored, regardless of weapons.

 

Weapon Preservation

Flavor Text: "Whether because of the lack of funds, the sentimental value, or simply because you've been in combat so much, you've learned several tricks and techniques for keeping a weapon at prime condition far beyond what many blacksmiths and shopkeepers expected. Indeed, some of your weapons have lasted entire wars, while others saw theirs break in their hands and had to replace them. What you didn't learn was how to preserve your weapons durability while also being able to skillfully utilize combat arts without reservations.

Effect: Has a high chance of not using up a weapon use; Lower Skill Activation/Higher Combat Art Cost.

 

So what are your ideas if such a mechanic existed in Fire Emblem?

[Ertrick36]

Ah yes, I can hear that classic Doc Mitchel theme in my head right now as I think about these.

Traits in Fallout are essentially the same as the Personal Skills in FE Fates.  They take the premise of stuff like Arthur's Misfortunate and apply it to an avatar character.

Some of these will be inspired more by those in Fallout: New Vegas.

Seth's Loophole

Flavor Text: No one's going to put you out to pasture 'cause you're going to stay young (and level 10) forever!  All your stats' chances to increase upon level up are improved by 30%, but once you reach level 10, you can kiss experience, stat gains, and skills goodbye!

Effects: Increases growth rates by 30%, but level caps at 10 (promoted).  Cannot apply to characters with special classes without a promotion, such as dancer.

Rationale: Inspired by Seth (obviously), and also directly takes after Logan's Loophole from Fallout: New Vegas.  This essentially takes the idea of a character with ridiculous growths and good bases and gives them a handicap.  If you want to keep using them, you'll have to deal with their sudden level cap as well, so you won't always have a totally broken character.

Claustrophobia

Flavor Text: You have a fear of enclosed spaces (probably because of all the terrors/risen/faceless* that live there).  When outdoors, mov increases by 1 and all other non-HP stats increase by 2.  But when you are in the confined corridors of an indoor location, your non-HP, non-movement stats decrease by 3.

Effects: See above.

Rationale: It's the same as the Fallout: New Vegas trait of the same name, but with different effects to better apply in the FE worlds.  This takes the premise of the balancing measures taken against mounted units in Mystery of the Emblem and Thracia 776 and cranks them up a notch.  Ideally, this would be used in a game where the avatar isn't a mandatory deployment (e.g. Robin, Kris).

Built to Destroy

Flavor Text: The flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long.  Your crit rate is forever increased by 10%, but your weapons decay at twice the normal rate.

Effects: See above.

Rationale: It's the same as the Fallout: New Vegas trait of the same name, except more extreme (mostly because weapon durability in FE isn't counted in the hundreds, so it's difficult to implement a 15% increase in decay rate).  Also, this would be ideally used in a game with weapon decay, obviously.  I just thought this would be an interesting one for someone building a crit monster.

Good Natured

Flavor Text: You've never been one for violence, so you've always done your best to resolve conflicts without getting your hands dirty.  Your offensive combat stats (strength, magic, skill) are decreased by 3 and their chances to grow decrease by 5% due to your unwillingness to soak your hands in blood, but your desire to see the conflict to the end sees your defensive stats (defense, resistance, luck, HP, and speed) all increase by 2, their chance to grow increase by 10%, and your movement increases by 1 point.  Also, your experience gain increases by 30%, as you learn just as much from avoiding death as others learn from inflicting death.

Effects: See above.

Rationale: Same name as the trait in Fallout: New Vegas, but very different effects (mostly because there's no non-combat stats in FE).  The idea is to let you create an all-around tank who could also act as a diversion.  This would also be ideal for those who wish to make healers; this way, you don't have to worry about staffbotting as much, and you can send them in the fray without worrying too much about them dying.

Discipline/Fast Hands

Effects: The former would increase skill stat by 4 and skill growths by 10%, but decrease the speed stat and growths by the same amounts.  The latter is the inverse of this, increasing speed while decreasing skill.

Rationale: Similar to a Fallout: New Vegas trait.  Didn't include flavor text because the traits they were based on has really dry, basic flavor text (literally just said what they did).  I just wanted to apply these two Fallout: New Vegas traits in FE.

Gifted

Flavor Text: You have more innate abilities than most, so you haven't spent as much time and effort honing your skills.  You gain +5 to all stats except movement, and a +10 to max HP, but all your growths decrease by 15%.

Effects: See above.

Rationale: Wanted to see the most notorious, infamous trait in the classic Fallout games applied to FE.  Many would argue that base stats are more important than growth rates... the idea is to apply that idea to an avatar.  It could also be played as a sort of second-fiddle to Seth's Loophole, and if combined with that would probably make an incredibly OP unit.  But everyone seems to agree that Gifted in the original Fallout games was broken as hell anyway, so I didn't care too much about making this trait in particular very balanced.

That's all I have for now.  Also, these are obviously just basic ideas that could be better balanced/expanded upon.