Your top 3 balance changes to FE16

[eclipse]

- Combat arts that reposition units should have their own slot.  Getting one is tedious enough as it is.
- Reduce flying movement by one, because cavalry units have to deal with Wasteland (or dismounting) as a penalty.
- Thieves get both Locktouch and Steal as mastery skills.  This makes Ashe sad, though.

[pekingduck]

13 hours ago, eclipse said:

- Combat arts that reposition units should have their own slot.  Getting one is tedious enough as it is.

Completely agree with this. This is another place where I think things oddly took a step back compared to Fates. The unit repositioners were organized separately from the combat arts. I use Swap/Shove/Draw Back a fair amount, and it sucks having to choose between them and other useful damage-dealing arts.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

- Assassin is now a Master Class, with Reqs of A Swords and B Bows. It's crazy how much better it is than Swordmaster, how there's only one bow-using Master class right now, and how the only gender-neutral sword-using Master class... kinda sucks. Assassin feels at least as good as Mortal Savant for physical units. Stretch change: It now gets Bowrange+1 instead of Shade/Stillness/Whatever. 

- Stride only effects Infantry units (including Armors, but not Great Knights). Yeah, yeah, I'm hardly the first to propose this, but it would serve as an indirect nerf to OP mounted classes, by being a direct nerf to an OP gambit. Stretch change: Seiros Holy Monks are now a C-rank batallion, limiting how early you can get them, and who can use them.

- Dismounting/Mounting cannot be performed before moving, only after. This would stop Fliers from doing the "dismount to lose arrow weakness and get terrain boosts at the end of my turn, then re-mount for full flying movement next turn". This way, dismounting forces you to have infantry movement the next turn. Which won't be too bad for Paladins and Dark/Holy Knights, all of whom have 6 mov dismounted. Stretch change: "Dismount" is now an equippable skill, so if you want the option to Dismount/Mount, you'll lose out on a skill slot.

[Vitezen]

Lock flying classes behind limited items, like the dark seal. However, only one seal would be necessary per character. For example, Ingrid can use a seal to be able to become any flying class, if she has the skill ranks and an intermediate/advanced/master seal to unlock it. Keep the classes powerful, but keep them limited.

Buff mortal savant. Make it a true upgrade to swordmaster, and a viable unmounted endgame class.

Buff assassin and make it a master class. Same as mortal savant, but for snipers.

[Shadow Mir]

1. More offensive white magic. There are only four offensive white magic spells, and most of them are rather heavy. As a result, Holy Knight pales in comparison to Dark Knight.

2. Make the magic-based budding talents actually useful. In particular, Byleth and Dorothea get a budding talent skill that's best called a Powerup Letdown because of how bad the offensive white magic spells are (not helping matters is the fact that Dorothea only gets one offensive white magic spell, the weak Nosferatu). Not that Felix, Edelgard, and Sylvain have it much better. . .

Edited September 20, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[The_antithesis]

1. Increase the Mt of Saggitae by 1 (so it's not just a worse Cutting Gale)

2. Make it so that the Mount/Dismount command can't be used at the start of the turn (so if you dismount, your Mov gets nerfed for 1 turn)

3. Increase Mortal Savant's class Spd from 1 to 4. Mortal Savants already have the pain of reduced Atk due to using both physical and magical attacks, don't make them also take bad Spd!

[Scoot]

1. Let all classes use magic. (Though maybe at a reduced rate like Commoners and Nobles)
2. Nerf Stride. Either reduce the movement amount to 2 or the range to only adjacent allies.
3. Re-work Dark Mages. I dunno, this class confuses me. Some characters innately learn dark magic, while the rest can only use it as Dark Mage/Bishop. (The key word here being only. There is no dark magic master class, so unless your name is Hubert or Lysithia, you won't be able to use it at the highest tier class.) So is there any real reason to make someone a Dark Mage, other than for Lifestealer or Poison Strike? At least let them keep their dark magic when changing classes.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

57 minutes ago, Scoot said:

1. Let all classes use magic. (Though maybe at a reduced rate like Commoners and Nobles)
2. Nerf Stride. Either reduce the movement amount to 2 or the range to only adjacent allies.
3. Re-work Dark Mages. I dunno, this class confuses me. Some characters innately learn dark magic, while the rest can only use it as Dark Mage/Bishop. (The key word here being only. There is no dark magic master class, so unless your name is Hubert or Lysithia, you won't be able to use it at the highest tier class.) So is there any real reason to make someone a Dark Mage, other than for Lifestealer or Poison Strike? At least let them keep their dark magic when changing classes.

Honestly getting Miasma as a mastery skill for Dark Mage would be so much better than Poison Strike (useless most of the time). That way you could bring Miasma into classes like Mortal Savant (who should get Darkfaire, but whatever) or Dark Knight. Plus, then they could get rid of class-skill Miasma on Dark Bishop, and replace it with Dark Magic Uses x 2 (otherwise inaccessible to male units).

[CyberNinja]

8 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Honestly getting Miasma as a mastery skill for Dark Mage would be so much better than Poison Strike (useless most of the time). That way you could bring Miasma into classes like Mortal Savant (who should get Darkfaire, but whatever) or Dark Knight. Plus, then they could get rid of class-skill Miasma on Dark Bishop, and replace it with Dark Magic Uses x 2 (otherwise inaccessible to male units).

This is why Spell casters should have unique spell lists that have more spells unlock as you rise in reason, the caveat being that these spells are only available when you are this class and this class alone. This way the Dark mage line and warlock line each would have their own unique spell lists for Reason and faith. The Faith classes would also have unique reason and fiath spells but would obviously be stacked in faith spells compared to reason.

 

Gremorys would be loaded with long range spells since they most often appear as artillary, their support spells being aoe or long range.

Warlocks mid range dark magic uses. strongest dark magic, limited support.

Dark mages/bishops being close range magic nukes/brawlers, all black magic/limited dark magic to strong but close range or limited use. Very limited faith, no healing.

Bishops while lacking offensive have the whole support line up and some offensive capability.

ect.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, CyberNinja said:

This is why Spell casters should have unique spell lists that have more spells unlock as you rise in reason, the caveat being that these spells are only available when you are this class and this class alone. This way the Dark mage line and warlock line each would have their own unique spell lists for Reason and faith. The Faith classes would also have unique reason and fiath spells but would obviously be stacked in faith spells compared to reason.

 

Gremorys would be loaded with long range spells since they most often appear as artillary, their support spells being aoe or long range.

Warlocks mid range dark magic uses. strongest dark magic, limited support.

Dark mages/bishops being close range magic nukes/brawlers, all black magic/limited dark magic to strong but close range or limited use. Very limited faith, no healing.

Bishops while lacking offensive have the whole support line up and some offensive capability.

ect.

I actually have to disagree with such a model. I think character-specific spell lists are one thing that make the characters unique, and it's up to the player how best to synergize spell lists with the skills and stats offered by certain classes. Like, would I rather my Lysithea get extra Warps as a Gremory, more powerful dark spells (and more move) as a Dark Knight, or more powerful Nosferatu and Seraphim as a Holy Knight? Likewise, should I strive for Dorothea as a Gremory (so she gets extra Meteors), or Bernadetta (extra Rescues)? Both, or neither? IMO the game would become a lot more boring (and characters even more samey) if, say, EVERY Bishop got Physic, or EVERY Gremory had Bolting, etc.. The reason I make an exception for Miasma is; it already exists as a skill, it's not broken or centralizing (like Warp or Siege spells), and dark magic access is already so limited, especially among male units.

[CyberNinja]

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I actually have to disagree with such a model. I think character-specific spell lists are one thing that make the characters unique, and it's up to the player how best to synergize spell lists with the skills and stats offered by certain classes. Like, would I rather my Lysithea get extra Warps as a Gremory, more powerful dark spells (and more move) as a Dark Knight, or more powerful Nosferatu and Seraphim as a Holy Knight? Likewise, should I strive for Dorothea as a Gremory (so she gets extra Meteors), or Bernadetta (extra Rescues)? Both, or neither? IMO the game would become a lot more boring (and characters even more samey) if, say, EVERY Bishop got Physic, or EVERY Gremory had Bolting, etc.. The reason I make an exception for Miasma is; it already exists as a skill, it's not broken or centralizing (like Warp or Siege spells), and dark magic access is already so limited, especially among male units.

I never did get to complete the thought but the idea is what spells each class wouldhave would be be limited but set in such a way as to have a specific role, the holy knight gaining the offensive faith magic spells since it's role is clearly that of a combat faith unit. The idea being that each student would have specific spells they'd always have while each class would have a limited spell list specific to its roll and these spells would only be usable in this class. Lays and Hubert would have the best dark age spells and always have them available but dark mage as a class would actually make you feel like a dark mage. With this change, the spell lists students get could be more selective to have them feel unique and it would be how their spell list aligns with the class list and class bonus that sets their tier. The biggest issue right now is that too many spells are samey they should be as varied as combat arts.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 minutes ago, CyberNinja said:

I never did get to complete the thought but the idea is what spells each class wouldhave would be be limited but set in such a way as to have a specific role, the holy knight gaining the offensive faith magic spells since it's role is clearly that of a combat faith unit. The idea being that each student would have specific spells they'd always have while each class would have a limited spell list specific to its roll and these spells would only be usable in this class. Lays and Hubert would have the best dark age spells and always have them available but dark mage as a class would actually make you feel like a dark mage. With this change, the spell lists students get could be more selective to have them feel unique and it would be how their spell list aligns with the class list and class bonus that sets their tier. The biggest issue right now is that too many spells are samey they should be as varied as combat arts.

I guess a "hybrid model" like this would work, wherein class lists are retained, but more classes get specific spells. I would limit it to one or two per class. Couple this with making personal spells you can bring limited (like combat arts), and I'm a fan.

Regarding the bolded portion, I totally agree. I kinda wish Thunder and/or Sagittae had 1-3 range like in SoV, even if it meant giving them worse stats or fewer charges. Maybe fiery spells could turn the targeted space into "fiery floor", or something (not sure how useful that would be). Or have a spell with the brave effect, like Waste or Cellica's Gale.