Three Houses challenge runs

[DaveCozy]

On 6/7/2022 at 10:24 PM, triabolical said:

hehe

Was referring to Classic over Casual too, but yeah with Casual you have more leeway. Edelgard dying in prologue would've shut that down otherwise. Since Byleth is also force deployed she will be fairly high level even with uniform deployment, and I imagine she'll take bulk of the combat exp and mvps.

And uh... I'm afraid to ask but... why kill Marianne once she's recruited? How is that possible in the run you're doing?

Fun idea for a run though overall, other than that detail which I don't get (is there a joke going over my head?).

[Graveless]

Preparation for Three Hopes made me break out an fun challenge run that I had started and just sorts of petered out on because other games appeared.

NG+, Maddening, Learn your Weaknesses: Only use both weapons and classes for the banes of each character(for those with none, they're banned from boons). Most notably, this bans having a mount from anyone who doesn't have it as a bane along with making lances really bad.

I did this with the deer because of Leonie's faith spell list and Lysithea's personal skill. 

Lysithea was the clear MVP for most of the game because she was the only one able to unlock any classes at a reasonable time. Armor Knight bases along with a Bolt Axe solved so many problems. However, with the insane amount of lategame enemy damage (also her capping both hp and def) she's been replaced with War Cleric dodge-tank Hilda as the main frontliner. Marianne and Hapi are also Fortress Knights, but their lack of offense is a problem on many maps. 

Sniper Raph and Wyvern Yuri are the main damage dealers besides Warrior Lysithea. 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Graveless

[Oso_Peluche]

Since I can't afford Three Hopes i started playing 3H again. Just finished a fun Black Eagle play through where I (once again) had Raphael as this tank dancer hybrid. And I accidently didn't use any fliers, didn't notice until the last battle when I was sorting through skills.

I went with the Blue Lions for a NG+ run but this time I'm also doing Bane only. It's been pretty fun! I have zero classes planned out since I'm just picking what has the units bane, still unsure what to do with characters that have no banes, might just stick them with neutral skills?

Honestly I wish there was a "Free roam" post game like Awakening and Fates did, I spend so much time in those games grinding out classes to test out skills.

[Barren]

5 hours ago, Oso_Peluche said:

Since I can't afford Three Hopes i started playing 3H again. Just finished a fun Black Eagle play through where I (once again) had Raphael as this tank dancer hybrid. And I accidently didn't use any fliers, didn't notice until the last battle when I was sorting through skills.

I went with the Blue Lions for a NG+ run but this time I'm also doing Bane only. It's been pretty fun! I have zero classes planned out since I'm just picking what has the units bane, still unsure what to do with characters that have no banes, might just stick them with neutral skills?

Honestly I wish there was a "Free roam" post game like Awakening and Fates did, I spend so much time in those games grinding out classes to test out skills.

If you want to do a bane only run, have Dimitri go Dark Bishop 😎

Edited July 11, 2022 by Barren

[Oso_Peluche]

8 hours ago, Barren said:

If you want to do a bane only run, have Dimitri go Dark Bishop 😎

Good idea! I have him as a Mage right now. Noticing that I'm going to have a ton of gauntlet users. Got Linhart and Berny, and Marianne punching things to death surprisingly well!

I wonder how well a Bane run will go in Madenning?  I gave up playing my regular Madenning run because I just wasnt having fun. But I know you can just do what ever you want in Normal and Hard.

[Barren]

3 hours ago, Oso_Peluche said:

Good idea! I have him as a Mage right now. Noticing that I'm going to have a ton of gauntlet users. Got Linhart and Berny, and Marianne punching things to death surprisingly well!

I wonder how well a Bane run will go in Madenning?  I gave up playing my regular Madenning run because I just wasnt having fun. But I know you can just do what ever you want in Normal and Hard.

To be honest, I haven’t really tried it. I would imagine that it may be a lot tougher to pull off mostly due to power creep that occurs in part 2. Going from somehow not being doubled by Assassins to always being doubled by Assassins is never fun. 
 

Plus Ingrid, Ferdinand and Leonie don’t have any banes. But you could also for example make Leonie on purpose a Bishop since she gets Physic and Restore. Gremory is another one since she gets Ragnarok but only 3 reason spells with Fire and Bolganone. 
 

Ingrid is a surprisingly decent Holy Knight when I used her for Silver Snow. Mostly due to Seraphim. But she gets Physic too. As well as Fimbulvetr if you like Gremory. Frozen Lance also gets a nice buff with magic +2, fiendish blow and dex + 4.

 

Never tried a magic Ferdinand set but I remember it being unremarkable.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 7/11/2022 at 9:12 PM, Barren said:

Never tried a magic Ferdinand set but I remember it being unremarkable.

I used Dark Knight Ferdinand in a Silver Snow Maddening NG+ playthrough. "Unremarkable" is a fair descriptor. The one interesting thing he brings to the table is Thoron - outside of that, he's totally outclassed in the role by Sylvain (Reason budding talent, higher Magic growth, better Faith list, Lightning Axe). Swift Strikes with the Arrow of Indra could be cool... but it's CF exclusive, and again, Sylvain is better at it.

Running a "pure Mage" Ferdinand, with no Lance or Riding, sounds pretty rough. His spell lists are fairly big for not having a boon in either domain, but still unimpressive overall. And that 20% magic growth is just brutal.

[Barren]

On 8/15/2022 at 4:59 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I used Dark Knight Ferdinand in a Silver Snow Maddening NG+ playthrough. "Unremarkable" is a fair descriptor. The one interesting thing he brings to the table is Thoron - outside of that, he's totally outclassed in the role by Sylvain (Reason budding talent, higher Magic growth, better Faith list, Lightning Axe). Swift Strikes with the Arrow of Indra could be cool... but it's CF exclusive, and again, Sylvain is better at it.

Running a "pure Mage" Ferdinand, with no Lance or Riding, sounds pretty rough. His spell lists are fairly big for not having a boon in either domain, but still unimpressive overall. And that 20% magic growth is just brutal.

That’s my feeling on the matter too. If I were to try a dark knight build with someone whose meant to be a physical attacker Sylvain would get my vote. Plus you could in theory certify as a Paladin then Warlock around level 20 so his strength and magic would be at least 17 as a base stat. 
 

And 20% magic growth on Ferdie? Yikes. I forgot it was that low. At least Bernadetta doesn’t necessarily care for a low magic growth if she’s a Rescue bot Holy Knight. Magic +2 usually helps out.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Barren said:

And 20% magic growth on Ferdie? Yikes. I forgot it was that low. At least Bernadetta doesn’t necessarily care for a low magic growth if she’s a Rescue bot Holy Knight. Magic +2 usually helps out.

Ironically, I would say that Bernie's low Magic is actually more impactful on her Rescue utility, than on her combat. See, in combat, tools like Fiendish Blow, Persecution Complex, Black Tomefaire, and the right battalion (i.e. Ordelia Sorcery Co, Timetheos Magi, Alliance Sages) all shore up her otherwise-poor Magic stat. Even working off of Warlock bases, she can have  (17 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 9 = ) 53 Attack using Thoron alone. But none of those aid her Rescue range, which sits at a pitiful 5.

Now, granted, even a 5-tile Rescue has its uses. Much like the "Foul Play" combat art. But in a pure utility sense, it's dwarfed by what the likes of Flayn and Constance can offer. Units with, y'know, an actually good Magic stat.

[Barren]

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

Ironically, I would say that Bernie's low Magic is actually more impactful on her Rescue utility, than on her combat. See, in combat, tools like Fiendish Blow, Persecution Complex, Black Tomefaire, and the right battalion (i.e. Ordelia Sorcery Co, Timetheos Magi, Alliance Sages) all shore up her otherwise-poor Magic stat. Even working off of Warlock bases, she can have  (17 + 3 + 6 + 5 + 5 + 8 + 9 = ) 53 Attack using Thoron alone. But none of those aid her Rescue range, which sits at a pitiful 5.

Now, granted, even a 5-tile Rescue has its uses. Much like the "Foul Play" combat art. But in a pure utility sense, it's dwarfed by what the likes of Flayn and Constance can offer. Units with, y'know, an actually good Magic stat.

That’s a very good point. And plus both of them can go Dark Flier and use Rescue very effectively and they have suitable magic stats and growths like you said. I did use Holy Knight Bernadetta out of curiosity and there were a couple of occasions where she was useful. Particularly during Azure Moon’s chapters 18 + 19 where in my case I used her Rescue spell to give an ally who hasn’t moved in yet an assist to get in range.

Of course it doesn’t change the fact that as a Rescue user Bernie’s outclassed but I thought it was fun to try out. Constance was my Gremory at the time and while she could do the same thing she wouldn’t have that flexibility like a flier or a horseback rider would.