Post Time skip Personal Skills Upgrades

[DoomRPG]

So in FE3H all the lords (and Byleth) get an upgraded PS after the timeskip. That's cool.
All of them are pretty lame admittedly, Edelgard's basically doesn't exist for example. (And its barely an upgrade. The XP boost remains the big deal.)

I think XP boosts are pretty lame tbh. And also overpowered since IS hasn't realized that a 1.2x XP boost is easily worth like ten stat points. If its stronger. Reaching twenty.

So here's what I'd do if I was in charge of upgrading the personal skills of all three lords (and Byleth.) And a few for students too.

Also the basis I was going for the new lord skill is "This skill is as good as the pre-time skip EXP boost"  and as said I think XP boosts are pretty overpowered. And it kinda suck to get a downgrade when your supposed to have an upgrade.


Lords/Avatar

Byleth
Skill: "Ascended Demon" (Replacing Professor's Guidance+)
This unit gains 3x the effect of linked attacks and support bonuses. This unit's own link attack is twice as effective.  Additionally, this unit's crest now applies to allies when a linked bonus is applied at a x2 activation rate.

Notes: Byleth's skill should basically be the one that encourages phalanx style formations. Everyone supports everyone else. And the linked attack system seems like a good way to do it. The name is a reference to the immediately forgotten title of "Ashen Demon" You start the game with. And Byleth's personal class of "Enlightened One"
Sadly it still needed a buff. And I didn't want to just exaggerated the support link stuff. So I added the crest thing at doubled rate.
60% for a psuedo-Sol proc on every attack just because Byleth is in range does seem pretty good to me.

Edelgard.
Skill: "One Against All" (Replacing Imperial Lineage+)
Gain immunity to armor effectiveness. +4 movement as long as this unit is in an armor class. This unit is a preferred target from enemy aggression.

Notes: The name is moreso a reference to Edelgard's situation in non CF routes. She's basically against everyone. Against the Alliance and Kingdom. As well as the church and inevitably. Mole people.
While its effect is more so a reference to Edelgard being a playable "BBEG" (Big Bad Evil Guy/Girl.) And thus gets cheap nonsense that can make armored units almost good. (Still won't be) And last is the provoke skill. Which fits Edelgard in a very meta way. (Oh and can also represent how in the BE route. She's less of a non-communicating prick.)

Dimitri
Skill: "Heroic Epic" (Replacing Royal Lineage+)
Gain +30 hit/evade/dodge (crit avoid). Missing HP adds up too +5/STR/DEF/RES, reaching max benefit at 60% missing hp, stacks with the original bonus.

Notes: Now this name might seem odd. Wouldn't a  tragedy fit Dimitri's story better? It is tragic after all, and indeed in all the routes Dimitri dies. He is something of an ancient greek hero. An incredible king, traumatized by events outside of his control, ordained by higher (in 3H's case lower) powers. Reduced to a man-beast that can kill armies. Yet in the AM route his story turns into something of a modern chivalric tale. Horrible events happen yes. But in the end the protagonist, Dimitri, finds the inner strength to continue, rise above his past self. And become a modern hero that stands for justice, truth, and the Fodlan way.

Claude
Skill: "Supreme Strategist." (Replacing Leicester Lineage+)
This unit's charm is considered twice as high for considering Gambit offense, but not defense..Gambits have twice the amount of uses for this unit.

I think its pretty fitting for Claude to get a skill that is based around the battalion and gambit system. He already gets the best lord battalion with Ashes and Dust. I originally went with "if a unit dies to the gambit it doesn't expend a charge" but I realized that was horrifically overpowered and doesn't benefit gambits like Stride, Retribution, Unbreakable wall etc. 
Also this skill at least sort of leans towards Claude actually being smart in big brain thinking rather than every strategy he makes being done by somebody else who isn't a tactical genius.

---

Rather than something completely new and ridiculous meant to compete with the complete insanity that is an XP boost. My student PS upgrades are closer meant to just be direct upgrades, though I think there is room for references in their name and function that can still represent the character and their growth well.

Starting with BL

Felix
Army of Two (Upgrading Lone Wolf.)
This unit gains +5 attack when no battalion, doubled if defending. Additionally the adjudant of this unit acts as all three at once with improved effects. (Attack adjutants always attack, heal is stronger, defense is better.)

Notes. Since 0x2 is still 0. Having a battalion and no adjudant means that Felix literally has no personal skill.

The name is obviously a reference to the "Army of Two" video game series. But it's also supposed to represent that while Felix isn't really a fan of leading a battalion, he's grown to the point that he's fine with somebody to watch his back. Some of his paired endings basically have this exactly happen. "Felix and X go around for a bit as buddies defeating everyone they find." Unlike many anime edgelords. Felix is capable of basic teamwork.

Dedue.
"Immovable Shield" (Upgrading Staunch Shield)
At the start of player phase. Gain +5 Defense. If this unit waits, increase to +7

Notes. I'm disappointed in the lack of "immovable objects vs Unstoppable force" type things in FE.

(Not sure about the others. So moving onto Black Eagles.)

Caspar
"Kaio-ken because that's the only thing that make this guy usable. Unstoppable Fighter (Upgrading Born Fighter.)

Adjacent enemies suffer -20 avoid and dodge (crit avoid). This unit gains +20 crit when fighting enemies with 40 or more HP.

Notes. I'm disappointed in the lack of "Immovable objects vs Unstoppable forces" type things in FE. Also Caspar is bad so he needs an extra good personal skill. One that gives effective +40 crit on someone who should be able to use killer knuckles sounds pretty good to me. Especially with WM's additional +20 crit.
That's pretty good. Enough to make Caspar good? idk.

Hubert
"Treacherous Duty" (Upgrading Officer Duty.)
Gain +7 MT on gambits. If a gambit kills an enemy, CHAx2% chance to not consume a use.

Notes: +2 might and decided to move the "Don't use a use" over here. Since I still like the idea in principle. It fits Hubert better anyway.

Bernadetta
"Peeved Bear" (Upgrading Persecution Complex.)
If this unit is not at full hp. Gain +3 attack. This increases by 3 at half hp, and again at a quarter hp. For a total of +9

Notes: Bernadetta is often attributed as being like a bear. This just does it again. The increasing bonus as you drop HP synergizes with her poking playstyle. And her access to Vengence.
its slightly nerfed at high hp though.

GD
Raphael
"Thriving Vitality" (Upgrades Goody Basket.)
At the start and end of every phase. Gain 10% of max hp. This bonus is tripled if this unit is at less than half health.
(So either 40% of max hp per turn as a minimum. Or between 40%-120% of max HP. Seems crazy until you realize Raphael is trash. Being one of the few units, the other Caspar, who has a strictly superior student. Balthus is objectively better than Raphael in every meaningful metric.)

Not sure about the rest tbh.


So what are some personal skills you'd think are in need of an upgrade?
Or perhaps everyone should just have an XP skill.
You get an XP skill
He gets and XP skill.
She gets an XP skill.
Anymore XP skills I need to know about?









 

[ciphertul]

1 hour ago, DoomRPG said:

Bernadetta
"Peeved Bear" (Upgrading Persecution Complex.)
If this unit is not at full hp. Gain +3 attack. This increases by 3 at half hp, and again at a quarter hp. For a total of +9

I think  it would be better as +5 damage when not a full hp then every 20% hp missing give another +1 so if her hp is under 20% she would have +9 without nerfing her base personal.

[DoomRPG]

2 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

I think  it would be better as +5 damage when not a full hp then every 20% hp missing give another +1 so if her hp is under 20% she would have +9 without nerfing her base personal.

That probably be another good way to handle it.

Bernie is already a pretty good unit so I personally didn't want to make her personal too crazy.
(and if anyone wants to bring up Felix. His PS is very situational. Requiring an adjutant for half of it to function, and to be battalionless for the next half. Which I think is a good balancing mechanism.)

[Punished Dayni]

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

So what are some personal skills you'd think are in need of an upgrade?
Or perhaps everyone should just have an XP skill.
You get an XP skill
He gets and XP skill.
She gets an XP skill.
Anymore XP skills I need to know about?

Me: Mow

Hanneman: Motivational Teacher: Grants +10% XP to any actions former students take in battle while deployed.

Me, I'm looking at these and finding them kinda nuts myself. But in principle I can't help but agree all the units could have gotten more post timeskip. But let's try one for another weaker unit.

Cyril: Applied Talent Refined Faculty: Gets +15 Hit/Evade and 10 Crit/Crit Evade, +5 to attacks dealt with weapons he has strong skill levels with and +2 move while mounted. Maintains Aptitude as an effect.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Dayni

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Byleth
Skill: "Ascended Demon" (Replacing Professor's Guidance+)
This unit gains 3x the effect of linked attacks and support bonuses. This unit's own link attack is twice as effective.  Additionally, this unit's crest now applies to allies when a linked bonus is applied at a x2 activation rate.

This seems pretty broken. Teach is already getting supports from everyone else, and now you're enhancing their impact? Bruh. Even without the Crest effect (double bruh) it's pretty strong.

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Edelgard.
Skill: "One Against All" (Replacing Imperial Lineage+)
Gain immunity to armor effectiveness. +4 movement as long as this unit is in an armor class. This unit is a preferred target from enemy aggression.

Not a fan of how this one incentivizes keeping Edelgard in an Armored class. I can understand dissuading the broken Wyvern option, but this also disincentivizes weird builds, like Magelgard or Swordelgard. She can do those builds, sure, but her personal skill will become pretty much useless.

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Dimitri
Skill: "Heroic Epic" (Replacing Royal Lineage+)
Gain +30 hit/evade/dodge (crit avoid). Missing HP adds up too +5/STR/DEF/RES, reaching max benefit at 60% missing hp, stacks with the original bonus.

This is absurdly broken. Please no.

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Claude
Skill: "Supreme Strategist." (Replacing Leicester Lineage+)
This unit's charm is considered twice as high for considering Gambit offense, but not defense..Gambits have twice the amount of uses for this unit.

I like the first part, but the thought of four uses of "Ashes and Dust" is... well, actually that could be really helpful in chapter 13. I'm alright with this one.

Anyway, if I were changing the game, I'd keep the Lords' post-skip skills the same, and give upgrades to each student, as follows:

Hubert: Officer Duty+: Grants +5 Might and +10 Hit when using offensive gambits.

Dorothea: Songstress+: Restore 10% HP and status condition to adjacent allies at the start of each turn.

Ferdinand: Confidence+ Grants +15 Hit, Avoid, and Crit when HP is full.

Bernadetta: Persecution Complex+: Grants +5 Damage and +5 Attack Speed when HP is not full.

Linhardt: Catnap+: Restores 10% HP and grants Stealth for a turn if unit Waits without taking an action.

Petra: Hunter's Boon+: Hit rate +10 and Crit rate +20 when target is below 50% HP.

Caspar: Born Fighter+: -10 Avoid and -10 Crit Avoid to all adjacent enemies.

Dedue: Staunch Shield+: Gains +4 Defense and restores 10% HP if unit Waits without taking an action.

Felix: Lone Wolf+: Damage dealt +5 and movement +1 when no Battalion is deployed.

Annette: Perseverance+: Grants +4 Strength and +8 Charm when Rally is used on an ally unit.

Mercedes: Live to Serve+: Heals self by the same amount and grants Blessing status after healing allies with white magic.

Sylvain: Philanderer+: Gains +4 damage dealt, and -4 damage received, when adjacent to a female ally.

Ashe: Lockpick+: Unit can open doors and chests without keys. Doing so grants +4 Strength/Magic/Dexterity/Speed until next turn begins.

Ingrid: Lady Knight+: Gains +3 Might and +5 Hit rate when using a Gambit. Restores HP equal to damage dealt to main target of gambit.

Lorenz: Distinguished House+: Gains +2 damage dealt, and -2 damage received, when a battalion is deployed.

Hilda: Advocate+: Grants adjacent male allies +3 damage and +10 Avoid in combat.

Raphael: Goody Basket+: Has a Luck% chance of regaining all HP at the start of the turn.

Leonie: Rivalry+: Gains +4 damage dealt, and -4 damage received, when adjacent to a male ally.

Ignatz: Watchful Eye+: Gains Hit Rate +20 and Crit Rate +10.

Lysithea: Mastermind+: Unit gains double skill experience and ignores banes in combat.

Marianne: Animal Friend+: Restores 20% HP and one gambit charge when starting the turn adjacent to a mounted ally.

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

So what are some personal skills you'd think are in need of an upgrade?
Or perhaps everyone should just have an XP skill.
You get an XP skill
He gets and XP skill.
She gets an XP skill.
Anymore XP skills I need to know about?

Cyril: Aptitude+: +20% to all growth rates and +20% experience gained.

I'm gonna stop myself here.

[Punished Dayni]

4 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Cyril: Aptitude+Paragon: +20% to all growth rates and +20% experience gained.

Fify

5 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I like the first part, but the thought of four uses of "Ashes and Dust" is... well, actually that could be really helpful in chapter 13. I'm alright with this one.

That is definitely tempting.

[DoomRPG]

Pretty good suggestions for gameplay effects Shanty pete.

I admit my biggest complaint is that I hate the "add a +" naming convention.

I do agree incentivizing Edelgard go armor so much is probably dumb. I just hate Wyvern!Edel from a thematic standpoint. I should edit in an alternative down the line when I think of something better.

One thing I do disagree is Byleth skill being broken. Link bonuses are pretty minimal as is. What this does is primarily make it so that Byleth has insane hit (basically 100% even if an enemy had crazy, truly crazy avoid.) And with certain characters in combination could reach a very high hit bonus if they are all positioned well. (Which. I'd argue is meriting a reward.) If linked attacks always provided a bit of damage I would agree though.

Dimitri's is kinda crazy admittedly. I overdone it and I should nerf it when I do "maybe tone it down a bit" I don't think Claude is OP though. Probably the most balanced. The new skills ARE supposed to replace XP boosts which are genuinely crazy.

Like Aptitude+ Is genuinely better than anything I suggested. It could easily be exploited to the point Cyril is level 40 while everyone else is struggling to reach 32-35~
XP boosts are dumb.

[lenticular]

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

I think XP boosts are pretty lame tbh. And also overpowered since IS hasn't realized that a 1.2x XP boost is easily worth like ten stat points. If its stronger. Reaching twenty.

What are you basing that on? I find that I tend to reach an equilibrium point with my lord about two levels higher than everyone else, at which point the bonus is approximately cancelled out by the penalty from xp scaling. An average level up is somewhere around about 4 stat ups for a Three Houses lord on average, so I'd estimate it the personal as being worth somewhere around about 8 extra stat points. I can see 10 being possible, since I used very rough numbers and that seems to be within rounding error, but I don't see how it's worth anywhere close to 20 stat points.

It's a strong ability, for sure, but I don't think it's overpowered. Especially considering that those stat points are going to be spread across all stats, with relatively few going into the most important stats. It makes the lords just a little bit better at everything, which is great to have, but generally not as powerful as getting a particularly strong buff to a single stat.

2 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Also Caspar is bad so he needs an extra good personal skill.

I would disagree with this as well. Not so much the first part as the second. I'd agree that Caspar is one of the weakest units in the game (though I don't think I'd call him outright bad; everyone in Three Houses is at least servicable) but I don't think it's necessarily a problem if bad units exist. Figuring out which units are the best is part of the game. Trying to make weaker units work anyway is a part of the game. I wouldn't want these things to go away in the name of game balance (which I think is a hugely over-rated concept for single-player games).

Anyway, of the actual skills that you're suggesting, a lot of them seem pretty overpowered to me. @Shanty Pete's 1st Mate already mentioned a couple of the ones I'd consider too powerful, so I'll just second what she said. Another thing that I'll add, though, is that a lot of the ones you're adding are overly complicated, wordy or fiddly compared to what we actually have in the game. They should be easy to remember and, ideally, all the abilities should be simple enough that even a beginner player should be able to have an intuitive feel for what they do after reading them only once. If you have multiple breakpoints or multiple effects tied to a single ability, then it's mostly going to be confusing. I had to read some of them multiple times to fully understand what they would do, and I'm the sort of person who talks about Fire Emblem games on Internet message boards.

24 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Dorothea: Songstress+: Restore 10% HP and status condition to adjacent allies at the start of each turn.

Linhardt: Catnap+: Restores 10% HP and grants Stealth for a turn if unit Waits without taking an action.

I like a lot of your suggestions, but I think that these two are my favourites. And honestly, I kinda wish these were just the default vanilla versions.

[DoomRPG]

The main lords all have a weaker XP skill than Corrin and Robin. But Byleth provides an additional stacking modifer you can easily use to make your army (and lords) Several levels above the curve. Even on maddening mode.
XP skills. Busted.


As for your Caspar comment.
I agree that bad units can be an interesting way to tie story and gameplay integration. (I'm largely fine with Gilbert generally being below average. He's an old man past his time.) But Caspar's story isn't about him being an incompetent runt. He's a simpleton, an idiot, but he can fight.
Or at least he's supposed to be able to. Caspar and Raphael aren't just intended to be less than good. (Ignatz is an example of a character whose less than good. And it fits him well. Similar to Ashe. A character who inspires to be greater, obviously he isn't going to be amazing.)
But Caspar and Raphael are not merely bad. They have strictly superior alternatives. Balthus and Dedue are objectively superior to Raphael in 100% of cases. Anything Raphael can do, they do better, and they can each do things that Raphael never can.
Caspar has it slightly "better" in that Felix is objectively superior to Caspar and does everything Caspar does but more and better in 100% of cases. But Felix is also one of the few students whose "good" rather than "Aggressively mediocre except in one particular thing that doesn't matter because everyone else can due it via class shenanigans."

There's being a bad unit. And then there is being objectively useless. (Gilbert at least has free skills you don't need to tutor him.)

On a more on topic/positive note. I can understand your feeling on how I made them too overcomplicated. I guess I could argue that a beginner player wouldn't be a beginner by the time they reach the timeskip. But that's schematics and I do think Shanty Pete overall did better. I thin his Linhardt one is simultaneously funny, in character, and useful.

[Dark Holy Elf]

17 minutes ago, lenticular said:

What are you basing that on? I find that I tend to reach an equilibrium point with my lord about two levels higher than everyone else, at which point the bonus is approximately cancelled out by the penalty from xp scaling. An average level up is somewhere around about 4 stat ups for a Three Houses lord on average, so I'd estimate it the personal as being worth somewhere around about 8 extra stat points. I can see 10 being possible, since I used very rough numbers and that seems to be within rounding error, but I don't see how it's worth anywhere close to 20 stat points.

I collected some numbers for levels in the 30's a while back and they confirm this; ~2 levels is indeed the equilibrium (at least in that level range, and I find it similar at lower levels, though haven't formally collected numbers). I tend to handwave that as "roughly +1 to all stats", which is good but yeah not broken.

5 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

The main lords all have a weaker XP skill than Corrin and Robin.

Corrin's is the same actually (on paper. I think it's actually slightly weaker in practice, but this depends on how high-levelled the enemies are). Robin's is of course stronger.

47 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Marianne: Animal Friend+: Restores 20% HP and one gambit charge when starting the turn adjacent to a mounted ally.

I really like your suggestions! Though I am gonna single this one out as quietly very busted. It's not hard to maintain the conditional from Intermediate tier onwards, and the ability to use Stride, Blessing, Resonant Flames, or later Dance of the Goddess(!!!) every turn is way too powerful. What if she regained one used spell charge instead? Since she doesn't have anything truly game-breaking this would be reasonable, and it would give her a niche of having limitless Thoron and Physic, which are both neat.

[DoomRPG]

Wasn't aware Corrin is the same as 3H. I made a mistake then.
I'll just. Go into the "Remember to double check your numbers you dunce." corner now xD

That spell recharge idea is actually pretty interesting. Sounds like a solid personal skill that has unique utility. I believe I'll write it down for later. I am quite the idea(l) thief.

(I'm sorry.)
(But also my puns are not eligible for suing.)

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

51 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

Pretty good suggestions for gameplay effects Shanty pete.

I admit my biggest complaint is that I hate the "add a +" naming convention.

Thanks!

Yeah, I was pretty lazy about the names. I have a few ideas for potential changes (like "Confidence+" becoming "Overconfidence", or "Staunch Shield+" turning into "Stauncher Shield"), but I'm not quite creative enough to give everything a new name.

54 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

Like Aptitude+ Is genuinely better than anything I suggested. It could easily be exploited to the point Cyril is level 40 while everyone else is struggling to reach 32-35~
XP boosts are dumb.

A 20% EXP boost isn't that strong. In 3H, the higher a unit's level is, the more EXP it takes to get to the next level. So as @lenticular said, Teach and your Lord will usually only be a couple levels ahead of everyone else. It's not as though their level will stay 20% higher (i.e. 36 vs. 30) than everyone else's.

Also I gave Cyril the EXP boost because it seemed thematically appropriate for a "growth unit" or "Donnel archetype".

44 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I like a lot of your suggestions, but I think that these two are my favourites. And honestly, I kinda wish these were just the default vanilla versions.

Thanks! I tried to introduce new effects that aren't seen a ton, but also exist in the gameplay and are fairly intuitive. Especially to bolster the more lackluster personal skills.

18 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I really like your suggestions! Though I am gonna single this one out as quietly very busted. It's not hard to maintain the conditional from Intermediate tier onwards, and the ability to use Stride, Blessing, Resonant Flames, or later Dance of the Goddess(!!!) every turn is way too powerful. What if she regained one used spell charge instead? Since she doesn't have anything truly game-breaking this would be reasonable, and it would give her a niche of having limitless Thoron and Physic, which are both neat.

I actually first had spell charges in mind with this effect, but switched over to gambits (that way, builds like Assassin or Falcon Knight Marianne could still get in on the fun). That said, the prospect of an infinite Dance-of-the-Goddess... yeah, I can see how that would be considered broken. So maybe reverting it to a spell recharge (say, 1 cast of each spell that's not at full uses) would be the better way to go.

[lenticular]

11 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

The main lords all have a weaker XP skill than Corrin and Robin. But Byleth provides an additional stacking modifer you can easily use to make your army (and lords) Several levels above the curve. Even on maddening mode.
XP skills. Busted.

I'm still not convinced. The buff that Byleth's personal gives to adjacent units is rarely significant, unless you are willing to severely sacrifice Byleth's combat to make it so, which isn't worth it. If you benefit from it twice per turn (probably an over-estimate, at least for me), use it equally on everyone in your army (, and have 11 non-Byleth units that you're using, then that means that each of themgets an average of an extra 3.6% xp overall, which is a fraction of one level above the curve. It's still nice to have, since it's pure upside, but I don't see how it's overpowered.

Unless you're using the ability significantly differently from me and in a way that I haven't thought of, I think that you're greatly over-estimating it.

24 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I collected some numbers for levels in the 30's a while back and they confirm this; ~2 levels is indeed the equilibrium (at least in that level range, and I find it similar at lower levels, though haven't formally collected numbers). I tend to handwave that as "roughly +1 to all stats", which is good but yeah not broken.

Oh, that's good to know. It's always nice to get confirmation that the actual maths lines up with my personal intuition.

40 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

Balthus and Dedue are objectively superior to Raphael in 100% of cases. Anything Raphael can do, they do better, and they can each do things that Raphael never can.

This is an exaggeration. I agree that they're both better units than Raphael, but not that they're strictly better in all cases. Compared to Balthus, Raphael has: better HP, luck and dexterity; more supports with Golden Deer students for more reliable linked attacks; better availability in a Golden Deer playthrough, including Chapter 13 and Chapter 1, both of which can be tricky on Maddening. None of these advantages are amazing, but they definitely do exist. (And that's even leaving aside the fact that he's the only one of the three units that you can even use if you're don't have the DLC and aren't playing as Blue Lions.)

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

11 minutes ago, lenticular said:

This is an exaggeration. I agree that they're both better units than Raphael, but not that they're strictly better in all cases. Compared to Balthus, Raphael has: better HP, luck and dexterity; more supports with Golden Deer students for more reliable linked attacks; better availability in a Golden Deer playthrough, including Chapter 13 and Chapter 1, both of which can be tricky on Maddening. None of these advantages are amazing, but they definitely do exist. (And that's even leaving aside the fact that he's the only one of the three units that you can even use if you're don't have the DLC and aren't playing as Blue Lions.)

Raphael is also neutral in Lances (versus Balthus' Lance bane), giving him an ever-so-slightly easier path to Wyvern Lord. And let's not forget his biggest unique trait: giving Ignatz up to +3 damage via linked attack or adjutant boost. That's 9 damage per hit for Critnatz!

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Eh, have Edelgard´s updated PS play with shields/equipment? 

So increasing/multiplying shield/equipment prot/resilience effects,  coupled with a flat procc-% chance in general or maybe negation of weight for equipment.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

9 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Eh, have Edelgard´s updated PS play with shields/equipment? 

So increasing/multiplying shield/equipment prot/resilience effects,  coupled with a flat procc-% chance in general or maybe negation of weight for equipment.

If I were reconstructing Raphael's personal ability from scratch, I'd make it something like "-5 damage received with a Shield equipped". Something to really help him stand out as a defensive unit.

[lenticular]

59 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

If I were reconstructing Raphael's personal ability from scratch, I'd make it something like "-5 damage received with a Shield equipped". Something to really help him stand out as a defensive unit.

How about instead, "Receives doubled benefits from all shields"? Which would not be nearly as good early on, but would scale better and actually have the potential to be better in the late game. It would also give the option of equipping a Hexlock Shield for +8 Res, which could be mighty tempting.

As an alternative, how about: "Hearty constitution: Nullifies damage from all sources other than direct attacks"? That would include terrain damage, poison damage, splash damage from gambits or meteor, and damage from poison strike. I've generally found poison strike to be one of the biggest weaknesses of physical tanks in Maddening, so being able to laugh them off would be really nice.

21 hours ago, DoomRPG said:

Claude
Skill: "Supreme Strategist." (Replacing Leicester Lineage+)
This unit's charm is considered twice as high for considering Gambit offense, but not defense..Gambits have twice the amount of uses for this unit.

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

Marianne: Animal Friend+: Restores 20% HP and one gambit charge when starting the turn adjacent to a mounted ally.

The more that I've been thinking about these, the more glad I am that there aren't any abilities that give extra gambit uses. Gambits are pretty much the single most powerful thing that a character can do on their turn, so a character with extra gambit uses would risk turning into something of a gambit-bot. Which would be very powerful, no doubt, but I don't think I'd find them fun to use.

[DoomRPG]

42 minutes ago, lenticular said:

As an alternative, how about: "Hearty constitution: Nullifies damage from all sources other than direct attacks"? That would include terrain damage, poison damage, splash damage from gambits or meteor, and damage from poison strike. I've generally found poison strike to be one of the biggest weaknesses of physical tanks in Maddening, so being able to laugh them off would be really nice.

Apart of me really wishes I had the ability to either make my own SRPG, or just to mod 3H. In order to include this somewhere. This sounds like a really good ability to make an otherwise bad unit have a potentially critical niche. (Similar to Ignatz funnily enough. Who either goes full crit or gets benched after his help in the early game. Ignatz for the best Jeigan in 3h xd)

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

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

If I were reconstructing Raphael's personal ability from scratch, I'd make it something like "-5 damage received with a Shield equipped". Something to really help him stand out as a defensive unit.

I was basing the idea off of Edelgard because 1) in comparison to Dmitris and Claudes PS Wait=Res+4 feels real bad imo, and 2) from my understanding she ain´t afraid of being in the thick of battle (hence the Armored personal class), so a PS to emphasize that would be neat.

For Raphael I´d make it so that he isn´t weighted down by equipment and either gains AS, logic be damned, or some variation of +Hit/Crit. With Def+5 he´s kinda just like Dedue, except a bit better, because no Wait-rally.

31 minutes ago, DoomRPG said:

Apart of me really wishes I had the ability to either make my own SRPG, or just to mod 3H. In order to include this somewhere. This sounds like a really good ability to make an otherwise bad unit have a potentially critical niche. (Similar to Ignatz funnily enough. Who either goes full crit or gets benched after his help in the early game. Ignatz for the best Jeigan in 3h xd)

Hmmm, it´s neither SRPG nor TH and I´m not 100% sure how the interactions would look like, but if you can emulate FE Fates (e.g. with Citra) you can edit safe files with FEFtwiddler - that includes giving your units enemy only skills, such as Dragonskin/Divine Shield, which according to their description should block Poison Strike and Status Resist/Immune which should help with debuffs.

Along other, far more... cool things to be found in the ways of Fates. Just sayin. Cough

[vikingsfan92]

Honestly I am kind of with the armor overemphasis on Edelgard's personal idea just to get people to see what armor can do standpoint.  So many people seem to avoid armor like the plague (in fire emblem in general not just three houses) because of movement that I think it would help get more people open to using in the future. Although would kind of have to be careful to not overdo it so it doesn't become to unrealistic for other armors.

Don't get me wrong I love doing unconventional Edelgard builds but if more people are willing to give armored units a shot in general I think it could have been a smart touch for future games.

Although personally I think it would be broken in Cindered Shadows where I personally think armor access alone makes Edelgard the most useful unit other than maybe Lindhart who is by far the best healer. Mainly because there are a lot of chokeponts and places to fight alot of units at once in the dlc that I value the extra defense more than how hard the units hit. Besides the lords all hit in the same ball park anyways that it really comes down to who gets more exp.

Edited January 5, 2022 by vikingsfan92

[Dark Holy Elf]

2 hours ago, vikingsfan92 said:

Honestly I am kind of with the armor overemphasis on Edelgard's personal idea just to get people to see what armor can do standpoint.  So many people seem to avoid armor like the plague (in fire emblem in general not just three houses) because of movement that I think it would help get more people open to using in the future. Although would kind of have to be careful to not overdo it so it doesn't become to unrealistic for other armors.

Don't get me wrong I love doing unconventional Edelgard builds but if more people are willing to give armored units a shot in general I think it could have been a smart touch for future games.

Although personally I think it would be broken in Cindered Shadows where I personally think armor access alone makes Edelgard the most useful unit other than maybe Lindhart who is by far the best healer. Mainly because there are a lot of chokeponts and places to fight alot of units at once in the dlc that I value the extra defense more than how hard the units hit. Besides the lords all hit in the same ball park anyways that it really comes down to who gets more exp.

Giving Edelgard +4 move in an armoured class would certainly make her an outstanding armour unit, but it's kinda cheating because it's negating the usual armour weakness. Can she really be considered an armour unit if she outruns horses?

And unfortunately just buffing her defences further wouldn't be enough to make her armour classes useful, because Raging Storm has such exceptional synergy with high move. Raging Storm is a good move when used by an armour knight, but it's an absolutely bonkers one when used by someone with Canto, because of the utterly ridiculous flexibility it offers.

I personally found Warrior Edelgard much more useful than armour Edelgard in Cindered Shadows; she's already pretty darn tanky as a Warrior, and the ridiculous offence + having more move is useful, especially because CS had a couple maps where move was incredibly valuable.

[vikingsfan92]

19 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Giving Edelgard +4 move in an armoured class would certainly make her an outstanding armour unit, but it's kinda cheating because it's negating the usual armour weakness. Can she really be considered an armour unit if she outruns horses?

And unfortunately just buffing her defences further wouldn't be enough to make her armour classes useful, because Raging Storm has such exceptional synergy with high move. Raging Storm is a good move when used by an armour knight, but it's an absolutely bonkers one when used by someone with Canto, because of the utterly ridiculous flexibility it offers.

I personally found Warrior Edelgard much more useful than armour Edelgard in Cindered Shadows; she's already pretty darn tanky as a Warrior, and the ridiculous offence + having more move is useful, especially because CS had a couple maps where move was incredibly valuable.

I am more or less saying I am ok with it being reworked to be something armor focused not 100% the op's idea. Even still I think showing how much defensive focused to do might give people to think hey this kind of cool maybe I should try armor out. But I do agree that 4 is probably overkill. Not sure where I would put it though.

As for canto techincally with dlc and Yuri's relic you can give armor Edelgard canto if you really want to. Yes we can argue it might not be the best use of the relic (personally I like it on my dancer to have them keep up with the unit I dance) and yes there is value in the other classes having it built in along with other benefits and yes its paid dlc but its an option to sort of fix that problem if you really want and isn't that much effort and concessions (I get the paid part is a problem though). 

The cs part is more so my own personal opinion and I like just how much more you can survive and make easier with armor imo.

[SnowFire]

To go against the grain here: Eh, I'm a fan of keeping personal skills subtle.  You can crank up the volume on them and make them hard to ignore by making them super busted, but that's a bit of a different style which makes units more about their personal skill rather than everything else - proficiency ranks & bonuses, class choices, skill loadouts, etc.  And if it's given that the goal is not to make super-impactful personal skills, then might as well just hand out "improved" personal skills earlier, IMO.  Basically, if we were modding 3H or the like, then I'd more focus on buffing the useless or uninteresting skills and then doing so from the start, rather than taking already good skills like Bernie's and making them even more hardcore extreme. 

I suppose the one exception might be skills that give damage boosts (e.g. Sylvain, Hilda, Leonie, etc.), as in that case, those really do could use an upgrade halfway through the game to be equivalently powered.  Same with Rally skills (Annette, Hanneman, Alois) - make it so they buff another stat, or buff a group like the gambit versions.  That said, there's no shame in some skills that are just potent early and meh late (hello, Catherine & Felix), so I wouldn't call that a huge priority.

Notable examples, focusing more on interestingness / usability rather than raw power:

• Manuela - make her passive cover a range, like Fates Percy.  You'd think she'd be more of a support-y character based on her plot role, but having to move right next to the characters complicates the matter and makes her ability not reliable.  More Crit Evade is a very restricted niche anyway, a usability buff wouldn't hurt - 2 or even 3 range would be fine.
• Anna - Give her a passive at all.  +5 Lck is not a passive, that's disguising her real base stats.  I think for Anna it'd be okay to be a little complex - in classes that can't use magic, she can use half magic charges.  In classes with half magic charges, she has full magic.  In classes with normal magic, +1 Move.
• Petra - I know I said "not raw power", but the boost is just too minor for something so situational.  +50 Crit would be totally fine, give her a niche for finishing off the second half of monster health bars.
• Marianne, Raphael, & Linhardt - HP regen is just too boring, and also not really that impactful (it would be in Shadow Dragon's early chapters, I guess?!), and kinda messes with Dorothea's more interesting version.  This opens a can of worms, but I'd probably just throw the existing effects out and come up with something new.  Maybe a self-Rally effect if the condition is met?  Marianne gets Magic, Raph gets Strength, Lin gets Evade?  idk.

And per above, I'd just give it to 'em from the start, but some sort of mid-game upgrade would be better than nothing, I suppose.

 

[The Boonsman]

Personally, if we are gonna be giving upgrades to units personal skills, it should be one that improves their personal skill on a set line, as if they've mastered that defining trait of theirs into a real talent. Either by increasing the power, consistency, or utility of the skill on offer. A few examples running around in my head:

Dorothea: Songstress+: Restore 15% of HP whenever allied units stand Adjacent to unit.

Raphael: Goodie Basket+: Restores 10% of HP at the start of the turn. (Activation chances= LUK x 1.5)

Annette: Perseverance+: Use "Rally" to give target +8 Attack and +2 Defense until next turn.

Felix: Shield of Fraldarius: Gain +5 attack when Batallion Endurance is less then 1/3rd

Sylvain: Philanderer+: Gain +2 Attack Dealt and -2 Damage taken with each female ally adjacent to unit (Same thing works with Leonie's personal)

Just a few ideas to make skills better, but not overwhelming. Give em unique advantages and give a power boost to help into later sections of the game so everyone's personal skills don't just fully fade away.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Poor Raphael, even the "+" version of his ability is still in the running for worst in the game.