Samz707

It seems like an interesting enough class. And penaltiies for a bigger bonus is definetly something I can get behind.

Basically say your Ideas for unique classes that would be basically tied to the protagonist of an FE game. Tactician The Tactician is a near non-fighter class, they can attack with swords but the character with this class has poor stats for combat. The Tactician's gimmick is being more of a supportive class, they give a small support bonus to any nearby units (increased with actual supports.) nearby. The skills/abilites for the Tactician would be roughly the following (Names are kinda W.I.P): Second-hand learner: Anytime a nearby ally gets EXP, they get a bit of EXP equal to I guess roughly half of what that ally got. (or maybe a third? It'd require a good bit of balancing.), this is to compensate for how, ideally, the Character with this class would have very poor chances in battle, this is the only passive skill. (all the others are selected like the Arts from SOV.) Give out orders: Buffs all the units around them a little more in a support radius however they lose 20-30 percent dodge due to being distracted giving out orders. Battle Advice: Has 1 range but the Unit being buffed gets a decent increase to both Critical hit and dodging attacks but the actual Tactician takes a signifficantly heavy penalty to dodging enemy attacks themselves. Push to the Limit: Lets them basically act like a dancer though the unit being given an extra move this way is a bit tired out (so slightly lower chance to hit and such.) so it's still somewhat inferior to the actual dancer class. To keep the Tactician as a bit of a non-combatant, while I'm not sure of the exact stats, the Tactician Character would be more likely to gain speed and HP when leveling up but with a poor chance for skill and Strength, so they can't really deal that much damage. As for Promotions, while I don't know what the names would be, depending on if the game has multiple promotions or not, the promoted form of the Tactician would either become Mounted (to move across the battlefield faster.) and/or gain the ability to use Staves to further aid their troops via healing and other stave abilites.

While I've not played Fates, I recall getting to the actual choice in Three Houses and my thoughts were pretty much exactly: "Wait what? now? I barely know anyone how the hell am I supposed to choose?" It falls flat because unlike other games with faction choices. (Such as Fallout New Vegas) We basically know nothing about everyone, most of the students have a generic "You're that mercenary!" Dialogue so we know nothing about most of them and our only impressions of the actual leaders is literally the prologue. So I went Edelgard, I knew literally nothing about her aside from maybe she's clumsy (Since her axe just teleports away) but it's less than Untrustworthy Claude and Dimitri, who Byleth magically knows "has an inner darkness" via reading the game's script off-screen. (Which is lazy writing IMO.) They really should have had a "Trial week" or two where Byleth teaches all the houses, so we could actually make this thing called an informed decision, it's like the devs had no idea how ot actually handle the choice so they just skip all the build-up/learning of characters that should exist beforehand, more so when you consider how 2/3 Routes Byleth now has undying loyalty to this house leader he basically picked wtih a coin-flip.

Honestly I'd take "The villians are a little stupid." (Such as how it's kinda clear even if Lundgren does kill Lyn that there's probably gonna be an uprising soon anyway since almost no one actually likes him or how Nergal/Ursula in Lyn mode underestimated our protagonists.) over some of the stuff in other games: It really bothers me when characters are suddenly fine in cutscenes after their health pool is gone. (Such as the Bandit boss in Three Houses's prologue who is not only not dead but can sprint at Edelgard and then to rub salt in the wound it turns out he's still alive after Byleth beats him down later on.), I can somewhat buy Erik and Fernard but a good few other instances in other games bother me. (Fernard since he's on a horse so it's possible he was targeted directly and the horse itself can still run off and Erik because well, he can barely even stand so while he's alive, he's also not exactly sprinting at Mach 3 to stab anyone anytime soon.) Same with other gameplay-story inconsistencies, in that very same cutscene, Edelgard's axe (And if you're like me and had her defeat the boss two axes) just vanish and now she only has a small dagger that didn't exist in her inventory 5 seconds ago so Byleth can do his impression of a shield. I can buy stupidity to a point but it will always take me out of a story when someone's weapons just convinently vanish or they survive should-be-fatal injuries because plot.

I honestly kinda love it for how it's just essentially a relatively minor sequence of battles compared to regular fantasy plot-lines with a few hints there and then about the big picture. Some of the other FE games kinda give you whiplash with how suddenly the stakes are raised and it's a big world ending event so I like how we deal with a rather (compared to the main plot of other FE games.) relatively mundane and minor sequence of battles.

I suppose ideally this would function more like Jagged Alliance's training mechanic. (Dunno how exactly it's done in 3 Houses as I only got to just after the mock battle, which for some reason you don't actually train for but if it's like anything I've seen with the monestary it probably involves too much running around.) You have a unit and mount sit out a battle and train together and they both improve somehow in exchange for not taking part in the battle in a similar manner to just selecting a unit because you want take an item they picked up in the last battle out of their inventory in the GBA games before actually starting the battle. Not sure how exactly racing would function but It'd be basically like the Arena but maybe with a lower pay-out in exchange for no threat of death. (So you just sit back and watch the animation of them racing or skip it.) So it's just a quick function you'd do in the same menu as you're sorting your weapons before battle, maybe you can optionally watch them train together but therotically it'd be just going to a unit you're not using, selecting "Train" then the mount. (Rather than running around a large location.) (Maybe a few story moments where there's a long down-time between combat you'll get to assign mutliple training events in the time before the fighting picks up again.)

I would like to have some benefits but I guess minor stuff like "Some mounts can move 1-2 squares more than others or do 1-4 extra points of damage." Though it'd be a pain to balance I guess, to have it worth doing but also not absolutely vital. Definitely wouldn't want it to be so large you do more of it than actual fighting.

I mean yeah it'd need to not be too intrusive. I've not played much of Three Houses at the moment but I'm not really a fan of running around the monestarry. Ideally you'd still play most of the game like a traditional FE game, just access all this stuff from a menu or something in-between levels. (I guess like how changing everyone's inventories is accessed through a quick simple menu in-between battles in Echoes.) I like the idea of this but I get your point about maybe the devs making it so it'd be too much of a hassle to actually be fun doing, if they make it too in-depth to the point where it takes a ton of running around/going through menus/animations to do.

Wasn't aware it was in Berwick Saga, how does it work there?

Assuming the next FE game did have some sort of base-system, would you be interested if you actually had to care for your mounts? as well as having to buy more of them. You could name them and they'd have their own stats, this also means that if someone promotes to a mounted unit, you actually have to get them a mount rather than them suddenly having one. So maybe a particular Pegasus, Wyvern, or Horse would be "Fast", so they can move a few extra spaces between turns, maybe another is "Vicious" so it does more damage but has a chance of beserking and forcing it's rider to charge the enemy when attacked. Additionally, possibly animal racing would be a non-violent alternative to Arenas using your mounts to race other Pegasus, Wyverns, Horses or War-elephants for gold. Additionally, it'd be possible for the mount or the rider to die without the other dying too. (So you could lose a rider then you'd have a beserked pegasus attacking the enemy that you can't control or you'd lose a mount and have an injured rider.) because Perma-death wants your tears when your favourite animal dies infront of you.

So is there any actual secrets in the Monestary? (such as hidden chests with good items in them.)

I sorta flip/flop between two out of the four I've played. (Blazing Blade, Awakening, Echoes and Three houses.) Blazing Blade seems to be (As someone who's only played 4 so this is a very uninfomred opinion admittingly.) a solid entry and it's tutorial and low (But not braindead) difficulty makes it a decent entry point it seems and it's characters are great, it doesn't seem to push alot of boundrys (Aside from arguably having Mark, our first Avatar, who is also my favourite.) but it does what it does well in my experience and I also love rescue and Mines/Light Runes. (I kinda want those to return as mines in FE are a ton more effective in comparison to most games by virtue of most combat being melee.) Echoes:Shadows of Valentia does alot of things differently but I generally enjoy what it does differently, I'm a good way through the game and my only real peeve is the AI moving first and you not getting to choose where you units spawn if they attack you on the world map, which can result in unfair deaths on smaller maps. I like the dungeon crawling and the various hidden walls and such in certain dungeons gives me a good bit joy as I love hidden walls and hidden collectables. (Kinda dissapointed that Three Houses Monestary seems to completely lack these.) It also has death reactions as the standard, which it kinda should be considering how perma-death is kinda one of the mainstrays of the series. While it's a little bit broken (Invoke is arguably OP.) I at least find the "I have a fun gimmick spell that's broken in the right hands" thing alot more fun than just "I can pair units up and watch the enemy commit suicide over and over" pair-up system. Basically Blazing Blade is my favourite I guess "Standard" FE title while Echoes is my favourite that's trying to experiment with differenet stuff.

Frederick since he's actually against taking in Robin. (Even as a complete newbie, it felt really off to me.), Granted, I lost it since he comes around. The first one that I didn't stop liking soon after was Dorcas since it's an actually somewhat sympathteic depiction of why someone would turn to bandit stuff. (even if most of the generic bandits do not get anything like this.) So he's the first FE7 character that truely intrigued me, granted it doesn't get brought up much outside of supports. (that I didn't get on my playthrough.)

It could be neat. If the avatar supports became less about (From what I've seen.) worshipping the avatar, maybe have a few "Trap" situations, where a character is going though something, you can say stuff that appeals to them but is actually terrible advice and it can backfire somehow. While giving them actually good advice that they'll hate hearing, while it doesn't give you support points right away, turns out to benefit that person and their support later.

Chrom. He's an absolute moron to the point where I'm amazed this man know hows to breath. He's surprised by the thought of an army fighting together in an early tutorial despite literally leading a military group and he basically acts like an idiot to the point of absurdity. (Such as recruiting the highly suspicious Robin after not even a day of knowing them.)

Only played about 4 games. (And not a bunch of two of them but I'll give this a shot.) Mines and Light Runes return, since mines can be disarmed by thieves, maybe have level design where disarming mines with Thieves lets you bypass groups of dangerous enemies in a "Secure Throne" map for instance while if you have no thief you're gonna have to try to fight your way through. No exploration or if it exists, make it like Echoes, I'm not a fan of the Monestary. (Takes more time to load than Deadly Premonition, which has an actual open world with driving on the switch, Can't talk to most generics and items are represented by blue particle effects rather than actually being visible.) No Self-insert Avatar character or at least make them a relatively minor character in the story like Mark who isn't an OP gameplay unit. Spells either use books or HP, maybe a mix of both? (So really powerful spells take health in addition to being limited.) Spells like Invoke, I know they're kinda hard to balance but if a game is going to be broken, at least be fun in the "I can summon illusion Pegasus riders" way rather than "I have a unit who can basically solo the game." Small support count I guess? Like FE7 but without the support limit per character, I'd rather have well-written supports where a character that can talk with 3-4 others rather than trying to do everyone but then having to sacrifice dialogue quality. No Child units, it only makes supports worse because sorry, I do not buy that almost anyone would be willing to marry almost anyone else. No marrying Dragons that look underaged. (Or regular humans in the case of characters like Ricken.) No Gender-locked classes. Rescue returning. Death Reactions like Echoes and re-writting some plot events if a character dies. (like how Matthew dying early on in FE7 effects a cutscene later.) If the avatar character needs praised, have a system where it's done via actual player performance. (A bit like the battle history mechanic of FE7 after you clear the game.) Don't have characters shine as if made of Plastic or have black lines on their nose to emphasis their noses. (Only Three houses did this but I think it looks really awful.) No silly cutscene stuff that look extremely out of place. (Characters jumping leg-shattering distances into the air while fighting, or stuff like Edelgard's axe vanishing in the prologue of Three Houses.)

I'm personally not a fan of most of the avatar's in my experience. With Robin and Byleth, they don't really feel like Avatars, they're set in stone in who they are and you don't really get that many meaningful choices, they feel more like a set-in-stone character who's kinda bland. While Mark was kinda nothing, he was a nothing you could make up a backstory and somewhat of a personality for, I honestly prefer it. I'd rather them have an new avatar be more like Mark, a kinda void that you're allowed to make up the specifics of yourself, maybe even have any dialogue choices (if they exist.) more be like "You say they look pretty" or so and so so you're allowed to imagine what exactly was said. Also don't turn out to be anyone special, please, I really don't like it and it feels alot like a game trying to inflate your ego. Also mostly get rid of praise in supports and such or if they exist, make it so it's actually determined if I'm actually doing well, If I can get praise for keeping people alive. (Such as Virion's supports in Awakening if I remember.) when theoretically I could have gotten alot of people dead, it just feels like again, trying to artifically inflate the player's ego. Mechanically, either they don't appear on the battlefield like Mark or they could be somewhat similar to an FE7 Dancer in that they buff uinits rather than fighting Directly, maybe like how Echoes has certain characters always support others if they have to fight, then they should be a rather poor fighter stat-wise so it's really more of a self-defense thing. (Maybe they'd get some EXP whenever another unit they're buffing kills an enemy.)