Usana

I had a thought. How about if ground locked melee units couldn't target flyers(after all they can't reach them), though they could still counter if engaged in melee. This would mean that only thrown weapons, magic, and bows would be able to intiate an attack against them. And of them Bows and Wind Magic are the only ones to do bonus damage(though we have the Volant I suppose, but it isn't exactly in shops). For balance reasons perhaps rather than bonus damage make it so that wind magic is the only magic that can target flying units by default, but does regular damage(obviously special variants could have bonus damage). This would make wyverns terrifying I think. Their defense is high so they fear archers less(though they are hardly fearless), wind magic would no longer do bonus damage, and their attack is high so relying on physical counters isn't exactly a great deal for you. Yeah, that might tip wyverns into the OP zone. At least they are still vulnerable to anti-wrym right? Thinking. . . what happens if you stack anti-wrym and anti-flying into some kind of wrymslayer bow? Anyways in theory this would make archers far more valuable, but at the same time it would be a huge buff to the flying classes and they already appear to be high ranked classes for the most part.

Physical Striking staffs such as a quarterstaff would be my pick. They would have less mt than a sword and low ht to account for the fact that they take a bit of skill to actually use as a weapon. E rank Quarterstaff - 1mt | 90hit | 0crt | 1 range | 50 uses | 200 Worth | +5 avoid | Description: A cheap hardwood staff useful for fending off attacks. D rank Iron Staff - 3mt | 60hit | 0crt | 1 range | 35 uses | 650 Worth | +Swordbreaker Skill | Description: An expensive and heavy staff designed to parry swords. C rank Steel Staff - 6mt | 80hit | 0crt | 1 range | 35 uses | 920 Worth | Anti-Armor | Description: A staff with small spiked caps designed to pierce armor. B rank Silver Staff - 8mt | 75hit | 0crt | 1 range | 30 uses | 1600 Worth | +10 Avoid | Description: A bright staff that blinds those who would attack the weilder. A rank Brave Staff - 7mt | 70hit | 0crt | 1 range | 30 uses | 2100 Worth | 2 consecutive attacks and +5 avoid | Description: The most damaging quarterstaff. B rank Lightning Rod - 13mt | 70ht | 0crt | 2 range | 30 uses | not in shops | Counts as Magic | Description: A long and thin metal staff unsuited for melee. Or something like that. Really I just want to see someone mercilessly beat someone to death with a (big) stick. The joke sword is close, but a real quarterstaff would be real fun! Basically the idea is weak and fairly inaccurate, but come with special abilities/stats out of the gate. The basic one is all about cheap. The others are pretty much novel weapons.

Given how regal the Griffon's look and the fact that Griffons in many games are treated as regal/royal mounts I say have the lord start as basic Griffon riding unit. Perhaps a Griffon Archer with the aforesuggested shortbow(Royal Shortbow) with 1-2 range and unlimited uses. I would also give it staff use. And when it promotes it promotes to Royal Griffon. Perhaps we could go all the way and let the player choose the weapon gain upon initial promotion(i.e. player would be asked if the prince/princess wishes to master sword, lance, axe, or tome). That would likely be ideal play wise and would make people the happiest since they can pick their weapon. However, it isn't how I imagine it since I figure regardless of Lord we are likely to end up with a custom avatar unit(unless that is the lord) and pick your weapon would likely work better there. My vision is this - First the Empire(known for its Mounted charges on both land and in the air) has been facing constant internal skirmishes(The nobles are squabbling and basically sabotaging each other and the Emperor) and some of the neighbors are beginning to think the Empire might be ripe for the plucking. In other words the country has been facing constant bloodshed and violence for several decades, but not outright war. The Griffon would be a female lord who from a young age wished to help out. Given that frontline combat would be seen as 'unladylike' as well as extremely risky she was humored by being taught to use a bow and staff(quarterstaff is rather handy) for self-defense and given a trusty mount that could easily get keep her out of danger. The father figured she may need to defend herself at somepoint, but in no way did he want her on the frontlines. Obviously the father always finds reasons to keep her and her brothers away from the combat. Anyways her starting weapons would be a bow(possibly the aformentioned shortbow) and a quarterstaff(physical striking 1 range staff with very low mt/crit but grants +5 avoid) with 30 uses. Early in the story(probably chapter one) her brothers and her plan to take part in a skirmish wihout their father's knowledge. Some of the castle staff help them out. Unbeknownst to them their helpers are actually in cohorts with a noble looking to gain power. Thus, they walk straight into an ambush. The nobles plan was to kidnap the Emperors daughter and hold on to her for 'safe-keeping'(pretend he saved her, but her father would know the true meaning). The sons he was just planning to kill with the end plan being to marry the girl to one of his own sons(could be a confulted plan somewhere there). Anyways during that chapter the brothers realize their sister is the target and convince her to flee while they keep the archers off her. They are a trio of mounted ground units - 1 specializing in melee(B Lance, D Sword and Axe) like a Great Knight, 1 specializing in Axe and sorcery(C Axe and Tome) like a Dark Knight with an axe, and one using sword and bow(C Sword and Bow) like a bow knight. Why not all of them flee together? Well we all know Just how mobile flying units are and of course the ambush occurs in an area horrific for mobility(swamp or somesuch). Thus, with the enemy coming down on them the only one who can realistically get away before they are completely enclosed is the flying unit. Afterwords she is greatly embittered and angry as hell and harsly goes after the Empire's enemies earning the fear and respect of the warriors, nobles, and neighboring nations. Her father was so distraught at his sons' demise that he mostly withdraws into himself effectively unleashing the Griffon since he no longer constatnly comes up with excuses to keep her away from combat. Her methods are to harshly and mercilessly put down those who take up arms against 'justice'. However, she doesn't execute captives without a trial. In other words she doesn't kill the lords/schemers outright but rather captures them and has them stand trial in the capital(her father and the highest ranked advisors are the justices). In addition she doesn't move against a noble until she convinces the majority of Justices agrees that so and so should stand trial(so her duty is to bring them to trial). In other words she views herself as the 'Enforcer of Justice and Executioner of Evil'. And she is merciless about it. For example the Empire's law is such that a traitor's entire immediate family is put to death. Which means that our hero does indeed cut the throats of wee babes. IN THE NAME OF JUSTICE! Obviously the character development is that at some point she begins to wonder if that is neccesary. . . if perhaps that is only contributing to the skirmishes. And as such begins to feel remorse, however, the law is the law and if you are going to have someone executed you should do the deed yourself. In other words she believes as Eddard Stark does - "If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you can not do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die. [...] A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is." Late midgame she when she breaks and captures a noble guilty of treason he begs her to spare them and let them go into self-exile. More precisely - "Please even if I deserve death my family does not. . . not the babes, please!". This causes her to hesitate while looking at his immediate family that her troops have assembled(including many young children and a set of baby twins). Seeing her hesitation he pushes once more - "I ha. . have information I could give you. Y. . . you could say that is what bought my life. E. . .even if it is of little value." Basically his info is that he had been contracted by a seedy character to supply men to the first chapter ambush. When his surviving men returned they said the plan had changed and that the princes had been taken alive. He doesn't know if they are still alive, but why kill them after going to the trouble of catching them? After hearing this the Griffon snaps and basically does your standard aggressive pick them up by their throat(as such the lady would have to be at least man sized). Standard angry where are they/what do you know. He doesn't know anything else and she eventually calms down and appoligizes for her outburst. The man and his family are given three days to flee into exile(the time it will take her to report to her father, who could easily over rule her call), and that if he or his ever return they will be killed on sight. Her father does not over-rule her and instead praises her for bringing hope back to him. Obviously from that point the game goes into rescue the princes mode. Once rescued they are recruited and you get to use them, though by this point the Griffon has earned enough respect that she has effectively become Commander of the Armed forces while her brothers are merely princes/heirs(In other words she has more clout/plot importance even if the boys will inherit). The final leg could easily be that the noble who planned the ambush manages to escape before his trial and seeks aid from a cult. This cult worships other worldly horrors and summons one for him. That promptly devors him and opens a portal letting out no limit of untold horrors. The heroes have to fight through the horrors and have a group of magic users seal the portal. The last mission would effectively be a 'survive' for x turns while protecting the sages mission. The more sages that die the longer the sealing takes(as long as one survives it can be completed). Obviously the portal would continously spawn limitless reinforcements. But rather than many medicore ones it would only be a few VERY strong ones that would requre several units to down. In the end she gets promoted to Chief Justice and proceeds a life long reform of the system so that fewer innocents are killed in the name of justice. Her Eldest brother if he survives becomes Emperor(and on down the line). As for gameplay. Since the Empire is so well known for its reliance on mounted units(ground and air), obviously most of your units are such. In fact Griffons are particularly favored as 'royal' mounts. As are most of the enemies strongest units(since the enemy is within). However, the enemies know what your main reliance is going to be and they don't want to be traced and are using many non-elite units. As such the maps are constantly littered with units specifically trained/equiped to counter flying and mounted units. Anyways the way the flying classes would work would be that the Pegasus would be the light/magic flying units. The normal Griffons would basically be midweight. Sort of like a Flying Cavalier with a promote option between a flying paladin or something similar to the current Griffon Rider that also has sword access. The Wyverns would obviously be the heavy class then. With the Wyvern Lord being as it is as and the other heavy version basically being a flying General type variant(in other words weak to anti-wyrm, anti-armor, and anti-flying). Maybe spread the movement out so that the heavier ones don't go as far as the lighter weight ones. I suppose though that is usually reflected in the speed growth. The Lords Griffon class would go from Griffon Archer to Royal Griffon(also the nickname she earns as the story progresses). The Royal Griffon upgrades her weapon options. She basically goes from novice weapons to their advanced forms. More simply put as a Griffon Archer 3 range bows are blocked from her. However, as a Royal Griffon she has mastered the longbow. I am tempted to say her staff skill has been mastered and she can use lances. It makes sense due to the fact that polearm fighting styles can be based heavily on staff fighting depending on the school. But that gives her the bride's weapon set. However, evolving to lances would be easier than continuing the physical striking quarterstaff type line of weapons. Skill wise I figure it could have Survival as a level one skill. This would have a (skl+luk)/2 proc chance and would avoid an attack that would otherwise have been fatal(different from miracle in that it avoids rather than leaving you with one hp). The level 10 skill would be Merciless. It would give her +10 attack when attacking a damaged opponent during the player phase, but would decrease her avoid by 20(so you better kill the dastard). Basically a nerfed Aggressor. It wouldn't work during the enemy phase which is good news since you don't lose 20 avoid! The promoted class would likely have Justice as its level 5 skill. Basically if an ally(including green npc units) falls in combat the 'murderer' is marked and she gets +5 attack/hit/crit/avoid/crit-avoid against that unit. Obviously wouldn't stack on one unit. Level 15 skill could be Staff-faire(strength +3 and magic +2 when a staff is equipped or somesuch). And I think I got carried away. . . I must have been bored!

FeMU is an easy one. Build 2 has eyepatch, freckles, and awesome hair. What more is there to love? The others certianly have their ups, but they just can't compete with freckles for me. Plus if miss freckles were to ever open those eyes of hers you just know all hell will break loose! Build 1 does have the circlet though. However, circlet vs eyepatch. That is what I thought. Plus the circlet is a bit dull as far as circlets go. As for MaMU. That one is tough. Once again there are things I like from all three builds. I like the general feel of build 3, but something seems lack luster in the face department. Build 2 has some nice options but in general doesn't appeal to me as much as build 1. So I went for Build 1, but both 2 and 3 were hot on its tail. Far closer than the FeMU anyways.

My Gaius isn't usually super screwed, but he is usually one of the weaker ones. However, his luck in battle is really poor. I once had him one sqaure too far forward and accidently had him in range of three units instead of one. But he was in a choke point where only one could target him at a time and none of the three in range could use 2 range. The enemies were tough enough that he couldn't one round them bar a critical hit. In addition it would take all three to hit to certianly kill him and his hp was high enough to survive a crit from the two weakest if at full hp. The enemy had something like 7, 15, and 19 percent chances of hitting and something like 2, 8, 0 critical respectively. Gauis had a 23-30 percent chance of critical and gaurenteed to hit. So the first one comes up. 19 percent chance to hit. He hits and Gaius crits. Second comes up and hits his 15 percent shot and Gauis crits. The 7 percent guy comes up and hits his 7 percent AND crits. . . I was not amused. Not at the time. Seriously had even one missed or had Gaius not crited both in a row he would have survived! It is fun to look back though and laugh at that poor fool. In my current file I ended up restarting when he took a 5% hit with a 1% crit. . . Really?! And then there was that Ruin hit that had 1% to hit and like 30-40% crit. You know what happened to him don't you? Of all the units I have used Gaius has taken the majority of low percent crits and been most often hit several times in a row with sub 20 percent chance of being hit. His stats don't matter if the rng decides to screw him in battle instead!

Title is self explanatory. Who have you continued to use despite early RNG screw in the hope that it will balance out in the end? For me it is Maribelle. In my first run she had 28 hp, which was by far her highest stat, at chapter 23. . . And she had used up both a master and a second seal by that point(just became a level 1 Dark Flier at that chapter). Her rating was 100 or something like that. I just remember that dysmal hp since it meant she was one hitted by just about anything, including a particuarlly bad sneeze from hay fever. Or put another way Panne who I didn't even get to level 10 in that file had more hp than Maribell did! Though I suppose a rating of 100 isn't that bad. . . I doubt the enemies on hard mode have much higher at that point. But there are more of them. . . and they all have more than 28 hp I am sure! So yes, she was pretty much benched. Not sure what is worse. HP screw or Spd screw. . . At least with spd screw(like Maribelle's husband Ricken was in that file) you can still survive a hit, though being doubled and having no avoid is no fun! And spd can also be bolstered a bit with pair up.

Yeah I wouldn't argue that Donny is responsible for bringing armsthrift up front so that people actually notice it. To borrow the Fush's analogy, Donny is the inside source who lets everyone see just how much that mid-level banker actually does for you/can do for you! I meant level 1 Mercenary, so when he first gets armsthrift.

My idea is likely way over powered. But I would give the archer class an abilty to replace Skill+2 or Prescience. First I would give them the ability to give support fire to any ally in range(skl chance or some such). So say an enemy attacks Chrom who is in Virion's Range. If Virion's skill proc'ed he would shot an arrow at the enemy(most likely at reduced accuracy for balance purposes, like say -20) before the enemy gets to land a blow on Chrom. This shores up their enemy phase strength by making them very valuable for your front line units. They are still horrifically vulnerable if the enemy can reach them, however. It would also be a drawback in the fact that they could very quickly become xp hogs if they did too much damage. However, balancing of bow/unit strength could help there. Basically I see them as 'super chipers'. So letting them fire in support of allied attack and defense lets them chip far more often which would make them much more useful. For Bow Knight I would replace Rally Skill with an ability to defend with their sword in melee range or with their bow if the enemy targest them at range while they have a sword equiped(at reduced hit to convery the fact that they had to quick draw). Once again it would likely have skill% or such of activating. Or maybe if not unbalanced it could always activate like counter does. Sniper gets all that extra hit which would mostly or completely negate the reduced accuracy to support fire. Plus extra strength when using a bow. Possibly they wouldn't need much change.

I wouldn't say it is over rated. However, Donnel(or any other stupidily high luck character) + Armsthrift might make people go on about it more vocally than one might feel is warranted. But if you think about it Donnel as a lvl 1 mercenary is likely to have. . . something like 19-20 luck right? That is 38-40% chance right there. Sure makes it a lot easier to level him when your glass sword has a 40+% chance of not using up 1 of three uses when hitting tough enemies. And 50 renown nets you a glass sword so you don't even need luck to do that. Of course it is up to luck on how many times you can use it to down a tough guy. But with a bit of luck Ol' Donny levels rather easily(on hard anyways, but hard is rather easy so. . .). So for me its biggest advantage is in weapon rank. I don't like to grind so even in mid-late game not many have A ranks, let alone A ranks in multiple weapons. And B ranks are often just coming on-line for those who classed out to a different weapon type(like Donny) let alone for those with multiple weapons(though that is less important since you can always use your high rank against tougher opponents and finish off weaker ones with the glass). Anyways with Donny the skill will appear stronger than what it will usually be with most people. Though I have noticed that I replace Gregor's Short Axes far less often than I need to replace Cherche's Short Axes. And his luck is crap(30% chance(15 luck) as a level 9 Berserker). Really it just reduces the micro needed for the game as well as some aid for rare but powerful weapons and for players like me that is good, very good. Particuarly since going through the game you don't really break the 5 skill limit very early. So the real question is if going hero is if Armsthrift plus Patience is worse as you go through the game than HP+5 and crit +5. Personally if taking the Hero route without second sealing from an advanced class I would much prefer the Armsthrift and Patience. I guess there is also the axe vs sword deal going on. . . which may complicate things a bit. But still it is a solid skill if used right. Just don't expect it to god mode the game all on its own or to be an instant win button for you. Useful in the course of the game. But most useful in mid game before you break the 5 skill limit and while you have enough luck to actually use it regularly(unlike early game where the +5 hp might be more useful).