Which Bond Ring charatcers should have gotten a skill?

[Jotari]

Bond Rings are a funny thing in this game. They're basically there just so you have something to equip your units with as you gain and lose Emblems throughout the game. But...they're not really good. Aside from Olwen's Dire Thunder which genuinely gives a unique niche that's somewhat competitive with actual Emblems, most of them just offer a tiny stat boosts. Those that do grant effects are few and far between and are gate keeped behind a gatcha mechanic that you have to actively manipulate the game to make use of. And, that's sort of a shame. Because I like the idea of legacy characters granting a skill like this. It's a fun reference and a lot of the skills let you do things you otherwise couldn't. Here are all the bond rings with actual skills

Caeda	Sympathetic [If foe initiates combat and if unit’s HP is 50% or less, unit takes 5 less damage.]
Navarre	Deadly Blade [If unit initiates combat with a sword, grants Crit+10 during combat.]
Deirdre	Renewal [Unit recovers 5 HP each turn.]
Seliph	Battlewise [Grants a stacking Crit+1 each time unit initiates combat and defeats a foe. Bonus lasts for the rest of the battle. (Max +10)]
Alm	Windsweep [If unit initiates combat with a sword, foe may not counterattack. Trigger %=Lck.]
Mae	Great Thunder [If unit uses Thunder, Elthunder, or Thoron, deals +20% damage.]
Sothe	Bane [May reduce foe’s HP to 1. Trigger %=half of Dex. (Certain foes are immune to this effect.)]
Elincia	Mercy [If dealing enough damage to defeat foe, instead leaves foe with 1 HP.]
Lilina	Raging Fire [If unit uses Fire, Elfire, or Bolganone, deals +20% damage.]
Dieck	Strong Arm [Grants Hit+20 while unit is equipped with a smash weapon.]
Finn	Miracle [Avoids foe’s attack when unit would be defeated. Trigger %=Lck. (Max 50%)]
Olwen	Dire Thunder [When unit initiates combat with Thunder equipped, unit attacks twice. (Excludes Elthunder and Thoron.)]
Chrom	Rightful Ruler [Adds +5% to trigger rate for all skills with trigger rates.]
Lissa	Healtouch [When unit heals an ally with a staff, restores +5 HP to target.]
Eliwood	Draw Back [Use to move 1 space away from adjacent ally and pull the ally along.]
Nino	Giga Excalibur [If unit initiates combat with Excalibur, deals +20% damage.]
Soren	Wind Adept [If unit initiates combat with Wind equipped, unit may attack twice. Trigger %=Dex. (Excludes Elwind and Excalibur.)]
Mia	Shove [Use to push an adjacent ally with less Bld 1 space away.]
Edelgard	Flickering Flower [If unit initiates combat, freezes foe. Trigger % = total damage dealt.]
Dimitri	Paraselene [Use to make an attack against an adjacent foe, then move 1 space away from that foe after combat.]
Claude	Wind God [If unit’s HP=100%, grants range +1 with bows.]
Ryoma	Bushido [If unit’s level is higher than foe’s, grants Crit+10 during combat, and unit deals +2 damage and takes 2 less damage.]
Xander	Chivalry [If unit initiates combat while foe’s HP=100%, unit deals +2 damage and takes 2 less damage.]
Innes	Sure Strike [If unit initiates combat, attacks are guaranteed to hit. Trigger %=Dex]
Marisa	Lethality [When landing a critical hit, instantly kills foe. Trigger %=30. (Excludes certain powerful foes.)]

 

 

And here are all the other characters who don't have a skill at all.

Ogma	Arden	Faye	Nailah	Wolt	Nanna
Merric	Azelle	Lukas	Leanne	Lugh	Osian
Minerva	Quan	Silque	Nephenee	Rutger	Asbel
Linde	Ethlyn	Delthea	Sanaki	Fir	Shiva
Tiki	Ayra	Genny	Naesala	Raigh	Mareeta
Kris	Lachesis	Saber	Tibarn	Cecilia	Linoan
Katarina	Lewyn	Valbar	Caineghis	Sophia	Sara
Legion	Erinys	Conrad	Black Knight	Fae	Ced
Gaius	Hector	Mist	Ferdinand	Azura	Seth
Cordelia	Florina	Titania	Bernadetta	Hinoka	Ross
Nowi	Dorcas	Shinon	Felix	Takumi	Lute
Tharja	Serra	Gatrie	Ingrid	Sakura	Joshua
Owain	Matthew	Ilyana	Raphael	Camilla	Tana
Inigo	Rebecca	Lethe	Lysithea	Leo	Amelia
Severa	Ninian	Ranulf	Flayn	Elise	Gerik
Morgan	Jaffar	Greil		Jakob	L’Arachel

 

There's actually a pattern there. Every game decided just two characters deserve a skill, with the exception of Three Houses where each house leader got a skill. I don't expect anyone here to come up with a skill for all 95 characters there that don't have one, but among the characters that are there that  didn't get a skill, what skill would you have given them? Yes, this is a thinly disguised "create a skill" thread, but with a twist of them having to be associated with a character from the series.

The one that sticks out to me the most is Hector. Lyn gets to be an Emblem, Eliwood gets to have a skill while Hector gets nothing. Of course he got the last laugh by becoming a DLC Emblem, but he still looks wrong there on that list. So I would have given him the skill Armour which changes a character's unit type to Armour regardless of their class. Because I like the idea of unit types but felt they were to rigidly attached to classes. And to complete that set up, I would give Ogma the skill Back Up, Camilla the skill Flying, Quan the skill Cavalry, Sanaki the skill Mystical, Jaffar the skill Covert and Jakob the skill Qi Adept. I guess Nowi could get Dragon, but there's no real reason for a Dragon Unit type if you're not using an Emblem which you can't equip at the same time as bond rings.

 

[ciphertul]

I think each should have had one, make the S rings a bit more desirable. Still think Mia should not have had shove.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Arden: Castle Guard - Halves damage received on enemy phase while seated on a Fort, or related tile.

Azelle: Fiery Pursuit - Strikes twice when initiating combat with the Fire tome.

Ayra: Astral Blade - Has a (Dex/2)% chance of activating Astra (5 consecutive strikes at half-power) when using a Blade.

Lachesis: Cross Knights - Grants a one-turn Canter to all adjacent allies at the start of every turn.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, ciphertul said:

I think each should have had one, make the S rings a bit more desirable. Still think Mia should not have had shove.

Yeah, Mia getting shove was kind of random. It makes sense from the perspective that she's a Tellius character, but, still, almost any other Tellius character would have been more appropriate than noodly arms Mia. Well,  at least it wasn't Ilyana.

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

Arden: Castle Guard - Halves damage received on enemy phase while seated on a Fort, or related tile.

Azelle: Fiery Pursuit - Strikes twice when initiating combat with the Fire tome.

Ayra: Astral Blade - Has a (Dex/2)% chance of activating Astra (5 consecutive strikes at half-power) when using a Blade.

Lachesis: Cross Knights - Grants a one-turn Canter to all adjacent allies at the start of every turn.

Those are all genuinely good abilities that would be worth consideration over some Emblems (okay, over Leif). But being better the bond rings we get is a low bar to cross. Like, seriously Chrom, +5% proc rate, +5%! There's barely any proc skills to begin with!

Here's a few more that are fun for unique mechanical references

Shiva: True Crit: Critical hit = attack*2-enemy's def/res

Osian: Critical Coefficent: Total crit rate is doubled for follow up attacks

Mareeta: Movement Star: Luck% chance to take a second action once per turn

Linoan: Holy Blood: Growth rate +10% for all stats

Nanna: Staff Savant: When healing using a staff, if unit's spd > target's spd, automatically perform a follow up staff heal. 100-(Dex*4)% chance for healing staffs to miss.

Edited July 22 by Jotari

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

31 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, Mia getting shove was kind of random. It makes sense from the perspective that she's a Tellius character, but, still, almost any other Tellius character would have been more appropriate than noodly arms Mia. Well,  at least it wasn't Ilyana.

Hey, at least it's not Titania, who literally cannot shove in her base games! Speaking of which:

Titania: Co-Captain's Counter - For every attack received, has a (Dex)% chance of dealing half the damage back.

31 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Those are all genuinely good abilities that would be worth consideration over some Emblems (okay, over Leif). But being better the bond rings we get is a low bar to cross. Like, seriously Chrom, +5% proc rate, +5%! There's barely any proc skills to begin with!

Hey, thanks! I do think the "Bond Ring skills" were a really neat idea, albeit a tragically underutilized one.

Edited July 22 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Typo.

[ciphertul]

Okay, toss shove aside and I got:

Mia: Swordmistress’ Vantage -chance to activate vantage (% equal to spd)

Ilyana: Thunderous Appetite- gives 15% crit when wielding a thunder based tome. Eating a lunchbox gives an additional 10% for 1 turn.

Mist: Imbue - restores hp by up to 1/3 of mag at start of turn.

Shinon: Arrogant Perfection - gains 2 hit and 1 crit per enemy attacked and defeated. Can stack 10 times.

Gatrie: Ladies’ Shield - prevents the unit from being broken when next to a female ally (Rosado included).

Lethe: Rend - chance to double the might of current weapon (% equal to Lck).

Ranulf: Officer Hunting - deals +5 damage to boss enemies.

Greil: Imposing Pressure - increases the move cost of adjacent tiles for enemies.

Edited July 22 by ciphertul

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Anyway, you already gave Quan one, so let's round out the FE4 Bond Rings, shall we?

Ethlyn: Return - grants a repositional command that sends an adjacent unit back to their starting tile on the map.

Lewyn: Forseti of Nature - W Wind-type tome, grants +10 Crit and +10 Avoid.

Erinys: Wary Flier - grants +20 Avoid when under attack by enemy Bow-users.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Linoan: Holy Blood: Growth rate +10% for all stats

Me on my way to make sure whoever's Arenaing gets the Linoan Ring every single time.

2 hours ago, ciphertul said:

Gatrie: Ladies’ Shield - prevents the unit from being broken when next to a female ally (Rosado included).

WTF based.

2 hours ago, ciphertul said:

Mist: Imbue - restores hp by up to 1/3 of mag at start of turn.

Ironically, I don't think Mist can actually equip Imbue in RD, as her class is treated as magical.

2 hours ago, ciphertul said:

Ilyana: Thunderous Appetite- gives 15% crit when wielding a thunder based tome. Eating a lunchbox gives an additional 10% for 1 turn.

"Has character gimmick-gameplay integration gone too far?" I say, not far enough!

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Mareeta: Movement Star: Luck% chance to take a second action once per turn

Imagine Seadall wearing this. Munchin' Manaketes.

[ciphertul]

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

WTF based.

Insert Shinon’s “You would hit on a tree if I put a dress on it” joke.

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

Ironically, I don't think Mist can actually equip Imbue in RD, as her class is treated as magical.

She can’t but I could only think of Miracle or Renewal for her and both are taken.

[Jotari]

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

Imagine Seadall wearing this. Munchin' Manaketes.

I didn't really consider the gameplay impacts as I was just thinking of fun integration, but it genuinely would be better than any Emblem on Seadall. His job is to dance which most Emblems don't really help him with (though personally I had fun putting Lucina in him to get those dual attacks in his vague vicinity). Even a minor chance to dance again is going to be a pretty huge advantage.

[lenticular]

I think that all the S rank bond rings should have had a skill of some sort, though I do think that it would have been fair if some of them were repeated. So Matthew could get Bane, Mist could have Miracle, and Joshua could have Deadly Blade, for instance. Yeah, it would be more fun if everyone had a unique skill, but I'd have preferred repeated skills to no skills at all.

For Fates and Three Houses characters, the pretty obvious choice would have been to have the rings give the character's personal skill from their home game. Putting Lily's Poise on Elise or Persecution Complex on Bernadetta would both be pretty good, for instance. Some of them wouldn't work due to mechanical differences between games (eg Ingrid, Jakob) and some of them would still be awful (sorry Raphael fans) but oh well.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Minerva - Whitewing Ward: Flying Units negate Bow weakness. (I guess you could call it Iote Shield, but Whitwing Ward sounds better imo.)

Merric should grant a bonus for Wind Magic and Linde should have Light mag- oh. Well, let her ring give a not insignifcant chance to not consume a weapon charge and a lesser chance to restore one (effect limited on a per map basis).

Ogma could do something with Smash weapons, or sword weight in general, man is built like a brickhouse after all.

 

[ciphertul]

26 minutes ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Linde should have Light mag- oh. Well, let her ring give a not insignifcant chance to not consume a weapon charge and a lesser chance to restore one (effect limited on a per map basis).

What do you mean by restoring/prevent weapon charge?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

53 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

What do you mean by restoring/prevent weapon charge?

Right, I forget, Engage doesn´t have Weapon Durability?

In that case, let her have a Mag + Res + Lck% chance to upgrade a Tome weapon once per map and if fully upgraded change the tome upwards. (so Wind+5 has a chance to become Elwind etc.)

[ciphertul]

24 minutes ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Right, I forget, Engage doesn´t have Weapon Durability?

In that case, let her have a Mag + Res + Lck% chance to upgrade a Tome weapon once per map and if fully upgraded change the tome upwards. (so Wind+5 has a chance to become Elwind etc.)

So slap her on Celine and get an even earlier Bolg?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Anyway, gonna tackle some of the remaining RD ones.

Nailah: Wolf's Glare - After initiating combat, has a Dex% chance of freezing foe in place for the remainder of the turn.

Nephenee: Knight Ward - When equipped by [Cavalry], grants +2 Defense and Resistance. When equipped on [Armor], grants +30% Speed growth.

Black Knight: One Survives - Redirects attacks targeting an adjacent ally of lower level than the Ring's wearer. Halves damage received from any such attack.

Caineghis: Lion's Mane - Prevents the wearer from suffering a critical hit, when under attack.

Naesala: Raven's Vortex - When under attack, and unable to counter with equipped weapon, treats the wearer as though they are equipped with base-level Elwind instead.

Tibarn: Hawk's Pavise - When under attack, for every hit that lands on the wearer, has a Dex% chance of negating all damage.

Leanne - Heron's Galdr - When wearer ends their movement adjacent to an ally who is already "greyed out", has a Luck% chance of refreshing said ally. Odds are calculated independently for each adjacent ally.

[Jotari]

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

Naesala: Raven's Vortex - When under attack, and unable to counter with equipped weapon, treats the wearer as though they are equipped with base-level Elwind instead.

What would be fun about that one is that it would involve giving a magic casting animation to every class. Maybe the magic weapon animation could be used. Otherwise the user could just stand there and cast elwind by just glaring and not moving at all.

[ciphertul]

Alright guess I’ll try the Sacred Stones cast then.

Seth: Silver Paladin’s Honor - Deals 2 more damage and takes 2 less for each adjacent ally with less then max hp.

Ross: Warriorborn - Grants 15% Hp and Str growth and 10% Lck growth.

Lute: Prodigal Child - Increase the effect of engraving by 1.5X.

Joshua: Gambler’s Coin - Gains 5% crit rate each time the unit misses. Buff is lists upon getting a crit.

Tana: Aerial Pierce - Ignores 5 defense when fighting Flier type.

Amelia: Recruit’s Relief - Reduces the weight of weapons by 3.

Gerik: Dessert Tiger - Reverses the effect of and grants 10% crit when on dessert/quick sand terrain.

L’Arachel: Maiden’s Pilgrimage - Gains +10 damage when fighting Corrupt or Fabrications.