Balancing the Avatar

[Phantom037]

Basically, what would you do to the avatar to make he/she/it feel more like the rest of the cast? I'd start by instead of having one strength and one flaw, you could have a set amount of skill points to allocate your growths, for more nuanced stats. And the second thing I'd add would be the ability to choose your starting and alternate classes, instead of starting with tactician and being able to reclass into anything else (although it would be hard to explain how an unconscious guy and his wyvern remained unnoticed until Chrom showed up). This is mostly from a gameplay perspective, but story/customization ideas are welcome as well.

[Dwarfishh]

Not so much for this one, but for future games, have a backstory, which influences your bases, growths and equipment, like the quiz at the start of pokemon: mystery dungeon to select you pokemon.

[Robert Stewart]

Not so much for this one, but for future games, have a backstory, which influences your bases, growths and equipment, like the quiz at the start of pokemon: mystery dungeon to select you pokemon.

I actually liked that FE13 cut the bullsh!t and just let you pick a flaw and strength rather than making you pick a past/present/future, since unless you know ahead of time what each of those things does it's pretty much a shot in the dark, especially since none of the bonuses really make sense(why does being a clergy's child boost def again?)

Anyway, I like the OP's idea of giving a pool of stats and letting you decide your own distribution. One caveat that I think I'd add is giving a max/min value for each base/growth.

[Dwarfishh]

An avatar lord could be quite cool, with certain choices affecting whether you go down path A or B, and it would make you more involved with the cast

[Hawk King]

@ OP - Your ideas would only make the Avatar way more broken.

Instead of being able to reclass to any class, you should have to choose 3 additional classes at the beginning of the game.

And no more veteran.

[Phantom037]

@ OP - Your ideas would only make the Avatar way more broken.

Instead of being able to reclass to any class, you should have to choose 3 additional classes at the beginning of the game.

That's exactly what I said, so how would it make him/her/it MORE broken?

[Airship Canon]

Remove Veteran, simple as that.

Free reclass isn't nearly as broken or useful as it's made out to be.

Edited October 29, 2013 by Airship Canon

[MRDRHAWK]

Veteran is OP as fuck and needs to be scrapped. Nothing else needs to be done.

[NinjaMonkey]

Veteran is OP as fuck and needs to be scrapped. Nothing else needs to be done.

You do know that you could just go into the Skill menu and de-equip it, right?

It only takes 5 measly seconds of your time (if that).

Edited October 29, 2013 by NinjaMonkey

[PM ME MARIANNE ART]

No Veteran, only pick three classes for class set.

[Sunwoo]

No Veteran, only pick three classes for class set.

Pretty much this. Unlimited reclass options (aside from gender-locked classes) makes avatar a much more desirable option in marriage and stuff, as well as just using him/her. Picking two or three options (aside from grandmaster) at least limits that.

[Da Bear]

No more veteran.

Exactly

[NoNameAtAll]

To balance the avatar is to remove it.

Because not only do we not need a self-insert godmodder in the story, we don't need a self-insert godmodder in the gameplay.

To return the avatar to nothing is the only solution.

Such nihilism~

Edited October 29, 2013 by NoNameAtAll

[Skynstein]

I would only remove Veteran skill. OP's ideas would make the game too complex for newcomers. You shouldn't be required to have a guide book by your side when first playing the game.

[shadowofchaos]

To balance the avatar is to remove it.

Because not only do we not need a self-insert godmodder in the story, we don't need a self-insert godmodder in the gameplay.

To return the avatar to nothing is the only solution.

Such nihilism~

Instead of the nerfbat, just ban the offender like in Xbox Live.

[NoNameAtAll]

Instead of the nerfbat, just ban the offender like in Xbox Live.

The Steve Ballmer Method: Strap the offender to the chair and chuck the chair out the window

[Dayni]

I do get some people's issues about avatar being OP.

But honestly after a while veteran has no use gameplay wise (until then it increases XP, but I prefer not to use it. Despoil is too valuable to not use)

To rebalance however? If your future game doesn't have the second seal, I think that the avatar loses a lot of its potential for being OP (though it affects all units (see: people who hate the archers in the full series)). That's a bit of a problem to my mind, as making every game like awakening is just not feasible (as all the older fans would bitch and run) Also, no pairing with the second gen, as that just sickens me as a gameplay and story thing. I'm not sure what else to add to be honest. In terms of the class itself, any stats the have been increased/reduced (by flaw/strength or other method) should be more affected in the negative direction (as Strength wasn't that badly hurt when I tried it)

I'm not in the mood to argue about the story, as everyone else will have made up their minds regardless (though more tact would be nice).

[PKL]

You do know that you could just go into the Skill menu and de-equip it, right?

It only takes 5 measly seconds of your time (if that).

Well, that has issues:

First- you can only de-equip skills after Chapter 2, by which point the Avatar could just laugh at things and be at an absurdly high level ready to break the game.

Second- The mere existence of it makes it the best option which means anyone not using it is shooting themselves on the foot.

Anyway, If you couldn't tell, I agree with the people that said the only thing that needs to happen is the removal of Veteran

[MRDRHAWK]

You do know that you could just go into the Skill menu and de-equip it, right?

It only takes 5 measly seconds of your time (if that).

I mean, like, remove it from the game altogether. You still have a few chapters to abuse Veteran to over-level the shit out of your Avatar anyways, so the easiest way to balance it out is to remove Veteran entirely.