Growth Modifiers

[Jotari]

In FE3 and 5 you could get items that boosted individual growths. Some increased growths majorly across the board while others gave huge boosts to one stat but reduced growths in other areas. In the FE3 remake they replaced the growth idea and just made them stat boosts. Why did they change it? Just to make the system less complicated? What do you think? Would you like to see growth modifiers like these come back. What advantages or disadvantages are there when given more control of a character's growth rates?

[Sock]

Star shards were probably changed because they were hax in FE3.

It's too easy to get crazy-powerful units. Although it's kinda fun~

I ended up over-planning who would get which shards for each chapter. Slowed down progress a lot.

[General Horace]

non-HP growths in FE3 were almost doubled in FE12 anyway (to compensate for the higher difficulties). If you could further increase growths and get +2 in key stats like speed and even defence (you got a +40% speed and +50% defence orb in chapter 6 in FE3) it would kinda be super broken, especially on the easy difficulties.

Scrolls were very strong too, but at least they also negated crits so they had some other practical use.

That being said I don't really like growth steriods, especially when they're as strong as they were.

[bottlegnomes]

They probably got changed because they ended up with broken units, as said, but also because the new boosts were more immediately beneficial for earlier chapters, rather than having a bunch of broken units.

Anyway, I liked them. They helped me make characters with shitty growths strong endgame units. But for balance, they had issues: either being broken with time (FE3 & 5) or negligible (bands in FE9).

[Nicolas]

Scrolls were strong, but not really overpower. They made some things easier, some tactic more flexible, give more freedom in using units, but only really important thing in scrolls is blocking crit.

[Jotari]

non-HP growths in FE3 were almost doubled in FE12 anyway (to compensate for the higher difficulties). If you could further increase growths and get +2 in key stats like speed and even defence (you got a +40% speed and +50% defence orb in chapter 6 in FE3) it would kinda be super broken, especially on the easy difficulties.

Scrolls were very strong too, but at least they also negated crits so they had some other practical use.

That being said I don't really like growth steriods, especially when they're as strong as they were.

Scaling the growths so they only gave 5 or 10s or had larger negative modifiers as a trade off for the higher ones could have been done instead of replacing the system entirely. Either they didn't think they could balance the numbers in anyway or there's some other reason it was replaced. Possibly, as said above, hard numbers are more beneficial in the early game.

[General Horace]

I disagree entirely, only because you get the better shards (the +2 speed one, the +2 strength one) after the hard earlygame chapters are over. From Chapter 7 onwards, would you rather have a static +2 defence or an extra 50% defence growth? It essentially pays for itself after like, 4 levels.

That being said, I like the static boosts more overall. Sure, it means you can't use some chumps like Yubello without shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly, but in a more balanced game I think items with small boosts like the FE12 shards would be pretty neat.

Edited January 8, 2015 by General Horace

[Robert Stewart]

Growth boosters also exist in FE9 FYI, but only on the second playthrough, and with much smaller bonuses compared to the ones in FE3/5.

One problem with the growth boosting items is that, in none of the games they've appeared in do the games actually explain what they do. Maybe FE5 does, but in FE3 all I recall was a vague thing about "something good happening" when using them.

[bottlegnomes]

I disagree entirely, only because you get the better shards (the +2 speed one, the +2 strength one) after the hard earlygame chapters are over. From Chapter 7 onwards, would you rather have a static +2 defence or an extra 50% defence growth? It essentially pays for itself after like, 4 levels.

That being said, I like the static boosts more overall. Sure, it means you can't use some chumps like Yubello without shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly, but in a more balanced game I think items with small boosts like the FE12 shards would be pretty neat.

Yes and no. Sure, 50% eclipses +2 pretty quickly, but in general, especially as of recent with the high growths, the issue is going to be getting a character going, not necessarily getting them respectable lategame stats. For a non-12 example, think about Ricken. Would he prefer +2 to speed and defense immediately so he doesn't get doubled and one-rounded by everything or would he rather have to deal with getting 4 levels with his crappy base stats?

Also, I like FE12's better if for no other reason than that it actually makes the Shield of Seals useful.

But still, nothing beats being able to get Evayle to have reasonable growths. <3

[Jotari]

Growth boosters also exist in FE9 FYI, but only on the second playthrough, and with much smaller bonuses compared to the ones in FE3/5.

One problem with the growth boosting items is that, in none of the games they've appeared in do the games actually explain what they do. Maybe FE5 does, but in FE3 all I recall was a vague thing about "something good happening" when using them.

That's a separate problem entirely that I plan to make a thread about once this one dies. We've never officially been told about growths at all.

[Lord Raven]

I disagree entirely, only because you get the better shards (the +2 speed one, the +2 strength one) after the hard earlygame chapters are over. From Chapter 7 onwards, would you rather have a static +2 defence or an extra 50% defence growth? It essentially pays for itself after like, 4 levels.

That being said, I like the static boosts more overall. Sure, it means you can't use some chumps like Yubello without shooting yourself in the foot repeatedly, but in a more balanced game I think items with small boosts like the FE12 shards would be pretty neat.

In FE3, the growth. Remember that FE3 didn't have diminishing EXP, so you'd get a solid 32-40 EXP every kill, and like 10 for every chip.

[LeaderR Elliot]

I personally liked to think that FE13 had hidden growth modifiers for each pair up partner/class. I believe it could be applied if we get to see pair up ever again.