How will magic work in this game?

[Captain Karnage]

Seeing as how Gaiden spread it's influence in this title with no weapon durability, it got me thinking on how will tomes work.

will they work in Gaiden where they use up a unit's hp and they have to be at a certain level to use it?

or will there be a limited number of tomes and the more powerful ones will have low hit rate?

seriously, this whole weapon durability fiasco is really making my head hurt.

and my facepalming has left permanent damage to my face

Tell me if I missed something from the Famatsu article

[Neoleo21]

Since they've been considering advantages and disadvantages to using weapons, it is likely that something out of the Gaiden weapon limitations could pop up, though the weapon level system will probably take over the level limits.

[Ryo]

Why did we need to sacrifice HP to use magic in Gaiden again? Was it because there's no weapon durability?

[Captain Karnage]

Why did we need to sacrifice HP to use magic in Gaiden again? Was it because there's no weapon durability?

I believe so. iirc you could steal hp from enemies if the unit was a magic user

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I believe so. iirc you could steal hp from enemies if the unit was a magic user

you could do that if you were a cleric.

it also had 50% hit rate

[Leif]

When Orochi cast her spell I didn't notice any HP damage to her. Though, it would be cool if Dark Mages had access to a "Blood Price" skill that improved their magic attack at the cost of some HP per attack.

[Mackc2]

Perhaps dark magic will use up hp

They will likely just do the same to magic as they do for every other weapon

[The DanMan]

When Orochi cast her spell I didn't notice any HP damage to her. Though, it would be cool if Dark Mages had access to a "Blood Price" skill that improved their magic attack at the cost of some HP per attack.

Definitely something that I could see happening.

Besides that, I'd be shocked if Gaiden's magic mechanic returned at all.

[dragonlordsd]

We can dream of the magic triangle's return.

I liked the separation between the three different types in the GBA games:

Anima: Powerful

Light: Accurate

Dark: Weird

[goodperson707]

^ yes but light magic was weak and heavy and had less uses, really in the gba game it seemed to me light magic was partly to give bishops less combat use than anima users.

[mimgrim]

Magic triangle is so pointless most of the time, though, due to nature of magic wielders usually having high Res. I honestly don’t understand why people want it back so much when it has never really made a difference. Weapon triangle at least matters in early game and occasionally elsewhere and, for some of the games, in the harder difficulties. I’d rather see magic added to the color triangle thingy that seems to be going in the game now and see them get (dis)advantage versus some physical weapons which would actually make some kind of impact more than just a magic triangle.

Also I’ve always seen it as Anima = balanced, Light = weaker but safer (easier to hit with), and Dark = more power and more unique effects but riskier (harder to hit with).

[Dark Holy Elf]

+/-15 hit is a pretty big deal in most cases, so the triangle is quite significant. Mage-to-mage combat is indeed somewhat rare in most games, but when it does happen the triangle can certainly matter. e.g. Lucius is much better than Erk at fending off a swarm of shamans on the FE7 pirate ship map, while Canas is considerably better at actually attacking enemy anima mages than Lucius is.

I'm not particularly attached to the magic triangle per se (and the Tellius fire/lightning/wind one always felt pretty meh, in part because most mages got all three elements anyway and also because those games inexplicably weakened the effects of the weapon triangle) but I am all for them doing something involving advantage/disadvantage with it.

[Book Bro]

I'm starting to think they won't have light magic. The only revealed units so far who might use it are the maids but I could see them promoting into just Sage or Valkyrie, assuming they're clerics. Sakura apparently gets bows. Magic triangle for anima might be back and a little more important with the changes to the weapon system, but who knows.

As far as how magic will work, it'll probably still be tomes, and they'll probably just be treated however the other weapons are. I don't think there will be long range tomes, sadly, unless they're special and remain breakable.

[Lynsanity]

I was wondering about this too, since as of now we haven't seen traditional fire emblem mages in If. Nohr has dark mages, Hoshido has whatever Orochi is, but normal mages haven't been spotted on either side (unless they're drastically redesigned). Could be they exist in Nohr, or on both sides. Or the use of anima magic was split up between dark mages and Orochi's class.

I'm curious about the ice-rat type deal we saw in the trailer, and whether it has some kind of triangle interaction with dark and anima magic, or if it's just a new type of anima itself.

[mimgrim]

+/-15 hit is a pretty big deal in most cases, so the triangle is quite significant. Mage-to-mage combat is indeed somewhat rare in most games, but when it does happen the triangle can certainly matter. e.g. Lucius is much better than Erk at fending off a swarm of shamans on the FE7 pirate ship map, while Canas is considerably better at actually attacking enemy anima mages than Lucius is.

Eh. Sorta kinda but not really. The +/- 15 hit-rate on player controlled characters is rather insignificant in most cases because your units usually have more then enough of a hit chance already that it doesn't really affect them that much unless they are an axe user (and that is really only in the GBA games). The hit-rate to the enemy is more significant but doesn't make that much of a noticeable impact outside of early game and a few other isolated instances/certain games.

I think calling any one magic unit in FE7 (or any other American released FE) much better/considerably better at handling a certain type of opposite magic unit is a bit of a stretch.One might be better then the other at handling a certain enemy type but it is generally not that big a of a difference between them to really matter in the long run.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Hm, I definitely disagree with the assessment that -Hit doesn't matter (the +Hit, I'll grant, is often overkill). Once you're 15 down on hit, accuracy becomes much more problematic. You still hit more often than not, sure, but it's much dicier to form strategies which rely on landing 75%-accurate shots. The most accurate weapons can afford this hit somewhat better, but those also tend to be among the lowest-might ones, which often aren't good enough in situations where you're fighting WTD.

The effects of -Hit to the enemy are often phenomenal. Since enemy hit rates often hover around the middle values, +15 avoid often translates to a >25% swing in real accuracy. It certainly doesn't just matter earlygame. A +30 avoid gap (the difference from WTD to WTA) is frequently the difference between near invincibility and an extremely feared enemy type. Compare the performance of PC myrmidons against enemy fighters (laughable) and enemy lance-users (very dangerous).

I do agree that mages this is less important, in part because every enemy magic user type is far rarer than any given physical weapon type. But when mages decide to show up in significant numbers, which admittedly isn't often, it does matter. I feel infinitely more comfortable with light magic than with anima on Pirate Ship, for instance. I'm too lazy to look up the numbers for a side discussion but I really expect they'll back me up here.

[Mango Giamatti]

Leon is shown holding a tome in most of his artwork, so tomes are returning. There's no reason why magic has to drain you HP. Tomes can have infinite uses just like any other weapon.