What if Rally Bots Were A Class Unto Themselves?

[Jotari]

Rallies are a relatively new feature of the series only being here since Awakening. So far they've just been a series of skills spread out to fill the roster of skills. But generally players will try and collect as many rallies skills onto one unit in order to maximise their effect. What if, instead of that, Rallies became the natural specialty of a support class? Something like a Bannerman. At first they only have a limited number of rallies and you must choose between them but as you level up the unit (who would get exp for using rallies similar to a dancer) they can start combining certain rallies until by the end you effectively have rally spectrum. I think there's some potential there for a good support class? Thoughts? Ideas? Potential problems?

Edited December 16, 2016 by Jotari

[Jedi]

It'd be better than certain characters only really being good at rallying. (Not sure why that kinda irks me but it does)

Maybe they could have like little banners too, with flags and stuff.

[Augestein]

Perhaps bring them back as the actual bard class? Dancers refresh people, and Bards rally people through song? I could get used to that. Although, there are so many rally kills that the current method of learning skills wouldn't allow all of them to be on another character anyways...

[Jiac]

I feel like rallies should be accessible for weird hybrid builds. However, they should have a bonus for rallying in that class. Maybe even a wider rally radius..??

Maybe even have the banners grant a rally bonus.

The only issue I see with this is if whether or not it'll make the game (even potentially the metagame, even though I don't think FE Multiplayer was meant to be competitive) to be super reliant on rallying.

[Jotari]

Perhaps bring them back as the actual bard class? Dancers refresh people, and Bards rally people through song? I could get used to that. Although, there are so many rally kills that the current method of learning skills wouldn't allow all of them to be on another character anyways...

I'd rather it if they were their own new class. Dancer's hanging around the battle field already suspeend disbelief pretty heavily, having bards there too would push it a bit too far. Guys sitting there holding flags also was something that happened in wars (if the movies are to be believed...which doesn't lend much credence to the idea at all but at least it's alive as an idea in modern fiction). Plus that way you could give them a mount on promotion (or maybe even to start off).

I feel like rallies should be accessible for weird hybrid builds. However, they should have a bonus for rallying in that class. Maybe even a wider rally radius..??

Maybe even have the banners grant a rally bonus.

The only issue I see with this is if whether or not it'll make the game (even potentially the metagame, even though I don't think FE Multiplayer was meant to be competitive) to be super reliant on rallying.

I'm not sure what you mean by hybrid builds. Do you mean let everyone get rallies as it currently is and still have a class dedicated to it? As for the meta game, that's pretty much the way things are already for end game when you've had enough time to train a rally bot of your own. Making them their own class would only change how they're used in early parts of the game.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Jotari

[BANRYU]

I think it'd be interesting if this was a specialty of the Tactician class-- assuming we go back to a more skills-minimalistic formula like the GBA or even Tellius games, the sword+tome Tactician class could be interesting if it was actually a relatively weak class combat-wise, but has Rallying as its special ability. Maybe it starts off as like a simple +1-2 boost in all stats and upgrades to +5 or something on promotion to grandmaster?

I do like the idea of Tactician becoming its own entity that isn't just tied to Robin, and is deliberately designed as more support-based rather than combat-based.

Hell, even if we keep the skill-centric system of the 3DS games, could be interesting if Tactician has a focus on the rally skills over actual combat.

Edited December 16, 2016 by BANRYU

[Jotari]

I think it'd be interesting if this was a specialty of the Tactician class-- assuming we go back to a more skills-minimalistic formula like the GBA or even Tellius games, the sword+tome Tactician class could be interesting if it was actually a relatively weak class combat-wise, but has Rallying as its special ability. Maybe it starts off as like a simple +1-2 boost in all stats and upgrades to +5 or something on promotion to grandmaster?

I do like the idea of Tactician becoming its own entity that isn't just tied to Robin, and is deliberately designed as more support-based rather than combat-based.

Hell, even if we keep the skill-centric system of the 3DS games, could be interesting if Tactician has a focus on the rally skills over actual combat.

Just giving it some light thought, I could easily envision a modern skill system working like this.

Lv1-Rally: Increase one of the main stats by 4 (range = 3)

Lv10-High Waver: Increase rally range by 1

Lv5-Motivate: Increase rally stat gains by 1

Lv15-Spectrum: Have rallies stack instead of choosing an individual stat.

Maybe swap motivate and spectrum so it can be more immediately useful after promoting.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Jotari

[BANRYU]

In essence, yeah basically. In terms of balancing and whatnot, I'd say +4 is a pretty big boost for so early in the game and changing it to a +5 later is not actually that big a difference; early on I'd say +2-3 seems like more of an appropriate range, +1-2 if the rally is applied to all stats (an idea that I personally like, haha... but maybe that would also be too imbalanced, IDK)

[Augestein]

I'd rather it if they were their own new class. Dancer's hanging around the battle field already suspeend disbelief pretty heavily, having bards there too would push it a bit too far. Guys sitting there holding flags also was something that happened in wars (if the movies are to be believed...which doesn't lend much credence to the idea at all but at least it's alive as an idea in modern fiction). Plus that way you could give them a mount on promotion (or maybe even to start off).

See the thing is here though, I was thinking how D'n'D bards are, where they aren't just guys that write poetry, and instead are well rounded units that can fight but also has some proficiency in spells-- in this case, the spells being "rallies." Bards were already units in some of the games, and I feel like doing something like that would help to differentiate the bard from the dancer class. If we keep the dancer with the whole "move again" aspect, then bards can concentrate on the "strength allies" aspect.

Truthfully, I feel like commander type classes should be the ones that get rallies. But I'm strange, because I would have made those augmented by authority stars.

[BANRYU]

To be totally fair to the 'bard = rallybot' argument, let's not forget that Shigure (a singer) has a rally ability of his own as his personal skill. (...though granted, that's also true of Inigo/Laslow, a dancer... although) I'm not opposed to the idea of one of each of the two 'move again' classes being relegated to moving again and one to buffs, esp if we follow the trend of letting characters of both genders be any class.

[NekoKnight]

While I'm not a big fan of rallybots and think those skills should instead be passive auras, the "Tactician" going around and selectively improving the stats of allies sounds pretty neat, to be honest.

Just giving it some light thought, I could easily envision a modern skill system working like this.

Lv1-Rally: Increase one of the main stats by 4 (range = 3)

Lv10-High Waver: Increase rally range by 1

Lv5-Motivate: Increase rally stat gains by 1

Lv15-Spectrum: Have rallies stack instead of choosing an individual stat.

Maybe swap motivate and spectrum so it can be more immediately useful after promoting.

If I were to design this theoretical class, I'd make the strength of the rally scale by level. Something like, Level 1-8 +1, Level 9-16 +2, Level 17-24 +3, Level 25-40 +4. I'd replace Motivate with something that boosts the hit/critical hit of anyone affected by a rally.

[Roflolxp54]

A class whose main function is to be a Rallybot doesn't sound far-fetched when compared to the Dancer or Songstress class; the class can be something like a flag-bearer, a drummer boy, or that one guy who uses a war trumpet, bugle, or some sort of horn.

[Quintessence]

The idea sounds pretty good to me. Might as well think about a White Mage class specialized at both healing and rallybot. Using the current skill system it can gain by lv. 10 a skill that grants the user the ability to remove debuffs/ailments by default through staff usage. By lv. 25 it can gain Dual Support+ which doubles or inceases by 1.5 the bonuses gained at Dual attacks (not Pair Up bonuses), and by lv. 35 they gain Rally Spectrum.

= EDIT =

At lv. 1 they can get Def and Res +2, and by promotion they get light magic to attack, but preferably it's a tanky and supportive class.

Edited December 17, 2016 by Quintessence

[Thane]

A cheerleader class, huh? I can dig it.

[Jotari]

The idea sounds pretty good to me. Might as well think about a White Mage class specialized at both healing and rallybot. Using the current skill system it can gain by lv. 10 a skill that grants the user the ability to remove debuffs/ailments by default through staff usage. By lv. 25 it can gain Dual Support+ which doubles or inceases by 1.5 the bonuses gained at Dual attacks (not Pair Up bonuses), and by lv. 35 they gain Rally Spectrum.

= EDIT =

At lv. 1 they can get Def and Res +2, and by promotion they get light magic to attack, but preferably it's a tanky and supportive class.

I could even see it being a branched promotion where you can choose between gaining healing or gaining a mount.

[Quintessence]

or actually the Valkyrie class can be tweaked to such support class. It can gain both magic/healing and mount at promotion

[NinjaMonkey]

Since I don't use rallies, any Rally Bot unit would be doing nothing but warming the bench.

[BANRYU]

Since I don't use rallies, any Rally Bot unit would be doing nothing but warming the bench.

I mean... that's fine for you?? I don't use them much myself, but they DO get used, so I'm not sure what you're trying to get at. That they shouldn't be a thing because you won't use them? Or what?

[Jotari]

Since I don't use rallies, any Rally Bot unit would be doing nothing but warming the bench.

Why don't you use them? They can be super useful.

[NinjaMonkey]

I play Awakening on Normal, that's why.