What is your unpopular Fire Emblem opinion?

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 2/23/2024 at 9:14 PM, Whisky said:

More dragons good.

Less humans good.

Yeah I think Jahn would like that, but I don’t know if he’d want dragons fighting each other.

On 2/23/2024 at 10:48 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Doesn't he also see the War Dragons with some kinda contempt since they're not true dragons? Either way, he probably might not even care.

Sounds like we've got our fanfiction plot settled, boys. I'll see you in the writer's room tomorrow.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Pegasus Knights should be highly geared towards offense and not this small biceps congregation of girls, with the exception of my girl Palla. YOu´d have to be insane flying on a horse into an enemy army in a Combat Skirt... clearly this indicates a massive STR stat on account of horse and rider to carry their massive balls yoloing themselves against the enemy.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Pegasus Knights should be highly geared towards offense and not this small biceps congregation of girls, with the exception of my girl Palla. YOu´d have to be insane flying on a horse into an enemy army in a Combat Skirt... clearly this indicates a massive STR stat on account of horse and rider to carry their massive balls yoloing themselves against the enemy.

You'd need a lot of Con to carry those balls, not Strength...which would definitely benefit those GBA pegasus knights.

[Acacia Sgt]

I would think the idea behind Pegasus Knights, or just airborne cavalry in general, is to use gravity to further aid the momentum of a lance charge against ground troops. This allows the rider to not be as heavy, which is good when you need to decrease the air resistance when moving and tire the mount less. Hence the classline in FE tending to favor Spd over Str.

[Magenta Fantasies]

It’s that time of year again in Heroes, where the polarizing spring banner launches. People complain about it every year, but it’s popular enough to be a reoccuring banner and I see more fanart for it than pretty much any other seasonal banner except maybe summer. Personally, it’s my favorite of the season/holiday-based banners.

I love the aesthetic, somewhere between the Playboy bunny uniform and Alice in Wonderland’s White Rabbit (which seems to inspire a lot of anime artists; I’ve seen a surprising amount of art of human versions of him and the Cheshire Cat,) with dapper black or white bodysuits or dresses for girls and suits for boys with bright accent colors as well as the frilly capes, top hats and floral accessories. I’m a sucker for quirky formalwear and I like the bright and pastel spring/Easter aesthetic in general.

[Etrurian emperor]

I didn't know the bunny banner was so controversial. I never saw it discussed any other than summer or winter. 

[Jotari]

55 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I didn't know the bunny banner was so controversial. I never saw it discussed any other than summer or winter. 

It's Heroes. Every banner is controversial.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 3/6/2024 at 5:36 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

I would think the idea behind Pegasus Knights, or just airborne cavalry in general, is to use gravity to further aid the momentum of a lance charge against ground troops. This allows the rider to not be as heavy, which is good when you need to decrease the air resistance when moving and tire the mount less. Hence the classline in FE tending to favor Spd over Str.

I do wonder whether the stats reflect the rider, or the mount. Like, Strength and Con appear to be directly tied to the rider, since they're the one wielding the weapon. But Speed seems like it would depend moreso on the mount. The rider's personal agility wouldn't affect the mount's ability to dodge attacks, and to gear up for a second attack. As for Defense and HP, that depends on whether the one being hit is the mount, or the rider. I assume that a "Horseslayer" would only do effective damage when targeting the mount; although, ironically, the "Ridersbane" would suggest exactly the opposite effect.

[Jotari]

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

I do wonder whether the stats reflect the rider, or the mount. Like, Strength and Con appear to be directly tied to the rider, since they're the one wielding the weapon. But Speed seems like it would depend moreso on the mount. The rider's personal agility wouldn't affect the mount's ability to dodge attacks, and to gear up for a second attack. As for Defense and HP, that depends on whether the one being hit is the mount, or the rider. I assume that a "Horseslayer" would only do effective damage when targeting the mount; although, ironically, the "Ridersbane" would suggest exactly the opposite effect.

If it helps, we actually see horses without riders as units in Radiant Dawn and they have really high strength compared to their other stats.

[Acacia Sgt]

54 minutes ago, Jotari said:

If it helps, we actually see horses without riders as units in Radiant Dawn and they have really high strength compared to their other stats.

Makes sense, since horses do carry a mean buck.

But that's not how cavalry attack. Until the day we can have the mounts actually do this:

Str will derive from the rider.

Edited March 11 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

26 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Makes sense, since horses do carry a mean buck.

But that's not how cavalry attack. Until the day we can have the mounts actually do this:

Str will derive from the rider.

I think the horse actually does kick for one animation in Shadows of Valentia.

[Acacia Sgt]

Sounds neat.

On that subject, if not for that blue beam fired from his weapon, Emblem Sigurd's special attack is pretty much trampling everybody in his path with his horse.

[Florete]

It seems it may no longer be unpopular to be okay with how Fates was sold in three parts. There's this current Reddit thread where someone goes on a rant against it and there's a lot of disagreement. The person was also being very dishonest and patronizing in general.

 

Edited March 13 by Florete

[ping]

To be honest, the argument that you don't get your money's worth for the three Fates titles never had a leg to stand on, as far as quantity goes. Quality always has room to argue, of course.

But if you compare Fates gameplay to the GBA games (plus PoR, arguably), Fates 1-3 seem at least as distinct from one another, even though they're all identical in their fundamental game mechanics. Birthright is overall the most simple game, Conquest has the most tight map design (also in the sense that it's more punishing if the player makes mistakes), Revelation maps tends to be more gimmicky. Obligatory disclaimer that this is just my observation from watching LPs. FE6-9 do have their little differences in their mechanics (SacSto's branched promotions and world map; PoR's much improved support growth system), but I would say that the biggest differences in "game-feel" come from their different difficulty and map/enemy design, not from the ability to promote Joshua into an Assassin.

And as far as the story goes... I'm saying this as somebody who really dislikes most aspects of Fates's story (and the very concept of the golden Rev route), but despite the main villains being the same, the three routes still have very different structures. Certainly not a "Hector vs Eliwood mode" situation, where the same story is told just from a different point of view. And with CQ and BR mostly having their own casts of playable characters, you can't really complain about the overlap in supports, either. Not sure how the situation with Rev is in that regard, but I think it has at the very least a ton of romantic supports between Hoshidans and Nohrians? Again, not commenting on the quality, but I wouldn't be surprised if these alone would be larger in volume than the supports of any given GBA game (+PoR).

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

I propose the erasure of the Skill/Dex stat in future entries.
 

It serves no other purpose than a lil boost to hitrate, a lil bit of crit and the activation rate of skills, the first of which is dictated by weapon stats and weapon ranks, the second is, well, also tied to weapons and more to wepaon ranks and activation rate for skills... lmao. IS isn´t leaning hard enough into activation rates to not require stupid amounts of investments to make them worthwhile.

Removing it would make weapons and weapon ranks more meaningful and would either force the removal of procc skills, or having them be reworked, maybe in a system that involves activation boosts like Quixotic or new one, again, tied to weapons. All the things it does, something else holds more or the same amount of sway over and the one thing it does have going for itself (well, outside of Luck procc skills) is just kinda not great. As such, why not get rid of this redundant survivor of the 1990s? Lay ´em to rest.

[FRZNHeir]

On 3/31/2024 at 2:48 PM, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

I propose the erasure of the Skill/Dex stat in future entries.
 

It serves no other purpose than a lil boost to hitrate, a lil bit of crit and the activation rate of skills, the first of which is dictated by weapon stats and weapon ranks, the second is, well, also tied to weapons and more to wepaon ranks and activation rate for skills... lmao. IS isn´t leaning hard enough into activation rates to not require stupid amounts of investments to make them worthwhile.

Removing it would make weapons and weapon ranks more meaningful and would either force the removal of procc skills, or having them be reworked, maybe in a system that involves activation boosts like Quixotic or new one, again, tied to weapons. All the things it does, something else holds more or the same amount of sway over and the one thing it does have going for itself (well, outside of Luck procc skills) is just kinda not great. As such, why not get rid of this redundant survivor of the 1990s? Lay ´em to rest.

I mean skill/dex is an important part of the accuracy calculations. The formula in Sacred Stones (per https://serenesforest.net/the-sacred-stones/miscellaneous/calculations/) is Weapon Hit + (Skill x 2) + (Luck / 2) + Support bonus + Weapon triangle bonus + S Rank bonus. While the hit rate itself is the most important part of the calculation, the battle accuracy formula checks it against enemy avoid, in which the bonuses provided from Skill and Luck may be impactful. 

For Three Houses, the formula is almost identical, at least according to the Fire Emblem Wiki, as I could not find a page on here regarding the combat calculations: Weapon accuracy: Hit + (Dexterity × 2) + (Luck / 2) + (Support bonus) + (Skill bonus). 

For Awakening, per SF's section on calcs- Weapon’s Hit rate + [(Skill x 3 + Luck) / 2] + Weapon Rank bonus
Awakening Crit Calc- Weapon’s Critical + (Skill / 2)

Without getting into Skill proc calcs, which are usually just based off of raw Skill/Dex, the Skill/Dex stat is SUPER important for combat calcs, not just providing a "lil boost" to hit rate. It can make or break certain units (usually axe users). To use an example that may be a bit of a stretch case- 
Vaike, the man, the myth, the legend from FE:A is notably the first dedicated Axe user you get. His bases for Skill and Luck are a respective 8 and 4. He starts with a D rank in Axes. The first weapon you get for him is an Iron Axe. 
Not accounting for enemy avoid, if we plug in the numbers to the calc formula

• 75+[((8 x 3)+4)/2]+5
• 75+[(28)/2]+5
• 75+14+5
• 94

This gives Vaike a 94% Hit rate, assuming enemy dodge is a 0. If we grab enemy data (Risen Barbarian, Lv 2) from the chapter he was introduced in (On Lunatic, as Serenes doesn't seem to have the enemy data for chapter 2 on normal or hard) we can get a full combat calc-

• Risen Barbarian Avo Calc: (Speed x 3 + Luck)/2-> (10 x 3 + 6)/2 -> 36/2 -> 18 avo
• Combat calculation- Hit rate + Weapon triangle bonus + Support bonus – Enemy’s (Avoid + Terrain bonus + Support bonus) [%]
  • 94 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 94-18 -> 76%

This gives Vaike a 76% chance to hit, and that 25% chance of missing is not insignificant on higher difficulties. Taking the same combat but bumping up his Skill by 2, assuming a REALLY good level or two gives us this- 

• 75+[((10 x 3)+4)/2]+5 -> 75+[34/2]+5 -> 75+17+5 -> 97%
• 97 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 97-18 -> 79%

Three points may not seem like too much, but you can see that this does make a difference over time, as it compounds more over time. If Vaike somehow, some way gains 10!!!! points in Skill (and got screwed in Luck) the calc looks like this 

• 75+[((18 x 3)+4)/2]+5 -> 75+[58/2]+5 -> 75+29+5 -> 109% Hit Rate
• 109 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 109-18 -> 91% 

This makes sending Vaike into combat against said Risen Barbarian a lot less risky, with a 15% difference in hit rate through only(lol) gaining 10 points in Skill. This isn't even taking to account Crit calculations, where he'd have a simple 9% chance to crit- 

• Weapon’s Critical + (Skill / 2) -> 0 + (18/2) -> 9

TL;DR- Skill/Dex actually plays a non-insignificant part in Combat Calculation. It's not *as* important as strength, but it is an important stat nonetheless. There are some units who can be considered unplayable on higher difficulties as they have low Skill growth and will rarely hit their attacks. All that is without getting into the usefulness of using Skill to help characterize units. 

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Ditching the stat in favor of weapon ranks would be an elegant consolidation of two Fire Emblem stats into one. Though there is that loss of dopamine where there's one less Ding at level up... Alternatively, bring back FE1's Weapon level stat and give it the functions of the Skill stat.

I'm sure they can think of some way to make Skill as good as the other stats, point for point. For instance, adding to your avoid. Because the measure of how well you dodge attacks shouldn't just be your fleetness. It should be how well you can strike without leaving exploitable openings and maintaining your balance. Just because you quickly struck at your opponent doesn't mean they weren't anticipating your movements and responding accordingly. How do you hit someone faster than you? Strike where they're going, not where they are. Therefore both stats could add 1 to your Avoid total. Skill is the technique and acumen to avoid damage while Speed is the response time and physical performance of well trained techniques.

Then play with the concept via class skills. Like granting Armor Knights a passive that converts the skill stat into raw defense instead of avoid.

Edited April 3 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Jotari]

17 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Ditching the stat in favor of weapon ranks would be an elegant consolidation of two Fire Emblem stats into one. Though there is that loss of dopamine where there's one less Ding at level up... Alternatively, bring back FE1's Weapon level stat and give it the functions of the Skill stat.

I'm sure they can think of some way to make Skill as good as the other stats, point for point. For instance, adding to your avoid. Because the measure of how well you dodge attacks shouldn't just be your fleetness. It should be how well you can strike without leaving exploitable openings and maintaining your balance. Just because you quickly struck at your opponent doesn't mean they weren't anticipating your movements and responding accordingly. How do you hit someone faster than you? Strike where they're going, not where they are. Therefore both stats could add 1 to your Avoid total. Skill is the technique and acumen to avoid damage while Speed is the response time and physical performance of well trained techniques.

Then play with the concept via class skills. Like granting Armor Knights a passive that converts the skill stat into raw defense instead of avoid.

I've thought if we got something like crossbows or guns again, skill could actually be a damaging stat. Since using strength for something that involves pulling a trigger obviously makes no sense, but how accurately you can shoot translating to damage does make some sense.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I've thought if we got something like crossbows or guns again, skill could actually be a damaging stat. Since using strength for something that involves pulling a trigger obviously makes no sense, but how accurately you can shoot translating to damage does make some sense.

It's standard for some rpgs to have Dex-based weapon types, so that every physically inclined character need not all scale on the same Strength stat for damage. Skill-Scaled weapons in fire emblem can just be a feature of those weapon types. Bows, crossbows, daggers. Perhaps even throw in some new javelin, hatchet, and spell variants. Alternatively leave the Skill scaling to the realm of class skills. Characterized like "Archers can hit a target, a sniper aims for the most vital spots".

My only worry is introducing too much additional math to fire emblem. Adding Skill/3 to a Bow's damage would absolutely have to be calculated for you in the battle forecast and when you open an enemy's stat page and look down at their final Atk stat. If our Fire Emblem game also includes rallies, passive buffs and other conditional modifiers to damage it can really slow down the more considerate players.

Combat Arts are another potential area to incorporate skill scaling in a way that's not universal to all player and enemy units and doesn't add a ton of potential math to encounters

Edited April 3 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

19 hours ago, FRZNHeir said:

I mean skill/dex is an important part of the accuracy calculations. The formula in Sacred Stones (per https://serenesforest.net/the-sacred-stones/miscellaneous/calculations/) is Weapon Hit + (Skill x 2) + (Luck / 2) + Support bonus + Weapon triangle bonus + S Rank bonus. While the hit rate itself is the most important part of the calculation, the battle accuracy formula checks it against enemy avoid, in which the bonuses provided from Skill and Luck may be impactful. 

For Three Houses, the formula is almost identical, at least according to the Fire Emblem Wiki, as I could not find a page on here regarding the combat calculations: Weapon accuracy: Hit + (Dexterity × 2) + (Luck / 2) + (Support bonus) + (Skill bonus). 

For Awakening, per SF's section on calcs- Weapon’s Hit rate + [(Skill x 3 + Luck) / 2] + Weapon Rank bonus
Awakening Crit Calc- Weapon’s Critical + (Skill / 2)

Without getting into Skill proc calcs, which are usually just based off of raw Skill/Dex, the Skill/Dex stat is SUPER important for combat calcs, not just providing a "lil boost" to hit rate. It can make or break certain units (usually axe users). To use an example that may be a bit of a stretch case- 
Vaike, the man, the myth, the legend from FE:A is notably the first dedicated Axe user you get. His bases for Skill and Luck are a respective 8 and 4. He starts with a D rank in Axes. The first weapon you get for him is an Iron Axe. 
Not accounting for enemy avoid, if we plug in the numbers to the calc formula

• 75+[((8 x 3)+4)/2]+5
• 75+[(28)/2]+5
• 75+14+5
• 94

This gives Vaike a 94% Hit rate, assuming enemy dodge is a 0. If we grab enemy data (Risen Barbarian, Lv 2) from the chapter he was introduced in (On Lunatic, as Serenes doesn't seem to have the enemy data for chapter 2 on normal or hard) we can get a full combat calc-

• Risen Barbarian Avo Calc: (Speed x 3 + Luck)/2-> (10 x 3 + 6)/2 -> 36/2 -> 18 avo
• Combat calculation- Hit rate + Weapon triangle bonus + Support bonus – Enemy’s (Avoid + Terrain bonus + Support bonus) [%]
  • 94 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 94-18 -> 76%

This gives Vaike a 76% chance to hit, and that 25% chance of missing is not insignificant on higher difficulties. Taking the same combat but bumping up his Skill by 2, assuming a REALLY good level or two gives us this- 

• 75+[((10 x 3)+4)/2]+5 -> 75+[34/2]+5 -> 75+17+5 -> 97%
• 97 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 97-18 -> 79%

Three points may not seem like too much, but you can see that this does make a difference over time, as it compounds more over time. If Vaike somehow, some way gains 10!!!! points in Skill (and got screwed in Luck) the calc looks like this 

• 75+[((18 x 3)+4)/2]+5 -> 75+[58/2]+5 -> 75+29+5 -> 109% Hit Rate
• 109 (Vaike's hit rate) + 0 (Both are axe users) + 0 (No supports) - Enemy's (18+ 0 + 0) -> 109-18 -> 91% 

This makes sending Vaike into combat against said Risen Barbarian a lot less risky, with a 15% difference in hit rate through only(lol) gaining 10 points in Skill. This isn't even taking to account Crit calculations, where he'd have a simple 9% chance to crit- 

• Weapon’s Critical + (Skill / 2) -> 0 + (18/2) -> 9

TL;DR- Skill/Dex actually plays a non-insignificant part in Combat Calculation. It's not *as* important as strength, but it is an important stat nonetheless. There are some units who can be considered unplayable on higher difficulties as they have low Skill growth and will rarely hit their attacks. All that is without getting into the usefulness of using Skill to help characterize units. 

See what I mean? The stat gets calculated by x1-2 or more to amount to anything. WTA in GBAFE to RD amounts to +/- 15% hit, SD-NM has WTA with +5-10, Awakening +5-15% and Fates +5-15% (20% if S-Rank). These bonuses are just +3-10 SKL, no RNG required. Not to mention having WTA is defensive in nature as well, as it lowers enemy hit/dmg, as opposed to only affecting Hit. And there are games that allow you to manipulate WT such as the Reaver Weapons or Dual Weapons and DOUBLES the WT effect.

Weapon LVL in SD/NM is between +5-15%, +5-10% for Awakening and +5-15% in Fates = +3/10 SKL.

Then we have all the skills affecting Hitrate, for Awakening between +10 and +50, so 7-33 SKL!

Just using a Bronze Axe would give +5Hit = 3Skl.

 

That´s before opening the the semi-unreliable can of worms regarding critical hits, wherein SKL is used on (SKL) or (SKL/2) basis and hinges even more on Weapons (Killer weapons) and Skills (Death Blow).

 

By removing DEX/SKL and correspondingly elaborating on a Weapon Rank/Weapon Triangle System, Weapon stats (Really? +5 hit diff, per ranks?) and more elaborate skill systems you´d make CHOICE more interesting, rather than the brittle swiss army knife stat Dex currently is, which can be increased by, oh boy, +2/5 and whatever Rallie we want to use.

Hell, the most interesting thing done with SKL in FE is Subakis Pike.

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:48 AM, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

I propose the erasure of the Skill/Dex stat in future entries.
 

It serves no other purpose than a lil boost to hitrate, a lil bit of crit and the activation rate of skills, the first of which is dictated by weapon stats and weapon ranks, the second is, well, also tied to weapons and more to wepaon ranks and activation rate for skills... lmao. IS isn´t leaning hard enough into activation rates to not require stupid amounts of investments to make them worthwhile.

Removing it would make weapons and weapon ranks more meaningful and would either force the removal of procc skills, or having them be reworked, maybe in a system that involves activation boosts like Quixotic or new one, again, tied to weapons. All the things it does, something else holds more or the same amount of sway over and the one thing it does have going for itself (well, outside of Luck procc skills) is just kinda not great. As such, why not get rid of this redundant survivor of the 1990s? Lay ´em to rest.

You could give this idea a bit of a test run by hacking every unit in S.o.V into a magic class (or just hack as many pitchforks as you need to do that, or just only using magic units I guess although that is a bit restrictive), as the accuracy of magic in that game is untethered from skill.

 

On 4/3/2024 at 10:12 AM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

 

I'm sure they can think of some way to make Skill as good as the other stats, point for point.

Although I think it is time to drop an unpopular opinion here, I don't think all stats need to be equally valuable. How many points of defense equals a point of speed is a silly question, even if one of them is generally better than the other, because we don't play these games in general, we are forced to play with the specific things we have. As long as there are situations where the less useful stats have a solid use it all ends up alright. Take what are generally seen as the two worst stats, luck and skill, starting with skill. Having too little skill is still a notable detriment of reliability as you suddenly risk misses that you might otherwise need, and against particularly dodgy enemies (or those that are taking advantage of strong terrain buffs) you will really appreciate the extra accuracy, plus being able to get a timely crit is more useful in practice than it sounds like on paper. As for luck, the ability to avoid crits can be utterly vital against some enemies, and having a luck low enough that generic enemies have small crit chances against you, suddenly pushes an otherwise great enemy phase unit into a more passive role. These stats have their uses even when they aren't always appreciated.

 

20 hours ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

 

By removing DEX/SKL and correspondingly elaborating on a Weapon Rank/Weapon Triangle System, Weapon stats (Really? +5 hit diff, per ranks?) and more elaborate skill systems you´d make CHOICE more interesting, rather than the brittle swiss army knife stat Dex currently is, which can be increased by, oh boy, +2/5 and whatever Rallie we want to use.

How would this change make choices more interesting in any way? It sounds like you just limit the amount of choice you have by removing the ability to use units with skill stats and weapon levels that differ from eachother. A unit that has more weapon options but is less reliable vs a unit with more restrictive weapon options but is more reliable with chances for extra damage is the interesting choice this change would removing with this change.

 

[X-Naut]

On 4/4/2024 at 11:15 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Although I think it is time to drop an unpopular opinion here, I don't think all stats need to be equally valuable. How many points of defense equals a point of speed is a silly question, even if one of them is generally better than the other, because we don't play these games in general, we are forced to play with the specific things we have.

There's still an argument to be made that Skill(/Dex) ought to be more impactful for what it is. Luck is often treated as a personal stat and is a big fat 0 for enemies across half the series. It's okay for it to be treated as a weaker stat. But Skill's is considered a core stat and a defining part of a class's stat profile. It should be more weight to it if it's the focal point of a class.

Part of the problem IMO is that there are too many ways to quick-fix Hit that can be piled on top of each other. Weapon triangle, supports, a litany of skills, forges, etc. If you want to make Skill's impact on Hit more relevant, you could start by taring those options back. But I think a rework of the stat is also welcome... spoilering for those who don't want to sift through it.

Spoiler

Step 1, revert to DSFE Hit/Avoid: Skill = 1 Hit, AS = 1 Avoid. Notably there is no Crit component, and I'll get to that.

Step 2, add a Skill check during combat. If you have more Skill and are fighting at a weapon's preferred range, you gain Hit, Avoid and Crit equal to the difference, up to a maximum of +20. In addition, the loser's Dodge is reduced to half Luck.

Speaking of Luck, that would grant full Dodge (except in the above) and cycle between granting Hit, Avoid and Crit in whatever order you see fit.

Lastly, what's preferred range? It's the range a weapon type is most "at home" at and would apply to all weapons of that type. Naturally this would be 1 for all of swords, lances and axes and 2 for bows. Daggers would likely be 2 for novelty as fists would also be 1, duh. Magic could vary based on type, but under no circumstances is anything getting 1-2 preferred, you will see weapons with none sooner. Weapon triangle could also require fighting at preferred range.

 

Basically, I wanted to strike a balance between reining in how much stats can swing Hit/Avo while making it more dynamic where it counts. The most notable effect is on crit rates, with even the critical hit welfare package of 0 Luck enemies requiring you to win the Skill game for meaningful crit chances. With Luck, maverick crit chances become rare to non-existent, especially on throwing weapons, longbow range, siege tomes... things you generally don't want to see critting.

Which conveniently brings me to my own unpopular opinion: I think WT interactions should be 1-range only. The weapon triangle is based on weapon grappling interactions that only happen IRL up close, and dropping it at 2-range might help alleviate the pressure on swords lacking common 1-2. It also reinforces bows and magic as the go-to's if you want reliable ranged attacks when hand axes can't sneak extra the Hit on all those lances.

Mind you, this can only be said of the weapon weapon triangle. Alternative WTs are another can of worms I don't want to touch right now.

[Jotari]

33 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

There's still an argument to be made that Skill(/Dex) ought to be more impactful for what it is. Luck is often treated as a personal stat and is a big fat 0 for enemies across half the series. It's okay for it to be treated as a weaker stat. But Skill's is considered a core stat and a defining part of a class's stat profile. It should be more weight to it if it's the focal point of a class.

Part of the problem IMO is that there are too many ways to quick-fix Hit that can be piled on top of each other. Weapon triangle, supports, a litany of skills, forges, etc. If you want to make Skill's impact on Hit more relevant, you could start by taring those options back. But I think a rework of the stat is also welcome... spoilering for those who don't want to sift through it.

  Hide contents

Step 1, revert to DSFE Hit/Avoid: Skill = 1 Hit, AS = 1 Avoid. Notably there is no Crit component, and I'll get to that.

Step 2, add a Skill check during combat. If you have more Skill and are fighting at a weapon's preferred range, you gain Hit, Avoid and Crit equal to the difference, up to a maximum of +20. In addition, the loser's Dodge is reduced to half Luck.

Speaking of Luck, that would grant full Dodge (except in the above) and cycle between granting Hit, Avoid and Crit in whatever order you see fit.

Lastly, what's preferred range? It's the range a weapon type is most "at home" at and would apply to all weapons of that type. Naturally this would be 1 for all of swords, lances and axes and 2 for bows. Daggers would likely be 2 for novelty as fists would also be 1, duh. Magic could vary based on type, but under no circumstances is anything getting 1-2 preferred, you will see weapons with none sooner. Weapon triangle could also require fighting at preferred range.

 

Basically, I wanted to strike a balance between reining in how much stats can swing Hit/Avo while making it more dynamic where it counts. The most notable effect is on crit rates, with even the critical hit welfare package of 0 Luck enemies requiring you to win the Skill game for meaningful crit chances. With Luck, maverick crit chances become rare to non-existent, especially on throwing weapons, longbow range, siege tomes... things you generally don't want to see critting.

Which conveniently brings me to my own unpopular opinion: I think WT interactions should be 1-range only. The weapon triangle is based on weapon grappling interactions that only happen IRL up close, and dropping it at 2-range might help alleviate the pressure on swords lacking common 1-2. It also reinforces bows and magic as the go-to's if you want reliable ranged attacks when hand axes can't sneak extra the Hit on all those lances.

Mind you, this can only be said of the weapon weapon triangle. Alternative WTs are another can of worms I don't want to touch right now.

I say yes, but give us a low capacity skill that extends Weapon Triangle to two range in a Tellius style skill system. That way you can build a specific unit to hit lances with a hand axe via favouritism.

[Florete]

Ironically, I think part of the issue with Skill/Dex as a stat is that its primary purpose - Hit rate - is too important. FE games up to Binding Blade can cause a lot of frustration with missing, either because of 1 RN or low hit rates in general. It's just not very fun to constantly feel like you're flipping a coin to hit the enemy, so hit rates went up, but largely in ways that didn't rely on the Skill stat, because relying on the stat would mean low Skill units would be forever screwed. As a result, though, having low Skill ended up meaning very little, especially with 2 RN granting invisible boosts.

The Hit rate aspect of Skill/Dex should stay, but I think the stat just needs to be able to do a little more. An idea I've had in the past that I think still works is for it to somehow add extra damage to crits, since it already adds to crit chance and the classes that are characterized by high Skill are Swordmasters and such that like to fish for crits.

I do agree with Eltosian's point that all stats don't necessarily need to be equal, though. Luck is fine where it is in most FE games, though (and this might be a new unpopular opinion?) I think Res is overlooked when talking about the worst stat and that it's actually weaker than Luck in most, if not all, FE games.

Edited April 14 by Florete

[samthedigital]

Skill is an incredibly important stat across the series. Is this a controversial take?