An alternate system for balancing the weapon types

[Von Ithipathachai]

Note: The following system is not intended for use alongside the Weapon Triangle.  That would interfere too much with what it intends to accomplish.

So I was thinking of an alternate way of balancing Fire Emblem's different weapon types.  Though in truth it would probably be more at home in things like SRPG Studio games that do not restrict users to traditional Fire Emblem mechanics.

So one problem I can see with the traditional way of balancing weapon types is that not every weapon type gets equal overall advantage.  This is most obvious with the Triangle weapons.  As you progress from Swords to Lances to Axes, attack power tends to increase, but both double-attacking ability and accuracy tend to decrease.  This ends up leaving Swords with higher overall practicality than Axes, which I don't think is fair.

My proposition is to get rid of the Weapon Triangle and make each individual weapon type stand out in a single stat (Might, Weight, Hit, Critical, and Range), but not be particularly stronger or weaker than other weapons in other stats.  If that isn't clear, I'll explain how I'd give stats to each weapon type:

• Swords give an innate Critical bonus (perhaps +10 or +15 Critical, or even +20 Critical)
• Lances have more Hit than other weapons
• Axes have more Might than other weapons
• Bows have more Range than other weapons
• Daggers have lower Weight than other weapons

Bows and Daggers as a whole probably won't have their normal secondary functions (anti-Flying and debuffs, respectively), but there may instead be a family of anti-Flying weapons that encompasses each type, kind of like there has been for anti-Cavalry and anti-Armor weapons.

To give an example to illustrate this idea, here are some stats for Iron weapons:

• Iron Sword: 4 Weight, 6 Might, 80 Hit, 15 Critical, 1 Range
• Iron Lance: 4 Weight, 6 Might, 100 Hit, 0 Critical, 1 Range
• Iron Axe: 4 Weight, 9 Might, 80 Hit, 0 Critical, 1 Range
• Iron Bow: 4 Weight, 6 Might, 80 Hit, 0 Critical, 2-3 Range
• Iron Dagger: 1 Weight, 6 Might, 80 Hit, 0 Critical, 1 Range

What do you guys think?

[Sand55]

That sounds pretty good to me! It definitely seems like axes are super impractical in most Fire Emblem games, and swords are by far the most practical. I definitely have wondered for a while how they might change that to make all the weapons viable--it would add a lot more variety if ax units were actually legitimate competitors when it came to deciding who to use. I also really like the idea of moving bonus damage away from weapon types like bows and instead making it like anti-armor and anti-cavalry, like you said. Honestly, I would love to see a Fire Emblem game try this.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Sand55

[Von Ithipathachai]

Oof.  Almost forgot.  Tomes would probably have stats in between all five of the physical weapon types without standing out in a single stat.

So a basic Fire tome might have 3 Weight, 7 Might, 85 Hit, 5 Critical, and 1-2 Range.

[Slumber]

Promising, but I'm sure there are some issues that would crop up.

Daggers, for example, would basically be tiered out by any unit with high enough strength/con. Similarly, I think Axes would become almost too meta near endgame, where guaranteed damage is king. There are probably more ways to balance such a system that would alleviate these issues, but as somebody looking at them with a passing glance, these are some things that come to mind.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Slumber

[Von Ithipathachai]

1 hour ago, Slumber said:

Promising, but I'm sure there are some issues that would crop up.

Daggers, for example, would basically be tiered out by any unit with high enough strength/con. Similarly, I think Axes would become almost too meta near endgame, where guaranteed damage is king. There are probably more ways to balance such a system that would alleviate these issues, but as somebody looking at them with a passing glance, these are some things that come to mind.

Okay.  I guess one would also need to be careful when designing playable characters so that this doesn't happen.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Von Ithipathachai

[NinjaMonkey]

8 hours ago, Von Ithipathachai said:

• Swords give an innate Critical bonus (perhaps +10 or +15 Critical, or even +20 Critical)

Yes, lets give Swordsmasters even more crit on top of what they already have. It's not going to make them broken or anything [/sarcasm]

Edited December 4, 2018 by NinjaMonkey

[Von Ithipathachai]

3 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Yes, lets give Swordsmasters even more crit on top of what they already have. It's not going to make them broken or anything [/sarcasm]

I would probably just replace the weapon master Critical bonus with something else if I were to use this system in a game.

[Slumber]

3 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Yes, lets give Swordsmasters even more crit on top of what they already have. It's not going to make them broken or anything [/sarcasm]

It'd probably put them at where they(Or Rutger) were in FE6. Which... Is preferable to where they've been in every game since, as a class with little practical use over alternative sword classes. 

[Von Ithipathachai]

7 hours ago, Slumber said:

It'd probably put them at where they(Or Rutger) were in FE6. Which... Is preferable to where they've been in every game since, as a class with little practical use over alternative sword classes. 

I also feel the need to point out that the default Sword-wielding classes in SRPG Studio (Lords, Mercenaries, etc.) do actually have proper throwing animations for 1-2-Range weapons, unlike the equivalent classes in most Fire Emblem games.  So Swordmasters in SRPG Studio games using this system may not necessarily have their traditional drawbacks.  That's pretty neat.

[pannacotta__]

I'd honestly rather keep it the way it is, and increase the effect of the weapon triangle. The weapons don't necessarily need to be different inherently.