Short explanation on the mechanics of Seminars

[Tables]

I haven't seen anyone list these before, although given how popular this game is I expect it has already been done. I tested a few Seminars out, and feel confident I've sussed out most of how they work:

 

Stat gain

 

Seminar EXP is not fixed, it is dependent on the skill level difference between the teacher and each attendee, as well as if it is a strength or weakness. For the purpose of below, every half letter improvement is being counted as 1 rank. So e.g. the difference between E+ and C rank is 3 ranks

Skill ranks teacher is above students - base Skill EXP gained

11 ranks - 80 EXP

10 ranks - 72 EXP

9 ranks - 64 EXP

8 ranks - 56 EXP

7 ranks - 48 EXP

6 ranks - 40 EXP

5 ranks - 36 EXP

4 ranks - 32 EXP

3 ranks - 28 EXP

2 ranks - 24 EXP

1 rank or less - 20 EXP

 

This is then multiplied by an amount depending on if it is a students weakness, strength or neutral skill.

Weakness - x0.5

Neutral - x1

Strength - x1.5

 

For example, suppose I have my Byleth with A Swords and B Authority run a Seminar. Felix, who has D Authority, A+ Swords attends. First, we calculate how many skill ranks above Felix my Byleth is. He's -1 ranks above for Swords (i.e. below), and 4 ranks above for Authority. Next, we simply look those values up. Anything 1 or below is 20 EXP for swords, and 4 ranks is 32 EXP for Authority. Finally, we multiply by strengths and weaknesses. Felix has a strength in Swords, so we multiply by 1.5, and a weakness in Authority, so we multiply by 0.5. This gives final values of +30 EXP in Swords, and +16 EXP in Authority. We would of course repeat for every other attendee if we wanted to calculate what they gain, if needed.

 

Attendees

 

I haven't researched this in detail, but I have a few observations. May not be 100% correct however:

• You always get a minimum of 3 people attending, and a maximum of 6. Byleth always attends, unless he is teaching, because "apparently" he cannot be in two places at once. Lazy sod.
• The biggest priority for places (asides from Byleth) always seems to be study goals. Anyone who has at least one study goal that matches the seminar will attend, if there is space. Yes, this is very easy to cheese if you want to choose the exact 6 people/5 + Byleth you want to attend. Just make sure to change the goals back afterwards.
• If there are fewer than 3 people with a matching goal, it seems that people whose strengths match (and no weaknesses in the other goal) get prioritised. I'm not sure how it breaks ties beyond that.
• If there are more than 6 people with a matching goal... uhh some get picked.
• The game suggests students with motivation are more likely to attend, but I haven't really observed it clearly. If it's really a factor, it's a small one.
• Everyone who attends gets +50 motivation.

 

 

Seminars have earned a bit of a reputation for being one of the worse ways to spend your Sundays (another case of fiction emulating reality), and I think there's definitely some truth to that. You can in theory earn a huge amount of skill EXP from a single seminar, but in practice if there are skills you care about training, normally they'll already be quite high on the characters being trained - so you end up getting ~30 skill EXP in relevant stats. Compared to what you can get in battles (EXP, skills, supports, money, other rewards), that just isn't worth it. And compared to what you can get exploring the Monastery, you get more EXP overall sometimes depending on how much you want to focus motivation and tutoring in specific skills, but don't get any of the other rewards you can get from exploring. I think Seminars do have a niche as the lazy but decent option, however. Sadly, switching all of your goals around to optimise them is REALLY not a lazy strategy, which is pretty sad. But at least you can do it for maybe 1-2 key characters, and if there's someone you don't care about taking up a Seminar spot you can just switch them out. Anyway, this is really me just rambling now - I was posting mostly to get the facts and numbers out - but feel free to talk about strategic use of Seminars below if you want.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Interesting that the game factors in the difference in skill levels. Though if it was an injection of realism then they invite me to nitpick and suggest units that already have some grasp on the subject (D or C rank) would probably get more out of a seminar. A student with E rank in the subject is somebody I assume neglects to do the readings and is probably here for some extra credit on the midterm.

You bet I did a lot of seminars in my playthrough. I was so done with any goals I cared about for my students that I just wanted to finish the game. Monastery micromanagement takes way longer than choosing a seminar with 6 attendees, and then hitting auto tutor with that gained motivation. I wish Byleth's seminar could have subjects of our choosing (there are few students who really care to train in swords, for one thing).

Edited August 15, 2019 by Glennstavos