Fire Emblem series

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Just got Sword of the Creator, so fairly early in, but I already try to plan out the advanced classes. It's kinda difficult to force them into one thing that they are somewhat naturally lenient towards, when they then come and suggest returning to their basic bitch 'no class in particular' build.

Do stats grow predetermined or does it depend on class/focus? I went with Black Eagles and the chick's kingdom, so most of them are fairly aimed at what I planned for them, but I'm trying to make Caspar cavalry and Petra pegasus, but it just feels wrong to force it when they still desire something different somewhat.

I played Mount & Blade only using the best units from each kingdom, but in a game as deep as this it seems kinda boring to just look up their best jobs and go for it. I play on default and casual, and since I'm not a complete brainlet surely I shouldn't have any immense issues if I don't plan 20 levels ahead already.

Stat growths are rng and are determined by two different things.

First you have default growth rates which every character has, then you have class growth rates which are added on top of your base growth rates.

So for example Ferdinand has a 45% strength growth and a 50% speed growth by default, next Cavalier gives him 5% more strength, dex, and defense and a -10% speed growth. So Cavalier makes Ferdinand's strength and speed growths 50% and 40% respectively. Don't over think this too much on average -10% speed is 1 point of speed every 10 levels which usually won't change anything, especially if your unit is already slow, Cavalier having high movement and canto is still very useful especially on normal/hard mode where the enemies aren't very difficult to double. Growth rates are nice, but the class needs to be actually good for what you want first.

As for class stuff just make units whatever you want, as long as you don't go schizo and change your mind to do something completely different half way through the game you can make anyone anything, you could make a nerd like Ignatz into a brawny Warrior if you try hard enough I'm making him a Cavalier in my current maddening run because I value high movement. Petra is a great flier and one of the better wyverns in the game, Pegasus and Wyvern are almost the same class so you don't need to make her a wyvern if you prefer a pegasus, I made her a Pegasus > Wyvern in my last run and she was great.

3 houses is stupid easy unless you play on maddening, normal mode is arguably insulting to one's intelligence easy, if you want even remotely a challenge I'd highly consider replaying on hard mode because you'll roll over normal mode even if you play super casual. Hard mode isn't too difficult and you can turn the difficulty down if you get stuck and just want to finish the game, maddening is a shit show though.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

3 houses is stupid easy unless you play on maddening, normal mode is arguably insulting to one's intelligence easy, if you want even remotely a challenge I'd highly consider replaying on hard mode because you'll roll over normal mode even if you play super casual. Hard mode isn't too difficult and you can turn the difficulty down if you get stuck and just want to finish the game, maddening is a shit show though.

I've no experience with turn-based games and Divinity 2 drove me fucking mad; I just figured itd be best to take it slow and considerate the first time around. I can see the replayability in choosing another house and kingdom, but if you can just recruit most of the others anyway, it seems less for gameplay and more for story. How difficult is this anyway? Most of the chicks i want desires magic and faith; is that just a flat requirement of like C in both?

What's even the difference on choosing a kingdom and house? Can you join one kingdom and teach another?

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Just got Sword of the Creator, so fairly early in, but I already try to plan out the advanced classes. It's kinda difficult to force them into one thing that they are somewhat naturally lenient towards, when they then come and suggest returning to their basic bitch 'no class in particular' build.

It's a lot easier to raise skills they have a neutral affinity to in New Game+ when you can immediately cap your professor level and have a ton of energy to dump into focused training. It's never really easy to raise skills they have negative affinity to but it can be done.

Do stats grow predetermined or does it depend on class/focus? I went with Black Eagles and the chick's kingdom, so most of them are fairly aimed at what I planned for them, but I'm trying to make Caspar cavalry and Petra pegasus, but it just feels wrong to force it when they still desire something different somewhat.

Characters each have an innate chance to gain +1 in each stat every time they level, modified by their class. Here's a spreadsheet with the values. Min-maxing sort of degenerates into save scumming because of this though. Petra is meant to be anything in the swordsman/bow/flyer category so you shouldn't have much problem because she has good growths for it. Caspar has neutral growths for riding but it shouldn't be too hard to bully him into crusader because riding/flying exp is pretty free once you actually get them promoted into a riding/flying class.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

I've no experience with turn-based games and Divinity 2 drove me fucking mad; I just figured itd be best to take it slow and considerate the first time around. I can see the replayability in choosing another house and kingdom, but if you can just recruit most of the others anyway, it seems less for gameplay and more for story. How difficult is this anyway? Most of the chicks i want desires magic and faith; is that just a flat requirement of like C in both?

What's even the difference on choosing a kingdom and house? Can you join one kingdom and teach another?

Kingdom choice at the start means basically nothing plot wise, it is purely for minor support points for the house leader. Your choice is the house you picked and that is it, except for one choice you will get around the middle of the Black Eagle route (hint: Talk to Edelgard in the explore sections as much as possible, that is all I'll say).

The recruitment system basically works like this: You need X stat and X skill at a certain rank, these X's vary depending on the character and while tables exist to explain this I won't bore you with that stuff. In your example Magic is your "Mag" stat and Faith is obviously the Faith/White magic skill. Reason is black magic.

These requirements go down immensely with support levels, so giving them gifts and sharing meals with them will build support, also mission assistance helps where as they help in combat they will get support with Byleth/Avatar and thus build support over time. If you reach B rank support you can recruit them extremely easily like D+ rank magic and a very low magic stat, in addition to that sometimes (this is 100% rng) during the week they'll just randomly ask to join your house which bypasses all the requirements entirely.

You'll eventually get a side quest to help some merchants, do it, after you complete it you'll be able to buy gifts every month/chapter and be able to easily build support. I'd highly suggest looking up gift likes and dislikes, most character will accept any gift some like specific gifts more then others and some they dislike which makes giving it to them useless. If you want to recruit a lot of characters I'd highly advise looking up a gift like list on Serenes forest, it'll help.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Hmm. Might start a second game on default + 1 difficulty and actually plan things out. I never really paid attention to the natural affinity modifiers cus I thought it was just a 'this week it's good to level this' indicator, not a permanent suggestion as for their role. A bit sad that they have an affinity that is highly beneficial to pursue, but guess that means the house is somewhat balanced by default.

For a management game it really doesn't have a lot of tools or rearrangements to do so, which I guess is in tune with not being an autistic try-hard game by default. Is it at all viable to make a caster main character? Seeing as they apparently get artifact melee weapons etc.

 

[NerdShamer]

Hmm. Might start a second game on default + 1 difficulty and actually plan things out. I never really paid attention to the natural affinity modifiers cus I thought it was just a 'this week it's good to level this' indicator, not a permanent suggestion as for their role. A bit sad that they have an affinity that is highly beneficial to pursue, but guess that means the house is somewhat balanced by default.

For a management game it really doesn't have a lot of tools or rearrangements to do so, which I guess is in tune with not being an autistic try-hard game by default. Is it at all viable to make a caster main character? Seeing as they apparently get artifact melee weapons etc.

Technically, you could turn your avatar into a mage, but you need to do a few coaching sessions with one of the other teachers in order to learn your basic light & dark magic spell to get the ball rolling. After that, it's matter of staying in a class that can use magic.

 

[Oddjob OTP]

Hmm. Might start a second game on default + 1 difficulty and actually plan things out. I never really paid attention to the natural affinity modifiers cus I thought it was just a 'this week it's good to level this' indicator, not a permanent suggestion as for their role. A bit sad that they have an affinity that is highly beneficial to pursue, but guess that means the house is somewhat balanced by default.

For a management game it really doesn't have a lot of tools or rearrangements to do so, which I guess is in tune with not being an autistic try-hard game by default. Is it at all viable to make a caster main character? Seeing as they apparently get artifact melee weapons etc.

Main character has ok stat growths to be a rather tanky caster. Unfortunately your reason growth is neutral and your faith spells are pretty meh so you'll never be as good at blasting people as the best mages. That doesn't really matter that much even on hard but it might fuck you on maddening. On the plus side you get a skill that gives you 20 avo when wielding faith magic from your unique class. MC also has good sword growth so you can abuse Levan swords pretty easy as a mage.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Hmm, what are prime classes then? I honestly don't like them very much compared to literally any other student, but just going warrior seems kinda boring.

On that note; is it worth giving and leveling archery slightly on students that are already overshooting their immediate needs? Mostly seem to be the case for generic melee ones.

 

[NerdShamer]

Hmm, what are prime classes then? I honestly don't like them very much compared to literally any other student, but just going warrior seems kinda boring.

On that note; is it worth giving and leveling archery slightly on students that are already overshooting their immediate needs? Mostly seem to be the case for generic melee ones.

Basically, anything that multiplies your magic usage. Archery leaves you open to melee if you don't have Close Counter or a meatshield; it's more of an situational thing.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

On that note; is it worth giving and leveling archery slightly on students that are already overshooting their immediate needs? Mostly seem to be the case for generic melee ones.

Bows are great in this game, a very rare situation for fire emblem where archers typically suck, every physical unit should aim for C rank bows at some point to have 1-2 range with close counter regardless of if they're an archer. I'd suggest always carrying a bow around on your physical units and learn how to trade swap weapons if you don't have close counter. Having a ranged weapon can really help you out and curved shot chip is very useful early on, also flying enemies can be a hassle and bows counter fliers.

What I mean by trade swapping is, if you trade with an ally you can move their equipment around so they're forced to equip a different weapon. So if one unit has an iron sword and iron bow, and has the iron bow equipped because they just attacked with it, trading with them with another unit and moving their iron sword above the iron bow will force them to equip the iron sword so they can counter at melee again.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Hmm alright, seems to plan out better than my first run.

Lastly, is there any benefit to only having one bow focus for a sniper student? Do they get more xp from only having one or is there some kind of benefit to also leveling authority for example? I also see a 3-star symbol in the far right column on the stat table; is that some sort of reward for maxing it? It seems grayed out. The guy is a prime assassin yet the stars are in faith.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Hmm alright, seems to plan out better than my first run.

Lastly, is there any benefit to only having one bow focus for a sniper student? Do they get more xp from only having one or is there some kind of benefit to also leveling authority for example? I also see a 3-star symbol in the far right column on the stat table; is that some sort of reward for maxing it? It seems grayed out. The guy is a prime assassin yet the stars are in faith.

Focusing on one skill: You get 1.5 more exp from the weekly training, personally I always prefer to just get authority on the side or some other skill because having strong battalions helps a lot for many reasons. I have used the solo focus once or twice in maddening mode to obtain certain skills very fast, but that is a min max thing, overall I would never do it unless you don't need to level any other skill at all.

So for your Sniper I'd basically just keep them on bows and authority, or training riding because bow knight is a master class that you'll unlock around mid game which requires A riding, A bows, and C lances to 100% pass and it is a very good class.

3 star symbols: Those are budding talents, basically if you instruct them 12 times (4 times each star) that skill will become a strength and you get an additional skill. These skills vary from meh to pretty useful depending on the talent and what mode you're playing. Ignatz's seal strength for example from his reason magic budding talent is super useful in maddening mode, but overkill in other modes.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Hmm. I see Marianne gets a magic lance attack as her talent, while initially being magic focus but having affinity in riding and lance. Even with such a foundation it feels weird forcing her into cavalry, despite having her benefit from working stables alongside Lorenz who is also prime cavalry. I think I made a decent line-up from the default Golden Deer house; Claude archer, Ignatz assassin, those two cavalry, Hilda/Raphael either something axe'y or heavy armor, Leonie warrior, Lysith warlock. Just means I lack a straight up healer, which I figured I'd focus on recruiting Mercedes for, but not sure how long itll take even if I focus on her entirely.

I guess I could make Marianna pegasus? Are flying units all that mandatory? Hilda seems kinda wyvern'y too, but then I'd have 4 mounted units. Guess as long as I keep them on lance/axe I can make that decision down the line.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Hmm. I see Marianne gets a magic lance attack as her talent, while initially being magic focus but having affinity in riding and lance. Even with such a foundation it feels weird forcing her into cavalry, despite having her benefit from working stables alongside Lorenz who is also prime cavalry. I think I made a decent line-up from the default Golden Deer house; Claude archer, Ignatz assassin, those two cavalry, Hilda/Raphael either something axe'y or heavy armor, Leonie warrior, Lysith warlock. Just means I lack a straight up healer, which I figured I'd focus on recruiting Mercedes for, but not sure how long itll take even if I focus on her entirely.

I guess I could make Marianna pegasus? Are flying units all that mandatory? Hilda seems kinda wyvern'y too, but then I'd have 4 mounted units. Guess as long as I keep them on lance/axe I can make that decision down the line.

Marianne's physical stats are garbo along with her growths and she is made of paper physically speaking so she'll get smacked around in a physical fight, her only way to do any decent combat is to be a caster or use magic weapons which are a little expensive. Marianne's riding talent is pretty much only so she can reach Dark Knight or Holy Knight which are riding magic classes, and because she really likes animals.

Nothing in Fire Emblem I'd consider "mandatory" except healers I guess, just flying units are generally the best and they can be move around the map super easily. Having mostly mounted units is a very real and very powerful strategy in Fire Emblem and fliers are very powerful in this game, even in Fire Emblems without customizable class choices mounted units typically are some of the best units.

3 houses is a fairly easy game even on hard mode, so just do what you like and what seems fun as long as you make reasonable choices, like don't make Marianne an armor knight or something silly like that, you'll be able to beat the game. I've seen people clear hard mode with troll builds like armor knight Lysithea and mage caspar.

My first Golden deer run I went this direction general: Claude Archer, Lorenz caster into Dark Knight, Hilda Brigand into Wyvern, Marianne healer, Leonie Cavalier into Bow Knight, Lysithea just caster, Raphael and Ignatz got benched eventually for other recruits Raphael is good as a gauntlet man and Ignatz is good as an archer. My recruits were Petra, Felix, and Sylvain.

 

[OtterWhiskersED]

Damn. I wanted to just butt in and say my own thought with no relation to the current discussion, and then I glanced at the first post which inadvertently caught my eyes and
you're arguing about stat growths. Seriously...

Last month I tried out Awakening. I selected hard mode (I believe there were 3 difficulty settings and I chose the middle.) In spite of its name, it was easy. The game was laden with cutscenes and cliché characters, so I gave up around the fifth level. Nowadays all games are just movies with little gameplay, and whatever gameplay they have is easy.

I don't feel like making an argument about how unbalanced previous titles on previous systems are, about how the developers end up turning other units unbalanced in their attempt(s) to balance the game, and about how this problem is inherent in the game mechanics.

So anyway. I found this decades old program that lets one make one's own tactical RPGs. I saw others make their own fire emblems with it instead of something different. The program's called Sim RPG Maker 95 Value. Amazingly, it still runs on newer Windows OSs. It's oldschool as fuck, but that makes it fun to me.

I'll make something with it when I have time. If anyone's interested, I could post it here too.

Screenshots:

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

Damn. I wanted to just butt in and say my own thought with no relation to the current discussion, and then I glanced at the first post which inadvertently caught my eyes and
you're arguing about stat growths. Seriously...

I mean in a game where just about everyone starts at level 1 and likely ends at level 40ish depending on your play style, discussing stat growths is plenty relevant. I've used Marianne twice and she is made of paper, I'd never want to use her as a front liner like a Cavalier or a Pegasus Knight will generally be.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

So there's basically no use in building a character around their growths, but seemingly more-so their default focus? Kind of bullshit if there's no way to identify such things, but yeah I guess Marianne is more fitting for a healer. Being a woman.

Lorentz has growth in the stable, starts with a lance and feeds into cavalry. How'd he make for a caster, being basically the opposite of Marianne in that case? Shouldn't he be as bad a caster as she a cavalry? I don't autismo minmax but still kinda uneasy if there's no way to tell these things, if even utilizing every affinity growth can still end up a bad build like cavalry Marianne.

 

[HeyYou]

Some of the DLC seems really interesting, some of it has me scratching my head. I get that there was a meme regarding not being able to pet the dogs and cats but you don't need to make a whole minigame around it. I'm glad Jeritza will become playable, I just hope it's not Black Eagles only. I'm disappointed that other characters didn't end up playable. Rhea being playable would be extremely difficult to do outside of maybe being playable Part 1, but I was really hoping the other two dragons would be playable. I was really hoping that they were going to extend Black Eagles, too. All in all, not terrible. What if maps like Awakening and Fates would have been appreciated though.

 

[Zeke Von Genbu]

So there's basically no use in building a character around their growths, but seemingly more-so their default focus? Kind of bullshit if there's no way to identify such things, but yeah I guess Marianne is more fitting for a healer. Being a woman.

Lorentz has growth in the stable, starts with a lance and feeds into cavalry. How'd he make for a caster, being basically the opposite of Marianne in that case? Shouldn't he be as bad a caster as she a cavalry? I don't autismo minmax but still kinda uneasy if there's no way to tell these things, if even utilizing every affinity growth can still end up a bad build like cavalry Marianne.

I just want to highlight that you can win with anything I've seen full on troll squads with stupid class choices beat hard mode, like making casters into sword masters or armor knights, and you can eventually recruit the church characters (like Catherine) who are generally competent at worst and some are really strong and can easily help you win the game if your students end up weak or underperforming. So while I am giving you some advice and direction, don't over think things and think you'll be put into an unwinnable scenario if you mess up. In short just have fun and make your units your way if you think that will be fun.

To answer to rest of your questions

Lorenz in simple terms has very average stats across the board, his stats will generally be very similar across the board, this makes him better to be a caster because killing enemies with magic is easier then physical weapons as resistance is typically the lower defense stat and having decent strength means you can overcome weight penalties for using higher level spells due to how math works so Lorenz doubles easier with spells then physical weapons for most the game. That is why I personally believe Lorenz should always be a caster or you should bench him, but this is because I'm somewhat an autistic min maxer who likes using less then optimal units sometimes. Lorenz can be a perfectly fine physical unit, but you can easily find better like Hilda who is a great physical unit.

Marianne's affinities make sense when you see master classes Holy Knight and Dark Knight require Riding A, Faith/Reason B+, and lance C so Marianne's affinities are supposed to help her reach Holy Knight. Though I can see why they'd be confusing early on, though one thing to tip you off about Marianne's crappy defenses is her level 1 stats being low defense wise except in Res. Looking at everyone's general stats and comparing them to each other alongside everyone's strengths will generally hint at where a unit might excel. Like Marianne has worse physical stats then Lorenz, Lorenz has balanced offense stats in magic and strength, and Leonie has great physical stats. So Marianne looks like she should be a mage, Lorenz can make anything work to some degree, and Leonie should be a physical power house.

 

[SnowBall]

Is the series pre Awakening really as hard as everyone says it is? I just finished playing the original NES Shadow Dragon and aside from some bullshit RNG screw overs it really wasn’t that challenging. You can literally beat some chapters by simply warping Marth to the main boss, killing it, then seizing the castle. Same thing with the final boss where you can warp Marth to the throne to smack Medeus a few times on the head with the Falchion. The DS remake isn’t that difficult either, especially since the reclassing system is stupidly broken. I also played FE4 and it was a joke, especially in the second generation if you pair up the right first generation characters to make super broken children. And like FE1 the Book of Naga is pretty much a “press A to win” button for the final boss.

The only game that I hear is genuinely difficult is Thracia. I finished 1, 11, and 4 and started 7 so my experience pre Awakening is limited.