Clint (Shackled Power)
Clint is a pirate who joins you in chapter 7. A retired veteran who moved to the Piss River Misery Swamp in order to leave the horrors of war, his bases are… unimpressive.
The game already has an axe lord with pirate movement and 2 Fighters before that, and Prosel/Eddie’s offenses are usually slightly to significantly better than base Clint at this point— although Prosel is famously memed on for being frequently stat-screwed.
His bulk is notably worse than Grant although his speed is decent enough that he doesnt risk getting doubled, so his only notable advantage is… Res. He looks unimpressive and benchable, right? Perhaps this old sea dog won’t come out and fight another day.
However, he has an obvious secret weapon. See, every axe unit in Shackled Power has a Prf, because axes are cool (and to make up for axes being slightly underwhelming outside of Prfs). Prosel gets the Royal Chopper, which is basically just Wolf Beil 2, and can ORKO cavs and armors well into the midgame. It is also notably accurate with 90 hit, patching up his mediocre skill. Grant gets the Grongigas,
which is a Hammer with Seal Def and 69 hit. It also weighs him down to the point of getting doubled by mid-speed enemies, and his Skill is already bad, so it kinda sucks. Eddie gets the Blitz Axe, which gives Darting Blow and makes him able to ORKO most things on PP. And Clint gets the Vedava, an axe named after a big titty mermaid GF (seriously, look it up).
The Vedava is also 1-2.
It is significantly more accurate than a hand axe, has higher might, 5 crit, and uh, also not to mention +3 res and tomebreaker. With this thing, Clint becomes a proper 1-2 physical mixed tank, and in a game with bombs that hit res, that role is a welcome thing to be.
So he does some combat on his join map, and then you beat it, and then the next map happens. Chapter 8 of Shackled Power is a sprawling escape map that just happens to feature enemy mage formations as well as a scary Sage boss. Clint can mop up and ORKO these mages on EP better than anyone else in your army up to this point, allowing him to be around level 12-ish like the majority of your combat frontliners. (The only unit who could come close is maybe Javelin Cyrus, but the hit rates and AS are still shaky, and he might as well be used to rescuedrop Clint, who can ORKO pretty much guaranteed.)
Chapter 9 comes along, and aside from being good at tanking the bombs, there’s not much Clint specifically can do, but off of his stats and reliable 1-2 alone, you might as well bring him.
That’s not the real test for Clint though. That test is in Chapter 10, where it is probably expedient to promote him. See, while Eddie and Grant use Hero Crests, which both have more competition in swordies and are harder to come by in the early game, Clint uses a Crook Seal, the only user of which at this point is the famously shaky earlygame thief Darrel. You could promote Darrel to a halfway decent Assassin… or you could promote Clint. Chapter 10 is a big defend map that requires you to spread out super thin in order to get all the side objectives. You need units who can approach the Sethian Ideal of 1-2 range ORKOs, and unsurprisingly, your invested Clint with his Vedava can somewhat the role. He gets crit boost and a significant speed boost that allows him to double most enemies on that map, and his bulk is solid at fighting small groups of enemies. However, his promo only gives him +1 str, his prf is usually near broken by then, and with his mediocre Str base this means that he might fall off eventually if his growths don’t comply…
If they don’t, Clint’s last hurrah comes in Chapter 14. That map has a very big lake making up most of the middle of it, with fliers and ballistae bombarding you from islands. Clint is nice to have for waterwalking on that map, while your fliers can go do other things.
But it’s not a flaw that Clint can fall off. It’s cool to have a unit who is a worthwhile investment target for a temporary goal, rather than shooting straight for endgame. Clint is nice to have in the early and midgame, and it’s fine if you don’t want to bring him to endgame, because he served his purpose after all. What more can you ask of an old veteran?
I’ve emphasized specific maps in this writeup because it goes to show how performance and specific tasks on specific maps can really make or break a unit. Clint would never have been anything to write home about without the C8 mages and C10’s spread formations and C14’s lake, so if you want to design a unit, you don’t have to think just about their stats and class. Think about what interactions they can have with the maps that brings them fun uniqueness. Classes like Pirate/Berserker or fliers are good for emphasizing this sort of unique role, because they bring unique terrain access to the table. Clint is a good case study in emphasizing a unit’s unique strengths while still leaving room for weaknesses.