Hello all. Like the title says, I’ve been having some issues coming up with class skills for my FE8 hack.
The goal is to give each promoted class a skill that’s both characteristic of the class and balanced for enemy use as well as player use. I plan on giving individual player units personal skills as well, so class skills that can synergize well with others will are the ideal.
For example:
Warriors have Frenzy
Falcon Knights have Breath of Life
Generals have Wary Fighter (creative, I know)
Battle Sages (classic Sage w/ Sword) have Arcane Blade
Bishops have Amaterasu
(Please also don’t be afraid to critique my examples, they aren’t set in stone)
So the classes that have been stumping me are as follows:
Malig Knight - Wyvern rider with Axes and Anima
Wyvern Lord - pretty much just the Tellius Wyvern class
Sage - pretty much the vanilla FE8 Sage
Marshall - less defensive (more offensive) General with fewer weapon type options
Valkyrie - same as vanilla
If anyone has some ideas they want to throw out, I’d appreciate it. Also let me know if you need me to clarify anything else. I don’t mean to push the work onto others, I just don’t have many people in my personal life that I can bounce these kinds of things off of.
You could give Valkyries holy aura,
Wyvern Lords or Malig knights could get daunt,
Sages could have tome range +1,
Marshalls could get puissance or thunderstorm maybe?
I’ve been flirting with giving Tome Range +1 to Sages for awhile, so someone else saying it gives me more confidence lol
I’m thinking of giving Paladins access to Light magic and Holy Aura though, so is there a more support-oriented skill you can think of that may work for Valkyrie?
Still depends as well with how you plan on utilizing those classes. Some things I consider for choosing skills are:
What Niche/Utility do I want them to perform as?
If there is a similar role with another class, how do I want them to be differentiated as (Stat caps, Weapon Types, Promo Bonuses, etc.)?
How does the fundamental strategy of the game change knowing that this class exists?
I’ll use my own hack as an example. I changed the fundamental role of the Valkyrie to be similar/inspired by Mist of FE9 where it is a high magic paladin that wields Swords, Lances, and Staves. In a similar light, what incentive do I have this being both a Troubadour and Female Cav promote option when one has advantage over the other (From Cav, it will have better defenses vs. for Troubadour getting better Staff Ranks). What I did to differentiate/choose skills for that class is that I want this class to be a mobile healer who can well defend themselves.
But wait! Doesn’t that how Mage Knights work? Yes, it is how Mage Knight works. So, just to differentiate from that as well; I gave the Valkyrie class in my hack more ways to utilize the action economy through staff usage (Such as Powerstaff and Canto) compared to the Mage Knight class which is more focused on being a Mobile Combat mage (Thus having skills like Flare and Mirror Stance).
Hope those guide questions I asked myself helped ya. If you also want, I can give you access to my Class Skill tree for inspiration if ever.
It would help if you provided a full list of what skills each class has or will tentatively have.
I’m gonna go against the grain and say no to giving Sage (or anything) extended tome range without making them tome-locked, and even then I find the idea questionable. If you want to lean into their offensive game then I’ll suggest a sort of geomancy skill that reverses the foe’s terrain Avoid bonus. Like how some games give magic terrain-piercing properties to a greater extent.
Malig Knight could have Savage Blow like in Fates, and I’ll second Daunt on Wyvern Lords.
Marshall could get Bold Fighter if you want to lean into them being offensive armors.
I’m stumped on Valks. Part of me wants to say extended staff range but I think that might be better spent on Bishops.
I was thinking Valks would be support utility and have less of a combat focus, where as the other Troubadour promo option will have Dark magic and be more geared towards combat. On top of that, I already have a Cleric planned with Staff Savant, so I was thinking something that would work with the Valk’s ability to position itself well. If nothing comes to mind, I may just give them Live to Serve.
If you would be willing to share your skill tree though, I’d greatly appreciate it. Making these choices in a vacuum can be tough.
I’m beginning to lean towards Tome Range+1 purely because it will make enemy Sages REALLY stand out. I’d like the hack to be more “player phase focused” so this would make enemy phasing Sages super rough.
Unfortunately though, I’m not exactly a wizard at FEBuilder and the the skill system, so I’m not sure how to exactly configure Geomancy or Bold Fighter. I do like the ideas though, and the closest I have to Bold Fighter is Darting Blow. I may go with that. Savage Blow is another one I’ve been considering for Marshall though, since sending them in to deal the first hit will likely still be a good tactic due to still having better defenses than most.
As for the full list… I mean, I can, but I’m unable post links or screenshots yet. On a side note, do you know when I should get the Member badge? I kinda primarily joined to submit something to the Repo, and I can’t do that still.
I can at least list the skills I tentatively plan on using already, either as class or personal skills:
Personal Skills:
Anathema - Lord
Rally Speed - “Jeigan”
Savior - Early game Cav
Staff Savant - Early game Cleric
Charge - Axe Cav dude
Seal Defense (reduced from -6 to -4) - Early game Archer
Charisma - Lance Armor dude
Resolve - Axe bro
Acrobat - Thief boy
Provoke - Dark magic user
Class Skills:
Killing Machine - Berserker (though I’m considering Fury as well atm)
Sturdy Stance - Champion (bulky Hero, basically)
Frenzy - Warrior
Expertise (or something similar) - Great Knight
Drive/Spur Resistance - Grand Magus (Different Shaman promo, similar to Druid but with all magic types)
Lifetaker (VERY tentative) - Dark Rider (basically vanilla FE8 Mage Knight but replace Anima with Dark)
Holy Aura - Paladin (vanilla FE8 Paladin + Light magic)
Warding Blow - Cult Knight (Axe, Dark Magic, and mount. I’d like for them to be a good mage killer)
Wary Fighter - General
Skybreaker - Dragoon (promoted Soldier w/ 7 Mov and Lance-locked)
Crit +15 or Critical Force - Swordmaster
Tomebreaker (decreased the buff values from 50 to 30) - Dread Fighter (Sword and Dark magic)
Triangle Adept - Hero (added Lances)
Amaterasu - Bishop
Arcane Blade - Battle Sage (Sword, Anima, Staffs)
Poison Touch - Assassin
Breath of Life - Falcon Knight
Nullify - Griffon Knight (semi-fragile, flying Bow and Lance users)
Bow Range+1 - Sniper
Canto+ - Ranger/Nomad Trooper
Malefic Aura - can’t decide who/which class to give this to yet, but I feel like I want it somewhere
Sorry for all the reading. Just trying to be thorough and clear.