I would like to preface this by saying what I’m about to describe is largely from a theory standpoint and does not take into account the practical concerns of implementing the necessary animation assets. It also assumes that not every class a base rank of E in all its normally usable weapon types.
One of the biggest complaints I hear about reclassing systems in FE is the loss in multiple cases (e.g. going from a lance-locked class to a sword-locked class) of access to a character’s primary weapon type, forcing them to grind their new Weapon Ranks all the way from the bottom. However, tinkering around with @Vesly’s GBAFE self-randomizers has presented me with a possible idea for how this could be gotten around.
In Engage, every character is naturally proficient in a certain weapon type, which may give them a Rank Bonus when wielding that weapon type in certain classes. What if this was taken a step further so that natural proficiencies could be exploited even in classes without normal access to that weapon type?
As an example of an existing FE character being transplanted into such a system, let’s say that Amalda from Thracia 776 is innately proficient with both Swords and Staves, allowing her to use both of those weapon types even in classes that can’t normally wield them.
Rather than having A Ranks in Swords & Staves in all her classes though, she’d ideally have natural Weapon Ranks of B Swords and C Staves like in Thracia, which assuming gaps of 50 WEXP between each rank and vanilla Sacred Stones class Weapon Ranks, would result in her having:
- A Swords, D Lances, C Staves as a Paladin
- B Swords, C Axes, C Staves as a Berserker
- B Swords, C Anima, B Staves as a Mage Knight
- etc.
As an additional balancing measure, WEXP built up in weapon types in which the user is NOT naturally proficient wouldn’t carry over to other classes. So if Amalda gains any WEXP in Axes or Anima, it won’t carry over to non-Axe/Anima classes like her Sword and Staff WEXP would.
What do you guys think about this system?