I have posted a question about playable Brigands and to make them stick out compared to their other counterparts, and one of the replies said that Brigands (and to an extent Pirates) are just thematic reskins of the fighter archetype which made me think.
Should I abandon the concept altogether? Or should I break the archetype?
I’ve already stuck to the idea of the axe units on my hack which I will be working on in the near future, (Fighters hit hard and can take a beating but they can’t double reliably, Pirates are glass cannons that can consistently double with a fair degree of accuracy but suffer from piss poor defense, Brigands are balanced and they get a 1.5x avoid bonus on Forests, Mountains, Peaks and other rough terrain found outdoors) and I was thinking if these were good enough or if they needed work so I thought about asking you guys instead since all of you have far more experience in Fire Emblem than me.
And while I’m here I might as well throw out another question.
What’s a good promotion for a Brigand, more specifically my Idea on the Brigand?
The stuff you’ve outlined is stuff that could be done through varying stats with individual units and just giving them more unique battle sprites or mugs. Brigands getting increased terrain bonuses is a fun idea, if maybe a little broken, since Peaks already give 40 avoid, unless you’re planning on nerfing those.
I’d even consider giving Brigands near-unhindered movement across mountains so they act almost like fliers, but don’t have the bow weakness, and likewise for pirates, maybe?
Both the movement and the multiplier seem unneeded. 40 avo is a lot and enough, fliers don’t get that bonus. They also suffer the least weight penalty. You can explore whatever classes you can sprite yourself pretty much. Lol. No shame. I would go with a Berserker and a new class that allows him to use swords but without the crit bonus.
Fighters are slow and durable so they go warrios
Pirates are glass cannons so they go berzerkers
Brigands are a mix so they go …
My ideas: Chieftain infantry class. Only axes and they can cross any land terrain in 1mv, mountains take 2. Max stats are a middle of Warriors/Zerkers and a little lower so they can’t be a jack of all trades.
Or a Marauder. Mounted horse unit with axes. High Str/Spd/Def, low everything else. Able to traverse forests, hills and rivers without issues. Mountains take alot of movement
Considering IntSys shakes up stat lines for traditional classes semi often, don’t feel constrained by precedent. It’s your hack and you can do whatever. As for a promotion, I think Berserker works well for Brigands. Pirates could use the Dart Zerker anim instead ig if it needs to be unique.
But I would prefer a suggestion for a new class since I planned for the base ROM to be FE8 with it’s branching skill tree and generally more diverse options for an absolute beginner like me.
I can’t really think of anything that has an existing battle animation that’d be suitable as an alternate Brigand promo. The mounted Brigand works but not necessarily for what you’re planning with terrain. Although that’s mostly me thinking horses on Peak terrain is unusual.
