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WhamBamSam
2012-11-20, 08:35 PM
Herein are the rules for my system of Fire Emblem pbp games. While most FE games on these forums base their mechanics on those of either FE6-8 or on FE9-10, I have a preference for the mechanics used in FE5, and made my own version of the rules to reflect that. Any comments or questions about the overall design are welcome.

The calculations used in FE5 can be found here (http://serenesforest.net/fe5/calculation.html). These are the calculations used in this system except as noted below.

The maximum hit rate is 100, not 99, and the minimum hit rate is 0, not 1.
Crit evade is equal to Luck, not Luck/2.
Support bonuses work as in the GBA games (http://serenesforest.net/fe8/support.htm). When two characters stand next to one another they gain support points equal to the number of bonuses their affinities have in common.
For the purposes of earning combat exp, all unpromoted classes which cannot use any combat weapon have class power of 1, all unpromoted classes which can only use bows have a class power of 2, all other unpromoted classes have a class power of 3, and all promoted classes have a class power of 4.
There is no fatigue system.


Also note that Serenes Forest refers to Con as Bld.

Character Creation
When creating your character, you get 45 Stat Points, 70 Growth points, and 15 Promotion points. You may take up to 5 Jeigan or Nino levels at character creation. Each Jeigan level reduces your growth points by 2, while each Nino level increases your growth points by 2. If you take three or more Jeigan levels, your character gains one leadership star.

Stat Points determine your character's base stats in HP, Str, Mag, Skl, Spd, Luck, Def, and Con (Note that Mag serves as both magical power and resistance). You may spend from 0-10 points in a given stat apart from Con, on which you may spend from 4-10 points. Additionally you may spend up to 5 points on your Pursuit Critical coefficient.
Your base HP is equal to 10+2n where n is the number of Stat Points spent on HP.
Your base value in each other stat is equal to the number of points spent on that stat.
Your pursuit critical coefficient (PCC) is equal to the number of points spent on it.

Growth Points determine your character's growth rates when leveling up. You may spend from 2-12 points on a given stat.
Each point spent on HP increases the growth rate by 10%.
Each point spent on Str, Mag, Skl, Spd, Luck, Def, or Con increases the growth rate by 5%.
Each point spent on Move increases the growth rate by 1%.
If a growth rate exceeds 100%, then the unit will gain either 1 or 2 points when leveling up. The chance of gaining 2 points is equal to (Growth Rate)-100%.

Promotion Points determine your character's stat bonuses when they change class. Each point can be used to give a +1 bonus to Str, Mag, Skl, Spd, Def, or Con. You can spend up to 6 points each on Str, Mag, Skl, Spd, and Def, and can spend up to 3 points on Con.

All units have a base movement of 5 and gain +1 Move upon promotion.

You may also add any of the following templates to your character.

Lord
All growth rates are increased by 5% except for Con and Move. You gain one leadership star at character creation and an additional leadership star upon promotion.

Mounted
Your character is mounted on a horse, pegasus, or wyvern. You may dismount or mount your steed as an attack-equivalent action. You must be dismounted while indoors. You gain Move +2 while mounted, but suffer Str -2, Mag -2, Skl -2, Spd -2, Def -2, and Move -1 when dismounted.

Magic User
You must choose this option in order to have proficiency in any form of magic or staves before promotion. Your HP growth is reduced by 20% to a minimum of 20% and your Def growth is reduced by 10% to a minimum of 10%.

Thief
You gain the Steal skill and may choose one of the following skills upon promotion: Any martial skill, Ambush, Bargain, Charisma, or Dance. You receive a lockpick included in your starting gear. Your base Con is reduced by 3 and your Con growth is reduced by 25% to a minimum of 10%. You may not take this template in addition to the Magic User template at character creation.

Magic Thief
Your Mag growth is reduced by 15% to a minimum of 10%. You can use Lockpicks and (if you have at least an E rank in staves) the Thief and Unlock staves. You must take the Magic User template in order to take this template.

Armored
You gain +2 base Def and +10% Def growth. Your Move is reduced by 1 and your movement growth is reduced by 3% to a minimum of 2%. You gain the Armored movement type unless you are mounted.

Next, choose weapon proficiencies for your character. A character is generally proficient in only one weapon before promotion. Those starting with staves get a C level proficiency. All others get a D level proficiency in their chosen weapon type. If your character has the Magic User template, you may choose instead to begin with E ranks in each of the three branches of Anima magic.

Upon promotion, a character gains 50 WEXP in their starting weapon type and gains additional weapon proficiencies. You may choose to either gain a D rank proficiency in one new weapon type, or E rank proficiencies in two new weapon types, or E rank proficiencies in each of the three branches of Anima magic. Note that the new proficiencies may be magical even if the character does not have the Magic User template.

An individual branch of Anima magic counts as a weapon type in its own right. For instance, a Magic user could start out with Wind D and no proficiency in Fire or Thunder.

Finally, choose your character's affinity for support bonuses. As noted above, supports work as in the GBA games.

All Stats cap at 25 except for HP which caps at 80.

With the exception of thieves, characters do not gain skills naturally. The GM should make skill scrolls available as is appropriate to the game in question. The list of skills from FE5 should serve as a reasonable baseline from which to work. Similarly, the lists of weapons that Serenes provides for FE5 should work in most cases, but some changes may be necessary (ie, the Hero Lance probably doesn't need +10 Luck given that it's no longer a prf weapon for Fin, and you'll want E rank tomes for Wind, Light, and Dark) and setting specific weapons are encouraged.

Acanous
2012-11-20, 08:58 PM
For Character Creation, is there anything to know about Weapon Type selection? there's mention of Bow characters having a change in the XP value section, but no change listed in Character Creation.

I assume you get one weapon choice to start with. Do Bow users get a change like Magic users or Thief characters?

Illven
2012-11-20, 09:05 PM
It seems magic users get hosed in this game, Magic kinda seems like an afterthought, and they don't get to use Build to offset weapon weight

Acanous
2012-11-20, 09:26 PM
It's not that bad for mages, actually. The 6 point loss looks harsh, but then you remember that MAG is also RES in this system- you only have 4 stats to worry about (HP, Skill, MAG, SPD)
It'll have to see play in order to be accurately measured, but it seems to me you get more starting points and an equal ammount of growths for your troubles.

Illven
2012-11-20, 09:41 PM
It's not that bad for mages, actually. The 6 point loss looks harsh, but then you remember that MAG is also RES in this system- you only have 4 stats to worry about (HP, Skill, MAG, SPD)
It'll have to see play in order to be accurately measured, but it seems to me you get more starting points and an equal ammount of growths for your troubles.

Well yeah, but Mages still have to worry about defense, and have to deal with all of their weapon weight being taken out of their speed.

WhamBamSam
2012-11-20, 09:45 PM
For Character Creation, is there anything to know about Weapon Type selection? there's mention of Bow characters having a change in the XP value section, but no change listed in Character Creation.

I assume you get one weapon choice to start with. Do Bow users get a change like Magic users or Thief characters?Bow users only have a change in how much exp they earn in combat. The information on weapon choice is under the list of templates in the character creation section.


It seems magic users get hosed in this game, Magic kinda seems like an afterthought, and they don't get to use Build to offset weapon weightAs Acanous pointed out Magic Users are less MAD due to Mag and Res being one and the same. Also, Gates and Thrones boost Def by a lot, but don't offer any protection against magic apart from the Avd boost. Truth be told, I'm not totally sure whether the magic rules are balanced as I've written them, but the most useful unit for much of the game in FE5 is a mage, so take that for what it's worth. The penalties to HP and Def growths for magic users are to keep them from using their relative SADness to throw extra points into HP and Def and outtank the martial units.

Also staves are godly at high weapon ranks due to the fact that ranged staves can reach anywhere on the map.

Illven
2012-11-20, 10:02 PM
Bow users only have a change in how much exp they earn in combat. The information on weapon choice is under the list of templates in the character creation section.

As Acanous pointed out Magic Users are less MAD due to Mag and Res being one and the same. Also, Gates and Thrones boost Def by a lot, but don't offer any protection against magic apart from the Avd boost. Truth be told, I'm not totally sure whether the magic rules are balanced as I've written them, but the most useful unit for much of the game in FE5 is a mage, so take that for what it's worth. The penalties to HP and Def growths for magic users are to keep them from using their relative SADness to throw extra points into HP and Def and outtank the martial units.

Also staves are godly at high weapon ranks due to the fact that ranged staves can reach anywhere on the map.

Okay, if I decide to play a mage if you decide to start a game, I'll give it a try.

Water_and_Wind
2012-11-20, 10:02 PM
I love FE5. So many things that never made it into the later games, and lots of things that did too. Also a game that will make you fear and respect staves. Is capturing in this system?

EDIT: if anyone doubts the power of magic notice that the long range wind tome inflicts sleep as well as damage. And sleep lasts forever until cured.

WhamBamSam
2012-11-20, 11:28 PM
I love FE5. So many things that never made it into the later games, and lots of things that did too. Also a game that will make you fear and respect staves. Is capturing in this system?

EDIT: if anyone doubts the power of magic notice that the long range wind tome inflicts sleep as well as damage. And sleep lasts forever until cured.Yes, capturing is absolutely in this system.

Yeah, Wind magic in general is pretty good. Taking Fire D or Thunder D as the initial weapon choice might be a little subpar, but I think most mage builds will be fine.

Water_and_Wind
2012-11-21, 06:40 AM
I guess I should mention some of the quirks in this game that you might have glanced over from the serenes forest page, because yes this game is quirky. Other Fire Emblems cannot adequately prepare you for the changes this game makes:

-PCC is a multiplier to your second attack's critical rate when you double attack. Why yes, with a PCC of 5 and a killing weapon, you will crit on the second attack. Probably the most important stat in the game, and its a hidden stat...

-Leadership stars provide a bonus to hit and evade to all units in the same faction. It's a small bonus, but all leadership stars between multiple units from the same faction stack. You will learn this the hard way in the game.

-Movement growth rates. Not really enough to make a difference, but certainly unique.

-Staves can miss, and double, albeit with different formulas than usual. Not just your offensive staves, even your healing staves can spontaneously fail, in a first and last for Fire Emblem. Gives a reason to invest in skill for a staffbot.

-Offensive staves are ridiculously awesome. Well, it depends on what the GM provides, but they have infinite range and status effects have infinite duration, until cured.

-The combined magic/res means that holy water buffs mages' attack as well as magic defense. That +7 attack is nothing to laugh at.

-This bears repeating, mounted units and flyers cannot ride inside buildings and must first dismount, with the associated penalties. This actually makes a lot of sense, and balances out mounted unit's high movement in outdoors maps.

-Thieves can steal any weapon or item from an enemy, as long as their con exceeds the weapon's weight and their speed is higher than the enemy. They can even steal equipped weapons, disarming them and setting them up to be captured effortlessly by your allies! Needless to say Con is very important for thieves.

-Vulneraries are elixirs, they can heal all HP.

And that's not even going into capturing, the main mechanic that separates FE5 from the rest.

WhamBamSam
2012-11-21, 10:08 AM
I guess I should mention some of the quirks in this game that you might have glanced over from the serenes forest page, because yes this game is quirky. Other Fire Emblems cannot adequately prepare you for the changes this game makes:Thanks for writing all this out. I probably should have mentioned a lot of these things somewhere in the OP, but didn't because laziness. I'll just add a few additional comments on a few things.


-PCC is a multiplier to your second attack's critical rate when you double attack. Why yes, with a PCC of 5 and a killing weapon, you will crit on the second attack. Probably the most important stat in the game, and its a hidden stat...I'd say that taking the full 5 when building a character is probably overkill in most cases. I would probably invest 3-4 points on it. Even though I've raised Crit Evade to be equal to the full Luck stat, I'd still expect to hit 100% crit on the pursuit attack a lot of the time by mid to late levels.

On the subject of crits. I should point out that they double attack power rather than tripling damage. This means that you can use crits to get through high defenses.


-This bears repeating, mounted units and flyers cannot ride inside buildings and must first dismount, with the associated penalties. This actually makes a lot of sense, and balances out mounted unit's high movement in outdoors maps.It also balances out the advantages in capturing that mounted units enjoy.


-Thieves can steal any weapon or item from an enemy, as long as their con exceeds the weapon's weight and their speed is higher than the enemy. They can even steal equipped weapons, disarming them and setting them up to be captured effortlessly by your allies! Needless to say Con is very important for thieves.This is the reason for the Con penalties on the Thief template. Still, a thief can have a base Con of 7, a 35% growth, and +3 Con on promotion, which will have them stealing just about anything they like by the late game.


And that's not even going into capturing, the main mechanic that separates FE5 from the rest.One thing I will say about capturing is that it comes at the expense of enemies just dropping things when they die. You want an item or weapon? Capture an enemy and take it from them or have your thief steal it.

Penguinator
2012-11-21, 11:21 AM
As Acanous pointed out Magic Users are less MAD due to Mag and Res being one and the same.

It's the first Pokemon games all over again! :smalltongue:

Are there going to be recruits we have to capture to recruit?

Water_and_Wind
2012-11-22, 06:12 AM
It's the first Pokemon games all over again! :smalltongue:

Are there going to be recruits we have to capture to recruit?

In FE5, there are. Although there are also other... creative... hoops you have to go through to recruit certain units.

Penguinator
2012-11-22, 01:26 PM
In FE5, there are. Although there are also other... creative... hoops you have to go through to recruit certain units.

I know there are, that's why I ask. Although, in a scan through serenes forest, it looks like they don't have anyone recruited through arena use, like FE4 did.

WhamBamSam
2012-11-23, 11:52 PM
Are there going to be recruits we have to capture to recruit?Maybe. It'll depend in part on how the person being recruited feels about it. Of course, the only way to find out for sure how the game will be run is to play it for yourself. Which you will all soon be able to do, as I've finally finished writing up the setting background and posted the recruitment thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=14272514#post14272514).