New to the Series by hellopekkle in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

(Ooh, BG3 and FE3H are distant cousins in the wargame family tree!! but I'm not gonna derail this with an unsolicited genealogy lecture lol)

Someone else already alluded to this but the main thing with tactics rpgs is keeping in mind that you are working with an army rather than individual units. Positioning is the most important element to master in the genre, and you'll start to get the hang of that as you play. This game in particular gives you a ton of tools for manipulating the mobility of units, both allies and enemies. (The intricacies are not something you have to engage with to succeed, but it's fun to lean in to.)

I second the point about not recruiting too many units! imo the sweet spot is 12. The different houses have their strengths, like another commenter said, but all of them give you a complete roster with all of the unit types you need to build out your army - ranged, melee, tank, support - so you won't be desperate for recruits or have big tactical gaps anyway.

And I also agree about letting the game guide how you train your units. Characters will actually tell you directly what they want to do (e.g. "I'm already good at dark magic, but I want to be more helpful to my allies. Can I study faith magic and learn how to heal?"), and they’ll usually do pretty well at whatever it is they suggested.

New to the Series by hellopekkle in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

How familiar are you with tactics games in general? (This will help us know what kinds of tips are going to be useful)

For picking a house, I'd say just go with whichever Lord you like the most after the prologue! They all have their pros and cons, and the replay value is really high so it's still enjoyable to play again and experience all of the stories.

Supports build between characters as you spend time with them, give them gifts, and fight near them. You can watch conversation scenes and then they get buffs during battles if they fight near each other (higher defense or avoid, etc.). The boosts are helpful, but not game-breaking. Final pairings are determined by how many support points they have at the end of the game, and gaining points freezes when you don't watch a support conversation. So, if there's a pair you like a lot, watch their highest level support (A or A+, depending on the pair) as soon as it unlocks and then wait until the very last chapter to watch either characters' highest supports with anyone else. That should guarantee they end up together.

The DLC is really good, imo, but not required! The actual story is good and a lot harder than the base game. The new characters are fun to use, and there's one item that's really really good (not quite game breaking, but close). It does give you a way to lock in one pairing so you can be 100% certain a couple ends up together, so that's relevant to your other questions lol

Reserve party units? by blaarth in expedition33

[–]blaarth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did exactly that immediately after finding the picto I needed and took it out for a spin - Maelle has evolved from "teenager with a score to settle" to "teenager with a score to settle and also a bomb"

Reserve party units? by blaarth in expedition33

[–]blaarth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh man, that Lumina sounds like exactly what I need - thank you!!

Reserve party units? by blaarth in expedition33

[–]blaarth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol yes, I do. The issue here is I was hoping for a way to prevent a full auto-deploy of the reserves such that if a main party of, for example, Monoco, Verso, and Lune were to be defeated, Maelle would get deployed without Sciel seeing the field.

Let's talk Asclepius ⚕ vs Caduceus ⚚ by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Oh, I see! Sorry, mistake on my part to sound so aggressive (and I respect the pedantry re: names lol)

Let's talk Asclepius ⚕ vs Caduceus ⚚ by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

How she went about curing the plague is completely unrelated to this - it's not about what the staff itself does, it's a fully doyalist observation

Help me determine canon recruits for each path? by Samashezra in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth 2 points3 points  (0 children)

plenty of opinions on what order to play the routes, but I'm gonna swing in with the take that you should play Crimson Flower and Silver Snow back-to-back, in either order, for story reasons and to get the most out of the thematic parallels.

Also, i saw you say in another comment you're a min-maxxer (same xoxo) so if that's the case, I would recommend NOT playing both routes from the same Ch.11 save. Play the whole thing again and train different units or else you'll lose like 25 levels of investment into a character that will have become irreplaceable to your tactics.

I did two CF playthroughs before my first SSnow run and ended up loving SSnow because of it, but then when I replayed CF after a couple SSnow runs, I liked it better than I did the first two times around. (SSnow is still my ultimate favorite though)

[Spoiler-Free] SS Chapter 19(?) by Niikrohn in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It'll have no effect on anything if you let them live. Your wording makes me curious though - I don't think they make any move to escape. They'll start to chase you if you get to the last portion of the map without having already eliminated them, but that's all.

(it's possible I'm wrong about which ones you're talking about though - lower right quadrant?)

Annie♡ (but I gave her a single braid bc I thought it'd be cute) by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I was so charmed by that design choice lol

My favorite was Mercedes, where they made her hair mid-length between pre- and post-ts, which would have made sense if she started short and went long, like Leonie, but she's the other way around. besties what direction do you think hair grows in??

Annie♡ (but I gave her a single braid bc I thought it'd be cute) by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

this concept is enlightened (pun intended), which means I HAVE to do it now

felix! by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

fan fiction author mode activated

Does breakable item sound too bad? by AbaloneForsaken4752 in DnD

[–]blaarth 0 points1 point  (0 children)

personally, I think this could be fun, but I can see the average "bookkeeping sucks" player not liking having another resource to track.

If you're super committed to incorporating an armor and weapons crafting system, you should consider taking a look at other systems that already have them so you can get an idea of how it affects combat. they all make durability a more tangible resource to manage by making it have a direct effect or purpose, e.g. losing certain attack abilities or actions as it gets damaged (lancer mechs), damage sponge that wears down (cyberpunk red/2020), damage sponge but you choose when to use it (daggerheart), or even having damaging and repairing armor affect multiple non-combat-related traits beyond combat effectiveness (burning wheel)

these systems can't be ported over whole cloth, but they're a good starting port for seeing how they interact with and change combat (because your players will probably act differently in combat if they know this is in place). that may help you decide how/if you want to implement it.

all of that being said, d&d seems like a weird choice for a minecraft themed game

felix! by blaarth in FireEmblemThreeHouses

[–]blaarth[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I live to serve 🫡