How good would Roy be if he could promote with a Hero Crest?

[Jotari]

In the modern games they seem to have done away with plot based promotions for Lords. While something might be lost in terms of plot, this is obviously more advantageous in terms of gameplay. Which makes me wonder, if it was the way things were always done, how would much better would Roy fair if he could promote at leisure? Would he still be considered one of the weaker lords in the series or would it be a massive boon for him do you think? He generally does pretty well when promoted at the end of the game but a lot of that is down to how crazy good the Sword of Seals is as a weapon. I'd love to play a hack where Roy could promote like standard units. Doesn't seem like it'd be too difficult to implement at all.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Jotari

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Well he would still be sword locked and not have the +30 crit that the swordmasters have. Choosing who gets the first hero crest is a tough call indeed. Rapier would get him to a good level with low difficulty/babying compared to the other swordies.  I think in terms of GBA lord rankings, he'd soar past Eliwood, Eirika, and Lyn by not having the plot based promotion. Eliwood still has mount and javelins, but precious few enemies for he and the other FE7 lords to reach a good level off of. Eirika's viability comparison is tricky. Her promotion would be later, but her ultimate weapon is sooner. She takes a -2 AS when wielding it while roy has no penalty with the binding blade. Her excellent speed makes this a non issue, however. Roy's stats would generally beat her, but the lack of mount and movement may lead one to still prefer Eirika overall, even if she's relatively much lower tier in her own game.

[Jedi]

He would have the same issues, because Rutger and Dieck exist. He'd be like a worse Oujay.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Jedi

[General Horace]

Nah, he'd be better than Oujay, Oujay's bases are like, really bad.  However, being better than Oujay isn't exactly an accomplishment in itself.  He'd similar to Echidna trading some speed, skill and axes for a bit of extra bulk.

[Jedi]

7 minutes ago, General Horace said:

Nah, he'd be better than Oujay, Oujay's bases are like, really bad.  However, being better than Oujay isn't exactly an accomplishment in itself.  He'd similar to Echidna trading some speed, skill and axes for a bit of extra bulk.

It's just I don't think Roy would promote if he had to via crest I guess, I overstated it with the Oujay example.

[Magical Glace]

It'd remove his old problem, but it'd bring a new one in that he'd be competing for resources.

Promotion items are pretty scarce in 6 prior to Chapter 16, so that's kinda suck.

[Refa]

1) Give Roy better base stats.  Nothing crazy but even +2 in everything would be really good

2) Make the Rapier a lot better.  Helps carve out a niche if he has this really accurate and powerful anti horse/armor weapon.  Also make it work on all horses.

3) Make his promotion item unique to him, and have it appear before he goes off to the Western Isles.

I think any of these alone would improve Roy a lot more than letting him promote via a Hero Crest would.

[ping]

2 hours ago, Jedi said:

It's just I don't think Roy would promote if he had to via crest I guess, I overstated it with the Oujay example.

Well, the second Hero Crest isn't nearly as contested as the first one. Deke, Gonzo and Fir can all do fine with a promotion (Deke being the strongest choice, of course), but right now it's at least as viable to just sell it for an addiotional pair of boots. I suspect that promoting Roy would fall in the same category - he'd do worse than Deke and HM!Fir, but since he's forced anyway, you might as well promote him. Even the +4 HP, +2 Def and +5 Res alone would make it easier to get him to the thrones.

€: Honestly, just moving his story promotion to after chapter 16 or 16x would be absolutely fine, maybe combined with one of the earlygame buffs Refa suggested.

Edited March 28, 2017 by ping

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Refa said:

1) Give Roy better base stats.  Nothing crazy but even +2 in everything would be really good

2) Make the Rapier a lot better.  Helps carve out a niche if he has this really accurate and powerful anti horse/armor weapon.  Also make it work on all horses.

3) Make his promotion item unique to him, and have it appear before he goes off to the Western Isles.

I think any of these alone would improve Roy a lot more than letting him promote via a Hero Crest would.

So would giving him an 60% defense growth and a horse but we're not really talking about making Roy better in general. We're talking about how his role in the game would change if his promotion was like every other unit. Chapter 9 would also be way too early to give him his unique promotion item. You barely have like two normal promotion items at that point, having your lord get his and you might as well just give it to him at the start of the game or make him a single tier unit. After liberating Etruria would be much more appropriate time.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Jotari

[Refa]

Like people have already said, it'd be a nice gesture but mostly irrelevant.  Chapter 9 may be too early, didn't really put much thought into the specific chapter itself.