How big should an FE roster be?

[Interdimensional Observer]

43 minutes ago, ping said:

Stefan who practically has zero opportunity to shine before the groups merge, at which point he's probably not the greatest option for a sword wielder in the tower climb.

Actually, he is pretty darn amazing. No natural skills other than Astra, but that is no big deal.

HP 53

Str 27

Mag 7

Skl 37

Spd 36

Lck 20

Def 21

Res 16

All he really needs is to proc three Spd to double Auras without White Pool, which he gets 4 fights to get. And you can use whatever remaining BEXP you have left, which with a 60% Spd growth being tied for his highest with Skl, he is good for getting. He is 2 below the HP cap, 5 in Str and Def (which he'll both cap on average), and 8 in Res (he ends up 2 below here). His growths are very good, with only Mag and Lck (which this time he starts with plenty of) being bad, and once HP is capped it makes BEXP is as good as normal levelups for him.

You get 2 SS swords, Ike is stuck with his own weapon, Makalov, Renning and Meg have sub-34 Spd, and Elincia has Amiti, leaving only Mist and the other Trueblades to compete for optimal use of the SS swords. And since Stefan starts so strong, you might as well only raise one Trueblade if you have better things to put your EXP in, since one of the SS sword comes with Stefan and he needs very little investment.

You could do worse, like Bastian or Oliver- now they are the bad Part 4 units- 20 base Spd Oliver? Really? Bastian is only 4 faster.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Interdimensional Observer

[ping]

20 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Actually, he is pretty darn amazing.

Well, I tend to go with Zihark (or, occasionally, Eddie) and Mia. ;) I find that he's pretty much like FE6!Karel - perfectly viable unit, but since the number of characters for the final chapter(s) is limited, I tend to not use them.

But hey, you're rather strengthening my point that RD doesn't have that many superfluous units despite its giant roster. ;)

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, ping said:

But hey, you're rather strengthening my point that RD doesn't have that many superfluous units despite its giant roster. ;)

Well in that case, if I could invent a good word for Oliver and Bastian, it is that they aren't functionally that much inferior to their magical counterparts.

Neither is doubling Dheg, much less Auras. However, only Sanaki with massive Str blessings to avoid Rexflame AS loss, and Calill (who must be trained up) and Tormod (need I say anything his badness outside of P1?) can double Dheg or the Auras.

What the other magical units will be doing in the Tower is maybe doubling the slow stuff in the first two fights, doubling everything like everyone else in the next. However with Cover and near maxed HP and Def, Red Dragons and Dheg are off limits to being directly attacked by magical units. However, the siege tomes can fix this and aren't terribly weaker than SS weapons, and only mages can do this, so you might as well bless sieges instead of any Rex but Flame (unless L plans to borrow a tome to smack Ashera Ketchum). For the last two fights, Saints/Ily/Pel can't double anything, but Soren and Mic can double Thunder Spirits optimally, San, Cal and Tor can handle under optimal conditions everything.

Bastian has Oliver beat as a combatant, averaging a near-capped 38 Mag and access to Thunder for the Dragons (but you'd need to steal a Bolting then- no easy feat). But Oliver can use Fortify and Bastian is stuck with Physics, so he is a better healer (although Oliver needs an Arms Scroll to hit S- which shouldn't be too big an issue). Micaiah gets auto S Staffs on promotion, but Oliver's base stats are in practice not really much worse than Miccy's 20/20/1 stats.

Spoiler

36.2

15.7

32

25

23.3

40

17.6

32

 

48

22

31

22

20

28

18

32

 

Both are slow no matter what, and Miccy has only 1 Magic more, assuming you dedicated the effort to get her to 20/20. Oliver can Fortify just as well as her coming just into the Tower. Training her in the Tower/dumping BEXP into her is a cost comparable or worse than the Arms Scroll.

Oliver's non-Mic Fortify competition are Laura and Rhys, chores to raise, Mist isn't that durable or strong (25 Str cap as Valkyrie), if potentially better than Oliver or the other Saints. And Elincia to be more than a Staffbot and actually fight well with Amiti, needs to be fed EXP in 4-2 and 4-5, because her bases are poor for being 3rd Tier and her amazing growths need to kick in.

I rest my case. Oliver is as good a healbot as any, and he and Bastian only lose notably to fully trained Fire Archsages, Sanaki, and Elincia.

[Bhoop]

I'd say supports come first---then the characters. It also depends on how long the game is + the type of chapters we are on + the type of story.

In my personal opinion, a Fire Emblem with around 25 chapters with difficult maps (no just throwing units at the enemy + not able to warp skip) should have a cast around 30ish. 20 of them being the main guys you would use, the other 10 being filler/replacements if you lost some of the first 20 units, kind of like what happens in FE11 when you lose too many units. 

[Acacia Sgt]

Over 100 like in a console SRW game.

I think like around 40 can be alright, specially if FE games stick to mid-20's for average chapter length

Edited April 6, 2018 by Acacia Sgt

[LucarioGamer812]

I say 40 or so. Variety of classes but also hopefully enough room for some to be developed. I don't want fates size with like 60 characters and a little smaller than awakenings cast. While I love that games cast, having a smaller cast means more development and chances for more characters to be relevant throughout the entire game. I think the radiant games did somewhat a good job of this, my example being the Greil Mercenaries.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Bhoop said:

In my personal opinion, a Fire Emblem with around 25 chapters with difficult maps (no just throwing units at the enemy + not able to warp skip) should have a cast around 30ish. 20 of them being the main guys you would use, the other 10 being filler/replacements if you lost some of the first 20 units, kind of like what happens in FE11 when you lose too many units. 

I disagree for reasons mentioned already (not enough options as a safeguard in case units start getting RNG screwed, potential variety issues).

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Depends on the number of chapters, but also quality > quantity applies.

I don't need like a half unusable cast as FE11 offers.