Defender

[DarthPaul]

im working on skills for this new class that wont attack but will have skills

not sure where its going but i wanted to give it always defend

a possibility of dual wielding shield "to double the armor class" 10 points to the first one to get that reference

also i am working on a custom sprite for it

any input or criticism excepted

*criticism expected*

[Zozma]

to have a glitch free character it would need to be either enemy only, or you have to have a way to disable counter and hamedo if its equipped. im pretty sure if they were to do any sort of weapon strike animation your going to have some bugs.

[Zuka]

well what is the max dex bonus allowed by each shield, and what should we expect the average dex of the class to be, I mean, I don't wanna equip a shield that's going to void my dex to AC, lol

I think it's a great idea, and i would give them basic white magic, basic time magic, and potentially some monk skills like chakra or revive, I mean, it strikes me as an almost strictly support, and I'm sure that's the intention, but I think it'd be cool to have innate non-charg or short charge and a list of beneficial spells that I mean, you could use on the enemy, but probably wouldn't want to.

I have to agree though in the department of certain counter attacking abilities you are very likely to find some glitching, unless you could somehow prevent the class from even equipping them, but I'm not sure how one would go about doing that.

[Skip Sandwich]

Easy way to prevent equiping reations is to have one ore more reactions set as innate abilities, since innate reactions will always overide set reactions.

[Zuka]

there you go, Skip has a brilliant idea there, perhaps equipping... I don't know, I think damage split would be cool, then again, it probably wouldn't be as suiting as auto-potion, or HP restore, or maybe even Vanish... yeah Vanish is a lot cooler... OO or you could use MA or A save, or even Speed save would be cooo

[Vanya]

How are you going to get it to equip 2 shields? That isn't normally allowed. ^_^

[gojoe]

or just make a sword have the shield graphic and take away the pa

[The Damned]

there you go, Skip has a brilliant idea there, perhaps equipping... I don't know, I think damage split would be cool, then again, it probably wouldn't be as suiting as auto-potion, or HP restore, or maybe even Vanish... yeah Vanish is a lot cooler... OO or you could use MA or A save, or even Speed save would be cooo

I'm going to have to disagree with all of those, especially "Vanish"/Sunken State because that one is especially ill-fitting. HP Restore and Damage Split are fitting but over powered. All the Save Reactions and Auto Potion are also ill-fitting IMO; it's hard to chug a potion when both your hands are full of bulky shields.

Personally, if Skip's suggestion is taken, then I would say that the class would probably benefit the most from Innate Arrow Guard given the description. They seem like the type of class to get picked off by an Archer, especially one with Concentrate and a Longbow.

Of course, this is all assuming that darthpaul takes Zozma's suggestion.

[Vanya]

or just make a sword have the shield graphic and take away the pa

Problem with that is that to my knowledge we haven't actually worked out how to change what battle graphic a weapon uses. All we ca do is change what they look like in a very general sense. So you can take a sword with x battle graphic and make it look like a shield, but it would affect all swords that use x battle graphic. Plus we have no way to change how the animation works. It would probably be easier to have a class of swords that simply have large guards & a bigger evade bonus like the Defender. ^_^

[Zuka]

there you go, Skip has a brilliant idea there, perhaps equipping... I don't know, I think damage split would be cool, then again, it probably wouldn't be as suiting as auto-potion, or HP restore, or maybe even Vanish... yeah Vanish is a lot cooler... OO or you could use MA or A save, or even Speed save would be cooo

I'm going to have to disagree with all of those, especially "Vanish"/Sunken State because that one is especially ill-fitting. HP Restore and Damage Split are fitting but over powered. All the Save Reactions and Auto Potion are also ill-fitting IMO; it's hard to chug a potion when both your hands are full of bulky shields.

Personally, if Skip's suggestion is taken, then I would say that the class would probably benefit the most from Innate Arrow Guard given the description. They seem like the type of class to get picked off by an Archer, especially one with Concentrate and a Longbow.

Of course, this is all assuming that darthpaul takes Zozma's suggestion.

Continuing to Muse, weapon guard would be cool if you did end up changing a weapon to a shield and stripping it's PA.

You could also make a category of weapons with high evasion and very low PA so as to stick with the never really attacking, by making it sort of a waste of a move to attack (Something like a Nagra-rock, hold the frog status)

Were you thinking of making this sort of a Magic Heavy class? I mean the Idea strikes me as someone who would probably use a little white magic, just a dash of time magic, and maybe even a couple non-magical support skills, I mean, really it seems to scream support class to me, and i would give them Cure 1+2, Protect, Shell and Raise (maaaaaybe Esuna) Then Haste (probably not quick but I like quick) Slow, maybe don't move, Then for non-magical I would use Heal, or Stigma Magic, and either Wish or Chakra, if he's going to have tons of HP then I'd use Wish, though I think it would also be interesting to give him an MP restorer that cannot target him, but only one of 4 adjacent allies, I'm not sure if you can do it with the built in formulas but it would be cool to make a sort of "MP Wish" I don't know, just some of my ideas...

[DarthPaul]

Okay I am loving the ideas here and have decided on low PA and some interesting tactics that work kinda like a defender is meant to be and I think I will go with innate arrow guard.  Now cause no one got the reference in my first post it was from Unforgotten Realms.  So as it stands I'm working on the sprite for this class and will continue to take idea's.

[Vanya]

I actually think the opposite of Zuka. The Defender has always been the least magical class in my mind. I'd rather think to give him similar abilities, but make them all physical skills with a CT or low hit%. Like if he can cure, it should only be himself & maybe surrounding units, but with CT. Same for the defense statuses. Instead of raise I'd say give him a self-reraise with low hit%. For slow & don't move (maybe stop too) I'd make them physical attacks with a chance to add those statuses.
And for a cool ability... Phalanx: +Defending to self & adjacent units.

You can also look at the FFTA/2 Defender for ideas. ^_^

[Helbrax]

I assumed it was some random D&D reference to the Ranger class getting the dual wield feat for free while wearing light armor, but I couldn't figure out the "double armor class" part.

As far as ideas go, I'd say a high HP stat would be a must, along with low PA and mediocre speed.  Innate arrow guard sounds good.  Are there going to be custom spells involved?  If so, a single-target, Golem like spell could be useful(if such a thing is possible.   I know nothing of FFT hacking) .
If using standard spells, the protect and shell line would work.  Wish would also be useful.

[DarthPaul]

Single target golem seems like a good idea if it was worked out just right.  Also this post was made before I started playing D&D, but I know nothing of rangers now anyway as I am a rogue with a longbow. High HP make sense along with low PA and mediocre speed so about that of a calculator/mathmetician.  Some custom spells will be used if not all of the skills being custom and as Vanya states they will all be brave based instead of magic.  Oh and Vanya that Phalanx is an excellent idea maybe causes guard and gives protect.

[Vanya]

I thought protect might be a little over-the-top, but if you like it go for it. The only thing about defending combos I never liked is that there doesn't seem to be a way to make a status last only one round like defending. So you'd end up with everyone keeping protect status after they stop defending. Maybe if we could make defending last as long as Protect that might work out better. It's up to you. ^_^

[DarthPaul]

You make a point maybe I will look into a better solution to this.

[Vanya]

If you find one let me know! ^_^

[DarthPaul]

Will do.