Is it possible to make rad playable from the beginning?

[Timbo]

I think I know how to edit the ENTD to pull this off, but I want to know, will it mess anything up to replace one of the six starting characters with a guest version of Rad.  I want to make him sort of usable enough to gain some jp from the beginning of the game, to encourage the players to actually use him once they unlock him in chapter 2.  Also, I cannot remember do Guest JPs carry over to their Permanent counterparts.  If not, then there is no point in giving rad a slightly bigger part in all of this.

[philsov]

just have him with you at the start as a real unit and don't bother having him join up at the start of chapter 2?

[Timbo]

Well, I thought about that, but then, what if the player dismisses him or lets him die before chapter 2?  It would be kind of weird having him show up again.  You know what, its a terrible idea.  It either muddies the games plot or remains useless.  I seem to remember getting rafa with a boat load of JP to spend, but everything I know about the game says that guest characters are totally unrelated to their permanent  counterparts.

You, know I was thinking about how lousy the idea was as I was typing it.  Poking holes in it and all, but it didn't fully sink in until afterward.  I mean, honestly if we did get a guest version of Rad in the first chapter, its not like he could be used to fight random battles.  So, I'm perfectly fine with leaving him be.  I'll just start him out with more jp.

Thanks anyway.

[Donkeyton]

Probably not worth the trouble. I mean, he's not a special type of character of anything. He's basically just a generic who happens to be featured in a scene or two.

If what you're really looking for is Rad to join you with lots of JP or jobs unlocked, you can do that via ENTD editing. Make his base class whatever you want, but the key is making the "Job Unlocked" class whatever job you want him to have unlocked. So if you choose Dragoon for Job Unlocked, he'll have at least some JP to spend in every job leading up to Dragoon, and including Dragoon. If you select Ninja, same thing -- only with more jobs unlocked, obviously. And so on and so forth.

I tend to do this for all the specials who join me throughout the game, just because grinding them up to par with the existing party can be a pain in the ass. I tend to have "Job Unlocked" for all joinable characters set to whatever jobs are typically unlocked by the time I get those characters. Also, I tend to set their levels to "Party Level - Random," rather than a fixed number. It makes their catching up to the group much simpler and less of a headache.

[Timbo]

I've been playing around with the ENTD over the last couple days.  I think I know how to do that.  Like I said before though, I don't really know what the hell I was thinking.  It's such a complicated attempt to convince my players to keep him, it would be easier to just make him "better".

[Donkeyton]

Exactly. Because he's just a generic, there's going to come a point in the game where your players -- even in the offchance that they have been using him -- will not want to use him any longer. He just can't stack up to a special character. So either make him special/unique, or just do whatever you can to make sure he's up to speed when he joins in Chapter 2. But unless you make him special, don't spend too much time playing around with him. He's going to be ignored sooner or later by your players.