Making the NPC Classes into functioning character classes

[LastingDawn]

I was going through some old FAQs, and I think I found a project that seems pretty useful. It seems as if a lot of the characters were given classes (and a few of them job commands...) and were at one time supposed to be meant to be used in battle. So I will give my thoughts on a few of these characters. Starting with my favorite under rated High Priest, Marge Funeral...



DISCLAIMER: most of this is taken from Algus's NPC Classes guide and STobias's job ability chart (because my memory is stunted...)

High Priest
Br. 40 Fa. 90
Weapons: Knife, Staff, Rod, Stick, Dictionary, Harp
Helmet: Hat
Armor: Clothes, Robe

A messenger of God who has the highest authority in the
church. His words are powerful enough to alter the fate of a nation.

Move: 2
Jump: 3
Physical Evasion Rate: 0%
---------------------------------------------
God's Word
---------------------------------------------
       
                           
Convert      
Speak with enemies about the glory of St Ajora and talk them into joining the Church.
 JP: (Starts with it)               Range: 3, Vertical 3
                                          Effect: 1 enemy
                                          Add: Invitation*1

Berate      
A harsh lecture on honor and equality, shaming the enemy to wait for their CT to build back up.
         
  JP: 100              Resets the CT count.
                          Range: 3, Vertical 3
                          Effect: 1

Brave Story      
Fascinate the listener with tales of brave warriors and knights thus raising their confidence.

  JP: 200                    Raises Brave
                                 Range: 3, Vertical 3
                                 Effect: 1
 
Threaten      
Make the enemy shiver in fear about the wrath's and punishment's of God.            

   JP: 200  Lowers Brave
                Range: 3, Vertical 3
                Effect: 1

Preach          
Raise Faith by preaching the miracles and glories of God.

  JP: 200   Raises Faith
                Range: 3, Vertical 3
                Effect: 1

Cure 4 - Ultimate healing spell, with God's blessing renews all within it's range.

JP: 700        Range: 4
                   Effect: 2, Vertical 3
                   MP: 20  SP: 10

Reraise - Divine protection. Will raise the body back to life immediately after death.

JP: 800            Range: 3
                       Effect: 1
                       MP: 16  SP: 15
                       Add: Reraise

Holy - A focused wrath on one enemy unit. The power of God vindicates the enemy.        
JP: 600           Range: 5
                      Effect: 1
                       MP: 56  SP: 17
                      Holy elemental
                      Reflect, Calc
           
Mighty Prayer - Fill the minds of all with the unyeilding love of God.            
JP: 1200                Range: All                
                            Effect: All
                            MP: 45  SP: 25
                            Add: Faith*2



---------------------------------------------
Reaction Ability:                                                          
One Loyalty:    
Unwavering devotion to God protects against heathen beliefs.                                            
 JP:300      Trigger: word skills.
---------------------------------------------
Support Abilities:
Cup of Life (PSP Translation...)With the Power of Life overflowing within you, the refreshing breeze spreads to all allies.
JP: 200                Trigger: HP restore.



---------------------------------------------
Move Ability:
JP: 300 Walk on Water    Move or stop over the surface of the water.

JP: 400 Move-Get Exp    Gain Exp. as you move.                                          

JP: 360 Move-Get JP     Gain JP as you move.                                            
---------------------------------------------
Innate Skills: One Loyalty (Finger Guard) Face Up

Comments:The focus I was trying to reach was basing his abiilities off his job class. Which really makes him sound like a mediator. It's a shame that Funeral isn't given more spot light, and when we do see him, he's only a pathetic old man, scared for his life. Now I represent his frailty with the small amount of move and jump (probably will have a negligent amount of HP gain as well...) but this in turn should make his MP through the roof. Above average Magic Attack and superb Magic Defense (to offset his already high faith). The Walk on Water is obviously a Jesus reference. (I never understood why it was given to Samurai...) Distribute fits his character as a kind of leader. The mediator abilities are obviously next to verified through his class description.

The Calculator Ability of Faith, is probably his largest effect, with the Calculator class gone, this seems like a fitting arrangement. Of course it hits all allies and enemies... it does create an interesting little game of roulette, and makes his powers that much more effective. As he can hardly move or jump, Exp Up and JP Up, should be interesting to see on him. As it shows potential for him.

Well in closing... I envision Funeral as a Mediator, Priest, Calculator Hybrid. It all seems to fit his character. If I were to guess he would join you after you "save him" at the Glabados (sp?) Church. The game makers themselves almost make it seem as if he was supposed to be a character, as there are no glitches with him at all. But I guess they didn't want to fill another spot, finding it easier to kill off poor Marge. If I could get a bit of feedback on this that would be great. Certainly more to come!
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*1- Is there anyway to make "Convert" based on Faith?
*2 - Is this even possible?

[Austin]

Well, I suppose you could pull this off if you replace another character with him, but I thought his death played an important part in the story so I wouldn't want to do it. And invitation is the only converting ability in the game that I know of.

[Zozma]

one could create a situation where you have to fight a battle with the "ghosts" of these characters and if you win and they dont crystalize they join up?

But anyway about him being inteded to be playable, he wasnt. if you look at his sprite its actually one of the less complete ones, of those that have a decent amount of completeness. Larg wold be more likely to be inteded for that than him or at least appear in a battle. anyway to cut my ramblings short.. the true character that was intended to join (probably the very last special character) was Balmafula she even has her own menu quote talking someting about witches, and has a menu sprite.

[LastingDawn]

Hmm... but he has his own class (no abilities albeit) and a few equips to begin with, maybe I should actually "test" these things out, instead of going by an eight year old guide... Though he has his own class, he doesn't have any abilities associated with it.

But in any case, Balmafula, if I recall... doesn't actually have anything special to her, except being called a "White Knight"? Though I have heard of her quote, I had never seen it. Her job description was quite interesting though, After Simon, I'll get to her, in the ability charts and the like. I find it interesting, that characters who the makers knew were not going to be given any battle spotlight, were in fact given classes.

[Zozma]

balmafula is the most complete NPC that was not given a skillset.

actually shes not a "White Knight" thats the job right before hers which is Weigrafs second version of white knight. it for some reason uses her menu sprite in the menu (but its shrine knight weigraf in battle). her job is Arc Witch, has a full description even in the job wheel and the quote which has a spelling error lol... at the very least she was probably meant to be a Guest at some point, i could say the same for Olan too (temporary guest only of course) but he doesnt have a description in the job wheel.

Funeral's sprite is not complete, complete sprites have their arms seperated from the body in the walking animations... try to use "defend" youll probably see two sets of arms, also when casting a spell the mouth is a little glitchy too. these things are very easy to fix and ill most likely fix them for myself eventually just for completeness sake.

Simon, Larg, and goltana also have complete sprites and have a job name but no skills. (goltana id change the fact that he has a huge stab wound in his dead animation due to a scene in the game but besides that hes battle ready)

Rudvich, Bariten, Funeral, (St. Ajora in alma's body), Alma (version lying face up when in 'dead' status) and Draclau all have sprites that can easily be completed with a little work.

Teta, and all the generic townspeople have sprites that do not support attacking animations weather you add them or not theres no space.

[NeedsMoreNoise]

But in any case, Balmafula, if I recall... doesn't actually have anything special to her, except being called a "White Knight"? Though I have heard of her quote, I had never seen it. Her job description was quite interesting though, After Simon, I'll get to her, in the ability charts and the like. I find it interesting, that characters who the makers knew were not going to be given any battle spotlight, were in fact given classes.

Balmafula is an Arc Witch, but she does have the Holy Sword skill set (although not complete). With FFTPatcher, I gave her a whole new skill set (all based off of the classic witch archetype, except with Destroy Sword xd) and a growth like that of a Temple Knight. I haven't tested it yet, but I do know that before, her battle sprite would change to Wiegraf 2, which is lameeee. I'm hoping that'll stop, haha.

[Zozma]

no, its because you're using the wrong unit that really is weirgraf # 2 in the menu it looks like balmafula with a different color palette. one key thing to remember is that even tho the sprite is buggy in the formation screen MOST of the portraits indicate the true character. Arc Witch doesnt have a skillset at all so if you modded that holy sword set then you just changed weigrafs skills and hell use them on you when you fight him. that skillset is not complete because they did not want weigraf to use holy explosion since the game randomly selects its learned skills...

are you using unit number 20 or number 21? she is number 21 thats her value in hex. hmm is this for the psx or psp version?

[NeedsMoreNoise]

no, its because you're using the wrong unit that really is weirgraf # 2 in the menu it looks like balmafula with a different color palette. one key thing to remember is that even tho the sprite is buggy in the formation screen MOST of the portraits indicate the true character. Arc Witch doesnt have a skillset at all so if you modded that holy sword set then you just changed weigrafs skills and hell use them on you when you fight him. that skillset is not complete because they did not want weigraf to use holy explosion since the game randomly selects its learned skills...

are you using unit number 20 or number 21? she is number 21 thats her value in hex. hmm is this for the psx or psp version?

...I realized my mistake, haha. I was using 20. xd

[Zozma]

but now you can get the arc witch into shape

in my own patch she can equip rods/staves/dictionaries/ and harps

has alma's MA multiplyers and uses the JA Magic skillset which i tweaked as well all the spells have range of 2 instead of 1. Toad 2 was removed because i turned it into Bio 4..

I'm probably going to change the set to something else, and at the very least shell have dark holy, and allure.

[LastingDawn]

Oh, I see I'm not the only one who has had this idea, haha! I am quite interested in the sets you gave Balmafula. They both sound quite varied. The growth multiplier parts also sound quite interesting.

[Zozma]

her description says she was reborn as an arch witch by the mighty power of darkness... sooo... giving her spells of darkness i think are great... shes a cutie too and a witch at that, so allure sounds right.

being able to eqip harps? i wanted to make at least one female able to use them and she seems perfect to me, plus i created a new harp out of the c bag lol.

[LastingDawn]

Hmm... that does sound like a pretty interesting thought... of all female NPC's it would fit her best to use a harp. So powers of darkness eh? Do any of those odd dances count?

[Zozma]

if i knew how to assign what kind of attack animation each skill uses i would create a dance that drains hp and heals the user the total damage dealt. but theres only the ones the dancer has and i dont want to take those out for this.

[LastingDawn]

Well, work with Funeral is going wonderfully! From Faith based Invites to encompassing Faith +! This experiment is going wonderfully, not only that, but a chance to make things more official looking!

[Zozma]

so.. with this were you able to change the names of the job and skills in the formation menu as well? whenever i save over my "World.bin" it really screws up the skills names.

[LastingDawn]

Eh heh.... I can't say I really made it to the Formation screen, shortly after this I tried to proceed, but when the game tried to load the formation screen of the first battle, it crashed. Though this doesn't seem the fault of World.bin as I made sure not to patch that up. So while things looked wonderful at first (aside from "this unit is on duty and cannot be replaced" for "Choose Ramza's name". As well as the "level up" being slightly off screen, I didn't see any problems, until I did get to the "place unit screen" unto which the game froze.

[Sen]

for the "level up!" thing just add spaces and its fine.

[LastingDawn]

Hmm? I'll try that, thanks.

[Zozma]

just wondering.. have you had any problems with ovelia not appearing when delita is kidnapping her? after changing alicia, lavian and rad to their new jobs (having new sprites) ovelia doesnt appear and it looks like delita is kidnapping.... air lol....

[LastingDawn]

Ovelia vanishing? I was able to change Rad just fine, but I had never seen Ovelia not be there. Of course she's in the event, did you change anything on her?