LFT: An FFT mod (The final release is a lie. Download here!)

[VySaika]

Priest I use periodically as a carrier, but tend to prefer putting White Magic on something else. Time Mage and Summoner I don't spend much time in as a rule.

Oracles getting Weapon Guard and sticks getting better evade would be fun. Time Mages getting 4 move would actually make me consider it as a carrier, so yeah, not a bad idea at all.

[Laggy]

Okay so:

Oracle: Weapon Guard get, sticks going up to 35%, rods go down to 10%.
Time Mage: Rainbow Staff is now Jump+1, Gold Staff is now Move+1, gets Books.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Staves are hardly unique to Time Mage. If you're trying to give TM more merit as a carrier, I'm not sure that giving them, Priests, Oracles, and Summoners a weapon option that requires them to sacrifice MA or Move is doing much to assist that.

All this in addition to the usual mage issues of frailty, MP concerns, and their skillsets needing babysitting with things like high faith, party zodiac, Short Charge and equip tweaks to stay competitive.

I'm a bit confused by these comments. All of these disadvantages are nothing new; they never prevented magic from being the dominant tree in FFT, and, despite tweaks, I think the same honestly holds true in LFT. Nothing has ultimately changed; mage durability/faith doesn't matter because offence rules all (see also the popularity of Ninja, the game's functionally frailest class), MP concerns were never a big deal and are less so now (more durable enemies are offset by higher PC MP, as well as every method of MP restoration/conservation getting significantly more accessible), and from what I've seen, Summon Magic is still the most efficient way to crush the game.

As such, the appeal of mages as carriers is... well, they have MA and MP, and thus can use the generally more powerful skillsets. It's the inherent nature of FFT that some classes get better innates like move, while some get better skillsets (LFT has dampened this huge divide, but it certainly still exists). On the whole I really don't think they need too much more. I am in favour of giving TM something because they're kinda dull in a "caught in the middle" way right now (Summoner has more MP, Wizard has more MA, Oracles have a physical, Priest has Speed/PA/HP) though I'm not worried about TM being overall bad or anything.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Staves are hardly unique to Time Mage. If you're trying to give TM more merit as a carrier, I'm not sure that giving them, Priests, Oracles, and Summoners a weapon option that requires them to sacrifice MA or Move is doing much to assist that.

That was mostly stemming from a different concern that arose, that being how impressively worthless staves were period. The change addresses -that- issue, actually hitting TM in a tangential manner (although it could always be taken back. I'm not sure how I feel about that change in the class balance overall, although it gives staves -something- that a fair amount of classes actually can use periodically).

[Dark Holy Elf]

Staves always had that balance between having a real physical and having an MA option. I'd say it's a decent weapon class until Chapter 4 when the game thinks it'll be a good idea to never have any more updates (and unfortunately this isn't an easy issue to fix, though I'd be all for making the Sage Staff storebought and monkeying with its stats to reflect this given that having TWO aftergame staves is silly). In particular, Rainbow Staff hurts in mid Chapter 2, and Wizard Staff is the first MA boost staff you have, and remains good for every magical class that doesn't get Rods (so... Priests and TMs and Rafa/Malak).

[Dark Holy Elf]

"Hey it's not a joke fight any more!" Swamp

Jude continues to work on Chemist skills. Yulie now has Move+1 and Arnaud now has Equip Shield, courtesy of Raquel spillover. Raquel herself gets to Geomancer L3 in a couple randoms, and is a Dancer for this battle, seeking Move+3.

Scary fight. Despite an opening Shell 2 the Skeletons are able to raise some serious problems. And then there is the URIBO who has about fifty million speed (okay 8) and gets in amongst my guys and starts statusing them and reviving after Zombie Touch and oh god. Plus side is that three undead line up for Paralyse at one point, and Phoenix Downs plus Raquel physicals clear things out in time to win.

Still More Slums

The site of two resets, my only resets in the first two chapters outside Slums in Dorter. DAMN THE SLUMS. Anyway, switching Jude to Mediator basically wins this battle, because it lets him go first and thus move away from Thief rape. Protect 2, Silence Song a Summoner, slash things to death, Yulie/Jude heal merry-go-round ensues.

Bariaus Valley

My PCs are in a bit of a holding pattern here, so no real class changes in this point in the game. Raquel needs to finish Dancer, even with innate Attack Up it can't compare to monstrous Geomancer Two Hands damage.

Still, it suffices along with Yulie's Elemental to mop up guys in the east half of the battle. In the west, a talking Knight enjoys death sentencing my people, but Raquel makes it over and uses Heal before anything too bad can happen. Arnaud annoys things to death, and kills charging mages with his BOOK, since he's pretty confident in everything from the neck up like that.

Golgorand Execution Site

I have no idea how I win this battle first try. To start with, Raquel is hit by Gaffy (Best zodiac) and has a non-fatal charge tagged on her. So Yulie heals her. Charge criticals, Raquel dead. Meanwhile, Jude wastes his first turn because I forget that Negotiate has 3 vertical range. And then a bunch of enemies get Haste 2'd. And both Jude and, post revival, Raquel get their weapons broken. It just seems ugly.

Then Arnaud puts three enemies at once to sleep, including Gafgarion, after silencing a TM round 1. That turns the battle dramatically, as do a few timely Raquel counters and Yulie Carve Modelling a Knight into Stone. Yay! Eventually, one of the enemy Knights decides to wake his buddies up, and does so by Carve Modelling all three... petrifying the two who aren't Gaffy. GJ, Mr. Knight. With three enemies statues and three outright dead at this point, it's a simple matter to take out Gaffy by Negotiating with him then Raquel'ing him (the upside of not having Two Hands is she doesn't lose much damage when Weapon Broken), then chipping the last Knight to death, the only one I kill via damage.

I then die to my second random, because of DISCO DEMONS, SQUIDROCKIN, and Cat Kick. I hate Cat Kick. 110 damage through Protect is just rude.

Lionel Gate

Jude goes Thief (8 speed) with Equip Gun and Item. No other major changes. Gaffy is simple to handle, Speed Save gives me a double I don't even need and Weapon Steal makes him a scrub who triggers Speed Save a bunch. On the outside, Secret Fist and Death Sentence are spammed until my party is ignored. Yulie uses Reraise, which she recently learned, to avoid the threat, while Arnaud puts people to sleep and Raquel kills things. Jude opens the gate, and I play merry-go-round revival for a bit as the DS kicks in, but I stay in control until the very end when only two enemies remain. I get a scare as Jude crystallises in two rounds instead of 4 (grr 12 speed) but Arnaud and Raquel take care of things with the healer dead. Also, Arnaud is a super ninja in this battle.

Queklain Castle

Yulie goes Wizard to open up TM, since I figure she might as well get Haste and Quick at some point. Knights die to widespread Cure 3. I try to slow Quek down but he just slows Arnaud, which is sad times. So I Life Drain him instead since his Life Drain counter sucks. Raquel hurts him. Healers heal and Jude tosses in gunshots when he can. Quek's much better now, but still isn't overly impressive.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Staves always had that balance between having a real physical and having an MA option. I'd say it's a decent weapon class until Chapter 4 when the game thinks it'll be a good idea to never have any more updates (and unfortunately this isn't an easy issue to fix, though I'd be all for making the Sage Staff storebought and monkeying with its stats to reflect this given that having TWO aftergame staves is silly). In particular, Rainbow Staff hurts in mid Chapter 2, and Wizard Staff is the first MA boost staff you have, and remains good for every magical class that doesn't get Rods (so... Priests and TMs and Rafa/Malak).

I don't know. Staves, within that very physical niche, now have feasible competition with flails at the point where Rainbow Staff kicks in, for instance (less reliable, but if Flame Whips are available at, say, C2-early C3, I think those actually outdamage Rainbow Staff on damage due to the Melt randocast and high variance possibility, and it could well keep competitive with Gold Staff. Not to mention that it actually gets some synergy with Black Magic/Summon secondaries due to Fire strengthening, straying away from SCC purposes). Yeah, I guess they lose out by C4, but by C4 Priest/TM weaponry options are just outright hopeless as you stated.

This is relevant for Priest only, sure, but Priest is like one of two classes that would use staves for their physicals anyway: Summoners won't use a staff unless it's the Wizard Staff, and for them, -that- has to compete with elemental rods when it's first available (and risk losing out. They're a plain waste of time compared to Wizard Rods). Oracles get sticks by the point staves start building into their better damage niche, and generally prefer the range - not to mention they actually run off their better offensive stat as well. Time Mages, by their turn, just suck their thumb (I guess they -do- need that physical for SCC purposes, though - damage has to come from -some- place, and Demi often ain't cutting it).

That's not even getting into how questionable the idea of a physical niche for classes that have issues both surviving in melee range -and- dealing damage that is worth getting into melee for off the durability/move combo is. Any class that can get the freck away from staves will, almost all of the time, want to stay that way outside the very short stretch where Wizard Staves are available but Wizard Rods aren't, and even -that- stretch is a bit of a question mark. I'm not defending that change in particular (I find it neat in a vacuum, although I'd prefer having TMs with 4 move and no books instead), but to say that the niche itself is balanced in context feels off, because augmented physicals on classes that just don't do them very competently, especially considering considering how poorly suited they are for melee, is a terrible, terrible niche to begin with. But maybe the point is that the niche existed and was consistently followed up to a point, and maybe trying to fiddle around with that is pointless - not to mention it could not, you know, fix the issue with staves.

[metroid composite]

Though, granted, mage RSM is unexciting in general though. They've got Short Charge and MAU (both catering purely to themselves), Move MP Up, and that's like... it, for options that stand out (Teleport is there, but not exactly easily accessible). Whereas most mages would love to dip into physical classes and get some RSM from there, the reverse doesn't apply nearly as much.

(trying to catch up here, forgive me if this has been answered already) umm...what, no, mages do fine for RSMs.

Fly exists, and is pretty good.  Countermagic exists, and is a worthwhile early reaction particularly on a fighter that's not doing anything with their MP.  Critical Quick is another fine earlygame ability.  MP Switch is really good throughout the game.  MDU, Regenerator, and Move-HP Up all sound usable as earlygame abilities...although they're all probably overpriced by about 100 JP right now.

[metroid composite]

Staves always had that balance between having a real physical and having an MA option. I'd say it's a decent weapon class until Chapter 4 when the game thinks it'll be a good idea to never have any more updates (and unfortunately this isn't an easy issue to fix, though I'd be all for making the Sage Staff storebought and monkeying with its stats to reflect this given that having TWO aftergame staves is silly). In particular, Rainbow Staff hurts in mid Chapter 2, and Wizard Staff is the first MA boost staff you have, and remains good for every magical class that doesn't get Rods (so... Priests and TMs and Rafa/Malak).

Can't make non-storebought staves storebought.

CAN move around currently storebought staves.  The obvious candidate being say, White Staff to Bethla (probably with an appropriate name change).  It still feels like the least memorable staff to me, although years of FFT experience are probably warping my experience there.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

White Staff used to have like -the same WP as its immediate predecessor- while having double the cost. It was memorable for being impressively horrible at best.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Also, because I doubt mc will see this if I edit my post: moving White Staff to C4 and giving it new stats that are worthwhile would be a-okay, methinks. That might even make the Gold/Rainbow Staff changes pointless, but I find the idea of an innate 4 move Time Mage more interesting anyways.

[metroid composite]

(Teleport is now impractical to learn on anyone.)

This is an interesting point.  I haven't heard of many players learning Teleport.  I think I might have learned it on a dedicated Time Mage, but I'm pretty sure it came kind-of late, after pretty much all other abilities.  And making it so that people feel they don't want to get Teleport ever doesn't strike me as all that great--Teleport is one of the most strategically interesting abilities to use in-battle.  Might be a good idea to drop it to 1200 JP then collect data on people's formations.


On Mages.........Here's the variables that can be messed with:

MA (including equips)
Elemental boosting (through equips only)
MP (including equips and Move MP Up)
Speed
HP
Evasiveness (including equips)
Innate support abilities (DU, MDU, MAU, Short Charge)
Movement
Auto-Faith

For specialists...
MA = Wizard
Elemental boosting = several (any with rods)
MP = Oracle or Summoner
Speed = Priest or Bard
HP = Geomancer
Evaisveness = Geomancer
Innate supports = Knight, Bard
Move = Squire
Auto-Faith = Samurai


Feels like everything's been covered, but there's a few niches that remain fairly empty.  For evasion, there's no "40% class evade" class.  The high movement classes accounts for high movement but not high jump.

[metroid composite]

Also, because I doubt mc will see this if I edit my post: moving White Staff to C4 and giving it new stats that are worthwhile would be a-okay, methinks. That might even make the Gold/Rainbow Staff changes pointless, but I like the idea of an innate 4 move Time Mage more interesting anyways.

Another option would be innate 3 move, but 6 jump or something.  Or innate Teleport with lower move.  The old "4 move, 3 jump" model has been done quite a bit.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

I sorta like 3 move/6 jump in a vacuum just for variety - and I suspect that TM, for -reaching places-, makes more use out of the vertical than the horizontal, since it mocks terrain woes with innate Float otherwise. I just wonder how good a use a TM would make of that, although the idea of a swarm of time mages raining Meteor/Demi/Haste/Slow madness on enemies from a roof or a really tall mountain amuses me to no end.

EDIT: I'm not sure if making lower move+Teleport is ever a good idea, although innate Teleport in a vacuum feels crazy broken with default move.

[Grefter]

Late on arguments and lazy to go indepth, but Time Mage getting movement boosts on weapons kills some of the interesting (Or making them Move 4 AND have a couple of movement boost items was it?)  Also book sniping ++ awesome possibilities with a 4 move TM if you give them those.  Buffing there move also makes Time Mage a more optimal choice for Teleport, giving them better synergy with their movement skill is sexy.

Summoners are not a good carrier because they have Summon, was already said but it bears repeating.  If Summoners were a good caster carrier then you would just have a Draw Out Summoner and call it a day.

[superaielman]

Don't know if it's been caught yet, but silent walk's name is glitched when you go to pick up a crystal.

[Laggy]

Silent Walk shouldn't even be in the game anymore, let alone on Lenalia Plateau. Weird.

Also, WIP: giving light to the Deep Dungeon! I figured out how to make a crystal show up on a map and make the panel it's on be inaccessible, which automatically lights up the map (by one degree). As soon as I figure out good coords to place one per map I will. The darkness is stupid.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

Also, WIP: giving light to the Deep Dungeon! I figured out how to make a crystal show up on a map and make the panel it's on be inaccessible, which automatically lights up the map (by one degree). As soon as I figure out good coords to place one per map I will. The darkness is stupid.

I love you.

[Tonfa]

He does all these changes after I'm done with those parts. Le sigh.

Speaking of, the Lag Dungeon has been conquered. Fought every superbattle on the way down, none of the post-Elidibs ones yet. Don't wanna spoil the superbattles too much, they are worth fighting. Well, people who were watching my stream know about a lot of them anyway but. >_> Final team hall of fame!

Orlandu 78Br/65Fa
---
All Swordskill
Battle Skill
Speed Save
Maintenance
Move+1

Excalibur
Genji Shield
Thief Hat
Genji Armor
Rubber Shoes

Rubber Shoes were VITAL TO MY PLAN okay. Anyway, Orlandu is the offensive cannon who gets a ridiculous amount of turns, even more so due to Speed Save. Him getting up to 15+ speed is just wrong. Damage, damage, damage, parasitic damage, breaks and status procs when necessary, he crushes the opposition. Only person without revival because he doesn't need to tend to such puny concerns.

Charge+1 71Br/67Fa
---
White Magic
Math Skill
Damage Split
Non-charge
Move-MP Up

H Bag
---
Ribbon
Snow Muffler
Setiemson

Female generic that was there from the beginning. And yes, that is non-charge, I spent half the game in Calc and did Propositions. Noncharge Raise2 is obviously fantastic, so is even the nerfed LFT Mathskill, the likes of Confusong and Slow are still evil. Most powerful support character.

Dauragon C. Beoulve (or Ramza) 97Br/71Fa
---
Throw
Item
Auto Potion
Equip Katana
Move+3

Masamune
Masamune
Thief Hat
Snow Muffler
---

Lack of accessory intentional for the final fight there. Only member without Autohaste, does not need it due to 15 base speed. Only has Pdowns/Holy Waters/Remedies for relevant items but that is enough. If none of those actions are needed, throws axes in faces. Very effective.

Rafa 40Br/69Fa
---
Time Magic
Truth
Speed Save
Short Charge
Teleport

H Bag
---
Ribbon
Snow Muffler
Setiemson

Shortcharge Truth makes Scorpio's Blessing (now 3CT, range 8, accurate) viable and much needed revival. Likewise, Heaven Thunder being only 1CT and the other moves not much slower makes the improves Truth a great (if prone to hilarious RNG failure) damage machine that doesn't suffer from charge times. Hasting Ramza, screwing with enemies, timely Quick/Demi2 castings are also available through Time Magic.

EDIT: Chat reminds that I need to give special credit to SPACE STORAGE. Only 1 Vert makes it a delightfully easy Truth-trap in many places.

Shaker 55Br/59Fa
---
Item
Battle Skill
Auto Potion
Equip Bow
Move+1

Perseus Bow
---
Thief Hat
Snow Muffler
---

Lack of accessory again intentional. Anyway, this is the Knight from Riovanes Gate at the end of C3. Invited him because he had a Defender, decided to keep him around. The ultimate item boy, spoils enemies with ranged battle skill if iteming is not necessary.

Overall the team is very defensive, I felt the Deep Dungeon encouraged this. Had fun! And now Laggy is going to talk me into doing the other END fights I suppose.

[Ranmilia]

I like monsters.  So.  Random monster thoughts, sorted by family and roughly utility (subject to debate of course)...

-Not very good-

Goblins
Still mostly worthless.  They can do SOMETHING to you if they get in range now, and Turn Punch is vaguely competent, but these are still always going to be the least threatening enemies on the field.  Gobbles are set in Araguay now, but they die horribly to the swordskillers and are rarely encountered elsewhere.  No real reason to run any of them as PCs except to (ab)use Mutilate on Gobbles, which was always good but never good enough. 

Skeletons
Same as before, but better stats, damage and Revive.  Doesn't really salvage them, although the damage is enough to make them not totally incompetent as enemies.  Not worth using as PCs.  Someone did a Skeleton SCC and found it pretty easy, but eeeeh compared to what you can get on a human?  Eeeeeeeeeeh.

Chocobos
Used to be one of the best monster classes, now are... one of the worst, I feel.  Choco Meteor is unimpressive in LFT, other ranged damage and defenses all got better around it.  Choco Cure is nice, but only on Yellows, who lack Meteor, and Choco Esuna is obsoleted by better Priests and Squire Heal.  No reason to run these as PCs either. 

Trees
Trees are competent Priest wannabes now, and the higher ones get decent attacks.  Still, very rare and don't do anything you can't get better off a generic mage, so not worth using as PCs, but cute.  Rarity makes it hard to say anything else about them.

-Half decent-

Panthers
Weird enemies.  Red Panthers are worth noting for Steal Heart that works on both human genders... but they won't use it if you're in range for their melee, so you have to run towards them, which is unintuitive but whatever.  Blaster is a good move, and enemy Cuars will use it annoyingly often with glitched monster skill.  Too bad they won't really use it if you run them in your party.  Vampires might be worth running for it, but... nnnot really.  Mainly annoyances that can wipe you but aren't worth using as PCs.

Minotaurs
Are in the boat of "potentially scary to run into in randoms, but never really worth running as PCs."  Very one dimensional.

Dragons
Boring.  Tanks with Dragon Spirit and middling damage.  Okay at what they do but not spectacular, and as PCs... well, you could just be running a Lancer with Defense Up/Dragon Spirit and a spear and get roughly the same thing, except for breaths being 100%.  I'd like to see dragons get something else, honestly, they've got an empty skillslot and feel like they should be better.

Birds
Hamedos, oh excuse me birds, are also kind of scary to run into in random battles if you don't have ways to get around their reaction.  But the first two are completely useless otherwise except for monster skilling ghetto Blaster.  And the last one just gets ghetto Blaster without monster skill.  Okay.  Decent damage, Cockatoris apparently has really nice damage, but lacks Feather Bomb so.  Ehh.

Squids
Everyone knows about these guys now.  Disco Demons are hilarious, especially en masse, but not really too threatening.  Squidrockin is great, it loves to glitch monster skill and sing no matter what and prove that Nameless Song is really very nice now.  Mind Blast's not too shabby either.  Squidrockin is worth using if you don't feel like actually getting a bard, the others not so much.  Counter Flood being a competent reaction helps their game too.

Flotiballs
Most underrated monsters.  As enemies they'll be vaguely annoying with status and auto-reflect.  As PCs they have effective 10 range Difference.  Ramza and 4x Flotiball >>>> any assassination mission in one turn.  MAYBE two.  Their status moves are cute but not worth using, but good grief Difference is such a good sniper move.

Morbols
Much more interesting than the last few.  Morbols have rarity issues, but decent party synergy and use.  If you're running a MR4M or something, they work very well in combination with ghosts, and even if not they can provide decent party support.  Lick is the only way to get Protect and Shell in one move before Kiyomori, and it slaps Reflect on for good measure.  Bad Breath is obviously fun times, and they're decent statwise.  Ochus are comparatively bad, Greats have BB without monster skill.  Sure.  Not as obviously good as Bombs or Ghosts but decent. 

-Genuinely Good-

Pigs
PIGFEAR has been running strong around these parts.  They're fast glass cannons with quick status, revival, and decent damage on Wildbow.  Speaks for itself.  Useable as PCs but for their rarity and the fact that you'll be poaching them to make your generics broken instead of actually running them.  You'll never see them as enemies except at Zigolis and Finath, and they aren't required there, sooooo.

Behemoths
Awesome in a can.  Huge stats with Damage Split and ridiculous monster skills.  Not notable outside of the monster skills, but oh boy the monster skills.  Always scary in randoms due to the monster skill glitch, and as PCs the only thing holding them back is being C4 only (when you should have a good party already) and somewhat rare even then. 

Ghosts
Their skillsets speak for themselves.  Teleport, MP Switch, Revive to help the party, status touches.  Yeah, ghosts are good.  Revenant again feels like the worst - they can kind of pull off boss kills, but Flotiballs are probably better.  Still, ghost PCs are good times, especially if you've got a Chakra user in the party.

Bombs
Bombs rock hard, as everyone finds out at Sweegy.  Start: Reraise is wonderful and syncs up with their skillset amazingly.  The family feels a little oddly shuffled.  Normal Bombs can abuse the range on Shock to great effect, Grenades get access to Flame Attack, which deals terrifying, sick amounts of damage, and Explosives get... Spark as non-monster skill?  Yeah, no comparison.  Small Bomb is the odd move out, completely useless. 

Point is, though, the reraise and self-destruct all but guarantee that they'll be able to kill at LEAST one enemy, regardless of anything else, and they've got options for "anything else" that are pretty darn good as well.  SURPRISE BOMB PC saved Tonfa at Queklain and Hal at Bervenia City, and is really useable almost anywhere.  Best part is they're breedable and easy to find at all points of the game, so even if they crystal after blowing up, who cares?  Good stuff.

Hydras
Are sad and currently nearly don't exist.  No longer available at Nelveska and END (except as hacked enemies), so the only ones you'll be seeing are at Balk 2, the Super Monster Battle and a single obscure random with Tiamats at C4 Barius Valley.  Tiamats lost Triple Flame and the class as a whole got Regenerator, which is kinda meh.  They're still good, I guess - the hacked enemy ones are quite competent, and you'll see Dark Whisper at Balk 2 quite often and it's still one of the theoretical highest damage abilities in the game.  Just nearly unavailable now, which I kinda don't like.  Still putting them as the best but not really sure about it.

[Tonfa]

Bombs I'd put down to decent. They're nice to have situationally for assassinations, but can't control a map. Ghosts are shaky due to terrible durability, they often get OHKOed if MP Switch doesn't kick in. Can't argue with Shadow Stitch though. I'd say they're around Morbol levels of usefulness for different reasons.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Olan Coal City

Jude steals a Mithril Gun here, for great justice. Yulie heals with White Magic and never uses Black Magic ever (not a point of personal pride, it's just never useful), Arnaud tries to status things but he doesn't have a very good time of it this battle. Fortunately, Olan does.

ZALMO LUSNADA, HERESY EXAMINER

Yulie opens Time Mage here, Raquel finally has Move+3 and goes back to Geomancer. Well, this fight is certainly a lot better. I get spammed with 60-80 damage Elementals from four enemies (one of the Monks has it) and lose PCs frighteningly quickly. Raquel one-shots one of the Geos, fortunately, and then when Zalmo goes to revive him, she nukes him while he charges, but by this point, everyone else is dead, including Alma, so it's a bit of a hairy battle and I feel like I got lucky.

UBS2 - Curse you, Alex

Whoa, this battle doesn't suck now. Amazing what improving the Time Mages does. The Lancers also having Defence Up and competent Jump training helps.

One reset here. To avoid a similar fate, Jude returns to Chemist with Talk Skill so he can NEGOTIATE. Aside from that, it's a matter of statusing enemies with Negotiate, Slow 2, Sleep, etc. Raquel's job is to get down the stairs (which is annoying because Lancers block the way) and raise hell down there. It takes some time because Alex and his damn shield make things complicated. Once the Chemists and TM die, the battle becomes fairly routine, though by this point with all the ruckus raised by Haste and Slow the Lancers are generally able to Jump on people, but nothing round-robin revival and Reraise can't take care of. Status takes ages to land because the enemies are lucky bastards, but it does, they get Raquel'd, battle over.

UBS3 - Jude moves too fast for the naked eye

A rough battle. The Knights and Archers are more mobile than ever, there are now two Summoners, etc. Izlude himself has been nerfed (one of the few bosses for whom this is true) but he's more durable so no quick win, bad Zodiac with both Raquel and Arnaud helps him. My party gets ripped to shreds by the various enemies even as I'm able to kill one of each generic (including both Tai and Gate) and silence the second Summoner. I have some very tense moments of revivals that almost don't work, Jude or Yulie almost not surviving a round they have to, and I burn through all but one of my Phoenix Downs. Still, hilariously, I do win eventually, and I do so because all the random hits Jude takes throughout the battle bring him up to 18 speed. HE HEALS TOO FAST FOR THEM TO STOP.

UBS1 - I still hate enemy Geomancers

So Wiegraf has Lightning Stab. It can happen in FFT but I've seen it all of, like, three times ever over the course of 30 playthroughs. This is bad because I'd set up assuming he wouldn't have it. Granted, I would have been just fine, but then the GEOMANCERS finish me off. I'd still have been just fine, but I only have one Phoenix Down left from the last fight. Oops.

Try again. This time, I put everything into making sure Raquel gets turns. I change Jude into a slower Lancer to give him HP, because I figures he needs Defence Up anyway. Wiegraf goes first, kills Raquel and Arnaud combined with some Geomancer nonsense. Jude revives Raquel, who slashes Wiegraf for half his hit points; he counters and kills her. Yulie brings her back to life! Wiegraf for some reason chooses to Crush Punch Jude instead of killing Raquel, so that's game. Would have been smoother if I'd made Raquel a Samurai for Concentrate, but no big.

Grog Hill

Ephraim misses Raquel, gets countered. Bad start for the enemies. It gets worse as Raquel carves up a Chemist, Yulie casts Quick on her, she carves up another. Magey gets petrified by Carve Model, so much for Reraise. Oddly on our group LFT playthrough I remember this being the tricky fight of mid C3. Not this time! It's so short that, two battles later, Jude is STILL in Lancer!

Malak Fort City

Malak still sucks. Anyway, this is pretty tough, as although I'm able to immediately kill a Ninja and Malak with Raquel, a Summoner revives him and then Raquel is killed. Uh oh. From there it's a careful balancing act of Jude and Yulie trying to keep everyone alive even though Yulie gets one-shotted by one of the Ninjas. Arnaud slowly gets things under control, silencing both Ninjas and putting Xeroma to sleep, while the healers work on staying alive, finally reviving Raquel when she's about to crystallise. From there, the killing can begin.

Yu-gi-oh Woods

Jude goes Thief again now that he has Defence Up learned, though he doesn't set it. Yulie goes Priest, now that she has Short Charge. Arnaud goes Archer with Yin Yang, now that he has Teleport.

One reset here. Oops. After that I realise that the whole battle is much easier if I load up the north side, while Rafa distracts the enemies on the south. So yeah, Cure 3 for awesome healing, Raquel for smiting, nothing we haven't seen before generally.

Yu-gi-oh Gate

Arnaud goes THief with Yin Yang, this time, on his quest for Ninja. Raquel goes Samurai with Attack Up for Concentrate purposes, lots of evade here.

I steal the Defender, and otherwise this is a pretty routine battle, with Raquel countering and killing everything, Arnaud making a nuisance of himself, and Yulie providing healing and buffing.

It's time to d-d-d-duel!

Yulie has mastered White Magic at last, so I send her over to Geomancer again. Arnaud goes Monk as his quest continues. Raquel takes her shiny Defender and goes SQUIRE with Two Hands, finally freeing her secondary up, so I give her Charge. Jude goes back to Chemist, sets Defence Up.

Wiegraf duel goes smoothly even though I forget to give Jude a Defence Armlet like I intended. Defence Up eats into Wiegraf's damage, so it's a simple matter to heal whatever he does, Holy Watering if necessary. He Screams once or twice but this isn't a big deal since Jude has Speed Save anyway. What IS annoying is when he uses Chakra, but this doesn't ultimately saves him, just makes me shoot him twice more than I'd intended.

Velius comes out to play. Jude shots a Demon twice, Raquel of the 8 move runs up and one-shots one. Velius Losses people, but Arnaud's Stigma Magic and Yulie's AXE TO THE FACE fixes things up. The demons kill Raquel, but Jude is highly mobile and has Throw Item, so no big, she gets revived and kills another demon. Jude then stops the third. Loss keeps the others busy until Velius comes out of Innocent. When he does, he charges Cyclops on Arnaud. Raquel is all DON'T MESS WITH MY MAN and uses Charge+4 on him before his own charge can go off. Critical hit, 768 damage with bad zodiac, lulz. At this point there is a slightly scary moment as the stopped demon returns to life, Velius Shocks Raquel to death, and Negotiate misses the demon, but it's hardly a big deal. Yulie had revived Arnaud (and if I'd remembered she had Holy I could have just killed) and Arnaud Life Drains for the win. Yulie had revived Raquel for insurance anyway.

It's called cheating. Deal with it.

The roof is evil, so of course, I respond with my own evil. Ninja Jude uses Cheer Up on Raquel to give her a turn, Raquel one-shots Celia. I could have cheated even more if I'd boosted Raquel's speed up to 9, but something in me refuses to give Raquel speed-boosting equipment ever. It remains to be seen if Excalibur will test my resolve.


Chapter 3 is fun.

[Tide]

Well since everyone seems to be posting about their LFT experiences...

I'll just go over the fights that I ended up having resets on since I can't remember how some of them went now. For the most part, fights are definitely improved (thanks to Knight/Archer bufing), bosses don't die to a stiff breeze (whee innate Defense Up) and abilities being better distributed for JP cost means utilizing some things previously unseen! Well sort of anyway. As a side note, I must give props to both MC and Laggy as this hack rules in doing what it should - rebalancing the classes an encouraging the player to utilize different abilities but not shut out good combinations that existed in vanilla. Anyway, onward!

Zigolis Swamp aka: $&&%$# Pigs! (1 reset)
Okay, should be no news by now, but LFT monsters are vastly improved compared to Vanilla. They are also very scary sometimes and using the wrong party can get you owned. This was pretty much what happened the first time! Problem 1 - Knights don't work well on this map unless you feel like getting POIZN'd every time, Problem 2 - Bringing a Thief here wasn't the best idea. Could have benefitted from another White Magic user. You see, the Skellies now have a semblance of damage. And if they gang up on one of Mages, horrible things happen. I spent all my Wizard MP trying to revive the dead guys instead of offense, which created another problem since I was getting outstalled. Mustadio being a total retard and NOT using Seal Evil on the skellies/ghosts did not help. Neither did the stupid pig, who are by the way, very scary now since they have Auto Haste, run into your guys and put them to sleep and then run away like the jerks that they are. Anyway, I eventually got into an equal footing level after a really bad start with only three enemies. However, my Wizard had no MP, my Knight was stranded and confused and Mustadio was being an idiot while the three remaining enemies kept reviving each other. I should also note, I charmed the piggy at one point and it proceeded to PUT ME TO SLEEP ANYWAY =(. Okay, reset.

Second time, I bring an Archer instead of a knight, and I'm pretty certain I gave Ramza White magic instead of abilityless Geo. That or he was a Monk with Guts. Anyway, no piggy showing up means the fight got easier. And then on top of that, Archers having range here means I could snipe some enemies while they run. Mustadio also being SMARTER (wow) helped out as he proceeded to Seal Evil 2 guys instead of repeatedly shooting the dead/revived pig.

Barius Valley aka: You have just been PWNED by Talk Skill (1 reset)
Bad PBF costed me a reset. I wasn't sure if my right side could handle the Oracle and Priest with a weaker formation. Hint: They could. So the first time, I had a balance spread, which was not a good idea here since the right side was easily mopped up. The left side, however, is where the brunt of the action is, and I need my better units here. First time around, Ramza got DEATH SENTENCE'd by Talk Skill and then after some mucking around thanks to the Oracle confusing Agrias and the Knights killing my only other reviver, I ate a reset. There was no way to get over to the left side with my right side units in time to revive Ramza even if I was willing to eat crystallization.

Okay new plan. Slap the Geomancer onto the side with Ramza and the Thief, while the Time Mage and the Oracle go to school on the right. Worked in one shot this time. The Knights ate SEKRIT FIST and the Priest got Charm'd, which made things much easier. Ramza shot things as a Chemist and provided emergency treatment while the Geo knocked out the Oracle and was able to take a hit or two instead of dying like the Oracle the first. Yay.

Quek aka: I petrify 3 guys before you move!
I had to go before dinner, but something told me it would be an ugly fight. For starters, Quek comes charging down, Bio 2s and Petrifies 3 people. Um...lol. I could probably get my Time Mage to heal them with Esuna, but Quek's going to get another turn and likely re-petrifying again, it would be tough to work around.

Next time? Better. Opening move only Petrified one person, and Ramza administered Soft to said person. Ninja with Charge proceeds to unload Charge+4s on Quek's tub of lard ass while the Knights start going for the mages. Agrias + Mages kill the knights as Ramza and the Ninja bumrush Quek. Quek eventually moves forward to Bio 3 and kill two mages, but all for naught as Ninja unloads another Charge+4 for ultimate lulz. Good fight though!

Underground Bookstorage 2 aka: Hey, this is a damn scary fight now (1 reset)
Lancers with 8 Jump and Defense Up = bad
Hasted Lancers with 8 Jump and Defense Up = very bad
Hasted Lancers with 8 Jump and Defense Up against frail units = very very bad.

Yeah. Didn't help that I brought in MAGICK KNIGHT instead of a standard Knight build. Okay, that wasn't going to work. First time through featured Ramza failing an Auto Potion, then dying to a Charge+3 from a Hasted Lancer. My other reviver was already dead, and there was no way in hell MAGICK KNIGHT and Agrias can wipe up this mess.

Next time, party change. Brought in Geo with Talk Skill, changed Knight back to physical build and gave Ramza an armor instead of a robe so he doesn't die to two pokes. Opening was still kinda scary thanks to Time Mages with Haste 2. Archers probably would've helped here. I was at a stalemate for some time, until Mimic Daravon hit 2 units. And then the next turn, Geo proceeded to Stop a Lancer off 70%+ rate. I also manage to Asura 3 of my own guys because I forgot Draw out is no longer IFF but still manage to avoid killing anyone and adding Dead to the enemy team. With 2 of the Lancers incapacitated, fight got much easier. Either off the Tmie Mages ASAP or take out the Lancers in someway. The highlight of this battle though was when I activated Re-raise from Dragon Spirit. I get a Geo turn, Knight turn, Geo turn before the Lancer gets to go again. Geo doesn't kill Lancer in one shot, which meant I got utilize MAGIC BREAK AW YEAH to prevent him from reviving. Awesome. I also picked up two crystals which gave my Priest and my Geomancer Level Jump 8. YESZ.

Underground Bookstorage 1 aka: <Ramza> You have gone back on your trainining and betrayed all of your friends!! (1 reset)
Where I am at currently. First featured glorious gjing as Defense Up Wiegraf comes charging down and OHKOs Ninja and severely injured Ramza. There's no way to Revive Ninja before the enemies go, but I try anyway. Yeah. That didn't work as I proceeded to eat arrow Death from my Reviver. This left me with three units who cannot blitz past Wiegraf due to his Innate Defense Up. Oops. Back to the drawing board

I am resetting on the fights that you normally don't reset on ever in vanilla FFT. Although no resets on ZALMO LUSNADA, HERESY EXAMINER though.  Monsters are assholes =(. I am not sure if I want to do DD/Beowulf sidequest now.

[Laggy]

11/4 Update!

* Deep Dungeon NOW HAS LIGHT
* Deep Dungeon edits added for extra Tonfa suffery
* Monster tweaks
* Bervenia Volcano south encounters have Hyudras and Hydras
* Zeklaus Desert south rare fight has flying morbols

Mainly applies to aftergame folks, although if you care about random dynamics you may want to update.

[OblivionKnight]

When will you be done and have the final version?  As in, no more updates?