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100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
Let's Play Dungeon Cartogropher 2008 Etrian Odyssey!

Etrian Odyssey is a series of (so far) 3 dungeon crawling RPG games, somewhat like the Wizardry series. Like some of the older dungeon crawling games, players have to draw and keep track of their own map as they play - though unlike many of the more old school titles, the game uses the touchscreen for that, rather than hoping you have a pen and paper at hand. I'm quite fond of the series, even if it does pull some dick moves now and then.

Another comparison to the old school RPGs is how little characterization the characters have... that is to say, none, really. You can choose a class and an appearance, and that's all the character they have. With that in mind, I'm in two minds about how to do this LP, and I'd like to put it to the thread to vote on just how I do this, but I'll talk a bit more about that at the end of the post. For now, let's play!

My own comments will be written in Italics. In this post, at least, anything which isn't italicised is something the game says - or me cocking up, one of the two.

Class Discussions

Medic

Alchemist

Troubadour

Dark Hunters

Protectors

Landsknechts

Survivalists

Ronin

Hexer

Update List

Update 1! (It is this post, this is not a link :v:)

Update 2!

Update 3

Update 4

Bonus Update 1 - On Survivalists

Update 5

Mini Update - Early shop items

Update 6

Update 7

Update 8

Update 9

Update 10

Update 11

Update 12

Bonus Update 2 - Fenrir Round 2

Update 13

Update 14

Update 15

Update 16

Update 17

Update 18

Bestiary Update 1

Update 19

Update 20

Bonus Update 3 - Bonus Boss
Shenanigans


Update 21

Bonus: Grinding

Update 22

Update 23

Update 24

Mini-Update: Keyser's solo adventure

Update 25

Bonus(?) Update - Rare drops and such.

Update 26

Update 27

Update 28

Update 29

Update 30

Update 31

Also, if this isn't enough Etrian Odyssey-related reading for you, TheShim is doing an LP of Etrian Odyssey 3 over here! Sadly, I believe this died. RIP, EO3 LP.



Innocents were stranded; sinners drowned in the depths; the damned vanished there.
The great power was lost to Man, and Mother Earth turned her back to the new world.
Only the cursed king on his throne in the abyss remembers that golden age.





Here's what we get when we start a new game - some text on the top screen, and a blank bottom screen. The bottom screen will stay blank for a little while, so I'll just be cutting it out for now.

The Radha, governers of Etria, issued a proclamation throughout the continent...
Any able-bodied adventurer was invited to investigate the labyrinth and explore its depths.
But no matter how many came to investigate the dungeon, none gained the renown they sought.
As more adventurers tried and failed to conquer it, it came to be known by a new name...

The Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

You are the latest adventurer to journey to Etria in response to the Radha's proclamation.
You have but one goal: explore the forest to win fame and fortune. Etria is at hand...





So, welcome to town. We'll be coming back here a lot to heal, save, buy stuff, get missions and quests, and other exciting things. Right now, though, our only course of action is to head into the one place we can go: the explorer's guild.






"Then welcome, friend. Not many guilds lately are admitting new adventurers. Those shortsighted losers care too much about trifles to do any real investigation. If you've got the guts, you should make a guild entirely for newcomers. There are loads of guys just sitting on their thumbs who'd join any guild that'd take them. How 'bout it? Gonna make a guild?"

Not really much choice here.

"Great, then let's get started. Write what you want to call your guild in this ledger.
Someday, the world will know this name, so think carefully before choosing it."



Interactivity time! I'll let goons decide on the name for our guild - I'd prefer not to be guild DONGS or anything like that, but honestly, feel free to suggest whatever you think would be funny/interesting.

"SALP, huh? Not a bad name."

Yes, it is.

"Now that you've got a guild, you'll need adventurers to fill it.
Of course, you can go into the labyrinth yourself. If you've got the stones, then register your own name as a member.
More adventurers means more options open to you, and less of a chance of dying down there.
Think about it for a while, and make sure you register a variety of classes into your guild."



Welp, let's get a-registering! Register recruits new members, Organize lets you do things like reset skill points and boot people out, Formation lets you choose who you take with you, and arrange them however you like, talk lets you get a little advice, and leave lets you leave, surprisingly enough.









After name entry, we get a list of classes, and after the list of classes, we get to choose one of four looks. Each class has different portraits... and now's a good time to talk about the vote on how to handle this thread that I mentioned a bit back. There are 3 ways I can think of doing it:

A) A straight LP, no real inter-party dialogue, just me showing off as much of the game as I can, and providing some commentary, with me picking which classes and such I use.

B) Similar to A, but with goons picking my classes and whatnot. I'm reasonably competent at this game, but the EO series isn't really known for being particularly fair, and it's been a little while, so please don't make me take anything ridiculous like 5 healers if you choose this.

C) I'm quite a fan of Thuryl's Might and Magic let's plays, and sort of like the idea of trying something a little similar - goons make up characters based on the various classes/portraits and give them a personality, and I try to write for them all. This would probably be a lot less dry than A or B, but runs the risk of it turning out that I can't write for toffee. If I try this and everyone hates it, I'll probably just mostly drop the dialogue and play things straight.

In any case, I'm interested in seeing what you guys think!

In case we go with B or C, I'm going to write up the various classes, so everyone can think about what they might want to make.



Anyway, before I give a class write-up, I'm going to demonstrate a little gameplay. For the sake of brevity, I'm going to skip over the various bits and pieces of things you do in town - I'll cover them when starting out properly, but for now, I'm just giving a little demo of how the game plays.





After some stuff in town which I will show off in the first 'proper' update when we've decided how to do this, we come to the real meat of the game - the labyrinth. Note that on the bottom screen, we now have a map - that's there to stay, and as I mentioned earlier, is filled out by the player. You can draw pretty much whatever you like with it, if you're a bit of a masochist, but it's best to keep maps as accurate as possible to stop you from getting lost.

At the bottom right of the top screen, we have a little orb telling us how close we are to runing into any encounters. When it's blue, we shouldn't be meeting any for a while...



Green, we're getting closer to running into trouble



Red, an encounter is imminent



And enemies on the screen means that we've run into one, surprisingly enough. Encounters in this game mostly work like random battle systems in most RPGs, every step you take you have a chance of coming closer to running into one, and you can't actually see what you're going to run into until you've already run into it. There are some exceptions to this, but we can cross that bridge when we come to it.

Encounters in this game work fairly simply - you pick what you want everyone in your party to do. Most of the options are fairly self explanatory - Boost, however, is a useful little tool that is sort of like this game's version of limit breaks/trance from the final fantasy series. A character builds up boost when they're hit, when they attack (I think) and when you use certain items on them, using the Boost command requires them to have their boost gauge full, but temporarily buffs all of their stats. It also doesn't actually use up their turn, so you can still attack/cast a spell/whatever after boosting.




Long story short, we murder the animals. Look at the health of our front-line fighters, though - it took most of our party attacking one of the rats to bring it down, and they deal fairly significant damage because of how thoroughly awful a starting character in this game is. Regular healing at the inn is a MUST in the early game.



For the amount of threat an enemy poses, the exp they reward is fairly abysmal, too, especially early on like this. Exp is actually divided by how many people you have in your party, so levelling is much faster with only one party member. Of course, at this point in the game, going with only one party member is basically suicide.



When beating enemies for the first time, you discover them and can report on your findings back in town to have a handy reference on a monster's stats, drops, etc. Similarly for items, the first time you find one, you can report on it, though the information you gather from doing that is a bit less useful.

Anyway, that's the gist of things - explore the labyrinth, slaughter monsters, wonder why tree rats take off ~10% of an armoured dude's health and get loot, all while drawing a map. There's a bit more to it, but this post is already fairly text-heavy, and I'd like to have something to talk about in future updates. For now, though, an explanation on classes and skills:

About Skills



Before I start talking about individual classes, I will give a brief note on skills - every class shares a set of 'skills' that are basically just stat-ups, letting them raise HP, TP (basically MP), Attack and Defense. I never really use these, unless they're prerequisites, because I tend to find you don't get enough skill points to waste any.

Some of this turned out to be a lie, I was thinking of future games. :v:

Skill points are gained each time you level up, and every character starts with 3. You CAN reset skills on a character, but only when they're level 30+ (which will take a while) and it costs ten levels (which is unpleasant to deal with.)

As well as the above mentioned stat-up skills, every class has a few unique skills, and one of 3 'harvesting' skill. Some unique skills need you to have X points in other skills, and each point you put into a skill improves it. Different skills have different max levels, but the highest is generally 10. As an aside, you don't get nearly enough skill points to raise all skills to 10, so you have to think about what you're choosing!


Landsknecht

"Masters of sword and axe, Landscknechts can bear a wide range of weapons and armor in close combat.

Balanced warriors for the front line."

A fair description of Landsknechts here, really - the standard warrior class, a wide range of equipment and mostly offensive abilities. They have a few self-supporting abilities, like raising attack at the cost of defense, or healing a certain status effect. Swords are generally more versatile than axes, with more abilities and even a set of elemental attacks, while axes are generally stronger, and some of their abilities come with status effects. Their harvesting skill is Mine.

Portraits



Survivalist

"Fleet-footed and wise in the ways of the forest, their bow skills make them desirable allies.

Fast-acting fighters useful in either line."

Survivalists are a fairly versatile class, able to deal good damage with the use of their skills, later in the game at least, and they have some useful support abilities, such as the ability to make the party get more pre-emptive attacks, make enemies get less of those attacks, and harvest from any of the 3 types of item spots. One common early-game trick is to make a bunch of these and have them repeatedly farm the early item spots to make a bunch of cash, which I may wind up doing myself. Or not, if the thread prefers.

They are a bit lacking in defense, despite claims that they work well on either line, however, and at first, their damage can be pretty poor due to not having a great selection of bows.

Portraits



Protectors

"Holy defenders of the weak. A protector's sword and shield are invaluable tools when in the dungeon.

Best used as front-line warriors."

A fairly important class, Protectors are basically paladins, with healing skills, various defensive skills, and the ability to draw hits towards themselves - and, more importantly, survive those hits. They're not exactly fantastic attackers, but then, that's not really what they're for. Their harvesting skill is also Mine.

Portraits



Dark Hunters

"Pinpoint lashes of their whip can weaken opponents. Use their skills wisely to turn the tide of battles.

Their skills are best used in the front."

I'm not going to lie, I've never really used these much. They attack mainly with whips, but also have some sword abilities. Whips specialise in causing Binds (A type of status effect where one part of the body is bound, restricting it. IIRC, head binding = no magic, arm binding = no physical skills/reduced damage, leg binding = no running, some skills can't be used) and have a gimmicky attack that does damage to a fully-bound enemy. Their sword skills work off more traditional status effects such as sleep, paralysis, etc. Whips get poison, though. Also, their harvesting skill is Take.

Portraits



Medic

"Unskilled in battle, their healing arts allow experienced warriors to survive difficult battles.

Use their healing gifts from the back."

I'm sure most of you can guess what medics do, even without reading the above description - they are, of course, the greatest of your frontline fighteno not really. They have some minor passive healing, a whole shitload of active healing skills, status effect recovery/prevention, TP regeneration, and of course, a stunning attack. Not joking this time, I'm not sure why they have that, but it can actually be pretty great. They can also increase item drop rates, which is handy. Lastly, their harvest skill is chop.

Portraits



Alchemists

"Those who study the control of nature. The power of fire, ice and lightning is at their command.

Elementalists who prefer the back."

The mages of Etrian Odyssey, alchemists fight with fire, ice, thunder and poison - they guzzle TP like nobody's business, but have a passive TP recovery skill which can help out a lot. Poison is pretty good in this game, to begin with, and elemental damage is hard to say no to. Unfortunately, you don't really get enough skill points to get a lot of their abilities up to a great standard, so you have to pick between specialising, and being useless in some fights, or generalising and just being kind of 'eh'. Similarly to medics, they can make enemies drop more items, and also have Chop as a harvesting ability.

Portraits



Troubadour

"Lively dancers and singers who inspire the party. Their support is always welcome in combat.

Supporters able to work on either line."

Troubadours are pretty much what you'd expect - fairly awful attackers (despite being able to equip a surprising range of weapons) but with buffs coming out of them in every direction. They can warp the party back a floor, heal the party's TP, increase elemental resistances, make an ally's attack a certain element, increase HP, decrease the number of battles you fight... they can do quite a bit, really.

Portraits



That's it for classes we have access to now - Ronin and Hexer are off-limits 'til later in the game. (And, from what I remmeber, they're also not all that good.) For those interested in making characters, should we do things that way, there are 5 people to a party, with 3 slots in the front and back row, so either 3 frontliners and 2 backliners, or the reverse, would be ideal.

Anyway, with all that said, it's voting time for a whole bunch of things! As a reminder, I need you guys to...

Pick a guild name, preferably not Dongs or anything similar

and



Pick what kind of LP you'd prefer to read:

A: A straight LP where I make the characters I want to use, and give my own commentary on the various goings on.
B: Similar to A, but with a goon-picked party (Though no ridiculous challenge runs, this is an Atlus game and I'm not THAT great)
C: A more narrative LP like Thuryl's Might & Magic LPs, where goons come up with characters and personalities, and I try to write dialogue for them to keep things interesting.

Also, one last thing - would you guys prefer I show the map at all times, or only when it's particularly relevant? Sorry to ask so many questions, I just want to make this LP as enjoyable as I can.

Edit, brief note on option A:

Were I to decide my own party, I'd probably go with a Landsknecht and Protector in the front, and a back line consisting of an Alchemist, Medic and Troubadour. (Later in the game, I might wind up swapping the alchemist out for a survivalist, not sure)

You can ignore the voting, now!

We're doing... mostly option C. See this post, and my post below it, for details.

Also, bear in mind, there's an 8 character limit on names, both for people and for the guild!

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Feb 14, 2014

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100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
The characters so far!

That... would've probably been a good thing to write, yeah. I figured people would realise from including names in the updates, but I'll probably just specify here and in the second post. :v:

Slaan's character Jill is our team medic, hater of zombies, and resident evil reference (or so I assumed), so she's in luck that, as far as I know, there are no zombies in this game.



Libluini's character Dietrich is our time-travelling drunken Landsknecht who, for some reason, had lower attack power (very slightly) than the protector for a while. I'm not sure what was going on there, but it seems to have remedied itself.



Lotish's character Hector is our gung-ho protector, who founded a guild, then proceeded to nearly get himself killed by being a bit too gung-ho.



Death Dealer's character Alvis is the lightning-obsessed party alchemist, who will also be picking up some poison skills because it's simply fantastic early in the game. If this was a reference to something, it went over my head. (as did any references beyond Jill, honestly. :v:)



TheShim's character, Serasmus has been with us for quite a while, but for some reason, I forgot to put him in this post for ages.

...Oops. In any case, he's a snarky, cynical alchemist, preferring an adaptive approach to the use of magic over focusing on one particular area! Handy!



Lazy Programming's character Keyser is the party troubadour, who specialises in making my life miserable due to having to try to think of how to make his speech either poetic, quoting something, or using some form of literary technique. :v:




Dr Pepper's greedy little survivalist, who essentially slipped her way into the guild just to help herself make a quick buck. It's working out pretty well for her so far!



Roctavian's undead-hating, whip-wielding Dark Hunter, Richter.



SSNeoman's character Musashi - an old sword-wielding ronin, full of all kinds of stories of his incredible prowess, some of which may even be true.



BlazeEmblem's character Fran is a Hexer so full of sugar that she doesn't realise she's in command of the dark arts. Instead, she mostly seems obsessed with trying to hug things into submission, which can be surprisingly effective!



Fanart!

HelloWinter has been working on some beautiful images -





and while they're apparently 'only' WIP thumbnails, they still look fantastic.

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Nov 23, 2013

frajaq
Jan 30, 2009

#acolyte GM of 2014


This game, I tried you know? But this whole make-your-own map thing? Too much :effort: for me. Glad there are people who like the style of this game though!

SirKibbles
Feb 27, 2011

I didn't like your old red text so here's some dancing cash. :10bux:
C,show the map when relevant Make the Guild name Saints or Saints Row if it fits.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Oh god drat, we've got a masochist on our hands!

I very briefly considered an EO3 LP but decided against it for several reasons: the interaction is tricky, the time investment on EO is heavy, and the game hates you so much.

I'm going to put my vote in for B, though the first one is actually the only one I haven't played! From what I understand a Medic and Protector are ridiculously good though, so I expect you'll get those regardless of how you wing it. As for guildname...I think :smith: should work.

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

theshim posted:

Oh god drat, we've got a masochist on our hands!

I very briefly considered an EO3 LP but decided against it for several reasons: the interaction is tricky, the time investment on EO is heavy, and the game hates you so much.

I'm going to put my vote in for B, though the first one is actually the only one I haven't played! From what I understand a Medic and Protector are ridiculously good though, so I expect you'll get those regardless of how you wing it. As for guildname...I think :smith: should work.

I was half tempted to do EO3, as it's my favourite of the series for various reasons, but starting with the third game seemed like an odd thing to do, and if this goes well, I can always continue on to doing the rest of the games. Besides, I DO like all of them!

Also, pretty much, yeah, in response to the medic/protector thing. As I understand it, troubadours are pretty good, too, but even if I wind up with a fairly terrible party I can hopefully make up for it by just endlessly grinding off screen.

From what I remember of the classes, Medics are basically the best thing ever, with their wide range of healing skills and an apparently very damaging melee skill, protectors are also really important, troubadours have got a bunch of really useful buffs, Landsknechts are a great way of filling a front line slot, and alchemists/survivalists are both pretty useful, Alchemists especially early in the game, as poison lets you murder your way through the first few floors, and survivalists get much better later when you have access to good bows, and dark hunters are just a bit situational and crap. I haven't actually used ronins/hexers much at all, but I remember being underwhelmed when I did give them a whirl.

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 19:02 on Jun 21, 2012

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
I considered that as well, but if I did end up hating myself enough to LP one of these games, it would have to be the best of them - and EO3 is a legitimately good game!

(If not the guild, at least one of the characters should be :smith:. That third Troubadour looks good.)

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!

100percentjesusfree posted:

protectors are also really important

From what I remember, they're not just "really important" for certain fights you can only win if you use a protector. Pretty sure that just applies to specific optional bosses at least, rather than anything in the main game. Still, if you don't use one that's kinda silly so use a Protector, dammit.

I'd also recommend making 5 survivalists to form a secondary party so as to take advantage of their ability to harvest everything just in case you really need it.

As for the map drawing thing, I don't remember if it applies to the first one or not (I've mainly played #2; still haven't finished #3) but, whenever you step on an unmarked square it'll autofill that spot in. It won't include walls, harvest points or events but at least you can't outright screw yourself over without actively trying and it's useful for certain sections. Plus, given how the map drawing here is still pretty basic (can't see where parts connect between sections when you're drawing, for example) that's really useful for making sure you don't gently caress up.

Or anyone playing for their own sake could just do the smart thing and copy maps off of GameFAQs.

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

Dragonatrix posted:

map autofill thing

Yeah, it does. You can turn it off if, for some reason, you hate the game doing your job for you.

And yeah, the 5 survivalists thing is always a good idea, so I'll probably be doing that. I'd almost forgotten how much of a huge pain it is to get money at the start of this game.

Libluini
May 18, 2012

Grimey Drawer
I love this series! For some reason it was even more fun for me exploring and charting the labyrinths in part 2 and 3 then getting massacred by monsters. (Getting slaughtered by ridiculous strong monsters is still hilarious, though.)

I recommend C. Go for the challenge! And name the guild Logan's Run, because I don't think it will take long before your first batch of adventurers ends up being horribly maimed. You see, they are only 5 days away from turning 21. :v:

Artix
Apr 26, 2010

He's finally back,
to kick some tail!
And this time,
he's goin' to jail!
You crazy, crazy motherfucker. Why in god's name would you leave anything up to Goons in this game? Go with LP Style A if you value your sanity in any way, or B for maximum schadenfreude.

Panic! at Nabisco
Jun 6, 2007

it seemed like a good idea at the time
I always thought leaving class selection up to goons was for games that were possible with every class combination. :v:

I think you should go with C because I'm really not a very nice person at all, and I also think you should use a Troubadour.

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
I should probably add which party I'd use if I went with option A (I'll put this in the OP, too)

Were I to decide my own party, I'd probably go with a Landsknecht and Protector in the front, and a back line consisting of an Alchemist, Medic and Troubadour. (Later in the game, I might wind up swapping the alchemist out for a survivalist, not sure)

Also, Panic, it's not really being a bad person if you're voting on one of the options I provided. I was kind of leaning towards C myself, but was just worried I'd turn out terrible at it and wondered what other people would prefer to see.

Azure_Horizon
Mar 27, 2010

by Reene
Yeah do not leave party selection up to us. Play with classes that will actually let you live and don't listen to anything but good class choices.

Also F O E! F O E!

Azure_Horizon fucked around with this message at 19:40 on Jun 21, 2012

Umbilical Lotus
Nov 13, 2005

OH NO!!!! AXE CUT YOU!!!!
Etrian Odyssey! I really want to like this game, but it hates me and doesn't let me love it. The exploration parts are right up my alley, but the incredibly challenging combat slowly sucked all the fun out of the experience. So I'm glad you're suffering for us! Yaaaay!

I like option C, and if memory serves there's five members in a standard party, so I like the name Runaway Five. With that in mind, my one request is that you must include a Troubador. Half for theme, half because that's the class I never did actually take along with me when I played.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Oh god, it was only a matter of time :suicide:

Aramek
Dec 22, 2007

Cutest tumor in all of Oncology!
Option C are always the best to read. As for team names? The Jackson 5. Name your dudes Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael.

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
After a quick look, votes seem split between option C and telling me it's a horrible idea to let goons pick my party, so how about a compromise?

Those interested can come up with a character they'd like to see, and I'll try to include as many as I can, but most of the game will be done by a group consisting of Landsknecht, Protector, Alchemist (to start with at least, and preferably a Poison specialist), Troubadour and Medic (as well as 5 survivalists who accomplish very little beyond money farming)

One character of each of those types will definitely be included, so those who'd really like to see a character of theirs in the LP should aim to come up with one of those, and I will try to include as many suggestions of other things as I can. (I'll definitely show off every class at least once, but making one of the above drastically increases the chance your character will be in the main party.)

Does that make sense/sound like it'd be interesting? If so, I'll post a suggested format for suggesting a character. Sorry if I'm kind of dragging things out by asking a lot of questions, I'm new at this, and want to make sure everyone has a good time.

As a bit of an aside, the alchemists poison skills have some of my favourite flavour text for just what they do.



E. We currently have enough characters for a party - making a character now is less of a guaranteed shoe-in. I'll still try to include people though!

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Jun 21, 2012

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Can I lay claim to the Alchemist then? :v: (Not exactly sure how you're doing this.)

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

theshim posted:

Can I lay claim to the Alchemist then? :v: (Not exactly sure how you're doing this.)

I guess I'm not too great at explaining things... basically, if I do things that way, I'd like to see people post a few things for the character they'd like to see included: A name, Class, a bit about their personality/backstory if they have one (so I can actually write dialogue for them), which profile they'd like to use, and if they care, what kind of thing they'd like to specialise in. So, for example, something like...

Name: Goonguy
Class: Landsknecht
Personality/Backstory: A bit slow on the uptake, but an overall nice guy who just wants to get along with everyone. Has a terrible history with tree rats.
Speciality: Swords
Portrait: 1

That's... just an example, and a bit of a crappy one, I'm not going to lie, but it should give a bit of an idea of what I mean, I hope. Not every class really works with different specialities, like protectors are pretty much always going to be all about the defense.

e. totally forgot to add portrait to the example text, 'til someone smarter than I am added it in their character suggestion.

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Jun 21, 2012

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
Alright, that's more or less what I thought.

In that case, consider this post a placeholder for an Alchemist (which I will type up when I get home from work).

E:
Name: Serasmus
Class: Alchemist
Personality: Bitterly cynical. Dislikes other people; travels with the party because he knows he needs meatshields, not because he enjoys the company. Sarcastic. Exploring the Labyrinth in search of the "great power lost to Man", though he has no idea what it actually is. Prefers a general, adaptive approach to magic rather than specializing (so yes, early Poison is go). Actually enjoys in-depth debate on various subjects, especially magic, but rarely finds anyone who holds his interest (leading to further disappointment and withdrawal).
Portrait: 1 is perfect.

theshim fucked around with this message at 22:19 on Jun 21, 2012

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

theshim posted:

Alright, that's more or less what I thought.

In that case, consider this post a placeholder for an Alchemist (which I will type up when I get home from work).

Alrighty! I can't guarantee anyone will stay in the party all the way through the game or anything, but if a character's particularly popular with the thread, I'll try to use them more.

Also, one other thing in general - if anyone in the thread thinks my writing is terrible, unfunny or contributing nothing to the thread, don't be afraid to tell me to just drop it and do a more straight LP, as I will do so. Criticism and suggestions in general are welcome, honestly, about anything and everything - though if the suggestion is pointing out something I missed, it'd be nice if it was spoiler tagged.

Slaan
Mar 16, 2009



ASHERAH DEMANDS I FEAST, I VOTE FOR A FEAST OF FLESH
Name: Jill
Class: Medic
Backstory: Hates zombies and other undead with a passion. Loves 'bad boys.'
Portrait: 4

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

Slaan posted:

Name: Jill
Class: Medic
Backstory: Hates zombies and other undead with a passion. Loves 'bad boys.'
Portrait: 4

Haha, as far as I can remember, I don't think undead actually show up in this game. (Which will probably be proved wrong, it's been a while. :v:)

Still, that works, thanks!

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jun 21, 2012

Libluini
May 18, 2012

Grimey Drawer
OK, let's try this:

Name: Dietrich
Class: Landsknecht
Backstory: Timetravelling German mercenary. (An actual Landsknecht.)
Portrait: Edit: I hope I'm not slowly turning blind. Take portrait one please, the guy with the scar.

And try to specialize in swords. No wimpy axes for Dietrich!

Libluini fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Jun 21, 2012

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

Libluini posted:

OK, let's try this:

Name: Dietrich
Class: Landsknecht
Backstory: Timetravelling German mercenary. (An actual Landsknecht.)
Portrait: A male one. (My memory is a bit fuzzy regarding the order of the portraits, so I let you choose which one.)

The portraits are all at the end of the first post along with my class writeups. Thanks though! (Also, prefer deliberate time travel or a lost-in-time type thing?)

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Jun 21, 2012

Libluini
May 18, 2012

Grimey Drawer

100percentjesusfree posted:

Also, prefer deliberate time travel or a lost-in-time type thing?

Better make it a lost-in-time type thing. Giving a real Landsknecht the ability to deliberately travel through time and space is a bad idea. :v:

Libluini fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jun 21, 2012

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
Works for me! I... may or may not try to simulate a German accent with text, though I make no promises.

Also, voting for a guild name is still open!

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Jun 21, 2012

marshmallow creep
Dec 10, 2008

I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Name: Hector
Class: Protector
Backstory: A gung-ho, uncouth, almost aggressive guard who forgets his job is to protect and ends up eating hits mostly just because he keeps trying to take all the glory.
Portrait: 3

Death Dealer
Jul 25, 2006

I'd say go with Option C since there are a lot of unusual combos that are still perfectly viable and you can always veto if it gets too stupid.

With that said, there's a reason Medics have the Stunning Attack, and while I never personally tried it, apparently with that attack they become one of the most powerful fighters in the game since they can dish out damage roughly equivalent to the Survivalist's shot that takes 3 rounds to wind up, except EVERY turn. You obviously want a backup medic if you end up experimenting with that though.

Take this with a grain of salt, of course, but I recall that being a really popular thing to do along with a certain resist boosting skill for the post-game content. (Unspoiled since someone else basically mentioned it, just altered my wording from the original. I can respoil this if it is preferred.)

Name: Alvis

Class: Alchemist, Thunder Focused (feel free to take poison early since I know it's fun to show off how strong it can be)

Backstory: Obsessed with static electricity from a young age, Alvis learned that through Alchemy he could make increasingly destructive sparks. His idea of Alchemy may or may not simply involve rubbing things together and static shocking people. For some reason, it still works. Yes, this does basically make him the electric version of a pyromaniac in all ways.

Portrait: 3

Clan Name: Clan Runaway. Because they are so brave, you see.

Feel free to do the Survivalist "abuse" since burning out is a real possibility otherwise, even as someone that loves the series.


Edit: Grammar cleanup, rewording something to be a non-spoiler.

Death Dealer fucked around with this message at 22:07 on Jun 21, 2012

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Just need a troubadour now, and the thread to agree on a guild name they like, I can get started on an update. (And don't worry, theShim, please do still make an alchemist you'd like to see, I plan on including as many characters as I can one way or another!)

Also, I edited the first post to reflect this, but bear in mind that there's an 8 character limit for names and guilds.

Libluini
May 18, 2012

Grimey Drawer

100percentjesusfree posted:

Works for me! I... may or may not try to simulate a German accent with text, though I make no promises.

Also, voting for a guild name is still open!

Don't worry about the accent. As long as you make him a foul-mouthed, daring (but pragmatic) bastard you are covered authenticity-wise.

quote:

Clan Name: Clan Runaway. Because they are so brave, you see.

This. I'm seconding that. Even better than my suggestion!

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

100percentjesusfree posted:

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Just need a troubadour now, and the thread to agree on a guild name they like, I can get started on an update. (And don't worry, theShim, please do still make an alchemist you'd like to see, I plan on including as many characters as I can one way or another!)

Also, I edited the first post to reflect this, but bear in mind that there's an 8 character limit for names and guilds.
Edited mine, so he's there, whenever you get around to using him.

I still stand by :smith: as the guild name.

And yeah, by all accounts Caduceus is just ridiculously overpowered. Clearly you must use it. (Though not as overpowered as Immunize!)

Turncoat Mommy
Oct 3, 2010

I believe in you.

100percentjesusfree posted:

Thanks for all the suggestions, everyone! Just need a troubadour now, and the thread to agree on a guild name they like, I can get started on an update. (And don't worry, theShim, please do still make an alchemist you'd like to see, I plan on including as many characters as I can one way or another!)

Also, I edited the first post to reflect this, but bear in mind that there's an 8 character limit for names and guilds.

Name: Keyser
Class: Troubadour
Backstory: Every thing he says is either a poem, a reference to literature, or in iambic pentameter.
Portrait: 3

Have fun.

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

Lazy Programming posted:

Name: Keyser
Class: Troubadour
Backstory: Every thing he says is either a poem, a reference to literature, or in iambic pentameter.
Portrait: 3

Have fun.

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS

This actually reminds me of the time when I wrote a character for an online game of Brikwars who spoke in nothing but limericks. :v:

On a more serious note, as much as I like this idea, I'm not sure how well I could pull that off, realistically. I'm terrible with poetry aside from ridiculously stupid limericks, not so hot on literature, and don't know if I could pull of iambic pentameter. Hmm.

100percentjesusfree fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Jun 21, 2012

Artix
Apr 26, 2010

He's finally back,
to kick some tail!
And this time,
he's goin' to jail!

Lazy Programming posted:

Name: Keyser
Class: Troubadour
Backstory: Every thing he says is either a poem, a reference to literature, or in iambic pentameter.
Portrait: 3

Have fun.

You missed the opportunity to call him Bastian. :v:

Turncoat Mommy
Oct 3, 2010

I believe in you.

Artix74 posted:

You missed the opportunity to call him Bastian. :v:

Wikipedia posted:

Linguists Morris Halle and Samuel Jay Keyser developed a set of rules (English Stress: Its Forms, Its Growth, and Its Role in Verse, Harper and Row, 1971) which correspond with those variations which are permissible in English iambic pentameter.
I felt like going with something like Chaucer was too heavy.

100percentjesusfree posted:

On a more serious note, as much as I like this idea, I'm not sure how well I could pull that off, realistically. I'm terrible with poetry aside from ridiculously stupid limericks, not so hot on literature, and don't know if I could pull of iambic pentameter. Hmm.
I'm willing to expand it to historical references and any linguistic trick, so long as you cite the more obscure ones and mix it up often.

Turncoat Mommy fucked around with this message at 22:39 on Jun 21, 2012

100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!
Alright, I'll give it a shot. I make no promises on how well this is going to work out - he might wind up being a bit quieter than the others so I don't drive myself insane looking relevant things up every time he opens his mouth. :v:

Anyway, everyone alright with Runaway as the guild name? If so, I'm going to take a stab at this and see how it goes.

goldjas
Feb 22, 2009

I HATE ALL FORMS OF FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT. I HATE BEAUTY. I AM GOLDJAS.
Medics are actually straight up overpowered in this game. They have a skill (that was removed from the 2nd and 3rd games for obvious balance reasons) that at max level gives you entire team I believe something like 50 or 60% resistance to...everything (I think it was called Immunize?). The protector has a similiar skill, called Protect or something, that at max level gives around 20-30% resistance to everything. Stacking these 2 buffs on your team the only things that can hurt you are the final boss and the optional bosses.

The second game has cheese as well, though it's offensive instead of defensive (involving the Hexer). The 3rd game is the first one in the serious without some serious overpowered skill cheese (well, that's a lie, there sort of is but it requires you to be really high level and in post-game stuff already to pull it off).

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100percentjesusfree
Mar 18, 2009

FOE! FOE!
100% FOE!

goldjas posted:

Medics are actually straight up overpowered in this game. They have a skill (that was removed from the 2nd and 3rd games for obvious balance reasons) that at max level gives you entire team I believe something like 50 or 60% resistance to...everything (I think it was called Immunize?). The protector has a similiar skill, called Protect or something, that at max level gives around 20-30% resistance to everything. Stacking these 2 buffs on your team the only things that can hurt you are the final boss and the optional bosses.

The second game has cheese as well, though it's offensive instead of defensive (involving the Hexer). The 3rd game is the first one in the serious without some serious overpowered skill cheese (well, that's a lie, there sort of is but it requires you to be really high level and in post-game stuff already to pull it off).

In the third game you can do Ninja zodiacs who let your party (or half of it at least, depending on whether you clone or not) use skills for free every turn for 1tp a turn

Still not quite as overpowered as take no damage ever, I suppose, but still pretty hilarious.

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