Part 4: I got a good feeling!

Nubswood is slapped down somewhere near the two towns.


Today, Clan Beoulve will become master negotiators. They can't fight, gather materials, or smith a sword, but they can sure talk about it.


Read: Bosses are immune to arrest and will abuse this right.


Clan Beoulve needs some capital, but this mission requires an item that has not been found.


Oh never mind here's one.


Zoik, go get it!


A mission requiring a Fencer! Cecile is perfect for the job.


Oh, done already?


Your reward is an early retirement. Bye Cecile!


The next step of the plan is to take this five-person clan and run away from a fight. The Clan Wars provides the perfect chance for Clan Beoulve to practice fleeing.


I don't know, Ramza. I've never thrown away my dignity with such speed before.


Hey, Zoik's back with some money!


Running away while having five or fewer clanmates opens up these missions. They cost 300 gil, offer twenty AP and no gil or items, but each mission always snags a candidate, depending on what race Montblanc asks for. That is dependent on the month. Currently, it's Sagemoon, the Nu Mou month.


Five days later, Sabatini returns with a potential member!


This hopeful is not very hopeful. Rejected.


Zoik returns with some Homework from the kid who wanted the Ancient Medal and a lesser fire rod. I won't ask why he has a lesser fire rod.


C'mon, give me a good one...


Oh hey, these missions give Negotiation. I suppose that's a useful skill when recruiting someone into a clan with a 20% total failure rate.


Well, this Huntmoon didn't end the way I hoped.


On Bardmoon, Montblanc wants other Moogles.


It's the Chocobo spawning season! Helping with that nets an egg and a sword.

Why does everyone offer weapons?


Fuck off, Montblanc fills my Moogle Black Mage quota.


"Now, I'll ssay it once. Either you lay that egg, or I punch you in the face until it fallss out."


Oh god everyone is out to get me!


Once Kingmoon comes around again, both this month's and last month's requests are open.


Blue Mages have some amazing stats. They lack bad numbers in any growth in particular. I kinda wish I could kick Ramza out for this badass.


Moogles have good defense. All 8 classes have surprisingly good defense growths, including Black Mages. The highest defense growth in the game (9.9) in fact belongs to the Juggler.


Paladins have nice HP, Attack, Defense, and Resistance, but suffer a pitiful 0.8 speed growth.


Woah what? A Gladiator already? Well get on board! Gladiators have great attack and a greater-than-two MP growth. Sure they're kinda slow but It's nothing that I can't fix.

Well, when this slow of a class is the 3rd fastest in the race...


So long, Augusto!


What are you talking about? The initial lineup of Clan Beouvle kinda sucks.


This Red Mage is pretty bland as far as Red Mages go. They don't excel in anything and even have a pretty low base speed.


Despite how utterly absurd and overpowered a Gunner's skills are, the Gunner itself suffers from hideous stats. A pitiful 6.8 Attack for a physical class? 1.1 MP with 8 base? No thanks!


Despite his hilarious name, Hores doesn't get a spot due to his speed and Humanness. Illusionists eat MP like woah and Nu Mou Illusionists get a sizable chunk more.


Seth gets in the cool kids club for having an immense Magic Power. Nu Mou Time Mages have the highest magic, despite none of their spells using it, and fairly low MP for a mage, despite needing it. Whatever, it's hard to resist a magic stat that's twenty higher than Sabatini's.


I'm really biased towards Templars. They get Haste, three separate spells for nerfing enemy mages, and so many equipment options. Starting as a Templar, however, is pretty bad as their speed is atrocious. Bye.


Sabatini out, Seth in.


I happen to think we're doing fine, Ramza.


Snipers are pretty cool. Highest Viera attack, really fast, and some cool abilities. Too bad she's not what I'm after, eh?


Beastmasters have the best physical stats of Nu Mou. Nu Mou have exactly one physical ability. Everything else is magical. Rejected.


At ten negotiation, a Cross Helmet materializes out of thin air. You get items for hitting certain attribute numbers. My goal is 30 Negotiation.


Gadgeteers have an unreliable ability and the worst speed of Mooglekind. However, they've got a top-class resistance (tied with Nu Mou Black Mages for best in the game) and a very good defense. I guess you could raise one to tank like a motherfucker if you wanted to do that really bad.


All my fleeing has added enough battles that the shops upgraded. Now, I've got very fancy items like this staring at me, begging to be purchased.


Bishops are the sole magic-based class Bangaa have. Granted, with Holy and Break at their command they aren't guys to bite your thumb at. Still rejected for being so slow.


Alchemists get Toad and Meteor. Hell yeah. They automatically have Item so you don't have to sacrifice the second ability slot for it. Still, this guy doesn't have the speed or magic to make me consider replacing Seth.


Morhpers have a really fucking complicated gimmick that I can't hope to explain yet. All that matters now is that they have high speed but bad magic. Rejected.


Mog Knights are stalwart buggers with great attack and defense and some fun abilities. Still rejected.


OH FUCK YES AN ASSASSIN!

Look at that speed. LOOK AT IT. It's a full twenty points over her competition. Assassins also combine that simply absurd speed with amazing attack and magic power growths. Sure, they have low HP, but who the hell cares when Assassins double-turn lesser beings? It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that a majority of the nerfs in FFTA2 targeted assassins. They are simply that good.

Of course I'm using one.


Bye, Zoik. You can rest now.


Assassins require a sniper action ability and two Elementalist action abilities. Snipers in turn require two Archer action abilities while Elementalists require one from Fencer and one from White Mage. I better get started.


Now I can flee like never before! HAHAHAHA!


If a Blue Mage's balance isn't your thing, Hunters are the other amazing Human class. High attack and speed, a good 3.2 MP growth, and some rad abilities.


A Diamond Helm materializes to signify I've hit 15 Negotiation. The Cross Helm is sold for capital.


Woah what? Dragoons have even more attack than Gladiators and carry a pretty nice base speed. Magically they're worthless but that's a minor thing. Eugene is out, Carson is in.


I think Spirit Magic is an interesting ability. Sure, it's mostly single-target with mediocre damage but the spells are very reliable about their statuses. Still, she's no Assassin. Bye.


Sages are interesting. Sagacity Skill features Bio, one of the most MP-economical spells ever; Raise, a multi-target revival spell; Blind, which is very useful in this game; and Gigaflare, a big fuck-off attack spell. Furthermore, they have high HP and defense for being mages, along with the best MP growth in the game. Sadly, they are the slowest class. The solution there is to put Sagacity Skill on a faster class like Time Mage and roll with it.


My fetish for Templars is almost matched by my fetish for Jugglers. Not half bad attack, aforementioned amazing defense, and the best speed of all Moogles. Stunt has some great abilities, too.


At twenty, I get a rapier that teaches Red Mages Magic Attack+.


At 25, this dagger pops up. It's a really strong knife that teaches Jugglers the Smile ability, which gives the target another turn.

For free.

(fun fact: If a Viera masters Cure as a Red Mage, the White Mage masters it too. This same trick works in FFTA2 for getting Seers the ~ra spells easy)


The Diamond Helm is sold to get the last bit of gil needed.


If only you had waited a bit, Rickman, I would've accepted you...


Finally, at 30 negotiation, the Cinquedea is mine! Not only is it an absurdly strong knife that lets Ramza hit for seventy damage, but it teaches an important ability...


It works exactly like it sounds like it does.


Liam is the first moogle I see. He is accepted to get Clan Beoulve back to six dudes.


Animists get Sheep Count, a multi-target sleep spell. Remember how I said sleeping people have 0% evasion?

Ramza's got some stealing to do.


Before that, Carson starts wearing these Kaiser Knuckles I got from some mission to learn Air Render. Air Render is essentially a ranged physical attack.


Almost covered by Norma's first elementalist ability is the Atmos Blade, which teaches Human Fighters Air Render and Mog Knights Moogle Lance, which acts exactly like Air Render.


Also this jobber is obtained so he can be sent on dispatches requiring battles or enemy kills to clear without hurting my fighting force.

Clan Beoulve is ready for action.

NEXT TIME:

Ramza begins his brain-plundering rampage!

GAME MECHANICS Vol. 3: Base stats and growth

I've oft mentioned things like base stats and stat growths in this update, so I shall take some time to explain. Let's use a Dragoon, like Carson, for example.

Dragoon
HP: 40/8.2
MP: 8/1.2
Atk:96/9.6
Def:84/8.4
Pow:56/5.6
Res:60/6.4
Spd:104/ 1.1

Basically, if Carson were level 1, he would have 40 HP, 8 MP, 96 Attack, and so on. Being level 3, he has gained some stats. Next to that 40 for HP is an 8.2, which his his HP growth upon gaining a level. A Dragoon always gains at least 8 HP and has a 20% chance of getting 9 when leveling up. As you can see, Dragoons have very high attack power while their magic putts along and pretends to matter.

Speed growth is arguably the most important stat. It doesn't matter how powerful a spell is if the mage rarely gets to act! That's why Assassins are so wonderful. They have 2.3 speed growth, the highest in the game. Second are Ninjas, at 2.1. There are a bunch of things at various points of 1.x and a few slowpokes with speed growth of less than one, meaning they sometimes just don't get speed!