I made a new blog review about ARMR's Zephyrus the first of their free classes. I have more reviews written about the rest of the classes that I'll post up in the following weeks but for now I think this one is one of the all stars of the group being a blast to play and the fact that it's an interesting play-style martial.
It's free so you can check it out and judge for yourself.
Well, the dragoon is the thing I most remember from watching my older brother play through Final Fantasy IV.
Just grabbed it and will check out - love spear wielders also.
My friend showed me this class a couple weeks ago. I just stared at it and realized it completely invalidated the Dragoon homebrew class I had made. But ya know what, Im glad. I've always wanted to play a Dragoon, and if I ever get the chance, I will definitely play this.
Out of curiosity, how do you think it compares to this version of the dragoon on the FFd20 site? I know i've asked before and after going through the forums and homebrew sections, these 2 (the ARMR one and the one on the site) are the ones that stand out the most to me.
I definitely do like the Lancets from the ARMR studios version and how they can really change up how the dragoon plays with the modifications on their charge, whereas the FFd20 one seems more linear in terms of how they'll play. Not only that, the Tactical Charge ability that eventually allows you a single turn while charging seems really useful.
But at the same time, Leaping Charge seems rather ill-defined. Does it actually allow you to jump over an enemy or are you just doing a regular style charge?
That said, I'm still new-ish when it comes to comparing class likes this and figuring out how balanced something is, so I have no idea if the FFd20 is balanced in a reasonable way.
Thanks for your help!
Out of curiosity, how do you think it compares to this version of the dragoon on the FFd20 site? I know i've asked before and after going through the forums and homebrew sections, these 2 (the ARMR one and the one on the site) are the ones that stand out the most to me.
I definitely do like the Lancets from the ARMR studios version and how they can really change up how the dragoon plays with the modifications on their charge, whereas the FFd20 one seems more linear in terms of how they'll play. Not only that, the Tactical Charge ability that eventually allows you a single turn while charging seems really useful.
But at the same time, Leaping Charge seems rather ill-defined. Does it actually allow you to jump over an enemy or are you just doing a regular style charge?
That said, I'm still new-ish when it comes to comparing class likes this and figuring out how balanced something is, so I have no idea if the FFd20 is balanced in a reasonable way.
Thanks for your help!
One thing that I assume about Leaping Charge is that bypassing terrain and enemies is 'leaping over' them. Mechanically that's the main difference between jumping over something so I just make assumptions and interpret that they can charge over chasms and whatnot.
I honestly don't like the Dragoon in the link. In terms of raw power its stronger than the Zephyrus and jumps higher. Its pretty much a fighter with a bunch of extra stuff, Including bonus damage.
If I were to criticize the Zephyrus for being limited in modularity that goes double for the Dragoon which has zero actual choices. Not even bonus feats. It just gets more and more abilities tacked on meaning it is pretty much a one trick pony. Plus it's weapon training locks it even further.
It also has limit breaks, something I think is attached to some kind of mechanic in the FFd20 system which turns me off because that means it does not play nice with the base game by interacting with a subsystem that most other classes don't interact with. After looking up how to do limit breaks both the Pathfinder and Final Fantasy fan sides of me was not amused but that's a whole different can of worms.
It also has a lot of more points than the Zephyrus where I don't like the rules language or need some kind of clarification. For example: RAW jumping and then attacking in a normal fight does not work that well for it. It's rules calls out that it isn't limited for it's high jump but not for jumping horizontally, which means it's still limited by it's land speed to jump far. It has no rules language that allows it to bypass obstacles or enemies so there's no jumping over enemies. The Limit Break Falling Meteor does not call out that it gets re-positioned.
If I were to rewrite both, I would give a few more clarifications to the Zephyrus and add more Lancets. For the Dragoon, I'd rewrite and clarify a lot more.
Thanks a ton for the help! I also skimmed over the limit breaks, I don't really feel like PF does well with that sort of stuff (leaves it open to be gamed quite a bit).
Very good point too about choices. The Dragoon basically has 1 set build that it has to follow the entire time.
Yeah, I think for my setting then I'm definitely going to be working with the Zephyrus. I've always wanted a Dragoon of sorts from Final Fantasy and those were the best ones I could find.
Once again, thanks a ton for this. I really do appreciate it