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Current one, unchanged.

+4 AS and +5 DMG when moving 4 spaces or more.

+2 AS and +3 DMG on Player Phase, with additional +2 AS and +2 DMG when moving 4 spaces or more.

+1 AS and +1.5 DMG for each space moved up to 4 spaces.

Current one but AS bonus is converted to DR from the end of the Player Phase until the next one.

I don't know but I want to see the results.

[Blade Master Model 42]

As for the Fencer's Sneaking ability, I apologize for the poor wording. First of all, by using 1 MOV, they can shift to another, unoccupied pillar within 4 Spaces, and then use the rest of their MOV for other purposes. If they DON'T move after Shifting, they are, indeed, Stealthed, until the enemy realizes the previously occupied pillar is now unoccupied, or if the Fencer makes an attack or moves off the pillar they sneaked onto (or if, on the enemy's turn, they stumble into the Fencer by accident, in which case their turn immediately ends much like if a player runs into an enemy in Fog of War)

Holy crap, that seems broke as hell. They could only possibly do that once per turn right? They couldn't continuously FTL between pillars to theoretically cover 20 spaces in a turn, right?

[CecilHoshino]

Cecil, is there a reason swords are so much better than basically every other category?

Part of it's subjective; certain weapons from certain categories are probably the best of their tier, and some just prefer others.
Part of it's a hold over from Fire Emblem proper, which has pretty much, throughout its entire history, shown favouritism to Swords and the classes who specialize in their use.
Part of it's from how the the weapon subsets try to fulfill a niche. For Lances and Axes, those tend to be "Raw Power, Range, Other." For Swords, given how neatly Fencer, Mercenary, and Myrmidon were divided, they each had a sword category tailored to them.
But it could very well come down to poor number balancing; after all, in a testing environment like this, you really stress test the numerical values, see what's too much, what's too little, and try to work it out from there.

Or a purpose for sidearms besides niche and gimmick uses?

Their purpose was more for the Thief Trainee and their promotions; something utility based, light weight, and potentially ranged. They're gimmick and niche based, if only because that's sort of the point of all the subcategories, having a niche they fill for a class.

And is Ancient Gamble meant to work for every attack a Shaman makes?

This is a bit tricky, since what you're using for Ancient Gamble, and what future installments of the book use for Ancient Gamble, are two entirely different things. But, in general, no, it's only a once per battle thing.

Holy crap, [Sneaking] seems broke as hell. They could only possibly do that once per turn right? They couldn't continuously FTL between pillars to theoretically cover 20 spaces in a turn, right?

Only once per turn, yes.

[Swordstar]

And is Ancient Gamble meant to work for every attack a Shaman makes?

This is a bit tricky, since what you're using for Ancient Gamble, and what future installments of the book use for Ancient Gamble, are two entirely different things. But, in general, no, it's only a once per battle thing.

That seems... really weak no offense. Also the wording is really bad if that's the case. The skill is already extremely chancy since it's a percentage thing. Add into that either you're using base str or you're dumping growth into a stat that is literally only used for that skill, and it basically becomes useless.

[Blade Master Model 42]

And that's why new Ancient Gamble is a million times better.

[Swordstar]

And that's why new Ancient Gamble is a million times better.

Ehhhhh, I'm still not a fan of making already (usually) slow characters take a major dump of speed but that's just me I guess.

[Rolepgeek]

Maybe Ancient Gamble should just add Str or 2x Str to crit?

For the subcategories, it seemed like Sidearms didn't really have a theme to them, though; they had multiple independent little things going on in it, from range to status ailments to sword-hate to crit(plus, not even a Brave Dagger. Bah!). And, while it might be well and good to hold things over from Fire Emblem like favoritism and some classes being just plain better than others...it's not really fun, or fair, to the people who like other classes and want to play those. :/

Crushing is raw damage, Thrusting is Effective damage(which was usually the Other category for the weapons, it seemed, or Even Heavier and Even Stronger, or both like with Crossbows), Slashing is crits(and high Hit?), and Sidearms is gimmicks. For Lances, it seemed like Javelins was range, Piercing was General(/High Hit?) and Polearms was Effective/Raw Damage. Axes had Hacking for General/Low Weight(?), Throwing for Range, and Bludgeoning for Raw Damage/Effective. Anima Magic had Wind Magic for Speed/High Hit, Lightning for Raw Damage/Crit, and Fire for General. Light Magic had Holy for General/Raw Damage, Judgement for Effective Damage, and Wards for Defense(Wards really suck right now, though, I mean seriously, unless you're making some sort of weird uber-tough build with Monks that isn't already immune to all damage). Dark Magic had Dread for damage, Ancient for Status effects, and Druid for Effective(apparently). Bows had Recurve Bows for General/Speed, Longbows for Range/Effective, and Crossbows for Flier Death, Accuracy, and Self-Defense.

But Crossbows, for example, suck for Self-Defense because of how much they reduce your speed by, meaning you'll be doubled and take more damage anyway. Their weights are just so tremendous that their damage doesn't really make up for it, not when you can't add your Strength. The Nature Spirits in v1.20, and the generally high Con of people anyway, made Wind largely redundant, and Wards just plain suck. Judgement was extremely over-specialized in many ways, and the Raw Damage of the two weapon categories that were supposed to have higher damage in general than Swords, pale in comparison to Crushing. Pilums make Javelins almost completely redundant save for Speed-pumping spear wielders, or ones with low Strength, and Thrusting seemed better than Slashing in almost every way, for a lot of the tiers(for 1.20, at least).

Also, how was Physical Training going from Troubadour to Mage Knight supposed to work, might we ask?

[birdy51]

I think that is the main point.

Shamans were never meant to be fragile speedsters, but glass cannons. I think that the new Ancient Gamble solidifies that quite well than just giving free stats. Take something, give something I say.

[Blade Master Model 42]

I disagree. Crossbows also give out free high damage in exchange for not letting you use str... Something that two players in NoH are using to great effect.

[Xanmyral]

Thanks for the answer Cecil, and for the missing weapons!

Good to know about fencer sneaking, since before we figured it didn't allow for further movement and seemed rather weak. Good to see that we were more or less correct on the sneaking bit though. Makes their skills much less situational (than it already is, at least, but then again most GMs don't have fencers in their group).

[Swordstar]

Maybe Ancient Gamble should just add Str or 2x Str to crit?

Lol, that's even worse. Sorry, but that's just not very useful and once again runs the thing of either being basically useless or requiring dividing up growths simply for the sake of some extra crit. Especially since Shamans aren't usually focused on crit.

[CecilHoshino]

[W]hile it might be well and good to hold things over from Fire Emblem like favoritism and some classes being just plain better than others...it's not really fun, or fair, to the people who like other classes and want to play those. :/

When I answered regarding favouritism, I didn't mean I was trying to show favouritism, either, just that, because of the inherent favouritism from the game, the stats for the weapons, including swords, carried over from console to tabletop, and thus imbalance. To curb that favouritism, running these games has been helpful.
(Besides, if I were to play favouritse, it would be for Knights and Soldiers and their promotions )

For a lot of the complaints regarding weapons, hopefully these were addressed, somewhat, by 1.22, but others are going to get changed. The Pilums, for example, were meant for the slower Knights and Soldiers, to give them some option for doubling, but the 1-2 range did make this problematic. So taking your criticisms into consideration, in future versions, their damage will be lowered, and their range will be strictly 2. Likewise, Nature Spirits will be looking a lot different from its 1.20 counterpart in the future, more in line with Nature Spirits, Pious Veil, and Ancient Gamble in 1.22

Also, how was Physical Training going from Troubadour to Mage Knight supposed to work, might we ask?

What was supposed to be the case was that, when you started as Troubadour, you would pick a Physical Weapon to wield, and a subcategory to specialize in. Physical Training would then amp the Weapon Rank on promotion to Mage Knight. In future versions of the guidebook, since Knights also gained the ability to pick their weapon of choice, Troubadours were given that same option without it being a Class Ability. But as far as 1.20 goes, if you promoted to Mage Knight from Troubadour, you pretty much skipped Mage Knight's Physical Training. Because Mage Knight promoted from Troubadours and Mages, essentially, Troubadours got both benefits of Horseback and Physical Training early, while Mages had to wait until they chose to promote to Mage Knight.

[Blade Master Model 42]

Actually, Pilums (briefly referred to as OPilums) were all reduced to range 2 based on an earlier vote, believe it or not. Good to see that change works for you as well.

[Solymr]

Convergent evolution at work.

New poll up, polling some changes proposed on my own to try and keep some consistency between base and promotion.

[SeriousConcentrate]

I can't remember if this has been asked of you before, Cecil, but there is a point of contention in a couple of games here that needs clearing up regarding performances. In the class description for Bards and Dancers, it says this:

Bard
The character is able to play a song for any ally adjacent to the user who has already used their action.
That character can act again. The character with this skill will effect all allies adjacent to them when
they activate their effect (up to 4 characters). This effect of aiding multiple allies works with the
standard Play ability, or with any currently equipped Performance. This skill overwrites Perform.

Dancer
The character is able to perform a dance for any ally adjacent to the user who has already used their
action. That character can act again. The character with this skill can effect up to 2 allies with it, but it
can be any ally within 2 spaces of the Dancer. This effect of aiding multiple allies works with the
standard Dance ability, or with any currently equipped Performance. This skill overwrites Perform.

which implies they can only perform for units that have already taken their turn, but later on in the book in the combat section, it says this:

Bards and Dancers have a very different way of affecting the
outcome of a battle. Rarely able to take part in combat itself, they
instead bolster their allies with various buffs, or hinder their
enemies with various ailments. The basic effect of the Bard and
the Dancer is to give allies to take a second turn during their
phase; allies who have already used a turn can take one again, and
allies who haven't already used a turn can take two this phase. No
ally can take more than 2 actions in a round, so any further
Performances or effects that grant an additional action are ignored.

Which one is correct?

[CecilHoshino]

The one that's correct is the quote under Bard and Dancer; those were rewritten later in the update with the proper rule in mind.
When I was running a test game on RPOL, I conceded to allowing the party bard to Perform for players who hadn't taken a turn yet, moreso because of the inherently slow nature of RPOL posting and the patience required in Play-By-Post in general. That was when I slipped that rule into the Combat section. Later, the Bard and Dancer had their Perform rewritten with the proper ruling in mind. In general, in faster paced games, either on forums, in MapTools, or on an actual tabletop, Bards, Dancers, their promotions, and the Again staff cannot grant an additional turn to a unit who hasn't already taken an action yet.