Adapting Fire Emblem to D&D3.5

[weckar]

So here I was thinking: most Fire Emblem games are grid-based team-combat experiences that have many diverse characters and a strong story. Most often, they involve somesort of military campaign.
Seems quite easy to me to adapt one of these games to a D&D3.5 setting. Two elements I don't know how to deal with, however:
1. How does one make alternate battle victory conditions feel natural outside a video game?
2. How would one manage the constant growth of the players' army with interesting characters, preferably without too many significant DMPCs in combats?

[Lvl 2 Expert]

A pokemon-like approach maybe? A player represents a court rather than a single person, and chooses, as the noble leading the court, who to send out for the latest mission. Sometimes they need a good military leader, sometimes a spy or a negotiator, and sometimes you have to choose whether to send a good fighter to a duel to the death or an expendable one.

Players keep having new interactions with each other, because their characters keep changing, but all the major story lines between the houses run on.

Tabletop RPG'S are the kings of alternate victory conditions, you just don't spell them out. The mission is "goblins are attacking the northern villages, deal with it". You could conceivably solve that problem by building an agricultural school in the goblin lands.

[weckar]

A pokemon like approach would well work, but how would that PLAY? Would a player just take a different character to each encounter? Because with this group that just won't work - they tend to get really attached to playing specific characters (and not very good at playing multiple at any time).

Alternate victory conditions I meant much in a Fire Emblem way: in some chapters all is required to kill a boss, or to get across a field, or even hold out for x rounds. Although writing this all of those could be easily justified in a TT...

[Fayd]

I just finished a game that was basically Final Fantasy Tactics Tabletop. Built the system myself, but I had each person control only one character and it, surprisingly perhaps, worked quite well. Now there was a lot of customization available, but I could see you making a Fire Emblem style game work too. You could do it even controlling only one character, probably only if you had class changes available, and the ability to equip a number of different skills and the like to allow for customization.

[Tuvarkz]

The main issue would be the disparaging increase in the caster/noncaster gap, however. In FE, one of the main contributing factors to damage are the weapons themselves and the variety of them, their construction material being an important factor, Dnd doesn't take into account this. In addition, most ways of inflicting secondary effects other than poison are limited to staff wielders and promoted, limiting most of the early level offense to direct attacks. Another similarly limiting factor is martial mobility (In FE, characters can still move their full distance and double/quadruple(with a brave weapon) their foes, at no penalty for successive attacks). Similarly, weapon durability is a missing factor in Dnd.

Honestly, the best way I've seen FE adapted into tabletop was someone scripting a whole lot of Roll20 macros and basically porting the game into a pvp/pve scenario, with a few more custom abilities and things of the porter's invention. There's a fanmade FE system as well, but I have yet to playtest it.

I'd strongly suggest against removing most casters entirely, restricting classes to non-initiating martials and reflavored warlocks for casters, plus healers acting as clerics.

[weckar]

That's all fair and good, but I want to ADAPT FE to fit 3.5, not the other way around. In other words, I want 3.5 with an FE flavor - rather than overhauling the 3.5 rules to feel like an FE game, mechanics-wise.

[Tuvarkz]

Hm, 3.5 can already do most of the "High lethality on mistakes" and "Offensive strategies work best" mindsets.
I'd have to say, however, if we were going to give 3.5 a FE feel, we need powerful mounted characters. Every single FE game has had its array of significantly stronger-than average cavaliers, with a few that were bad units but a lot were good (And NPC cavaliers were strong too). Pegasus Knights, regardless of overall usability, always made for stronger units (Although NPC ones used to be on the weaker side from weaker offensive growths). Playable Wyvern Riders? Above average to amazing units in terms of power (And NPC wyverns have always been dreadful foes).
Whether it be by making mounted units somewhat higher levelled characters or giving them other bonuses, a big part of the FE feel has always been mounted characters being powerful, and this is a part that strongly needs to be replicated.

[Fizban]

The way you fix casters is by not using 3.5 casters. Fire emblem casters are 100% Warlocks, even the big plot level magics are staves and one-shot spells (scrolls) that Warlocks can craft with Imbue Item. Said Warlocks use a standard 15gp spellbook as the focus for their blasting, with enchanted versions priced and functioning as magic weapons. You can make spellbooks and even weapons charged if you really want, but DnD focuses on rapid fire so it may not be wise. It's not hard to mess with invocations so you can customize that until you've got your distinct Mage/Dark Mage/etc, or rather your choice of invocations and essences is what defines how people look at you.

Mounts typically don't attack: their purpose it getting the rider into position, and since the mounts don't do the damage people don't usually attack them back. The Dragon Steed feat and Dragonnel stats that go with it are perfectly fine even if the picture is terrible. The Dragon Cohort feat can get you a Wyvern around 11th? The speed and maneuverability difference between Pegusai, Dragonnels, and Wyverns is quite striking and differentiates them just fine.

If you want each player to control multiple characters, that's what Leadership is for. If you want cohorts to not be hilariously overpowered, change it from PC classes at your level-2, to NPC classes at max equal to your level. At that point you can allow people to take Leadership multiple times and it should be fine, more bodies means less gear per body anyway.

If you don't want to brew or tweak anything, note that the Roll With It feat from Savage Species basically lets you turn feats into DR/-, so you can go General without needing a custom class (but a custom class is better). The ridiculously light armor of Peg Knight is clearly Gloryborn armor, which makes perfect sense as mounted combat is for lance charging and Gloryborn offsets some of the charging penalty.

The Red Hand of Doom module is basically a fire emblem campaign already. While standard AoE spells are expected and make it much easier most people figure you can get the same effect by summoning, or in this case by having extra troops (especially if they actually have ranged weapons).

And here's an obligatory link to my version of Manaketes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?486403-Manaketes-from-Fire-Emblem-Crouching-Human-Hidden-Dragon-%28LA-1-no-RHD-see-how!%29). They're made for normal games rather than warlock and brawler only, so while I've proudly placed them at LA+1 to start you'd want to increase that if you enact such restrictions.

[zergling.exe]

The ridiculously light armor of Peg Knight is clearly Gloryborn armor, which makes perfect sense as mounted combat is for lance charging and Gloryborn offsets some of the charging penalty.

I think you may be mistaking Gloryborn armor with just light armor in general. Any armor can be made into Gloryborn armor, including mountainplate. Gloryborn armor is for Conan characters, not 'lightly armored'.

[Inevitability]

Taguel/Laguz are obviously natural lycanthropes with the ability to spread their curse house-ruled out.

[zergling.exe]

Taguel/Laguz are obviously natural lycanthropes with the ability to spread their curse house-ruled out.

And requiring a magic item (or some such special stone) to transform.

[tadkins]

Sword wielders get a +2 attack bonus against axe wielders, but a -2 penalty against polearm wielders.

Axe wielders get the same bonus vs polearms, and the same penalty vs swords.

Polearm wielders get the bonus vs swords, the penalty vs axes.

[Fizban]

I think you may be mistaking Gloryborn armor with just light armor in general. Any armor can be made into Gloryborn armor, including mountainplate. Gloryborn armor is for Conan characters, not 'lightly armored'.
Peg Knights have lighter armor than even the light armored classes. There's light armor, and there's Gloryborn light armor. From DMG2: "Gloryborn armor and shields frequently seem to lack some vital defensive piece. . . leaving portions of his torso entirely exposed" The example given may be a set of barely there leather straps and people may use the effect as justification for chainmail bikinis, but it's also the only appropriate description for Peg Knights that often have nothing but a tiny square of metal on their chest and a couple of arm-guards (leaving their stomach completely exposed).

Further nitpicking points out that in DnD, chain shirt is the lord of light armors and there aren't actually any plate armor that are light, but no one wears chain in fire emblem because it looks lame. Oriental Adventures has Ashigaru armor, but that's made of strips rather than plates. So you need a medium or heavy armor for any unit that is depicted with plates for armor, and Gloryborn on basically every woman that isn't a Knight/General and half the men too.

Laguz do work best as lycanthropes since their timing based mechanic is bad in fire emblem and worse in DnD. I'd honestly forgotten about the Taguel since they were completely irrelevant to Awakening, but for both them and Manaketes I'd simply recommend at-will transformation. Even if you're using charged weapons it makes more sense that way as dragon/beast stones are a mechanical patch to make them fit in the weapon system.

[weckar]

LEADERSHIP! The one feat I always forget about because, ya know. But this is one place where it actually makes sense to allow it!