War of the Lions Tweak v2.

52 - Character Starting JP:

This document is extra reading material for the "lategame characters start with
more JP" change. It lists
each party member in the game with their starting job levels (before and after
the changes). Read on if
these details interest you and you don't mind the spoilers. Otherwise, just
playing the game and
discovering these as you go is fine, too!

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Overview:

In general, characters will start with more JP in proportion to how far in the
game they join your party.
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to hand-tune *all* of a character's job levels,
because of the way the game
generates characters, which is: you assign one job and a level for that job,
and all of the chosen job's
prerequisites are automatically filled in. So for example, in vanilla FFT,
choosing Thief level 1 would
automatically also set Archer level 3 and Squire level 2, as those were the
prerequisites for unlocking
Thief.

In WOTL Tweak this works a little differently. The job prerequisites themselves
were lowered to match the
US PS1 version of the game, but the ASM for generating characters was modified
to add +1 to each job level
prerequisite as they are filled in. This was done so that reducing the job
requirements for *the player*
wouldn't have the side effect of also reducing AI variation throughout thegame.
So for the example above,
setting a character to Thief level 1 in PS1 would result in Archer level 2 and
Squire level 2, but in
WOTL Tweak it results in Archer level 3 and Squire level 3.

Because of this, assigning job levels for later jobs often has the side effect
of setting the character's
base job to 3 (since Squire 2 is a prerequisite for any physical job) or 1
(because Squire *isn't* a
prerequisite for magic jobs). In cases where this is a loss, I set the
character's special job's base or
signature skills (such as Meliadoul's Crush Armor) to cost 0 JP with 100% learn
chance, so that the
character will always start with them available. Otherwise, it's more fun to
level a special character in
their base job anyway, so I consider this a feature, not a bug.

Also listed are the ENTD entry numbers where the character is defined (for
modders). I needed to document
this anyway for my own purposes, so I may as well include the info here. If you
don't know what this is,
then you don't need to worry about it!
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Lavian:

Squire 2 -> 1 (Changed from Knight to White Mage to differentiate

from Alicia)
Chemist 1 -> 3
Knight 3 -> 0 (Changed from Knight to White Mage to differentiate
from Alicia)
Archer 1 -> 0
Monk 2 -> 0
White Mage 0 -> 3
Black Mage 0 -> 1
Mystic 0 -> 2
Orator 0 -> 1

ENTD = 110. Duplicate in 183 for tutorial prologue battle.

I already talked about this change in the readme, but the purpose of this
change (and Ladd's) is to
differentiate Lavian and Alicia, and to increase the diversity of available
skills in the early game.
These three characters now also have access to a few more jobs the moment they
join, so that the player
can choose to take them in a different direction than their generic units from
chapter 1.

Alicia:

Squire 2 -> 3
Chemist 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Knight 3 -> 3 (Unchanged)
Archer 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Monk 2 -> 2 (Unchanged)

ENTD = 110. Duplicate in 183 for tutorial prologue battle.

Basically unchanged, just the same minor boosts that every early game character
gets in this mod.

Ladd:

Squire 1 -> 3
Chemist 2 -> 1 (Lavian is the White Mage now)
Knight 0 -> 1
Archer 0 -> 3
White Mage 2 -> 0 (Lavian is the White Mage now)
Black Mage 1 -> 0
Thief 0 -> 2

ENTD = 110. Duplicate in 183 for tutorial prologue battle.

Since Lavian is now the White Mage, Ladd has been swapped to a physical
character. I gave him light armor
classes instead of heavy armor classes in order to differentiate him from
Alicia.

Agrias:

Holy Knight 1 -> 1 (Unchanged, but see below)

Chemist 2 -> 3
Knight 1 -> 1 (Unchanged, but see below)
Archer 1 -> 1 (Unchanged, but see below)
White Mage 3 -> 3 (Unchanged, but see below)
Black Mage 1 -> 1 (Unchanged, but see below)
Mystic 1 -> 1 (Unchanged, but see below)

ENTD = 110 in this mod. Previously: 19D. Duplicate in 183 for tutorial
prologue battle.

Agrais normally joins the team twice - the first time as a Guest at the start
of chapter 2, and the second
time after Mustadio joins. In vanilla FFT, her job levels were reset when she
joined the second time, so
she'd actually *lose* any levels she had gained as a Guest, and she'd also lose
her White Mage levels for
no good reason. In this mod her levels are not reset, so she is improved, even
if the initial numbers
don't look much like it.

Note: WOTL Tweak now "transforms" Guest Agrias (ID 34) into real Agrias (ID 1E)
when she joins for real
(instead of creating the character again from scratch). Previous versions
of the mod simply used
ID 1E from the get-go, but this caused compatibility issues with vanilla
save games. The following
ENTDs will transform Agrias 1E back into her Guest ID (34) in order to
preserve compatibility with
both vanilla and previous versions of this mod: 193, 194, 195, 197. She
is transformed into 1E in
199 (her final battle before leaving the party).

Mustadio:

Machinist 4 -> 3 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Thief level

2)
Chemist 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Knight 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Archer 1 -> 3
Thief 0 -> 2

ENTD = 197 in this mod. Previously: 19B.

Mustadio has the same story as Agrias - he used to join twice, and he used to
be reset the second time. He
is no longer reset, so he gets to keep his levels. I gave him a few Archer
levels instead of Knight levels
because I want the player to discover for themselves (and feel clever for doing
so) the ability to use
Rend skills with guns.

Note: WOTL Tweak now "transforms" Guest Mustadio (ID 22) into real Mustadio (ID
16) when he joins for real
(instead of creating the character again from scratch). Previous versions
of the mod simply used
ID 16 from the get-go, but this caused compatibility issues with vanilla
save games. The following
ENTDs will transform Mustadio 16 back into his Guest ID (22) in order to
preserve compatibility with
both vanilla and previous versions of this mod: 199, 19A.

Luso:

Game Hunter 4 -> 3 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Dragoon

level 4)
Chemist 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Knight 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Archer 1 -> 3
Thief 0 -> 4
Dragoon 0 -> 4

ENTD = 203

Luso's stats and growth rates suggest that he should be a physical character,
rather than a magical
character, so I gave him physical classes that best match his "hunter" flavor.
At first I tried to keep
his job path open-ended for the player to decide (since he is the main
character of his own tactics game)
by giving him only Game Hunter and Chemist levels, but it just wasn't enough of
a boost to get me to want
to use him during playtesting.

Rapha:

Skyseer 4 -> 1 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning White Mage

level 7)
Chemist 1 -> 3
Knight 1 -> 0
Archer 1 -> 0
White Mage 0 -> 7
Black Mage 0 -> 1
Mystic 0 -> 1

ENTD = 1AC in this mod. Previously: 132. Also seems to be a copy of her in
1B2.

Previous versions of this mod gave Rapha a ton of spellcasting levels, mostly
to make up for the fact that
Marach didn't get any due to his low Faith. However, this resulted in an
overpowered character, so as of
v2.50 Rapha and Marach are getting a different set of improvements. Rapha is
going all in on the white
magic path (instead of both magic paths), and she's getting stat buffs that
make her function well as a
physical/magical hybrid character. Note also that Rapha's levels will no longer
reset the second time she
joins.
 Note: WOTL Tweak now "transforms" Guest Rapha (ID 19) into real Rapha (ID 29)
when she joins for real
(instead of creating the character again from scratch). Previous versions
of the mod simply used
ID 29 from the get-go, but this caused compatibility issues with vanilla
save games. The following
ENTDs will transform Rapha 29 back into her Guest ID (19) in order to
preserve compatibility with
both vanilla and previous versions of this mod: 1AE, 1AF, 1B1.

Marach:

Netherseer 3 -> 1 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Black Mage

level 7)
Chemist 1 -> 3
Knight 1 -> 0
Archer 1 -> 0
White Mage 0 -> 1
Black Mage 0 -> 7
Time Mage 0 -> 1

ENTD = 132. As an enemy: 1AC and 1AF. Also seems to be a copy of him in
1B2.

Previous versions of this mod gave Marach physical classes instead of magic
classes, because his low Faith
made him a terrible spellcaster. However, this resulted in too much overlap
with Luso and Balthier. As of
v2.50, Marach is now a good caster because the Faith calculation is reversed
for _all_ his magic, not just
Nether Mantra, turning his low Faith into an asset. He gets black magic levels
as a counterpart to Rapha's
white magic levels.

Note: In cases where Marach appears as an enemy (battles 1AC and 1AF), I gave
him fewer job levels than
indicated above. This is to prevent him from using something against you that
he later doesn't even *have*
when he joins you (because the AI might make different decisions when
purchasing his abilities for the
ally version). I used the same trick on Meliadoul as well.

Balthier:

Sky Pirate 2 -> 3

Chemist 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Knight 3 -> 3 (Unchanged)
Archer 1 -> 4
Monk 6 -> 4 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Ninja level
1)
Thief 0 -> 5
Geomancer 1 -> 3
Dragoon 0 -> 1
Ninja 0 -> 1

ENTD = 202
 Balthier was weirdly assigned Monk levels in vanilla FFT. I improved him by
assigning Ninja levels
instead, which gave him a bunch of levels in other light armor physical
classes, including Monk (though he
had to lose 2 levels there). It also gave him a bunch of Thief levels, which is
nice because it makes up
for removing the "Plunder" abilities from his base class.

Beowulf:

Templar 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)

Chemist 2 -> 3
White Mage 3 -> 3 (Unchanged)
Black Mage 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Mystic 6 -> 3 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Orator level
7)
Orator 1 -> 7

ENTD = 14A

Beowulf was given Orator levels instead of Mystic levels as a slight boost, but
also because Beowulf
should be associated with poetry. Previous versions of this mod gave Beowulf
Bard levels, which gave him a
ton of extra spellcasting class levels. However, as of v2.50, jobs unlock
faster and Beowulf's new Censure
ability gives him something unique and powerful to play with. Playtesting
revealed that he didn't need
much more of a boost after that.

Reis (human form):

Dragonkin 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)

Chemist 1 -> 3
White Mage 0 -> 4
Black Mage 0 -> 4
Mystic 0 -> 4
Time Mage 0 -> 4
Orator 0 -> 1
Summoner 0 -> 1
Arithmetician 0 -> 1

ENTD = 1D5

Reis was obviously intentionally made a completely blank slate, probably

because she hasn't been human in
a long time. However, this isn't great for gameplay. I went all in on
spellcaster levels in order to help
the player realize that her dragon breath attacks are based on magic power.
Starting with level 1
Arithmetician gives her a little bit of everything, so that I'm not imposing
any particular spellcasting
path on her.

Orlandeau:
 Sword Saint 6 -> 3 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Dark Knight
level 2)
Chemist 1 -> 3
Knight 1 -> 4
Archer 1 -> 3
Monk 0 -> 5
Thief 0 -> 4
Geomancer 0 -> 1
Dragoon 0 -> 3
Samurai 0 -> 6
White Mage 0 -> 1
Black Mage 0 -> 6
Time Mage 0 -> 1
Dark Knight 0 -> 2

ENTD = 13D

Since Luso and Balthier were given light armor physical class levels, I biased
Orlandeau toward heavy
armor by assigning Dark Knight levels. Reducing his Sword Saint level from 6 to
3 (itself a side effect of
giving him more JP) has the side effect of making him less overpowered until
you work for it.
It's a win-win!

Cloud:

Ex-Soldier 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)

Chemist 2 -> 3
White Mage 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Black Mage 3 -> 3 (Unchanged)
Time Mage 3 -> 3 (Unchanged)
Summoner 1 -> 6

ENTD = 1A3

It seems weird at first that Cloud only has levels in spellcasting classes, but
I guess it fits his
concept from FF7, where materia was more associated with magic than anything
else. So, I simply gave him
even more magic JP, and I'll let the player do the work of developing his
physical side. It helps also
that his Ex-Soldier class has been buffed in this mod to better function as a
hybrid physical/magic class
(more like Cloud in FF7).

Meliadoul:

Divine Knight 5 -> 3 (Reduced as a consequence of assigning Dancer level

1)
Chemist 1 -> 1 (Unchanged)
Knight 1 -> 3
Archer 1 -> 3
Monk 0 -> 4
Thief 0 -> 4
Geomancer 0 -> 4
Dragoon 0 -> 4
 Samurai 0 -> 1
Ninja 0 -> 1
Dancer 0 -> 1

ENTD = 1C9 in this mod. Previously: 1CA. As an enemy: 1BB.

I gave Meliadoul Dancer levels to ensure she has levels in both light armor and
heavy armor physical
classes, which differentiates her from Orlandeau and just seemed appropriate to
me. Note also that
Meliadoul's levels will no longer reset after her Guest battle.

Note: As mentioned above, Meliadoul has fewer job levels when she appears as an
enemy in order to reduce
the chances that the player encounters an inconsistency in her abilities.

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-- (C) 2021 - 2023 Tzepish (Blaine Higdon)