Finishing the game under these conditions. Possible?

[gildedtalon]

1.Must not spend any money unless it's required to advance the story or get a certain character
2.No equipment upgrades, you are stuck with what you are given on that chapter
3.No weapon sharpening
4.No skill upgrades
5.You're only allowed to stay if it's free (no potch spent)

Btw, is equipment restocked after finishing a chapter?

Edit: There are lots of tweaks to the rules as of thomas' chapter and starting from chapter 4. It would be impossible otherwise

[eldrasidar]

1. Not a huge problem
2. this will make a lot of characters unplayable at later point of the game, as only the zexen knights actually ever gain improved equipment(and new medicine as a result) but this only happens between chapter 2 and 4, so most characters are going to be stuck with Chapter 1 or 2 level armor. I would recommend allowing the resupplying of medicine to characters(still can't pay for new medicine) since they will need it a lot.
3. this will be a problem at the end since essentially everyone will be attacking at only slightly higher strength than the 5 dogs normally do. it will make magic the only real way to damage most of the bosses. Does make the mounted characters fairly appealing though.
4. this would be the hardest one to not do. without improved arms and armor, skills are the only real way to get significant improvement out of characters, particularly with casting times, and armor, which would be the two biggest handicaps this way of playing would have.
5. not a big deal. through chapters 1-3, Chris can always find free room, hugo can find free room in chapter 1, and only geddoe needs to pay in every chapter, but every chapter requires him to stay at an inn once.

parties under this system are pretty much going to require that you grind a ton and spend a lot of time hunting runes like Fury, Warrior, Fortune and so on. most parties will need to rely on these, command runes and combo's to do any significant damage. magic might work, but you'll need to do it in tandem with Jongleur runes and Jeane in support in order to do it with any real speed, since only a handful of characters start with B's or A's in a magic skill, mostly in support magic skills, which you'll need. As a result, Estella and Rody will be your only real offensive mages, with Lucia and Elaine being the only two others with a natural B/B+ in Fire, Yuiri the only B in wind, and nobody else with a B or better in Lightning.

So you could do it, but you are basically limited to 3 rune characters. Particularly as you get into chapters 4 and 5.

[gildedtalon]

Where can I farm mega medicine? Lol, I'm surprised you're saying it's doable. I'm playing a new game under those conditions. I haven't messed with the runes so far

So far, I've reached hugo chapter 3
with geddoe and chris still left unplayed.

edit:playing geddoe chapter 1

[eldrasidar]

the messing with runes will be more important in chapters 4 and 5, when bosses and monsters in general have far more PDF, which would be a problem for many of the characters of the game, whose initial weapon levels are fairly low, and they don't build up a great deal of strength to compromise. for other characters, like Futch or Edge, who's weapons start off fairly well developed, this wont be as big a deal. I would also expect you'll have more trouble from Chris and Geddoe chapters 1-3, since they have harder fights than Hugo (in particular, the boss at the end of Chapter 1 Geddoe could be quite a pain).

Farming Medicine is pretty easy. Mega Medicine only slightly harder(although Medicine A is better than Mega Medicine D and C). First off, your castle's farmer actually produces them, if you bring him seeds. you can also harvest it from various skeletons and plants from all over, and finally, there's usually 4-6 medicines/mega medicines in any treasure bosses treasure chest. And of course, a good deal of enemies just drop them.

if you're in hugo 3, don't forget to farm fury runes. It's a real pain to get them in 4 and 5, doable, but a lot more work. Fury is going to be far more valuable to you than double strike since everyone is going to have really lousy armor values(armor in this game caps about 320 or so, and you'll have a hard time getting to half of that), so equipping double strike is pretty much a death sentence to most characters.

[gildedtalon]

Already went past chapter 3, playing geddoe chapter 1. when is he allowed to stay for free at an inn?

[eldrasidar]

Geddoe is forced to stay at the in at the end of chapter 1 in Caleria, and he has to stay at the inn at Venay del Zexay in Chapter 3, I don't think either is free, but you have to do it, so it really doesn't matter. also I believe any of the 3 main characters may use thomas's bed for free.

[gildedtalon]

Okay, I'm thinking of using thomas' group. Not bending them with the rules stated on top.
Thomas' group: thomas, cecile, juan, piccolo
Will it make the challenge slightly easier? And also, maybe allowing the use of melville and alanis since they are pretty bad
Who are the worst characters in this game?

I managed to bead the twin head dragon with a lvl 29 party. Playing geddoe chapter 2

Just so you know, going to inn on chapter 1 does not recuperate hp and mp in chapter 2. you'll still start chapter 2 running out of magic and not full hp

[eldrasidar]

given than thomas's group is actually really awesome fully beefed up, it kinda defeats the point of the challenge. maybe let them do only half the challenge. Like you can boost their equipment up(but not sharpen skills or weapons) through chapter 2 thomas, but once you hit chapter 4 nothing.

[gildedtalon]

Lol I just beat edge with a 1 HP geddoe.

Btw when we fought Duke and the battle ends before anyone wins, there are two options:
1.go ahead
2.go for it, ace!

what happens if i choose go ahead when duke wants to take on one of the party?

playing geddoe chapter 3, currently finding something to eat

[eldrasidar]

hmm i don't know, I've never handicapped myself so much I couldn't beat Duke normally. I would guess you should pick go for it Ace for the best result

[KFCrispy]

wow that sounds like Ace can duel Duke?

[gildedtalon]

no, ace chickens out when geddoe tells him to go for it and joker said,"Figures." Luc comes out afterwards.

if you choose go ahead, duke will say it's very unusual for Geddoe to accept his offer and luc comes out

finished everyone's chapter 3 and about to play thomas' chapter using only thomas, cecile, juan, piccolo

what should I change from the rules so that chapter 4 and 5 become doable? at this point, i'm not motivated enough to continue since it doesn't seem possible

playing thomas chapter 1, time to recruit some characters

[eldrasidar]

hmm... well you could allow characters to upgrade their natural skills up to C(B for magic skills, but not learn any new skills), bring weapons up to level 9, and allow people to upgrade to Blessed series of equipment or equivalent(helm +25, casque +17, armor +90, chainmail +69, leather +57, robe +43, tunic +48), plus the Mangosh shield(+19), winged boots(+14), and power gloves(+8), but no other accessories, except medicine. note that blood armor counts as chainmail, and thus couldn't be used, unless the character could equip blessed armor as well. This would allow someone who is normally heavily armored like Cecile to have an armor value of 172, rather than her max which is about 100 points higher, meanwhile someone like Hugo, would only get up as high as 108, about 70 points lower than max. Essentially this would make Tanks into average defense guys, and thus bring down everyone else with them accordingly. The B for magic skills is so that most spells can at least be cast in one turn then, possibly with help from the jongleur rune, and Jeane, but without being super fast.

[gildedtalon]

wait, so what i'm allowed is
1.armor with +90 defense and below?
2.helm with +25 defense and below?
3.mangosh shield with +19 defense and below
4.winged boots with +14 defense and below
5.power gloves with +8 defense and below
6.restock of medicine and mega medicine?
7.sharpen weapon to lvl 9
8.upgrade combat skills to C and magic skills to B (no new skills allowed)
9.affix new rune (removing runes previously attached not allowed)

Edit:Updated

[eldrasidar]

I seperated out the armor by class, so if you can wear full armor, then you max would be blessed armor or +90, but if you could only wear Chainmail, you're best would be Blessed Chainmail or +69 and so on for Blessed Leather, Blessed Robes and Blessed Tunic. The same thing with the blessed Helm and blessed Casques. If you can wear a blessed helm, then +25 would be your helmet defense bonus limit, but if you can only wear Casques, then you would use the Blessed Casque's + 17 as your max. Otherwise, everyone would end up with basically the same armor value, rather than a slope from really weak mages to really tough armored knights.

So, you could equip Leo with Blood Armor(+70, counts as chainmail) because it is worse than Blessed Armor(+90) defensively, but you couldn't equip Geddoe with it, since he is capped by blessed Chainmail(+69), likewise, Leo could equip a wind hat, but Geddoe couldn't

You could affix new runes, but you cannot buy any. I might add that you cannot remove original runes, only fill up naturally empty slots, with the except of Rody, who cannot do anything with a wall rune equipped.