Relm Arrowny: Age Is Just A Number

[BTB 274]

Relm Arrowny
Age Is Just A Number

BASE STATS

Vigor: 24 / Magic: 42 / Speed: 36 / Stamina: 30

HP: 6 / MP: 45   BatPwr: 16 / Def: 24 / M.Def: 30 / Blk%: 12 / M.Blk%: 18

EQUIPMENT

Weapons: Paintbrushes, Rods
---
Shield: Light Shields, Elemental Guards 
Head: Crowns, Hoods, Bandanas, Hats
Body: Hides, Dresses, Vests
 

SKILLS

Sketch - use a foe's own attacks against it (relevant stat varies depending on attack used)

ESPERS

Ifrit - Speed+2  -----------------------  32 MP: fire damage (Magic) on all foes
Zoneseek - MP+20/Magic+1  ---  48 MP: sets Shell on party
Starlet - Stamina+2  --------------  80 MP: restores party's HP to max & lifts *all* bad statuses
Bahamut - MP+40  ---------------  99 MP: massive non-elemental damage (Magic) to all foes; ignores defense

SPELLS

Fire
Fire 2
Flare
Meteor
Drain

(All of Relm's black spells scale with Magic)
---
Osmose - Magic
Warp
---
Cure 3 - Magic
Rerise (???)
Remedy - Stamina
RegenX - Stamina

Edited August 24 by BTB

[thzfunnymzn 86]

Relm

The Foul Mouth, The Artist, The Living Nuclear Weapon, and The Poor Girl Without Father or Mother ; _ ;

Strengths

• Great offensive options, both ST and AoE
• Primary Healer, has Rerise
• Has Osmose; Magic esper gives MP
• Speed esper
• Can get Interceptor, greatly raising her p.eva
• Unique Hide armors & magic helmet
• Very solid debuff for randoms (Stop)
• Decent party buff & ST heal options
• Sketch is sometimes quite useful

Weaknesses

• No HP espers, no heavy armor, low p.def
• Extremely limited debuffs
• Offense is MP hungry, Osmose isn't terribly strong
• Interceptor requires killing an extremely valuable character
• Brush heal & buffs are so-so
• Sketch is hit-or-miss

A simple character. Nukes stuff, heals the party, spams Rerise, drains MP with Osmose, and prays desperately that she doesn't eat a physical or defense-ignoring nuke. In many ways, she's like the magical version of Locke, except without the option to become tanky.

Builds

Sage

The simple, standard magical nuke, built with a mix of magic, speed, and MP. Could simply build pure Zoneseek, or go for a mix of Ifrit, Bahamut, and Zoneseek. Does everything you expect out of Relm and does it well. Gear her for magic & speed and blow stuff up. Heavy Zoneseek will lead to more damage, while mixing in lots of Ifrit tends to lead to more support.

Highly recommended to always equip the Bahamut esper, unless it's a boss fight where you want Zoneseek but have someone else to set Image/Safe/Golem. Or unless you have Interceptor, but why would you kill Shadow?

Stamina

Stamina built Relm, with speed & MP as well. There's some decent synergy with Interceptor, Black Heart with hide / shield resistances, and RegenX spam. Also, her attack power doesn't suffer too much, as it was only a +1 magic esper. Biggest problem is that it's all a rather specific set-up, with one of the key components unavailable unless you kill a valuable character. Also, Interceptor's dodge chance works just as well for the Nuke Mage.

Misc

• Black Heart combined with the right shield & Hide can make Relm quite bulky. Even works with RegenX, though not with Cure 3.
• Pure Zoneseek levels with an MP booster gives Relm an enormous amount of MP. It's very possible to drown out Relm's "MP hungry" weakness under a giant pool of MP.
• Radiant Gown, brushes, and speed levels can maybe combine to make Relm a decent buffer?

Edited December 24, 2017 by thzfunnymzn

[thzfunnymzn 86]

Putting forward an Idea for stam Relm (Relmception):

• 1) Interceptor can be swapped between Relm & Shadow somewhere in the WoR (Thamasa?). You are not forced to kill Shadow to use Interceptor.
• 2) Instead of stamina-based counterattack damage with 50% dodge chance, Interceptor's chance to block a physical is related to the character's stamina stat. (something like Stamina/128, maybe?)

stam Relm is supposed to be defensive Relm, but without some unique mechanic to take advantage of (Morph, Chakra, Dance's Stumble), a pure stamina build just isn't good enough as a tank or support build. Relm's main flaw in her defenses are p.def & HP, and lo and behold, she's got a unique mechanic to defend her physically. It just needs to be actually, you know, usable without killing off the game's best glass cannon / speedy support. Also needs to key off the stamina stat to reward building stamina specifically, instead of being a straight 50%.

Give Relm Interceptor, one of Red Cap or Black Heart (works with RegenX), proper elemental resistances, maybe Bahamut, and maybe our RegenX Relmception build can finally be tanky enough to compete with Nuke Relm.

Maybe. Mostly shooting the idea out there. (Also calling attention to the fact that all my character guides are finished).

[SuperHario 12]

As to how Interceptor is transferred, it could be linked to after Shadow has had all his dreams.  If you want Shadow to keep Interceptor, don't let him sleep at inns.  If you want Relm to get him, you gotta hit up the 1 GP Thamasa Inn a bunch.

[zeteginara 5]

I actually think it makes sense, and is super simple, to just link Interceptor to both Shadow and Relm no matter what.  

[thzfunnymzn 86]

So, Interceptor always linked to Relm/Shadow, and my idea is still that Interceptor's block chance is stamina/128 or stamina/192 or something like that. Could care less what stat the damage keys off of.

[zeteginara 5]

Also, make it so you can always see all of Shadow and Relm's dreams in a single playthrough; you don't have to kill off Shadow.

Make it so there is absolutely nothing to be gained from killing off Shadow; after all, why in the blue blazes would you want to do that?

Edit:  Hell, I'd support making it so that Shadow can't die.  Reaching the airship automatically triggers escaping the Floating Continent, and Shadow automatically turns up and is 'rescued'.

Edited August 22, 2017 by zeteginara

[BTB 274]

FYI, Relm will be getting Life and Demi in 1.8.7 in place of Drain and Warp.

[MagiteKira 5]

On 8/22/2017 at 1:27 PM, zeteginara said:

I actually think it makes sense, and is super simple, to just link Interceptor to both Shadow and Relm no matter what.  

I second this.

 

On 8/22/2017 at 2:42 PM, zeteginara said:

Also, make it so you can always see all of Shadow and Relm's dreams in a single playthrough; you don't have to kill off Shadow.

Make it so there is absolutely nothing to be gained from killing off Shadow; after all, why in the blue blazes would you want to do that?

Edit:  Hell, I'd support making it so that Shadow can't die.  Reaching the airship automatically triggers escaping the Floating Continent, and Shadow automatically turns up and is 'rescued'.

I second all of this too.

 

2 hours ago, BTB said:

FYI, Relm will be getting Life and Demi in 1.8.7 in place of Drain and Warp.

Wait.... legit!?!

 

That's fucking awesome. I now have a reason to go back to 25 Ifrit Relm again. Life spells for days.

[thzfunnymzn 86]

Speed Relm is looking like another ultimate healer type character, though with Zoneseek & Radiant Brush to try and set Shell & Haste or something. Also outputs better damage than Celes & Locke, though frailer & the loss of Osmose's BPow does kinda favor mag Relm for Flare spam.

Half-tempted to separate spd Relm & mag Relm into two distinct builds, half-tempted to just leave them both classified as variants of the same build.

stam Relm still sad.

[BTB 274]

Seems more like Speed Relm and Stam Relm might be the same build, honestly. An even mix of the two with a few Bahamut levels for MP seems pretty viable.

[thzfunnymzn 86]

Eh, you & Mishrak see it, but I'm not really convinced. What's that stamina doing that more speed or magic couldn't do? Zoneseek lets you ignore Bahamut for more raw magic/speed. More speed means more turns for support. What's stamina doing? I'll grant status dodge & RegenX, but Regen (ticks) more useful if you've actually go HP/def to begin with & mg.def variance is really quite small.

The RegenX + Black Heart combo is real, since Relm has elemental resistance options with Hides & Shields. So I'd say stam Relm is a bit of a narrow specialist, built on the synergy of Black Heart with Hide/Shield & RegenX. Not bad, just...flat?...compared to mag & spd Relm.

[Franklin_WI 2]

This is a total beginner perspective (first timer, working my way through Kefka's Tower in 1.8.6), but I'm struggling to make use of Relm. There are so many attacks that just overwhelm her low HP, and IMO it means she can't actually function as a primary healer. Given the difficulty of recovering from death-revive-death-revive loops, this is kind of a problem for the other HP-less characters too (Gau, Strago, Shadow), but for a primary healer it's kind of a dealbreaker. When Shadow goes down, it means my offense suffers temporarily. When Relm goes down, and she does, it starts a cascade. I'm having a hard time either satisfactorily mitigating that or finding her other strengths good enough to overcome that. What party, in what circumstances, would be stronger for Relm's inclusion?

[thzfunnymzn 86]

28 minutes ago, Franklin_WI said:

This is a total beginner perspective (first timer, working my way through Kefka's Tower in 1.8.6), but I'm struggling to make use of Relm. There are so many attacks that just overwhelm her low HP, and IMO it means she can't actually function as a primary healer. Given the difficulty of recovering from death-revive-death-revive loops, this is kind of a problem for the other HP-less characters too (Gau, Strago, Shadow), but for a primary healer it's kind of a dealbreaker. When Shadow goes down, it means my offense suffers temporarily. When Relm goes down, and she does, it starts a cascade. I'm having a hard time either satisfactorily mitigating that or finding her other strengths good enough to overcome that. What party, in what circumstances, would be stronger for Relm's inclusion?

You may want to consider using Relm as a primary attacker instead of a primary healer then. Flare spam is a mighty fine dps strategy. Not quite as good as Shadow, spd Gau, or Valiantsuken Locke, but with Relm's speed & magic, it's one of the game's best damage sources. In this case, consider her more of a secondary healer.

I presume you have Bahamut equipped all the time for the auto-Safe? You could also try setting Image, but your only reliable Image setters are also frail (Strago, Gogo, Shadow). Summoning Golem is another strategy (Edgar & Sabin ain't frail), though it won't last the whole fight (could last a while though). For boss fights, you could also try and equip the right combo of Hide + shield to resist any elemental attacks, then equip Black Heart for a mighty HP+50%. (Black Heart will also null Holy & Poison attacks. Float might be helpful as well). Just be aware that equipping a Black Heart means you'll be relying on RegenX healing instead of Cure 3.

Could also try Rerise spam.

[BTB 274]

Updated for 1.10. Magic Relm will enjoy the extra MP that Zoneseek provides, Stamina Relm (AKA "Love You Long Time" Relm) will enjoy her new rod (giggity) that's basically a 1-handed Mutsunokami that triggers a stamina-based wind attack and a new regen formula that favors stamina over maximum HP (resulting in a huge buff for her), and pretty much any Relm will enjoy the MP bonus (re-)added to the Radiant Gown. But what REALLY changes for Relm in this update are her brushes. Improved stat boosts aside, brushes now hit twice (i.e. X-Fight) to improve the chances of getting a random spellcast. Further, the Ross Brush now procs Reflect instead of Haste in light of the hack which makes Reflect behave like Image instead of being a "timed" status.

(Updated: 09/08/18)

Edited September 8 by BTB