Another Idea for the Improvement of BB Status

[Martyr]

BB isn't going to be counterattacking any time soon. FF1 don't work like FFV.

But I'm thinking here, for a second, which is something I really shouldn't be doing- but you can't stop me!

Where am I?
BBs?

Dude's get a defense benefit when they level.

The primary problem with the punks, of course, is that they die too much. But what if you could maintain the glitch perk? The glitch returns to normal every time you access the armor menu.

So- To the point:

If you had a party of 4 BBs, and you never ever accessed the armor menu, would your BBs be strong enough, defensively, because of the glitch natural armor bonuses, to make it through the game far easier than if you went ahead and used ribbons and bracelets and such and cancelled out the benefits early?

I hope that all makes sense. I don't even rightly eremember what the glitch does, but I recall it sounded cool.

Note: Of course, this stupid and probably false theory only works/works best with an ALL BB party, since other characters require weapons and armor and are not privy to the glitch.
Note2: Yes, I know that 4 BBs is a horrible party and is probably some kind of deplorable word, but I'm bringing this up anyway.

[Dr Unne]

Might hurt not having ribbons equipped. I will never try this party, so I guess I'll never know.

[darksword12]

What's the glitch?

[Captain Maxx Power]

What's the glitch?

Since BB's have suck-ass defense due to the low amount of armour they get during the game, they have an inbuilt Absorb that's supposed to be set to their level. The problem with this is that if you access the armour menu at all for them, even to equip another character, their Absorb will instead be set to whatever they happen to be wearing at that time, which is usually something like a Ribbon, ProRing and Opal Bracelet tops. This equates to nothing in terms of Absorb. This value however resets itself when your BB levels-up again. One could argue that once you have everyone's end-game equipment (doable by the end of the Floating Castle) you just need to avoid the Armour menu altogether, which I think is what Martyr is suggesting.

Of course the obvious disadvantage to this is that, while a BB can get decent amounts of Absorb eventually, he will still be outclassed by most of the character classes for the majority of the game. Even at the end of the game a fully-equipped Knight (Dragon Armour, Ribbon, ProRing, Aegis Shield) will have 67 Absorb, a good 17 points above a max-level BB. Ninja's can get up to ~57. Red Wizards are looking at 51ish. Heck, even the remaining Wizards can get up to 51 if they wish. Simply put, everyone in the game is capable of outdoing a BB in terms of defence, even if they have their "armour bonus". The only real advantage a BB has over the other classes is the fact that come Level 50 (which by the way is grossly unnecessary to reach with the right party) he will always have 999 HP consistently, and is the only character capable of doing so. Then again, with such abysmal Absorb, all the HP in the world won't see him for long. What's even more laughable is that a BB's supposed "class upgrade" tecnically downgrades him, giving him less Magic Defense per level.

[Nugget Mage]

I never had any problems with my Black Belt. Actually, I don't see any problems with the Black Belt.

The first time I played, I made it to Gurgu volcano, and never had any trouble with my Black Belt. It killed everything so fast, monsters didn't have the chance to hit him enough.

But then, I never killed Kary, and my game remained in that point. So I don't know if the Black Belt is problematic beyond that point of the game.

You say this dude sucks because of the defense, right? Well, then just give him some armor. Things the Thief can equip, or a little bit more.

But still, I don't see any problems with the Black Belt. He is cheap as dirt, and if he has the back up of the rest of the Characters then what's the problem?

[Captain Maxx Power]

You say this dude sucks because of the defense, right? Well, then just give him some armor. Things the Thief can equip, or a little bit more.

But still, I don't see any problems with the Black Belt. He is cheap as dirt, and if he has the back up of the rest of the Characters then what's the problem?

The problem with this is that a BB's armour selection is identical to Black and White Mages/Wizards, and we all know how good those classes are at taking hits. O, do beg your pardon, they can actually get better defence since they can equip ProCape's and the BB can't.

The BB is indeed a class that needs other characters on his side to survive, no doubt about it. Specifically, he needs other characters taking the pain on his behalf. Personally I've always seen him as a third mage-type character, only minus any other benefits such as healing, group damage, buffs and debuffs. Since Red Mages/Wizards are better at tanking than BB's, it definately puts them more in the region of melee characters for that specific duty. But again, even with the one thing he's got going for him (besides a notably high magic defence, which becomes a useless stat once everyone has a Ribbon anyway), for one thing there's not many points in the game whereby a Knight with the latest sword can't one-hit-kill most enemies anyway. Secondly because of the damage calculations used to figure a BB's attack damage, against high defence enemies a BB comes up very wanting, and not even a dose of FAST can cure it (though in DoS/Origins you can stack Temper onto him several times).

[Frostwake]

He might be the worse character ever but he is still the only character able to 1 hit kill EVERYTHING in the game, which means 4 BBs = Death death and more death.. you only die if monsters strike first, because dead monsters cant attack

[ReloadPsi]

Too bad you meet tons of groups of enemies where there's more than 4 of them.

[darksword12]

Too bad you meet tons of groups of enemies where there's more than 4 of them.

I am in awe of your debate skills, good sir.