Crappy Character Parties.

[NeoCracker]

The problem with Sten is that at best, he's adequate. His physical attack is nowhere near as good as Katt, Ryu, Rand and even Bow. His magic is also not nearly as good without the Shaman system. You are just better off with using Nina and Dias for good magic damage. His other stats are also only adequate as best.

Katt is pretty much a high risk/high reward type character and I feel there are enough equipment opportunities (as well as just some normal levels) that make Katt's handicapps not nearly as bad. Her high agility stat makes sure she dodges lots of hits and with proper equipment, she can easily take a few blows before going down. With her high attack stat, she can feel enemies faster and reduce the risk of taking damage.

I just feel her advantages outweigh her disadvantages and she's not anywhere close to being considered part of a bad party set-up.

Typical, as I stated, she's a great character. It's just under the circumtances, I'd be with a party that can only deal decent physical damage on a regular basis. And while high Agility is nice for dodging, she can't doge magic, and dodging physical isn't garunteed.

Where as when Sten enters RIP, the only things hitting him are the all-hitting attacks that cant' really be dodged anyway, so on the note of not getting hit and survivablity, Sten is superior.

Katt can regularly deal out more Damage then Sten, yes. But Sten gets both Fireball and Missle before even Nina, and can deal some decent Damage with them. Not as much as Nina, but he can still clear out large numbers of weaklings, which is at heart, the point of such Magic. It is kind of pointless against later bosses though.

A lot of bosses also have attacks that hit your entire party, that Katt's Agility doesn't really mean much too, and bosses hit a lot harder then your normal enemies, so they can strike her down fast. Sten can last a bit longer though, due to superior HP and Defense.

As far as bosses go, theres a few I'd rather have Sten in then Katt for his Magic damage, simply because Physical attacks are pointless in some of them.

Most, I would usually rather have Katt, but again with this party as it becomes more difficult to keep her alive, where as Sten at least has RIP to ensure constant and safely dealt damage through most every encounter in the game, something I cannot say for Katt.

The High Damage/High Risk gets even Riskier when the rest of your party sucks balls.

I mean main stratagy to stay alive is getting JEAN so I can set up the Defense Pattern somewhat effectively.

Just think about that. Character survival is going to rely on that smurfing frog. He is in every way inferior to my usual shield, Rand.

Mind you, everything I've stated has not even taken the Shaman's into consideration.

To consider it, take the Shaman that boost Defense. The boosts are percent based. So to use one on Katt wont' do much good, as her increases will be minimal due to already low defense. On Sten, the defense boost would be more significant.

If you take the offense boost from the Fire Shaman, Katt gets a very notable increase, but the moment she's knocked into critical, or likely knocked out, she loses it. And again, under party circumstances, this is likely to happen.

Sten, however, can make more use out of the Fire Shaman due to his ability to stay alive easier then Katt, so he'll get more use out of it. Though his Defensive boosts using the Water Shaman will be fairly low as well. However they are still higher, so again Sten can make better use of Shamans then Katt, up until you get the Devil Shaman at least.

Though really, the special transforms don't help much, as your not likely to have them the fight with the Barubary before Deathevan, and you lose them right at the final battle regardless if I remember right, so Katts Transform doesn't do much good regardless, except for helping survive a chunk of the last Dungeon.

Now, had I had say, Bow or Rand, to more readily keep Katt alive, all while having Bow Double as a buffer and decent Damager, or Rand as a high class meat shield and good damage dealer, Katt becomes that much more scary. But in a situation where you have Spar, who will probably die off just as fast, if not faster then Katt, and Jean being my lead defender? Katts risk factor begins to rise.

And finally, after the big tranforms, don't forget Sweh from Sten. If I end up in a fight thats unfavorable to my group, I can simply change it. He not only helps his own survivability, but the entire parties. Sten actually has the inate ability to remove non-boss related risks in an instant, and this comes just after getting the Wind Shaman.

Basically, in a group that requires you to basically prevent as much damage to your fourth member as possible, and you are dealing with people as physically weak as Sten and Katt as that fourth member, you have to have a solid way to keep them alive. Katt just can't offer that, where Sten can.