Wars and magic

[LucMcDohl]

Well that's a waste... so many epic unites are all going to sit on the bench since I'm not going to bother breaking the final boss.

[Rooks]

Unites do not activate in war battles.

The idea that Native Skills are what determine magic casting is interesting, and I think mostly right. But there may be a few exceptions to this, in Piccolo and Geddoe for example. I've had Geddoe cast True Fire once.

From a programing perspective, that makes a lot of sense though, that way, it would be much easier to program the AI, and evade invalid instructions, like trying to cast a rune that is not there, or use a spell that takes longer than one War Battle turn to cast. You'd likely end up saving several lines of code and processor cycles if you did it that way. Though, it is not like Suikoden is known for programming that makes sense, LOL.

[LucMcDohl]

That's why I also feel like runes that are permanently affixed to the character are fair play; this is the only way that Bazba's casting makes sense since he has a garbage Wind Magic rating.

I'm trying to think if Roland has used his Great Hawk Rune before. I know I've seen Yumi use hers but that makes sense since it's permanent. If Roland HAS used it before, then maybe Sharpshoot is the permanent skill associated with the Great Hawk Rune, much like Viki's Pale Gate Magic. Additionally, this could be tested with Jacques.

But the real way to get this theory to seem more plausible is getting a Shield Rune bearer to use it in a war battle and/or Edge and Elaine to use their permanent rune skills which... involves me getting back to it and not restarting.

It's funny that I talk about "making sense" with the wonky AI in this game but... surely it can't be random, can it?

[eldrasidar]

All characters will cast a command rune if they have it equipped, such as Chris using her Phoenix rune. It is random, but they will do it from time to time. Jongleur and Sword of Magic count as command runes in this case. For real magic runes, only certain characters will cast them, and to the best of my knowledge, that is restricted to characters that fill 1 of the following requirements naturally: they fight with rods, rings, or a bow; or they have advanced or true rune naturally in one of their rune slots. This would include:
Aila, Jacques, Yuiri, Yumi, Roland, Salome, Bazba, Alanis, Piccolo, Rody, Sarah, Viki big or small, Estella, Luc, Lucia, Sasarai, Chris, Hugo, and Geddoe.

[LucMcDohl]

Chris's Phoenix Rune is permanently affixed to her though so that doesn't debunk my theory on permanent runes. If Roland used his Great Hawk or someone else used something (like a Lion Rune or a Viper Rune or something) that would confirm command runes being universally usable.

I've never actually seen a Jongleur Rune in all the times I've played, let alone used one. I know that there are very specific people who can use them (i.e. Sgt. Joe cannot, despite having a skill for it) but who can use them that makes it into war battles?

The Sword Runes haven't been ones that I've ever actually used either... that's interesting if they get pulled in battles so I might invest in it for people who can use them well.

Of the people you've listed, Jacques, Yumi, Roland, Salome, Bazba, Piccolo, big Viki, Lucia, and the True Rune bearers make appearances in war battles so I might try outfitting them with runes and see what they do (Jacques is decent at Earth Magic, off the top of my head). I DID give Yumi a Mother Earth Rune and maxed out her Earth Magic and she instead used her Great Hawk Rune but that was just one battle and thus isn't definitive.

It seems this will need more testing, if I ever get around to actually playing (college is hard, or at least time-consuming).

[eldrasidar]

I've seen Nei use Jongleur in war, as well as Borus use sword of rage, and Percival use Viper. Any archer will make use of great hawk, well except maybe Jacques, who is rather fond of Baronda Hawk, which is strictly better. Should note though that all the characters with Jongleur are only available in Thomas's war battles(assuming Thomas recruited them), not for the one's in chapter 4 and 5.