Surprisingly Useless Characters

[spartan773]

Dual classed characters in anything D&D related. You're way better playing an all or nothing, which is no prob for me because I'm always the fighter.

how EXACTLY does one play D&D?

Have a look at the players handbook but it's like this.

Group of people, one person is the DM (Dungeon Master) they run almost everything the computer/developers would do. They voice the NPC's they roll attacks and damage for the mobs, come up with the story, plot, traps, maps etc.

Everyone else is a PC (Player Character, obviously) they have a normal RPG Character Sheet but they write all of the stats etc on the sheet rather than have a computer do it.

You actually talk rather than have Dialog trees and the DM will tell you what you see, hear, smell, feel and such. They won't tell you what you think (They do say such things as "You feel a sence of foreboding" if they're shitty.) or do unless you're being mind controlled which most DM's won't do.

In anything that you have a chance of failing at, Running along a beam, swimming, jumping over a hedge, climbing a rope hand-over-hand, swinging a sword at an enemy, lying to the guards, trying to find the hidden switch, you roll a d20, a twenty sided die. You then add or subtract bonuses etc based on such things as, your skill at the task, your general atributes (No Charisma = Negatives on lying), and the circumstances (almost everything is harder if you're on a ship in a storm).

In combat you will also roll dice to see how much damage, this is the only time you will need to roll dice other than the d20. These dice can have, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, 100 sides (no one uses the d100 exept DM's).

The DM decides before hand how difficult all of these things are going to be, they plan alot of stuff. I would suggest that if you want to find out how to play D&D, go to a comicbook store and ask the guy/girl behind the counter about it. There should be fliars. I would not suggest watching "I hit it with my axe". I don't think this is an accurate representation of D&D (My opinion.)

Yeah. Njoy. PM if you have more Questions.


PS. Also, The DM's word is ALWAYS LAW!

... okay... i think i felt my brain hemorrhage.

 

[AMMO Kid]

The team AI in more games than I can count...

 

[Atmos Duality]

Without question: Red XIII from Final Fantasy 7.

I can actually find a use for every other character in the game. Yes, that includes the piss-awful, stupid, and annoying Cait Sith.

That is, I can find either a gameplay related reason or a story-justifiable reason for every single playable character except Red XIII. There is not one scene in FF7 where Red XIII is uniquely useful, essential, or otherwise important to the plot.

His "relationship" with his "grandfather" could easily be replaced with a no-name NPC.
His entire subplot that brings the game to a grinding halt for an hour, could easily be skipped completely without doing one iota of damage to the actual story (if the game wanted you to meet Bugenhagen so he could explain the lifestream etc to you, you could literally run the plot as is without Red XIII and lose nothing.)

I suppose Red XIII's sole claim to fame is the infamous "Breed with Aeris" scenario (and the less I think about that, the better). Which is yet another moment in the game that could be edited out with a minor tweak.

In battle, Red XIII is a functionally worse version of Yuffie (because all of her attacks are long-range), and with worse limit breaks at nearly all levels.

I think my friend summed it up best when he played FF7 for the first time last year:
Me: "So. What do you think about Red XIII?"
Him: "I'm a talkin dog!"

 

[Walkchalk]

I'd throw Zevram in there from DA:O. Maybe others had some use for him, but I never used him once in the entire play through.

I would have to agree with that. I doont recall using him more than once in ANY of my 4(ish) playthroughs. He cant pick locks, he has terrible attacks, and the AI isnt smart enough most of the time to move him into a backstab position. I didnt even bother putting stats on him in camp. I DID like his character however, though he kept on staring at me luridly.

 

[BanZeus]

... He can't pick locks, he has terrible attacks, and the AI isnt smart enough most of the time to move him into a backstab position...

That first reason was enough to give Leliana a mostly permanent spot in my party. I suspect Zevram might be more useful on harder difficulty settings where, because of friendly fire, you can't just taunt enemies into a tight formation to then have Morrigan nuke the area.

 

[Brain_Cleanser]

Because once you get bahamut every character in FFX is useless.
For a real contribution: Cielo in Digital Devil Saga. Sure he's the one who makes the hidden boss somewhat easier to beat, but really, he's fucking useless. Not only does he sound annoying and have a stupid demon form but for fucks sake he's weak to status ailments, which is pretty much a death sentence in that game.

Actualy, as soon as you can get him "Null Ailment" he quickly becomes REALLY useful. He's got no weaknesses at that point, IIRC he still RESISTS Electricity, and he's got relatively high speed and Magic. And because of events in 2, He and Gale are probably some of the BEST characters to keep in your party. , cuz

Spoiler

you know, everyone kicks the bucket. They're the last 2 (There's literally zero time between when Ceilo dies and when you get him back for him to miss ANY exp/mantra).

and, I personally liked his design and personality, but to each his own.

On my end, though, I found Wakka really useless in FFX, in Shadow Hearts Covenant I couldn't stand using Geppetto, and subsequently Hilda in From the New World.
And the returning cast in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World, since they're all capped at 50, and I was in my sixties when I got them, especially infuriating because I was well into my 100's at the end of Symphonia.
Oh, and bloody Savyna in Baten Kaitos, she moves too fast to pick cards with any kind of strategy unless they're laid out in JUST the right order.
And Naoto in Persona 4, sure, access to Insta-Death of both elements AND Almighty is great, but NOT at the rate that MP gets consumed with those spells in the MegaTen series.
I'm SURE there are more, but since I try to mix up my parties when I replay games, I can't really say.

Yeah but you can work your ass off to make anyone immune to their weaknesses. If you're going through that trouble just make Serph immune to fire, Gale immune to whatever the fuck he was weak to and whoever you pick as a third immune to whatever they were weak to. I only used Cielo a few times, one of which was in the final optional boss fight. Otherwise I mostly used Serph, Gale and whoever the hell was available at the time.
Oh and like half your party in White Knight Chronicles is useless. You'll largely be forced use two of them because they can summon the titular knights, so that takes up two slots and unless you don't plan on using online at all your third slot will probably be taken up by your avatar. GG game, way to make 3 party members absolutely useless.

For the most part, though, you'll end up doing Null-Ailment for goddamned Meganada anyway (unless you have a better strategy than "remove his ability to do anything to you, and pound him mercilessly).
While I'm thinking about it, ANY character that uses Slots for a special/limit (Tifa, Cait Sith) Especialy if it could end up screwing you over.

And I have a a hard time wanting to make Gau from FFVI useful, since I don't have the patience to gather Rages.

 

[MadCapMunchkin]

The Adoring Fan in Oblivion. The fact that he respawns every few days is just proof that Bethesda hates us...

 

[rokkolpo]

The horses in Oblivion. Makes the game kinda go 'A-BUH?'

unless you like roleplaying.

 

[Audio]

The one character i refused to acknowledge was "cat sith" from FF7. I know his stuff is down to chance, but first impressions...bleeeh :[

 

[Manji187]

Aeris.

I'm glad that ***** died

I AGREE!
Also throw in everyone else from Final Fantasy VII except Zack. He was a one man army. The rest were useless fools.

Wow, I thought I was gonna die since i forgot my flame shield but......... a positive on this? Have the fanboys come to their senses?!

All seriousness, i really thought i was gonna get flamed

Whahahaha....by who...chicks and dudes who can more or less cry on command? They visit other forums.

I'm also glad the ***** died...that cardboard plot driver of a character deserved every inch of Sephs steel . Go and be holy somewhere else...

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I don't really understand how "all" of the characters in a game could be useless, since you're bound to end up playing as some of them if you play the game at all. This smacks of mindless anti-fandom, which I suppose is a step up from mindless fandom.

On-topic, I don't think this is something that happens very often, because developers seem to tend towards making the "coolest-looking" characters the most powerful. In fact, I'd say that it's far more likely for the opposite to happen; that is, you find a character who seems like he/she will be completely useless, but turns out to be quite powerful.

Still, one example I can think of off the top of my head is Fran in Final Fantasy XII. She's presented as this powerful but mysterious woman, spouting cryptic nonsense about Mist and The Wood and whatnot, but she's actually quite weak. There's never any reason to use her in battle, except in situation where everyone else is dead.

thank you for also noticing that fail in logic.

but i agree on fran, the only time i used her was to get her up to 35 so i could do the gambit glitch thing and get her and everyone else up to 99, after that she was pretty much useless to me.

Aeris.

I'm glad that ***** died

I AGREE!
Also throw in everyone else from Final Fantasy VII except Zack. He was a one man army. The rest were useless fools.

Wow, I thought I was gonna die since i forgot my flame shield but......... a positive on this? Have the fanboys come to their senses?!

All seriousness, i really thought i was gonna get flamed

I was never a fanboy, I hated FFVII and everything about it (except Zack, Crisis Core was pretty good.) I get flamed for it though.

you must not have been using those characters right, i dont remember all of them but they were really broken in how strong a few of them were, especially vincent and his special gun, when they could literally do more damage then the game allowed i would say they are no where near "weak" in any possible way.

 

[ThatJoelGuy]

Aeris.

I'm glad that ***** died

Final Fantasy VII if you can't tell

Heh, Barret mustave ran out of Pheonix downs and Cloud says: "Screw it Im not made of money! Let's go"

I take it you never got her final limit break then?

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Ivan, from Golden Sun. He's by far the worst character in the first game, though of course he's the wind adept on the team, making him marginally useful (as in, he's the fastest, but vulnerable and doesn't really deal all that much damage).

Enter Golden Sun: The Lost Age, and you get Sheba, a wind adept prodigy. She's better. Way better. Has tremendous stats and yes, they're ALL better than Ivan's. Renders Ivan even more useless than ever, which saddens me because I liked Ivan more

 

[SamuelT]

Final fantasy 7, vincient, he was supposed to be this really badassed guy but the thing is his stats overall are the worst at the end of the game and his limit break is terible.

Luckily he makes up for it in Dirge of Cerberus....right....?

*Quietly sobs in a corner*

 

[StBishop]

Dual classed characters in anything D&D related. You're way better playing an all or nothing, which is no prob for me because I'm always the fighter.

how EXACTLY does one play D&D?

Edit: Rules and Also, The DM's word is ALWAYS LAW!

... okay... i think i felt my brain hemorrhage.

If you're actually interested try a comic book store and ask if they have a game day coming up or if they know of one. Wizards of the Coast organise game days, my local Tabletop Gaming Store ran one recently and they run a table for people who've never played before as well as one for Vets from older editions who want to learn 4th ed and people who know how to play already.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Leliana in Dragon Age: Origins. Before the patch fixed a bug where dexterity did not provide a damage bonus, even her most lethal attack was incapable of felling the weakest foe. A Mage provided far better damage slinging at range, and up close her light armor preference and proclivity for drawing the ire of entire crowds meant you'd be better served using a fighter for melee combat. The only way a rogue worked at all in the game was if you micro-managed them to the extreme.

Plus, her only real utility came from her bard skills, mostly in the form of crowd control. That said, mages and fighers had better options at their disposal, because doing so didn't prohibit them from engaging in combat.

 

[HyenaThePirate]

ANY character helping you on a mission in a GTA game.
All of these people are supposed to be thugs, gangsters, mobsters, hitmen, and cutthroat killers but all they do is shoot wildly and inaccurately like the henchmen in a James Bond movie, seldom do anything effective, and are completely useless at watching your back unless they misinterpret "cover me" to mean "Let them fill the back of me with as much hot lead as possible".

This also applies to red dead redemption, except they go the little extra step to get themselves filled with as much hot lead as possible while letting ME get filled with hot lead. Its like a freaking suicide pact.

 

[CeallaSo]

Final fantasy 7, vincient, he was supposed to be this really badassed guy but the thing is his stats overall are the worst at the end of the game and his limit break is terible.

Luckily he makes up for it in Dirge of Cerberus....right....?

*Quietly sobs in a corner*

The thing about Vincent in FFVII is that most people want to play him as a physical powerhouse ('cuz guns are cool, amirite?) when he's meant to be a pure caster. He's the only one (besides possibly Cait Sith, I can't remember) who can surpass Cloud's Magic stat naturally, and his other stats are fairly paltry. Load him up with offensive materia, and he's actually pretty good.

I hate to say it, but I think that whoever it was that said Red XIII was useless was right. He's like the middle ground between Tifa and Yuffie, which makes him less useful than either of them for anything in particular. I mean, it's nice that he can be somewhat decent at a bunch of things, but it just makes him a weaker, slightly faster version of Cloud.