I mean that the stats are not good enough, considering the other disadvantages.
They can't exactly go crazy with making their stats insane, otherwise they risk breaking them.
A Beorc unit can do worthwhile counterattacks, while either not being doubled and dodging a lot, taking little damage per attacks, or in the case of some units, both. The Laguz takes a lot of damage, and don't kill anything on the enemy phase.
This is like the archer debate... If they are human they will likely be pulled back behind the front lines where enemies won't be attacking them or any of the other back-liners. If enemies aren't attacking them on the enemy phase, whether or not they can kill on the counterattack is meaningless.
To actually give a relevant response, you don't have to kill an enemy to make use of their counter. Sometimes you don't want an enemy to die since that makes room for another to come in and fight, so they at least have meatshield uses with that absurdly high HP. And considering the amount of magic power healers get in this game, they should be able to get back to full or at least a reasonable amount of HP restored from one healer.
And still, the options are there. If attacking with an Iron Blade I'm going to leave the enemy with 2 HP, and attacking with a Killing Edge will leave it with 6 HP, I'll use the KE for the chance of an OHKO. And some times it will OHKO, some times not, but with a 30% critical chance and two hits per battle, that's roughly a 50% chance to kill the enemy instead of having it block the path/get attacked in the enemy phase.
That's why you have more than one fighting unit in a chapter. If you need to kill an enemy before the enemy phase and one won't cut it, you attack it with another unit. You don't rely completely on luck to kill it, regardless of how reasonable the odds may be, as that's not very good tactics.
And what about range? ALL Beorc units, save Archers, Monks, Bow Knights and Bow Paladins (three unpromoted units, and one 2nd tier) have dual range options, and the four who doesn't evolve in something that have dual range. Laguz, except Dragons, can't.
They might have that advantage, but how often are they going to use it? Wind swords, hand axes, and javelins have horrible accuracy and are very expensive, and money is actually pretty scarce in this game. You're going to be relying on the basic steel weapons until units have the skill for using blades/greatlances/etc. because they are cheap, yet strong enough to get the job done. I admit they exist for those rare occasions, but laguz have range-hitting skills for such equally rare occasions.
As I said, that's an extreme case. But running out of transformation in two turns isn't: turn 1, player phase: transform, attack (meter 30-4). Turn 1, enemy phase, get attacked twice (meter 26-2*4), Turn 2 player phase, attack (meter 18-5-4), Turn 2, enemy phase, get attacked twice (meter 9-2*4). Unit untransforms at the beginning of Turn 3. Is that good at all? You're going to spend a MINIMUM of 1 player phase not doing anything (and that if you use a rare Laguz Stone). If you use Olivi Grass, you're spending at least 1 full turn, considering the enemy attacks and the Laguz gets the 15 remaining points filled by those attacks (not doing anything in return, of course). So that leaves us, in the most optimistic scenario, with a unit that can attack twice every three turns. Wow.
Give me one example of a non-defense battle where the majority of the fight lasts more than 2 or 3 turns. Reasonably, by the time they revert, the big battles are over.
Olivi grass being used on their turn shouldn't be that big a deal. Considering how much value you put in the ability to counterattack on the enemy phase, using an Olivi grass on their turn shouldn't matter much since they can then counterattack enemies on the enemy phase (and the use in this is why I made defense missions an exception to the above... in defense missions the battles usually do last more than a few turns and you rarily attack during your turn so that enemies come to you, making it the perfect time for them to use Olivi grass).
True. But considering the disadvantages, still not enough.
It's an advantage they have until the final stretch of the game. That should at least justify temporary use of a few (for example, Lethe and Muarim are very useful in part 2 and Ranulf and the hawks are really useful in part 3).
I'm just saying that, if in their "specialty" stats they tie with a Beorc, there's something wrong, as the Beorc can keep those stats forever. A cap just 2 points higher would provide a good enough difference, I'm not asking for stats in the 50 range, of course.
A stat of 42 is, frankly, a negligable difference from 40. 2 stats isn't that major, not to mention it still doesn't solve the issue of "low stats while human" since 21 isn't really any different from 20.
She can use ranged sword, for example.
Until the Alondite, they are all expensive and highly inaccurate with low uses.
Has a pretty reliable innate critical chance, that can be further boosted with specific weapons.
People keep saying a swordmaster's critical is "reliable", but I really think this is an exaggeration. It's 15% + what she gets from her skill, which is at most 20%, making it 35%. 35% growths are generally considered low in this game, so why is it suddenly good when it's attributed to criticals? And critical-boosting weapons are too expensive to waste on random enemies.
Has access to weapons with situational, but good special effects (Wyrmslayer),
Only really good in the chapter against Goldoa, which is the tail-end of the game.
and weapons with simply awesome special effects (Brave Sword).
Point taken, though still a bad idea to waste such a rare and useful weapon on random enemies.
And even if it isn't necessary at all, can choose the power of her attack, with the proper choice of a weapon, so that a weaker unit can finish off the enemy. Ranulf simply lacks all those options.
But then your "reliable crit rate" has Mia run the risk of accidentally killing the enemy unit. And while I admit it's not as good, you can have the enemy target Ranulf while human so he can kick their HP down slightly with no chance of accidentally killing them.
Paragon on a Beorc. Seriously, both species can access Paragon, that' not exactly a Laguz advantage.
Didn't read anything past "paragon"? I specifically said you get 3 of them and the majority of beorc don't need it. I even agreed that EXP is still an issue for them.
In a well designed strategy game all units should have roughly the same usability, so that you decide which ones to use according to your play style and personal preferences, not just power. Using an example from a game I know like the back of my hand, yes, you can clear Final Fantasy Tactics with a group of Squires using only Squire skills, with no other reaction, support or movement abilities, and with self-imposed level caps... But that doesn't make them as usable as, say, Summoners or Geomancers or Lancers.
I've never played Final Fantasy Tactics, just Tactics Advance. I guess going by the game I do know, you could win FFTA with just soldiers and soldier skills (especially since the game is supposedly that much easier), but the problem is the analogy falls through when you compare the soldiers to the laguz directly. In order to compare a class to the laguz, you need a class that operates like the laguz (weak normally, but stronger under certain conditions). Comparing them to a flat-out inferior class just doesn't work, no matter how flat-out inferior you think laguz are (especially when you consider that transformed laguz stats are on par with some of the strongest beorc... a soldier will never have the superior stats of a fighter or paladin).
It's the game's fault that Laguz are not an option as good as Beorc, simply as that. I'm not denying they can be used, but unless you want to limit yourself or like them a lot, they are not contenders. And I think that, with the changes I proposed (specially the EXP one, and being able to last transformed more, but range and innate skills are also an issue), they would be ON PAR with Beorc, leaving using them or not up to the player preferences and play style.
While I agree the EXP is an issue, I fail to see how using a laguz is "limiting yourself". They require completely different tactics to use properly, and a lot more thinking ahead, but I fail to see how being forced to put more work into thinking ahead and working with your strategy to account for them should count against you when you're supposed to be doing stuff like that in the first place. It's not limiting yourself, it's simply using different tactics from normal.
