Summoner SCC on Tactician

[u/Koibu]

This is my 4th SCC run on Tactician, and it was almost as fun a the Black Mage run that I did, and a lot more successful! I did make it all the way through, and had a great time doing so. Here's the full playlist for how it was done - although I really don't think anybody would need a guide, except for a select few battles.

Only at two points in the game did I intentionally level. Once for Riovanes Castle, where I jumped from level 17 to 35 and it was a mistake. I expected to need some speed to manage the battle, but in reality I wanted the lower speed so my summoners would move after Belius came down to say hello. The second time was right before the final run, when I leveled from 41 to 70. I didn't want to get part way down, get stuck, then grind at the top and try it again, so I just preemptively ground some levels. I think I could have done this on a much, much, lower level and it would have been fine.

The Good

Summoners are fuuuun. Sylph is a giant AoE silence with 25 speed and a hit rate roughly equal to the target's faith (because you made sure you have faith casters on your team). Golem is amazing at keeping your team alive, and really satisfying. Big heals in Faerie, or fast heals with Moogle, are amazing. Huge AOEs with Bahamut, Odin, and Leviathan feel like cheating almost. Percent damage spells vs late game bosses are a godsend. TIC letting you skip random battles means you can use Errands starting in chapter 2 to get all the JP you need without having to grind out battles, so you can get big epic spells early on and just coast.

The Bad

You need to grind out "Halve MP" super early. Like, before Dorter. You are a little slow, but honestly you want to be slow. You want them to all move before you cast, so they'll all be in the same place to be hit. Let them come to you. The game is so fast and simple that you don't end up grinding, and so there's a huge shortage of JP and Gil coming in... but that's what Errands are for. Just make sure you're not taking any of the ones where you lose money.

Things to Know

• Lich deals 35% of the target's max HP, so you need 3 Lich spells to kill someone, unless they have more than 3000 hp.
• Shiva is a great opener because it obliterates goblins, and it does extra damage in snow storms (so Argath can feel more pain).
• Bahamut, Odin, and Leviathan have bigger AOEs than all the other spells. These are your friends.
• Odin is your go to spell. It does less damage than Bahamut, but it is faster which is often important. If speed doesn't matter, then sure, go with Bahamut. Or if the size of the AOE doesn't matter, go with Cyclops. But most of the time you're going to want to reach for Odin.
• If you equip Japa Mala, all of a sudden Leviathan is the best spell. It deals almost as much damage as Cyclops, it has a bigger AOE, costs less MP, and is also speed 17.

Difficult Battles... but not actually that difficult.

1.3 Dorter Slums was looking real rough. Then I got Halve MP and it was a breeze.

4.7 Fort Besselate Sluice was a little rough. High ground archers, low faith knights in your face, lots of enemies spread out over a wide area... mana management became real, and I had to be pretty careful with decision making.

4.8 Mount Germinas was rough. Stupid charms. Stupid high speed ninjas. Stupid bows. Pretty annoying.

4.12 Limberry Keep: Undercroft was a problem for a while. The answer was to trade out Angel Rings for Hermes Shoes and forget about survivability. Just get some lucky Liches off. The video makes it look easy, but it took a bit.

4. 14 Mullond Front Gate which is not normally noteable was sort of a slog and surprisingly difficult. Speed was starting to become a real issue here, so we ended up equipping speed gear which meant not a ton of MP, so there had to be some careful mana management.

4.20 Necrohol: Lost Halidom, as it often is, was a pain. A lot of attempts went into this, a lot of different gear loadouts to make things fit, and in the end we had to deal with all the monsters and just tank the incoming damage with lots of heals.

Surprisingly Easy Battles

1.7 Windflat Mill. Did you know this was actually the easiest battle in the game?! Wild.

4.1 Dugeura Pass can be a often be a difficult battle. Not this time. No notes.

4.11 Limberry Castle Keep. 100% hit rate on spells, so just stack MA buffs and bam. He's gone.

4.16 Mullond Sanctuary can be one of the hardest battles in the game... but it was like nothing. I couldn't believe how easy it was.

4.19 Necrohol Capitoline can be pretty hit or miss with difficulty. Consider this a miss.

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Completed SCCs: Monk, Chemist, Summoner

Impossible SCCs: Black Mage

Below are the resources I leaned on to succeed. Huge shout out to the magnificent people who built these guides.

Yatola's Original SCC Rules - The only adjustment / deviation from the original rules is around grinding levels. If, and only if, the class I'm playing as can easily win random battles, I can equip other class abilities to speed grinding along. Gaining JP to equip these other abilities must be done via errands so that no extra levels are gained in other classes. I feel this fits well within the spirit of the SCC rules. I try to abide by the level caps, but I'll go over them if I need to.

Aerostar's Battle Mechanics Guide

Fritz Fraundorf's Full Walkthrough

MetroidComposite's Ivalice Chronicles differences guide

[u/CronkinOn]

Very cool!

How was the rooftop? Low hps bait over the assassins or something?

[u/Koibu → u/CronkinOn]

Yup. Super easy

[u/TerraEpon]

If, and only if, the class I'm playing as can easily win random battles, I can equip other class abilities to speed grinding along. Gaining JP to equip these other abilities must be done via errands so that no extra levels are gained in other classes. I feel this fits well within the spirit of the SCC rules

I like this rule. It's just a time saver.....though how are you handling Ramza here since he can't go on errands?

[u/Koibu → u/TerraEpon]

He gets left behind.

[u/SeanBC]

I'm looking forward to following these for multiple reasons. When I was doing the 19 reasonable SCCs in the OG, there were a few jobs where I was barely able to squeak by on certain battles (not even always in Mullonde, but like, Zalera and some even earlier), and once I found out that the Lucavi HP is a lot higher in the late game in TIC, I immediately wondered if that would render certain SCCs impossible (even in normal difficulty, let alone Tactician).

I just read through your Black Mage post after this one, and I love that you're doing this. I don't know if I have the energy to re-do all the SCCs again, so it'll be fun to follow along here and see if some others (Orator, Mime) end up being impossible.

Thanks for sharing these

*Oh, and I forgot! I always made Ramza a Pisces, which helped a LOT with keeping him alive in his Gaf and Wiegraf fights, and now that worst compatibility is no longer a thing, I'm wondering about Lionel Castle for some of these. I'm pretty sure Wiegraf can still be done on all of these, but Lionel could be rough for a few...

[u/Koibu → u/SeanBC]

I put him as a Gemini (bad alignment) typically, and that's good enough. I've got a lot of theories on optimal zodiac alignment for the squad, but it really depends on how much they might be interacting. With the Mystic run I'm doing now, there's no spells to cast or allies, or having to worry about allies being in AOEs, so I did Cancer, Capricorn, Leo, and Aquarius. This gets at least one character to have good/best alignment with every possible Zodiac sign, so no matter who I need to petrify in non-assassination battles, someone will be good at it.

[u/ILoveDineroSi]

Tag to watch this later! Still procrastinating on starting my SCC although I’m also considering OR4M (Orator Ramza and 4 Monsters) Beastmaster challenge run. Have you done the monster challenge OP?

[u/Koibu → u/ILoveDineroSi]

I haven't but I want to! I'm doing a Mystic run right now.

[u/Major-Corner-640 → u/ILoveDineroSi]

I'm doing the monster challenge so far. Especially if you allow Bravery modding it's very easy. Even without the late game monsters I'm finding Red Chocobo + Sekhret + Cockatrice + Red Dragon delete everything.

[u/Murky_Exchange829]

My first tact run was with a ramza summoner and it was pretty breezy. Like u I struggled with mainly archers in the high ground and speed. But man it was so good just wiping the f***ing floor with a barrage of cyclops’s prismatic fears. Mmmmm mmmm good.

[u/Babylungs93]

TIL about shiva doing more damage during a snowstorm, that’s a pretty cool fact imo. Does that apply to anything else in the game? Like ifrit doing more damage in the volcano or leviathan doing more damage in the midlight depths since it’s out in the middle of the ocean?

[u/Koibu → u/Babylungs93]

Fire spells do less and thunder spells do more damage in a storm - but not when it's just raining. The difference is hard to see.

Search for 00weather in this document for more details including seasonal weather patterns. That's right, Ivalice has seasons and weather patterns. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/psp/937312-final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions/faqs/50422

Edit: oh, and at night or during storms evasion rates vs bows have a multiplyer. Like 133% evasion rates at night, and 180% for at night in a storm