Touhou Tiers

Post date: Sep 24, 2017 2:31:32 PM

So, if I want to give characters the appropriate hit points and damage and so forth, I need to scale them properly. In D&D, monsters are assigned a "challenge rating" (CR) to indicate an approximate level that a party should be in order to take on the creature. I'll use "tiers of play" to work out an approximate CR for each character.

There's a lot of characters, so this could get long. I'm planning to do the Windows era characters first, so this list will only include those characters.

First Tier (1-4): Rumia, Daiyousei, Letty, Wriggle, Mystia, Shizuha, Minoriko, Hina, Kisume, Yamame, Nazrin, Kogasa, Kyouko, Wakasagihime, Sekibanki, Seiran, Ringo, Eternity, Nemuno, Komano, Narumi, Reisen, Rinnosuke, Tokiko, Renko, Maribel, Sunny, Star, Luna, Akyuu, Kosuzu

Second Tier (5-10): Cirno, Koakuma, Chen, Lily, Tewi, Medicine, Parsee, Ichirin, Yoshika, Seiga, Tojiko, Kagerou, Benben, Yatsuhashi, Sumireko

Third Tier (11-16): Meiling, Patchouli, Prisimrivers, Keine, Nitori, Momiji, Satori, Rin, Murasa, Shou, Byakuren, Nue, Futo, Miko, Mamizou, Seija, Sukuna, Raiko, Doremy, Clownpiece, Satono, Mai, Tenshi, Hatate, Kokoro

Fourth Tier (17-20): Sakuya, Remilia, Youmu, Ran, Yuyuko, Udongein, Kaguya, Mokou, Aya, Komachi, Sanae, Kanako, Suwako, Utsuho, Koishi, Junko, Yorihime, Kasen, Alice, Yuuka, Marisa, Suika, Yuugi, Iku

Fifth Tier (21+): Reimu, Flandre, Yukari, Eirin, Eiki, Sagume, Hecatia, Okina, Dragon God, Toyohime

Note that the Fifth Tier characters are not all equal to one another, but they're clearly above much of the rest of the class.

At this stage, I'm a little iffy on some of the "Youkai Hunters", that is, the following characters:

    • Marisa
    • Sanae
    • Sakuya
    • Miko
    • Byakuren
    • Futo
    • Shou

Another thing: In D&D, there are a bunch of characters who become more powerful because of the system. Since I'm going for the approach of making minimal changes, I don't want to implement spell cards as they appear in the games; it's intended to be more like the fighting games. The shooters don't really work when they're not on a computer, after all.

The other tricky thing is with characters that don't go all out in their appearances, and also aren't obviously actually in the Fifth Tier.

    • Alice
    • Kasen
    • Aya
    • Yuugi
    • Suika
    • Iku

Some of these characters may be higher or lower than I have ranked them here.

I'm also not certain on Flandre, Ran, Yuuka or Yorihime. Ran is below Yukari, and Yorihime is below Toyohime and Eirin, but I'm not sure if they're far enough below to be in the Fourth Tier. What I mean is, I may have pushed them down a Tier simply because they aren't as powerful as Yukari or Eirin, who they are associated with.

Yuuka and Flandre are both simply immensely dangerous. While they aren't quite as godlike as the Fifth Tier characters, I'm not certain if that puts them below or above CR 21. I'm aware that there are some creatures in the Monster Manual that are not gods, but are CR 21 or above. The Tarrasque, in particular, comes to mind, an utterly devastating CR 30 monster. It's not near omnipotent, though, so I may have to make a new Tier for CR 31+ characters, so that I can distinguish between incredibly dangerous characters like Yuuka and Flan, and near omnipotent ones, like Yukari or Hecatia.

That also means I'll have a 21-25 group, a 26-30 group, and a 31+ group, for a total of seven tiers of play.

I will almost certainly revise this list at some point, but that will be after I've gotten some more work into it. Consider this a first edition list, with some approximations.