dtgreene: How is that monster-tamer element? Is it worth getting the DLC for it? [Fell Seal]
I feel the DLC is great. It adds a good bit to the game, but none of it is stuff I feel was "missing" before. (Note that the DLC adds content throughout the whole game here and there, so it's best purchased early or even at the start, once you think you'll enjoy the game.) The DLC adds 3 classes to the game, and one of the classes is, basically, a tamer that lets you capture a monster with one of its skills (lower HP = higher chance). One of the other classes is a "blue mage" of sorts that, any monsters you've tamed, it has an ability of it to use while you're that class; very versatile.
To explain monsters, I have to do a bit of the basics of the game.
Humans all can be a class, and have a subclass. The subclass only grants its active abilities, not its passives. Each character also has 2 passive slots (beyond the 2 each class gets for being that class) that they can equip any passives they've learned. Each character also has one counter slot to equip.
The base game also has one character that learned monster classes instead of human classes, but otherwise operated the same. (Well, couldn't equip armor/weapons, just accessories. Monster classes unlocked after killing 5 of that monster while that character was in the party. Killing more of that monster while that character was in the party acellerated learning the skills from that monster's class.)
Monsters you tame work differently than human and that special. Monsters have their base class, and they always have that base class. They also can "change class" to to one other variant, as well as "equip" a 3rd variant. Each of the three includes its passives (rather than pick-and-choose like humans), though the counter slot is still from any selected. Each of the classes for monsters is smaller, but overall, adds to about the same "size" of skill set (just skewed more toward passives). Monsters don't equip armor/weapons, just accessories.
Monster "variants" are things like "venomous" or "thorned" or "guard", and are shared between all monsters; some synergize better with different base monsters than others, and they're appropriately powerful for their level.
Humans get stat growth from the class they are when they level up. (Nb: I've mentioned before, you can reset to 1 to down-level easily, but there's really no need to.) Each class mastered gives a small permanent passive bonus to the character. Monsters instead have fixed stat growth for their type, and get stat bonuses based on their applied "change class" variant. Monsters do also have the small mastered class passive bonuses too.
So you can completely ignore the "monster taming" bit, but it wastes 2 of the DLC's classes if you do. You can also just never use the tamed monsters in combat if you want. The game basically has 4 character types in your party: story characters with a fixed name, appearance, and a custom class that only they get (and each, with the DLC, gets special unique passive they can equip). It also has "generic humans" that each can learn one of a handful of special "badge classes" that the story characters cannot. It has the super-special-monstery-one mentioned above. Then it also now has the monster classes, which share their variants, but each one is unique with its "base type" class. Monsters also have badge classes that require an item (not too hard to get) to unlock for that character to use.
(Distribution: by end-game, you have 7-8 unique characters, including the story/special-monster. Early on, you should have had at least 3-4 generic units just to fill out your minimum roster to have enough to deploy to some of the early battles. Battles average 6 deployed characters; some as low as 4; some as high as 7, though DLC has special "large battles" that take 9. Most story missions require 1-3 of the story characters to deploy. Max roster is 60 units.)
