Bus
Well-Known Member
Eh, this is true in some RPGs but definitely not "pretty much every." In Disgaea Archers have bad Speed Growth but good accuracy and attack growth. Final Fantasy Tactics archers have the same speed, movement, and evasion rates as Knights. It's all over the place in the Fire Emblem series, some have Speed the second fastest growth rate for snipers after skill and some have it as worse than attack. And while it isn't an archer, compare to the X-Com series where snipers have terrible movement rates because they can't move and shoot in the same turn (without perks).
Really the strange thing about Decidueye is the high defenses. Not familiar with high defenses for basically any sniper in any game.
To be fair, in Disgaea, Bow attack strength is based on a combo of Attack & Hit, so thats why Archers tend to excel in the those whereas speed is not as necessary; it used to be based on Attack & Speed though, so Archers in Disgaea used to have high speed stats. I'm of the mind that an Archer isn't known for speed. Archers are meant to stick in the back-lines and either rain a hail of arrows down on enemies (if in large groups) or they were essentially medeival Snipers. You wait patiently and the tensile strength of the bow flings the arrow at ridiculous speed; you yourself don't need to be fast to be an archer (just accurate). As for drawing a bow against an opponent who knows your there, again, they're not cowboys they're not about to duel in an old-style western; if the target is too close, they generally carry a dagger or seek to create distance or conceal themselves again.
All in all, I don't think speed was ever necessary for them. High def though, that seems weird considering they don't often have much in the way of armor; normally a gambeson and some light outer covering (like leather)...thats about it lol.