LogFAQs > #970953215

One cool thing to note about EO5 is that you are given the option to create a character of a specific race and class, and then switch them to a class that is normally exclusive to a different race. You can do this at any time after you complete the tutorial.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/2/AAZU_LAAEGuQ.png

Here's some data that I made by calculating the relationship between the capped stats of each race vs the highest racial stat cap. You can see that humans are solid defensively with high HP, Vit, and decent Wisdom. They also have the niche of having the best Luck in the game. And when you need Luck, generally you want to have as much as possible.

What's also interesting is that in addition to your class skills you also have a set of skills that belong to each race. The union skills can be strong enough to build your entire party around them, so that will factor in your choices as well. Although it's still fine to simply start a party with the default race/class settings, clear the tutorial, and continue the game with the same party. Truthfully the default races and classes were balanced with this in mind. But there are other interesting things you can do if you want to mix things up.

EDIT:
So basically to make what I was saying more clear, I'll give an example. Your stats are determined purely by your race in this game, and so switching a race into a non-default class is how you get an alternate stat spread onto a class. Houndmaster is a great example for this. The healing and guard skills of the Houndmaster scale purely based on Level, while hound summoning and hound skills require TP, and bow attacks scale with strength.

For this reason, there are three viable candidates for Houndmaster (some classes really only have 1 or 2)

Therian is the default Houndmaster race. They'll have solid bow attacks, and their healing and guard skills will be good because those scale with level. Their TP sustain is also decent enough. The biggest weakness of the Therian Houndmaster is they will be a little bit more frail, although the Hound itself will still serve as a good tank.

Brouni is an alternate race choice. The healing won't benefit from the high Wisdom stat of the Brouni, but it still scales to your level. Most importantly you'll have lots of TP for summoning the Hound and commanding it to do guarding and healing actions every turn. Additionally, this will be the most durable Houndmaster. Since the Brouni has good HP, Vit, and Wisdom. In addition to a tanky Hound, you probably don't need to worry about the Houndmaster getting killed by stray physical or elemental attacks. Due to their low strength, the Brouni Houndmaster is going to have very weak bow attacks, and will likely spend most of their turns commanding the Hound.

Human (Earthlain) is somewhere in between the two. It's a stronger physical tank than the Brouni, but a little weaker against Elemental attacks. Has the worst TP sustain of the bunch, however, so after you summon your Hound you won't have as much TP for using the different skills. Your bow attacks won't be as strong as the Therian but they will still be quite strong, as humans have the second highest Strength in the game.

All three of them are functional and you can decide which race you prefer for a Houndmaster based on two factors; Which role is needed more for the party OR which race provides a Union skill that the party is currently lacking. If you have a sole DPS character who outputs crazy damage, and your entire offensive strategy is based around them, then it's probably not that important to have a Therian Houndmaster with the highest damage output possible. The extra TP and sustain of the Brouni Houndmaster could be better for supporting the rest of the party, and the Brouni Union skills are also quite good, too.