Hounds are a speed-heavy summon-focused class that can function either as damage dealers (by focusing on their hawk summons) or as supports and disablers (by focusing on their dog summons). As I'm sure you can infer, they're pretty versatile in what roles they can fill, and I'd be hard-pressed to find a party where they didn't work.

Okay, that's a lie, since Necromancers might not necessarily play nicely with them (especially Spirit-Summoning Necromancers), but other than that, what party that needs a slot filled wouldn't do well with a fast class that's capable of inflicting damage from range and can perform healer duties?


Stats

Therian Base


Falcon-Accompanied Hound: Hawk-focused damage dealer
(Full stat table)

Dog-Leading Hound: Dog-focused supporter and disabler
(Full stat table)

Basic gist of the stats: Falcon-Accompanied Hounds get more HP, STR, and AGI, while Dog-Leading Hounds get more TP, VIT, WIS, and LUC.

Hounds can equip bows, and can wear light armor and clothes.

There's just straight-up no reclass options for either Hound specialization.

Hawk Stats
(Full stat table)

Hawks aren't particularly durable, but holy fuck are they strong and fast. Their LUC's pretty good, too.

Dog Stats
(Full stat table)

Dogs are a little tankier than hawks are, but considerably slower, quite a bit less strong, and have a bit less LUC.

Worth noting: if specific commands are not given to a hawk or dog, they have their own passive AI. The hawk will attack a random enemy (and attempt to bind its head), while the dog will heal whatever party member has the lowest absolute HP. Dog normal attacks only show up for target arrow, but they attempt to bind the legs of hit targets.


Basic Skills

Bow Mastery
Requirements: None


Increases damage dealt with bows.

Animal Therapy
Requirements: None


When a hawk or dog is summoned, restores all party members and summons' HP at the end of the turn. Does not activate if the user is panicked, petrified, or dead.
Free passive healing. It's never gonna really amount to much (35% healing power is already super low and Therians have the worst WIS of any of the races), but still, free passive healing.


Hawk/Dog Whistle
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Head


Summons a hawk/dog. The hawk/dog's stats (HP, STR, INT, VIT, WIS, AGI, LUC) are multiplied by a bonus provided by Hawk/Dog Whistle. Has standard priority when used in battle. Can also be used in the Labyrinth.
The whistles are basically the starting point for every important Hound skill. Firstly, pick one summon to use, and stick with it. Secondly, how much you level up the Whistles depends a lot on what summon you're focusing on. Dogs can, generally, get away with bumping up the TP cost once it's less than half of the Hound's total TP pool, due to the fact that they can rely at least a little on passive healing. Hawks, however, rely on actively using skills, which means consuming TP.


Hawk Arrow
Requirements: Hawk Whistle level 3
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a hawk to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy, with splash damage. After the attack, the summoned hawk will attack the enemies hit with splash damage with a ranged STR-based cut attack. Has a 75% speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels. The hawk follow-up attack has 99 base accuracy.
Fairly cheap, as far as hawk skills go, and the total splash damage hurts like hell. Not gonna do a lot in fights where there's only one target, obviously, but still.


Flash of Both Wings
Requirements: Hawk Whistle level 3
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a hawk to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. After the attack, the summoned hawk will attack the target's row with ranged STR-based cut damage. Has a 200% speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
The more generically-useful of the early hawk skills--you've already seen me put it to heavy use for the Golem fight.


Aid Command
Requirements: Dog Whistle level 3
Body parts used: Head


Requires a dog to use. Commands the summoned dog to heal one ally. Also cures the targeted ally's ailments. Has an 85% speed modifier at all levels.
A fairly basic healing skill, aside from the fact that it also cures ailments. Worth tossing points into, obviously.


Hunter Shot
Requirements: Dog Whistle level 3
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a dog to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. After the attack, the summoned dog will attempt to bind the target's arms and legs. Has a 75% speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
Hunter Shot's more useful early on, where most of the dangerous enemy skills use either the arms or the legs. It starts to fall off once you reach the later parts of the game, but not [i]too[/i] hard.


Brushing
Requirements: None


Restores the summoned dog and/or hawk's HP at the end of the turn.
The summon row seems to have lower attack priority than the player character rows, so your hawk and dog won't be getting hit too often early on. Once all-party attacks start showing up, though, it can't hurt to toss a few points into Brushing.


Target Arrow
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Arms


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Reduces the target's physical defense for a set amount of turns. The defense debuff also forces the summoned dog and/or hawk to attack the debuffed enemy. Has no speed modifier and +20 base accuracy at all levels.
I've made my views on defense debuffs pretty clear by this point. One semi-notable thing about Target Arrow is that it does actually force the dog to do passive attacks--remember that the dog just passively heals the party member with the lowest HP if it doesn't have any other commands on that turn.


Both Specializations Skill

Sky/Ground Patrol
Requirements: None
When a hawk/dog is summoned, there is a chance they'll find food while walking around in the Labyrinth. What this entails specifically is unknown, as the skills themselves do not provide info.
...No thanks.


Falcon-Accompanied Hound Skills
Common Passives: Phys ATK Up, Speed Up

Finishing Arrow
Requirements: None


When an enemy is below a certain HP threshold after the user damages them, the user will perform a normal attack on them.
Eh. Basically adds 100% damage to all of your Hawk's attacks once a boss is below the threshold. You decide if that's worth it or not--I'm ambivalent on it, personally.


Flying Talon Strike
Requirements: Hawk Arrow level 3
Body parts used: Head


Requires a hawk to use. Commands the summoned hawk to attack one enemy. The hawk will then attack the target with a ranged STR-based cut attack. Attempts to bind the target's head. Has no speed modifier at all levels. The hawk's attack has 120 base accuracy at all levels.
Basically the hawk skill to spam. The TP cost is relatively low for how much damage it deals.


Ice Peck
Requirements: Flash of Both Wings level 3
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a hawk to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to all enemies. After the attack, the summoned hawk will follow up with ranged STR-based ice damage to all enemies. Initial hit has a 70% speed modifier and -10 base accuracy at all levels. Hawk's hit has 95 base accuracy at all levels.
Too much TP for too little damage. There's better ways to deal with random encounters.


Sky Dive
Requirements: Flying Talon Strike level 5, Ice Peck level 5
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a hawk to use. Commands the hawk to attack one enemy three turns later with ranged STR-based cut damage at the start of the turn. Attempts to bind the target's head. The hawk cannot perform other actions for the three turns. The initial command has no speed modifier at all levels. The final hit has 130 base accuracy at all levels.
Sky Dive's not really something to just spam on its own, since it means your Hawk can't perform other actions for three turns. What it's good for, though, is if you have a party setup that can facilitate your Hound using Million Shot--we'll see that in a bit.


Power Shot
Requirements: Target Arrow level 5
Body parts used: Arms


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy, with line-piercing effect. Has a 90% speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
Yawn.


Million Shot
Requirements: Power Shot level 5
Body parts used: Arms


At the start of the next turn, deals multiple instances of ranged STR-based stab damage to random enemies. Can hit the same target 4 times at most. The maximum number of hits is 16 at all levels. The user cannot select another action on the turn where Million Shot activates. If the user is incapacitated or their arms become bound, Million Shot will not activate. Has -50 base accuracy at all levels.
Well, if you want the Hound themself to contribute some damage, this is your best option. It's a weird mixture of Squall Volley from EO4 and Summer Rain from EO2U--it has the accuracy penalty and number of shots of Squall Volley, but the max hits per target limit of Summer Rain. So, yeah, you need leg binds to use it, and it's not "wow" levels of damage, but if you're using Sky Dive, you do need [i]something[/i] for your Hound to do.


Scatter Feathers
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Head


Commands the summoned hawk to attempt to inflict blind on one row of enemies. Has a 120% speed modifier at all levels.
Okay, sure, why not. Blind's not as good as other ailments, but the base inflict chance on Scatter Feathers isn't too bad.


Dog-Leading Hound Skills
Common Passives: TP Up, Curb ATK Up

Healing Boost
Requirements: None


Increases both the static amount of HP restored and the percentage of maximum HP restored by the dog's healing skills.
Not something to rush for, but definitely something to grab once you've got your actives at comfortable spots.


Menacing Howl
Requirements: None
Body parts used: Head


Requires a dog to use. Commands the summoned dog to attempt to inflict panic on all enemies. Has a 70% speed modifier at all levels.
Ehhhhh. Panic's useful, but that base chance is really low. I know it's standard for panic skills, but still. Maybe it'd work okay with the Bungling Smoke resistance debuff.


Defense Command
Requirements: Aid Command level 3
Body parts used: Head


Requires a dog to use. Commands the summoned dog to take all damage for one party member for one turn. For levels 1-9, the dog takes extra damage from any attacks received. At the end of the turn, the dog will heal the party member it was tanking for.
A pretty decent alternative method of healing. It's obviously not something to spam, but it'll keep a party member from dying, and it's really unlikely that the dog will die from using Defense Command.


Foot Pierce
Requirements: Hunter Shot level 3
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a dog to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one row of enemies. Attempts to inflict leg bind on hit targets. If any enemy hit by Foot Pierce has their legs bound (this can include if their legs were already bound before being hit), the summoned dog will follow up with a melee STR-based bash attack. Has no speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
The best option for outputting damage with a dog-focused Hound. Leg binds are kinda useful, but it's very rare that they completely swing a fight like head and arm binds can.


Medical Lick
Requirements: Defense Command level 5, Foot Pierce level 5
Body parts used: Head


Requires a dog to use. Commands the summoned dog to heal random allies a set number of times. Can only heal a party member twice at most. Has a 50% sped modifier at all levels.
The only method of party healing for a dog-focused Hound, and it's...not very good. Even at level 10, at least one party member will miss out on one of the heal instances, and since you're probably using a party-target healing skill to recover from a bad all-party attack... Yeah.


Drop Shot
Requirements: Target Arrow level 5
Body parts used: Arms


Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. Damage is multiplied by 2.5x if hitting an enemy in the back row. Has no speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
Um... Yeah, I got nothing. I didn't think much of Drop Shot in EO2U and I don't think much of it here. It's okay for random battles, I guess, and it's the only Dog-Leading Hound skill that doesn't interrupt the dog's normal healing AI.


Stun Shot
Requirements: Drop Shot level 5
Body parts used: Arms


Requires a dog to use. Deals ranged STR-based stab damage to one enemy. After use, the summoned dog will attempt to stun the target. Has a 200% speed modifier and no base accuracy modifier at all levels.
Stun isn't that useful and is hard to land, as a rule, but it deals okay semi-reliable damage, I guess?
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