Abbreviation: SOV

Sovereign has the unique distinction of being the only class originating in Etrian Odyssey III to show up in another game besides Nexus. Whereas Troubadours used buffs that affected the entire party, Sovereigns uniquely only ever buffed a single line. As a tradeoff, they also had the ability to heal the party, both actively with Reinforce by buffing, and passively through Royal Veil and Monarch March. It was an instant hit, being reprised by the Dancer in 4 and eventually returning in 2U thanks to Arianna, where it retained its buffing and healing, though the healing was now less valuable due to how EO2U works. It also gained a Regal Radiance replacement called Link Order, which allowed them to piggyback off of allied elemental attackers to perform their own spells.

Nexus' version of the Sovereign has about the same buffing power, except now its healing is much more potent and still relevant. Instead of Link Order, they have a revamped version of Regal Radiance, and they have a lot more active skills than before that allow them to more effectively heal the party and enable burst damage--the latter of which used to be the only thing they couldn't cover. They are also even bulkier than they were previously, being capable of living through repeated unprotected attacks with just a bit of healing. Imbuing allies also has new meaning now with so many skills being compatible with it, so even their older, less used skills are now relevant. They were a great class before and they're even better now; you basically can't go wrong with a Sovereign.


Stats

(Full)

Strong Points: TP, INT, VIT, WIS
Average Points: LUC
Weak Points: HP
Very Weak Points: STR, AGI

Equippable Weapons: Sword, Staff, Rapier
Equippable Armor: Heavy Armor, Light Armor

Common Passives:


Skills: Force

Boost: Victory Vow
For 3 turns, all Order skills will affect all party members, and will have their TP costs reduced by 50%.
Victory Vow is mostly useful for just getting buffs down at the start of fights for most of the game. Once you get the ability to use Final Decree, though, it's also useful for filling your Sovereign with buffs while also providing the same buffs to everyone else.
This only works on Order skills, so the elemental arms aren't affected. Allowing buffs to affect the entire party is handy for defensive buffs, but it doesn't really help out much otherise; its true value is really just helping Sovereign set up 3 buffs on themselves for Final Decree. Depending on what buffs you put on your party, you may also need to time it so that you don't end up overwriting offensive buffs on one row with defensive buffs that you want only on the other row.
Early on, it's also useful for TP economy or turn economy. It's not uncommon to double or triple down on Attack Order for an entire Victory Vow so you don't have to keep sustaining its wimpy 3-turn duration in the early stages.

Proof of Nobility
For one turn, makes all party members' buffs unpurgeable, and doubles the effect of buffs that increase attack, defense, disable infliction chance, disable resistance, healing power, accuracy, and evasion.
I don't know what to say about Proof of Nobility that isn't already implied by its description. It's really good, though eventually arguably outclassed for its purpose by Final Decree, even though Final Decree requires purging your Sovereign's buffs.
There are a few catches with this - it doesn't work on Great Warrior because it is a Draw buff, not an ATK buff, and it doesn't work on elemental arms either. Group Therapy's healing power penalty is doubled, but Vanguard and Swift Justice's defense penalty aren't. It also doesn't work on Rally Order (somewhat obviously), Protect Order, or Deja Vu; the only healing power buff it works on is Efficiency. The part that prevent buff removal also allows things like Hide Cloak and Dauntless Order to activate without consuming themselves, but it also prevents Clearance and Final Decree from having any effect (Negotiation and Element Bomb I/II will work normally without removing buffs).

All in all, this is a rare instance of a Force Break that is almost totally outclassed by a normal skill from the same class. Proof of Nobility is great when you're starting off, especially when combined with a Landsknecht or Imperial in the party, but it doesn't have as much of an effect as Final Decree. However, it still holds two advantages - it can go before other Force Breaks while Final Decree can't, and it doesn't require you to bother arranging three buffs on your Sovereign to use, so depending on how fast you defeat the enemies and what kind of tactics your team uses, it can still have a place in your battle plan.

Skills: Novice

Attack Order


Increases one row of party members' attack for a set amount of turns.
Hello again, Attack Order, my old friend, Sovereign's bread and butter. Lay this down at the start of the fight and always keep it up afterwards.
There are several attack buffs that are stronger than it now, so depending on your team it might no longer be the shoe-in that it used to be. It's still extremely useful for most parties, though, and it's fairly cheap to cast to - even if you don't plan on using it in boss battle, it may still be worth getting for dealing with randoms.
Hitting the points where duration and speed increase are IMO a bigger deal than just increasing the damage. Not needing to babysit a buff and being able to get it out so it takes effect when it's relevant is really important. This goes for all the buffs that do this.

Fire Arms / Freeze Arms / Shock Arms


Fire Arms: Increases one row of party members' damage dealt when they use fire-elemental skills (either entirely fire or a composite type that includes fire). Adds fire to that party member's normal attacks.

Freeze Arms: Increases one row of party members' damage dealt when they use ice-elemental skills (either entirely ice or a composite type that includes ice). Adds ice to that party member's normal attacks.

Shock Arms: Increases one row of party members' damage dealt when they use volt-elemental skills (either entirely volt or a composite type that includes volt). Adds volt to that party member's normal attacks.
Oh, hey, they managed to make the Arms skills not completely extraneous. The Arms basically function as row-target versions of the Prelude skills from EO2U, making them very useful for when you're focusing on one particular element. The element imbue is also extremely good for skills that use the element of the user's equipped weapon, such as Front Command and 5-Ring Sword. On top of getting the effect of the Arms skill, if they're hitting a weakness, they'll get amped up even further.
The thing about arms' damage boost is that they're multiplicative - normally passive attack increasers, attack buffs and defense debuff effects are all added together, but the arms is always 1.3x damage no matter what, which means they tend to be far more potent than most attack buffs/defense debuffs. If your party incorporates any elemental attacks at all, these skills are extremely important.

Guard Order


Increases one row of party members' defense for a set amount of turns.
Ehhhhh? I guess Guard Order's okay early, but, in my opinion, it gets outclassed badly by Rally Order later.
Guard Order lets your party take hits better without needing to be healed more, but it isn't as strong as Rally Order (33% damage threshold increase versus 45%, or 25% effective damage reduction over 31%). Another potential advantage it has is that it works with Proof of Nobility, but you can generally only enjoy this advantage once per battle at most anyways. It's better than Rally Order if you need some instant defense against tricky random encounters, but Rally Order tends to be better in boss fights.

Reinforce


When the user applies a buff to a party member, that party member's HP is restored.
Reinforce is really, really good. It requires a lot of SP to max out, yeah, but adding healing on buffs goes a long way towards keeping your party healthy, especially in dungeon treks.

Also, the healing happens after the buff application is performed, meaning Reinforce helps bring party members up to their new max HP after applying Rally Order! That's good synergy.
It costs a lot of SP for this skill's healing to come to its own, but it's pretty strong when you have the points to max it. Sovereign is pretty hungry for SP so you might not be able to invest this early on, but it's definitely something you'll want eventually.

Royal Veil


At the end of the turn, if the user's HP is full, restores all party members' HP.

Only one instance of Royal Veil can activate per turn.
Royal Veil requires that you keep your Sovereign at full HP, yeah, but a passive 15% max HP restore per turn if you keep it up is really good, especially for only 4 SP.
It's amazing sustain early on, and does decently well late game too. It doesn't cost a lot of SP, so even sinking points in it early game shouldn't be too much of a burden. Keeping its condition fulfilled can be a pain in the rear end early on, but eventually Sovereign will get access to other passives that help this out greatly.
Since it's percentage-based and not WIS-based, you might get some use out of it on a subclass.

Monarch March


For every three steps taken in the Labyrinth, restores all party members' HP.
At max rank, it's effectively a 2.5 HP restore per step, which isn't bad for 6 minimum SP, honestly. Feel free to take it, though do try not to max it out really early, so your Sovereign has enough points in combat skills to be useful.
EO3 Monarch March this is not, but it doesn't cost a lot of SP and can still restore a decent amount by deliberately walking around in FOE areas. It's worth putting at least one point in.

Negotiation


Removes the oldest buff and debuff from one party member, and restores their HP and TP. Restoration is increased if both a buff and debuff are removed.
Negotiation works well, I guess, as an emergency single-target heal, but you can't spam it. Take it if you really think you'll need it, but I've gone without using it, ever, in EO3, EO2U, EO5, and EON, and I've never once thought "ooh man I could really use Negotiation right now."
It heals quite a bit of TP at max while barely costing any, and can pretty much keep your party going indefinitely during explorations (until your inventory if full), but it doesn't tend to bee too useful in boss battles. Max it if you want something to help your team's sustain; it does a wonderful job at that department for a novice skill.

Skills: Veteran

Royal Dignity


Each turn, the first time the user is damaged, if they have at least one buff, restores the user's HP.
Royal Dignity works well for making Sovereigns more survivable if they're on the front line. If they're in the back line, though, it's really mediocre.
If you rely a lot on Royal Veil, you'll want this fast. It really helps your Sovereign keep at full HP and thus keep giving your party Royal Veil regen. If you don't plan on using Royal Veil much (or at all), it can still be a handy passive to have, but it won't be nearly as important to get.
This can make any ally who's usually buffed much more survivable, if taken on a subclass. Combine with Royal Veil for obvious results.

Royal Lineage


When the user is buffed, their TP is restored.

Royal Lineage will not activate if an applied buff dispels a debuff.
Ugh. Why did they bring Royal Lineage back? It's as anemic as it was in EO3, especially since Sovereigns are extremely SP hungry. If you have points leftover by the end of the game, take it, I guess, but again, never been in a situation where I found myself really wishing I had it.
Unlike EO3, this version will activate when when you're renewing a buff rather than putting one up. It's pretty decent TP sustian, but it isn't as good or versatile as Negotiation. Could be something worth taking later, depending on how much sustain you want and how much you have.

Element Bomb I


Removes one of the Arms skills from one party member. Deals ranged INT-based damage to all enemies. The element is determined by the Arms skill that was removed.
Element Bomb lets your Sovereign contribute to randoms besides just tossing buffs on party members. It's pretty expensive, sure, but it's still better than offensive options than most buffing classes get. Which is to say, none.
This (and its Master counterpart) is nowhere near as weird as Regal Radiance was in EO3, but it still has one odd quirk - it gets the damage bonus of the elemental Arm it dispelled, not the level of the elemental arm on the Sovereign themself (unless they're dispelling their own arms). If you're dispelling an elemental oil, it won't get an Arms damage boost.

As for the skill itself, its AoE nature means it's something you use on randoms, but you need to set up arms or oil first which means you usually can't use it until turn 2, so it's not something I find to be particularly useful. It does do pretty good damage for far less TP than Zodiac have to shell out for theirs, at least, so it could be something worth getting if you desperately need to shore up that area.

Rally Order


Increases one row of party members' maximum HP for a set amount of turns.
I love Rally Order. It's so good for massively buffing up your party's survivability, especially compared to Guard Order. 45% extra max HP gives a lot of leeway and lets even some of the frailest classes survive deadly attacks.
This is stronger than Guard Order in terms of letting your party take hits better, and while you need to heal to the new maximum, Reinforce takes care of that generally. However, Reinforce is generally not strong enough bridge the cap entirely, meaning that it'll disable Royal Veil until you heal up some more. Guard Order works better in randoms, but this skill is more useful against bosses. I'm not really big on mitigation buffs in boss battles generally (except against the superboss) because they don't tend to do a lot of damage, but if you want one, then get this.

Protect Order


Restores one row of party members' HP at the end of the turn for a set amount of turns.
Ehhh, no thanks. Not how I want to spend my third buff slot after throwing Attack Order and Rally Order down.
Rather than running mitigation buffs in boss battles, I prefer running this. Bosses don't usually hit hard enough to anywhere near 1-shot your party unless you neglect armor, so regenerating off the damage tends to work better. It helps keep Royal Veil active too, which means even more passive regeneration for your party.

Prevent Order


Gives one row of party members a chance to negate one ailment or bind infliction for a set amount of turns.
Man, Prevent Order. It's not reliable any more, but at the same time, it's also now a mostly-reliable safeguard against any disable (besides instant death, I guess). Well worth the investment.
While it's not complete reliable, having 1 person out of 5 tagged by an ailment is still better than having 4 person tagged. You have to give up a buff slot to use it, but there will definitely be times where you will gladly sacrifice that for being much safer against disables.

Tactical Decree


For one turn, when any party members with buffs are attacked, they will recover TP, based on a percentage of the damage they received.

Activates on negated damage, and heals based on the amount of damage the user would've taken. Does not activate on absorbed damage.
I want to like Tactical Decree. I think it's a really good idea for a skill! But, unfortunately, Sovereign generally has other things they either need to do, or are more productive than it. Oh well.
For whatever reason, if you activate this on negated damage, the game treats as if you have taken the damage in full and restore TP accordingly. It can easily keep your party going forever against certain bosses (TP wise) if you combine this with a protector negating elemental damage via Level 4 walls, which can be pretty useful against the superboss (if not much else).

Healing Decree


For one turn, when any party members with buffs deal damage, they will recover HP based on the damage they deal.

If a party member under the effect of Healing Decree inflicts instant death with a damaging attack, they will still recover HP based on the damage the attack would've dealt.
Healing Decree isn't great. If you want to heal up your party, just toss out a Soma--it'll hit the party members who don't deal damage, which is more than can be said for Healing Decree.
It's strong enough to make your damage dealers full heal themselves even with just a little bit of investment, but does nothing for your supports. A proper healing skill or a Soma will be more useful than this.

Skills: Master

Element Bomb II


Removes one of the Arms skills from one party member. Deals multiple instances of ranged INT-based damage to random enemies. The element is determined by the Arms skill that was removed.
A single-target damage (at least, that's what you should use it as) version of Element Bomb I. Worth grabbing if you're utilizing the Arms tree.
As a skill that's mostly useful on bosses, it doesn't really do that much damage compared to dedicated attackers, but it can do enough to put in some work as a supporter. This skill can certainly be worth a free turn if you can get one, so the question mainly becomes if your Sovereign has enough free turns to use this or not. I prefer spending mine on working towards Final Decree, but this can be a worthy endeavor too.

Clearance


Removes all buffs and debuffs from all party members and enemies, and restores HP and TP to all party members.

The restore amount is variable.
I have never wanted to use Clearance. Ever. In theory, it's for extreme emergencies, which I have never, ever, ever had happen. I honestly can't think of any situation where someone would want Clearance over, say, a regular-ass Soma Prime. The TP restore is nice, but absolutely not worth purging every buff and debuff in the battle. It's not even that effective, since you have to remove at least 21 modifiers to even get the base effect. Fuck, it's so bad.
Clearance is mainly useful for purging buffs against bosses that don't like you having a lot of them. It can also be used to clear buffs from a boss, but dispelling your own party's buffs is a bad idea. The healing part simply requires way too many removals to be anywhere practical.

Dauntless Order


For a set amount of turns, one row of party members may endure an attack that would've killed them, and have their HP restored.
In all honesty, enemy damage is so easy to keep up with in EON that I haven't really had many situations where I've wanted Dauntless Order over something else--especially when it's in the running for the party's third buff slot after Attack Order and Rally Order.
I could see it putting in some work against the superboss, but that's about it. No other boss really hits hard enough to warrant needing this.

Final Decree


Only usable if the user has 3 buffs. Removes all buffs from the user to increase damage dealt by, and reduce damage taken by, all party members for one turn.

Does not work if another party member used Proof of Nobility before Final Decree.
Here we are. Final Decree, the good shit. This thing is Wolf Pack and Forest Guardian from EOU, or Crusade from EO2U, but as a skill you can use with just a bit of pre-planning. It's incredibly powerful, and works best with burst damage parties (it's especially good when combined with Drives), but it works well in any party. Get it.
Since this is not a buff, it also works multiplicatively with every other damage increaser, so the damage increase is really potent. The defense bonus can be pretty nice, too, particularly with an Imperial drive. However, Force Breaks have higher priority than this skill, so it won't be able to buff their damage. The fact that you need to arrange three buffs on your Sovereign can be quite annoying too, as it may mean that you need a lot of turns to set it up. You can still get pretty good results by just throwing it out whenever you can, but to get the most out of its effect, you need to carefully plan out how your party will time their setups and damage skills so you can use this skill on when it counts the most.
Depending on your party setup, it may be worth it to stick your Sovereign in the front row so they can tag themselves with buffs without Boost, or with Arms in general. They're bulky enough for it, especially with Royal Dignity.

Renew


When the user dispels buffs from themself, they have a chance to cancel the dispel and keep their buffs.
Hey, you know how Final Decree was good? What if you could use Final Decree consecutively?
This sounds absolutely amazing, until you realize that Final Decree wants careful timing, which this (being RNG-based) has a hard time factoring into. If you're ok with just throwing it out whenever you can, or you are willing to gamble on the success chance, then this skill can be very useful, but if you were timing it on specific turns... It could potentially save you a turn of two of setup at most. Which can still make it worth considering, though it'll hardly be a priority skill to take in that case.

Outside of Final Decree, this also works with Elemental Bomb I/II or Negotation (assuming they're used on the Sovereign themselves). If you like using those skills a lot, this passive can also help out, though it's hardly going to be the table turner than consecutive Final Decree can potentially be.

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