Copyright 2010 Jeffrey Russell
popslurpbam@hotmail.com


Version History

4/23/2010 (v 1.0) - completed and sent in to GFAQs

4/28/2010 (v 1.01) - Neoseeker can now use this guide.

5/7/2010 (v 1.02) - SuperCheats can now use this guide.

6/10/2010 (v 1.1) - first major update. After hearing some suggestions, I
finally broke down and made a section of character scores. I still don't think
that's a good way to judge characters, but I decided it would be nice to have
the duality of in-depth quality assessments and quick, generalized overviews so
the reader can choose which they care to read.

6/10/2010 again (v 1.11) - Made a fix in some character's scores to adjust for
finding items - it's based on skill, not luck like I thought it was. Thanks to
Zakaerys for pointing that out.



1.Intro [1NT]
2.Terminology [T3RM]
3.CEXP vs. BEXP [3XP] 
4.Data Transfer [D4T4]
5.The characters [CH4R]
6. Opinions and Ratings [B1AS]
7.Supports & Affinities [4FF]
8.The SS Weapons [ZOMG55]
9.Hypothetical Questions 'n' Answers [QW3ST]
10.Outro and Contact Info [0UT]

7979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797979797

While it's not completely drenched in them, please bear in mind that this guide
does contain spoilers. These are mostly limited to character names, but even
knowing if a character is alive/recruitable could be considered a spoiler.
So yeah.



Intro [1NT]

Hello and welcome to my character FAQ for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn!
Before we get started, let me get something straight.

You will not completely agree with this FAQ. (probably)

I mean, let's face it. When it comes down to it, this is a random game.
Just because I say Rhys has awful defense doesn't magically prohibit you from
getting a Rhys who gains +def every level until he caps it. Just because I say
Sanaki has high luck doesn't mean that you won't get a file where she never
ever gains a point in it. And as a natural correlation, just because I say that
a character is good or bad doesn't mean you will feel the same way.
	
On a similar note, there are many ways of playing the game. How I play is
likely different from how you play. The fact that Sothe is an EXP hog doesn't
bother me, but you might hate him forever for it; the fact that Fiona has
poor earlygame performance is a significant problem to me, but might not be
to you. I will do what I can to try to point out character's pros and cons
in an objective manner, but if you think I'm bashing a character for something
they don't deserve or praising them for something that's not true, then I
understand, and am willing to listen to your opinion if you care enough to
e-mail me.

Now then, let me make something else clear; any character can be useful
in some way or another if you put the effort into them. Whether or not it's
worth the effort is up to you. Some are only useful for a certain arc of the
game, some require a ton of training, some have a poor endgame, some have a
combination of the above. But what I guess I want to say here is even if I have
nothing good to say about a character, if you want to use them, use them. Some
might make the game harder than it really needs to be, but there's little
point in making the game easier if you are going to enjoy it less. Of course,
if you want to use an entire team of characters that I or others deem bad, then
you might want to reconsider, but when it comes down to it, you should use who
you want to use.

So, with all that said, let's move on to the guide!

Terminology [T3RM]

There are a lot of terms to be familiar with in Fire Emblem.

FE:RD – Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

FE:PoR – Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

GM – Greil Mercenary/ies. The group of characters with Ike.

DB – Dawn Brigade. The group of characters with Micaiah.

CRK – Crimean Royal Knight. Consists of Goeffrey, Kieran, Makalov, Astrid,
Danved, Marcia, and Calill.

LEA – Laguz Emancipation Army (or is it Alliance? I forget). Consists of
Tormod, Muarim, and Vika.

Stats...

HP: Hit Points. Enemy attacks will lower this value. When this value hits
0, the character will retreat or die, depending on their plot relevance. In
either case, they will become unusable for the rest of the game, and any items
or skills they had are gone forever (most of the time, anyway...). Can be
increased by 7 points with a Seraph Robe.

Strength (Str): Determines how much damage physical attacks do. Also note
that if a character's strength is lower than their weapon's weight, they will
lose speed equal to the difference between the two. So if Nolan has 12 strength
and is wielding a weapon with 15 wt, he will lose 15-12 = 3 speed. Can be 
increased by 2 points with an Energy Drop.

Magic (Mag): Determines how much damage magical attacks do. Also decides
how much HP Imbue can recover for str-based units. Can be increased by 2 points
with a Spirit Dust.

Skill (Skl): Increases accuracy. Many skills also have activation rates
based on skill (no, really?) Also increases the odds of scoring critical hits.
Can be increased by 2 points with a Secret Book.

Speed (Spd): Increases evasion. Also, having 4 or more speed than your
opponent will allow you to attack twice in one round, and vice versa (bear in
mind this is after the speed deduction mentioned in the strength description).
Note that some skill activation rates are based on speed. Can be increased by
2 points with a Speedwing.

Luck: Has slight impact on accuracy and evasion. Also determines crit
evasion. Impacts a few skills as well. Can be increased by 2 points with an
Ashera Icon. Note that Luck does NOT impact how often a character criticals
enemies.

Defense (Def): Determines how much damage you take from physical attacks.
Can be increased by 2 points with a Dracoshield.

Resistance (Res): Determines how much damage you take from magic attacks,
as well as the odds of being hit by a status effect. Can be increased by 2
points with a Talisman.

Constitution (Con): Affects shoving. Pretty irrelevant. Can be increased
by 2 points with a Statue Frag.

Move: The amount of squares a unit can move per turn. Can be increased by
2 points with Boots or by using the Celerity skill.

Other terms...

RNG: Random Number Generator. Determines, like, freaking everything.

RNG blessed: When a character gets more of a stat than it seems like they
ought to. If Leonardo caps defense by level 20 before promoting, he's RNG
blessed.

RNG screwed: When a character gets less of a stat than it seems like they
ought to. If Edward gets to level 20 without ever gaining HP, he's RNG screwed.

Hit: Accuracy. How likely you are to connect with an attack.
May also refer to the accuracy bonus a weapon gives. Increased by skill and
luck.

Display hit: The percentage the game shows you of how likely you are to
hit with an attack.

True hit: How likely you actually are to hit. In general, if the display
hit is above 50, then the true hit is higher than the display hit, and if the
display hit is below 50, then the true hit is less than the display hit. 

Avoid (Avo): A character's ability to evade attacks. Increased by speed
and luck.

Crit: Can refer either to critical hits, which do three times as much
damage as a normal hit, or can refer to a character's likelihood to score a
critical hit.

Dodge: Critical evasion. Decreases the enemy's chance of scoring critical
hits. Increased by luck.

Weight (Wt): How heavy a weapon is. A high weight weapon may slow down
the character using it if they have low strength. Can also refer to a unit's
weight, which affects rescuing and shoving.

Rescue: A command that allows one unit to take another off of the field.
Doing this will reduce the rescuer's speed and skill by half. A unit can only
rescue other units that they have 2 or more weight than who they are rescuing
(So a character with 10 wt can rescue a character with 8 wt or less, but not 9
wt or more).

Shove: A skill all non-mounted units possess. Allows a unit to shove
another character one space, be they ally or enemy. The target must have at
most 2 more weight than the shover's Con.

Canto: A skill all mounted units and flyers have. Allows the character to
use their remaining move points after performing an action.

Prf weapon/tome: A weapon that can be used only by one character, such as
Thani. These can be used regardless of weapon level.

Seige Tome: A tome that has 3-10 range, such as Bolting.

Weapon Triangle: An element only present in Easy and Normal mode, the
weapon triangle slightly influences damage and accuracy. Swords beat Axes beat
Lances beat swords, Lightning>Fire>Wind>Lightning, Dark>Anima>Light>Dark. Bows,
Daggers, Staves, and Laguz weapons do not fit into weapon triangles.

Weapon Triangle Advantage (WTA): The accuracy bonus (+10) and power bonus
(+1) given to a person who's weapon type beats their opponent's. For example,
a sword-wielding myrmidon would have the WTA against an axe-wielding fighter.

Weapon Triangle Disadvantage (WTD): The accuracy loss (-10) and power loss
(-1) suffered by a person who's weapon type loses against their opponent's.
For example, a sword-wielding myrmidon would have the WTD against a lance-
wielding pegasus knight.

Biorhythm: A naturally occurring fluctuation in a character's accuracy,
evasion, skill activation rate, and ability to find hidden treasure. Having
Best biorhythm increases these by 10, High increases them by 5, Low decreases
them by 5, and Worst decreases them by 10. Normal gives no change. Note that
there are several biorhythm types, some of which cannot reach Best and Worst.

-edit: The effect on finding hidden treasure is actually double that...+20 at
best, +10 at good, -10 at bad, -20 at worst.


Growth: The odds a character will gain a stat when they level up. For
example, Haar has a 30% HP growth, so every time he levels up he has a 30%
chance of gaining one hit point.

Cap: The highest a character's stat can go. This is primarily dependent on
class and gender. For example, Meg as a Marshall has a defense cap of 35, so
once she reaches that she cannot continue to gain stats in defense when she
levels up.

Tier: All Beorc classes can be described as 1st tier, 2nd tier, or 3rd
tier. 1st tier classes are the weakest, 3rd tier are the strongest. Reaching
level 21 or using a Master Seal after level 10 will promote a character from
tier 1 to tier 2: reaching level 21 again or using a Master Crown after level
10 will promote a character from tier 2 to tier 3. The level cap is 20, tier 3.

Mastery Skills: Powerful skills that often are the rough equivalent of an
I WIN button. Beorc learn these automatically at third tier. Laguz must use a
Satori sign at or after level 30 to learn theirs.

Beorc: Humans. Progress through three tiers of classes and use weapons
they created.

Laguz: Shapeshifters. Can reach up to level 40 but do not ever promote.
Can use a Satori Sign after level 30 to learn Mastery skills. When they are
transformed, their stats are doubled and they can attack; untransformed they
can only counterattack. Their transformation is dictated by a gauge; every turn
they spend untransformed, the gauge increases, and every turn they spend
transformed (and every time they fight) the gauge decreases. Note that some 
tems can increase the gauge, and being attacked (but not counterattacking) will
increase the gauge if the laguz is untransformed. When the gauge hits 30, the
laguz can transform; they can untransform at any time.

Laguz Royals: Extrapowerful laguz that have a skill called Formshift which
allows them to be transformed at all times without any penalty. Nailah, Naesala
Tibarn, and Caineghis are all laguz royals; Giffca is also effectively a royal,
since he has comparable stats and joins with a laguz gem. Kurthnaga is also a
royal, though he does not get Formshift until the end of 4-E-3.



CEXP vs. BEXP [3XP]

Characters level a bit differently if they level up with CEXP (combat
experience) or BEXP (bonus experience).

CEXP levels work almost exactly like they did in every other Fire Emblem.
When a character levels up with CEXP each of their individual stats has a
certain percent chance of going up. In Radiant Dawn you are guaranteed to get
at least one stat every time you level up; the only way to gain no stats at a
level up is if they have all capped already. So you essentially can gain 1 to 8
stats per level.

BEXP levelups guarantee that you will gain 3 stats per level. EXACTLY 3...
no more, no less (unless there are fewer than 3 stats left to gain). This makes
it very useful for helping to compensate for character's weak stats.

Say, for example, that Nolan is level 20/15. He has capped magic, skill,
speed, and resistance. Now, he's only got four stats left to gain (HP, strength
luck, and defense). I could continue leveling him normally and hope he gets
good stat gains...or I could level him with BEXP and ensure that he gets 3 of
the 4 stats he has left!

In general, you should wait until the character has capped 3 stats before
using BEXP, but in some cases you may want to start earlier or wait longer.

(random extra note: I may refer every now and then to SEXP, which besides
looking funny is short for Staff Experience, the experience gained from using
staves. This is the same as CEXP. Exp gained from Chanting or Sacrifice is also
CEXP.)

Data Transfer [D4T4]

If you played through Path of Radiance and have a file saved on your
Gamecube memory card (note that the game save must be Clear Data), you will
have the option of transferring the data over to Radiant Dawn. This has a few
advantages. Note, however, that there is a major glitch in the system; if you
have ANY Easy Mode data on your memory card, then attempting to perform the
data transfer will cause Radiant Dawn to crash. So if you want to make a data
transfer, play through Path of Radiance on Normal or Hard and make sure there
are no Easy Mode files on that card. Most of the RD disks out now should be
fixed, but just in case they aren't...

Anyway, you get some nice bonuses for the Data Transfer. Any coins you had
at the end of Path of Radiance will be put in the Greil Mercenaries' convoy in
Radiant Dawn. Characters that got an A support with each other will now have a
Bond support in Radiant Dawn. Characters who had at least a C weapon level in a
weapon type in Path of Radiance will get a boost to their weapon experience in
Radiant Dawn (But only in weapon types that they start off with in Radiant
Dawn; for example, even if Brom gets S lances in Path of Radiance, he doesn't
start off being able to use lances in Radiant Dawn so no bonus will occur for
his lance weapon exp).

The most significant bonus, and most relevant to this FAQ, is the stat
boosts. Characters who capped a stat in Path of Radiance AND reached max level
will get stat boosts in Radiant Dawn. If they capped HP, they will get +5 to
their base in Radiant Dawn; all other capped stats get +2 points. Note that
they will not break stat caps.

So for an example, let's use Gatrie. Let's say I got him to cap HP,
strength, and defense in Path of Radiance and got him to level 20 general. When
I transfer data, his base strength will be 27 (instead of his normal base of
25), his base defense will be 26 (instead of his normal base of 24) and his
base HP will be 45 (instead of his normal base of 44 – he only got 1 point
because his HP cap at his initial tier is 45). 

There are two noteworthy exceptions: Calill and Sothe. Calill gets her own
bonuses plus bonuses to whatever Largo capped in Path of Radiance, since he is
not a playable character in Radiant Dawn. So if he capped HP, she will get the
+5 points to it. However, the bonuses do not stack: if Calill and Largo both
capped skill in Path of Radiance, RD Calill still only gets +2 points to it in
Radiant Dawn.

The other exception is Sothe. If Sothe hit level 20 thief in Path of
Radiance, his stats will transfer over exactly as they are. So if he had 20
luck as a level 20 thief in Path of Radiance, he will have 20 luck as a level 1
Rogue in Radiant Dawn. WARNING: his stats will transfer directly even if they
are worse than his Radiant Dawn bases! Transfer Sothe at your own risk!...but
also bear in mind that, while it will take some effort, you can really improve
RD Sothe's stats, especially defense, by pumping Sothe up in Path of Radiance.


The characters [CH4R]


Micaiah
Level 1 Light Mage
Dark affinity

Base stats
15 HP
2 Str
7 Mag
8 Skl
7 Spd
10 Luck
2 Def
4 Res
5 Con
5 Wt

Growths
40% HP
15% Str
80% Mag
40% Skl
35% Spd
80% Luck
20% Def
90% Res

Starts with D Light, gains C Staves at 2nd tier.

Innate Skills: Sacrifice (allows Micaiah to restore another unit's HP, but she
loses that amount. Restores status effects of the target. Micaiah cannot kill
herself with this, so if she doesn't have enough HP to fully heal, then she
will just heal as much as she can and her HP will fall to 1. This cannot be
removed from Micaiah but takes no capacity).

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of the game.


Micaiah is one of the main lords of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, and as such
if she dies you get a game over. Which is a shame, because her durability
sucks – poor HP and defense coupled with lackluster evasion, although between
her immense luck and her auto-A Sothe support (which gives +15 avo) she can
dodge occasionally. Still, a lot of enemies are killing her in one hit, and the
ones that aren't may have a shot at double-turning her thanks to her low speed.
Basically, the moral here is don't let her get attacked, ever. Well, by
physical attackers, anyway...her resistance is incredible (highest beorc res
growth in the game), so mages pose no threat to her.

Micaiah gets a tome called Thani (two, actually; one in 1-2 from a chest
and one in 1-E from a base convo with Fiona) that is very useful for her.
Besides being pretty powerful in it's own right, it also does extra damage to
enemy horse-mounted units and armored units. Since these tend to be among the
more difficult enemies to deal with, this gives Micaiah an offensive edge (and
of course she's got a great magic stat on top of that). Sadly, she's pretty
much never going to double-turn enemies, but she can really weaken them for
other units to sneak in some kills.

Once Micaiah promotes to tier 2 at the end of 1-E (she, Sothe, and Ike are
the only characters with storyline promotions, by the way), she gains the
ability to use staves. This means now she can heal without consuming her own HP
which is quite nice. The fact that she can instantly use Physic is great too,
so she can heal without having to worry about getting annihilated when an enemy
makes eye contact with her. 

Sadly, her promotion to third tier is extremely late – right before
Endgame, actually. She doesn't offer much for combat here, but the fact that
she can use staves is still nice and some of the enemies won't attack her at
all, so her durability is a bit less of a problem...maybe...

Basically, you need to be very careful with her, but her powerful attacks
(moreso in part 1) and her ability to heal (moreso after part 1) are pretty
nice. She's also one out of two characters that offers an attack boosting
support (the other is Leonardo: Tormod does too, but his availability gets in
the way) to the DB, so that can be helpful as well. Just keep an eye on the
enemies movement ranges and she should be fine.

--

Edward
Level 4 Myrmidon
Light affinity

Base stats
19 HP
7 Str
0 Mag
11 Skl
12 Spd
8 Luck
5 Def
0 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
85% HP
60% Str
5% Mag
65% Skl
60% Spd
50% Luck
35% Def
20% Res

Starts with D Swords

Innate Skills: Wrath (increases critical rating by 50 when HP falls under 30%)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of the game.


Ah, Edward, one of the more controversial characters of Radiant Dawn.

First of all, let's have a look at those stats. His bases aren't anything
special, but 7 str is nice for a level 4 myrmidon and 11 skl/12 spd is cool,
too. And his growths are quite good as well – excellent offense with 60% or
more in str/skl/spd and 50% luck is nice. He also has one of the highest HP
growths in the game, tied for best HP growth among beorc. His defense could be
better but it's still okay, and his res and magic suck, but overall those
growths are pretty sweet.

However, Edward does have a few problems. The Dawn Brigade in general
suffers from a lack of durability, and Edward has some of the most significant
durability issues early on. While his evasion is good in theory, it's not doing
a lot for him at first on account of how accurate enemies (or rather, their
weapons) are in the early parts of the game. Since Edward is a frontliner,
unlike the other flimsier characters like Micaiah, Leonardo, etc. (who don't
generally need to worry about being attacked), this means his durability is an
issue for him all the time. Of course, he's good for finishing off pre-weakened
enemies, and since he joins alongside two units pretty much designed to
pre-weaken enemies, that works out okay for him...but still, he suffers from
being one of the flimsier characters at first. He's also one of the weaker
characters as far as damage output is concerned, but if he's doubling (which he
should be doing fairly regularly on easy and normal modes) then his offense
should still be sufficient.

And for all my complaining about his general mediocrity at first, he does
grow pretty well. He's one of the best Endgame Trueblades, which is a good
class to begin with, although he requires a lot more effort to catch up in
levels than the others (except maybe Lucia) do. He also gets a unique weapon
in 3-6 called Caladbolg, which is quite powerful and gives him an 8 point luck
boost.

His affinity isn't very good under normal circumstances; however, he and
Nolan are a fairly popular support pairing. Earth really helps boost Edward's
survival rate, and Nolan could stand some extra hit and defense, and their
affinities provide that for each other. That's not to say that Edward is the
only DB character who wants Earth, or that Nolan is the only one who wants
Light, but they do work pretty well together. Wrath can also help out his
offense, but considering that involves getting him below 30% HP (i.e. in OHKO
range), it's fairly dangerous.

Ultimately, Edward's biggest problems are his earlygame, which is rather
mediocre, and the fact that there are two other Trueblades (Mia and Zihark) who
have about as good a lategame but are much easier to train/more useful early
on. He'll do pretty well with some levels – again, those growths are nothing to
laugh at, and BEXP will help his lagging defenses – and he certainly doesn't
have as bad an earlygame as some others, but he does need some work before he
will really shine.

--

Leonardo
Level 4 Archer
Water Affinity

Base stats
17 HP
8 Str
0 Mag
12 Skl
10 Spd
6 Luck
5 Def
4 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
60% HP
40% Str
15% Mag
75% Skl
35% Spd
65% Luck
35% Def
55% Res

Starts with D Bows

Innate Skills: Cancel (when the character hits an enemy, the enemy may not be
able to counterattack)

How to recruit: Joins automatically after a few turns in 1-P.


Leonardo is one of those awkward units who has some nice things going for
him, but also has his stats working against him.

First of all, he's an archer/sniper/marksman. Marksmen are an excellent
endgame class thanks to their great stat caps and the oh-so-broken Double Bow.
However, Leonardo has to worry about the fact that he can only attack from 2
spaces away, at least until he reaches second tier and can use crossbows. This
is good in a way – Leonardo's poorish durability is offset by his ability to
consistently attack from afar – but also bad because it tends to stunt his
experience gain (since he can't really do anything on enemy phase) and being a
low-leveled Dawn Brigadier, he needs all the EXP he can get.

A major problem is his growths. They aren't just glaringly awful, but they
certainly aren't good.  His HP is good and his def is surprisingly decent
(still lowish, though), but his strength and speed are both mediocre. Since
he's a purely offense-oriented class, this is a big problem for him. He has
great skill, though, so at least he's pretty accurate, and high res means he at
least doesn't have to worry much about counters from magic users. His high luck
doesn't do much for him, really, since his lowish speed ultimately prevents his
evasion from really getting anywhere.

Leo does have a very good affinity, at least. He has one of two Dawn
Brigade attack boosting affinities, which is nice (and the other is Micaiah,
who automatically has an A support with Sothe, something you might be reluctant
to break up) and it boosts defense as well, which is also something most DB
people could use. 

Leonardo's chipping damage is somewhat helpful for the Dawn Brigade. After
all, there aren't too many characters, especially early on, who will be one-
rounding enemies, and Leonardo can damage them without fear of a counterattack
most of the time. However, this isn't necessarily useful for very long and
Ilyana and Micaiah typically outdo him at weakening enemies.

In part 3, things (might) change drastically in Leonardo's favor. In 3-6,
he gets a unique weapon called Lughnasadh, which is quite powerful and gives
him +5 speed. FIVE POINTS OF SPEED. Which means he might actually start
doubling things, especially the rather slow tigers of 3-6. And since it's a
very powerful weapon for that point in the game, it helps offset his laggy
strength, too! Unfortunately, this can't make up for all of his problems, and
odds are he's still just adding chipping damage (although that's more valuable
in part 3, where Micaiah's playing healbot and Ilyana's gone).

That said, if you can promote Leonardo by 3-6, he has another thing going
for him. Give him a crossbow (or Lughnasadh) and the skill Beastfoe, and he's
severely wounding if not outright one-shotting every enemy on the map. Of
course, this requires actually getting him promoted, and Nolan can use the same
strategy, but it can be helpful. He can also help in killing the hawks of 3-13,
although there are plenty of other ways to deal with them.

...oh yeah, and what the hell were they thinking, giving an archer a skill
that might negate enemy counters? It's completely useless for him. Oh well,
might as well just jack it and stick it on someone else.

Leonardo has his uses, but when it comes down to it he's much harder to
train than the other marksmen (and statistically inferior, to boot) and doesn't
contribute a whole lot to his team. The only thing I'd say really works in his
favor is the Lughnasadh, but even that doesn't really save him unless you've
been really working at pumping him with EXP. He can be helpful, but his worth
is rather limited and I can't really recommend him as a long-term
character...although it might be worth getting him at least to third tier at
some point, just to see his outfit.

–

Nolan
Level 9 Fighter
Earth Affinity

Base stats

29 HP
12 Str
0 Mag
11 Skl
10 Spd
7 Luck
9 Def
3 Res
13 Con
13 Wt

Growths
60% HP
45% Str
20% Mag
70% Skl
60% Spd
60% Luck
35% Def
40% Res

Starts with C Axes

Innate Skills: Nihil (prevents enemy combat-related skills from activating)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-1.


Meet Nolan, the balanced Fighter.

His growths are good. Good HP, luck, speed, and res, plus excellent skill.
His defense growth is a bit low, but still decent (and with 9 base defense, his
durability is overall pretty respectable), and his strength is about average.
His growths are also pretty different than what you would expect from this
class, but that's OK. Fighter/Warrior/Reaver is an excellent endgame class, and
Nolan has an easy time capping a lot of things so if you ever have any problem
with his strength (or HP or defense), they are pretty easily fixed with Bonus
Experience. He tends to cap magic, resistance, and skill (and has a good shot
at speed) fairly early in second tier, so that's a good time to get to work
with the bonus experience if you're willing to spare some.

His bases are also pretty decent, and coupled with a relatively high level
for when he joins, make him one of the best characters you have for a while and
at least decent forever. 12 strength is nice, and 29 HP/9 def is much better
than anything we've seen so far. His speed could be better, but he shouldn't be
getting doubled, at least. One of his bigger problems is that, while 12
strength gives him good damage output, it's not enough for him to wield his
initial weapon (a 15 wt steel axe) without losing attack speed, so he's
actually slower than he looks at first. Once you get him a few points of
strength or an iron axe, though, that goes away.

Nolan also gives out the highly sought after Earth affinity. As I brought
up earlier, he and Edward are a popular pairing, although most frontliners
could do well with his Earth. Nolan himself does pretty well with any support
partner. Double Earth is another popular support pairing (that is, NolanxZihark
or NolanxVolug...or NolanxFiona...) since it gives an incredible evasion boost.

In 3-6, Nolan gets a special weapon called Tarvos. Besides being extra
powerful and accurate, it also gives him +4 defense, which is pretty great
(especially with the hard-hitting enemies in that chapter). You also get a
Brave Axe at this time, although he has to compete with Jill for that. And, as
I mentioned with Leonardo, Nolan is able to use crossbows+Beastfoe here, which
allows him to do astronomical damage, although he will probably be doing fairly
well for himself without it...in fact, if you go with that strategy you will
probably want to stick him behind the front line, since otherwise he may be
flooded by enemies.

As far as long term use is concerned, Nolan suffers from the same issue
that plagues a lot of the Dawn Brigade – he's likely to be underleveled when
the teams all join up. However, since you don't have to be quite so careful
with him early on thanks to his actually decent durability, coupled with his
good damage output, he shouldn't have too much trouble with leveling. If you're
using him, he will always be one of your better units up until part 4 (unless
he gets RNG screwed, obviously) and even in part 4 does pretty well. If you can
get him the levels, he's also an excellent endgame character. He's still got
some solid competition for the ultimate axe, but he's one of the best 
candidates for it.

As a final note, Nolan's innate Nihil isn't worth much until endgame, but
there it's a pretty helpful skill to have. If you aren't planning on using him,
don't forget to remove Nihil from him and give it to one of your Endgame
characters – it's quite nice in a few endgame boss battles.
	
–

Laura
Level 1 Priest[ess]
Wind Affinity

Base stats
16 HP
3 Str
8 Mag
3 Skl
5 Spd
8 Luck
2 Def
10 Res
5 Con
5 Wt

Growths
45% HP
20% Str
70% Mag
70% Skl
70% Spd
50% Luck
20% Def
35% Res

Starts with D Staves, gains E Light at 2nd tier

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-2.

	
Laura is the first true healer you get, and is invaluable in the fragile
Dawn Brigade. And frankly, thats all I really need to say about her. Laura has
whatever inherent value you place on healing – if you like healers, Laura's
good, if you prefer items, Laura's extraneous. Being a healer fan, I find Laura
invaluable, but given the immense boost healing items got in this game, you
might be able to get by without her.

That said, let's have a look at what happens if she's actively trained
instead of just healing as needed.

She starts at the paltry level of 1, and can only gain EXP with staves,
which basically means she's getting generally getting 11 or 12 EXP per turn,
which means she won't be leveling very fast. Even if you stop and heal every
time Leonardo gets a splinter, she's gonna have a hard time reaching second
tier by the end of part 1. She's extremely frail at first (about equal
durability to Micaiah, but her base speed is terrible so she's getting doubled
a lot more), but once her immense speed growth kicks in she will at least be
double-turn free and eventually might start getting some nice evasion between
that and her good luck.

If her leveling issues are proving to be a problem, you could use a Master
Seal on her. Given how slowly she levels, it might be more beneficial to
promote her a few levels early and thus forego some stat gains that it would
be to wait even longer for her to get her promotion bonuses and be able to
attack. There are other people who want a Seal, of course, but Laura might
benefit from one.

At second tier, she gains light magic, but she's stuck at E rank. The next
most powerful tome, Ellight, is C rank, so Laura has to power through for a bit
using the weak Light tome. Thankfully her magic is great (although her tier 2
cap could be better), so she should still be doing good damage. Whether or not
she's doubling is a tougher call...while her speed growth is still great, she
suffers from low caps at every tier, and her 23 speed cap at tier 2 may be
enough to prevent her from doubling a lot of things. She should still be able
to double slower units, though, and most of those are low resistance enemies
(like tigers) so that kinda works out...but even that's only once she's gained
several levels into tier 2, not right as she promotes...

Sadly, in part 4 her leveling issues really come to haunt her if they
haven't already. Even if you've managed to promote her to Saint, her stats are
still going to be somewhat subpar thanks to her bad Bishop caps, and will have
little time to grow. Saint also has some of the most notoriously horrible stat
caps in the game, making her virtually useless for Endgame (well, not “useless”
since she can still heal just fine, but so can Mickey, who is forced, and you
really don't need more than one in Endgame.)

So, having panned Laura's combat, I will say that if you powerlevel her,
she can be pretty useful for a while...but it takes a while to do so, longer
than any other character (on the DB at least) and she's pretty much condemned
to be one of the lesser endgame units. So we're back to my original statement:
Laura is the first true healer you get, and is invaluable in the Dawn Brigade,
and thus the worth you put on her should be more or less equal to the worth you
put on healers in general.

–

Sothe
Level 1 Rogue
Wind Affinity

Base stats
35 HP
18 Str
4 Mag
20 Skl
20 Spd
15 Luck
14 Def
9 Res
8 Con
8 Wt

Growths
30% HP
60% Str
20% Mag
80% Skl
45% Spd
65% Luck
20% Def
30% Res

Starts with B Daggers

Innate Skills: Guard (may take damage instead of support partner when partner
is attacked. Activation rate is based on support level. Only works when the
supporting characters are on adjacent squares)

How to recruit: Joins automatically after a few turns in 1-2.


Sothe is one of the classic cases of “starts godly, ends meh”. Unlike most
characters of that type in previous FE games, however, Sothe's problems are his
late promotion and his terrible caps – his growths are actually fairly nice.
His offense is pretty great, with excellent base str/skl/spd and great str/skl
growths (his speed growth isn't as good, but it's still good enough for him to
double pretty much whatever he wants, at least for a while...). His durability
is less impressive; while he has pretty good evasion with goodish speed and
great luck, his HP and def growths are awful. Thankfully, he has high bases in
both stats, so he' still pretty hard to kill for a while.

However, while his growths/bases work out pretty well for him, his caps do
not. He has great skill and speed caps, but his strength caps are quite low.
Since this is statistically his main selling point, that really hurts him.
Furthermore, Sothe is one of the three characters that has storyline-based
promotions (he promotes automatically after 4-P) so he's stuck with at best 22
strength until then, and afterwards can only reach 28. So between his poor
strength cap, his poor HP/def growths and caps, and the fact that he uses the
weakest physical weapon type, Sothe is going to really struggle to be worth
much in the late/endgame. You are also forced to bring him into the Tower,
although you don't have to deploy him.

...But enough complaining! While Sothe isn't anything special later on, in
the early parts of the game he is the best character you've got. Being so
overleveled (and having great bases for that level, too), he's pretty much
ripping everything apart. He might not be consistently one-rounding everything
...but in a way that's kind of good, because if you prefer it, you can just
have him weaken enemies with bronze weapons or something so that other
characters can take the kills (and if you do want him one-rounding, you can
just switch him back to a higher quality weapon). He's also quite difficult to
kill, having reasonably reliable evasion and pretty great concrete durability
as well. Even in the latter chapters of part 1, when you get other high-level
people, Sothe still stands out as pretty good. He isn't quite as reliable in
part 3, when your other units should be getting close to caught up, but he's
still worthwhile to have around.

Also, being a thief, Sothe has an easier time finding hidden items and
opening chests, and can steal some nice things from enemies, so that's another
bonus. He also has an automatic A support with Micaiah, which works reasonably
well for both.

You'll probably want to drop him towards the latter parts of the game,
although he can still contribute some in endgame if you can pull his levels up
in 4-3 after he promotes. But whether or not you care about what he can do
there, he's definitely worth using in the earlier parts of the game, either as
a weakener/meatshield or as an actual combatant.
	
–

Ilyana
Level 12 Thunder Mage
Light Affinity

Base stats
22 HP
6 Str
12 Mag
12 Skl
13 Spd
6 Luck
3 Def
9 Wt

Growths
55% HP
45% Str
50% Mag
60% Skl
30% Spd
40% Luck
30% Def
50% Res

Starts with C Thunder, gains E Wind and E Fire at 2nd tier, gains E staves at
3rd tier

Innate skills: Shade (decreases chance that enemies will attack her instead of
another character)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-3. Leaves after 1-E
and joins the Greil Mercenaries automatically in 3-2.


Ilyana is put in a unique situation as far as FE goes. Despite not being a
lord character, she manages to have the single greatest availability in the
game – she can be deployed in more chapters than anyone else. This is because
she starts off fairly early with the DB, and then switches over automatically
to the Greil Mercenaries in 3-2. Since she keeps her stats/skills/itmes/etc,
this allows you to ferry over some items from the DB to the GM team. 

Statistically, Ilyana is one of the more durable mages. While her base
defense of 3 isn't impressing anyone (especially at level 12), her growth of
30% is pretty decent, and her HP base and growth are both good as well. She
does suffer from the lowest tier 3 HP cap in the game (tied with Laura and
Sanaki at 45), which is a shame, but at least she's reaching it with ease I
guess. Shade also helps her durability to some extent, since it makes enemies
less inclined to target her, although you shouldn't rely on it too much to keep
her alive. On the other hand, her offense is lacking. She's stuck with the
worst anima magic type, Thunder, until she hits second tier, and if you want to
switch her to something else after you need to pull her out of E rank. Her
magic growth is good, and her base is fine, her skill is overall pretty great,
but her speed is awful. 13 base is nice, and she will be doubling some early
on, but 30% growth is rather pitiful. And even if you get blesssed or BEXP her
or something, she gets hit hardest by the poor Sage/Archsage speed caps (her
tier 3 speed cap is 30, tied for worst of any beorc).

Incidentally, while Thunder is the worst anima magic type, its worth
noting that Ilyana is the only character who can SS it, making her the sole
user of Rexbolt. Since there is a chapter in endgame that consists entirely of
enemies that are weak to thunder, that is something worth noting, although she
has below average performance for the other parts of Endgame. Then again, she
can at least be a secondary healer, although she can only reach A in staves
which means she misses out on Fortify.

Ilyana switching to the Greil Mercenaries is a bit of a mixed blessing for
her. While it allows her access to the GM experience pool, it also means she
requires active training on two different teams.  It also kind of messes with
her supports, but since you can break and rebuild supports in this game that's
kind of a lesser issue, and it's not like her Light affinity is in high demand
anyway (especially with the mercs, where Titania and Gatrie also have Light).

Ilyana's strongest points are the early DB chapters (where her high speed
base allows her to double before her growths and caps drag it down) and 4-E-3
(where thunder pays off), and she's still a decent weakener throughout part 1.
Otherwise, the only noteworthy things about her are ferrying items to Ike & co.
and a see-through skirt at tier 3. Well, that and a 45% strength growth which
ensures that she's pretty much never losing speed from any non-siege tome, but
given how much the strength of casters in general has been jacked up, her
strength lead doesn't mean as much as it used to.

–

Aran
Level 7 Soldier
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
24 HP
10 Str
0 Mag
12 Skl
10 Spd
6 Luck
11 Def
2 Res
11 Con
15 Wt

Growths
50% HP
75% Str
10% Mag
75% Skl
35% Spd
35% Luck
70% Def
25% Res

Starts with D Lances

No innate skills

How to recruit: Talk to him with Laura in 1-3 (he's an enemy unit who spawns
after a turn or two; on Easy he'll pop up right where all of your characters
start, otherwise he'll be on the west side)


Random fact: Aran is tied for best beorc strength growth (with Rolf) AND
best beorc defense growth (with Renning).

So as you might guess, Aran is a hardcore physical unit. He has massive
strength, skill, and defense, and should cap them at second and third tiers
pretty quickly. Sadly, his other stats aren't so impressive. His HP is fine,
but his speed, luck, and res are low. The low speed and luck combined mean his
evasion is bad, although with such high defense that's not too huge a problem,
and his low res means you probably won't want to pit him against casters, and
the low speed prevents him from doubling much, which really inhibits his
offense.

Fortunately, Aran can mostly fix his speed issues (and luck and res, for
that matter) with BEXP. Since he should cap str/skl/def quite quickly, this
leaves BEXP to push his other stats up pretty far. Unfortunately, Aran really
does want BEXP to ever do anything besides tank physical attacks...but then
again, he's pretty damn good at tanking physical attacks (and on a team that
struggles with that, too) so even without the BEXP he's got some nice use. I
do recommend that you try and bump up his speed a bit by part 3, though, where
otherwise some enemies may start double-turning him (myrmidons in part 1 may
also be doubling him, but they aren't doing overwhelming damage anyway).

In keeping with the whole tank theme, Aran also has a Thunder affinity,
which gives a raw durability boost (+def and avo), which makes him pretty good
for just about any other character. He himself would probably prefer raw
defense as well, since his evasion is pretty bad even with the help of Earth,
although boosting att/hit would help too.

Basically, Aran is the tank. High def, goodish (though surprisingly
unspectacular) HP. His high strength means he hits hard, but his low speed
means he won't double much. Many complain that he has low hit early on, but
that shouldn't be an issue for too long with his skill growth. So basically
he's high defense, average offense. Definitely worth using for the DB chapters,
and if you can fix his speed then he can continue to serve you up until
endgame. He does miss out on the magical 34 speed cap, but 33 is still enough
to double a good chunk of the enemies.

–

Meg
Level 3 Armor Sword
Heaven Affinity

Base stats:
21 HP
10 Str
1 Mag
7 Skl
8 Spd
8 Luck
10 Def
5 Res
6 Con
12 Wt

Growths
60% HP
35% Str
15% Mag
40% Skl
65% Spd
75% Luck
35% Def
50% Res

Starts with C Swords, gains E lances at 2nd tier, gains D Axes at 3rd tier.

Innate Skills: Fortune (negates enemy criticals)

How to recruit: View base conversation “In Town” in chapter 1-4.


Let's look at stats. She's got good HP, lackluster strength (10 at level
3 is nice, but 35% growth not so much), above average magic for great justice,
mediocre but sufficient skill, unreasonably high speed and luck, decent
defense (again, 10 base at level 3 is good, and 35% is a decent def growth as
opposed to a lowish strength growth) and great resistance.

Level 3 in 1-4 isn't just mind-numbingly awful, but it's pretty low and in
particular her 8 base speed really hurts her – even with her high growth it
will be a while before she's doubling, so until then her offense is kinda low,
and at first she may even be getting doubled by faster enemies, which she
doesn't quite have the base durability to handle. If you can train Meg up a
bit, though, she does become a pretty respectable tank. While she doesn't quite
have Aran's raw physical durability, she's stomping him in evasion and res. On
the other hand, BEXP doesn't solve her offense issues as readily as it does
with him – the way her growths and caps are, it may be a while before she caps
enough stats to really make good use of BEXP, and you may just want to go ahead
with it once she caps luck and speed at tier 2 (which shouldn't be any trouble
for her – the luck maybe, but definitely not the speed). In any case, it's
gonna be a while before you can do much about her low strength, and if you want
her using a stronger weapon than swords you'll have to either pull her out of
E lances in 2nd tier or wait until 3rd tier.

Meg's biggest problem, ironically, is probably her speed. While her growth
is excellent, her caps are not. She has the usual 20 speed cap at 1st tier, so
she may get to doubling in the latter chapters of part 1 if you get her a lot
of levels, but then her tier 2 cap is 22, which is just atrocious. This means
that it's stuck at 22 until she hits tier 3, which probably isn't happening
until somewhere in part 4, and then she has to get to work pulling her speed
back up again, only for it to cap at 32, which is semipassable but still below
the Endgame ideal. So between this and her sword spec and her lowish strength
growth, her offense is basically going to be below average forever.

Meg's Heaven affinity is...not worth a whole lot, really, although I guess
it might help out Nolan or Jill who tend to struggle with hit early on. Aran
might benefit from it as well, or maybe Ilyana...but I think that they all
still have other better support partners. Her innate is pretty redundant on her
(since she has excellent luck and as such shouldn't be getting critted anyway)
and it's high capacity cost means other people probably don't care about it
either, so I would recommend removing it and either selling it or ferrying it
via Ilyana to the mercs (who, in turn, will probably just sell it anyway).

Meg is raw survivability. She needs some training, more than the other
more durable brigadiers will need, but she does end up with good defense/avoid/
resistance. However, her lackluster strength and painfully low tier 2 speed cap
greatly inhibit her offense.

–

Volug
Level 15 Wolf
Earth Affinity

Base stats (untransformed -> Halfshifted, which he is automatically throughout
all of part 1)
49 HP
11 -> 16 Str
2 -> 3 Mag
12 -> 18 Skl
13 -> 19 Spd
13 Luck
9 -> 13 Def
5 -> 7 Res
11 -> 20 Con
18 -> 30 Wt

Growths
95% HP
25% Str
15% Mag
35% Skl
40% Spd
90% Luck
15% Def
10% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Howl (may stun an enemy for one turn after they use a ranged
attack), Wildheart (allows a laguz to shift at any time, but only increases
their stats by half instead of doubling them).

How to recruit: View the base conversation “Nailah” in 1-5, or start the
chapter and he will join automatically.


Volug is the first laguz character that you get, and the game forces him
into a rather unique position. While most laguz have to deal with a gauge,
Volug does not – however, instead of being transformed some of the time and
getting doubled stats, he is transformed all of the time (in part 1) and his
stats are only increased by 50%. However, once part 3 comes around, he has the
option of staying untransformed and waiting for his normal gauge to fill,
allowing him to take advantage of the normal stat doubling that comes with
transformation.

Statistically, Volug has good speed and WHAT THE CRAP HP and Luck. On the
other hand, his defense and resistance are pretty bad, and his strength growth
is lowish as well. That said, his bases are generally pretty good for this
point in the game, and he's consistently doing lots of damage if not ORKOing on
account of his actually quite high 16 base str (with his A strike level, this
equates to 25 attack power and he's doubling basically everything). He also
gains additional attack power simply by increasing his weapon level, which is
sort of nice since he's doubling a lot and shouldn't have too much trouble
reaching S strike (plus this means his primary method of increasing attack
power doesn't necessarily require him to kill things, which means you can have
him weaken an enemy to increase his strike and have another character take the
kill for EXP). He also can move much farther than other characters, making him
a very effective frontliner.

Volug's earth affinity is much sought out in the DB, although it's
somewhat offset by his aforementioned high move, which can make it a little
difficult for other characters to gain support points with him and/or be in
support range if you want to have him plowing ahead. His innate skill Howl is
pretty pointless (stunning doesn't actually keep the enemy from attacking, just
moving), and honestly I'd just sell it. Wildheart is what allows him to
halfshift, and since he must be perpetually halfshifted in part 1, Wildheart
cannot be removed until then. Whether or not you care to keep it on Volug after
that is up to you, but if you can get some Olivi Grass you're probably better
off then there's not much reason to Halfshift anymore.

While his defense and resistance are rather poor, he's still got a decent
base (9, which is 13 hafshifted) and his massive HP and good evasion (and also
his affinity) really offset his poor def/res. You still might want to watch out
for fire based attacks, which he is weak to, but even then he shouldn't be in
too much danger (not any more than most other brigadiers at any rate). His
inability to use/counter ranged attacks is frustrating, but something all laguz
share. Though he will ultimately be outclassed by the Royals, Volug is still
worth using, at the very least throughout part 1. 

--

Tauroneo
Level 14 Lance General
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
38 HP
24 Str
12 Mag
22 Skl
20 Spd
18 Luck
21 Def
15 Res
11 Con
21 Wt

Growths
55% HP
40% Str
5% Mag
65% Skl
50% Spd
20% Luck
45% Def
50% Res

Starts with S Lances and A Axes, gains D Swords at 3rd tier.

Innate skills: Resolve (increases skill and speed by 50% when HP is under half)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-6. Note that he is
not available for 1-7, 1-8, 1-E, or 3-6, and then is required again in 3-12 and
3-13, although you are still able to access his equipment/skills/etc during the
chapters in between even though he cannot be deployed.


Tauroneo is the first character to suffer from really bizarre availability
as indicated above. He's around for one chapter (or two, if you prefer, since
1-6 is comprised of two parts) where he is stupidly overleveled at level 14
tier 2. Then he isn't usable again until 3-12 and 3-13, where he's mandatory.
In these chapters his performance is a bit less special, although he can still
be pretty good. Then part 4 rolls around and he's forced to go with Tibarn's
team for 4-2 and 4-5, and then there's Endgame.

Statistically, Tauroneo is kind of an oddball general (then again, they
all are). His skill and res are both great, and he has good speed too (though
like all generals it's inhibited by his poor caps). His def and HP are both
fine, but neither is particularly good. He has decent strength (meh growth but
good base), a surprisingly high magic base (nice for Imbue, even if his growth
is only 5%) and his luck growth is terrible. He has enough luck that he should
not be getting critted by much, but it's low enough to hurt his evasion.

...blargh, that last paragraph had too many parentheses but I can't think
of a good way to reformat it. Oh well. Anyway, Resolve is a nice skill but not
as good as it was in PoR since it no longer boosts strength. Tauroneo might not
be all that great a candidate for it, really, since he's fairly durable, but
you might consider giving it to someone else or having Ilyana ferry it to the
GMs. Thunder is a nice affinity, but Tauroneo's wonky availability and poor
endgame class makes it difficult for him to get a support partner.

Obviously Tauroneo is a godsend in 1-6, although many people (including
myself) just use him as a meatshield since he's basically invulnerable. You can
have him fight too, and doing so makes that chapter much easier, although if
you're trying to level a lowbie brigadier then you may still need the EXP.
Either way, in 3-12 and 3-13 he's still a pretty decent wall (though his base
def is low for his level, it's still enough that he's not in too much danger).
Once part 4 comes he can still be decent, but here he is probably getting
overshadowed by other units – he's still a worthwhile tank, just not as
noteworthy as he was before. And finally, he's got a pretty below average
endgame, being one of the worst endgame classes, although if you can powerlevel
him in 4-5 he might do alright. Then again, you could just powerlevel someone
else, so...yeah. Definitely worthwhile in his early chapters, but once endgame
rolls around I recommend you focus on someone else.

–

Zihark
Level 3 Swordmaster
Earth Affinity

Base stats
30 HP
17 Str
6 Mag
22 Skl
23 Spd
11 Luck
13 Def
11 Res
11 Con
11 Wt

Growths
55% HP
35% Str
10% Mag
75% Skl
70% Spd
40% Luck
25% Def
35% Res

Starts with A Swords

Innate skills: Adept (may grant an extra attack or two per round, like a Brave
weapon)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-6


Well, Zihark is another of those high-level types that like to join in
mid/late part 1. His bases are pretty reasonable for his level, although his
luck and perhaps his HP are a little low, while his Res and perhaps his Def are
a little better than you would expect. He also has a decent magic base I
suppose, if anyone cares.

His growths, however, aren't exactly astounding. They aren't horrible or
anything, just sort of...unspecial, I guess. He does have excellent speed and
skill as per Swordmaster standard (the best of them all, actually, although
they all have a lot), and his resistance is fairly good. His HP is also
respectable, and his luck growth is okay but won't make up for his subpar base
for a while. Sadly, his strength and defense growths are both below average, so
he can start to lag in those respects.

Having said that about his growths, he does do fairly well with BEXP. He
tends to cap skl/spd quite fast and caps res without much trouble either, so if
you wait for those (with or without res, really) then you can use BEXP to pull
his HP, luck, strength, and perhaps defense up. The strength boost is nice at
any time, although by the time you can really use BEXP he should have enough
evasion that his defense doesn't matter too much anymore.

From a practical standpoint, Zihark is just another case of a high level
character who joins early. He's actually semi-tanky (hardly the ultimate wall,
but 13 def and 30 HP works well enough in part 1, and he actually has some
decent evasion) and has great damage output, but both start to fall behind a
bit as he levels. If you get him a support his evasion should more than make up
for his declining defense, and while his strength will start to lag without
BEXP his high crit and Adept can help make up for that.

Incidentally, Zihark is an example of when the developers gave a character
a skill that actually makes sense for them. Adept activates based on speed, and
Zihark is very fast, so that means he's got a decent chance of  getting an
extra hit (or two!) per turn. His Earth affinity, as I alluded to before, also
really helps his durability. He still might struggle to survive in part 3,
where the enemies are extra-unreasonably accurate and powerful, but otherwise
he should function as quite the dodge tank with pretty much any support
partner. 

Zihark starts out strong, but his stats can start to fall behind a bit as
the game progresses. However, between his good Endgame class and affinity,
at least respectable stats, and ready BEXP use, he makes for a useful unit
throughout the entire game.

NOTICE: Zihark can switch sides from the DB to the mercs in chapters 3-6,
3-7, or 3-E! Have him and Lethe/Mordecai talk and he will switch sides. If you
transferred an A support between him and Ilyana or Brom, they can also get him
to switch sides in 3-7 or 3-E. 

–

Jill
Level 14 Dracoknight
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
24 HP
11 Str
1 Mag
12 Skl
15 Spd
14 Luck
13 Def
3 Res
7 Con
36 Wt

Growths
50% HP
45% Str
15% mag
45% Skl
65% Spd
60% Luck
35% Def
45% Res

Starts with B Axes, gains D Lances upon promotion

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-6. Is not available
for 1-8.


Jill is yet another of those characters who's stats are sort of inverted
from their class. Thankfully, they're fairly good all around, with decent to
good...well, everything, except her speed and luck which push into the “great”
category. She's also the only female Dragonlord, which is one of the best
endgame classes.

Jill's bases aren't so hot, though. Her spd/luck/def are all good, but her
HP and strength are quite poor. The HP isn't too huge a problem, but 11 base
strength means she's getting weighed down significantly by a steel axe (4
points, meaning her speed with a steel axe is actually 11), so she has doubling
issues. You can forge her an axe, though, and that will go a long way towards
solving her offense issues early on, and once she promotes she should have
enough speed and strength to have overall good offense. Her defense is always
at least decent, and her evasion and resistance pick up pretty fast too, so her
durability generally shouldn't be a problem except very early on and maybe in
3-6 (where it's a problem for pretty much everyone anyway). Jill's Thunder
affinity boosts her durability even further, making her a reasonably effective
tank with reasonably effective offense.

As indicated above, Jill's endgame can be pretty superb. She can have a
bit of difficulty getting to the higher levels, but it shouldn't be too hard.
She generally doesn't get a whole lot out of BEXP until third tier, but she
should cap mag/spd/luck/res with little difficulty mid-tire 3, so then you can
power up her HP/str/skl/def.

Jill's a pretty useful character in general. Being the only flier
available for the DB (besides Vika for late part 1, who has transformation
issues) is quite a plus, as is specializing in axes. Her hit can be problematic
at first, but her skill is generally good enough that it shouldn't be a huge
issue. She does have a somewhat shaky start, at least offensively, but she's
one of those units who just gets better and better without really ever getting
held back by anything.

Oh yeah. While I don't typically bring transfer data into the equation, I
do feel I should point out that Jill is one of the better transfer data
candidates. She doesn't have too much trouble capping strength and speed in
PoR, and getting +2 to those in RD is quite helpful to her (skl/def/HP would
benefit her a lot too, of course).

NOTICE: Jill can switch sides from the DB to the mercs in 3-7 or 3-E! Have
Haar speak to her to get her to switch sides. You can also talk to her with
Lethe or Mist if they have a transferred A support.

–

Fiona
Level 9 Lance Knight
Earth Affinity

Base stats
25 HP
8 Str
6 Mag
8 Skl
10 Spd
7 Luck
8 Def
6 Res
7 Con
31 Wt

Growths
45% HP
40% Str
15% Mag
40% Skl
60% Spd
55% Luck
55% Def
50% Res

Starts with C Lances, gains C Bows at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Savior (allows unit to rescue others without skl/spd loss),
Imbue (regains HP equal to magic stat at the beginning of every turn).

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 1-7. Cannot be deployed
in 1-8.


Fiona is the last of the DB lowbies, and their first and only horse-
mounted unit. She has the much-coveted Earth affinity, some nifty skills, and
really rocks her defense-oriented growths. She's also one of two paladins that
reaches the glorious and highly erotic 34 speed cap (and caps it easily to
boot).

On the other hand, her bases just...suck. Hard.

Okay, so her HP and def are decent, her res is good, and her magic base
rocks (and actually matters to her since she has innate Imbue). Her HP and def
aren't as good as some, but they work for a level 9. On the other hand, her
strength, skill, and speed are terrible. She has rather pitiful damage output
early on and can't double (and may be even getting doubled by faster enemies),
and even has accuracy troubles. A forge can at least give her some hit and
power, but even then she's not doing much, and while her defense is reasonable
for her level, she's still taking too much damage to tank well. In other words,
early on she just doesn't have anything going for her.

Once her growths kick in, she does at least start getting some fairly good
durability. High speed and luck gives good evasion, and her defense and res are
quite good as well. Her HP growth is kind of low, but it's not really that big
a problem. Her relatively high magic also makes Imbue continue being pretty
useful to her, and Savior lets her rescue someone in trouble without putting
her back on the receiving end of double turns. Her offense doesn't really get
anywhere, though, at least not until late second tier or even somewhere in
third, depending on how quickly you can level her – 40% str/skl is about
average, and about average isn't enough to pull her out of her terrible bases
in them. You can at least use some BEXP to pull one or both up, though; she
should have no trouble capping spd/def/res in mid-second tier.

Her Earth affinity is nice and can further increase her evasion beyond her
good luck and speed growths (not to mention it's an affinity most people want).
Her innate skills I've already covered, but I want to take a moment to say that
even if you don't use her at all, you should at least consider taking her Imbue
and Savior and giving them to other characters. Being a horse rider actually
tends to hurt her more than it helps...many of her chapters have movement
penalties to mounted units and/or brush or swamps or other things that impede
her movement. She does always get the benefits of Canto, though.

Fiona has some pretty enormous struggles in her early game, and it's gonna
be a while before she can really overcome her atrocious base stats (or at the
very least, her atrocious base offense). Given that the Dawn Brigade is already
suffering from thinly spread EXP and generally underpowered units, it's pretty
painful to add Fiona to that mix, especially when her poor offense makes it
difficult for her to gain kills and thus gain EXP. But if you manage to level
her, she can serve as a good Wishblade candidate for Endgame.

–

Tormod
Level 5 Fire Sage
Fire Affinity

Base stats
34 HP
13 Str
17 Mag
16 Skl
20 Spd
14 Luck
12 Def
14 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
50% HP
55% Str
40% Mag
45% Skl
55% Spd
25% Luck
35% Def
45% Res

Starts with A Fire, B Thunder, C Wind, gains E Staves at 3rd tier.

Innate skills: Celerity (increases move by 2)

How to recruit: Talk to him with Sothe in 1-7. After part 1 he leaves and
doesn't reappear until 4-4 where he joins automatically.


Tormod, like the other two members of the LEA (Muarim and Vka) has some of
the most splendidly awkward availability in the game. He starts off in part 1
somewhat overleveled and pretty good in general, then vanishes until part 4
where he rejoins woefully underleveled to the point where he's a borderline
liability. As such, he's sort of difficult to discuss beyond “he's good at
first and he lolsucks later”. But I'll try anyway.

He has some pretty bizarre growths. He has great HP, strength, and defense
for a caster, and he's one of the faster ones as well. He's not just a speed
demon, but...well, he's actually fairly close, having the best speed caps of
the magic-users and an SS tome that boosts his speed enough to double most
everything. His skill is also decent, and his resistance is a bit low for a
caster but still more than enough to get by. His magic, however, is kind of
low, and his luck is poor as well.

He can use BEXP pretty well – at least, in theory. He might get a few good
levels from it in second tier, since he should cap HP, strength, and speed. At
third tier, he caps HP, strength, speed, and defense quickly, allowing you to
boost his magic, resistance, and skill (probably not so much with his luck,
though). Sadly, his extremely limited availability hinders his ability to use
BEXP, so even that isn't helping him too much unless you can shoot him to the
low teen levels of tier 3, which isn't happening anytime soon. Maybe with
Paragon and, like, every kill in 4-4 or something, but...yeah.

He does have that early bit going in his favor, though. Having a somewhat
durable caster who can double (less so on HM, maybe) and specs in the best
anima magic type is pretty great for the Dawn Brigade. Celerity is pretty great
too, although you should really remove it form him in part 1 so someone else
can have it unless you're just dead set on training him for endgame (and
probably even then – I mean, otherwise you're missing out on upward of 12
chapters of having Celerity just so Tormod can keep it innate). His Fire
affinity is nice and helps offset his low magic, but he's going to have trouble
finding a support partner. At least Vika and Muarim are there for him, though.

Honestly, he's only worth using in part 1. If you can train him in part 4
then that's great, but it takes a lot of EXP in a very short time and makes one
of the hardest part 4 chapters even harder. Still, if you can pull it off, he
can be a respectable endgame sage between his speed and Rexflame.

–

Muarim
Level 19 Tiger
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
58 HP
18 -> 36 Str
3  -> 6 Mag
14 -> 28 Skl
11 -> 22 Spd
12 Luck
15 -> 30 Def
9  -> 18 Res
14 -> 24 Con
23 -> 44 Wt

Growths
60% HP
55% Str
5% mag
45% Skl
20% Spd
55% Luck
35% Def
30% Res

Starts with A Strike

No innate skills

How to recruit: Talk to Tormod in 1-7. Leaves after part 1 and doesn't reappear
until 4-4, where he joins automatically.


Muarim has some pretty lovely base stats to go with being your first
laguz that actually functions like a laguz with the transformation gauge and
doubling stats and all. 36 base strength is higher than most people's tier 3
caps, and 58 HP/28 skl/22 spd/30 def/18 res is awesome too. His luck is really
the only base he has that isn't just amazing, but with durability like that he
doesn't really need to worry about luck.

As a happy corollary, he's also the only LEA member that has much hope of
being useful in 4-4 without extreme powerleveling in part 1. While Muarim won't
be doubling anything, he's still packing quite a punch with the hit he gets and
tanking fairly well, although he's still got to deal with the typical laguz
issues like transformation and no 2-range.

His growth aren't quite as spectacular, although they're still all right.
His HP, luck, and defense are good and his strength is awesome. His res growth
is also quite high for a tiger, although the fact that he only needs 1 point in
it to cap renders it a bit moot. His speed is quite poor, though, both in terms
of growth and cap, and that pretty much screws him out of having a good endgame
which in turn means there's not much reason to put any effort into leveling him
in part 4. Which really is a shame, because he'd be the easiest to do it with.

Like Tormod, Muarim has an affinity that works fairly well for him and
might benefit someone else, too. Also like Tormod, he has trouble finding a
support partner and is pretty much destined to support Tormod or Vika. He has
no innate skills, so no surprises there.

Basically, use Muarim in part 1 and maybe some in part 4 (at least until
his gauge runs out). After that, he's really not worth it for Endgame,
especially with the Royals and practically-Royals running around, so go ahead
and bring someone else with you into the Tower.

–

Vika
Level 13 Raven
Wind affinity

Base stats
38 HP
9 -> 18 Str
5 -> 10 Mag
13 -> 26 Skl
15 -> 30 Spd
14 Luck
7 -> 14 Def
7 -> 14 Res
6 -> 15 Con
5 -> 14 Wt

Growths
60% HP
25% Str
50% Mag
60% Skl
60% Spd
65% Luck
15% Def
65% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Shriek (may reduce enemy luck to 0 after they use a ranged
attack)

How to recruit: Talk to Tormod in 1-7. Leaves after part 1 and doesn't reappear
until 4-4, where she joins automatically.


What were they thinking? I want to know.

Vika has some pretty awesome growths, as you can see. It'd be nice if they
dunked one a bit (like that absurdly high magic that she can't even use for
anything besides Imbue) and put it into strength, but whatever. She ties for
the highest growth total in the game, the other two being Micaiah and Sanaki.
And she's a laguz.

Seriously, what.

So she's superfast, and she's superaccurate, and she's superdodgy, and
she's superrezzy. Her HP isn't actually all that great by laguz standards, but
it's enough to offset her low defense (her comically high evasion helps, too).
So her only really weak point is her strength. And even then, that (and her
defense and HP, for that matter) can be bumped up with BEXP fairly soon.

Unfortunately, Vika is hit harder than Tormod and Muarim by the
availability issue. She's the only member of the LEA who isn't just stomping
the hell out of everything in part 1 – still good, just not quite one-rounding
a lot of enemies and less durable – and while she's a comparatively low level,
she's still not getting much EXP. Conversely, when she rejoins in 4-4, she's
pretty much a laughingstock. Her avoid is still actually okay, and she's still
doubling almost everything thanks to her excellent speed base, but her damage
output and concrete durability are no longer passable. If you manage to get her
to S strike in part 1 (highly unlikely) then maybe she'll fare better, but even
so she's terrible at worst and unspecial at best.

If you can train her, she does at least fare better than Muarim. As you
have already seen, her growths are fantastic if not particularly well-
distributed, and if you can get her to level 30 or so she should be ready for
some BEXP action. The problem, then, is getting her to level 30 by the time
4-4 ends, which is going to be quite a trick between her general weakness and
the stunted laguz Exp gain. Also, like Muarim and many others, she gets kind of
screwed by the presence of Laguz Royals who are outperforming her in endgame
even if she does get trained.

...I'd have the usual affinity/skills paragraph here, but there's really
not much worth mentioning about either. Shriek is bad and should be sold, Wind
is bad and she's got really limited support options anyway. Wheeee. Actually, I
guess by mentioning that her stuff in this regard isn't worth mentioning, I
mentioned it. </paradox>

So...she's got some potential, but suffers from the usual laguz issues.
She's still pretty useful in part 1, but by 4-4 she is gonna need some serious
help to get out of the hole she's fallen into.

–

Nailah
Level 33 Wolf Queen
Wind Affinity

Base stats
66 HP
17 -> 34 Str
5 -> 10 Mag
23 -> 46 Skl
19 -> 38 Spd
35 Luck
16 -> 32 Def
13 -> 26 Res
9 -> 19 Con
16 -> 39 Wt

Growths
60% HP
30% Str
15% Mag
20% Skl
20% Speed
45% Luck
30% Def
30% Res

Starts with SS Strike

Innate skills: Formshift (allows laguz to be permanently in laguz form without
stat loss), Glare (may prevent an enemy from performing any action but
increases their defense and resistance; activated by command), Savage (mastery
skill: triples strength and halves enemy's Skill, i.e. OHKO), Guard (may take
damage for a character this unit has a support with)

How to recruit: Joins automatically in 1-8. Leaves after part 1 and
automatically rejoins in 4-1.


...What do you want me to say? Nailah is a complete goddess in 1-8 and 1-E
and an overall goddess in part 4, and nothing less than a goddess at any point.
Her growths are terrible and nobody cares because her bases are so stupendously
high that she could never ever gain any stats and she'd still be completely
ruining life for your enemies. She might not be seeing a support with her wind
and poor availability, and she doesn't need one. It might be worth supporting
someone with her just for the sake of Guard, but even then it's basically just
a matter of finding someone who wants her protection and less her actually
needing anything.

One thing worth noting, though, is that she will leave if Rafiel falls.
So don't let his HP drop to 0 or you lose out on her. I'm pretty sure she (and
Rafiel, for that matter) will still rejoin in 1-E if he falls in 1-8, but
otherwise you're out of luck. 

Otherwise...um...I really don't have much else to say besides WHOAMG
Nailah. Try not to completely abuse her in part 1 lest she leave your DB
underleveled, but in part 4 don't be afraid to have her let loose on some poor,
unsuspecting enemies.

–

Rafiel
Level 12 Heron
Heaven Affinity

Base stats
31 HP
1 -> 2 Str
6 -> 12 Mag
1 -> 2 Skl
6 -> 12 Spd
31 Luck
3 -> 6 Def
13 -> 26 Res
8 -> 14 Con
5 -> 9 Wt

Growths
60% HP
0% Str
40% Mag
10% Skl
20% Spd
60% Luck
10% Def
50% Res

No weapon levels

Innate skills: Blessing (heals surrounding characters equal to user's magic
stat), Galdrar (allows Heron to use chants)

How to recruit: Joins automatically in 1-8. Leaves after part 1 and
automatically rejoins in 4-1.


Rafiel is the first Heron you meet, and ironically manages to exist in the
least amount of chapters. Being a chanter, his worth is pretty much completely
tied to how much value you place on chanting. 

There are five chants: Vigor, which fulfills the bard/dancer role by
allowing units to act again after they've used their turn, Bliss, which raises
an ally's biorhythm to the max, Sorrow, which lowers an enemy's biorhythm to
it's lowest point (and involves actually putting the superfrail heron right up
next to an enemy), Valor, which raises an ally laguz' transformation gauge to
full, and Recover, which is a full heal and status recovery. Valor is learned
automatically, Bliss is learned at level 15 (I believe Sorrow is also, but some
say it's level 20 and either way it's pretty useless), Valor at 30, and Recover
at 40.

Rafiel stands out from his siblings by being able to chant four people at
a time – at any time. Transformed or not, he is able to affect all units around
him, meaning if you can position characters in a diamond formation and put him
in the middle, that's four characters that can move again (or get max bio or
whatever). This tends to be impractical to do, but even so he can chant two or
three no matter how their positioned around him, just as long as they are right
next to him (as opposed to Leanne, who has to have units positioned on opposite
sides of her, or Reyson who can only chant one character while untransformed).

Conversely, Rafiel has the most limited movement of the three. He has 5
move, which is low to begin with, gains no move upon transforming, and cannot
fly or Canto. He is also unable to climb ledges while transformed, which...can
be sort of irritating, actually, since two of the maps he's in have several
ledges.

His Heaven affinity is alright for Endgame, if you can find a support
partner for him (probably Nailah, although she doesn't really need it). He's
the best Heron for an ultra-speedy Endgame win, although in casual play Reyson
is generally performing better. Statistically, Rafiel and Leanne have extremely
similar growths, and all three Herons have poor growths overall, but since they
don't really need stats to do their job that's kind of a moot point (it is
worth noting that Rafiel and Leanne are the only characters with a 0% growth
that aren't already level 20/20/20. Not like they do anything at all with
Strength anyway).

So Rafiel is a Heron, and as such has whatever inherent worth you place on
Heron-ness. Since he and his siblings are mutually exclusive, and only ever
cross paths in Endgame (where you must choose only one), he doesn't really have
to worry about competing with the others and can just be your Heron for the
chapters he's around.

–

The Black Knight
Level 20 Black Knight (no, really)
Dark Affinity

Base stats
70 HP
38 Str
18 Mag
40 Skl
30 Spd
20 Luck
35 Def
25 Res
13 Con
25 Wt

Growths (n/a; they're all 0 and he's max level anyway so they don't matter)

Starts with SS Swords and S Lances

Innate skills: Nihil (prevents enemy combat skills from activating), Imbue
(restores HP equal to magic stat at the beginning of every turn; as I recall he
doesn't have this on Easy mode), Eclipse (Quintuples strength and negates enemy
defense, i.e. enemy goes splat)

How to recruit: Joins automatically in 1-9, where no other characters besides
Micaiah are available. Can be deployed in 1-E. Leaves afterwards, but reappears
in 3-6 after a few turns pass, then leaves permanently.


He's invincible, unless you're playing Easy Mode in which case he can die,
but only if you're actually trying to get him killed by letting enemies with
poison weapons bonk him for a while. He's killing every single thing he faces,
often in one hit, always in two, and he doubles everything. He also has 1-2
range and Eclipse. He's basically the resident god to pair up with your
ultimate goddess, Nailah.

Of course, he's only around for three chapters, and then he goes away. But
for those three chapters he's dominating. Use him somewhat sparingly, but know
that if you get in trouble, he's there to bail you out [for three chapters].

–

Elincia
Level 1 Queen
Heaven Affinity

Base stats
36 HP
19 Str
17 Mag
21 Skl
22 Spd
29 Luck
18 Def
24 Res
6 Con
23 Wt

Growths
45% HP
65% Str
40% Mag
50% Skl
70% Spd
60% Luck
20% Def
35% Res

Starts with B Swords and A Staves

Innate skills: Renewal (regain 10% HP per turn), Stun (Mastery skill; 3x damage
and prevents enemy from moving for one turn). Also gains Mercy (Lethal blows
reduce enemies to 1 HP instead) after part 2, but it still takes 10 capacity.

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-P and is usable
again in 2-E. Cannot be used again until 4-2 (although you can access her
skills/items in 3-E).


Elincia is essentially the main character of part 2, though she isn't
actually around for 3 out of 5 chapters in it. She is already at 3rd tier, and
in part 2 will be gaining rather pitiful CEXP to go along with that (after all,
she's fighting tier 1 and low lever tier 2 enemies). She still gains normal EXP
from staves, though, so she might gain a level or two or even three, depending
on how you handle 2-E. She's still high level when she rejoins in 4-2, which is
pretty cool.

One thing that she does suffer from is bad bases. It's not as noticeable
as some others because of her high level, but her base stats are more
comparable to, say, a mid tier 2 character. Fortunately, she has very high
offense-oriented growths to help offset that, and her prf sword Amiti helps out
with her defenses (it gives +3 def/res).

Speaking of Amiti, Elincia has Amiti. She can't use it in 2-P, but every
chapter she's in after that she's got it, unless she's an NPC. Anyway, Amiti
has been significantly improved since it's PoR days; it still has the Brave
effect (single attacks are now double, double attacks are now quadruple), and
still gives the aforementioned durability boost, and it's still unbreakable,
but now it also has high attack power to go with all that! It's pretty great,
and gives Elincia some excellent offense.

...Hey, I've totally glossed over her healing abilities. As in PoR,
Elincia is a staff 'n' sword user. Unlike in PoR, her magic is actually pretty
low. However, she's still a sufficient healer, and she can hit S staves to use
Fortify in the Endgame if you like. Not as potent a healer as the others, but
she has great movement and a high enough base that Physic works well enough for
her, so there's still not much trouble on that front.

You do need to be wary of crossbows, as they are quite effectively one-hit
killing her. This is a sad but true flier issue (well, non-wyvern flier), so
just keep an eye out for enemies that might use crossbows and keep Elincia out
of their range. Her Heaven affinity doesn't mean a whole lot, especially
coupled with her late availability which means she has trouble finding a
support partner, although I suppose she and Lucia could make a pretty nice
team. Renewal is helpful, and of course Stun is great. Mercy is quite
detrimental to Elincia's own performance, but it can be nice for helping some
low leveled character train (Elincia knocks an enemy to one HP, then lowbie
goes in for the kill).

Elincia is a pretty significant powerhouse, even if only because she gets
the awesomeness of Amiti, and she can heal on top of it. Her durability is kind
of shaky (although she does have some nice evasion), and she would really like
some levels to pull herself out of her poor offensive bases, but once she does
(and she can do that through staves, which is nice) she is a force to be
reckoned with.

–

Marcia
Level 5 Falcon Knight
Fire Affinity

Base stats
34 HP
16 Str
6 Mag
17 Skl
20 Spd
12 Luck
16 Def
15 Res
7 Con
23 Wt

Growths
70% HP
30% Str
20% Mag
40% Skl
65% Spd
50% Luck
35% Def
35% Res

Starts with C Swords and B Lances

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-P. Is available for
2-3, then automatically rejoins Team Elincia in 2-E. Is available for 3-9, then
joins the mercs in 3-11.


Marcia is a pretty typical Pegasus Knight (or Falcon Knight, rather).
Besides her abnormally high HP, she has high speed, decent def/res, a good luck
growth (slightly low base, though), and decent skill and poor strength. She
also has one of the hgher magic stats for Imbue (but Tanith and Sigrun have
more.)

Being one of the CRKs, Marcia also has fairly poor availability. She's
also one of the lower leveled characters in that group, which hurts her a bit
further. On the other hand, she's their only flier which is beneficial in 2-3
and 3-9 (and 2-E, where she shows up earlier than the others). While she is
decent enough on that team, though, she's going to have a hard time catching up
to the GMs when the two teams merge in 3-11. If trained, she's generally a bit
better than Tanith or Sigrun, but she's still not getting anywhere with her
strength until you can start BEXPing it up in third tier (somewhere in the 10-
15 level range).

Otherwise, she does have good overall durability and only really needs to
fear crossbows, which admittedly will devestate her. Her Fire affinity is very
helpful to her to boost her offense up a bit, if you can find her a partner.
And despite her shortcomings, she can at the very least serve you well as a
flier, although by 3-11 she still has to compete with the likes of the hawks
and Haar.

She's not the most durable character ever, but she does have a nice
combination of evasion/def/res/HP and will make a good Wishblade user. Try to
pull her strength up and she should work pretty well for you.

–

Nealuchi
Level 22 Raven
Fire Affinity

Base stats
53 HP
10 -> 20 Str
4 -> 8 Mag
9 -> 18 Skl
18 -> 36 Spd
24 Luck
10 -> 20 Def
10 -> 20 Res
16 -> 25 Con
15 -> 23 Wt

Growths
55% HP
35% Str
10% Mag
40% Skl
40% Spd
80% Luck
40% Def
25% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Wrath (+50 crit when HP falls below 30%)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the start of 2-P. Is available in 2-2
and 2-E, then leaves and doesn't rejoin until the end of 3-E (in time for you
to place him on a team).


Well, ol' Neal has some nice HP and defense, great luck and speed, and
decent enough skill. His resistance is good, and his skill is too. Decent all-
around character, although he could stand some more strength.

Like Vika, however, Nealuchi suffers from having just outright awkward
availability. He has 3 part 2 chapters where he performs pretty well, and then
he leaves until part 4, where he's...well, not as hopelessly underleveled as
Tormod & co, but still pretty unimpressive. He doesn't have the absurdly high
growths of Vika, but they're still fair by laguz standards and he still should
be capping at least four stats if not more.

Neal also has Wrath, which combined with the ability to deliberately nerf
his own durability by unshifting can really improve his offense. Of course, it
still needs to be used carefully, but with monster avoid like Neal's, it can
work out okay (or not). His fire affinity also helps boost his mediocre attack
power. Sadly, he is still going to have a lot of trouble reaching SS (or even
just plain S) strike, which keeps his attack down some. And, like all of those
who have oddball availability, Neal may have trouble finding someone who is
willing to put up with his unreliable support.

He's definitely worthwhile in part 2 (and he can even survive lower
quality crossbows!) but unless you have a lot of EXP to put into him and/or a
lot of opportunities to build up his strike, he probably won't be helping out
all that much in part 4.

-

Leanne
Level 5 Heron
Water Affinity

Base stats
25 HP
0 -> 0 Str
3 -> 6 Mag
1 -> 2 Skl
6 -> 12 Spd
27 Luck
2 -> 4 Def
11 -> 22 Res
5 -> 11 Con
2 -> 6 Wt

Growths
60% HP
0% Str
40% Mag
10% Skl
20% Spd
80% Luck
10% Def
40% Res

No weapon levels

Innate skills: Blessing (recover HP of adjacent units equal to user's magic),
Galdrar (can use chants).

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-P. Is available for
2-2 and 2-E, then leaves. Rejoins in 3-11 after you get near the first set of
barricades. Is unusable for 3-E.


Leanne is the second Heron you get. Like Rafiel and Reyson, her usefulness
is largely dictated on how much you like the idea of characters getting extra
turns per player phase. She's never in direct comptetition with her siblings,
except in Endgame, so as I said with Rafiel, she's your Heron for the chapters
she's in and if you like Herons then that's great and if you don't then that's
too bad for her.

As for Leanne's personal traits...she can fly and has canto, but only 5
move untransformed and 6 transformed, so she still doesn't have a lot of
mobility. She is always able to chant two people, but they must be on opposite
sides of her (North/South or East/West) for it to work; if they're East/North,
for example, she can only chant one of them. This applies transformed or not,
so she can never chant all four people around her like her brothers can.

Her Water affinity is a lovely thing to have, though she will have trouble
finding a partner thanks to such strange availability. She also has the lowest
starting level, which means it will take much longer for her to learn the non-
Vigor chants, and you will notice that her durability is extra horrible, so
keep her away from...well, everything.

Yet another case of "What is there to say?" She's a Heron. If you like
that quality in your units, then use her. Even consider using her if you don't
like dancer/bard types. She has the weakest endgame (since she can't chant 4
people like her brothers) but if you want to use her there she should still do
fine, and she's a nice asset whenever you have her.

-

Haar
Level 11 Dragonmaster
Wind Affinity

Base stats
46 HP
23 Str
2 Mag
24 Skl
20 Spd
13 Luck
23 Def
7 Res
12 Con
42 Wt

Growths 
30% HP
70% Str
5% Mag
70% Skl
30% Spd
45% Luck
65% Def
20% Res

Starts with A Axes and A Lances

Innate skills: Cancel (when the user connects with a hit, the enemy may not get
to counterattack)

How to recruit: Talk to him with Marcia in 2-P. He is available in 2-E, then
switches to the GMs in 3-2.


Haar is pretty typical Dragonlord fare, except better. Monster strength/
skill/defense is wonderful, and his low HP growth is offset by a good base.
On the other hand, his speed, luck, and resistance are all low - he actually
has a good luck growth, but not quite enough to redeem his low base.

Haar is also the only flier that the GMs have for a long time. He is the
only one until 3-7, where Janaff and Ulki join, and he's the only beorc flier
until 3-11, when you get Tanith and Sigrun. The GM maps make pretty good use
of fliers as well, with lots of ledges and fences and things, so his flying
comes in very hand, as does his high move.

Haar has some doubling woes, but it kind of depends on how you level him.
You should get a speedwing in 2-3, which Haar would love, and you can increase
it with BEXP. If you can keep him higher-leveled (easy to do with his good base
and the large GM exp pool) he...still might have trouble with doubling, but not
as much. Of course, he has low caps either way, so the benefits of extra speed
won't necessarily last. Either way, his evasion is meh but he doesn't need it
on account of great defense and HP. Magic can pose a problem, although even
then it's mostly just Thunder; Thunder gets a damage bonus against him, and the
extra crit might be a problem against his low luck. Keep an eye out for those,
but bear in mind that Haar can outmaneuver and occasionally OHKO sages.

Cancel doesn't work all that great for Haar. Since it activates based on
speed, and Haar is generaly lacking speed, you may want to remove it and give
it to a faster character. Besides, Haar doesn't usually need to worry much
about not getting attacked with all that def. Wind affinity is bad and Haar's
mobility makes it difficult for him to find a partner anyway; then again, he
doesn't really need anything that supports can provide.

Basically, he's the tank what could fly. And he's really damn strong. And
he has the doubling blues. And he gets a helmet of evil and gory death when he
promotes. Fear the Haar.

-

Brom
Level 2 Axe General
Water Affinity

Base stats
36 HP
19 Str
4 Mag
17 Skl
16 Spd
13 Luck
21 Def
9 Res
11 Con
21 Wt

Growths
80% HP
40% Str
5% Mag
40% Skl
30% Spd
70% Luck
60% Def
25% Res

Starts with C Axes and E swords, gains D Lances at 3rd tier.

Innate skills: Disarm (May make enemy unequip their weapon)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-1. Can be used in 2-2
and 2-E. Joins the GMs in 3-2.


Brom: The answer to all your walling needs [in part 2].

So Brom has lots of durability and not a whole lot of things that aren't
durability. Early on he fares pretty well with high base strength and okay
speed - enough that he's doubling some of the first tiers you're up against
(although even that might depend on difficulty) and no matter what he's tanking
well. His Luck makes him fairly crit-proof, although his poor speed prevents
his evasion for ever being very good.

In part 2, he does pretty well for himself offensively and defensively.
Sadly, in parts 3 and 4 his offense really starts to drop. His skill is always
good enough that he should have sufficient hit even with axes, but his strength
starts to drop behind a bit and his speed falls out of doubling range with no
real hope of ever catching up again. By the time BEXP is likely to be pulling
it up, he has to face his terrible 30 speed cap. What's more, in part 3 he is
placed in direct competition with the generally superior (and much faster)
Gatrie, which further lowers the incentive to use Brom.

Disarm is an interesting skill that allows you to make an enemy unequip
their weapon. This means they can't counter for a while, which is nice, but
also means you can have Heather (or later Sothe) steal that weapon, so it can
provide a nice alternative to buying new weapons. It activates based on skill/2
though, so you should have someone else use it. His Water affinity is pretty
cool and with his availability he shouldn't have any trouble finding a support
partner. He has E swords initially for what I can only assume is comic effect;
I recommend that you just ignore it, but if you want you can have Leanne or
Nealuchi ferry over Eincia's Slim Sword from 2-P to 2-2, or wait until part 3
to buy him a bronze.

He's always a pretty good tank (mostly defense wise, although he's got
enough res and HP that he can handle magic well enough), but that's about all
he's ever going to be. Use him when you need a wall, but don't rely too much
on him for killing power.

-

Nephenee
Level 1 Halberdier
Wind Affinity

Base stats
32 HP
15 Str
6 Mag
19 Skl
20 Spd
12 Luck
15 Def
14 Res
7 Con
12 Wt

Growths
45% HP
35% Str
15% Mag
70% Skl
65% Spd
40% Luck
35% Def
45% Res

Starts with B Lances

Innate skills: Wrath (increases crit by 50 when HP fals beow 30%)

How to recruit: Joins automatically in 2-1. Is usable in 2-2 and 2-E. Joins the
GMs in 3-2.


Nephenee is one of the more popular FE:RD characters, and also one of the
evil little cases of a character who is goodish normally but great if she
gobbles down a lot of BEXP.

Her stats are very extreme. She has high speed, skill, and resistance, but
shaky strength, defense, and HP. Her luck is pretty average, and her magic is
somewhat above average so she does okay for Imbue. She typically has enough avo
that her mediore defense is enough for her to get by, and she's generally
doubling enough to make up for her meh strength, and as such she can be good.

However, BEXP changes her a lot...if you're willing to spend it. Nephenee
cap rams skill, speed, and res with ease (about halfway through tier 2), which
means you can BEXP her strength and defense. She tends to only get one or the
other, sadly (her HP and luck growths are higher and she won't likely reach
either cap at second tier), so this only kind of half-solves the problem, but
if she gains str over def then with all that extra HP/luck the def becomes less
of an issue. Then at third tier she again caps skl and speed pretty quickly,
although with her high res cap of 30 she might take a lot longer to reach that.
BEXP may prove useful again here, although she'll have to cap HP, luck, or res
before she can consistently start gaining strength or defense.

Another thing about Nephenee is that she improves pretty drastically with
transfers. She can easily reach skill and speed caps in PoR, which means she
should cap them even sooner in RD, and you might be able to get her some str
(or defense, but that's pushing it) which will help out too. I don't really
like to bring up transfers, but I do think it's worth noting that Neph is one
of the best candidates for it. An unfortunate counter-issue is Nephenee's first
weapon, a Steel Greatlance, which pulls her speed down by three (is weighs 18
but Neph only has 15 base str) so at first she may struggle to double higher
leveled/faster enemies.

She shouldn't have much trouble finding a support, although Wind isn't in
particularly high demand. Wrath is a pretty good skill for her since she's one
of those kinda-but-not-really durable units, although once her defense or avoid
starts getting good you may want to delegate that to a frailer unit.

Nephenee is perhaps best described as a swordmaster with lances. She's got
arguably the best endgame out of all the Wishblade users (and is by far the
easiest of the 34+ speed Wishblade users to train) and she's got a load of
potential, but you will want to keep an eye on her strength and defense.

-

Heather
Level 7 Rogue
Fire Affinity

Base stats
32 HP
15 Str
9 Mag
21 Skl
25 Spd
16 Luck
10 Def
14 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
40% HP
25% Str
20% Mag
50% Skl
70% Spd
75% Luck
30% Def
40% Res

Starts with C Daggers

Innate skills: Pass (can move through enemy units)

How to recruit: Talk to her with Nephenee or Brom in 2-1. Is usable in 2-2 and
2-E. Joins the GMs in 3-2.


Heather is pretty much the standard thief. She's got lotsa speed and lotsa
luck and even good resistance and skill, but her attack power is lousy and she
has poor durability on top of it. BEXP can improve her durability - she easily
caps skl/spd/res at second tier and spd/luck/res at third, so you shouldn't
have too much trouble pulling up her HP and maybe defense, but her strength
basically sucks forever and even if she caps her cap is terrible. She does have
a fire affinity to boost her offense a bit, and that's nice, but that's about
it. So, in short, she doubles everything and has great evasion, but she can't
take much punishment without BEXP and does lame damage pretty much regardless.

BUT WAIT! Heather doesn't need combat, because she can steal things! And
boy are there a lot of things she has sole claim to. Being the only thief you
have in part 2 and for the GMs, Heather can get her hands on all sorts of shiny
things that other can't, or make it easier to get a hold of them. Also, if you
stick Disarm on someone she can even steal enemy weapons so you don't have to
spend money on buying them (or as many)! And even if she never goes into combat
she does provide a Fire affinity for someone - maybe for Nephenee, who could
give Heather a bit of avo with the otherwise unspecial Wind? She also has Pass
which lets her go through enemies, all the better for robbery.

....that's about it, really. Heather won't ever be anything special in
combat, but she's great for your thieving needs. I wouldn't bother trying to
train her except maybe to get some extra strength to steal heavier things, but
definitely bring her along for taking items that aren't strictly hers.

(note: Heather is the only thief that can be sent to 4-4, a map with many
treasures. You could just use chest keys, but consider sending Heather with the
Greil Army just in case).

-

Lucia
Level 14 Swordmaster
Earth Affinity

Base stats
38 HP
18 Str
10 Mag
27 Skl
27 Spd
19 Luck
14 Def
15 Res
8 Con
8 Wt

Growths
50% HP
25% Str
20% Mag
70% Skl
60% Spd
30% Luck
15% Def
50% Res

Starts with A Swords

Innate skills: Parity (negates all skills and stat bonuses related to tiles,
supports, etc for character and opponent. Activated by command)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-2. Disappears until
part 4 where she is forced with the Hawk Army (4-2 and 4-5)


Lucia is kind of the Swordmaster version of Tauroneo. She's around for one
early chapter where she's pretty good (albeit not superduperpowered) and then
she disappears for an unreasonable amount of time, and by the time she shows
back up she's still fine but not quite as noteworthy.

Statistically, she's got goodish HP (goodish base & growth but low cap)
and resistance, great skill and speed, above average magic, decent luck (low
growth, respectable base), and poor strength and terrible defense. Coupled with
her lowish availability, it can be hard to salvage her poor strength; the crit
and doubling can make up for it, though, although she won't be as strong as the
other SMs for a long time if ever. Her garbage defense, however, can be made up
for between high speed, decent luck, and her avoid-boosting Earth affinity, 
though she can have trouble finding a partner - Elincia and Tibarn are her best
choices, and I suppose Pelleas would work in a later playthrough. Parity works
well in Endgame for her or pretty much anyone, so that's also a plus, and if
you don't plan on using her you should at least remove that from her to give
to another unit.

Anyway, Lucia is pretty helpful in 2-2 but after that she's just a filler
Swordmaster. The others turn out better with less effort (well, on harder
difficulties Edward might take more), but between Earth and the 4-5 EXP pool,
Lucia can serve as a respectable replacement. Just make sure to get her some
BEXP to fix that strength.

-

Lethe
Level 21 Cat
Heaven Affinity

Base stats
51 HP
9 -> 18 Str
6 -> 12 Mag
13 -> 26 Skl
12 -> 24 Spd
18 Luck
9 -> 18 Def
10 -> 20 Res
6 -> 11 Con
11 -> 31 Wt


Growths
85% HP
35% Str
5% Mag
30% Skl
50% Spd
45% Luck
35% Def
20% Res

Starts with A Strike

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the start of 2-2. Can be used in 2-E.
Joins the GMs in 3-4 (but can't be used in 3-5).


Lethe seems to be going for some odd kind of speedtank or something. Her
growths aren't just overwhelming, but they're good for a laguz I guess. Her HP
is great, and she's fairly fast and somewhat lucky. Her res growth is low but
her base is pretty good, and her skill is much the same way.

Her strength and defense are harder to look at. They're effectively the
same - same base, same growth. Her strength eventually pulls ahead once she
caps defense at 14 -> 28. The problem is that 18 base defense is more valuable
than 18 base strength, especially when you're locked to one weapon that isn't
very powerful either. So basically, Lethe is fairly fast and fairly sturdy,
but rather weak.

Lethe has another problem, though - she does fine in part 2, but by the
time she rejoins in part 3, those stats aren't really all that good. 24 speed
is still maybe enough to double, but not as reliably, and the things she is
doubling reliably have enough def that she's doing low damage anyway. She's
still reasonably tanky, but with her difficulty getting kills (and the presence
of other tanks that don't have to transform, and the presence of the supertank
Mordecai, and the stunted laguz EXP gain in general) she is going to have a
tough time growing and consequently a tough time staying durable. Of course,
if you do keep her up with everyone else, she'll still be contributing some,
and if you can raise her strike levels they will help out her offense. She also
provides a Heaven affinity, although not many GMs will really care.

Still, Lethe is one of those laguz who is meant to be trained, and between
what a pain they are to train with the aforementioned EXP woes and the fact
that Royals are just going to be dominating her anyway, it's sort of hard to
justify. I'd say use her for part 2, but unless you can get her S strike or are
willing to pump her up with some BEXP, that's the extent of her usefulness.

-

Mordecai
Level 16 Tiger
Water Affinity

Base stats
57 HP
14 -> 28 Str
1 -> 2 Mag
9 -> 18 Skl
9 -> 18 Spd
15 Luck
16 -> 32 Def
4 -> 8 Res
18 -> 28 Con
27 -> 48 Wt

Growths
90% HP
35% Str
10% Mag
25% Skl
15% Spd
80% Luck
45% Def
15% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Smite (push a unit 2 spaces)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the start of 2-2. Is available for 2-E.
Joins the GMs in 3-4, but is unavailable for 3-5.


Mordecai is one of the tankiest guys you'll ever see, and he's sitting
at little ol' level 16. He has great strength and amazing defense and HP. That
is about all he's got, though...18 spd isn't doubling much and with his paltry
15% growth he's pretty much never doubling anything, and some faster or later
enemies will be doubling him. But with 32 base defense and 57 HP it's hard to
really care. He does have poor res, and should watch out for fire magic, but
otherwise he's virtually unkillable. His power is nice, although the lack of
doubling makes his strike even harder to raise so it will start to fall a bit
later on.

Water affinity further enhances his already insane durability and can give
a bit more to someone else. The attack power is nice too. Smite works great on
such a huge guy as well; it's not a skill I find much use for, but I won't deny
that there are plenty of uses for it.

Not sure what else to say, really. Like Lethe, he's going to be outclassed
eventually by Royals, but he's a damn fine tank forever (well, until Endgame at
least) even without much training. He even has some decent offense to go with
it, even if he won't be ORKOing much. He may get lost in the shuffle of higher
level/Royal laguz later on, but he's a pretty great tank for parts 2 and 3.

-

Geoffrey
Level 15 Lance Paladin
Fire Affinity

Base stats
37 HP
24 Str
8 Mag
23 Skl
20 Spd
19 Luck
18 Def
15 Res
11 Con
26 Wt

Growths
60% HP
50% Str
10% Mag
60% Skl
35% Spd
30% Luck
30% Def
55% Res

Starts with A lances, gains C Bows at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Paragon (doubles EXP gain)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-3. Comes to 2-E after
around 8 turns pass. Available in 3-9, then leaves until 4-5.


And yet another character who disappears without warning for a while, it's
Geoffrey! Captain of a team of people with low availability to begin with!

Geoffrey's stats are kind of subpar. He's got good strength and skill and
his HP starts a bit low but turns out well, and his resistance is nice. He also
suffers from lowish speed and kinda laggy defense (and luck, but his base is
good enough there). So he hits fairly hard, but has trouble doubling and has
passable but not all that noteworthy durability.

...In theory. In practice, howewver, Geoffrey is so high-leveled vs the
enemies he faces in 2-3 and possibly 2-E that he's pretty much crushing
everything. In 3-9 He might not be one-rounding some of the higher leveled
enemies, but even then he's doing pretty well all around. Then in 4-5 he comes
back and it's then that he suffers from his stats.

As with many others, Geoffrey is a classic case of "good affinity, bad
support partner". With his lack of availability, not many will be all that
interested in having him as a support partner, but if he can find somebody
(and is going to endgame) then his fire can provide a nice offense boost. His
Paragon is great, but not for him - he's already overleveled in part 2, and in
3-9 you want to take it away from him so that you can use it in his absence.

Basically, he's another short-term character. Great in part 2, pretty good
in 3-9, and then in part 4 and Endgame he's below average.

-

Kieran
Level 11 Axe Paladin
Wind Affinity

Base Stats
41 HP
21 Str
6 Mag
20 Skl
20 Spd
16 Luck
18 Def
11 Res
11 Con
36 Wt

Growths
75% HP
60% Str
15% Mag
40% Skl
30% Spd
30% Luck
60% Def
25% Res

Starts with A Axes, gains C Swords at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Gamble (halves hit but doubles crit)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-3. Comes to 2-E after
around 8 turns pass. Is available for 3-9, then joins the GMs in 3-11.


Kieran is overall not too different from Geoffrey, except he's around some
more. He's still high level for 2-3 and 2-E and is pretty much dominating in
those chapters, and still does fairly well in 3-9. He can even be somewhat
useful through parts 3 and 4, though he's ultimately not much for Endgame.

Statwise, he has great HP, strength, and defense. His skill is alright,
not great but enough to hit reliably, and he has decent magic, though not quite
enough to make him stand out as an Imbue candidate. He is also pretty slow and
has low res and below average luck, so he's not much for dodging. In other
words, he's tanky power paladin.

Wind affinity isn't doing much for him, and none of the other CRKs really
care so he might have trouble finding a support. Gamble is pretty worthless on
him, but remove it and consider passing it on to a Swordmaster or Sniper.

He's just another tank. A high mobility tank, and a decently leveled one
by CRK standards, so he can be useful throughout the game. But between the
competition he has with so many other paladins and his low speed, you should
probably pass on him for Endgame.

-

Makalov
Level 7 Blade Paladin
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
37 HP
18 Str
5 Mag
17 Skl
18 Spd
20 Luck
17 Def
9 Res
10 Con
35 Wt

Growths
55% HP
40% Str
15% Mag
40% Skl
75% Spd
45% Luck
50% Def
25% Res

Starts with A Swords, gains C Axes at 3rd tier

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-3. Comes to 2-E after
around 8 turns pass. Is available for 3-9, then joins the GMs in 3-11


I'm sorry, but I have to complain about somthing here: Why, oh god WHY,
does Makalov have the higest speed growth of the beorc? Combined with a speed
cap of 33? I mean, really?

So anyway, Makalov is pretty fast. Lowish speed cap hurts, but he's got
some decent doubling ability if trained (he isn't doubling as reliably at first
but gets there pretty quickly). He's also pretty durable, with good HP and def,
and high luck and speed make for good evasion. His resistance is pretty meh but
overall he's fairy hard to kill. On the other hand, he has rather laggy offense
with kinda average str/skl. And being one of the lower leveled CRKs, he has a
problem getting up to speed in levels, and he also suffers from the typical
mediocre Paladin Endgame, so he isn't necessarily worth actively training or
giving Paragon. Sword spec hurts him too, further dampening his mediocre damage
output, although it at least means he should be connecting with hits.

I wish I had more to say, but I really don't. He's kind of generic forever
being decent but not noteworthy for the CRKs and then underleveled with the GMs
and then decent but not noteworthy for Endgame. He's an effective all-purpose
tank, but not much else.

-

Astrid
Level 2 Bow Paladin
Wind Affinity

Base stats
33 HP
13 Str
8 Mag
16 Skl
15 Spd
17 Luck
10 Def
14 Res
7 Con
31 Wt

Growths
55% HP
40% Str
20% Mag
45% Mag
40% Spd
70% Luck
30% Def
50% Res

Starts with B Bows, gains C Lances at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Paragon (doubles EXP gain)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 2-3. Comes to 2-E after
around 8 turns. Is available for 3-9, then joins the GMs in 3-11.


Astrid is pretty much a mounted Leonardo, but without Lughnasadh. She does
have some good HP, although that's offset by a terrible defense base with a
below average growth. Then again, she's got good res and being a bow user she
doesn't have to worry too much about counters, so that's not as a big a deal as
it is for others.

However, she's most similar to Leo in that she's a purely offense oriented
class/character who has pretty lackluster offense. Her skill is sufficient, but
her strength is bad and her speed isn't much better. She has a lot of trouble
doubling and doesn't do much damage either way.

She does have two major advantages going for her, though. One is Paragon,
which doubles her EXP gain. Now, with her meh growths, that doesn't seem like a
very big deal, but it does pull her out of her level deficit quickly. It also
can be combined with Blossom to give Astrid the combination of enhanced stat
gains AND extra EXP gain, so her stats have a better chance of getting good.
The other advantage is her class - while most Paladins have rather bland caps,
Astrid's are pretty respectable and she also gets to use the godly Double Bow.

Sadly, even an ideal Astrid is losing to the other Double Bow candidates,
given how overpowered the Marksman class is, and she's contributing very little
to the CRKs with her terrible bases. She can turn out pretty good with either
Blossom or some tier 3 BEXP, but otherwise you're best off just stealing her
Paragon for someone else.

-

Danved (OR IS HE?)
Level 9 Halberdier
Fire Affinity

Base stats
39 HP
17 Str
8 Mag
23 Skl
21 Spd
18 Luck
15 Def
12 Res
12 Con
18 Wt

Growths
75% HP
40% Str
20% Mag
30% Skl
45% Spd
60% Luck
45% Def
25% Res

Starts with S lances

No innate skills

How to recruit: View the "Calill's Shop" base conversation in 2-3. Comes to 2-E
after around 8 turns. Is available in 3-9, then joins the GMs in 3-11.


Danved is kind of hard to judge. He seems like he's supposed to be the
in-between Halberdier, more speed oriented than Aran but more strength oriented
than Nephenee. Unfortunately, his lowish strength and defense bases more or
less mean he won't get stronger or more durable than Nephenee until very late.
He does have massive HP, which is a nice bonus, and his speed is enough that
he can double most of the time in 2-3, 2-E, and possibly 3-9. For some strange
reason he has the lowest skill growth of all beorc, despite being a high skill
class, but his high base makes up for it.

He does do pretty well in the CRK chapters. He's got good evasion and he's
doubling most enemies, so he should be doing lots of damage. Maybe not quite
conistently ORKOing like Geoffrey and Kieran, but still compotent. When he
joins up with the GMs, though, he may lag a bit (and in particular has to
compete with the generally superior and probably much higher level Neph). He
has a decent enough Endgame, though he falls short of the mysterious and
charming 34 speed cap.

And like the other CRKs, there's not much more to say. Competent for the
CRK chapters, okayish after. He does offer a fire affinity for someone, and
high magic = Imbue fun, but that's about it.

-

Calill
Level 6 Fire Sage
Dark Affinity

Base stats
32 HP
9 Str
19 Mag
18 Skl
18 Spd
16 Luck
11 Def
17 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
35% HP
25% Str
45% Mag
60% Skl
55% Spd
55% Luck
15% Def
50% Res

Starts with A Fire, B Thunder and B Wind. Gains E staves at 3rd tier.

Innate skills: Nihil (negates enemy's combat related skills)

How to recruit: View "Calill" base conversation in 2-E. Is available for 3-9,
then joins the GMs in 3-11.


Calill is one of the better mages for offense. Fire magic packs the most
punch (besides Dark, exclusive to Pelleas) and while her magic isn't high it's
still decent and she has good skill and - GASP - good speed! Well, okay, her
base is actually kind of average, but her growth is good. She also has good
luck, which makes her one of the only mages to have significant evasion.

Unfortunately, she has completely awful durability. Her HP and defense
bases are tolerable for a level 6 Sage, but her growths are atrocious, so she's
going to be relying a lot on her evasion. She does at least have good res, but
that can only help so much. At least she can attack from afar, so the defense
deficit doesn't just destroy her, but it does hurt pretty bad.

And like all CRKs, Calill has availability issues. She doesn't even get
2-3 like the others, although she's around for all of 2-E. She's perhaps the
best Paragon candidate in 3-9, since you should be taking Geoffrey's away from
him, although Marcia is pretty stiff competition for it. Even so, she's going
to be low leveled by the time she reaches the GMs, and she doesn't really do
much for the CRKs either - having a res targeter is nice, but she can't quite
double unless she got some levels in 2-E, and you really need to be careful
that she doesn't get attacked much.

One thing Calill does really have going in her favor, though, is her
Endgame. She's one of the best Endgame sages - probably THE best, although
it largely depends on if you can get her some levels. Again, she has a decent
claim on Paragon, but if she doesn't get it she'll really struggle. The reason
I bring up her Endgame, though, is that she gets Rexflame. Rexflame boosts spd
by 3 points, enough for her to surpass the splendidly loveable 34 speed that
allows her to double some bosses and maybe other enemies that others can't.
Combined with a decent magic score and evasion, she can perform pretty well
there. It's just getting her to Endgame that's tough, thanks to her leveling
problems.

She has a Dark affinity, which is pretty desirable. Nihil doesn't do much
until Endgame but there it's a nice thing to have, so even if you aren't set
on using her make sure you strip Nihil from her and give it to an Endgame
character. She also joins with a Meteor, which can prove handy - just make sure
to take it away from her in 3-9 so she doesn't waste it in 3-10 as an NPC.

...Wow. Despite being a CRK, I had a lot to say about her. So anyway, she
is the training sage - not too hot at first, but if you can pull her levels up
she can perform pretty well.

-

Ike
Level 11 Hero
Earth Affinity

Base stats
44 HP
24 Str
2 Mag
28 Skl
23 Spd
14 Luck
21 Def
7 Res
12 Con
13 Wt

Growths
65% HP
55% Str
10% Mag
60% Skl
35% Spd
30% Luck
40% Def
15% Res

Starts with S Swords, gains A Axes at 3rd tier

No innate skills, but gains Nihil at 3rd tier (Still takes capacity)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the start of 3-P


The leader of the Greil Mercenaries, Ike is also one of the best units in
the game. He's got some amazing bases, with enough speed to double just about
everything except maybe swordies consistently and enough def/HP to take a lot
of abuse and enough strength/skill to pack quite a wallop and hit all the time.
His luck, resistance, and magic all suck (and will suck forever), so he does
need to keep an eye out for mages, and Thunder mages in particular since they
have that pesky little crit bonus, but his speed gives him some at least okay
evasion and he's physically tanking pretty well.

His growths are actually kind of low, but allocated in a way that works
well for him. He has good HP, strength, and skill, and respectable defense. His
speed growth is a little low, though; with his high base he should be doubling
pretty conistently throughout the game, but it might lag just enough that he
wants a speedwing or something (you can also BEXP it once he caps str/skl).
And his luck and res and magic suck.

He also has two prf weapons. The first, Ettard, is a fairly powerful crit
boosting weapon, great for early on. The second, Ragnell, he gets at the start
of 3-11 and it's just amazing. Powerful, accurate, 1-2 range, and boosts his
defense by five. Yum. Actually, it is exactly the same as Alondite (one of the
SS swords), but locked to Ike and usable much earlier.

Ike's Earth is much loved, of course, and he can take his pick of whoever
he wants to support. He doesn't really need any bonuses himself. He has no
innate skills but gets Nihil when he promotes, and should keep a hold of that
since he's forced to (and excellent in) Endgame, where that skill is quite
beneficial. Also bear in mind that he has a forced promotion after 3-E.

Ike is just a great unit. Even if he weren't forced, I'd always use him.

-

Mist
Level 1 Cleric
Water Affinity

Base stats
28 HP
8 Str
13 Mag
13 Skl
15 Spd
16 Luck
7 Def
16 Res
5 Con
5 Wt

Growths
40% HP
25% Str
45% Mag
55% Skl
50% Spd
70% Luck
25% Def
40% Res

Starts with C Swords and B Staves

Innate sills: Miracle (may halve the damage of an otherwise lethal blow)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the start of 3-P


Man, it's a good thing Mist can heal, because her stats suuuuuuuuck.

Okay, maybe that's not fair, but her bases at least are just gross. She
has barely existent attack power and concrete durability (her res is good, at
least), and low skl/spd, and even low magic! Granted, the low durability is to
be expected from a healer, but those other things are hard to forgive. Her luck
at least gives a bit of evasion, I guess, but when you're getting doubled by
almost everything, that's not enough.

Thankfully, her growths are better. Her HP, strength, and defense are bad
forever, but her magic and res growths are alright and she has good skill and
speed growths and excellent luck. The speed in particular is nice because it
means she can escape her getting doubled issues without TOO much trouble, and
between it and her luck she gets enough avoid to start making up for her low
defense and HP.

Mist also has Florete, an absurdly overpowered prf sword. It is kind of a
mini-Ragnell, having great attack power, hit, crit, and 1-2 range. Sadly, even
with this she has poor offense and it really only serves to make her capable of
finishing off weakened enemies.

Water Affinity is great (and she's the only GM who has it, although Brom
and Mordecai join pretty soon and provide it as well), and healing boosts
support points a lot, so she should have no trouble finding a support partner. 
Mist herself would love some evasion and maybe defense, so Thunder or Earth or
possibly Light would benefit her a lot. Miracle is kind of nice (and activates
based on luck, which Mist has), although it should not be depended on. Mist
also has one more move than other casters, and gains a horse after promotion,
so she's got the overall best mobility except for Elincia as far as healers go.

So as I said with Laura, and as I will soon say with Rhys...Mist is a
healer. Mist is only a healer. And Mist should get whatever credit you give
for being a healer. She can become an okay combatant with a lot of effort and
leveling, but at Endgame she's pretty much relegated back to just being another
staff user.

-

Titania
Level 16 Axe Paladin
Light Affinity

Base stats
36 HP
25 Str
10 Mag
22 Skl
21 Spd
19 Luck
20 Def
14 Res
8 Con
33 Wt

Growths
60% HP
60% Str
15% Mag
55% Skl
50% Spd
40% Luck
20% Def
30% Res

Starts with S Axes, gains C Swords at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Counter (may cause enemy to take half the damage they deal)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P.


Titania is still a high level Paladin like she was in PoR, but this time
she has good bases. Her growths are somewhat less special, but even then all
of her offense oriented ones are high; having 50+% in str/skl/spd is great.
Her durability is less impressive, although her bases are enough that she
won't have any particular durability problems for a while.

She does suffer from typical Paladin issues. Her mobility gets screwed in
a few chapters like 3-4 and 3-7, and she has below average caps, although 33
spd is at least enough to double a lot of things even if she can't double the
nastier bosses. But even so, her offense is solid throughout the game, and she
handles herself pretty well overall.

While her durability starts to lag a little, her Light affinity helps make
up for it. She shouldn't have too much trouble finding a support partner, as
long as they can put up with her high move (and tendency to get stuck). Counter
is pretty pointlesss in my opinion, especially on a character with such high
offense to begin with, but it might help out when her durability starts to lag.

Titania has a great start and remains at least good up until Endgame (and
even there she's passable), If you need some extra offense, Titania is a great
choice.

-

Soren
Level 5 Wind Sage
Dark Affinity

Base stats
28 HP
9 Str
23 Mag
21 Skl
18 Spd
11 Luck
9 Def
21 Res
6 Con
6 Wt

Growths
40% HP
25% Str
80% Mag
60% Skl
35% Spd
35% Luck
25% Def
70% Res

Starts with A Wind, B Thunder and B Fire. Gains E Staves at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Adept (may grant an additional attack)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


Soren is here to remind us what a caster's bases SHOULD be. Excuse me
while I glare intently at Mist.

...right, so anyway. Soren also suffers from poor def/HP bases and a low
str base (but he has enough that AS loss won't ever be an issue, so that works)
and his speed is kind of average, and his luck is low. But on the other hand,
his resistance, skill, and magic are all excellent. His growths pretty much
follow this trend as well. Soren can easily cap mag/skl/res by level 10, which
sets him up for a lot of BEXP use to boost his otherwise laggy spd/luck/HP and
maybe even his str/def.

Admittedly, Soren is fairly reliant on BEXP; otherwise he will have a lot
of trouble doubling (even with the BEXP he struggles some thanks to the low 23
speed cap, so it's not really until promotion where he can double reliably) and
will have low enough avo and durability that he can't really handle being
attacked. He also requires a pretty large sum, and wants it soon since he caps
so early; problem is, you don't necessarily have the EXP he needs, so you will
need to hold him back for a little while. That said, he can be a good unit if
he gets the BEXP, it's just the classic case of "does he DESERVE it?"

Dark affinity is pretty good, and he's got 10 support partners from the
beginning, most of whom wouldn't mind some extra attack and evasion. Adept is
nice when it activates, but it activates based on speed, and Soren will never
have enough to get it to activate all that often, so I recommend that you hand
it over to someone who is faster, like Shinon or Mia. Getting staves at third
tier is nice (especially with his high magic), but his inability to reach S
rank with them makes it just a nice bonus instead of something he should be
actively building up.

Soren's kind of hard to judge. He is either okay but unspecial forever
without the BEXP, or pretty good with it; either way his Endgame is lacking as
it is with most Sages (althoug he's still one of the better Sages if you want
to take one; the only real competition he has is Calill). So again, it's just
a matter of deciding if you think the BEXP input he wants is worth the damage/
durability output he gets. 

-

Oscar
Level 12 Lance Paladin
Earth Affinity

Base stats
38 HP
20 Str
7 Mag
22 Skl
21 Spd
18 Luck
17 Def
13 Res
11 Con
36 Wt

Growths
50% HP
35% Str
20% Mag
65% Skl
60% Spd
55% Luck
30% Def
20% Res

Starts with A Lances, gains C Bows at 3rd tier

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


Oscar is your second choice for a Paladin with the GMs, and he's the more
speed oriented of the two. He has more accuracy and evasion and doubling
potential, but less def/res and a lot less strength.

To look at his stats without the comparison to Titania, Oscar has good HP
and luck with great speed and skill, though his speed is marred by low caps.
His defense is average, maybe slightly below, and his resistance is about the
same. His strength is his biggest problem, with a slightly below average base/
growth.

Oscar does have some BEXP potential, and it can help his strength woes.
He's a character who is best BEXPed as soon as he caps speed and skill (maybe
in addition to luck at third tier); he should cap those easily as a Paladin,
but struggles to cap anything else in time for BEXP to make a difference.

Earth affinity it great and complements his speed-based stat spread well.
He should have no trouble finding a partner, though his mobility means he may
not be in range all the time. Speaking of mobility, he suffers from the same
movement screwage in the chapters that Titania does, though he does always reap
the benefits of Canto and usually 9 move.

He's one of the easiest Paladins to train, and has a good base level on
top of it. Doubling semi-reliably (less so on HM, of course) and having decent
offense and defense is nice, and Earth saves him from total obscurity. His caps
and lackluster growths inhibit his Endgame performance, but he's decent to good
for the rest of the game.

-

Boyd
Level 8 Warrior
Fire Affinity

Base stats
45 HP
22 Str
1 Mag
20 Skl
18 Spd
13 Luck
15 Def
8 Res
12 Con
13 Wt

Growths
80% HP
65% Str
5% Mag
45% Skl
45% Spd
40% Luck
50% Def
10% Res

Starts with A Axes

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


Boyd is a pretty solid Warrior. Massive HP and great strength, coupled
with good defense and surprisingly decent speed and skill? Yes, please. His
luck is less impressive but not quite so low as you might expect, and his res
and magic are garbage.

His bases aren't actually all that great, except for his HP (which is
excellent) and his strength. Actually, his skill is pretty good too. His speed
is low enough that he doesn't double much, and his defense base isn't notable.
The speed is definitely the main issue; between it and his luck he won't be
dodging often, and the lack of doubling hampers his offense. His growths are
generaly good enough to make up for it, but you will have to put up with an
average performance until then.

Boyd does benefit from BEXP, but only at third tier; he might get a level
or two out of it at second if he manages to cap HP/Str/Skl, and that might in
turn get him him a speed or two, but it's only towards mid tier 3 that he is
reliably capping things (he should get HP/str/def without much trouble). After
that, he can easily get the extra speed he needs to hit 34 for maximum damage
output. Boyd's fire affinity just raises his damage even more, making for a
pretty powerful character.

He doesn't stand out at first (except for bringing a Killer Axe), but he
can become quite the powerhouse, and he's one of the best Endgame classes to
boot. I think of him as an inverted Titania - weaker starts, but better ending.

-

Rolf
Level 1 Sniper
Wind Affinity

Base Stats
32 HP
17 Str
3 Mag
20 Skl
19 Spd
13 Luck
13 Def
9 Res
6 Con
7 Wt

Growths
85% HP
75% Str
10% Mag
45% Skl
45% Spd
35% Luck
35% Def
20% Res

Starts with B Bows

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P.


So, um, you know...WOW. I think Rolf stole Boyd's growths. Despite the
fact that Boyd is a Warrior, Rolf is winning in the Warrior's key stats, str
and HP; in fact, Rolf ties for best str and HP growths of all the beorc! That's
really something.

He has pretty solid bases for his level, but he's still at a very low
level comparatively. His strength, skill, and speed are all fine, but he won't
be doubling for a while and he's doing less damage that just about everyone
except Mist. Thankfully, his growths in offense are either solid (skl/spd) or
WHAT THE HELL IS THIS (str), so he can eventually become a powerhouse.

Wind isn't doing much (especially for Rolf himself), so he might have a
little trouble finding someone who wants to support him. Pairing him with a
backliner is probably your best bet. He does suffer from the typical archer
issues - namely, lack of enemy phase action notably decreases EXP gain, which
is particularly problematic given his low level. And he does have one other
issue; the presence of Shinon, who is completely outclassing him for a long
time.

If you can train him, he does have an excellent Endgame (high str+34 spd+
Double Bow+???=profit) but the problem lies in the actual getting him trained
part. 

As a final note, I should mention that Rolf does benefit noticeably from
transfers. If he can get strength and speed, it will go a long way in boosting
his offense, making him a lot better a lot sooner.

-

Shinon
Level 13 Sniper
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
43 HP
21 Str
7 Mag
28 Skl
24 Spd
15 Luck
20 Def
14 Res
10 Con
11 Wt

Growths
50% HP
40% Str
15% Mag
70% Skl
65% Spd
30% Luck
45% Def
20% Res

Starts with S Bows

Innate skills: Provoke (makes enemies more likely to attack this character)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


The final Marksman, and will you just look at those lovely bases! Enough
speed to double most enemies, reasonable strength and massive skill, and that
HP/def/res is amazing for a unit who doesn't even fight on the front lines.
Shinon is not only fairly powerful, but can serve as a tank! Of course, since
he can't counter without crossbows, you don't necessarily WANT him to tank, but
it's nice to have the option.

His growths continue this trend. He has excellent skill and speed, good
def/HP/str, but low luck. His res growth is also pretty low, but his base
keeps it reasonable for most of the game. He does come to have a slight str
deficit towards his later levels, though that can be negated with some BEXP.

Thunder affinity further increases his already high durability, and is
something a lot of GMs could use, so no problems there. Provoke is awkward on
an archer but Shinon tanks well enough that it works; I would still suggest
moving it to another high durability unit, but it can stay put and still work.

Shinon is just good. He starts strong and ends strong and stays strong in
the middle. He suffers from the usual archer drawbacks, but much less so than
Leo and Rolf thanks to his high starting level. Definitely worth considering
for all your Double Bow needs.

-

Gatrie
Level 10 Lance General
Light Affinity

Base stats
44 HP
25 Str
5 Mag
18 Skl
20 Spd
15 Luck
24 Def
11 Res
13 Con
23 Wt

Growths
50% HP
60% Str
5% Mag
45% Skl
60% Spd
30% Luck
60% Def
35% Res

Starts with A Lances and B Axes, gains D Swords at 3rd tier

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automaticaly at the beginning of 3-P


And now, Gatrie! He's a general who manages to have high spd, str, and
def. If that doesn't spell "broken" then I don't know what does, besides
b-r-o-k-e-n. He even has respectable resistance (certainly not as much as Meg
or even Tauroneo, but it's sufficient) and skill. His HP growth is actually
the lowest of the Marshalls, though it's still good overall (he starts 1 point
away from capping at tier 2, for starters). He does have low luck and magic,
but he still won't be getting critted overmuch and magic is magic.

That's not to say Gatrie doesn't have his problems. He suffers the usual
crapy mobility of the armored unit, and while his speed growth is unreasonably
high for his class, his speed caps still hold him back. He can double some
enemies initially, and should start doubling consistently for a bit, and then
stop when he caps, and then start again, and then stop again, and arglebargle
blahblahblah. What I'm trying to say is he can double a lot (and with high str
he's got great damage output) but you'll want to promote him pretty quickly.
He's one of the best candidates for the Master Crown you get in 3-3, but if
you would prefer to get him all of his levels for that extra def/skl/luck/res
then go ahead and use BEXP instead. Or just wait for it to happen naturally,
but don't expect as much doubling out of him.

He does well with BEXP since he should easily cap HP/str/spd at second
tier and str/spd/def at second, so you can pull up his HP/res/skl. Light gives
a bonus to his already great defense, and lets him share some durability with
another character. As with all GMs, he should have no problems finding a unit
who wants to support him.

Gatrie has some excellent growths and a superior performance in both
offense and defense. He may (or may not, depending on how you play it) have
doubling issues for a while, and he WILL have doubling issues in Endgame where
his class starts to screw him over, but for most of the game he is a powerful
offensive force and he always makes for a great wall.

-

Rhys
Level 3 Bishop
Fire Affinity

Base stats
27 HP
8 Str
23 Mag
16 Skl
14 Spd
21 Luck
7 Def
24 Res
9 Con
9 Wt

Growths
40% HP
25% Str
65% Mag
35% Skl
35% Spd
60% Luck
20% Def
75% Res

Starts with C Light and A Staves

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


Wow. I almost feel bad for whinging about Mist's bases now.

As in PoR, Rhys is an extremely polar character - and why not, he is a
healer after all...he has poor HP and defense, great magic and resistance and
luck, and kinda average skill. He also has terrible speed; he's getting doubled
by almost everything at first, but to be fair Mist is also. The thing is, Mist
at least had a decent speed growth, while Rhys has a below average one, so he's
in danger of getting doubled...well, for a long time.

Of course, durability doesn't matter to healers, right? Well, not ideally,
but there are some instances where you might need to put a healer in danger to
save someone else, and Rhys really can't do that. On the other hand, his high
magic means he is healing more than Mist and also has better Physic range;
whetheror not Mist's horse she eventually gets can offset that is up to you.
Then again, either way you have to actually have Physics...

Rhys can conceivably make good use of BEXP, but it's generally a waste.
His biggest problem stats are def (which is his lowest growth so BEXP isn't
reliably giving him def until he caps five other things) and spd (which he
has terrible caps in anyway so BEXP is only marginally helpful). High magic
helps for offense, although Light magic is weak and his magic cap (particularly
his tier 2 cap of 25) are lacking. Fire affinity can help offset this, though,
and plenty fGMs wouldn't mind some extra power, plus healing gets lotsa support
points.

So I'm going to repeat myself again and say Rhys is a good healer and
a less than stellar combatant. I personally prefer Mist, but there's no real
rhyme or reason to that preference; at the end of the day they're both healers,
each with an advantage over the other (Mist has speed, Rhys has magic), and
using one or even both is beneficial as long as you aren't careless with how
you place them. Give Rhys a try, and if you're pleased with his performance
ten he will make a fine healer for your team, but I recommend that you drop
him once you get to Endgame.

-

Mia
Level 7 Swordmaster
Fire Affinity

Base stats
34 HP
17 Str
5 Mag
26 Skl
28 Spd
18 Luck
13 Def
8 Res
7 Con
7 Wt

Growths
70% HP
45% Str
15% Mag
60% Skl
65% Spd
35% Luck
40% Def
25% Res

Starts with A Swords

Innate skills: Vantage (character gets first strike even on enemy phase)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-P


Mia is the fourth swordmaster you come across, and she's got the stats of
the traditional male swordmaster and the breasts of a traditional FE female.

...but anyway, her bases are pretty good. Good HP and luck and WHAAAAAAAAT
skl/spd. Her def and strength are a bit low, but she still manages okay with
almost reliable evasion and incessant doubling. Her growths work quite well for
her also, with goodish str/def and great skl/spd/HP. Her luck and res lag, but
not too horribly and she has a high luck base anyway.

BEXP serves Mia quite well, too. She should cap HP, skl and spd with ease
at second tier, and at third she has a great shot at capping FIVE stats (HP/
str/skl/spd/def) about midway through, so BEXP will easily fix her luck and res
and even her magic deficit if you care enough to feed it to her. Honestly,
she's performing great even without it, but since I MUST! CAP! EVERYTHING! I
decided to point it out anyway.

Fire Affinity is great for Mia and can boost her into having more offense
than even Edward, plus other GMs are pyromaniacs who would like a fire affinity
for a friend. Vantage isn't near as good as it was in PoR - it now activates
based on speed instead of activating every time - but Mia is still the best
candidate for it so might as well leave it with her and watch her occasionally
critblick an enemy on enemy phase before they even get to attack her.

Mia has some great offense, and coupled with high speed and good luck has
great evasion as well - it's not quite reliable enough to make up for her low
def base and cap, although if you support her with an avo booster then she
won't have to worry about getting hit hardly at all. She lags a little at first
(though not as much as some others) and turns out quite well. I definitely
recommend her.

-

Ranulf
Level 26 Cat
Wind Affinity

Base stats
55 HP
14 -> 28 Str
6 -> 12 Mag
16 -> 32 Skl
15 -> 30 Spd
23 Luck
13 -> 36 Def
10 -> 20 Res
9 -> 14 Con
14 -> 34 Wt

Growths
70% HP
30% Str
15% Mag
40% Skl
35% Spd
55% Luck
15% Def
10% Res

Starts with A Strike

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-4. Is unusable in 3-5


Ranulf has got some nice bases. His HP, strength, and defense are all nice
and his skill and speed are excellent. His res and luck are also pretty good.
He should be doubling everything and doing respectable damage per hit, and
with the constant doubling he shouldn't have much trouble further improving his
attack via strike level.

His growths are less impressive...his skill is fine but his speed is kinda
average and his strength is slightly low, and his def/res are bad. His only
good growths are HP and luck. That said, his bases are high enough that he
still might pull off capping some things, and even if he doesn't he will still
have sufficient durability with good evasion and he should be doubling forever,
and his strike level can mitigate any strength problems he might have. In other
words, his growths are bad but ultimately not all that relevant.

Wind affinity is wind. He shouldn't have trouble finding a partner, it's
just that most people don't care about his affinity. Being a cat laguz hurts
since they have a particularly nasty transformation gauge, but Ranulf himself
has good enough stats that he can make do, especially if you let him have some
Olivi Grass. He gets as much out of BEXP levels as he does normal ones (maybe
more, even) so don't be afraid to level him that way, just try not to let his
strike level suffer for it.

He's a good character, you just need to put up with his status as a cat
laguz. He can be a long term character if you want to put in the effort; 
otherwise, I recommend you at least put him to some use in part 3.

-

Kyza
Level 18 Tiger
Light Affinity

Base stats
55 HP
10 -> 20 Str
3 -> 6 Mag
10 -> 20 Skl
11 -> 22 Spd
14 Luck
10 -> 20 Def
5 -> 10 Res
12 -> 22 Con
21 -> 42 Wt

Growths
85% HP
40% Str
5% Mag
45% Skl
35% Spd
50% Luck
40% Def
15% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Quickclaw (may deal damage to an enemy who attacks from afar)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-4. Is unusable in 3-5


Kyza is a lowbie laguz, which means he requires active training to be
useful. This in itself is pretty damning, given how much harder it is to train
laguz than Beorc, but let's have a look and see how it works out.

His bases are bad. He's fairly durable, with high HP and good def, but
he's only tanking when he's transformed. He also has surprisingly...well, awful
offense. He has 30 attack power (20 str + 10 weapon) which is definitely not
good (for reference, a base level Rolf with a steel bow has 27 mt) and can only
fight transformed AND only has one range outside of the unreliable Quickclaw.
His speed base is decent for a Tiger of his level but not enough for him to
double much of anything.

He does have somewhat decent growths, at least. Nice skill, def, luck, and
decent str coupled with High HP makes for some nice physical durability and
at least decent offense. His speed, however...well, the growth is fine but
between his semi-low base and his poor cap, his doubling woes are many. Oh yeah
and his res is also there. It's lowish.

So Kyza is mostly a tank, and he's got the Light to back it up, and
Quickclaw to help his offense (?), but his doubling issues and poor strength
base screw him out of having much offense at any time. He can have a midgame
arc of usefulness, but he's never anything special and he's perhaps the worst
Endgame class of them all, so he's pulled back down again into obscurity.

-

Lyre
Level 17 Cat
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
47 HP
7 -> 14 Str
6 -> 12 Mag
11 -> 22 Skl
11 -> 22 Spd
16 Luck
7 -> 14 Def
8 -> 16 Res
6 -> 11 Con
11 -> 31 Wt

Growths
50% HP
35% Str
10% Mag
65% Skl
70% Spd
50% Luck
20% Def
30% Res

Starts with A Strike

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-4. Is unusable in 3-5


Wow, I feel really guilty about bashing for Kyza's bases now. I'm sorry,
but Lyre's bases are just appalling. Horrible strength, below average defense.
Decent HP and luck, decent spd and skl for her level (but not enough base speed
to double most things), and she does have some okay res. But seriously, a unit
in a combat oriented class should not have the same attack power as Mist even
though they join after. That's just not okay.

Her growths, thankfully, are a bit better. She has excellent speed and
skill growths, especially by laguz standards. Her luck is good, her HP is below
average by laguz standards but still high overall, and she's got some good res.
Her strength and defense are just bad forever, though; her strength growth is
passable but not enough to pull her out of such an awful base, and her def
growth is just low.

As bad as her defense is, she does have the benefit of a survivability-
boosting Thunder affinity, which also shouldn't make finding a partner too
difficult. And it's not like her evasion is particularly lacking, so the def
isn't honestly THAT big a deal, it's just her horrible strength.

She can work with an Energy Drop and maybe some BEXP levels. She does
easily cap spd/skl so after that you can get to work on fixing her str. She
still suffers from th standard cat issues, though, and even with the extra
speed form initial BEXP level and the Drop, she's nothing special, and like so
many laguz before her, she's largely outclassed for Endgame. As with Kyza, she
may see an arc where she's actually useful, but overall she has little benefit.

-

Reyson
Level 15 Heron
Fire Affinity

Base Stats
40 HP
3 -> 6 Str
5 -> 10 Mag
5 -> 10 Skl
11 -> 22 Spd
31 Luck
6 -> 12 Def
17 -> 34 Res
8 -> 14 Con
5 -> 9 Wt

Growths
65% HP
5% Str (OMG)
30% Mag
20% Skl
20% Spd
60% Luck
20% Def
20% Res

No weapon levels

Innate skills: Blessing (restores HP equal to magic to adjacent allies),
Galdrar (user can chant)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-5. Cannot be used
in 3-11.


The last of the Herons, and widely considered to be the best. Reyson has
the highest join level, and consequently the best bases, and consequently has
a small chance of not getting decimated by any enemy that decides to attack him
(although most still are).

Reyson has the best mobility of the Herons. He can fly/canto like Leanne,
but has one more move untransformed and 2 more transformed. Untransformed he
can only chant one character at a time, but transformed he has the ability to
chant everyone around him. As such, while transformed he is very definitely the
best of the herons (same chanting but much more mobility than Rafiel and better
than Leanne in both).

Reyson is the best Heron for endgame in casual play, since he has the best
transformed performance and can just eat a stone or gem or something. Rafiel
does outperform him for low turn counts, though, since he doesn't NEED to
transform to uberchant. I prefer Reyson, but that's mostly just because I don't
like Rafiel as a character. Either one (and Leanne too, but less so) should
serve you just fine for Endgame.

Reyson is a Heron, a Heron is Reyson. If you like Herons, use Reyson when
he's around; if you don't, then feel free to skip out. I do definitely
recommend him and his siblings, though, if you can't decide.

-

Janaff
Level 29 Hawk
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
57 HP
16 -> 32 Str
2 -> 4 Mag
19 -> 38 Skl
17 -> 34 Spd
30 Luck
12 -> 24 Def
8 -> 16 Res
6 -> 16 Con
7 -> 16 Wt

Growths
55% HP
40% Str
15% Mag
45% Skl
25% Spd
50% Luck
35% Def
10% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate Skills: Insight (+20 hit and +5 vision in fog of war maps)

How to recruit: Talk to him or Ulki in 3-7 with Ike or Reyson.


As in PoR, Uncle Janny joins alongside his partner Ulki. Of the two,
Janaff has the clear-cut offense lead.

I mean, just look at those bases. 32 strength, 38 skill, 34 speed? He has
the spiritually cleansing 34 speed stat RIGHT OFF THE BAT?! And his growths in
them are also decent. Well, okay, his speed growth is actually low, but his
base is so high he'll never ever have doubling issues and if you really care
about capping it then you can BEXP it. His defense is also solid and should
either cap or fall just short of it (at 32). He even has monster luck and an
accuracy boosting skill that's locked to him, so he's...yeah. Missing like one
out of every ten thousand hits or something. His Thunder affinity boost up his
not insubstantial evasion and defense, although he joins late enough that he
may struggle to find a partner. Between Ulki, the peggies, and the part 4 units
he shouldn't have TOO much trouble, at least.

It's pretty hard to go wrong with Janaff. There's really not even much to
say...he suffers from the ol' "1 range, transform gauge" problem, but even the
latter point is less of an issue for Hawks. He's even not being outclassed that
badly in Endgame. Definitely worth using; whether you ditch him for a Royal or
not, he is quite useful in part 3 and can remain pretty good forever.

-

Ulki
Level 28 Hawk
Water affinity

Base stats
59 HP
14 -> 28 Str
3 -> 6 Mag
17 -> 34 Skl
18 -> 36 Spd
25 Luck
11 -> 22 Def
10 -> 20 Res
10 -> 20 Con
11 -> 20 Wt

Growths
65% HP
25% Str
30% Mag
25% Skl
40% Spd
35% Luck
30% Def
25% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Vigilance (raises evasion and crit evasion by 20)

How to recruit: Talk to him or Janaff in 3-7 with Ike or Reyson.


So now let's take some time to ponder the subtle nuances of Ulki's base
stats. His HP, speed, and skill are great, and...well, all of his other stats
are good, except for his actual magic which is w/e.

His growths are not so hot, though. His only good growths are HP, speed,
and defense, although his skill and luck bases are high enough that his poor
growths don't really ever pull them down, and his resistance is also enough to
not have any real worries against casters. His strength does start to falter,
but he can at least use some BEXP to fix that.

Water affinity is desirable, though like Janaff he will have a bit more
trouble than most at finding a support partner (he should still be able to at
least be working on one by Endgame, though). Vigilance boosts his evasion to
ridiculous levels, and makes him effectively uncritable by anything.

He ultimately is the more durable but less powerful version of Janaff
(the durability comes from Vigilance moreso than actual stats). Both are solid
choices, and like Janaff Ulki can serve you well up to and even within the
final chapters.

-

Sigrun
Level 19 Falcon Knight
Water Affinity

Base stats
34 HP
18 Str
13 Mag
22 Skl
24 Spd
28 Luck
20 Def
22 Res
7 Con
23 Wt

Growths
40% HP
45% Str
10% Mag
70% Skl
25% Spd
70% luck
10% Def
50% Res

Starts with S Lances and A Swords

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically in the beginning of 3-11


Um...those are some mighty polarized growths, missy. Eh, we'll get to them
later, let's start with bases. Sigrun has decent durability between her def,
res, luck, and speed (her HP base kinda sucks though), and she has an insane
base magic. Her spd is okay, but not enough for her to double reliably, and her
strength is pitiful.

Her growths do go a way in fixing that strength - it will be a while
before it gets good, but it will at least get passable. Her skill and luck
growths are excellent, and her res is pretty high too. Her HP continues to lag,
and...um...uh...okay, whoever decided to give a pegasus knight a 25% speed
growth needs to be checked for having a brain tumor or somthing. Considering
she already is only borderline doubling, this is a pretty huge problem for her.
She can maybe pull it up with BEXP, but not for a long time and even then it
may be too little too late. Her defense growth is also crap, but her base is
good enough that her stat will never be too awful, and Water affinity helps
there, although she has trouble finding a partner since she joins a bit late.
At least she has Tanith or Sanaki as emergency supports, I guess.

So she's a peggy with decent durability and a crapton of luck and skill,
but her offense is basically doomed to failure. It's not as bad as some, but
overall I can't recommend her for Endgame. Her flying can make her useful,
especially in the desert of 4-3, and her high luck makes her a good item finder
(agian, mostly useful in 4-3). She just isn't all that great a combatant. 

-

Tanith
Level 16 Falcon Knight
Earth Affinity

Base stats
35 HP
20 Str
10 Mag
21 Skl
23 Spd
22 Luck
19 Def
20 Res
8 Con
24 Wt

Growths
35% HP
55% Str
15% Mag
75% Skl
40% Spd
35% Luck
40% Def
30% Res

Starts with A Swords and A Lances

No innate skills

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 3-11


The final Falcon Knight, as well as the final character to join in part 3,
Tanith is the power peggy. Like Sigrun, her bases are largely unimpressive; not
enough speed to reliably double, goodish durability but low HP, and lowish str.

Buuuuut, Tanith does have a good growth spread! Her strength growth is
great, and she should cap it without much trouble at third tier. Her skill is
even better than Sigrun's, and she's got good defense and decent res. Her luck
growth is nothing special, but her base ensures her luck will always be good.
Her HP is meh forever. And finally, her speed is semidecent - it will still be
several levels before she can double reliably, but she has a bit more than one
hope in hell of pulling it off.

Earth affinity is lovely for inreasing her evasion, and serves as a nice
complement to her respectable durability (and helps offset her poor HP). Of
course she has all the benefits and drawbacks of being a non-dragony flier, so
enjoy the mobility and flee the crossbows.

All of the peggies are hard to train, but Tanith winds up with some solid
offense and durability. She's the easiest of the 3 to fix with BEXP, in the
event that you need to buff up her speed (it's easier to increase her speed
than Sigrun's speed or Marcia's strength), and Earth affinity is great. While
I personally tend to favor the Hawks and Dragonlords over peggies, I have to
say that Tanith can make for a pretty respectable flier.

-

Sanaki
Level 1 Empress
Light Affinity

Base stats
28 HP
2 Str
33 Mag
22 Skl
23 Spd
32 Luck
10 Def
28 Res
4 Con
4 Wt

Growths
70% HP
40% Str
60% Mag
60% Skl
35% Spd
55% Luck
30% Def
50% Res

Starts with S Fire, A Wind, A Thunder, and A Light

Innate skills: Flare (Mastery skill: negates enemy res and heals user)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 4-P


Sanaki has some extremely polar bases. Her magic, luck, and resistance are
all great, her skill and speed aren't so much, and her HP, def and str are
horrible. She's not quite getting OHKOed by most if any enemies, but between
her slightly low speed and her extremely low str, she might actually be getting
doubled. She can only wield very basic tomes without AS loss; even Cymbeline,
her prf tome, drops her AS by 3 at first.

Her growths are actually pretty good, at least. High HP, magic, skill,
luck and res, and her strength growth is pretty good also. Her speed and def
still lag, though her def growth is still decent by caster standards. Problem
is, her bases are so bad (particularly in HP/def/str/spd) that it will be a
long time before she makes up for her low bases, and in the case of def/HP she
really won't EVER make up for them - she has the lowest caps in them. Her str
can get to where she can use higher level tomes without worrying about AS loss,
but even that takes a while and she might not get enough str/spd to double with
Rexflame, and consequently won't have enough to double much of anything except
dragons in Endgame.

Flare is a decent but relatively weak Mastery, although between Sanaki's
magic and prf tome she should be OHKOing pretty consistently with it when it
activates. Light affinity...really isn't saving her shoddy durability, and
there aren't many who care about it as Endgame approaches, but there are still
some people who might be willing to support with her. And as I have referenced
a few times already, she does have a powerful prf tome called Cymbeline that
happens to weigh not very much, so that can be helpful. She ideally will switch
to Rexflame for Endgame, but she might not have the AS for it, so in that case
either Cymbeline or a seige tome should work.

Sanaki is very powerful, but that's about it. Her speed prevents her from
doubling until endgame and even there she has to have above average strength
and speed to double with Rexflame, and her durability is akin to pre-torn
tissue paper. You are required to bring her to Endgame, so it might be worth
trying to get her levels up a bit, but she really isn't very reliable.

NOTE: Sanaki gets an item at the end of 4-E-4 that boosts her defense by
ten, which helps her survive a hit from the final boss but not much else. If
only they'd given it to her from the start...

-

Skrimir
Level 25 Lion
Fire Affinity

Base stats
66 HP
19 -> 38 Str
3 -> 6 Mag
14 -> 28 Skl
13 -> 26 Spd
24 Luck
16 -> 32 Def
9 -> 18 Res
16 -> 26 Con
26 -> 46 Wt

Growths
90% HP
35% Str
5% Mag
35% Skl
25% Spd
20% Luck
50% Def
5% Res

Starts with S Strike

Inate skills: Provoke (makes enemies more likely to attack this character),
Resolve (when HP falls below half, skl/spd rise by half)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 4-P


Skrimir is about what you'd expect from a fellow with his personality.
Incredible strength and HP with good defense and...actually, his other stats
are at least decent too. His speed is a little shaky I suppose but he's still
doubling fairly often and may even be OHKOing the faster enemies.

His growths basically continue this. His def goes from good to excellent,
as do his HP and strength. His skill is good too. His speed, luck, and res
really lag, though. He might manage enough speed to hit his cap for great
doubling fun in Endgame, but it won't happen for a long time and with the ol'
stunted laguz EXP gain it will be hard to pull off. He is always extremely
strong, though, especially if he pulls off SS strike.

Fire Affinity is nice (though pretty much unnecessary) for his attack
power, and lets him rub off his mightly mighty might on someone else. Provoke
is great for him since he can tank, and Resolve makes his speed and skill
shoot waaaay up (for great doubling fun even if he doesn't cap!), and since
he's a laguz he can take advantage of it by taking hits untransformed.

He is ultimately overshadowed by Giffca and Cain, but Skrimir himself is
still quite a warrior. Not quite a royal, but he's on his way there.

-

Naesala
Level 27 Raven King
Dark Affinity

Base stats
60 HP
17 -> 34 Str
7 -> 14 Mag
20 -> 40 Skl
21 -> 42 Spd
20 Luck
13 -> 26 Def
14 -> 28 Res
11 -> 21 Con
12 -> 20 Wt

Growths
40% HP
45% Str
15% Mag
30% Skl
45% Spd
55% Luck
15% Def
35% Res

Starts with S Strike

Innate skills: Formshift (can be permanently in laguz form without stat loss),
Vantage (may attack first even on enemy phase), Maelstrom (may do damage after
being attacked indirectly), Tear (Mastery skill: triples strength and halves
enemies' speed for a turn)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 4-P


The second Royal you come across, Naesala is the lowest leveled and has
S strike instead of SS like the others. He still has great bases across the
board and bribed one of the developers into giving him a Mastery skill even
though he's not actually a high enough level to have it. He's pretty strong -
not like Skrimir level strong, but pretty strong - and reasonably durable, and
absurdly fast. HIs luck base is actually a bit low, but his growth is enough
that even that shouldn't suffer too much.

Speaking of growths, he has low HP but above average strength and speed
along with good luck and res. His skill growth is also okay, and he's very
close to capping anyway. His defense is quite low, though, but between his
evasion and his decent base, it's not really a problem.

His skillset is great; all speed based skills, and he has loads of that,
so prepare for a whole lot of Tear. Dark affinity also suits him quite well,
although he has the typical part 4 partner panic.

In short, Naesala is overpowered. Slightly less so than the other Royals,
actually, but overpowered nonetheless.

-

Tibarn
Level 31 Hawk King
Heaven Affinity

Base stats
68 HP
18 -> 36 Str
2 -> 4 Mag
24 -> 48 Skl
20 -> 40 Spd
29 Luck
16 -> 32 Def
10 -> 20 Res
14 -> 28 Con
16 -> 28 Wt

Growths
75% HP
40% Str
5% Mag
10% Skl
20% Spd
40% Luck
40% Def
20% Res

Starts with SS Strike

Innate skills: Formshift (can be permanently transformed without stat loss),
Pavise (may take no damage from an attack), Savior (can rescue other units
without spd/skl loss), Tear (Mastery skill: Triples strength and halves enemy
speed for a turn)

How to recruit: Joins automatically at the beginning of 4-2


Yet another case where all I really need to say is "Laguz Royal", but we
can look a little deeper I suppose. Tibarn has high HP, strength, speed, luck,
and defense, with decent res and spectacular skill. His growths are nothing
special, but still serve to further accent his strength, HP and defense. He
still needs to keep an eye out for crossbows, but even up against some of those
he can handle himself.

Heaven affinity is an okay one for Endgame, but Tibarn doesn't exaclty
need any more hit, and he doesn't really need anything else either. He has
trouble finding a support, but it's okay if he doesn't. His skillset further
emphasizes his durability, and Pavise even activates based on skill, meaning
Tibarn just won't take damage from roughly half of the attacks he faces.

So, um..."Laguz Royal".

-

Pelleas
Level 12 Dark Sage
Water Affinity

Base stats
33 HP
13 Str
24 Mag
20 Skl
21 Spd
14 Luck
14 Def
19 Res
9 Con
9 Wt

Growths
35% HP
25% Str
55% Mag
45% Skl
60% Spd
40% Luck
30% Def
45% Res

Starts with A Thunder and S Dark, gains B Staves at 3rd tier

Innate skills: Miracle (may halve the damage of an otherwise lethal blow)

How to recruit: Must be playing a game loaded from RD Clear Data. Choose to
"Refuse His Command" in 3-12 and he will automatically join shortly into 4-2.


Pelleas is the final Sage to join, and he is a unique one. He is one of
only two dark magic users in the game, and the other is only available for the
very final battle. He is also the only Archsage who can reach S staves to use
Fortify. His base stats are decent, though not overly special for his level
(although that str/def is nice).

The problem, then, is his level. Level 12 isn't particularly good when
most of your team is promoted. 21 Speed isn't doubling anything (hell, his tier
2 speed cap of 24 is doubling very little), and 24 Magic isn't enough to pack
a significant punch. And while he has good durability for his level, it's still
insignificant.

So he's pretty much a nonfactor as long as he's tier 2. But how does he
grow? He's got good magic and skill coupled with a great speed growth and good
res. His defense growth is also good for a caster. His luck is okay, although
his lowish base (and rare 25 cap) prevent it from ever really being good. And
his HP growsh it pretty garbagetastic.

Unfortunately, while he may grow well enough, his speed cap of 31 screws
his offense pretty hard in Endgame, and the low accuracy of Dark (and Thunder)
may wind up being a problem as well, although he's got two easy supports who
have Heaven (and Elincia wouldn't mind Water) so that isn't a huge issue, just
a moderatly average issue. Miracle isn't really that good for him given his
poor luck base, but if no one else wants it he might as well keep it and it
might activate when you need it to.

Pelleas just doesn't have a lot going for him. He starts out below average
and ends up below average, and there's just no time in between for him to
shine...He's your ticket to Balberith, and he can Fortify for Endgame, but
beyond that he's pretty bland.

-

Stefan
Level 8 Trueblade
Heaven Affinity

Base stats
53 HP
27 Str
7 Mag
37 Skl
36 Spd
20 Luck
21 Def
16 Res
13 Con
13 Wt

Growths
55% HP
50% Str
20% Mag
60% Skl
60% Spd
15% Luck
40% Def
50% Res

Starts with SS Swords

Innate skills: Astra (Mastery skill: Attack five times)

How to recruit: In 4-3, place Micaiah (or Lethe or Mordecai with transfer data)
on the space one to the left and eleven up from the bottom right square.


Stefan is your filler Trueblade. His base stats are pretty good overall,
with the exception of sorta low res and luck (and magic I suppose). His growths
are actually pretty good for a super high level character, with good...well,
everything except for a crappy luck growth. He isn't likely to be as good as
another Trueblade who you've been training, but he's a fine substitute. Though
you recruit him in 4-3, he's not really usable until Endgame due to the nature
of 4-3 and it's movement screwing tendencies (i.e he joins so late it doesn't
matter), but in Endgame he's performing admirably. His Heaven support is okay
but it's hard to partner him with anyone.

Otherwise, not much to say. If you need a Trueblade (or an extra one) then
Stefan will do well, but if you don't then there's not much point to him. Make
sure that you get the Vague Katti, though, whether you recruit him or not.

-

Oliver
Level 8 Saint
Fire Affinity

Base stats
48 HP
22 Str
31 Mag
22 Skl
20 Spd
28 Luck
18 Def
32 Res
12 Con
12 Wt

Growths
65% HP
55% Str
35% Mag
35% Skl
45% Spd
30% Luck
30% Def
20% Res

Starts with S Light and A Staves

Innate skills: Corona (Mastery skill: negates enemy res and halves their skill)

How to recruit: Place Rafiel in his movement range in 4-4 and he will talk to
Rafiel and join.


Back from the dead (or something), it's Oliver! He's the last Saint you
get, and his stats are kind of unimpressive. His HP and strength are immense,
his magic is averagish, his luck and res are high, his def is low and his
skill and speed are awful. He's doubling pretty much never (except dragons, and
he even struggles a bit against those without some levels) and he's kinda frail
and his attack power isn't all that great to begin with. He can use Fortify if
you pull his staff level up once, and that's pretty much his entire worth for
Endgame.

He's a fun novelty character, and he does join with some awesome stuff
that makes it worth the hassle of dragging Rafiel up to the front lines, but
he's a poor combatant. It might be worth taking him to Endgame just to see his
boss conversations and supports, though, if you really don't mind him taking
another healer's spot.

-

Bastian
Level 10 Wind Archsage
Wind Affinity

Base stats
45 HP
21 Str
35 Mag
27 Skl
24 Spd
21 Luck
20 Def
32 Res
10 Con
10 Wt

Growths
25% HP
20% Str
30% Mag
70% Skl
40% Spd
40% Luck
25% Def
50% Res

Starts with SS Wind, S Fire, A Thunder, and B Staves

Innate skills: Corrosion (may damage the durability of an enemy's equipped
weapon), Flare (Mastery skill: Ignores res and heals the user)

How to recruit: Joins automaticaly at the beginning of 4-5


And here we have a stock Archsage. Bastian is pretty average across the
board. I mean, really, I can't think of anything that makes him stand out
except for his high level and his bad speed, which makes him a pretty bad
Endgame choice, and of course Endgame is the majority of his existance. His
main selling point is that he has Anima mastery and is available in a map where
every single enemy except the boss is weak to one of the anima magic types, so
he has pretty reasonable offense there. He's worth using in 4-5, but beyond
that it's basically the same case as OLiver: the only incentive to use him is
because you like him.

-

Volke
Level 13 Assassin
Wind Affinity

Base stats
52 HP
30 Str
5 Mag
36 Skl
35 Spd
19 Luck
26 Def
22 Res
11 Con
11 Wt

Growths
50% HP
50% Str
5% Mag
60% Skl
65% Spd
20% Luck
45% Def
15% Res

Starts with SS Knives

Innate skills: Stilness (enemies will not attack unless this character is the
only person in their attack range), Lethality (may instakill)

How to recruit: Talk to him with Elincia or Bastian in 4-5 and pay him 3000
gold (he actually pays you back more than that afterwards ayway)


Volke is the only Assassin in the game, and put simply he's Sothe+. He has
good strength, excellent skl/spd, and high HP. His defense isn't quite godly,
but it's still pretty high for a speedster. Even his res is good, although his
growth is terrible.

Stillness is kind of a hit/miss - one the one hand, being borderline
invulnerable on enemy phase is nice, but he's semi durable anyway and it
prevents him from being able to actuallt fight during that time since nothing
is attacking him. He's going to have a lot of trouble supporting, but, uh...
well, REAL assassins fight alone! He also gets an immense critical boost and
Lethality to add to his offense, and since he's already doubling everything
(except Auras without Nasir) and has decent strength to boot, his offense is
pretty nice

Sadly, he suffers from one major drawback: Knives. The main reason is that
knives are weak weapons and Baselard isn't all that exceptional, and knives
also lack the versatility of other weapon types so he can't switch to a Brave
or anti-Dragon or something. Also, the fact that you are required to take Sothe
makes Volke a little redundant: there is little question that Volke is a better
combatant, but he isn'tnecessarily superior enough to replace another character
just to be a replacement Baselard user.

Having said that, Volke is a fun unit to use (...IMO) and while the whole
Sothe issue can screw with him, if you don't mind bringing Volke along he does
pretty well for himself in Endgame. He also functions well in 4-5, either as a
Stillness wall or an attacker,

And as you may have gathered from the above point, even if you don't plan
to use him, recruit him. A free Peshkatz is nice, and he also gives Ike 20000G
before Endgame, so...there you go.

-

Kurthnaga
Level 20 Dragon Prince
Water Affinity

Base stats
55 HP
15 -> 30 Str
7 -> 14 Mag
8 -> 16 Skl
10 -> 20 Spd
21 Luck
15 -> 30 Def
15 -> 30 Res
7 -> 17 Con
12 -> 42 Wt

Growths
95% HP
45% Str
15% Mag
20% Skl
35% Spd
60% Luck
25% Def
40% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Night Tide (increases def and res of adjacent units by 5)

How to recruit: Joins automatically before Endgame


Kurthnaga is the lowest leveled of the Laguz Royals and also the only one
who actually has to go out and EARN his Formshift (you get it after 4-E-3). He
is also the only laguz to lose move when he transforms. Statistically he is
pretty durable, although his bases aren't overly noteworthy in any particular
aspect (except for his speed, which is low enough that he's getting doubled by
everything except maybe low-end Generals).

His growths are fairly well-spread. He has immense HP, good luck and res
(less so def, but it's enough that he can be pretty tanky), and decent speed.
He does take a while to get to doubling, though, and...even then that will
stop after 4-E-3. That is a good training chapter for him, though, if you want
to; the enemies (including the boss) will not target him OR counterattack.

Water affinity boosts his durability further if he can support anyone. He
also has Night Tide, a skill that boosts the durability of all characters that
are next to him. He starts out with A strike which really inhibits his offense
(his base strength is okay but not enough to offset it) so his attack is never
all that great.

Basically, he can be a decent wall, and he can get pretty powerful, but
he requires a lot of training in a very short time and by the time his stats
get anywhere you're at point where walling doesn't help anyway. Since he's
forced into the tower, you might give him any BEXP you have to spare to help
him get his stats up a bit, and he can help out by boosting the durability of
other people, but as a fighter he isn't noteworthy.

-

Ena
Level 22 Red Dragon
Earth Affinity

Base stats
59 HP
10 -> 20 Str
15 -> 30 Mag
13 -> 26 Skl
11 -> 22 Spd
18 Luck
13 -> 26 Def
17 -> 34 Res
6 -> 18 Con
11 -> 44 Wt

Growths
50% HP
20% Str
50% Mag
40% Skl
40% Spd
35% Luck
15% Def
50% Res

Starts with A Strike

Innate skills: Boon (recover negative status of adjacent allies at the start of
player phase), Renewal (recover 10% HP per turn), Miracle (may halve the damage
of an otherwise lethal blow), Blood Tide (boosts skill and speed of adjacent
allies by 5)

How to recruit: Joins automatically before Endgame.


Ena's usefulness is entirely contingent on her skills. As you may have
noticed, her bases are pretty bad (getting doubled, passable but unspecial
durability, terrible strength) and her growths aren't coming close to making
up for it, and even in the event she gets RNG blesssed her horrific speed cap
prevents her from doubling at all and she isn't particularly powerful to boot.
She can still serve as an alright tank (and with godly magic that can easily
hit it's cap of 40, she's really rocks Imbue) but her offense is just bad.

Buuut, Ena can increase the offense of other characters, and that's
important. She is making people do +5 or 10 damage to enemies, which is of
particular worth against the boss of 4-E-3 (who won't attack her, along with
all of the enemies there) and the Auras. So even though she has terrible
offense, she makes the offense of others better, especially people who are
doubling (perhaps with the help of her grandfather?)

That's about it, though. Boon can be handy, and Earth is a great affinity
(but she's gonna have a hell of a time finding a support, and even then the
support is purely for the other character), but she's really all about the
Blood Tide.

-

Caineghis
Level 36 Lion King
Earth Affinity

Base stats
76 HP
22 -> 44 Str
4 -> 8 Mag
23 -> 46 Skl
17 -> 34 Spd
30 Luck
22 -> 44 Def
10 -> 20 Res
17 -> 27 Con
27 -> 47 Wt

Growths
50% HP
40% Str
10% Mag
40% Skl (n/a, it's already capped)
20% Spd
40% Luck
30% Def
10% Res

Starts with SS Strike

Innate skills: Formshift (allows laguz to be transformed permanently without
stat loss), Fortune (negates criticals), Roar (Mastery skill, triples str)

How to recruit: Joins automatically before Endgame


The final laguz Royal, at least technically, Caineghis has some amazing
str, skl, and def, with a nice helping of 30 luck. He even has the fabulously
resplendent 34 speed, so he can double the big bads. His growths aren't good,
but it doesn't matter with bases like that. The only thing even sort of
holding him back is his res, and even that's not bad enough to offset his high
evasion and HP.

Earth affinity is great, but like Ena Cain will have trouble finding a
partner at this late date. Fortune is pointless on him (And most people by now,
really, although some low luck people like Stefan might like it), but he does
get instaMastery, so good for him.

He's another laguz royal, and will spend all of Endgame reminding you why
he is the Lion King.

-

Giffca
Level 36 Lion
Dark Affinity

Base stats
73 HP
21 -> 42 Str
4 -> 8 Mag
22 -> 44 Skl
18 -> 36 Spd
28 Luck
20 -> 40 Def
11 -> 22 Res
17 -> 27 Con
27 -> 47 Wt

Growths
40% HP
35% Str
10% Mag
35% Skl
50% Spd
25% Luck
30% Def
15% Res

Starts with SS Strike

Innate skills: Nullify (negates bonus damage from enemy weapons), Roar (Mastery
skill, triples strength)


Giffca is basically Caineghis, only slightly worse in everything except
for Res and Spd where he has slight wins. And no Formshift. Actually, he has
a decent chance at reaching 40 speed so he may be doubling the Auras without
Nasir's help, which is pretty cool.

...um, I don't know what else to say. Dark is nice, but supporting is
unlikely thanks to late join time, Nullify is pretty worthless for him and I
would honestly just sell it. His lack of Formshift is frustrating, but he does
join with a Laguz Gem and you can have a second from the desert, so he can use
one to negate his transformation issues.

That's it. He has Royal stats and is only missing out on Formshift. Worth
checking into, I would say.

-

Renning
Level 16 Blade Gold Knight
Earth Affinity

Base stats
56 HP
31 Str
18 Mag
32 Skl
29 Spd
24 Luck
27 Def
23 Res
11 Con
37 Wt

Growths
40% HP
60% Str
10% Mag
50% Skl
40% Spd
10% Luck
70% Def
20% Res

Starts with SS Swords, A Axes

Innate skills: Sol (Mastery Skill, triples damage and heals user)

How to recruit: View base conversation "Renning" before entering the Tower


This Endgame Paladin is another late joining character who I just
don't have a whole lot to say about. He has reasonable durability and str/skl,
but not enough speed to double much. He also has the worst luck growth in the
game, but his base is decentish so it's not a huge deal. Earth affinity could
be nice but he has a hard time finding a support, he's a class that's generally
not well-suited to Endgame, and...well, that's about it. He can do okay, and if
you want an Endgame Paladin but didn't train one or they got RNG screwed, he's
a reasonable enough replacement.

-

Gareth
Level 31 Red Dragon
Thunder Affinity

Base stats
82 HP
22 -> 44 Str
5 -> 10 Mag
10 -> 20 Skl
7 -> 14 Spd
20 Luck
21 -> 42 Def
9 -> 18 Res
18 -> 44 Con
26 -> 84 Wt

Growths
90% HP
40% Str
5% Mag
30% Skl
10% Spd
65% Luck
30% Def
25% Res

Starts with S Strike

Innate skills: Blood Tide (increases str and skl of adjacent allies by 5)

How to recruit: Don't kill him in 4-E-3 and he'll join at the start of 4-E-4


While they have significant stat differences, Gareth ultimately is the
same as Ena; use him for Blood Tide, and not for combat. He's very powerful,
true, although S strike holds him back a little. He's also quite sturdy - well,
wait, no he's not, because by the time he joins everything except some of the
final boss' attacks are targeting Res, which he doesn't have much of, and he's
also getting doubled by everything. At least he has immense HP.

But really, Blood Tide is his purpose in life. Deploy him in 4-E-5 to help
the other characters deal more damage, but don't try and have him fight. I
suppose he could pack a decentish punch against the Auras himself, but he's
better off just utilizing his skill.

-

Nasir
Level 34 White Dragon
Light Affinity

Base stats
74 HP
7 -> 14 Str
24 -> 48 Mag
13 -> 26 Skl
8 -> 16 Spd
19 Luck
12 -> 24 Def
21 -> 42 Res
11 -> 35 Con
18 -> 75 Wt

Growths
70% HP
15% Str
45% Mag
35% Skl
20% Spd
45% Luck
15% Def
40% Res

Starts with S Strike

Innate skills: Boon (recovers negative status of adjacent allies at the start
of player phase), Nihil (negates enemy combat related skills), White Pool
(Increases spd and mag of adjacent allies by 5)

How to recruit: Don't kill him in 4-E-3 and he'll join at the start of 4-E-4


And it's yet another dragon who's usefulness is based entirely around
their skill set! Nasir does have awesome Magic (and actually bases his attacks
off of it, unlike a certain granddaughter of his) but the enemies that are
running around by this point in Endgame all have high res so he's not actually
doing all that much damage. And, like Gareth, his speed is horrible and he's
getting doubled by everything, although it's less of an issue for him since he
has great res and almost all of the attacks against him are targeting that.

White Pool is extremely useful in the final battle, and is the sole reason
why I keep mentioning that 34 speed cap that's so gratifying in the bedroom as
opposed to 39. He lets a whole lot of characters double the Auras, and as such
allows a lot of characters to deal double damage to the Auras, and that's a
huge deal. Nihil is also helpful against Auras, although you'll want to give it
to someone who is actually attacking them.

Definitely bring him along to 4-E-5 to make use of his skill, just don't
expect him to make any direct contributions in the battle.

-

Lehran
Level 20 Chancellor
Light Affinity

Base stats
50 HP
11 Str
40 Mag
40 Skl
40 Spd
40 Luck
23 Def
40 Res
9 Con
9 Wt

Growths rates: n/a (they're all 0 but he's not gaining any levels anyway)

Starts with SS Light, SS Dark, and SS Staves

Innate skills: Corona (Mastery Skill: negates enemy res and halves their skill)
Mantle (negates criticals and enemy combat skills, heal HP equal to luck at the
start of every turn)

How to recruit: l
                V
Lehran has relatively complicated requirements. First, you must be playing
a file loaded from Clear Data. Having done that, play up to 1-E and make sure
you deploy the Black Knight in that chapter (I don't think he has to actually
do anything, he just has to be there). Then, in 3-7 have Ike and the Black
Knight get into a battle (try to get Ike to have 27 or more speed so he isn't
getting doubled, and have the BK attack from afar so he can't Eclipse). Make
sure that neither character is defeated. Having done these things, you will
witness Ike's memory scene after defeating the Black Knight in 4-E-2, Micaiah
and Yune will keep Lehran alive in 4-E-4, and he will join on the first turn
of 4-E-5.

Lehran comes with the Ashera Staff, but sadly does not have any weapons.
You can pass him a blessed Light or Dark tome, though, and once has has a good
weapon he can really start ripping the final boss apart. 40 mag/skl/spd is
beautiful offense, and Mantle prevents the Auras from countering him, too! He's
for all points and purposes invincible as well. So really the only issue is
getting him a weapon (since that means a Light user or Pelleas is giving theirs
up), but he's performing so much better than anyone else with them anyway. But
even if you don't arm him, he can just spam Ashera Staff or something. He's a
pain to recruit, but if you do you might as well make use of his demigodhood.

-


OPinions and Ratings [B1AS]


Okay, so in previous editions of my guide I did not post scores/ratings for the
characters. In general, I don't think that giving a character some numeric
value out of some other numeric value is a fair or necessarily accurate way of
judging them (not to mention it varies on playstyle and stuff like that).
However, several people have said to me that I ought to have character ratings
and that it might be nice to give an opinion of my own, so this section wound
up being born.

So I'm going to stick a great big disclaimer here and say that these are my
OPINIONS. Opinions based on facts, but opinions nonetheless. If there's a part
you don't agree with, as I mentioned at the start of the guide, this will
probably be it.

Anyway, having said that, let's get on with this. I will give a few different
scores. Typically, characters will get initial scores (how good are they from
the start?), midgame scores (how good are they in the middle?) and late/
endgame scores (how good do they turn out?), and give a brief justification for
each.

(please note that this part of the guide is very much a work in progress, and
I'm pretty open about changing some of these scores if you can give me a reason
why I should)


Micaiah

Earlygame (part 1): 7/10

She's laughably frail and doesn't double much, but she's also OHKOing some of
the nastier enemies, including several bosses, that other characters (even some
of your higher level ones) struggle with. Auto-A support with Sothe is also
nice, giving her enough avo that she might be able to survive an attack if you
get careless with her placement and she's near Sothe.

Midgame (parts 3 and 4): 8/10

There aren't as many armor/generals and knight/paladins for her to Thanibomb,
but she might double some tigers. More importantly she can now use staves, and
since you'll be taking tons of punishment in part 3, that's a big deal. Part 4
has more pallies for her to face, but they come in such big swarms that she
probably won't be getting many kills, plus they're not near as difficult as
they used to be. 4-3 doesn't give her any movement penalty, though, so that's
another plus.

Endgame (4-E): 5/10

She goes into Endgame as a level 1 third tier, which means she's way behind and
once again isn't doubling anything (except dragons) and the gennies have enough
Res and HP that she's not one-shotting them with Thani anymore. Her only real
uses are healing (still nice but not as much as it was in part 3) and using
Purge. Of course, she can still fight and she does fine, but she's still going
to be one of your weaker Endgame units.

--

Edward

Earlygame (part 1): 6/10

Okay, this is kind of dependant on difficulty (mostly HM versus NM). Edward is
invaluable early on since he and Nolan are your only frontliners, but as you
start getting more he becomes a bit more average. With levels, he can continue
to serve as a respetable fighter, although he's more of a clean-sweeper than
a frontline fighter for the middle of part 1 until he can get a +def or avo
support and some more str.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

I've always found swordies unreliable in part 3, since they are evaison based
and the enemies have pretty high accuracy. HOwever, Edward should have some
pretty good offense by this point, and his Light affinity gives him a certain
edge (if he's supporting an Earth he might have enough durability that you do
not need to worry too much, so maybe a 7/10 in that case).

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

Edward's growths pay off! He gets great offense, good durability, and good to
great evasion depending on supports. Can be a valuable asset in the ripping up
of Endgame.

--

Leonardo

Earlygame (part 1): 5/10

Potshots are nice, but that's all Leonardo has going for him. Well, he also
provides a rare + att affinity (+def is nice too). Pretty average, though.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

Lughnasadh is a damn fine weapon, but even it may not save Leo from his
lackluster spd/str. He still has worth as a backliner, though, and if he's
second tier he can use crossbows + beastfoe if you want him to.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

Being in a great class is nice, but he has trouble reaching his caps even at
max level. If he does, he'll be much better (upwards of 10/10, really) but if
he doesn't he's pretty average still. Lughnasadh still helps, but overall he's
rather generic.

--

Nolan

Earlygame (part 1): 8/10

He's got the best combination of offense and defense of the early joiners 
(barring Sothe, obviously) and stays pretty strong and durable throughout part
1. He won't be doubling for a while (his speed base is meh and Steels weigh him
down), but he hits pretty hard with the hit he gets and can frontline well.
Earth affinity is also very desireable and he's the first to offer it.

Midgame (part 3): 8/10

He's still one of your more durable units and is the only Earth affinity
likely to have an A support by 3-6 (although the others can, it's just harder).
Tarvos gives him even more defense. Meanwhile, he should be doubling Tigers and
may have enough power to ORKO them, and is faring pretty well against cats too.
And he can use crossbows + Beastfoe if you so choose. He's still not perfect
(after all, ORKOing in part 3 has it's own dangers) but he does pretty well.

Lategame: (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

Great class, no major leveling issues, and easy BEXPability make for a great
lategame. Nolan does have a bit of a str deficit by now (by Warrior standards,
anyway) but as I said, he caps skl/spd/luck/res/mag pretty fast so it's not
really a problem with BEXP to help out. And he can still use Tarvos if it's not
broken yet, or switch to Urvan for Endgame. Great choice, especially if his
support partner is going to Endgame too.

--

Laura

Earlygame (part 1): 9/10

She's even easier to kill than Micaiah, but she's your only real healer and the
DB needs heals.

Midgame (part 3): 7/10

Micaiah is outperforming her here, but having two healers is pretty nice anyway
and Laura should still be doing just fine for herself as long as you don't let
her get attacked. She might even be decent for attacking from behind the front
lines in the event you got her promoted.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 2/10

Too many other healers. Too much trouble getting levels and weapon ranks. Awful
endgame class. She's worthwhile in part 4 proper since you will probably want
to spread out your healers, but even then each team has a healer already locked
to them and you probably won't need more than one, plus Laura will likely be
much lower level than the others.

--

Sothe

Earlygame (part 1): 10/10

He's virtually unkillable with high def and actual evasion (especially near
Micaiah) and has great offense as well - whatever he doesn't kill, he's at
least weakening enough for someone else to. Plus he can steal and has access to
1-2 range forges. All around amazing.

Midgame (part 3, 4-P): 7/10

He's still good, but he's steadily declining. His poor defense and HP growths
start dragging down his survivability a bit, and his str cap and the weakness
of knives start hurting his offense (although 1-2 range forges are still nice,
but since these chapters have lotsa laguz that's not so important).

Lategame (4-3 and Endgame): 2/10

His caps suck, knives fail in Endgame, he has a bad mastery, and he promotes
late. Baselard is a subpar SS weapon. Free passage to Endgame and the ability
to reliably find items in 4-3 save him from failing completely, but he's not
so useful anymore.

--

Ilyana

Earlygame (part 1): 6/10

As another potshotter, she's better than Leo but worse than Micaiah. Not much
else of note to say about her here.

Midgame (part 3): 4/10

Switching to the GMs helps her gain levels, but she really needs them. She's
still doing okay chipping damage but the GMs don't care near as much as the DB
did, and she also has to compete with Soren. She's still passable, but she's
also still not really noteworthy.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

Her speed starts ruining her here, and her other stats don't really make up for
it. She can still do okay in Endgame, and obviously she gets some extra credit
for Rexbolt vs. dragons, but yet again she's really just nothing special.

--

Aran

Earlygame (part 1): 8/10

He's a great tank, and can hit pretty hard as well. He isn't doubling and mages
eat him for breakfast, but he's a great wall on a team that needs one.

Midgame (part 3): 7/10

Still a great wall, although now he needs to worry more about getting doubled
(cats). Otherwise he's pretty much the same.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

Walling isn't really anything special anymore, but he's still good at it and by
now he might be doubling if you gave him enough BEXP. He's okay but not quite
good for Endgame, though BEXP boosts his potential pretty far.

--

Meg

Earlygame (part 1): 3/10

She's got average durability and terrible offense. She might start getting okay
later on, but it won't be until towards the end of part 1.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

She can be pretty useful here, really. Her offense still isn't very good, but
her overall durability is nice (respectable def/res/HP/avo combo). Still, her
offense lags between mediocre skl/str and swords (she can use lances when she
promotes, but she would need to pull herself out of E rank...)

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

Her speed is too unrelaible thanks to her caps, and her str and sword spec
isn't helping. She does still have good overall durability though. She can make
a respectable Endgame wall, but that's about the extent of her usefulness here.

--

Volug

Earlygame (part 1): 9/10

I could see him having a 10/10 really, but I docked a point for no 2-range.
Otherwise he's pretty great, either for killing or weakening (although he can't
switch between them quite the way Sothe can since he's locked to a constant
weapon). Excellent move and Earth affinity are big plusses.

Midgame (part 3): 8/10

Gains transformation issues but also the ability to fullshift. I haven't tried
the Resolve+EarthxEarth+Beastfoe+Unshifted strategy, so that might affect the
landscape. Still worthwhile with S strike, but will start lagging with A.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 7/10

I'm honestly not sure about this one, but I can see him doing fairly well. He
has good speed and by SS strike should have good attack power as well, plus
loads of avoid from Earth. He's outclassed by some other laguz and obviously
the Royals, but he still does fine.

--

Tauroneo

Earlygame (1-6): 10/10

Completely broken from one chapter. Next!

Midgame (3-12 and 3-13): 7/10

Still pretty durable, might be doubling slower enemies and gets pretty beastly
if you left him with Resolve (definitely understandable if you didn't, though,
since he's not available much).

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

Walling is less important now, and his speed caps start screwing him out of
double turns, and his strength growth isn't quite enough to make up for it.
Still an okay character, but he's definitely starting to falter here.

--

Zihark

Earlygame (part 1): 8/10

Not quite as good as Sothe, but Zihark can still tear up the battlefield. He
won't be reaping the benefits of a support just yet, but he can get one going.
Nice all-purpose character.

Midgame (part 3, DB): 6/10

Mostly due to 3-6 and 3-13 being sucky TB chapters. Zihark still does fine but
you need to really keep an eye on him and not let him get swarmed. Supports go
a ways in offsetting this, but still.

Midgame (part 3, GMs): 6/10

He fares better if he switches sides, since this gets him more EXP gain and
he doesn't have to deal with 3-13. On the other hand, he's also underleveled
by GM standards so he's not particularly noteworthy. Basically, switching sides
makes him better himself but worse relative to those around him, so it kinda
depends what you're looking for there.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

Great Endgame class. His stats aren't quite as good as Mia or Edward's, but he
has Earth to offset that (of course, that only applies if his partner goes to
Endgame with him). All in all a good choice.

--

Jill

Earlygame (part 1): 6/10

I'd actually give Jill a 5/10 as far as combat is concerned, but she also has
flying/canto utility, and I couldn't decide if she should get an extra point or
two for that. Regardless, her base durability is fine but her base offense
sucks and won't really improve during part 1. So...

Midgame (part 3 DB): 8/10

Flying/canto is particularly useful in these maps. By now Jill should be pretty
sturdy overall (her evasion and HP should be getting reasonable and her def
already was), and her offense should have improved, too. She won't likely be
one-rounding wihtout a Brave Axe, but she can move around and pick off targets
and fly to safety and fun stuff like that.

Midgame (part 3 GMs): 7/10

Flying/canto isn't as valuable in these chapters (well, it's as valuable but
there are many other characters who can do it) and she'll be underleveled among
the GMs (particularly in relation to other fliers). She's still good, but needs
work here.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

Female Dragonlord is an excellent Endgame class, and Jill's growth spread helps
her reach her important caps. Even if she is lagging a bit in str or def, BEXP
can fix them no problem since she should have no trouble capping mag/spd/luck/
res.

--

Fiona

Earlygame (part 1): 0/10

Yes, I gave someone a zero. It applies. Fiona is worthless at first, doing
insignificant damage with bad hit and unable to double (and getting doubled by
faster enemies) and with meh concrete durability on top of it. Even with a
forge to boost her offense she's pretty bad and not really adding anything to
the team.

Midgame (part 3): 4/10

If you can get her promoted, she does okay in part 3. She's still bad offense
wise, but her evasion and concrete durability should be enough that she can be
an okay wall and Imbue helps her survivability a bit as well, plus if she's
supporting that will boost her avo even more. Still nothing special, but she's
not dragging you down anymore.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

She can be pretty good in Endgame, but it's going to require a lot of leveling
to get her there. She is prety hard to kill at this point, but her offense is
still only decent (she's probably doubling the big bosses, though).

--

Tormod

Earlygame (part 1): 8/10

He's not quite on the same level as Sothe or Volug, but he does pretty well for
himself. Targeting res and doubling fairly consistently is a big plus, and fire
spec helps too. Celerity is also very nice, although he shouldn't be keeping it
(he can find some use for it in 1-7 and 1-8 at least).

Midgame (4-4): 2/10

His only saving grace here is Meteor, and even that you might be saving for
Sanaki later anyway.

Lategame (Endgame): 3/10

In the highly unlikely event he gets trained, he can perform okay. His magic
deficit hurts but he's semisturdy and has some good doubling potential.
Basically, he's a 1/10 if you didn't get him up to speed in 4-4 and a 5/10 if
you managed to, so I gave him a 3/10.

--

Muarim

Earlygame (part 1): 9/10

Pretty much unstoppable. Only things holding him back are transformation and...
well, that's about it, actually.

Midgame (4-4): 5/10

Not near as bad as the other LEA members, but he's still not doing much besides
dealing one nasty hit per turn, and he's still got transformation to worry
about (but then again you have laguz stones and stuff now).

Lategame (Endgame): 1/10

Sadly, there is no salvaging Muarim. Tiger caps are terrible for Endgame and he
doesn't have time to level or get a support going or something to counter that,
and even if he did he wouldn't be doing much.

--

Vika

Earlygame (part 1): 6/10

Flying is nice and she's got pretty good stats, but she also has transformation
to worry about and she's not quite as powerful as Tormod and Muarim. Still good
in her own right, though.

Midgame (4-4): 1/10

She has evasion, but that's about it and it's not reliable enough to save her
atrocious concrete durability. She can double, but she still won't be doing
significant damage. Pretty much deadweight.

Lategame (Endgame): 4/10

She can be pretty good, more like a 6 or 7, but like Tormod it means she has to
get a lot of training in a little time, so she isn't likely to have caught up
enough to be worthwhile.

--

Nailah

Anygame: 10/10.

Unkillable ORKO machine. Woo!

--

Rafiel (not sure how to judge herons, so just bear with me here)

Earlygame (part 1): 9/10

The DB would really like a Heron, and getting double action with the BK and
Nailah is kind of awesome.

Midgame (part 4): 8/10

You have to be more careful with him since reinforcements spawn all over the
place, but chanting is still nice.

Lategame (Endgame): 10/10

Chanting all around without the need for a gem!

--

BK

Whenever he's available: 10/10 for Nailah's reasons + 1-2 range.

--

Elincia

Earlygame (part 2): 7/10

Okay, this is hard to rate because she's pretty mediocre in 2-P but a raging
vengeance demon in 2-E, so 7/10 is kind of a guesstimate. Either way, healing
and Amiti is a nice combo.

Midgame (part 4): 7/10

She takes some time to pick up (she has trouble doubling at first, unless she
got lotsa levels in part 2) and she's always on the fragile side of things, but
she gets some serious offense once she starts quadding with Amiti.

Lategame (Endgame): 8/10

See above, only with less concern of her laggy start and more emphasis on S
staves for Fortify. She can also Triangle attack with the Seraphs.

--

Marcia

Earlygame (part 2): 7/10

Her stats are kind of average, but flying is helpful, particularly in 2-E, and
she can take out the Horseslayer guy in 2-3 before he gets to attack a pally.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

More of the same, but she's surrounded by tougher enemies and better allies
and it's hard for her to catch up. Paragon can help, though, and she has a good
shot at getting one in 3-9.

Lategame (part 4): 6/10

Good Endgame class and offense boosting affinity work well for her, plus she
and the other Seraphs (Elincia too) have Triangle attacks. She can be hurting
for str, but as I mentioned fire helps offset that.

--

Nealuchi

Earlygame (part 2): 8/10

Wrath works excellently for him and he's fairly durable. It's sorta tough to
juggle his transformation gauge in 2-P but it's not so bad in the other maps.

Midgame (part 4): 3/10

Wrath is less helpful and his stats are rather lacking. He can still double a
lot and he's not quite bad, but he doesn't have much to offer.

Lategame (Endgame): 4/10

If he gets the training he does fine, but it takes a lot and he's not anything
special. Tear is a great mastery, but that's about all he's got.

--

Leanne

Earlygame (part 2): 9/10

A flying chanter is pretty nice against 2-2's hills and 2-E's ledges. It might
be hard to get her chanting two people, but it's still a nice extra bonus.

Midgame (3-11, part 4): 9/10

She has to worry about range a bit more here, but on the other hand she gets
to fly over barricades and has no movement penalty in the desert.

Lategame (Endgame): 8/10

She's still useful as a heron, but she's not doing as well as her brothers who
can chant 4 at once (and Reyson's outmaneuvering her as well).

--

Haar

Earlygame (part 2): 10/10

He's doubling a good portion of enemies and is basically invulnerable. And of
course he also has the benefits of flying/canto in 2-E, and is the only one who
doesn't take extra damage from crossbows.

Midgame (part 3): 9/10

His doubling woes are more significant here, but his maneuverability is still
a huge plus, especially in such maps as 3-3. He's also still basically
unkillable, although you do want to keep an eye on mages. He might make an
occasional OHKO, which is always fun.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame) 8/10

More like 6 or 7 for Endgame proper, but he's still doing great in part 4,
especially if you send him to the desert where mobility is needed.

--

Brom

Earlygame (part 2): 7/10

His offense is fairly good here, and he's very durable. He doesn't double many
promoted enemies, but most are halbs so he has the WTA which helps a bit.

Midgame (part 3): 5/10

Still a great wall, but his offense plummets. He can't double anything anymore
and his speed just gets more problematic over time. His strength and skill also
start lagging a little as time passes.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 3/10

He's just too slow to be effective anymore, and his cap of 30 ensures that even
if he's blessed he's hardly doubling anything. His durability is still fine but
not really enough to save him in Endgame.

--

Nephenee

Earlygame (part 2): 6/10

She's fine, but she does have her share of problems. Her evasion isn't good
enough to offset her mediocre durability, and her speed is good but her weapon
is heavy enough that she may struggle to double enemies anyway (on the other
hand, it does give her a lot of power).

Midgame (part 3): 7/10

Here she starts to shine. She's got moderate leveling issues when she joins the
GMs unless you stuffed her full of BEXP in 2-E, but it's not too hard on her,
and she cap rams stats quite quickly so BEXP will pull up her str or def. Even
without it she's performing admirably, although she won't be ORKOing much
until she can get her str up a bit.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

Basically a swordmaster only with lances and more durability but wit less
crit. Good all around stats and she caps most of them (and can cap the others
with little trouble with BEXP), and the Wishblade is a great weapon.

--

Heather

Thievery: 9/10

She has a lot of items that only she can get. Everything stealable in parts 2
and the GMs chapters are only stealable by her.

Combat: 2/10

She doubles everything and dodges fairly well, but her attack power is awful,
as is her concrete durability. Not recommended for fighting.

--

Lucia

Earlygame (2-2): 9/10

She's a bit flimsy even now, but she's ORKOing most enemies with her silver
sword and dodging very very well. High crit, too.

Midgame (part 4): 3/10

She's passable, but extremely crit reliant and her evasion isn't good enough to
offset her defenses anymore.

Lategame (Endgame): 7/10

She's not quite on the same level as the other TBs (or rather, she takes more
effort and needs more BEXP) but she can still perform admirably if you put
some effort into her. She does desperately need some str, though, but BEXP.

--

Lethe

Earlygame (part 2): 6/10

She's basically a more durable Nephenee with a transformation gauge. Well, that
and she's doubling most enemies, though she's not particularly strong.

Midgame (part 3): 3/10

She's still got okay durability but not enough to save her attack power. Or the
fact that she still has to deal with a transformation gauge. And with the slow
exp gain of laguz, she's not getting anywhere anytime soon.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 3/10

She gets Rend, which is great, but that's about all that's changed. She's still
not very strong and is limited to 1 range and has to deal with a gauge.

--

Mordecai

Earlygame (part 2): 8/10

He's pretty strong and incredibly sturdy. Basically Brom+, but with a gauge.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

Walling isn't as big a deal with the GMs, but it's still nice and besides that
Mordy can still pack a punch with his hits although he's doubling just about
nothing. 

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 3/10

Walling is even less important and Mordy's one hit is less significant, plus
Tigers are terrible in the Endgame. He's still okay in part 4 proper, but even
that partially depends on which team he goes with.

--

Geoffrey

Earlygame (2-3, latter 2-E): 9/10

Mows through everything, but his def and HP bases are low enough that if he
mow through too much he might get killed. That will still take a lot, though.
Meanwhile, he's ORKOing if not OHKOing every nonpromoted enemy and most tier
2 enemies as well.

Midgame (3-9): 8/10

Still the best you've got and still holding his own pretty well, but the bad
guys have gotten a bigger boost in stats than he has. In particular he seems to
have a little more trouble doubling here. Still great overall, though.

Lategame (4-5, Endgame): 3/10

How the mighty have fallen. Geoffrey's bases really start holding him back here
and his growths are hardly enough to save him. Paragon helps, but only a little
bit, and his caps are mediocre as well.

--

Kieran

Earlygame (2-3, latter 2-E): 9/10

Harder to kill than Geoffrey but has a little more trouble doubling. Great
hardcore physical unit.

Midgame (part 3): 6/10

He's still good, particularly in 3-9, but when he joins the GMs he's a bit
behind. Not hit as hard as the other CRKs, but he gets kind of lost in the
shuffle.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

He can do fine, but his caps screw him out of really being endgame worthy and
part 4 really likes to screw over pally movement. Still a worthwhile tanker
power type, but there are better.

--

Makalov

Earlygame (2-3, latter 2-E): 5/10

He does okay, but he's easily losing to Geoff and Kieran. He's pretty weak and
not doubling as consistently as you might hope, but he's fairly hard to kill.

Midgame (part 3): 4/10

Starting to fall behind, starting to get screwed by his caps. His low offense
is also becoming more noticeable here.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

He's an acceptable paladin, but still kind of a generically durable but weak
character. He does at least have frequent doubling on his side, though he can't
quite double the big bosses.

--

Astrid

Earlygame (2-3, latter 2-E): 2/10

She's potshotting, except her team doesn't really care. Her offense is terrible
and her durability isn't so hot either (but being a ranged attacker that's not
so bad).

Midgame (part 3): 3/10

She can start gaining more EXP here and thus take fuller advantage of Paragon,
plus she gets access to Blossom if you want her to use it. However, she's still
performing pretty poorly. Potshotting does mean a bit more in 3-9 than it did
in part 2, though.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 7/10

Astrid's Endgame is along the lines of a 4/10 without Blossom or BEXP, but if
she reaches the full potential of her surprisingly good caps, she can really be
pretty powerful, especially with the highly broken Double Bow.

--

Danved

Earlygame (2-3, latter 2-E): 7/10

He's doing pretty good for himself, but he's also a footsoldier surrounded by
mounted people (i.e. he has move issues in 2-3 and 2-E). Killer lance is a plus
although Marcia might want it more.

Midgame (part 3): 5/10

He's not anything special here. His bases start holding him back, and his
growths aren't fixing his stats quickly enough.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 5/10

More of the same. He's a decent all around character by now, but he doesn't
have any real strong point except for evasion. He can double fairly reliably,
too, although like Aran he can't quite reach 34 speed thanks to his cap.

--

Calill

Earlygame (2-E): 5/10

She can attack from ledges, but she's not doubling much and typically 3HKOs.
She's also very flimsy, although thanks to ledges that's not a problem. Meteor
is also nice if you feel like using it here.

Midgame (part 3): 4/10

She's a good Paragon choice and her speed shoots up pretty fast, but she's not
doubling at first and her power isn't particularly good for a while either. 
She's basically your standard caster for now.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 7/10

She actually is good here. She should be doubling consistently by now and fire
spec gives her overall good offense, plus she has prety good evasion by now,
too (and even more avo/att from her affinity). She still has horrific defenses,
but that's her only real problem anymore. Keep Nihil on her and let her bless
Rexflame and she'll even be a significant Endgame force.

--

Ike

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 9/10

He's got ridiculous levels of offense and he's pretty sturdy to boot. His only
issues are lack of good 2-range and the occasional mage (they seem fairly
prominent in these chapters, though, at least moreso than later on). Great all
around.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 10/10

Still godly, but now the mages are rarer and less dangerous and in 3-11 Ike
gets Ragnell, and frankly once he gets that he's unstoppable. Oh, and it's got
1-2 range so that problem went away, too. His speed might start lagging a bit
but he should still be doubling just about everything.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

Great endgame stats, Ragnell, and now he has axes so he can use the Hammer
against a ertain archenemy of his. Aether helps offset what damage intake he
faces and he gets Nihil as well for Endgame (too bad it still takes capacity).
His only problem, again, is somewhat laggy speed, but BEXP should fix that
right up.

--

Mist

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 6/10

Healers aren't as big a deal to the GMs as they are to the DB, but are still a
valuable asset. HOwever, Mist still needs to really be careful and she's
contributing slightly more than nothing offensively. Her magic isn't all that
special either, but she should still be healing enough with a Mend if not a
basic Heal.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 6/10

Her durability problems should be less significant by now, but healing is also
getting less valuable as your characters get more powerful and your enemies
don't really. Not much has changed.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 5/10

Healing is great in 4-4 (she's forced onto Ike's team) where you have to put up
with the newly returning and hugely underleveled Tormod, Muarim, and Vika, but
it's still not as big a deal as it used to be and there's too much competition
for it. Her 3rd tier pony gives her a mobile edge on the others, but by Endgame
non-Micaiah healers are kind of redundant anyway, and she hardly has enough
combat ability to make up for it.

--

Titania

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 9/10

She's slightly frail (by GM standards and for her level) but has some of the
best offense on the team between high str, good speed, and axes. Mobility is
another nice bonus, although 3-4 screws her pretty hard since she can't climb.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 9/10

She's still doing well, may be promoted and has a support. Movement is still
nice and one map still screws her up pretty badly (3-7). She should still have
more than sufficient offense, and Light helps fix her durability.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

Part 4 is not very kind to pallies, and Titania doesn't quite reach ideal caps
for Endgame. However, she still performs pretty admirably and will be doubling
just about all nonboss enemies. Her durability is a little shaky by now, but
her offense still makes up for it.

--

Soren

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 5/10

He's doing some respectable damage, but doubling hardly at all and he's quite
the squishy wizard. Good at weakening enemies so your other characters can get
easier kills.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 7/10

Okay, this is assuming that he's doubling, which is also assuming that he's
either been BEXPed or that he's been crowned (or both) or has gotten lucky or
something. But still, he can have some pretty sweet if not kinda unreliable
offense. Either way, he's still having evasion issues and needs to not get
attacked.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

Archsages aren't so great for Endgame, but Soren has a good shot at capping
everything important (mag/skl and speed will come with extra leveling or BEXP)
and 32 speed isn't so bad, really. He's not quite as good as Calill, but he
has much more opportunity to level up.

--

Oscar

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 7/10

He's Titania only not quite as good. Still reasonably hard to kill, and he can
double somewhat reliably, especially on normal or easy. Movement is mostly a
plus although it does screw with him a bit sometimes. Earth affinity is nice
although he won't be getting the full benefits of it just yet.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 8/10

More of the same, really. He's got the benefit of Earth now, but that's about
all that's new. 3-7 hates him.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

His affinity can still carry him through the anti-pally part 4, but he doesn't
have a noteworthy performance. Not bad, but there are better.

--

Boyd

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 5/10

He's fine, but he's not quite what I would call good. Failing to double, doing
good damage per hit, and about in the middle as far as durabilty goes (he has
high HP and decent def but his evasion is pretty low and he needs to be on the
front lines more than your other squishier characters).

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 7/10

He should be doubling some now, his def and HP growths should be getting him
durable, and his strength is moving up, too. Fire affinity helps his offense
even further.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

One of the best endgame classes, easily caps str and should pull off spd as
well (might want some BEXP for that, though) and Fire is a great affinity for
Endgame too. He's up there with the best now.

--

Rolf

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 2/10

Negligible chipping damage, and that's about it.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 5/10

He should be getting some good offense about now, but still kinda shaky. At the
very least he can weaken off enemies your other characters failed to kill, but
he should be getting some ORKOs himself.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

If he can make it to mid/late tier 3, he'll be a real force to be reckoned with
as a Double Bow Marksman, and even though he's a hard class to get EXP for he
should be able to pull of those stats.

--

Shinon

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 8/10

He can't counter (without the unreliable crossbows) much, but he's doubling
evertying and doing respectable damage, plus he has high crit. He's also hard
to kill, being one of the tankier characters despite his status as a backliner.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 8/10

More of the same. Doubling, fairly strong, he can even get some BEXP at tier 2
to pump his strength up a bit more. And he's still tanky, so he's great all
around!

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 10/10

More of the same. Great offense, great durability. The only difference is in
Endgame he gets the Double Bow, so now he can counterattack (and do obscenely
high damage besides). HIs strength may not quite hit it's cap without BEXP, or
it will with BEXP. Marksman is just a wonderful Endgame class.

--

Gatrie

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 9/10

He might actually be doubling some, and he's damned hard to kill and strong
besides. Great all around.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 8/10

His speed cap might screw with him here, but it shouldn't be for too long if
you give him BEXP or a crown. Otherwise, he's still an all around good unit.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 5/10

He's still pretty good for part 4, although he can have some movement issues
depending on which team he's sent with. Endgame sucks for generals.

--

Mia

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 7/10

She's doubling reliably and has high hit and respectable if not particularly
astounding str, but she's also the most fragile frontliner you have and doesn't
quite have reliable evasion yet. Useful, but be careful.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 9/10

Forges, fire affinity and her strength growth help ensure her offense is pretty
sweet now, and if she gets a +Def or +avo support her durability shouldn't be
much of a problem anymore either. And again, doubling doubling doubling.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

A trueblade who caps str and has a +att affinity? Yay. Low str cap and swords
kinda hurts, but with crit/astra/fire, she's pretty good at killing stuff.


--

Rhys

Earlygame (3-P to 3-5): 7/10

Mist + mag, at least for now. Decent chipping damage if you care, and he's good
for heals. The GMs aren't just desperate for healers, but he's still nice to
have around.

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 5/10

He cap rams magic and his def and spd aren't mvoing up fast enough to keep him
from getting ORHOed, and meanwhile other healers (particularly Ilyana and Soren
who may be promoting around now, possibly Calill as well) are starting to crop
up, making him less valuable.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 3/10

He's got enough of a level lead over Laura that I felt giving him +1 over her
was justified, and some part 4 maps like 4-4 are pretty tough and so an extra
healer is nice, but there are so many and his combat is so awful that he isn't
getting much credit for it. Meanwhile, bad growths and a terrible Endgame class
(and Micaiah being forced to Endgame) pretty much ensure he'll be worthless
for that part.

--

Ranulf

Midgame (3-4 to 3-E): 8/10

He's pretty good all around, his only real problem being the dreaded gauge,
which hits cats particularly hard. Otherwise, he should be up to the offensive
and defensive standards set by everyone else.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

He's still okay in general, but his gauge still screws with him and cats in
general have a hit-or-miss endgame. Rend is awesome, though, and regardless
he fares reasonably well in part 4 proper.

--

Kyza

Midgame (3-4 to 3-E): 2/10

He can tank somewhat, but that's about it. He's pretty weak and has trouble
doubling and dodging, and fire mages can be a threat as well.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 2/10

Tigers fail Endgame and he's not really anything special for the rest of part
4 either. He can soak hits for a team, but that's all he's really doing and
that's not aexactly a rare ability.

--

Lyre

Midgame (3-4 to 3-E): 1/10

Terrible damage ouput, low durability for a laguz. She gets to doubling, but
her strength is so bad it doesn't actually help that much. She can get bearable
with an Energy drop, but that's about the only way to save her.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 3/10

She caps rams some things to help pull up her str a bit, and Rend is nice, but
she's still got cat issues and is largely overshadowed by the royals and high-
end nonRoyals.

--

Reyson

Midgame (parts 3 and 4): 10/10

He can only chant one person untransformed, but he can actually keep up with
your other units, and then he transforms and gets superchanting and even better
mobility. Plus he can instabliss, which is...not important, but yeah.

Lategame (Endgame): 9/10

Small maps mean his mobility isn't quite so important, and he needs to gobble
a Gem or a stone to superchant while Rafiel doesn't. He's still invaluable,
though, but Rafiel has a slight edge and herons are weird to rank anyway.

--

Janaff

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 9/10

Transformation and 1 range are all that holds him back, but he's really good
at decimating things. He doesn't grow too well, but does he really need to?

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

Hawks do pretty well for Endgame and Unle Janny's still got the speed to double
whatever the hell he wants and is doing great damage besides. He's not quite a
Royal, but he's still a great unit.

--

Ulki

Midgame (3-7 to 3-E): 8/10

Also a very good hawk, he doesn't quite have Janaff's offense but he has the
benefits of extra evasion and is effectively uncrittable even by high crit
classes like swordies.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 9/10

More of the same, high evasion and good if not quite spectacular offense. Plus,
now he has the benefits of Tear and probably a support as well (Water affinity,
yum). DOn't forget tear is based on speed, which Ulki has loads of.

--

Sigrun

Midgame (3-11 and 3-E): 3/10

She's got flier utility, but that's about it. She's very close to promotion so
she can Stun, but otherwise she's got poor str and decent but unreliable speed
so her overall offense is poor. Her durability at least is fine.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 4/10

More of the same, but flying is particularly helpful in 4-3.
She's still not so great at the actual fighting part, though. She gets Triangle
attack for Endgame, too.

--

Tanith

Midgame (3-11 and 3-E): 3/10

See Sigrun, basically. Okay durability, but not very strong and her speed isn't
quite reliable. She packs a little more punch than Sigrun, but is farther from
promotion (sans Crown) so she on't be Stunning as quickly.

Lategame (part 4 and Endgame): 6/10

She can get pretty good for Endgame, although it's gonna be tense seeing if her
speed can make it to 34 or not. Otherwise she's got pretty good str, Wishblade
is a great weapon, and she can Triangle Attack.

--

Sanaki

Midgame (part 4): 3/10

She does loads of damage per hit, but doesn't double and is getting ORKOed by
far too many enemies. Gets a bonus point no movement penalty in 4-3.

Lategame (Endgame): 3/10

Okay, she CAN be upwards of like an 8/10, but the likelihood of her reaching
the str/spd necessary to double with rexflame is pretty low and that would
still take a lot of painful training. Otherwise, she's more likely to just sit
back and drop meteors on people, which is handy but not a very big deal.

--

Skrimir

Midgame (part 4): 9/10

Slight doubling issues (and I mean very slight), but HUGE power and great
durability, too. He gets docked a bit for being sleep fodder and 1 range, but
his gauge isn't as big a problem as it is with many other laguz.

Lategame (Endgame): 7/10

More of the same, but his low res can be a legitimate problem in the latter
parts of Endgame and he can have doubling issues. He's still good, but it's
tougher for him to deal with his low stats than for others.

--

Naesala

Midgame (part 4): 10/10

His only problems are 1 range and S strike, but he's strong enough that the
latter isn't really an issue. Well, crossbows can be an issue too, I guess, but
he's got such sick avoid that he might really be dodging them.

Lategame (Endgame): 10/10

I could maybe see 9/10 if he fails to reach SS strike, but he's doubling all
enemies and Tearing everything up and Formshift just adds to it.

--

Tibarn

All of his player controlled existence: 10/10

He's durable, he's very strong, he's doubling everything, he's got Tear, he
doesn't take any damage half the time thanks to Pavise, he's got ten freaking
move, and he's just really, really broken.

--

Pelleas

Midgame (part 4): 2/10

He's got okay chipping damage, but nobody really cares. He has accuracy issues
form Dark, too, and his only other option is Thunder. Being underleveled isn't
helping, either.

Lategame (Endgame): 3/10

He gets bonus points for being the only Balberith user (It's not great, but
it's still basically exclusive to him) and being the only Archsage who can
reach S staves. Otherwise his speed cap and Dark magic combine to screw him
over and the EXP load he needs to even get that far isn't helping.

--

Stefan

Lategame (Endgame, 4-3 he's not around enough to matter): 7/10

He's a bit behind, but he's got respectable stats and is a good Endgame class.
He doesn't really get supports, but he does okay anyway and he might get C or B
with a leftover or other late joining character.

--

Oliver

Lategame (Endgame, 4-4 he's not around enough to matter): 1/10

Slow, poor offense, bad class, healing is redundant. Might give someone a boost
with his fire affinity, but that's about it.

--

Bastian

Midgame (4-5): 6/10

He's not particularly good, but he's high level and has anima mastery against
a ton of laguz, and he can be a backup healer, so all in all he's got some nice
things going for him. Worth deploying, at the very least.

Lategame (Endgame): 4/10

Aaaaand then anima mastery doesn't matter and he's getting outclassed by other
Archsages which isn't a noteworthy endgame class to begin with and his speed
isn't enough to double much. He can help a little, but not a lot.

--

Volke

Midgame (4-5): 7/10

He can double everything and has huge crit, plus an innate skill that makes
enemies not attack him unless he's their only choice (so he's not likely to get
himself killed). Crit or mastery reliance is kind of annoying, but he activates
one or the other frequently and is just a nice unit to have around.

Lategame (Endgame): 6/10

He's similar to a TB, but with more crit and less power. He also has to deal
with the Baselard, which is a not particularly good SS weapon, and the lack of
a support (nobody cares about Wind, so he's going to have trouble finding one
even within Endgame). He still does fine, but he's not quite the killing
machine I'd like him to be.

--

Kurthnaga

Endgame: 4/10

He's sturdy...but only eventually. He gives durability...but no one really
cares. He's powerful, but not for a long time. He's doubling just about never.
All out mediocrity.

--

Ena

Endgame: 6/10

She has horrible combat, but she also has a helpful innate skill that only Red
Dragons can use. +5 str is quite nice for allies and really helps against the
big bosses.

--

Caineghis

Endgame: 10/10

The last laguz Royal, Caineghis is another invincible ORKOing machine. As such,
he's another 10/10.

--

Giffca

Endgame: 10/10

His only issue is the lack of formshift, otherwise he's basically another Cain.
But since he comes with a laguz gem...well, disaster averted, then! Well, he
still has to spend his first turn using the Gem, but it's a small price to pay
for such a good unit.

--

Renning

Endgame: 4/10

He's pretty generic. Not too different from Makalov, but a bit stronger at the
cost of a bit of evasion and support issues. Earth affinity helps, but too late
to help a lot.

--

Nasir

Endgame: 7/10

His entire use is for White Pool in the final battle, but White Pool is a huge
help, so this seemed like a fair score. Otherwise his combat is unspectacular,
with him taking and dealing little damage thanks to his magical nature.

--

Gareth

Endgame: 5/10

Red Tide is helpful, but only for the one fight and Spirits really rip him up.
He does at least have huge power, but he really shouldn't be fighting.

--

Lehran

4-E-5: 10/10

He's invincible and has loads of offense. He's like a laguz Royal, except the
game considers him a beorc. All he needs is a weapon...



(please note that this part of the guide is very much a work in progress, and
I'm pretty open about changing some of these scores if you can give me a reason
why I should)


--

Supports & Affinities [4FF]

Like some previous Fire Emblems, this game has a support system that
allows two characters to receive stat boosts when they are within 3 spaces of
each other. In this particular Fire Emblem, any set of characters can support
each other. Characters must gain a certain amount of support points with each
other, which are gained by standing near each other, shoving (sometimes),
rescuing, and healing each other, or just by being deployed in the same map.
After they gain enough points, you can create/upgrade a support between them in
the base menu. There are three levels: C, B, and A, A being the best. As the
support level increases, so do the bonuses.

The bonuses characters get is dictated by the affinities of the characters
supporting each other. Each affinity gives a certain amount of points to hit,
avoid, attack, or defense (note that attack boosts both physical and magical
damage output, and defense decreases physical and magical damage intake).

The boosts are as follows (note that the game rounds up)

Wind: +2.5 hit/avo.
Water: +0.5 att/def
Light: +2.5 hit and +0.5 def
Dark: +2.5 avo and +0.5 att
Fire: + 2.5 hit and +0.5 att
Thunder: +2.5 avo and +0.5 def
Heaven: +9 hit
Earth: +7.5 avo

So let's say I have Ike and Mist support each other. Ike has an Earth
affinity and Mist has Water, so when I start their support they will have +7.5
avo from Ike's Earth and +0.5 att/def from Mist's Water. This rounds up to +8
avo and +1 att/def. Remember, these boosts only activate if Ike and Mist are
within 3 spaces of each other.
	
So after a while they gain enough support points and I level their support
up to B. Now they get another +7.5 avo and 0.5 at/def. They now have a total of
15 avo and 1 att/def. Then I level it up to A and they get yet another 7.5 avo
and 0.5 att/def, giving them a total of 22.5 avo and 1.5 att/def, which rounds
up to 23 avo and 2 att/def!

In general, Earth and Water are considered to be the best affinities.
Fire, Dark, and Thunder are also pretty useful. Heaven isn't a very big deal,
although it does have situational uses, Light is also pretty situational but
there are a few characters who would like hit/def, and wind...is pretty
worthless in general, really, but better wind than no support at all.

Anyway, supports are a nice little boost for characters and some get quite
a lot of benefit from this system. For example, the EarthxEarth pairing results
in two characters getting an extra 45 evasion! The support system is hardly
necessary, but it's worth experimenting with at least.

There are also supports called Bonds. These are built-in supports that
give boosts of five or ten critical and crit evade, but the two characters must
be adjacent to each other. You can see which characters have bonds in their
info menus. Note that if you transferred an A support with two characters from
Path of Radiance, that will become a Bond support in Radiant Dawn.


The SS Weapons [ZOMG55]

There are several SS weapons in this game, at least one for every weapon
type. Laguz weapons increase in power when they gain weapon levels, so they
essentially get SS weapons by getting SS weapon levels. Beorc, however, have to
find theirs, so here's how to get them. I will also mention what characters are
able to use said SS weapon just for the hell of it. While most characters can
only SS one weapon type, there are a few – Ike, Micaiah, and the Saints (Laura,
Rhys, and Oliver) that can SS multiple weapon types.


Vague Katti: An SS sword. Stefan comes with it. Have Micaiah step on the
space 1 left and 11 up from the bottom right square to recruit him. I believe
that if you place any other character there (besides Mordecai or Lethe in a
transfer run) that you will get the sword but Stefan won't join.

Alondite: An SS sword. The boss of 4-E-2 drops it.

Characters that can reach SS swords: Edward, Meg, Zihark, Elincia, Lucia,
Makalov, Ike, Mist, Mia, Stefan, Renning.


Wishblade: The SS lance. The sub-boss of 4-E-2 drops it. Aran, Tauroneo,
Fiona, Marcia, Nephenee, Geoffrey, Danved, Oscar, Gatrie, Sigrun, and Tanith
can use this.


Urvan: The SS Axe. Caineghis gives this to Ike in a base conversation
before Endgame. Nolan, Jill, Haar, Brom, Kieran, Ike, Titania, and Boyd can
use Urvan.


Double Bow: The SS Bow. An enemy sniper in 4-E-1 drops this. Leonardo,
Astrid, Shinon, and Rolf can use this.


Baselard: The SS dagger. Like the Vague Katti, this is found in the desert
chapter, 4-3. It is 9 spaces left and 10 spaces up from the bottom-right
square. Sothe, Heather, and Volke can use this.


Rexaura: The SS light tome. Dropped by the boss of 4-E-1. Micaiah, Laura,
Rhys, Oliver, and Lehran can use this.

	
Rexbolt: The SS thunder tome. Muston gives this to you in a base convo in
4-P. Ilyana is the sole wielder of Rexbolt.


Rexcalibur: The SS wind tome. Aimee gives this to you in a base convo in
4-1. Soren and Bastian can use this.

	
RexFlame: The SS fire tome. Jorge and Daniel give this to you in a base
conversation in 4-2. Tormod, Calill, and Sanaki can use this.


Balberith: The SS dark tome. Dropped by the boss of 4-5. Pelleas and
Lehran can use this.


Matrona: An SS staff. Found in the only chest in 4-E-1.

Ashera Staff: An SS staff. Lehran comes with it.

Characters that can reach SS staves: Micaiah, Laura, Rhys, Oliver, Lehran.


Hypothetical Questions 'n' Answers [QW3ST]

Q: What is Boss Abuse?

A: Boss Abuse is repeatedly attacking an enemy boss who has some means of
healing itself with a character that cannot kill it. For example, say Fiona is
barely able to damage the boss of 1-7. That particular boss is on a throne and
recovers some HP every turn. So Fiona can just keep bashing away at him, wait
for him to heal up, then attack again, then wait for him to heal, then attack
again, etc. This allows you to gain large amounts of experience for characters.
Sometimes, if the boss is particularly powerful or the character boss abusing
is particularly fragile, it may be helpful/necessary to break the boss' weapon
first by having a more durable character absorb the hits. Boss abuse can make
any character pretty godly for most of the game, but is pretty boring and may
take a while. In general, this guide assumes that no boss abuse is used, since
by doing this all characters effectively wind up the same (i.e. invincible
killing machines) for most of the game.

Q: What is Staff Abuse?

A: Staff abuse can refer to a few different things. It can refer to
attacking priests/bishops who are equipped with staves that recover their HP,
in a tactic similar to boss abuse. It can also refer to when you deliberately
have your characters take damage for the sole purpose of leveling a staff user.
Both methods are another way to gain “free” EXP. Again, this guide generally
assumes that no staff abuse is used.

Q: What is Battle Save Abuse?

A: On easy and normal difficulties, the battle save option allows you to
save in the middle of a battle. This can be exploited to manipulate the RNG,
usually to make characters gain more stats than they ordinarily would (for
example, to ensure that Mist gains strength and defense when she levels). Yet
again, this guide is written on the assumption that no BSA is used.

Q: What are stat averages?

A: Stat averages are the estimated stats a character should have at any
level. Basically, to find a character's average for a stat, multiply their
growth times the amount of levels they have gained, and add it to their base
(adjust for caps and promotion gains as well if necessary). For example,
Sothe's average speed at level 13 Rogue is 25.4 (20 + 0.45*12). While these are
a good tool to find how a character should theoretically turn out, the random
nature of the game (and the existence of things like BEXP) make having a
perfectly average character rather unlikely.

Q: Why didn't you account for transfer data with [character]?

A: It's possible that I forgot, but most of the time it's because either
that character isn't likely to get transfers in the first place of the
transfers aren't particularly significant. Of course, there's also the
possibility that the reader is playing RD before PoR, which many people have
done, and as such probably have no access to transfers. While I will mention
them if I feel they really do mean something (like a str/spd transfer for Jill)
in general I don't think they're really all that important. A nice boost,
though, and helpful for hardcore OCD gamers like me who MUST! CAP! EVERYTHING!

Q: Whats a tier list?

A: A ranking of all of the characters based on some set of criteria. Tier
lists are typically oriented around beating the game as quickly (or rather, in
as low a turn count) as possible, and have varying ideas about how/when/if
resources should be allocated. 

Q: What's PEMN?
	
A: It means “Personal Experience Means Nothing”. What that means is that
just because your character got such-and such stats does not mean that happens
most of the time. This guide is assuming that characters stats are more or less
consistent with their growths, and also accounting for bases and caps (I also
try to account for BEXP when applicable, since that can boost stats beyond what
they might ordinarily reach).

Q: What is it about having a speed cap of 34 or more that is such a big deal?

A: I actually don't think it's a HUGE deal, but the difference between 33
and 34 speed is more noticeable than the difference between any other set of
numbers for endgame. You see, the boss of 4-E-3 has 30 speed, meaning people
with 34 speed or more can double him. The Auras of 4-E-5 have 35 speed, meaning
characters with 34 or more speed can double them with the help of Nasir's White
Pool. Basically it means there are nine fairly durable enemies that a character
with 34 speed could double but a character with less could not. 

Q: So if it's possible for characters to have such a variation in stats, isn't
a character guide kind of worthless?

A: Not necessarily. There are a lot of things that determine how good a
character is beyond their random growths. It's important to know what their
bases are, what their caps are, the good and bad of how their class/bases/etc
function among their teams, how they relate to other characters, innate skills
...and, of course, its helpful to know how characters generally turn out, even
if they're hardly guaranteed to end up that way.

Q: Which characters promote automatically in the story?

A: Micaiah automatically promotes to tier two after 1-E and to tier 3 at
the beginning of Endgame. Sothe automatically promotes to tier 3 after 4-P. Ike
automatically promotes to tier 3 after 3-E. All other characters promote upon
using a Master Seal/Master Crown after reaching level 10, or by hitting level
21, except Mist who has her own special promotion item called a Holy Crown
(although she can still promote by leveling).

Q: A character died/retreated. Are they gone forever?

A: Almost definitely. As far as I know, Rafiel is the only character who
will ever come back if his HP falls to 0. Otherwise, they're gone for good.


Outro and Contact Info [0UT]

So that's it. I hope this guide proved useful in some way to you, and
thank you for reading through it. If you have any questions, feel free to
e-mail me at popslurpbam@hotmail.com. I'll try to respond within a day or two,
but don't hold me to that.

As for thanks, I'd be remiss if I did not give a huge, enormous shout-out
to serenesforest.net, which is where I got most of the raw character data
(stats, growths, caps, skill activation rates, a whole plethora of things).
Know that much of what is presented here was found there and is mostly just me
trying to explain how this data affects each individual unit's performance. If
you ever have any questions about FE, Serenes Forest is pretty much the place
to look. I'd also like to thank the people of the SF and GFAQs boards, who's
various debates helped me get a better understanding of some of the [dis]
advantages of the various characters that I otherwise would have overlooked.

This FAQ belongs to me, “me” referring to a user known as “thatfeguy”,
and has been written for the purpose of being hosted on www.gamefaqs.com. Any
potential updates will be set to this site. Other sites currently allowed to
use this guide are www.neoseeker.com and supercheats.com.

This guide is written for the video game “Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn” for
the Wii, a game owned by Nintendo and Intelligent Studios, which I am not
affiliated with (beyond the fact that I play their games, I guess).

And...well...that's it! Good day, all.