Fire emblem General thread

[Koal]

I noticed that there wasn't a fire emblem thread to be found, so I'm just gonna go ahead and make one.
Talk about any of the fire emblem games you want in this thread, but be sure to use spoiler tag's for Fire Emblem: Awakening since some of us haven't gotten it or haven't gotten too far into the game.

[Deviddo]

I loved Fire Emblem: Awakening, I just wish it was online in some way.

[Hallan Parva]

'sup losers I'm here to take over

I'll just put all my previous posts here in spoilers for background information purposes

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HP is actually a bad choice if you want a tanky avatar. Asset/Flaw stats actually effect more than just the indicated one. So ontop of slower HP gain, it also provides -5 to both Def and Res.

This. If you want a heavy hitting physical Avatar that provides a little extra skill and defense to aid in physical combat, go with Strength for an asset with either resistance or Magic as a flaw.

Too late, I already chose HP as my flaw. I did have the sense to look into things though, and saw that HP subtracts stats from... nearly every category. It's a slight overall minus instead of a heavy loss in a couple select stats, so even if it means I'll be pretty frail I'd much rather have the overall stat gains. For that reason, I also chose Luck as my asset as it gives +2 Str and +2 Mag in addition to the +4 Luk.

The way I have Calem set up so far is... well, it's not awful, but it is a bit strange. Basically, he's a lucky crit mixed mage. The Thunder spell you start off with is actually very nice with the Luck boost, as it helps to negate the iffy accuracy of the attack. I got him a Wind spell as a more accurate spell at first, but once I hit Chapter 5 it became a reliable way to counter Wyvern Knights (freaking hate those jerks). He also has an Iron Sword with him, in case magic just won't cut it. Despite his frailty, the boosted crit rates along with his mixed attacking nature makes him an excellent revenge killer to clean up wounded enemies. I just cleared Chapter 7 and I haven't really picked out a mate for him yet. I hope you get Marth later in the game though, she's a real cutie.

Speaking of which, the pairs I've set out to build aren't really about optimal stats or to "minmax the babies" as Korby put it, but rather just to have fun with the game. Sumia's attitude from the moment you get her on your team pretty much screams "childhood friend" so I put her alongside Chrom for faster mobility and ranged Javelin throws. Virion was one of my favorite characters from the very start, and seeing him jabbed at by Sully constantly never ceases to amuse. Oddly enough, Virion and Sully actually make a devastating team; Virion's boosts from the pair get him constant crit snipers with his bow, and Sully's sword skill is so powerful that she can easily take down anyone who gets too close to Virion.

Miriel and Gaius actually started by accident; as speedy as Gaius is, his iffy health and moderate attack power makes him better for cleanup (like Calem) or "ambush bait" to lure enemies closer while dealing a solid counterattack. (Double hit for free? YES.) Another stat-based pair is Kellam and Panne. Oh man, this is a fun one. All I have to do is attach Kellam to Panne so she gets the boosts while also keeping the ability to be rolling around at the speed of sound... and watch the sparks fly. And by sparks, I mean enemy bodies, because that's how hard she punches them. Oh yeah, and she gains Frederick-tier tankiness from Kellam's massive +5 Def boost, often shrugging off attacks with little damage (and sometimes no damage at all). On the off chance that she doesn't down an enemy with her attacks, half of the time Kellam will just waddle in and poke them in the face with his spear anyway. It's glorious.

Also in the "originally didn't mean for this" boat is Donnel... oy, Donnel. Donnel's a fucking wimp so I stuck him with Maribelle just so she could heal him, but once they hit Support C rank, I thought it would be fun to watch that stuck-up loser fall madly in love with a simple farm boy. I've heard that Donnel gets super broken powerful once you can champion him at Lv10, but... ye gods, does it suck. It's a good thing you can buy the Reeking Boxes to summon Risen and farm for Exp. Points, or else I would have never bothered using Donnel past the side mission you get him in.

Honorable mention goes to Lissa, the best healer on the planet (even though she's not a Gigalith); Lon'qu, the master of critical hit disaster; Frederick, who is still a god of a man perched atop a valiant steed; and Ricken, who actually makes a decent stand-in for Calem during Risen fights, even if he does lack the advantage of physical strikes to get around Res-based enemies.

I hope you get more girls soon, because I've already sort of paired them all off... and I really want to be able to get all the children. Wait, can you pair everyone together? It would suck pretty bad if I missed out on a few party members simply because someone with a kid was Odd Man Out and didn't get their happy marriage set up.

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I just cleared Chapter 7 and I haven't really picked out a mate for him yet. I hope you get Marth later in the game though, she's a real cutie.

hey guess what I SPOKE TOO SOON

I cleared Chapter 8 while coming back from an event at my sister's school. That's where I met my beloved Nowi... oh, Nowi. Even at Level 3, you match the damage output of Lv10 Panne, and your magic resistance (Res) is to die for. Your Def and Luk are also true marvels on the eyes, and that movement range... !! Gaius had to hit Level 10 before he learned to move with as much grace as she brings to the battlefield. I think I'll take a page from Virion's book and say that "your beauty in all regards is simply unparalleled! A lesser man might combust into flames on the spot!" And if her excellent stats weren't enough, she's actually very easy on the eyes... Marth needs to get her ass moving if she doesn't want Calem learning how to tame his dragon, if you catch my drift.

Also in Chapter 8, the Mercenary Gregor arrives on stage. For me, Gregor seems like a "hit-or-miss" sort of character. You're either going to like him a lot, or not really care for him. Patience seems like a swell skill on nearly any character, especially with Gregor's good Str and moderate bulk; you could place him in a thin pathway to serve as a bodyguard and block weaker or distance-attacking units. Otherwise, I'd put Gregor to the side in favor of Lon'qu (who is better with revenge counters) and Frederick (who straight-up crushes everything) if it wasn't for his other key skill, Armsthrift.

Now I know what Koal was talking about. Seriously? The ability to not expend weapon ammo when attacking, regardless of whether or not you're initiating the attack, with the trigger rate dependent on Luk x2, which happens to be nearly double Calem's Str, Mag, and Spd? Holy shit. And thanks to Second Seals (which Chapter 8 introduces you to), you can pass this to the Glass weapons and tomes, which have power comparable to their B and A rank equivalents, but are a fraction of the cost due to their fragility. Weapon ammo was always one of my major worries, with me often carrying duplicate weapons on some characters out of fear that their main attack with 10 ammo left would break in the middle of the battle. Don't get me wrong, Frederick's Luna is also pretty sexy, and whatever Rightful King does or how Galeforce changes things, I'm sure they're pretty good too, but nothing can compare to a somewhat easy-to-trigger chance for a free weapon use.

I would have advanced to Chapter 9 already, but I ran into my first Rival team. I'm somewhat used to fighting other teams, as I summoned Florina from Fire Emblem (GBA) as well as Ike's sister Mist. Their teams were hovering around the Level 6 range, so I used them mainly to get Donnel up to speed; I haven't used the units you get from winning, as their roles (Pegasus Knight and Cleric) are redundant with Awakening characters with the same or similar classes, and you can't pair them up with other units or put them in conversations (likely due to being ethereal ghosts of their past lives).

Anyway, this kid's name is Essit. He's only Level 6 and still a Tactician, though that's understandable since I haven't used Calem that much myself; he's also a Tactician, though at Level 8. I guess he was built for physical offense, as Str is the highest stat and he only wields an Iron Sword (along with a Strength Tonic, which would be interesting to see the AI actually use it during battle). Also, his Sword is at D rank while Tomes are still at E, so he'll probably eat that Tonic on the first turn then come charging at me or something.

Oddly enough, most of his party mirrors mine, except at lower levels, with the exception of his Lv6 Valke (mine's Lv5). His other members are Lv5 Gaius (holding an item called Sweet Tincture... is that character specific?), Lv5 Virion, Lv4 Stahl, Lv4 Sumia, Lv4 Sully, Lv7 Miriel, and... Lv7 Chrom? My Chrom's at Level 11, so immediately that struck me as odd seeing as how Chrom is mandatory in every story battle (not even the Avatar has that restriction). I've fought the two spectral teams, sure, but Chrom was able to sit both of those out. I also beat up some random Risen teams three times, but Chrom was only there for the second encounter of the three, when they surrounded the party at Arena Ferox. (Obnoxious spawn positions, by the way. Obnoxious to the max.) At first I just thought "maybe this kid's not as far as I am in the game or something", but then I saw his last party member... Lv10 Tharja.

Um, I'm sorry... what? Who the heck is Tharja? I've cleared 3 side missions and up to Chapter 8 in the main story, and I haven't seen heads or tails of this Tharja person. They're at Level 10 as well, so either you get them at a high level or this guy must have poured some Experience into her. She's a Dark Mage with Fire equipped as her main, though she also holds Elwind (presumably stolen from Ricken) and Dying Blaze, a Glass-type Tome with an impressive 10 Might. Regardless, I find it a bit odd that most of his early recruits and main party is somewhat underleveled, especially when it's evident that he's at a further point in the game than I am. It can't be due to different difficulties, either; higher difficulty settings give out more Experience due to the higher Level enemies, and I've heard that grinding is nearly mandatory in Lunatic to simply progress without getting your ass completely ripped apart.

Whatever, I'll just beat up this loser with Donnel and get my first non-ethereal outsider recruit. Sweet.

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[9:07 PM] Deviddo: FUCK YEAH NOWI
[9:07 PM] Deviddo: Not that I l-like her or anything, i-idiot!
[9:35:59 PM] Smash Maniac: I still want Marth :I
[9:35:59 PM] Smash Maniac: but Nowi is overpowered as fuck and she's also cute so

[9:11 PM] Deviddo: Also he calls the avatar "Avatar" instead of Robin. I approve.
[9:36:21 PM] Smash Maniac: for the most part I call him Calem since that's what I named him
[9:36:21 PM] Smash Maniac: unless talking about the Avatar character in general

[9:37:13 PM] Deviddo: You don't want Marth
[9:37:34 PM] Smash Maniac: yes
[9:37:37 PM] Smash Maniac: yes I do want Marth
[9:37:45 PM] Deviddo: Oh.
[9:37:49 PM] Deviddo: Hard to argue with that.

[9:38:53 PM] Smash Maniac: oh wow
[9:38:58 PM] Smash Maniac: this scrublord actually killed someone
[9:39:05 PM] Smash Maniac: enemy Tharja got a crit Elwind on Gaius

[9:39:43 PM] Smash Maniac: oh lol I forgot he was paired
[9:39:43 PM] Smash Maniac: I can just revenge strike with Miriel

[9:42:01 PM] Smash Maniac: lol Cordelia
[9:42:21 PM] Smash Maniac: "I just finished my copy of 'Make Him Fall For You in a Fortnight'. So embarassing..."
[9:42:27 PM] Smash Maniac: Gained 22 EXP!
[9:43:20 PM] Smash Maniac: oh wow this kid
[9:43:25 PM] Smash Maniac: he actually thought he was super good or something
[9:43:52 PM] Smash Maniac:

Essit / Supreme Tactician
Home - Minnesota
Identity - God
Values - Attack
Difficulty - (Hidden)

"Hey!"

[9:43:55 PM] Smash Maniac: what a puss




so long story short Crunchy is a winner and I got my first non-ethereal outsider recruit

just like I said I would

[Hallan Parva]

And now for something completely different.

I'll write up another mega update later, but for now I have this burning question...



What the hell is Donnel doing? Maybe it's the power of the Forge working its magic, maybe it's just me overgrinding him, but... he now outperforms Lon'qu in terms of raw damage and has a nice crit rate with his "Iron Donnel" to boot (though Lon'qu is still unstoppable when paired up, especially with his signature Killing Edge). Also, I was expecting to pop a Second Seal on Donnel when he hit Lv20 and his Experience gauge turned to MAX, but... he kept getting Experience? I'm looking at his screen right now, and it says Donnel's at Lv20 with 16 EXP, though when Miriel and Ricken hit Lv20 their EXP showed up as a dash (--) in the summary screen.

What's up with Donnel's sudden surge in stats and critical hits, and why can he grow higher than Level 20?

[Deviddo]

Donnel is the Villager Class, a special class.  Like most special classes within the game, he gets to level 30 before class changing.

[Isaac940]

Honestly I'd just second seal him now if I were you. Donnel already got his other skill from villager at this point (Underdog) and he really will start shining in another class. Statwise, that may just be Aptitude working (mentioned this earlier but +20% to all growths when equipped) to boost his growths and create the 100% Luck growth (Luck factors into crit chance right? Or is it only crit avoid in this one?). And like Dev said, certain classes like Villager, Manakete and Taguel go to thirty since they don't have a master seal promotion.

EDIT:Depending on how much you forged that lance for Donnel, that may be a factor also. Forging can be pretty significant, IIRC you can add 15 crit to a weapon if you max the crit stat, and the extra points in might can matter a lot also. You can add enough might to a bronze weapon to make it have the same might as a steel one if I'm remembering right.

[Hallan Parva]

so I didn't listen to Isaac at all and now Donnel's Lv26
#yoloswag


Also now I'm at a loss. I don't know who to shove in Calem's sexy strategist arms. The choices are Marth (she's a cutie, she's a Lord, she can pass down Aether -- what's not to like?), Nowi (DRAGONS FUCK YEA), and Anna (unique in being the only not-endgame character that only S-Supports with a specific Avatar; also unique in being the only character with exactly one non-Tactician Support). They're all already at A-Support with Calem and just a simple press of the A Button away from teetering into S-Support, I just can't decide who to choose.

For reference, my other pairings are as follows:
- Chrom x Sumia
- Virion x Sully
- Lissa x Ricken
- Kellam x Panne
- Stahl x Cordelia
- Henry x Cherche
- Miriel x Gaius
- Lon'qu x Tharja
- Olivia x GGGREGOR!!

If she doesn't marry Calem, Nowi will get Donnel and Maribelle will be set up with Vaike. If Nowi marries Calem, Donnel will swoop in with Maribelle instead. Also, Marth will probably get paired with Owain unless I find another character that's somehow more hilarious. (I only have Owain and Laurent at the moment, working on building up Skills for the others.)

[Deviddo]

A good deal of your pairings upset me.

Get Anna I suppose, pass on those RNG Goddess abilities.

[Isaac940]

Safety spoiler box-doesn't contain anything important, just being careful. Smash should know about the small amount of info in the box

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Uhh, how much do you know/want spoiled/want not spoiled about the generational mechanics Smash? Also, I have a small comment about your post but it kind of involves character spoilers. I could try to be vague as hell though if you want it. I guess if you wanted to keep future Awakening chat out of the thread altogether I could send you a PM or something. Yay paranoia.

Though if I had to pick one of the three you specified, I'd go with Nowi.

EDIT: Reworked post

[Hallan Parva]

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I honestly didn't know any of the generation mechanics at first, so when Virion picked up Hit Rate +20 right after I recruited Kjelle I was kicking myself pretty damn hard. Prescience is still a pretty good Skill though, it could've been Skill +2 instead... augh. I have a very very rough grasp of things, that the last Skill from both parents is passed to the child along with two Skills directly related to whatever Class the child happens to spawn as. There might be more to it than that but that's all I'm seeing, anyway; I haven't even bothered to look at a guide or a wiki because they tend to throw spoilers at you with no remorse.

If it doesn't have to do with the main story itself, I'm fine with talking about it. I would prefer if you kept it in spoiler tags though as I'm being considerate of Llama; I'm at Valm Harbor (Chapter 15) with four children if you count "Marth", but he's only at Chapter 6 and hasn't played the game in over two weeks.

[Isaac940]

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The main thing I was going to get at with generational mechanics was that MAvatar has a child dependent on him, but "Marth" and Anna don't. Therefore pairing him with one of those two will only result in Avatar Jr. However, since Nowi has a child dependent on her, paring the two together will result in both Avatar Jr and Nowi Jr. I guess I could throw a quick generational mechanic primer into another spoiler box below this one, so if you don't want to read it you don't have to.

On the note I was talking about earlier, to be as vague as possible I guess I could say you have recruited all characters that have children dependent on them when paired (i.e. Kjelle from Sully), but there are more non-child characters to recruit in the future that can be paired with the Avatar.

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Okay a quick primer on generational mechanics. Children inherit all classes of their parents barring gender specific ones (barbarian, troubadour, etc) so Kjelle has access to all of Virion's and Sully's classes. Gender specific classes get changed into a different one for the child (IIRC, an example is Fighter -> Peg Knight).
Children inherit the skill in the farthest slot down from both parents that they do not start with (if Sully had Luna in her 4th slot and defense+2 in her 5th, Kjelle would inherit Luna from her since she starts with defense+2). A decent strategy if you are going for maximum effectiveness is to have parents pass down skills the children cannot get due to gender specific classes (think hp+5 from Fighter, but there are better examples to pass down and I'm avoiding spoilers)
Children inherit the stat caps of their parents added together+1 (Kjelle's str stat cap would be the classes base cap+Virion's personal str cap modifier+Sully's personal str cap modfier+1, stat cap modifiers can be negative (think Avatar's flaw)).
Children's starting stats are an average of the parents and ones inherent to the child themselves. The same thing goes for growths

There are some special things to note:
-Since the Avatar has access to all standard classes, so to will his/her children. This is one reason why Chrom/FAvatar or MAvatar/other parent is good; they can pass down full class availibility to two children.
-Panne and Nowi can pass down their racial class to Avatar Jr. if paired with MAvatar. Therefore MAvatar/Nowi results in two children with access to all classes of their gender plus Manakete so you both get an extra Manakete in Avatar Jr. and you can build both chldren pretty much however you want skillwise in the postgame.
-Chrom (and maybe his children also I'm not sure) has special skill inheritance rules as a parent. Male children of Chrom always get Rightful King, and female children get Aether.

Therefore of the three choices you have for Calem, "Marth" would give Avatar Jr. Aether (I think) (Avatar Jr. is the opposite gender of the Avatar) (the Lord class tree is Chrom and "Marth" only, "Marth" cannot pass it down to a child), Nowi would result in two children with full standard class access plus Manakete access, and Anna will add nothing special to Avatar Jr. But honestly, pair whomever you want to pair and have fun. The only time optimization is kind of required is in Apotheosis, the super challenge DLC, and you can beat that without child characters if you plan hard enough. That said the inner min-maxer in me is going argh at some of your parings.

[Ivory]

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Although, pairing the Avatar with a child character isn't that bad either, you sacrifice a second "Avatar Jr." for a high stat cap a sole one. For example, Cherche + Vaike and then Cherche's son + Avatar(f) results in the highest natural strength cap possible on your avatar's child. (assuming the avatar(f) was maximizing the strength modifier)

[Jman]

Heh, funny story. I had a male priest child with the ability that boosts the stats of nearby male units. I can't tell you how funny it was to use him.

[Isaac940]

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Yeah there is the potential for an ultrakid, I forgot about that. Another fun one is Kellam+Nowi and then Nowi's kid+defense oriented MAvatar for a hilariously high defense score. Personally I prefer having 2 superkids over 1 ultrakid, but they're always fun to goof around with. Also in Smash's case, due to her heritage, I'm not sure if "Marth" would give a child optimized stats like the strength and defense examples.

[Hallan Parva]

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Wooooow. Thanks for that, it was super easy to understand and I feel like I learned a lot. I can see why you might be groaning at some of the pairs now that I know the mechanics, but like you said I mostly just paired for fun while trying to avoid any redundancies. Actually now that I think about it, Lissa and Ricken have a slight overlap in that both Mage and Cleric elevate into Sage, but other than that it should be fine. In particular, Owain's good Str should pair nicely with Lissa and Ricken's Mag boosts and make a great Dark Knight, and Kellam and Panne's kid is going to be hilarious with all that Def from both parents.

It's a little funny that I stuck Sumia and Chrom together, then wanted to put "Marth" with Calem. This whole time I was raising Calem to be super balanced in everything instead of dedicated in one stat, and if they paired up then Morgan would be too balanced to even care about anything at all. (Here, let me pull up Calem's page... 25 Str, 25 Mag, 22 Skill, 23 Spd, 28 Luk, 22 Def, 15 Res. What a total Mario.)

Because I was at the tipping point with all three girls, I actually loaded up Morgan's mission and played through without saving just to see what happened. Sure enough, my suspicions were right; "Marth" (and presumably Chrom as well) don't pass along the Lord class as it must be exclusive to those two characters, though Morgan picked up Aether (which is double as hilarious when stacked with Calem's Luk asset and Ignis... just Ignis in general is hilarious enough, activating every three battles or so). Also, as tasty as having three Manaketes sounds, Nowi's Morgan will always have a Dragon weakness regardless of her class, and that doesn't sound too fun to me personally.

I'll probably end up picking "Marth" thanks to this information, as Morgan can be re-classed into a Thief (then into Trickster) and pick up the amazingly useful Lucky 7 through that method.