LSM

I still have a soft spot for my speculation on Fodlan's politics that I posted after Thani's reddit leaks, even though it's 98% wrong:

There are also the Kingdom of The Netherlands (historically the German speaking "Under-lands" - those under sea level, as opposed to the German Highlands and Lowlands) and the Republic of The Gambia (a country "inside" Senegal that's borders are flanking the Gambia River). It's understandable why Ukrainians don't like people using the "The" though, as it implies Russian ownership. Which is obviously a major issue, as seen with Russia's invasion of Crimea.

Does anyone know if Dark Bishop is the only class that requires you to have a previous class known? (Specifically, if I ignore Lord for my lord it's not going to bite me later, is it?)

Nice... I suppose you might be too early into the game to know this, but I just have one question at this point: do the lords' personal classes require Class Mastery of the Lord class, to your knowledge? (Open to anyone - I'm just curious if I should be taking them down that path or going with something more attractive than Lord.)

Byleths will have trouble early on changing into Monk, as they'd rely on Seminars and Training from fellow professors to raise their Reason/Faith up to D. (They don't get Fire until they hit D in Reason, so you can't even use it in battle until that point). And if you spend your Sunday early on doing that, then you're neglecting other things that might be more useful. I'd say it's probably a good idea to focus on a physical weapon (that you can just equip and train up immediately) and try to woo any Magic requesters with the power of friendship.

That's a big sigh of relief. I've been planning to mainly keep to the original cast of each house, but I did want Ferdinand and Ingrid for Golden Deer and was a bit let down when finding out that I'd need to somehow train Armour and Flying at the same time.

Samurai-Gamers lists Ferdinand as needing Dexterity and Armour. So that's the lot of them, if some can be trusted.

I had speculated that you would get a "free" Seminar at the beginning of the game, to teach you the mechanic. It now appears that instead you get a "forced" Seminar. Looking at some gameplay, it looks like you get to explore the Monastery to begin, then pick which class to teach. After that: The first Sunday (4/27), you can only Explore. The second Sunday (5/4) is skipped, as there's a battle earlier in the week. The third Sunday (5/11) you can only Explore. The fourth Sunday (5/18) you can only Battle. The fifth Sunday (5/25) you can only Seminar or Rest. The sixth Sunday (6/01) is skipped, as there's a battle earlier in the week. The seventh Sunday (6/08) gives you the full choice of Explore, Seminar, Battle, and Rest. So everyone will probably want to do a Seminar on 5/25. The options for hosts are: Byleth (~D+ Swords, ~D Authority) Seteth (C Lances, C Authority) Hanneman (D Bows, C Reason) Manuela (D Swords, C Faith) It will be important earlier in that week to change students' Goals if you want to maximise the number of them attending (and benefiting from) the Seminar. Remember: it's always Byleth and up to five students with a Goal in at least one of the hosts' subjects. In general, Seteth seems by far to be the best choice. He has C's in both of his subjects, and everyone can use a boost to Authority (for Battalions) and Lances (a prerequisite of many Master Classes). Manuela and Hanneman should probably only be picked if you're trying for a Mage or Priest Byleth, or reclassing a student down a similar path. There's not too much of a reason to choose Byleth. Here's the experience you'll gain in the respective Skills (assuming base ranks, and not entirely confident about how a Weakness effects the calculations). Sorry about the wonky formatting, and apologies for any miscalculations. Byleth Initial Seminar Exp from |||| Manuela |||| Seteth |||| Hanneman Byleth |||| 30 // 32 |||| 48 // 36 |||| 36 // 32 Black Eagles Initial Seminar Exp from |||| Manuela |||| Seteth |||| Hanneman Edelgard |||| 30 // 20 |||| 32 // 36 |||| 20 // 30 Hubert |||| 24 // 20 |||| 32 // 42 |||| 30 // 36 Dorothea |||| 30 // 20 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 24 // 36 Ferdinand |||| 30 // 32 |||| 36 // 32 |||| 24 // 32 Bernadetta |||| 20 // 28 |||| 42 // 32 |||| 30 // 32 Caspar |||| 24 // 32 |||| 32 // 20 |||| 20 // 20 Linhardt |||| 24 // 36 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 24 // 42 Petra |||| 30 // 20 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 30 // 20 Totals |||| 212//208 |||| 270//258 |||| 202//248 Blue Lions Initial Seminar Exp from |||| Manuela |||| Seteth |||| Hanneman Dimitri |||| 30 // 32 |||| 30 // 36 |||| 24 // 20 Dedue |||| 24 // 20 |||| 42 // 32 |||| 24 // 32 Felix |||| 30 // 32 |||| 32 // 20 |||| 30 // 20 Mercedes |||| 20 // 36 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 24 // 36 Ashe |||| 24 // 32 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 30 // 20 Annette |||| 24 // 32 |||| 32 // 42 |||| 20 // 36 Sylvain |||| 24 // 32 |||| 36 // 32 |||| 20 // 32 Ingrid |||| 30 // 32 |||| 36 // 32 |||| 24 // 32 Totals |||| 206//248 |||| 272//258 |||| 196//228 Golden Deer Initial Seminar Exp from |||| Manuela |||| Seteth |||| Hanneman Claude |||| 30 // 20 |||| 20 // 36 |||| 24 // 32 Lorenz |||| 24 // 32 |||| 36 // 32 |||| 24 // 42 Hilda |||| 24 // 20 |||| 42 // 20 |||| |||| 24 // 32 Raphael |||| 24 // 32 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 20 // 20 Lysithea |||| 20 // 42 |||| 20 // 42 |||| 24 // 36 Ignatz |||| 30 // 32 |||| 32 // 42 |||| 24 // 32 Marianne |||| 30 // 30 |||| 32 // 32 |||| 24 // 32 Leonie |||| 24 // 32 |||| 42 // 32 |||| 30 // 32 Totals |||| 206//240 |||| 256//268 |||| 194//258

Oh awesome, that makes it them all... (Except Ferdinand.)

I'll tentatively add it, but do you have a source?

Thank you very much @Azz and @throwaway !

No, but if the 4chan leaker could raise a Mercenary Byleth's Armour enough to recruit Raph, you should be able to get their Reason/Faith high enough to switch into Mage for a bit before the timeskip. But you probably couldn't do more than two of Reason/Faith/Armour/Riding/Flying until New Game+.

Unfortunately, no. But I wanted to pick out one screenshot from the 4chan leaker. It's a shot of their Byleth on the same Raphael/Ignatz Paralogue from the E3 Treehouse presentation. (I've blacked out one item that as yet is not published knowledge.) They're playing Black Eagles and have already recruited Raphael. Not too many missions later they have recruited Felix and Leonie as well. As at Treehouse, we see Byleth with the -3 weight reduction that you get from training Armour. The interesting thing to me is that they've managed to get their Byleth to a degree in Armour and Lances where they could recruit Raph and Leonie while in a Sword Proficient class (Mercenary). This signals that it shouldn't be too hard to end up with two Skills at sufficient level to recruit, and that said level might just be around a C.

Now that there are major leaks for the game, does anyone not avoiding them want to dive in and see if they can find out what's what?

It was higher than an E. You can tell by when the player is tutoring Linhardt; she scrolls down at one point and we can see that Linhardt has an E in Armour and that Byleth is giving a Professor bonus, so he's higher ranked.