GarEEE

It's a predetermined amount of autolevels, which is different for each character. This is the best ressource about it I've seen so far. https://fe3h.com/timeskip_autolevel

They both have 6 movement, but Grappler has thief movement, so can move normally through forests or sand. War Master however does get move penalties from terrain.

While these stats certainly do not look amazing, sadly she's not really RNG-screwed, but just Bernadetta. Based on your classing path, these would be her average stats. Lv HP Str Mag Dex Spd Lck Def Res Cha 45 44.8 25.25 13.4 37.3 31.75 19.1 16.2 15.6 23.8 She'll still be useful though, thanks to her personal ability, Encloser combat art and possibly Vengeance combat art

In my opinion the biggest advantage of gauntlets still is their absurd damage output while also requiring low maintenance. When fighting monsters, they often have really good chances to ORKO thanks to a brave effect, enough speed to quadruple hit considerably earlier than other brave weapons and still have the option to get additional crit with Killer Gauntlets on top of that. On top of that, gauntlet users can pretty much always ORKO mages without counterattack from midgame onwards, which is a reliable use case, too. I made a short montage of just what gauntlets are actually able to ORKO, the actual chances to ORKO were: ch4 boss: 84.90% paralogue demon beast boss: 32.62% ch20 demon beast: 97.28% AM ch22 boss: 96.99% And this is even without statboosters or death blow I don't agree with this. While technically you're right, the game does offer the ressources, it comes in a very inconvenient form. The Titanus have a decent crit chance and are not really something you could call "free loot". Unnecessarily messing with them early in the map could cost you too many divine pulses, that you might need later, unnecessarily messing with them late in the map probably increases your turn count and is pretty much just grinding (though in a more efficient way than aux battles for example) Unless you're talking about Swift Strike, Point-Blank-Volley or Hunters Volley with killer weapons against fast enemies, gauntlets still have the brave effect ahead of other weapon types. With more hits crits are also more reliable and average out better. As even with low might gauntlets 1 crit + 1 hit is still enough to kill almost all units, except for monsters. 2x 60% crit are about as reliable as 1x 84% crit C/D+ axes and D armor is really not that high of a requirement, you can literally just pick any 3 characters that you want to use as guard adjutants in the run, set their goals to axes and armor and never instruct them ever and they'll still do their job just fine

Abandoning Windsweep for the former two is a VERY hard sell, in my book. Also, War Cleric is viable... In Awakening, that is. Not so much here. Felix is good in just about any physical class, so that further drains any motivation to have him use gauntlets. While admittedly Felix IS good in pretty much every physical class, that doesn't take away from the fact that many of his strengths and shortcomings fit well with gauntlets. He has high strength which scales best with brave weapons/gauntlets. He has high enough speed to sometimes compete with enemies on maddening, while also ideally wanting to use his heavy personal shield, meaning he cares about weight, which gauntlets have little of. His crest ability also scales with every attack which he does most of with brave weapons/gauntlets. At the same time, when braves come into play, other weapon types can do that, except those don't top out at a measly 4 might. Which begs the question, why bother? Because when comparing brave weapons with gauntlets you also need to consider the costs. To make and repair brave weapons you need a special material, that cannot be bought, therefore you won't be able to use brave weapons all the time. Gauntlets however are the cheapest physical weapon type in their base form that CAN be used all the time with even less investment than other basic physical weapon types. And even if you go by peak performance you will then need to compare brave weapons to Killer Gauntlets+, where you can then argue, whether the extra might or crit are better. (and even then Killer Gauntlets+ are made from rebuyable materials, so still easier accessible)

Imo the main qualities of brawling in Three Houses are: brave weapon-effect units with good strength obliterate things good damage output combat art with 3 consecutive hits when in grappler class is an even better brave-effect low-weight, therefore not slowing units down a lot don't get doubled as often as other melee weapon types early on tomebreaker together with brave-effect can usually realiably ORKO mages without taking a counterhit not weak to another breaker-skill more consistent hit-rate than other melee weapons requirement for War Master, which leads to Quick Reposte skill prevents unit from getting doubled in enemy phase when above 50% health good for units with bad speed good for units with enough HP/defence to stay above 50% health after getting hit once Setting aside the obvious choices of Raphael, Caspar, Dedue, Alois and Balthus: Jeritza, Felix, Byleth, Gilbert, Ferdinand, Sylvain and Dimitri should also be able to pull off a good Brawling build.

For a first run, I'd say that hard is a decent difficulty, albeit still quite on the easy side. Like others mentioned, I also wouldn't recommend Maddening for a first run. I have some self-imposed challenges that keep the game entertaining for me, while neither being too hard or too easy. Maddening, NG+, DLC activated no battle grinding choosing classes regardless of how good they are only recruiting characters I actually plan on using no warp-cheese-strategies no stat boosters

From your given info, Ignatz would have an average of 15.25 defence at level 35. So no, he isn't RNG-screwed in def, it's just that he's naturally that bad at it. Still, I'd always recommend promoting asap as Shanty said.

I've done 3 Maddening Playthroughs so far, which I'll include my Byleth builds in here. I never went for Brigand for paths that don't naturally make use of axes or stuff like that, as I don't have fun metagaming in 3H. Crimson Flower - No NG+. Enlightened One (Myrmidon->Thief->Swordmaster) Byleth did alright and was my second best unit after Wyvern Rider Petra. She did good damage with her Brawling weapons and could take one enemy at a time. Thanks to her Heal spell she could also heal allies, when she wasn't needed for battle in a turn or not able to participate in it due to not reaching. She did a good job as kind of a hybrid between a melee brawler and a mediocre assist unit between fights. 7/10 Verdant Wind - NG+. Falcon Knight (Soldier->Pegasus Knight->Wyvern Rider) Byleth as Falcon Knight was really good. She could dodge tank decently without much investment and could ORKO many opponents. Not to mention that she had awesome mobility thanks to being a flying unit, which also allows other units to make use of her +20% exp personal a lot more often. Not perfect in my playthrough though as she didn't have as much strength as I'd have like her to. 9/10 Azure Moon - NG+. War Master (Fighter->Brawler->Grappler) If I ever want to obliterate an enemy, War Master Byleth had it covered. He literally ORKOs everything! No matter, if the enemy is a mage, Fortress Knight, dodgy thief, monster with its guard still in place or a boss monster w/o guard on its last massive healthbar, War Master Byleth can ORKO it. He has really good strength to make great use of gauntlets, has great accuracy, great crit rate ~35%- even without equipping crit-weapons-, and also has good speed to not get doubled often and quadruple enemy monsters and slower enemies. He doesn't have good defence in my run, but thanks to Quick Reposte he can at least take 1, sometimes 2 enemies in enemy phase. His main draw back is his mediocre mobility due to being foot-locked, which you can probably partially salvage by reclassing him to a Grappler after mastering War Master. Also note, that I didn't put him in Brigand class so he would do even better, when playing more optimally. 9/10

Based on the units proficiencies, these are the infantry master classes that they have the easiest time to get into. Have fun with half of your units becoming Mortal Savants :D BLACK EAGLES Edelgard: Mortal Savant Hubert: Mortal Savant Bernadetta: Gremory Caspar: War Master Dorothea: Mortal Savant / Gremory Ferdinand: Mortal Savant / War Master Linhardt: Mortal Savant Petra: Mortal Savant BLUE LIONS Dimitri: Great Lord Dedue: War Master Annette: Gremory / Mortal Savant Ashe: War Master Felix: Mortal Savant / War Master Ingrid: Mortal Savant Mercedes: Gremory Sylvain: War Master / Mortal Savant GOLDEN DEER Claude: Mortal Savant / War Master Hilda: Mortal Savant Ignatz: Mortal Savant Leonie: Mortal Savant / Gremory Lorenz: Mortal Savant Lysithea: Gremory / Mortal Savant Marianne: Mortal Savant / Gremory Raphael: War Master

High Tier : Byleth, Petra, Bernadetta, Lysithea, Linhardt, Leonie, Shamir, (Seteth) Medium Tier : Sylvain, Caspar, Ferdinand, Marianne, Flayn, Hilda, Ingrid, Annette, Lorenz, Felix, Dorothea, Catherine, Low Tier : Ashe, Alois, Hanneman, Manuela, Raphael, Ignatz, Cyril Take my rating for Seteth with a big grain of salt, as I haven't really used him in Maddening yet.

The DLC definitely can make your Playthrough easier. All potential DLC-benefits are optional though and only come through actually pursuing DLC-activities in the monastery. All DLC-items have unique names, all DLC-quests are marked in a unique blue color, the farming-DLC-fight is marked in a unique yellow color, DLC-characters are all optional to recruit, too. Imho they make the game more fun though, as they give you more options to mess around with. For example I saved all my statboosters in my Verdant Wind playthrough until the last chapter when I gave them all to dancer Lysithea who was then able to mostly solo the last map. Maddening is not impossibly hard, but requires you to actively think most of the time. For me one NG-Maddening was enough, now I still have fun with NG+-Maddening with DLC-benefits, which is still a lot more challenging than hard mode but also forgiving enough for me to casually enjoy it while also skipping boring grinding The DLC-campaign is quite short(~10h), but most maps I found very enjoyable. Your units are all good, but the maps give you objectives that make it worthwhile to advance quickly. Difficulty-wise it's about in the middle in between NG-Maddening and NG-hard. All in all, I would say, DLC doesn't add much to the maddening enjoyment based on difficulty and only a little in terms of customisability. The DLC is not mandatory whatsoever, however it CAN make the main campaign a little easier, if you actively seek out the DLC-features.

I agree that it's one of the least useful master classes, only beaten by mortal savant. However it offers some advantages: Allows healers to attack and retreat in the same turn, when needed Allows healers to heal and canto towards enemies to give your other units support boost. (only viable, when you know that you can keep your units safe for enemy phase) Allows healers to keep up with the rest of the pack so they actually can do 1. and 2. Gives magic users access to more movement and Canto, when they have trouble becoming a Dark Knight Gives your healers with high res enough movement to be the first ones to lure enemy mages Personally I see 4. to be the biggest advantage that Holy Knight offers. I don't think Holy Knight is the best class for anyone, however for some characters, it's easier to fit into than Dark Knight. Characters that I'd consider suitable for Holy Knight: Marianne: Easiest to reach master class for her, can act as a res tank against mages, however she doesn't really need the movement as she has physics and silence anyway Manuela: Easiest to reach magic master class for her, movement helps her with her support spells like Warp and Ward Anna: Easy to reach magic master class for her, movement helps her with her support spells like Rescue and Ward, might be able to act as a res tank?(just guessing, haven't used her yet)

(CF and AM spoilers) Mercedes and Linhardt were both really heartbreaking. Killing such peaceful souls should be illegal. Ashe and Dimitri battle quotes in CF also just made me realise: Yup, we most definitely are the baddies. Hilda's death also has got to be one of the most memorable ones.

you should bring a decent amount of magic users. exp through support magic is not reduced while combat exp is check enemy stats before putting your units into their range equip your units with multiple weapons so you can also avoid getting doubled by the enemies as often as possible don't hesitate to use combat arts or legendary weapons to dissolve a difficult situation use support gambits, especially Stride and Impregnable Wall use offensive gambits to immobilize enemies that you cannot kill fast enough. Fusillade is great for this

I think it would make for partially very toxic gameplay unless both players receive meaningful objectives other than "kill every last one of them" Potential strategies: Rushing in with a strong Sniper or Grappler, ORKOing an enemy unit with your class combat art und then Rescue'ing your unit back to your lines Stride and Impregnable Wall become must have batallions to prevent the enemy from getting the first strike and to safely engage Restore receives massive value to allow your units to still move after getting hit by an offensive gambit

Encloser allows you to be able to deal with 1 enemy more at a time, no questions asked. It can be a fortress knight, paladin, assassin, mage, monster, anything that is not a boss. It also makes dealing with fleeing enemies a lot easier, who are admittedly not that common. But when they are there, they usually pose a challenge to catch without getting yourself killed. The main selling point of the stat scaling combat arts is, that they scale on another stat besides strength. In endgame they become very strong single hits, useful for finishing off enemies or maxing out the damage output and will definitely outdamage combat arts, that don't hit twice. Personally I value combat arts higher that scale on defense (strong defense units often have no problem getting retaliated on or being on the frontlines) and combat arts that do magic damage (magic users can peak their single hit damage with a good weapon+combat art. e.g. my Marianne is doing 43 damage with Frozen Lance in chapter 11, she's a bit overleveled though).

Deadeye is in my S tier for multiple reasons: It allows units to attack when they couldn't without it Gives units a lot of flexibility on where to attack from, not necessarily competing with your other units for space no retaliation (which admittedly most bow combat arts share) +5 might is a good damage boost for bow combat arts You make a lot of very good points. I'll give an axe crit build a try at some point. You have me convinced with its accuracy boost though. It's definitely a game changer early game. Windsweep will always be S tier in my opinion. Attacking without retaliation in melee against even those, that could otherwise retaliate regardless of range is incredibly powerful and rivaled only by gambits which are extremely limited and often not even that accurate. About Sword Dance I've admittedly almost never used it for exactly the reason you mentioned. It's only technically that it would make for a great combat art. Charm can be pumped up pretty easily and the +20 avoid harmonizes well with dancers decent dodginess. Break Shot has great value against monsters and great synergy with your speedy units and brawlers. I'd still value its usefulness a lot higher than Schism / Waning. I also see your reasoning on curved shot, especially for secondary bow users, which I haven't really utilized so far. If I also accounted for availability Curved Shot might actually be the best equippable combat art overall imo.

I tried to do a list on my own as noone has done so far. Disclaimer: I didn't account for availability in any way. Neither on which units get to use the art nor on which skill level the units are expected to unlock it. Imo almost all combat arts still have their uses. It's just that the higher ranked ones are useful more often or are offering powerful unique options. S : Encloser, Windsweep, Deadeye, Swift Strikes, Sword Dance, Armored Strike, Glowing Ember, Frozen Lance A : Break Shot, Point-Blank Volley, Monster Blast, Nimble Combo, Bombard, Finesse Blade, Vengeance, Schism Shot, Lightning Axe, Soulblade, Waning Shot, Curved Shot, Heavy Draw, Lance Jab, Tempest Lance, Reposition, Knightkneeler, Monster Breaker, Bane of Monsters, Healing Focus B : Monster Piercer, Helm Splitter, Hexblade, Draw Back, Shatter Slash, Ward Arrow, One-Two Punch, Wrath Strike C : Monster Crusher, Spike, Exhaustive Strike, Smash, Smite, Fading Blow, Haze Slice D : Shove, Mighty Blow, Swap, Rushing Blow E : Grounder, Diamond Axe, Hit and Run, Mystic Blow, Draining Blow, Focused Strike, Wild Abandon, Subdue Feel free to disagree

When choosing a dancer it's also interesting to look at their potential to become a dodgetank as they get sword avoid +20. BL with sword proficiencies are Dimitri, Felix and Ingrid. All 3 of them also have a high speed growth and would be decent as physical dodgetanks. Dimitri and Ingrid also have high charm growth to avoid enemy gambits more often. Ingrid and Felix also have decent luck growth to sometimes also avoid magic attacks. (Though I don't think you should rely on dodging these) Ingrid also has a proficiency in flying and makes for a good pegasus knight before becoming a dancer. With a good flying skill she can learn Alert Stance and Alert Stance+ which are absolutely great for dodgetanking. In conclusion: Ingrid has by far the easiest time becoming a dancer-dodgetank in the BL house

1. In Crimson Flower the units that I actually used: physical units: level 37-39 magic users: level 37-41 dancer: level 44 2. Usually my units can be promoted asap, but there are three major cases in which the class change does not happen at the first possible level: 2-3 level-ups in one map (happens about 5% of the time I'd say) advancing to advanced classes with A-rank requirement (Swordmaster, Warrior, Sniper, Grappler, Warlock, Dark Bishop, Bishop) and the master classes which are harder to transition into (Great Knight, Bow Knight) training a unit in more than one skill that they have no proficiency in A tool like this would surely be interesting though I doubt I'd actually use it before infernal difficulty. (and I'm not even sure if I'd actually want to play on that difficulty lol)

break his barrier during his last life bar with gambits if you have enough power with at least 4 range (archers, thyrsus, S rank long range magic) kill him from a far get him to below 50% without getting retaliated (gambits, 4 range, windsweep, dodgetanks that are unlikely to get hit twice) I'd advise breaking his barrier that you'll likely need 3 gambits for: 2x magic gambit with a C Battalion or higher & probably Stride too, to get all of your units into position

Most enemies in the north don't move until Manuela leaves the plateau that she starts on. She only needs to deal with the one archer that moves towards her at the start, while staying on that plateau. You can have a healing adjutant or a healer with physics help her with that. Though even then, your other units still need to hurry, as eventually some of the northern enemy units will start to move at some point regardless of the trigger

I can only rate some of the paralogues that I was able to encounter in Crimson Flower. (I'll also copy the formating from Tombstone88 :p) 12.) An Ocean View (Seteth/Flayn): Easy. There are no reinforcements, enemies don't come rushing you down, you can take your time. 11.) Rumored Nuptials (Ingrid/Dorothea): The ambush spawn sucks really bad. Apart from that it's a bit tedious with the reinforcements, but still pretty easy. 10.) Darkness Beneath the Earth (Hubert): If you know in advance how many green units may die, you can plan for it and easily keep enough of them alive. Though you've got to find ways to safe the green units from killing themselves. 9.) Tales of the Red Canyon (Sothis): Kind of a damage test at one point. Probably pretty easy if you do it a bit later and try to not use gambits until you really need to. Having a flying unit for easily getting the chest is highly recommended. 8.) Death Toll (Raphael/Ignatz): The beginning of the map is the hardest part. If you made all the right choices in battle preparations and turn 1 then the rest of the map is a breeze. 7.) Land of the Golden Deer (Lorenz): There are some turns when you'll have to deal with more units than you'd like to. The pegasus knights can spell trouble. Apart from that it's easy. 6.) Sword and Shield of Seiros (Shamir/Alois): Having to split your units into 2-3 groups is pretty annoying in maddening mode. Some of the enemies are also pretty strong. The saving grace of this paralogue is that you only need to kill the boss. 5.) The Forgotten (Sylvain): This paralogue is a race against time, if you plan to get all rewards. If you have units that can restrict enemy movement this map becomes a lot easier. 4.) Oil and Water (Hanneman/Manuela): This chapter is pretty doable, if you don't trigger the enemies in the north to advance too early. Bringing at least one flying unit is heavily advised. 3.) Foreign Land and Sky (Petra/Bernadetta): The change of objective can really catch you offguard, if you haven't positioned your units accordingly. The ambush spawn is annoying, too. Though at this point in the game you've got enough Divine Pulses that it's not a problem to spend one or two at these spawns. 2.) True Chivalry (Felix): Really annoying chapter due to the NPC's actions. You can just randomly fail to get all rewards, because the green units feel like being dumb. It's kinda a race against the green units stupidity. 1.) Insurmountable (Edelgard): Enemy units that are hard to deal with, lots of enemy reinforcements and for some rewards you need to steal items from quite fast enemies. (I was only able to do it by slowing them down with Lysithea's Swarm spell first). If you don't care for the statboosters or if you've got a speedy sword-dodge-tank who can steal, this map probably becomes a lot easier.

Oh, I just assumed, they did in all paths. Then let me rephrase it: Do the stat bonuses that you receive by cooking with one of the party members apply to two successive story missions, when there is no spare time in between them? For example in: