Help me plan out Sophie

[Echo-2]

Hello,

So I got Birthright when it first came out last year. Played it for a few weeks and got to around chapter 18 or so, then got sidetracked with life and other things. Recently, I got back into FE stuff and decided it was time to finally finish the game. However, it was a lot worse than I remember it being last year. The characters seemed boring and I'm pretty sure I invested in poor choices for my main units on that file (yeah, I know, "Birthright is so easy!" you will say...). I'm on Ch 22 on that file and my Hana gets wrecked constantly, Rinkah sucks, my Mozu is crap. I didn't use units like Oboro and Scarlet, who are highly acclaimed. Not that I knew then, I was just using units I thought would be good (Mozu = Donnel!? Not in this game). I remembering enjoying Awakening much more than Fates (I found I like the 'normal' medieval themed units of FE - cavalier, knight, hero, sage, etc. - more than the Japanese themed units...).

ANYWAY, since I'm giving BR another go, I figured I'd start a new file and give it a fresh start. I'm planning on using some of the kids this time around - I'm most excited for Sophie and Shiro. I figured the kids would give me more customizability with skills, as I loved training units for skills and planning out OP kids in Awakening (My favorites being Kjelle [Aegis, Pavise, Luna, Lethality, Dual Guard], Noire [Astra, Vengeance with a 102% proc rate!, Bowfaire, Lifetaker, Slow Burn], and Donnel [HP +5, Counter, Sol, Zeal, Armsthrift with 98% proc).

So I started looking into Sophie first and I based my Avatar around her - 

         Silas (Great Knight) + Avatar (Hoshidan Noble) = Sophie (Paladin) [Skills: Aegis, Pavise, Luna/Dragon Fang, Sol, Hoshidan Unity]

I selected her skills and was making a plan for class changes and inheritances from Silas and Avatar (who's secondary class is Knight). However, I started reading that class changes are finite, in contrast to Awakening where we could do as much as we wanted, and BR added a lot of new class change options with new seals and relationships (S, A+, and A with certain characters). Needless to say, I feel like BR is way harder to plan out kids and training than Awakening, and it's been awhile since I took FE as seriously as I did years ago with Awakening... I'm getting confused with the route here.

I was hoping to do the following: Silas class change to Knight - General (S relationship with Avatar) to grab Pavise - back to Great Knight for final class. Avatar change to Hoshidan Noble to get Hoshidan Unity. Recruit Sophie with Pavise and Hoshidan Unity inherited from parents. Change Sophie into Merc - Hero to grab Sol. Change to Nohr Princess (through mother's class inheritance) to get Dragon Fang AND/OR class back to Cavalier - Great Knight to get Luna. Finally, change to Paladin (end class) to finish with Aegis.

Is this possible? I definitely feel as if it is not optimal. I'm aware of buying skills on MyCastle. If I just buy stuff like Sol and Pavise for Sophie, will she miss out on growths and stuff from leveling her more on other classes to get certain skills? I'm not opposed to buying some skills if I can find a Sophie with some of the promoted class level 15 skills (Pavise).

Looking for any advice besides "Just make Sophie and then go buy all the skills" (which is obvious) to make this skill set as easily obtained and streamed lined as possible while maxing Sophie's stats.

Also, any advice on maximizing kids and tips for skill hunting (without using MyCastle) would be appreciated, as it would help me plan out other kids after Sophie. I just feel as if this game is not as intuitive as Awakening was with this stuff and is more confusing. Maybe I'm just getting old and stupid.

Thank you!

Tl;dr I don't like BR as much as Awakening - planning kids and skills is not as fun this time around. --- I want Avatar!Sophie. Avatar class at creation is Knight. Sophie ends as Paladin with Aegis, Pavise, Luna/Dragon Fang, Sol, Hoshidan Unity. Most efficient path to make this Sophie with maxed stats (aside from buying every skill from MyCastle)?

[Shadow Mir]

Simply put, no matter what, you're going to have to do A LOT of grinding, since your skill set for Sophie has THREE level 15 skills. Incidentally, Sophie will only get Nohr Princess from Corrin, so Pavise will have to be passed down from Corrin... If you don't mind waiting to recruit her until the very end of the game, that is (and I must note that she starts far away from you, meaning she has a good chance of dying before you can recruit her if you wait until that late in the game).

Edited September 7, 2017 by Levant Mir Celestia

[astrophys]

1 hour ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Simply put, no matter what, you're going to have to do A LOT of grinding, since your skill set for Sophie has THREE level 15 skills. 

This point isn't inherently true for a child in general, as you can pick up the non-promoted + level 5 promoted skills in 3 levels each in the span between 3 promoted and above.... So you actually can get quite a number of level 15 skills with no grinding whatsoever - the actual cost is lots of gold for the seals, plus seal availability is limited until Ch. 20.  

 

HOWEVER, there is a constraint on Sophie BECAUSE of a particular skill the TC wants on her that needs to be passed by Corrin. 

 

1 hour ago, Echo-2 said:

Tl;dr I don't like BR as much as Awakening - planning kids and skills is not as fun this time around. --- I want Avatar!Sophie. Avatar class at creation is Knight. Sophie ends as Paladin with Aegis, Pavise, Luna/Dragon Fang, Sol, Hoshidan Unity. Most efficient path to make this Sophie with maxed stats (aside from buying every skill from MyCastle)?

Avatar!Sophie gets Cavalier, Mercenary, and Nohr Princess as her base classes.  

She doesn't learn Knight on her own, so Pavise requires Corrin to get to General level 15 first, before you even recruit Sophie, in order to learn Pavise to provide it in inheritance. 

This is what causes the constraint - outside of massive grinding, by the time you get the Avatar that high, it will be near the end of the game - which means when recruited Sophie will come in auto-leveled to a very high level - which means she won't have the amount of levels left before Partner Seals to learn everything - which will then require Grinding.

I

[Echo-2]

3 minutes ago, astrophys said:

This point isn't inherently true for a child in general, as you can pick up the non-promoted + level 5 promoted skills in 3 levels each in the span between 3 promoted and above.... So you actually can get quite a number of level 15 skills with no grinding whatsoever - the actual cost is lots of gold for the seals, plus seal availability is limited until Ch. 20. 

How can I get quite a number of lv 15 promoted skills with no grinding if I'm promoting at base class lv 3 to promoted lv 3, giving me the 2 non-promoted skills and the lv 5 promoted skill by promoted lv 5? That still means I need 10 lvs to get the lv 15 skill. Unless you're meaning I send two lv 15 skills from parents to Sophie and then grab one lv 15 skill with the above method? I'm not quite sure I'm understanding how this eliminates the grind for lv 15 skills...

Needless to say, from both of your comments, it looks like in essence this plan is too grind and late game intensive, and I would be better off sending her straight to Paladin and just buying what I need from the Castle. At minimum I can probably send Luna from Silas, Dragon Fang from Avatar, reclass Sophie to Merc - Hero to get Sol, reclass her a second time to end at Paladin and grab Aegis on the way. That leaves me with buying Hoshidan Unity (or Quixotic) and Pavise from someone else's Sophie.

I know in Awakening, at least from my experience, reclassing two times was not a big deal. Is it still generally done in this game or is it more common just to promote once and be done? Like I said, after reading up on class changes, it seems like it's way harder and not as rewarding in Fates.

[astrophys]

You can complete an entire class-line's four skill skill-set in as little as four levels by the end of the game as if you're above the required level you learn 1 skill per level until you're caught up.  

Promoted level 2, switching into an entirely new class line:  Level up to level 3.  Learn first skill.  Level up to level 4.  Learn 2nd skill [these were both from the non-promoted].  Level up to level 5.  Learn the 3rd skill, which is the promoted level 5 skill.  

Now switch to a new class tree with a seal. 

Level 6.  Learn skill 1.  Level 7.  Learn skill 2.  Level 8.  Learn skill 3.  

Switch to yet another class tree. 

Level 9.  Learn skill 1 from that new tree. 10 learns the 2nd, and 11 learns the 3rd.  

You could even use levels 12-14 to get another set of three skills in.  

And then you would reclassified to each desired class for one level for levels 15+ to pick up the highest level skills.  

That way, on levels 15,16, 17, and 18, you could complete all of them, and you get FOUR level-15 promoted skills from entirely different trees without ever having to level-grind [as a character you're using as a favorite on Birthright like Corrin or a favored wife from my experience will almost always reach level 20 promoted in a no-grind run by the end of the game].   

 

It is very micro-managing and unreasonably gold intensive, but its entirely POSSIBLE [not necessarily worth all the trouble, just that it can be done].  

 

 

The fact that you want Pavise messes up this plan, however, as by the time Corrin is high enough level to learn Pavise, Sophie will be auto-leveled so that her offspring seal will bring her up to very high levels, so she won't have so many levels available [prior to Eternal Seals] to do the repeated class-change and then level up as naturally playing the game that this method requires.  

Edited September 7, 2017 by astrophys

[Echo-2]

Ah I see. I did not realize that you could jump around so much like that and burn through 4 classes and 16 skills in 18 levels. I knew you would pick up pre-promote skills that were missed, but didn't extend the possibilities out that far. I see what you mean that I'll run out of time on Sophie. I'll have to resort to searching for it to simply buy. I appreciate your explanations!

[astrophys]

6 minutes ago, Echo-2 said:

Ah I see. I did not realize that you could jump around so much like that and burn through 4 classes and 16 skills in 18 levels. I knew you would pick up pre-promote skills that were missed, but didn't extend the possibilities out that far. I see what you mean that I'll run out of time on Sophie. I'll have to resort to searching for it to simply buy. I appreciate your explanations!

 

Although if you sacrificed the goal of including Pavise OR  you skill-bought Pavise [I'm not a fan of skill buying, but it is an option], then you could recruit Sophie at a much earlier level [as you no longer depend on passing a level 15 skill to her that she cannot learn herself from her mother] and use a procedure like what I described, but less extreme, to pick up other skills naturally in such a manner. 

[joshcja]

Corrin!Sophie is way better at running Luna/Sol bow knight that dodgetanks with breakers than she is megatank. Silas's person makes him fat as hell though Sol+MN with VoF holding Corrins pretty much unkillable inLCQ much less BR.