The "Please Help Me With My Pairings/Classes" Request

[daisy jane]

I finished playing Awakening a while ago, and while I paired everyone up, the only child unit i used really was Lucina (obviously) from a Chrom/Sumia match and didn't bother with the other kids. 

This time when I play, I want to  try and get everyone and have a more balanced roster (and by balanced i mean lethal killing machine hahaha) including getting a good Morgan. Any help/suggestions would be great. I've basically just tried to do google searches etc, but unlike Fates where it's pretty straight forward to get really good kids, Awakening is so much more  of a choose your own adventure. 

I have a M!Robin (+speed/-def) 
I plan on marrying Olivia(dark flier) x Chrom 
Lucina marries Robin (Robin will either stay grandmaster or play in dark knight for a while)
F!Morgan 

(if this was female I'd probably do the same, but probably marry Owain or Inigo)

----------------

Lissa is going to marry Ricken and have a very magic-based Owain 
Lissa would do a Peg/Dark Flier route for Galeforce but re-class into a War Cleric eventually. 
 

Tharja/Gaius (just because the last time I played, they were together and they were just lethal together). 
I didn't play in trickster, because I loved assassin, is trickster good? 

Cordelia (Dark Flier obvy)/Lon'Qu
I was told that this would make a really speed/skill based Severa.

Sumia (Dark Flier, obvy)/Henry

Maribelle and Libra
 

For Sully I was not sure.in my research a lot of people really liked the Vaike/Sully combo (which i was going to go for). Donnel passes the Galeforce trait (not really a consideration though obviously nice to consider). (in my last playthroughs I don't think i touched Vaike at all, Sully had Stahl, Donnel had Nowi). 

Cherche/Gerome ?
then that just leaves Mirel and Virion

but i am (obviously) open to any and all suggestions :) 
thanks very much in advance!

[Hawkwing]

You forgot to mention Panne, Nowi, Stahl, Kellam, Gregor, and Olivia.

Despite not being the best at knowing what pair does what, I can say that a lot of the combinations you gave combinations will work. On the ones you missed:

For Cherche, I'd suggest Viron, but that's only because Gerome got skill screwed nearly every time I played Awakening, and Viron helps alleviate that. Vaike also gives Gerome an excellent strength boost, but again, skill may be an issue.

For Panne, just remember that both Panne and Yarne are best off reclassed. I would personally go with Stahl, as Panne can keep up with him as a Wyvern rider, and it gives Yarne access to the cavalier class, which helps make his permanent beast status a non-issue. However, Yarne's biggest strength and weakness is that he can work in a lot of different classes, which gives him a lot of choices at the cost of his usefulness being difficult to predict.

For Miriel, I personally would have suggested Robin, Ricken, or Henry to give Laurent an godly magic stat, but considering that they're already taken, just make sure that Miriel's husband has a decent magic stat. Miriel herself makes Laurent as strong as a mage as he is, but if his dad is a physical unit, it isn't a bad idea to promote him into a dark rider. It helps that Laurent can be obtained pretty early, so try to take advantage of that.

For Sully, Kellam or Vaike will do. The former makes Kjelle an overall solid knight, while the latter gives her a strength boost and access to the pegasus knight class.

I'm not that good at using Nowi or Olivia, so someone else will have to tackle that.

[NinjaMonkey]

5 hours ago, Hawkwing said:

You forgot to mention Olivia.

No, she didn't! She said that Olivia was marrying Chrom, and becoming a Dark Flier.

[Dwlr]

5 hours ago, daisy jane said:

This time when I play, I want to  try and get everyone and have a more balanced roster (and by balanced i mean lethal killing machine hahaha) including getting a good Morgan. Any help/suggestions would be great. I've basically just tried to do google searches etc, but unlike Fates where it's pretty straight forward to get really good kids, Awakening is so much more  of a choose your own adventure. 

Awakening the pairings don't really matter, even the worst child character is pretty good for something or another. Sure some are 'better' than others, but you can pretty well use whomever you please child char or not and get by on any level including Apotheosis. I for example just pick my personal pairings based on hair colors because of this fact and even end them in their native class lines (as i do with all my chars) which certainly isn't optimal and yet there's never really been an issue.

With that said it'd help to say which characters are your favorites. If you're not going to use somebody because you dislike them, it's pretty easy to just rule them out for optimization and potentially free up better pairings for 'weaker' children characters. Additionally if you have parents you particularly like then getting them an S rank with another parent you're using is helpful in it's own right. You also have to factor in whether or not you're going to use something like Limit Breaker which takes you from needing to find 4 skills instead of 5 which can ease some of burden of making pairings.

My thoughts by Child and holding Galeforce in high regards as a convenience skill even if at the highest levels it may not be the 'best' choice:
Lucina: Sumia x Chrom is 'best' for Lucina, as far as I'm concerned Speed is king, offensive abilities can offset minor losses in strength or magic to the point they don't particularly matter. Getting doubled can easily result in a dead unit pending on what you're up against and missing that double attack that you could have gotten with just 1 more speed is far worse than dealing 1 or 2 more damage when that second attack really translates in 2 more attacks thanks to the proliferation of Brave Weapons and the chance to get more skills off to improve damage even further that way. Chrom and Sumia provide the fastest Lucina and you still get access to Galeforce, you do lose Vantage, but with Lucina's set IMO she can take that loss with impunity and if she's marrying the Avatar you can end with him as the lead to cover for her when she's done with her Galeforce use Vantage becomes uneccesary anyway.

Owain: I'm not a big fan of Owain. Libra and Henry both allow Owain to learn Vengeance which is highly exploitative if you're just going for optimization with access to Vengeance you get the holy trinity of Vantage, Vengeance, Galeforce on Owain regardless if you decide to make him be a magic class like you intended. Ricken on the other hand can give him Luna if either you don't want to exploit Vantage/Vengeance combo or just have other plans for Libra and Henry which are both fairly in demand tbh and Ricken not so much, not even for Laurent. *See Laurent*

Inigo: Olivia has pretty poor modifiers passed coupled with he fact she's actually weaker than most other characters overall means Inigo stats-wise is one of the weaker children by default. Pairing with Chrom takes the most work as you have the least time to raise Olivia's affection and IMO it's not really worth it. If you're an Inigo fan you can give him the exploitative Vantage, Vengeance, Galeforce combo, but if you're going more traditional somebody that can give him Luna is always a good choice and I'd go with Frederick or Stahl, you can stick with your intention of Chrom, but that's usually for a gimmick with Rightful King, but it does give Lucina Vantage, though as mentioned really not needed if you're pairing her with the Avatar.

Brady: Brady is another character I dislike rather lot so he tends to get the dregs in my pairings and Maribelle passes a lot of pretty useless Luck as modifiers so stats-wise he's not really one of my preferred chars, but he makes a decent magic type char with Galeforce so any of those pair pretty well since he really gets everything he needs from Maribelle. Libra and Henry are obviously good choices since Brady is already magically geared for the Vantage, Vengeance combo with compatible passed stats. Bowbreaker is pretty convenient on a Mage for story or areas that don't really encourage optimization.

Kjelle: Kjelle doesn't get Galeforce, but can from Donnel, Gaius, or the Avatar so those would be my obvious picks, outside of that I kind of like Virion for good Speed and Skill whilst saving Lon'Qu for Panne.

Cynthia: Sumia doesn't get many options which helps reinforce her being paired with Chrom as far as I'm concerned he's the best option by far, but I'd take Henry as a number 2 though IMO white haired Sumia is just odd. (Gaius being used for passing Galeforce to a non-galeforce female)

Severa: If Severa is going to be used as a lead I'd give her Luna or Vengeance personally and she has Vengeance base so no need to pick out father based on that, but she is lacking Vantage to couple with Vengeance so I would go with Stahl or Gregor personally.

Gerome: Vaike can produce a Gerome with abnormally high attack which is good for a partner and Gerome lacks Galeforce so you can pass a female support skill from Cherche to make good Robin background attacker, you can take minor successions and go with Stahl or Frederick to get Dual Guard+ or you can ignore that and stack as much supporting attack as you can behind a quick lead attacker to use it as often as possible and with the DLC you can run Limit Breaker, Aggressor, x-faire for +25 attack during your turn on the potentially strongest non-gen 3 char coupled with other support skills making up for his lack of lead skills he has no problem filling up his skills with something moderately useful. Demoiselle or Support Bonus + can take a slot and a breaker isn't a bad choice to help accuracy just in-case.

Yarne: I like Yarne with Lon'Qu just for stat packing, but picking somebody with a decent active to pass him is by far more wise if you want to try to take advantage of his raw stats, though his skill sets tend to be fairly lackluster or to get him a decent one you really have to dip into his stats. IMO he's a better Gerome he's got good stats to support somebody with not only high Strength, but some Skill to help accuracy with Beserker base for maximum strength and good physically geared pair up bonuses for the lead

Laurent: Laurent has Dark Mage base so he wants Vantage to exploit Vantage and Vengeance. A lot of people put Miriel with Ricken, but Ricken doesn't really offer anything useful to Laurent other than a marginally higher Magic stat which is going to be far less useful than Vantage with Vengeance base since Henry and Libra are in fairly high demand are the only two that can pass Vengeance to somebody like Owain who already has Vantage for instance. Luna is more common with 4 fathers *excluding Chrom* who can pass it so Ricken can be used to buff magical stats on somebody who can't achieve the Vantage/Vengeance combo or if you're vehemently against using the combo, he's better served to pass Luna to a unit that can be a solid magic unit like Owain.

Noire: Gaius or Donnel for Galeforce, if you're not using your Avatar to give all 3 non-galeforce females Galeforce then Nah IMO should be the one left out.

Nah: Since you're not using the Avatar for Galeforce, Nah has generally poor stats having reduced speed and focus on Defense in a game where Offensive ability is king and Nah has pretty poor class choices since Brave Weapons trump everything in Awakening since you can get a double Dual-Support attack between each Brave Attack turning 2 strikes into 6 if both units have Brave weapons, not to mention you get a Dragon weakness on top of everything else. I really wouldn't bother with Nah personally, but she can be fairly useful during the campaign or something for her defense it's just when optimization is encouraged she'll start to fall short where her decent Defense doesn't really matter at all. You can try to use her fairly unique skill Wyrmsbane to your advantage to give her a well defined purpose, but that's purely novelty. Kellam plays to her strengths and she's going to be too slow regardless what you do higher up and trying to fix her with a better father just weakens other children. Kellam gives her access to General for maximum Defense if you so choose,and Renewal which can be paired with her base Lifetaker to try to keep her healthy when it comes to her turn feeding off Wyvern enemies. Frederick is an option for Luna, Aegis and Pavise, and giving her Paladin for a more rounded defense. Henry and Libra are good choices, but they tend to be used on higher priority characters, but Sorcerers have rounded defenses and access to Nosferatu to stay healthy.

[Hawkwing]

1 hour ago, NinjaMonkey said:

No, she didn't! She said that Olivia was marrying Chrom, and becoming a Dark Flier.

My bad. I misread that as Robin, as odd it sounds.

[daisy jane]

thanks so much everyone!

@Dwlr because i like everyone :D 

seriously. its always hard for me to choose who to go to battle with! :)

[Dwlr]

7 hours ago, daisy jane said:

thanks so much everyone!

@Dwlr because i like everyone :D 

seriously. its always hard for me to choose who to go to battle with! :)

If you like everyone then I'd just prioritize making everybody at least usable, but since it can be hard to decide when you're trying to bring everybody and my list just kind of assumes you'll screw over certain characters for the sake of others just one recommendation per char no repeating fathers.

Cynthia and Lucina: Sumia x Chrom
Lucina gets the best raw stats with Sumia and the Avatar is strong as a lead so Lucina can again skip Vantage if you end on Robin ofcourse not having Vantage isn't the end of the world if you forget either in most cases. Another argument for stats over an arguably better skill set is that she'll pass better mods to gen 3 Morgan. As for Cynthia, Cynthia gets a pretty good deal with Chrom since she really has everything she needs just from Sumia so the solid stat mods are welcome and you don't spend Gaius or Henry and Frederick is sub-par for Cynthia IMO.
Aesthetically speaking Lucina is always Lucina obviously, IMO Cynthia looks a little odd, but not too terrible.

Owain: Lissa x Libra
Libra is marginally worse than Henry for Owain, but offer pretty much the same thing so you might as well use Henry elsewhere, plus you get an exploitative unit with the hair color he's supposed to have it's a win-win.

Inigo: Olivia x Henry
Vantage/Vengeance, Henry is a little better than Libra for a physical attacker and Inigo is a better physical attacker between him and Owain.

Brady: Maribelle x Virion
I made a bonehead mistake from not having dealt with Awakening in awhile I thought Brady had Myrmidon base, but he doesn't so he can't get the Vantage/Vengeance combo with Henry or Libra. Virion doesn't conflict with anything Maribelle gives and Brady has Luna base so the lack of a good active from Virion is not an issue.
Aesthetically, meh I don't like Brady's char design anyway so I don't particularly care how he looks.

Kjelle: Sully x Donnel
Gaius and Tharja are much better together IMO, but Kjelle is leagues better than Nah IMO so getting Galeforce even if you take a shot in modifiers with Donnel is worth it.

Severa: Cordelia x Lon'Qu
High skill and speed Severa that picks up Vantage.

Gerome: Cherche x Vaike
Vaike gives Beserker and tops out Gerome's Strength to the highest possible in gen 2, he's still a support char thanks to his low Speed and meh skillset if he were a lead, but he's strong in the back and a breaker tends to fix his accuracy at least against one of the weapons. I'd take Lancebreaker to play off the triangle and maximize accuracy against one of the weapons instead of taking a more all around option, you get other units for a reason after all you can pick your fights.

Morgan: Avatar x Lucina
Not my go to choice for a gen 3 Morgan, but you're already set on it so there it is. Morgan is best at 3rd gen with a stat-centric Yarne on the fem side and on the Male avi side I'd prolly give it to Severa though a defensively spec'd Nah can hit laughably high Defensive stats too bad they're kind of useless.

Yarne: Panne x Stahl
Stahl gives Yarne a viable enough lead set and keeps solid modifiers should you want to put him in front from some time to time.

Laurent: Miriel x Gregor
Gregor gives Myrmidon for Laurent's base Vengeance, the conflicting modifiers don't really matter on a Vantage/Vengeance unit either so no issue there. You could flip Lon'Qu and Gregor depending on whom you like more, but Severa is higher priority IMO due to Galeforce so she gets Lon'Qu, flipping them is better for aesthetics IMO though.

Noire: Tharja x Gaius
Gaius gives Vantage and Galeforce to Noire who already has Vengeance.

Nah: Nowi x Ricken
Ricken doesn't sink Nah's base speed lower than it already is going to be thanks to Nowi unlike Kellam and Fredrick would, you miss out some defensive buffs, but Speed is king. Ricken's skill set is good enough and actually creates a solid magical Nah.

Unused: Frederick and Kellam
~Cheers

Edited May 9, 2018 by Dwlr

[daisy jane]

thanks so much everyone :)