Rate the Unit-Three Houses, Day 4: Linhardt

[Benice]

Rules

- Ratings are assumed to be on Hard or Maddening Mode. Also, they should be based on when the unit is first available. (When rating a unit, please specify whether you are rating assuming Hard or Maddening.)

- Votes need some explanation regarding their gameplay performance to be counted (unless they fall into the general parameters of the average rating, but reasoning is still strongly encouraged on those even if you just wanna quote people) — incredibly low scores or high scores without proper justification will not be counted. Don't put in some random text thinking it'd count as justification. Put in at least a little thought and give REAL reasoning.

- Numbers for votes, please - not something like "Marcus/10", etc. Proper Justification will be determined by me and whoever decides to help.

+/- ≤1 point extra regarding personality/appearance is okay, but no more.

- Votes out of 10, or something proportional to it. Makes it easy to calculate, please and thank you~!

-The rating you give to a unit assumes a good build for said unit-nothing among the lines of, "Dedue is 2/10 because he's a bad mage."

-The ranking assumes no grinding of any form, no DLC and minor, (one or two stat boosters per month) use of the Greenhouse.

- Make votes easily visible, please! "[Explanation text]: So, overall, I think X unit is a 7.5/10, with a +1 bias included for being hawt/cute/funny/etc.."

- Every ranking phase ends approximately at 20:00 PST. Do the math for your timezone, please!

-We will ask you to not use the "Not X unit" reason. Because it will be used a lot. I.E, do not say "Linhardt bad because not Lysithea."

-The Black Eagles may be assessed based on their performances in either Silver Snow or Crimson Flower, other than when not applicable.

 

Scores:

Edelgard: 9.00

Hubert: 5.525

FERDINAND: 7.78

Average score for Black Eagles: 7.435

 

Day 4: Linhardt

[Sooks]

9/10 Obvious out of the way, he can use warp.

Okay so real stuff. His bases and growths are fine, but his nice magic and res growths pair well with his faith utility, as he also has access to physic on top of warp, bishop is a clear class choice for him, he’s a great healer. And although you shouldn’t rely on it, like all minor crests, his crest also helps with healing. Since it’s a boon of his and white magic classes can use magic, training him in reason on the side is great for chip, he also has a high magic growth and not bad offensive spells. He learns excalibur at reason rank A, which, with a mag stat booster here or there, should leave him OHKOing fliers. Thanks to possessing a crest, he can also join in on Thyrsus trading circle to provide chip without taking a damage penalty. His personal isn’t great, but eh. That’s not very important. Overall he’s a very solid support unit and a nice addition to any team.

TL;DR His faith spell list is very nice and he can provide nice magic chip, overall a great unit to have on your team.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Linhardt's the weakest of the dedicated house healers IMO, but he's still useful.

The good: Linhardt has Physic, the uber-useful healing spell which allows you to heal regardless of position (and with the low move and most mage classes, that's big). He also gets Warp at A rank; I'm not the world's biggest fan of Warp, but it's still a nice addition to one's faith toolbox. Finally, he also has Restore, which is only rarely useful, but can be a lifesaver in those rare times (an enemy gambit incapcitating multiple party members can ruin your day). So basically, his faith list is one of the very best. He has boons in both Reason and Faith, by far the two most important skills for a mage, and no relevant banes (just axe and brawling, neither of which a mage is likely to care about except maaybe for armour certification for def). Excalibur lets him strike weakness on fliers and potentially OHKO them (it might need some optimization to get pegasi), though how valuable this is depends a lot on how many archers you are running.

The less good: Linhardt's stats are easily worse than other mages, with only 5 base speed (the others have 7-8) and 10 base magic, as well as the worst charm stat in the game (both base and growth). His low charm encourages you to neglect his authority since he can't land Resonant [element] gambits and just use the E-rank Stride battalion, which is certainly a fine option, but this hamstrings his magical offence even further. He does not get a magical combat art either, and his Reason spells have low power, so it all adds up to him having the hardest time running magical offence of any of the mages: hardest time getting OHKOs, hardest time doubling faster armour and great knights. He's also squishy; memorably, he is the only one of the 24 students who is ORKOed by archers at base in chapter 2 regardless of what he equips.

In summary, Linhardt has an excellent faith list and not much else to recommend him. If you're just looking for someone who can go Bishop and sling white spells, he's your guy. If you're looking for a bit of offence to go with that, you should look elsewhere. Personally, I find him useful on Eagles runs, either as a full unit or filler for when deployment slots are high, but untempting as a recruit, which puts him below Ferdinand. 5.5/10.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Dark Holy Elf

[Anathaco]

6.5/10

Honestly I don't have much to say for him. It's a struggle to talk about him because he has so little going for him; but that little goes a long way, because its Warp and Physic. He's pretty meh as a combat unit, with pretty average growths in every stat, leading to a unit who doesn't excel much at anything. He learns no combat arts at all other than the generic ones, and his only ability from training authority is Battalion Renewal, which, uhhh... has anybody ever used that? No, like seriously, I'm curious.

Anyway, his spell lists are the main thing that saves him. Warp and Physic is the ultimate power duo, and Restore is super underrated IMO. In terms of Reason, Cutting Gale and Excalibur are his two most notable spells, though he probably won't perform super well with them. He's best off sticking with the Faith side of things.

Lastly, its worth pointing out that he's a guy in a game where the best magic classes are female exclusive. Honestly though, the only real bummer in that is the fact that he can't go Dark Flier. Bishop is all he really needs, maximising his healing potential and his warp usage. If you desperately want more mobility you can always make him a Holy Knight or Dark Knight.

Anyway, Warp and Physic give him amazing utility that offsets his poor everything else. I honestly would give him a higher rating but my personal bias towards combat over utility tends to override that. The three healer characters are all pretty close to each other in terms of ratings IMO- Linhardt has the worst combat but the best utility, so I think this is fair for him.

EDIT: After saying I didn't have much to say for him, I said a lot for him. I'll keep that sentence in because I find it funny.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Anathaco

[Shadow Mir]

6/10. He's got a good faith list, but that's about it. Being a male in a game where the best magic classes are female-exclusive does him no favours.

25 minutes ago, Anathaco said:

EDIT: After saying I didn't have much to say for him, I said a lot for him. I'll keep that sentence in because I find it funny.

XD

[DarthR0xas]

I'd give him a 9, but I really don't like his personality and design, so 8/10.

Warp is just that good imo. Sure 3H does have Stride, which is absolutely amazing, but a lot of maps have terrain or other blockers that limit the power of stride. Not so with Warp. Stride + Warp is the best combo in the game, and I'd honestly argue that Linhardt is the best warper in the game. Yes Lysithea is good and gets warp slightly earlier than Linhardt, however she still lacks Physic. This makes it so Linhardt can warp and cover for those who he just warped. He's at the very least, leagues better than Manuela, who has a worse magic growth, and joins later, with stats that are generally going to be lower than Linhardt's.

Yes he is hurt by the fact that most of the best magic classes are female locked, however he still has very viable options. Bishop and Holy Knight are both obvious, but sending Linhardt into the Dark Mage/Bishop pathline is an equally viable option, and the skills they give compliment him quite well. He is not an amazing combat unit, so poison strike and lifesteal (which if memory serves are what you get from them, if not sorry) both fit him quite well. Even on Black Eagles, there are still enough Dark Seals (presuming you don't fail an exam on one of them) to have both Hubert and Linhardt branch into them, so there's no need to be concerned about resources for him either. 

Frankly his charm being meh seems like a bit of a non-issue imo. Frankly most magical offensive gambits are pretty meh overall, and just having him utilize the utility ones is a much better idea. Overall, I'd definitely say that the sheer utility of Linhardt leads to his high ranking

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, DarthR0xas said:

Yes he is hurt by the fact that most of the best magic classes are female locked, however he still has very viable options. Bishop and Holy Knight are both obvious, but sending Linhardt into the Dark Mage/Bishop pathline is an equally viable option, and the skills they give compliment him quite well. He is not an amazing combat unit, so poison strike and lifesteal (which if memory serves are what you get from them, if not sorry) both fit him quite well. Even on Black Eagles, there are still enough Dark Seals (presuming you don't fail an exam on one of them) to have both Hubert and Linhardt branch into them, so there's no need to be concerned about resources for him either. 

First off, there are only 4 dark seals if you go on to Crimson Flower, and the first one is likely not going to be easy to get unless you have a thief at that point (which likely won't be the case, especially on Maddening). Also, Lifetaker is not good in this game - recovering half the HP the enemy had at the time of defeat doesn't sound so good when more often than not, you need more than one unit to kill an enemy, thus it only does any real good when you get a critical hit on a full HP enemy - and most spells don't have high crit. Also, I don't know about you, but honestly Holy Knight sucks for all the effort it needs to access.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Gordin]

9/10 Yay warp and physic. 

He doesn't really need much else. His reason list is pretty nice too but he's your dedicated warper and healer and the more warpers you have the better. He's key in low turning maps when you don't want to deal with it. He's just good. He has a crest too so you can give him the crest staffs if you really want to make him an offensive unit. Sucks that he can't go gremory but Bishop is tbh more than good enough. 

[DriftingWaterBottle]

7 / 10 on Hard

the good:

- Useful Faith spell list with Physic, Warp and Restore that can cover most utility need.

- D+ Faith at base, thus relatively close to get Physic to help with the early game.

- Both Faith and Reason boons on a magic-oriented unit allow a relatively low investment build.

- Minor crest of Cethleann. Occasionally raising Mt when healing is a nice bonus, even though not always reliable. No penalty with Thyrsus is nice too.

- Good Resistance base and growth that can bait mages on Hard if needed.

 

the not-so-good:

- Not very useful personal, needing to sacrifice a turn for self-healing.

- No useful unique skill or magic combat art.

 

the mixed:

- Reliable, although not exceptional, Reason list. Generally good base Hit, but no 3 range, and Excalibar’s niche can be overshadowed by relatively easy access to Bow.

- Warp range can be a bit lacking in comparison to Lysithea, but definitely not a dealbreaker.

- Limited magic class availability for male mages, but at the same time, Bishop is generally well suited for a utility-oriented unit.

- Limited offensive potential with okay Mag & Spd growth, low Spd base, generally low Mt Reason spells, no magic combat art and no boon in weapon skills that have access to magic weapons, but not necessarily problematic for a utility-oriented unit.

Edited October 12, 2020 by DriftingWaterBottle

[Bartozio]

7.5/10

Honestly, Linhardt isn't the most exiting unit to talk about, since his qualities are pretty obvious. His faith list is amazing, his magic is good and his other stats aren't amazing, but anything a mage cares about is passable at least.

Some things people haven't said yet: He starts out with D+ faith, which means he can have physic as early as chapter 2. That's pretty big, since going from 5 heals to 8 and having to care a little bit less about positioning when healing is incredibly nice. It also helps that he doesn't have to compete for experience with other units in maddening. In terms of offense, he's never amazing, but he can chip and nuke enemies from the armor knight line just fine in my experience. Basically, he does the bare minimum you'd want of a offensive mage, but not a lot more. He's also a bit bulkier that some other mages like Lysithia, which means he can survive a stray hit once in a while, although he should still stay away from the frontline as much as possible.

All in all, I find Linhardt a very useful unit. He never outright steals the show in any map (like units like Edel can do), which is why I'm not rating him higher, but he contributes greatly all game long without a lot of investment.

[Punished Dayni]

Sleepy boi has probably one of the most recurring usage I've had in this game, so I'm quite familiar.

The sleepy numbers:

Spoiler

His bases make Hubert look good. He's got 10 Mag and 9 Res, which are fine but unexceptional, but 5 Str/Spd/Def is very poor, even for a support unit. Meanwhile his growths are not the best, with his highest being Mag, Luk and Res at 45%. His other growths just don't do that much for him, but they're not very low barring his Cha at 20% (which explains why the battalion associated with his house isn't an offensive gambit).

In his strengths and weaknesses, he's got axe and brawling weaknesses, which is fine, because he doesn't care. His strengths are Reason and Faith, because everything about Linhart is magic.

His magic is absolutely his best trait. His reason list has Wind, Fire, Cutting Gale, Bolganone and Excalibur, where most just add damage barring Excalibur having flying effectiveness. They're all pretty accurate magic, so that's nice. His faith list is where he really shines though. He has H+N, but he then gets Physic, Restore and Warp. Physic is generally preferable due to its range being more flexible to work around, Restore is nice when your army's been peppered with poison or severely debuffed or staggered. Of course, you could just use the Warp spell. In this game it is 1/4 magic range, but he's got pretty good magic growth and quite a few bosses make the mistake of being in places where they probably shouldn't be. One minor benefit he has over Hubert is that his magic is lighter, thus he's less likely to lose speed to it. Of course that's not as relevant as the game goes on and because he has such a low base, but early on it could make a difference on some enemies. His issue for that is that it can take a while to get Warp and Excalibur and you should prioritise one at a time.

His personal skill heals 10% of HP when he waits, he'll rarely get the chance to. Meanwhile he has a minor cethleann crest, which sometimes adds 5 points to his healing, while it's not big, I think it can be nice, especially for topping off units who aren't getting healed enough normally. Sure Healing Staff is better and more reliable and Recover is more powerful, but there's not much reason to carry it all the time and Recover's bad unless you have the movement to make it work.

Linhart has 0 combat arts. That's legit bad. Meanwhile the only skill he gets from Authority is Battalion Renewal. This paragraph's so bad.

How did I find him?

Spoiler

I mean, he's got magic going for him. I've used him quite a bit, from my first run to my current maddening run except for BL.

In all the hard runs he occasionally contributed to combat and otherwise provided support, except on CF where he got the Arrow of Indra for occasional use. Really, there isn't that much I can add beyond Physic good, Restore I guess, Excalibur can do some good damage and haha warp staff.

In pretty much all the runs he ended in Dark Knight, mainly because of the move, though Bishop's also good for the extra Warp. I've tried Dark Bishop as well and it's not worth much for him, Lorenz can use it better out of the not Huberts imo.

See, I don't think I can rate him all that highly when his combat is pretty disappointing, poor boy can't help but get doubled. His niche is very much support and not much else. I'm going to rate him 6.5/10, because he's been at least consistent support.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Dayni

[Barren]

Linhardt to me seems like a fine healer but I've always find him to be a bit one dimensional. This sleepy bishop on duty does start the game off nicely though. Catnap healing 10% of max HP when you wait is rarely used since you'll want him to be healing pretty much most of the time and a smart player would make sure he is away from the danger zone. He does have some good qualities though. Being able to get Physic as early as chapter 2 is always helpful since you have that and heal so that is 8 times you have heal with him. His reason skill list is similar if not the same as Annette, Yuri and Flayn with his best reason spell being Excalibur which is nice against fliers. The rest of his faith spell list contains Restore which I just found out recently can also revert stat debuffs as well as get rid of poison and Warp. Warp is a really good spell for movement based tactics in combination with Stride and that can allows tackling missions to be easier for the player to handle. You can combine that later with Dance and gain the advantage by either taking care of a threat early or to lure enemies effective without much fear of retaliation in return. 

Now his physical options are not really worth mentioning as his strength growth is only 30% and his speed is 40% so he would naturally have a hard time dealing any physical damage as well as taking it. His res is good enough to at least bait mages if need be. His magical options fare better. Bishop is pretty much his best class since it offers 2x of white magic and 10+ HP healing and his crest that can also occasionally increase his healing further are nice tools for him to use. While Warlock, Dark Bishop and Dark Knight are other options, none of which (aside from maybe Dark Knight) are classes that he can do well in. Warlock's Bowbreaker is nice as a filler ability and his Excalibur and Cutting Gale spells would do a good chunk of damage but it cuts into his white magic uses which is something that you probably don't want to have to deal with forever.

Overall I'd say he is a 6/10 unit for me. Good healer and can be a decent choice for a healer outside of black eagles but honestly even if you did recruit him, you're only recruiting him for two reasons: You've need another warp user or secondary healer and if you're playing Golden Deer, you want the Inexhaustible Bow. It's a damn good weapon

Edited October 12, 2020 by Barren

[Agro]

9/10, early Physic and high magic for Warp are all I need.  If y'all are letting him get doubled or landing him in combat, you're using him wrong. Linhardt exists to get Edelgard and Byleth to where they need to be to do their thing. He doesn't get a 10/10 because his mobility really sucks and can get him in deep trouble in some maps where there are reinforcements coming from behind (looking at you, CF finale...)

[Garsoba]

x

Edited October 16, 2020 by Garsoba

[ruruo]

6/10

He gets the healer job done. A second warper is always nice. Good carrier for stride/support battalions. 

[Dark Holy Elf]

7 hours ago, DarthR0xas said:

Frankly his charm being meh seems like a bit of a non-issue imo. Frankly most magical offensive gambits are pretty meh overall, and just having him utilize the utility ones is a much better idea.

I definitely disagree with the idea that the second-tier offensive magical gambits (Resonant [...]) being meh! They cover as many as 12 panels, allowing you to rattle large, dangerous groups of enemies with ease, and you can centre the gambit within range 2, as opposed to 1 (unlike Blaze, which covers fewer panels anyway). Really, the only better offensive gambits are the ones from the lord battalions, and that's because they have 2 shots. A well-timed use of a large AoE gambit wins battles; it can allow you to overcome large groups of enemies who would be difficult to deal with otherwise. Two large gambits also instantly break monsters (and can even cover some nearby enemies) which is neat, although admittedly, you don't need charm in those cases (except against bosses).

Obviously, Stride is excellent too, and I'm not trying to to devalue it.

[SumG]

He's very...meh.  The problem to me is that he tends to be outclassed regardless of what you're trying to do.  Want to do warp shenannigans on some of the shorter maps?  Lysithea is much better due being an offensive powerhouse on maps where Warp can't be abused.  Want to heal?  Mercedes is better due to access to Fortify.  I don't think the lack of access to Gremory is that bad, considering it's pretty clear the intended build for him is as a Bishop.  And his reason is fine for a healer, but is nothing special.

6.5/10

 

Edited October 12, 2020 by SumG

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The only combination of Physic and Warp in the game. Restore can also be a big help when somebody gets nailed by a 30 accuracy gambit, giving you the option of disengaging rather than throwing your whole crew in to salvage the situation. I think he's also the fastest unit to learn Warp in CF and SS? I forget the mathematics in play there. His crest doesn't proc often but it's often a big help when it does, especially in the first few maps where your pool of heals is never enough, or in the last maps where your units have so much HP that you wish you could top them off a bit more. Class him into Bishop, get him a healing staff, and he's as good as a support unit can get by level 20. His stats and offensive spells are notably poor but as long as he can take out an armor knight, that's pretty much the one benchmark I hope my mages can clear. Plus wind magic is pretty ideal for early maps anyway, having high accuracy (to reliably chip enemy health), and a generous 6 spell charges before he's a monk. He's a godsend early game because Hubert is far away from ever learning heal, and Dorothea can't get heal before chapter 3. You'll be chugging vulneraries as your main source of healing, but sometimes Byleth/Edelgard really need their turn to attack and that's where the ability to Heal is a game changer.

I think Linhardt's nailing of the support role opens up room in your roster for a more dedicated combat mage. Not that I ever find them necessary in this game, but all those fancy battalions and magic relics just go to waste otherwise. You might even say that he makes bad units like Hubert and Dorothea better because their lack of initial utility is already made up for. His charm stat is bad, but he's a great stride user, since he doesn't need to be near anybody to support unless it's time to warp somebody in. Obviously stride+warp is a great combo and Linhardt needs to be danced to do both in a turn so if him holding it is a problem, have some fun using other support gambits like Blessing and Retribution. I rate him a 7.0, which is the highest I intend to rate any mage. While I can imagine going through Maddening again without him, I certainly wouldn't want to.

Edited October 12, 2020 by Glennstavos

[Sooks]

1 hour ago, Glennstavos said:

I rate him a 7.0, which is the highest I intend to rate any mage.

I am now very interested to hear your thoughts on Lysithea, when the time comes...

[Zapp Branniglenn]

21 minutes ago, Sooks1016 said:

I am now very interested to hear your thoughts on Lysithea, when the time comes...

That reminds me I need to give her *stretches out a five dollar bill* her allowance for the week.

[-Moonlight-]

Seemingly uninteresting at first, possibly because even at his A support, we know nothing of his backstory. He has the minor crest of Cethleann, which I don't know if is gone into or not in Cindered Shadows as I don't have it, but we don't learn anything about him, which disappoints me. Comes from a Noble House we barely hear about in the game/main story, despite having an actual interesting personality, against fighting, literally asking Byleth if people value their lives if they go out to war to die. While better to be used as an attacker with my experience, he's set up to be a healer considering his low strength and hp stats. Sylvain, Ingrid, Mercedes, and Marianne are all better possible healer options. I say Sylvain because his budding talent is reason, which sets up up great to be great in the magic department. Ingrid, already on the cavalry path, fastly learns faith, sets up great to be a Holy Knight. I'd personally rather use Mercedes as a bow/healer unit, which she excels in (distance attack). Linhardt in terms of strategy, I give a 5-7/10. In terms of personality, 7/10. Missed potential both ways.

[leesangstar10]

Unpopular opinion, but I rate him as 8.

Pros:

Warp&physics

Has D+ faith in the beginning so super easy for him to get physics early.

Cons:

Terrible base stats 10 mag and 5 spd ew

Bad offensive spells

Doesn't like doing chapel. Makes raising faith harder.

 

I've seen ppl say that him being male is a negative, but imo I don't think so because I always go the bishop route anyways for any of my healers. (imo lysithea and maybe dorothea is the only ones worth using gremory)

[lenticular]

He doesn't have a whole lot going for him. His personal skill is a genuine contender for worst in the game. He is the only unit in the game who doesn't learn a single combat art other than the ones everyone gets. His two skill proficiencies (reason and faith) have him tied for the fewest in the game; only three other units (Caspar, Catherine, Shamir) have that few and no budding talent. Literally everything about him is made to be a dedicated spellcaster. He really struggles as an offensive spellcaster, though. He doesn't have high enough magic stat to pack much of a punch, good enough offensive spells to make up for it, or good enough speed to be doubling much of anything. He'll mostly just be dealing chip damage, and fairly mediocre chip damage at that.

And so we come to his faith list. Physic is a great spell, but there are plenty of units who have it, so it's hardly a unique selling point. Early access to physic is a nice perk, but is only relevant for a level or two. Restore is the sort of spell that I end up using only once or twice in an entire game, but it's amazingly clutch on those rare occasions when it does come up. So, overall, I'd say that his white magic performance up to this point is good but not great.

And then there's Warp. Ultimately, I just don't value Warp nearly as highly as a lot of other people do. It's obviously invaluable in anything that in any way resembles a speedrun or LTC, and there are definitely times where it shines in casual play too, but it's not something that I find myself using in every map. Don't get me wrong, it's a good spell and I appreciate having it, but I don't think it's good enough to turn a painfully mediocre unit into a good one. I can see why people who love Warp rate him highly, but I don't. Overall, I rate him at a 5 and honestly feel that's erring on the side of generous.

As something of an aside, I would typically consider his lack of access to gremory to be a pretty big downside, since I value the +1 movement that gremory has over bishop. For Crimson Flower, though, so little of the game happens after level 30 that master classes aren't really much of a consideration

[Anathaco]

6 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

That reminds me I need to give her *stretches out a five dollar bill* her allowance for the week.

Oh good I won’t be the only one rating her fairly lowly.

[LJ_Reflet]

Linhardt is outshined by the other 2 healers, but he does have a few niches that the others don't have which help him prove he is a very viable suportive unit on the battlefield.

The good:
So the thing about Linhardt, he is most likely going to be a pure support mage. His 45% magic growth and 10 base magic is decent, above average at best, and his spell list in both Reason and Faith is pretty solid. As others have mentioned, he is the only unit with both Physic and Warp--2 of the most useful Faith spells in the game. Physic is an obvious must-have for any healer, but access to warp sets him apart from the other house healers. While not having anywhere near the same warp range as Lysithea, the extra mobility is still serviceable. Also, his Minor Crest of Cethleann is pretty worthy of attention. Despite only having a 30% proc rate, the extra bonus in healing when it does proc is highly appreciated--and also what I find sets him apart from Marianne who lacks any bonus to healing (as Mercedes has Live to Serve). Possessing a crest also allows him to use Thyrsus without any penalty, which is nice (however, I have never given him Thyrsus in any playthrough. But this is just nice to have HAHA). Lastly, his reason spell list consists of fire and wind spells, which are lightweight, accurate, and Excalibur is effective on fliers. All of these are really good qualities to have when using Linhardt in an offensive manner when you need him to.

...Also bonus points to Linhardt to being the only gay marriage option for mByleth who is available on all routes.

The bad:
I did mention above that Linhardt is outshined by the other house healers, as Mercedes has basically every healing spell in the game and Marianne has value in both support and offense. I would say his personal seems useless, but Marianne's personal seems worse to me personally. But the worst thing about Linhardt is that his skill proficiencies scream GREMORY, but IS said "GENDER LOCKED." lol anyways. Being tailor made for a purely supportive role, he does lack offensive capabilities. Despite having good offensive spells, they are locked to 1-2 range--meaning he has to be a little bit closer to the front lines to chip damage and his terrible defenses and speed won't allow him to survive up front. This can be relieved with Thyrsus or the Caduceus Staff (which works perfectly with Linhardt as he has the compatible crest), however. And finally, despite having acceptable magic growths and bases, they are the lowest of any other magic-oriented character (his magic growth is 5% higher than Dorothea's) meaning he will underperform when compared to your other fellow mages.

 

Overall I give Linhardt a 7.5/10. He is a tailor-made support mage, with a solid spell list in both Faith and Reason, giving a highlight to Physic, Warp, and wind spells and performs well as a healer with his crest. However, he lacks any offensive capabilities and his magic stats are relatively low compared to the other magic-oriented characters which lets him be outshined by the other house healers.

Edited October 14, 2020 by kia_kula