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As for Czar suggesting me looking into the Lucina pairings…. Lucina x Virion!Ingo [criterion is getting a convenient set of Hit skills, like the universal Hit+20, as well as the option for breakers, ] would be a possible solution. Bow Knight x Berserker 33 Defense Lucina + 10 (rallies/tonics) + 3 (pair-up) + 2 (Defense+2, skill from her Knight class via Sumia) = 48 Defense…. can tank Anna if using a Bow (not if using a Sword) 46 Speed + 10 (rallies/tonics) + 8 (pair-up) + 2 (Speed +2, also from Sumia's classes) = 66… won't be doubled. Lucina: Luna, Galeforce, Dual Strike+, Speed +2, Defense +2 Inigio: Axefaire, Strength +2, Hit +20, Proc or accuracy booster, Galeforce Lucina's attack: 40 + 17 (Brave Bow, with 5 forges and weapon rank bonus) + 10 (rally/tonic) + 10 (pair-up) = 77 Still need to run the accuracy calculation. But she'd have a 97.25% Dual Strike rate. Lucina deals 9 damage…. 23 with Luna. I could get Inigo to the order of 86 attack… 14 damage per hit. 23 x 2 + 14 x 4 = 102. Lucina will have 60 skill. 0.6^2 * 0.97^2 = 33.87% chance of finishing off Anna in one round of combat. So that's somewhat better than the Noire solution I came up with. 2.87% additive success rate increase, although that's a 9.26% improvement as a percentage increase in the percentage success rate [(33.87%-31.00%)/(31.00%)]x100%= 9.26%. The reason why Noire does so well despite lower dual strike rate is her higher proc rate on her Luna. The reason why I haven't considered Vengeance in these situations is that I basically need to start near full health to ensure survival, and if Anna doesn't proc Aether or if its dual guarded or if it misses then I won't get my damage boost [or it will be really feeble]. Its just easier to think through the probabilities of Ignis/Luna and I only need to worry about one proc event working than 3 [does Aether trigger, is it not dual guarded, does it hit]. In terms of damage (strength mods, access to Strength +2, and the dual strike rate through Skill Mods), the unorthodox Frederick!Laurent would also be able to pull this off without infringing on any of the other pairings I already thought up [he'd want to use Lancebreaker for accuracy]. Frederick!Ingio would be able to do it with more damage, although it would hurt his speed for Galeforce tagging [although, to be fair, Laurent can't do that in the first place].

I wasn't using Lucina with those Dark Knights because she doesn't form support ranks with them. That said, I just came up with a different anti-Anna configuration (with the units I already have planned out): Donnel!Kjelle (Defender, Defense +2, Speed +2, Galeforce, Luna) - Assassin Henry!Gerome (Axefaire, Strength +2, Lancebreaker, [Axebreaker?], [other] - Berskerer 41, 29, 50, 48, 49, 32, 30 - Kjelle's Str/mag/skl/spd/lck/def/res 55, 32, 37, 44, 44, 38, 28 - Same for Berserker; values before limit/rally After rallies/tonics (+10 to all but luck, which is +14) 51 Str, 39 Mag, 60 Skl, 58 Spd, 63 Lck, 42 Def, 40 Res - Assasin Kjelle 65 Str, 42 Mag, 47 Skl, 54 Spd, 58 Lck, 48 Def, 38 Res - Berserker Gerome Gerome's pair-up bonus: +10 Str, +3 Mag, +3 Skl, +8 Spd, +3 Lck, +3 Def ,+2 Def Kjelle after pair-up: 61 Str, 42 Mag, 63 Skl, 66 Spd, 66 Lck, 45 Def, 42 Res Kjelle: Speed +2: 61 Str, 42 Mag, 63 Skl, 68 Spd, 66 Lck, 45 Def, 42 Res Kjelle: Defender: 62 Str, 43 Mag, 64 Skl, 69 Spd, 67 Lck, 46 Def, 43 Res Kjelle: Defense+2: 62 Str, 43 Mag, 64 Skl, 69 Spd, 67 Lck, 48 Def, 43 Res Now fast enough to double the Berskerers and has enough defense to survive Anna. Gerome: Strength+2, Axefaire: 72 Str, 42 Mag, 47 Skl, 54 Spd, 58 Lck, 48 Def, 38 Res - Berserker Gerome Kjelle: Relevant stats only: 62 Str, 64 Skl, 69 Spd, 67 Lck, 48 Def Brave bow: 10 attack. +5 from forge. +2 from weapon rank bonus. This gives 17 might from the weapon. Kjelle: 79 Atk. Against Anna's 58 defense and Dragonski, this does (79-58)/2 = 10. 5 damage, which rounds down to 10 damage. Given that we're getting round down, it would be more efficient against Anna to use a +4 might, + 4 Hit forge setup instead to avoid wasting forges. So 78 Atk, but still does the same damage. Hit rate: 64 Skl * 1.5 + 67 Lck * 0.5 +70 (Brave Bow) + 20 (4 hit forges) + 5 (weapon rank bonus) + 15 (S-rank bonus) = 239.5 Hit -> 239 Hit Anna has 157 avoid. This drops to 132 avoid if Hex/Anathema bot is helping. Kjelle has a 107% Hit rate --> 100% Hit rate. Actually, she doesn't even need the extra hit forge Gerome: Berserker with +5 mod and a +3 axe, A-rank, WTA, rallies/tonics, and Axefaire gives 87 Atk. Shifting two hit forges to strength (for +5 Might/+15 hit instead) grants an extra two attack, to 89 Atk. Throwing on Strength +2 gives 91 Atk. (91-58)/2 = 16.5. Given round down, it looks like the better solution is +4 Might, +4 Hit forges (+4 Might, +20 Hit). Brave Axe: 60 Hit, +20 in Hit forges, + 10 in weapon rank bonus, + 15 in weapon triangle advantage + 99 (from 47 Skl, 58 Lck) + 50 (Lancebreaker) = 254 Hit. Given that Anathema is already assumed to be in effect from a Hex/Anathema bot, this elevates a 97% stated hit rate to 100%. So both have 100% hit rates. Their dual strike rate is 87%. Kjelle has a 64% Luna proc. Luna would drop Anna's defense to 55/2+3 = 30 Defense. 78-30 = 48. 48/2 is 24. Kjelle can do 24 damage per Luna proc. Gerome can do 16 damage per hit of a dual strike (up to 4 hits). 24 x 2 + 16 x 4 = 112 damage. Odds of happening: 0.64^2 * 0.87^2 = 0.3100 --> 31% Odds of NOT killing Anna on the first combat: 69% Use a Recover Staff and a Dance (Special damage will also boost the damage Kjelle does by+1 after Dragonskin, to 25 per Luna hit, 11 without Luna). Anna will be wounded by now. But to simplify calculations, pretend that she's back to full health to create a lower limit on success rate. .69^2 --> In this limit, there would be a 47.61% chance off not killing Anna from full health twice in a row. So logically, there is a 52.39% chance of having killed her (starting form full health) during either the first or second combats. This forms the LOWER LIMIT, as I've totally ignored that Anna has likely taken a substantial amount of damage….. including a 79.21% chance that she took both dual strike pairs in the first combat, for 64 damage from that alone + 10 x2 from Kjelle, which would be 84 damage accumulated. So the odds of a kill are actually substantially higher than that over the two combats.

I actually started a new game (although I've kept my old one in case I want to come back to it). I'm currently doing a no-grind Hard mode run for the main story (I've found that to be what I have the most fun with in-story). But after the story, I'm drafting up plans for no-DLC Apotheosis (besides the map itself). I have the DLC, I'm just not going to use it in the actual map (using Paragon to make training for said map go faster will be fair game, that said). Oh, and I'm also going to restrict myself so that only characters among the 49 characters who can form supports may be deployed on the map… no bonus box legacy characters or DLC characters allowed. I'm going to impose two pairings as non-negotiable as points of personal preference: Avatar x Cordelia Chrom x Sumia Also, as a point of personal preference, I insist on using a +Mag Avatar. I'm also going to use -Def (I feel -Str or -Def are the ones that are most fitting for how I envision my character, and I did -Str last time). Beyond these points that I don't want to compromise on, I want to work out a no-DLC team that will be able to win. This is some of my thoughts, however: Any changes or suggestions to improve upon them? 1. Avatar is forced into male Rally Bot rule as without Bonus Box units either he or one of his daughters needs to provide Rally Spectrum and I don't want to waste a Morgan on that. 2. Cordelia probably falls into a Hex/Anathema Falcon Knight support unit role for that map… particularly against Anna, she can park herself right in front of her with Hex/Anathema to drop her Avoid by 25 as well as then letting her daughters (Severa and Morgan) stand next to their mother as they attack Anna, gaining an additional +5 Hit from the 4 dual support levels than an A-rank constitutes. 3. Morgan and Severa have a +5 speed mod, as well as +2 Str, +4 Mag, +3 Skl, -1 Lck, -2 Def, and + 1 Resistance. 4. Outside of using Longbows (which have the disadvantage of getting half the attacks of Brave/Celica weapons), you need 58 defense (if neutral in the triangle) to survive the 85 Atk Aether Ragnell Paladin and 56 Resistance to survive the 70 Atk Luna+ Celica's Gale Sages. 5. You need 48 defense and 66 speed under such conditions to survive Anna if she gets an Aether with a spear (she'll never be allowed to use the Brave Lance thanks to rescue). 6. Dark Knight gives a base 40 Def and 39 Res after these mods. As well as 45 speed. Morgan/Severa will also get 9 move (8+1). Which will become +10 under Rally Movement. 7. Pairing with another Dark Knight and using all Rallies that aren't named Rally Heart and all tonics will provide +10 to all core non-Hp, non-move stats that aren't luck, which gets +14. This raises the key stats to 50 Def, 49 Res, and 55 Speed. 8. A generic dark Knight partner grants them +8 Def, +6 Res, and +3 speed (generic). This gives 58 Defense, 45 Resistance, and 58 speed. 9. Speed +2 and Defender elevates Speed to 61 and the defensives stats to 59 Def and 46 Res. Now they'll survive both the Paladin and the Sages. 10. Against Anna, I can trade them a Berserker partner to give them +8 speed (a net gain of +5 over Dark Knight). This will drop their defenses by 5 def and an amount of res that won't matter, to 54 defense, but will boost their speed to 66, enabling them to fight Anna. 11. A +5 strength mod Axefaire Berserker with a +3 Might/+25 Hit Brave Axe, weapon triangle advantage, and A-rank and rallies/tonics will have 87 strength… they will do 14 damage in dual strikes. 12. It is possible for such a pair-up to deplete 100 HP out of Anna as long as Morgan/Severa reach 72 attack before procs (they will have 40 + 4 +4 +2 +1 +10 = 61 strength, which means Ignis would add 30 atk [halved to +15 vs. dragon skin]. Dark Knight Magic: 45 (41 + 4 mod) + 5 (tome faire) + 2 (weapon rank bonus) + 2 (if Berskerer doesn't hit full +3 generic magic) + 7 (+3 might Celica's Gale) + 10 (tonics/rallies) +1 (Defender) = 72. After an Ingis proc, 72 + 30 = 102 attack. 102 attack - 58 defense = 44 damage before dragon skin, halved to 22 damage. 13. 2 Hits of Celica's Gale with Ignis (2 x 22) and 4 hits from Berskerer dual strike (4 x 14) sums up to 100 damage. Anna dies. 14. The chance of this happening hinges on 2 Ingis procs and two dual strike procs. Ignis is at 57%. Dual strike ranges from 75%-85% (roughly) depending if on whether the Berserker is their A-rank or S-rank. This yields a roughly 18%-23% chance of slaying Anna outright in the first engagement without DLC and while guaranteed to survive. 15. That means that there is a 77-82% chance of Anna surviving the first round. Which is why Morgan/Severa's sister will then follow up with another Berserker partner to attack the weakened Anna and quite possibly finish her off. 16. If needed, a Recover staff and a Dance can be used to secure a 3rd set of attacks. Anna is probably dead by this point, I'd reckon. 17. Henry!Gerome and Stahl!Yarne provide the Berskerers that match this description. 18. Said Berskerers can also be paired up with Assassins who will hit 69 speed to double the Helswath Berserkers and survive them. Gaius!Noire would have 50 speed as an Assassin. Give her Speed +2, rallies/tonics, and a Berserker pair-up and she hits 70 speed. Then she has a choice of Luna/Vengance as a proc, although it will be Aegis+/Dragonskin'd. 19. Donnel!Kjelle provides another Galeforce Assassin (seeing that my fixed pair plans don't allow for Assassin Lucina) that can hit this threshold, although at the cost of another skill. Speed +2 and Defender. 46 speed +2 mod + 3 skills + 10 rally/tonic + 8 Berserker = 69 speed. She can add in Luna too, although she doesn't have Bowfaire. 20. So I'm looking at Dark Knight Morgan x Dark Knight ______, Dark Knight Severa x Dark Knight _______, Gaius!Noire x Stahl!Yarne, Henry!Gerome x Donnel!Kjelle, and I might very well want 1 more combat pair. 21. Chrom is a forced deploy, so I could run Dark Flier!Sumia x Bow Knight Chrom. With Speed+2 helping her out, she'll reach 65 speed, which is enough to double the Invinsorcs and all slower enemies. 22. Maribelle gets all female only rallies (Speed, Move, Resistance) and has access to others (Magic, Luck). She can be my female Rally bot. 23. 10 combat units + 2 ralliers + 1 Olivia + 7 dedicated staff units = 20 deployment slots. 24. Ralliers should also have staff classes so that they can be danced into a rescue or heal if needed. 25. Dedicated staff units may also want Hex/Anathema on them so that they can spread around these accuracy boosting Auras. What do people think about the feasibility/viability of my plan?

Fair enough, and even if she's +MAG/-STR type, Severa will tend to be predominantly physical before grinding. Although with a +MAG type you'd want to eventually shift her into a magical role for postgame/DLC, assuming you wanted to play to her strengths.

Severa naturally has a low magic growth rate, even with a magic asset Avatar (although the Avatar makes it not as bad as it otherwise would be). While she will ultimately become more proficient in magical attacks (with a +4 magic modifier and a -1 strength modifier when at caps), caps don't really matter until you've done a lot of grinding. In the main-game Severa will still tend to be better at her physicals (while her magic is still growing) thanks to her own personal rates and those of her mother. I would recommend switching a +Mag Severa to a hybrid class so that she can continue using her physical attacking stats while still having the opportunity to start working on building her tome rank, as tomes are what she'll likely be using as her weapons once she's maxed out in the postgame. Since Severa starts with a C-rank in swords, I'd try to make use of it as much as possible so that she isn't caught being reliant on an E-rank weapon (particularly so she doesn't just have E-rank tomes in a magic class when her growths aren't great). So I'd suggest second sealing Severa over to Tactician (assuming you currently have her as a Mercenary, which she starts as) so that she can still use her C-rank swords while starting to build up her tome rank, as well as picking up Veteran (and promoting to Grandmaster will let her grab Ignis as well).

I take no stand on whether they're the same character of just homages/references who look almost identical, but the different worlds issue is not a huge difficulty anymore if Outrealms of any kind get introduced. And seeing that you can already kind of do that through the Streetpass feature (alternate Hoshidos/Nohrs), imagining an Outrealm connection to Ylisse/Archanea wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Seeing that Severa was one of the popular females from Awakening (judging by the polls used for inclusion into the Scramble DLCs), I wonder if Luna will end up having a strong showing in popularity when the game is released due to a degree of carry over from some of Severa's fans.

Speaking about Luna, the Severa look-alike (or perhaps a Severa herself, who knows?), has anyone given any though of how her personal skill might interact with Harold's (Nohr "Gaston"'s) personal skill? Harold drops enemy crit evade [by 15 I recall] in a radius of 2 tiles and his own crit evade by 5. Luna gets a crit the lead attacker she's working with also crits. Harold can be used to elevate crits (either directly working with Luna, or providing the aura so that whomever she's working with has an elevated crit rate) and then Luna can exploit this herself (her own crit rate is already raised against that target due to their lower crit avoid, and it gets further boosted by the fact that the lead attacker critting first forces Luna's hit to be a crit even if it otherwise wouldn't have). After all, they're both with Nohr, right?

Now, while we're on the topic: Obviously, 3rd Gen Morgans tend to have superior stat totals than 2nd gen Morgans [although, of course, how they're distributed is also important]. But with regards to 2nd Gen Morgans: obviously, they have weaker total stats, but some are better than others given particular Avatar & spouse mod combinations. For example, I know that you've cited the example of +SPD/(not -RES and not-MAG) Avatar x Cordelia getting children that hit +7 speed, which you've argued helps hit certain benchmarks. And Sully also would allow for +7 speed and enable a Galeforce/proc Kjelle, but at the cost of the Avatar getting a GF-less wife (which is why Cordelia would be preferable). And of course, Avatar x Sumia would allow for +8 speed children, although it would impact Lucina's speed in turn. Similarly, a female Avatar with Lon'qu does that, but at the cost of only 1 child [rather than getting to bring two children to a benchmark like 2nd gen allows], so in that sense if you wanted his speed you'd have the female Avatar marry Lon'qu's son if said son was faster. Are there any other particular standouts you'd like to share that you see among the 2nd gens, that while not necessarily at the pure stat total of a 3rd gen, start approaching the greatness of third gen units?

The point is that Chrom has bland mods (+1 or -1 in affected stats) and thus cannot yield a Morgan with extreme values in other stats not available from the other children. For example, 1+4+1 (Chrom + asset + child bonus) =6, while not common, is a replicable bonus in fields such as Spd, etc, with other couples (e.g., Cordelia x Lon'qu, etc.). Contrast something like 7 speed, which is basically something only Morgans can do…. Chrom misses the mark on such statistical milestones because his personal mods never exceed +1.

Note that Galeforce is a female-only skill unless inherited [i.e., only a female Avatar can have Galeforce and Wyvern Lord simultaneously]. But Axefaire is a male-only skill [unless inherited], so that female Wyvern Lord wouldn't be able to use Axefaire. However, she would be able to use the female-only Lancefaire. Naturally, if you run a male Wyvern Lord then which gender-exclusive skills you can and cannot use reverses relative to a female Wyvern Lord.

That proposed idea for an excuse that you put forth sounds awfully like the infamous "mana transfer rituals" from Fate/Stay Night [a visual novel] and its spin-offs. Although not as explicit, admittedly.

Oh, I meant Rally Speed. Typo.

Helswath Berserkers have 64 speed, right? Then you only need 60 speed to avoid being doubled by them. So even without DLCs, tonics + rally spectrum + rally heart + generic pair-up gives 2+4+4+3 = +13 speed. So even a 47 speed character (example: Dark Flier or Sage with +5 speed modifier [like Sumia!Lucina] or a 40 speed class with Speed +2 and the same +5 modifier) can at least avoid being doubled by the Berskerer (and double a bunch of the foes who have 55 speed).

Well, since they gave a class to Panne but not to Donnel like they were supposed to, I'll just provide Donnel's class for them, if you'll let me, and then I'll nominate one of my own. Donnel -> Second Seal to Fighter --> Master Seal to Warrior [Yes, I'm intentionally depriving him of the Armsthrift and Hero roles that he's typically used for.] Nominate Cordelia.

The Avatar can from an S-rank marriage with all unrelated playable women in the game [although with only one on any given file]. There are no exceptions with this regard.

I wouldn't object, although having physical copies would be convenient so I wouldn't need to stop to download one of the routes the first time I play once I get up to that point. I myself already have experience with a free-to-start game, Final Fantasy Dimensions. In practice, its basically like buying a game as normal except that you can get the first part as a demo which has a save that fully carries over to the rest of the game and you've delayed when you actually need to purchase the game. That game did explicitly note in the descriptions on the iTunes store what you'd need to pay and when…. yet unfortunately many people failed to read basic product information and were nonetheless outraged at the "surprise" or "bait-and-switch", even though if they had actually read the descriptions and product information they would have known all the costs and timing of the costs that from the onset. So quite possibly if FE did this we'd get a bunch of similar unwarranted complaints.

Even if they don't, there's always pride of accomplishment. And if there is a streetpass feature like in Awakening people will presumably see that you were on [difficulty]/Classic, just like they would also see if you were on [difficulty]/Casual or [difficulty]/Phoenix, where [difficulty] is used as a placeholder for the name of the particular difficulty level you were on. i.e. bragging rights

As for Liam, fear not, as he's done plenty of deep voiced characters before. To name just once example, consider the voice of Caius Ballad in the English language versions of Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Caius is voiced by Liam O'Brien.

Response to #205: So? We still have classic. What's the big deal about Phoenix mode? In fact, you could even get your own private little laugh at the people who use such a cheating-like mode because they can't handle even casual, reveling in some sense of faint sense of gaming superiority that it might give you. How is that a problem for you? Did you just not think of that possibility?

I'm not concerned if they explore other games or not. So whether or not they're encouraged to play classic mode is not a concern to me. I joined with Awakening and I've explored The Sacred Stones and am working on Genealogy of the Holy War. I've also been looking into trying to obtain Blazing Sword (i.e. Fire Emblem in NA) or Shadow Dragon, but I've been busy with other things and it hasn't been a priority. Maybe eventually. I don't have a GameCube with me and never had a Wii, so that's the key reason I haven't been looking into the Tellius games at the present time. But not everyone is going to be like me, nor would I expect it of them or want it to be that way. But anyways, I don't think we need to worry about Classic mode disappearing…. we can safely assume that it will be included unless its explicitly stated to not be. And they'd have probably have announced its removal simultaneously with announcing Phoenix mode if that was going to happen. Classic is almost assuredly going to happen.

Why do we need special incentives? Aren't bragging rights enough? That is, wouldn't you already feel a sense of satisfaction in that you were able to beat the game under a more challenging set of conditions that those who played on Casual or Phoenix did [a group who might be a substantial fraction of the player base]? Likewise with the proper difficulty levels like Lunatic vs. Hard. vs. Normal, etc., or whatever they name them.

Well, in some ancient cultures, the exchange of hostages was conducted deliberately to help ensure the peace. After all, if both sides had members of their own family in the hands of the other's, it would discourage war and conflict due to the possibility of retribution against the hostages. Not that it would always work, but it could definitely discourage things.

Lunatic seems intentionally built so that while grinding is still possible its heavily discouraged. Basically, it moves you closer to the traditional FE model where grinding was either not possible or was highly dangerous/risky.

I was rethinking how I should tackle my attempt (still in planning) at running Apotheosis' Secret Route without any of the DLC. Any criticisms/commentary on my approach and ways I could improve would be appreciated… I had been considering using Severa/Gerome as an Assassin/Berseker team for taking on the Wave 4/Wave 5 Berserkers, but the setup I had awkwardly needed Ragnell and defense boosting skills (like Defense+2) to survive against Anna. I'm thinking that maybe I should switch whom I'm having fight the Berserkers (at least, primarily) and should retool this pair to better fight Anna. This is what I'm thinking now: Avatar!Severa(+Mag/-Str), mods are -1 Str, +4 Mag, +2 Skl, +5 Spd, +0 Lck, +0 Def, +2 Res Vengeance Galeforce Tomefaire Speed + 2 Defender Dark Knight Severa (40+5 = 45 speed, base) x Hero Gregor!Gerome With these skills, pair-up, tonics, and non-DLC rallies, this yields 66 speed and 60 Defense. More than enough to tank Anna's Aether [requires 48 Defense with an HP tonic] (and on that note also the Aethers of the Ragnell Paladin [requires 58 defense and an HP tonic] and the Aether Falcon Knight). So Anna will Vantage+, then get a 65% chance of using Aether. If she does and its not dual guarded, she deals 66 damage, which makes Vengeance give what would be a 33 damage boost (actually +16 damage due to Dragonskin). 45 Magic on the Dark Knight (with mods) + 2 Weapon Rank bonus + 5 Tomefaire + 9 Celica's Gale + 8 Rallies + 2 Tonic + 3 pair-up generic bonus = 74 magic attack Anna has (55 resistance +3 res from throne) = 58 effective resistance, as well as Dragonskin. Severa's basic damage would be 8, +16 if Vengeance triggered off of a full Aether. 24 damage. Celica's Gale lets me do that twice. 48 damage under the best case scenario. (Of course, I'll have other units with Hex/Anathema to help out.) Gerome has 48 Strength as a Hero due to his mods…. 48 + 1 Weapon Rank Bonus + 5 Axefaire + 2 from "Strength+2", +15 might (from Brave Axe forged for +3 might/+25 Hit), +8 rallies, +2 tonic, +1 weapon triangle advantage. That gives him 82 attack vs. Anna, which after 58 defense and Dragonskin gives 12 damage per hit of a dual strike [for a total of 12x2 = 24 damage over both hits if they connect]. Since Severa will strike twice from Celica's Goals, Gerome can potential get 2 groups of 2 hits, for 12 x 4 = 48 damage. So that brings me to 48 + 48 damage = 96 damage under the perfect scenario. Okay, so that's short, so then I'd sacrifice 10 hit to shift two of the forges back to might, for +5 might, +15 hit. Then I'd have 84 attack on Gerome, making him deal 13 damage per hit. 4 x 13 = 52. I'll use Lancebreaker to help compensate… maybe Charm from Chrom being nearby as well. (8 basic Celica's Gale + 16 Vengeance from taking 66 damage) x 2 + (13 damage from Brave Axe)x 4 = 100 damage, which can kill Anna from full health. Of course, its not likely to go that smoothly… --- 65% chance of Anna getting Aether (which I WANT so that it boosts my damage) --- 96.75% chance for Anna to hit [based on True hit] from a 87% stated chance for Anna to hit (232 Hit - 66 Speed *1.5 Avoid/Spd - 62 Luck*0.5 Avoid/Luck - 10 from S-support - 5 from Charm) …. without charm, stated 92% chance will be 98.80% true hit instead. --- 62 % chance for Gerome to NOT dual guard --- 89% chance of getting the first dual strike --- 89% chance of getting the 2nd dual strike So, if my math is right, its about a 30.8% chance of killing her outright in the first round of combat. If Anna survives at roughy 69.2% chance, I can have Olivia dance for Severa, have someone use a staff to heal her above the survival threshold, and try again with a second attack that round. I haven't factored in my accuracy, though. Those will, in any event, give me an effective 5+15+10+15+15 = +60 hit boost on Severa…. add in 80 hit from Celica's Gale…. that's 140 Hit…. Severa will have 40+2(mod)+10 (rallies/tonics)+8 Gerome + 1 Defender = 61 skill, so that's 91.5 Hit there. 62 Luck gives another 31 hit. So that's 140 Hit + 91.5 Hit + 31 Hit = 262 Hit. Anna has 157 Avoid on her throne (137+20 = 157). 262 - 157 = 105. Which means I don't actually NEED charm after all, at least for Severa. So I can drop that and increase the chance that Anna hits me. Which would (assuming my calculations show Gerome having a 100% hit rate), would increase the chance of a 1 combat kill marginally to 31.5%. So, I still probably need Severa to be danced for to kill Anna, but it looks like that I do have enough firepower, even without DLC, to wipe her out in a single round with a reasonable chance and without needing to use stuff like crits. And this build will also kill the Ragnell Paladin and other notable annoying enemies…. Does this sound good, or have I overlooked something? ADDENDUM: On a related note, how would you setup the following pairs to be most effective in Apotheosis under no-DLC, story character only conditions. Cordelia!Morgan(+Mag/-Str) x Kellam!Laurent [special inheritance: Rally Resistance] Sumia!Lucina x Lon'qu!Brady [special inheritance: Galeforce] Frederick!Owain [special inheritance: Galeforce] x Gaius!Noire [special inheritance: Sol] Chrom!Cynthia x Virion!Yarne Stahl!Inigio [special inheritance: Galeforce] x Donnel!Kjelle [special inheritance: Aptitude] Yes, some of my choices weren't the best, but its kind of too late now. I'm planning to run around 5 combat pairs… probably 5 2nd-gen pairs, although possibly 4 2nd-gen pairs and a Chrom x Sumia pair. So out of the 6 child pairs I've listed + Chrom x Sumia (for a total of 7 candidate pairs), which 5 would you recommend as my best candidates for tackling Apo? Chrom, of course, is force deployed, but seeing that my setups aren't leaving room for Armsthrift, he could alway be acting as the convoy-bot, supplying people weapons and rescue staves as needed, particularly without having attackers waste their turns restocking.