In all honesty, I'd like to posit a different way of looking at positive and negative utility which I feel better represents a characters usefulness in an FE game. I'd like to use the example of Sephiran/Lehran. This system would give him a god tier score, 9.0 or above. The reason is because his use can in no way negatively impact the course of my game. He deprives no one of experience since it's negligible in his only playable chapter, he's very unlikely to be a liability considering his base stats, he can only be a positive contribution. There was a lot of talk earlier about Tormod. I feel like Tormod is actually an incredibly damaging unit and should recieve a very poor score. Does he help you in the first chapters you have him? I'd argue his contribution is a pretty small/unecessary one. Look at the harm his use will cause though. He does it in two ways, first if you continue using him and second if you disregard him after Part One. Let's look:
If we try to field him for the entire game we're confronted with the negative utility of missed opportunity cost, namely that he's a bad long-term investment. No one really disagrees with this since hard numbers support that he won't turn out well and (qualitatively) is almost impossible to level.
Scenario two strikes me as being equally unappealing. DB characters are notoriously underlevelled and their chapters are already filled with areas which DEMAND the use of prepromoted characters. This sucks experience away from characters who desperately need it. In this case, the use of Tormod in Part One has netted the negative utility of every point of experience he has taken away from other DB who will remake appearances in Chapters 3 and 4.
I feel like the system which many people support gives no where near enough weight to stolen experience. Sephiran will steal nothing, I think there is a huge distinction to be made between Cain/Tibarn and Sephiran if you're going to employ the former two before the final level of Endgame.
Look at it from this perspective, beating the game is actually very simple. Even my most recent HM playthrough could be done with almost any random grouping of units if I was meticulous enough. The Laguz Royals can all beat the Endgame easily without any of my raised units on the field. I know that this smacks of personal experience, but I'd always choose to use Edward over Volug in the DB chapters because I don't actually find it any harder but I feel the return on my Endgame is greater. The bottom line is that Radiant Dawn is a game which can be made very easy very...well, easily. Abuse the BK and Nailah/Tauroneo and Volug for much of the DB chapters +Nolan for the chapters where the others aren't available since he's easy enough to accomodate. Haar solos Elincia's chapters already. You have so many rigged units in Part Three and Four that it's almost impossible not to sweep these levels. If we assume that all these lists should be based on is what makes the game easiest then Radiant Dawn (unlike other FE games) would have a tier list with many of the worst endgame characters + the Royals in all the top slots. Similar to:
Cain
Tibarn
Nailah
Lehran
Ike
Haar
Naesala
Nailah
BK
Sothe
Tauroneo
Volug
...or something ridiculous like that. Radiant Dawn gives no motivation to carefully raise an endgame team since regardless of your choices you will be handed units who can win the game for you. I like the idea that consideration on the lists be inclined towards helping people choose what units to use throughout the game for the best overall play result. It might seem a bit silly, but try to observe the game from the perspective that Cain and Tibarn don't exist. If you WERE carefully raising a team for Endgame and DIDN'T therefore want to use the BK or Nailah or anyone else who isn't an efficent long-term choice any more than the game absolutely demanded, how would the list look. This is just a thought, I'm not trying to rock the boat or anything. It has just always struck me that Radiant Dawn doesn't reward intelligent character choices or levelling the Nino's of the world, effectively punishing what passes for good strategy in other FE games.
