Interdimensional Observer

And Roy would object because his vast number of paramours is essential to his dominance over Elibe. He plays the sweet and innocent card, but really he's more cunning and ambitious than you think. His marriage to Lilina conceals his polyamorous schemes, and also strengthens his hand in Lycia. Cecilia is the Mage General of Etruria, so for Roy to lose her is to lose his main agent at the Etrurian court. Sue gives him a say in Sacaen politics via the heir to one of the most powerful tribes; Shanna is a princess in Ilia following the end of FE6. Sophia is the priestess of Arcadia, and Larum lets Roy pull a few strings in the Western Isles and adds to his Etrurian influence via Larum's daddy Douglas. Guinevere is the Queen of Bern. It thanks to all these ties that Roy could become a gladiator in an extradimensional world, sating his lust for battle, which is even greater than his libido. Unfortunately, the Sword of Seals is fragile, and after every day of clashing against among others a hero clad in green, an ape, and an armored space ninja, the Binding Blade would need repairs. The cost of repairs was not cheap, and to finance the repairs, Roy took money from the coffers of Lycia and the rest of Elibe. Years of throwing himself into the pleasures of battle began to take its toll. Roy could not get enough of battle, he was neglecting governance and diplomacy alike, and increasingly resulted to draconian fiscal policies and outright theft and misappropriation of Lycia's finances to pay for his gladiatorial fun. The last straw came when he began to demand too much money from his diplomatic harem, and then threatened to find new lovers if they refused his requests. Thus, while Roy was eagerly awaiting new of an expansion of this extradimensional world of battle which he could not rip himself from, the harem leaked the truth to the world of his adultery and his corruption. After overcoming initial disbelief, the people of Lycia and Elibe as a whole rose up and began overturning everything associated with their former savior Roy and demanded he return and answer at once. Roy brushed off this uprising, thinking his charm could soothe his lovers, his fellow rulers, and his peoples alike. This did not happen. Roy instead was forced to fight to subdue this rebellion, but his neglecting to govern Lycia or Elibe made this impossible. Roy was ingloriously captured, and was even threatened with a humiliating public castration followed by execution. Yet the rulers of Elibe, recognizing Roy had once saved the world, with little love for him left in their hearts, offered the slightest mercy and instead imprisoned for life him off the coast of Nabata. In the meanwhile, the master of the extradimensional world of battle and all the fighters within it decided that it would be offensive to Elibe and to all decent beings to let the wicked Roy ever fight in this world again. However, the master sought a new scion for the Fire Emblem world, given Marth himself confessed that he would rather there be someone besides him, for he could bear the weight of fighting for FE alone. The Master Sleeve, or MS for short, then decided to begin a search for a Roy replacement, and wanted to make sure that the Roy scandal would never be repeated again. Ultimate, the Master Sleeve decided on someone who wasn't a ruler, who didn't have an lovers or perhaps interest in love at all, who liked the thrill of battle, was very strong, had a weapon which would never need to be repaired (thus avoiding the issue of how to pay for repairs), who was younger and fresher than Roy, and who had actually already left their own world in search of something more. His name was Ike. ...Fast forwarding a number of years, the Master Sleeve was looking to expand his extradimensional world of fighting once again, and, knowing there were many innocents (for they knew not of Roy's terrible scandal) in the world he lived in who would pay good money to see Roy fight again, he began to wonder whether it was worth including him once more. Asking the world Elibe for permission to permit Roy to fight again, they were tired of caring for him in prison, he had gone mad deprived of rule and love and battle, and possibly had a number of late-stage venereal diseases. So, they decided they'd let Roy go, but only if none of the bill for Roy's gladiatorial fun was footed at Lycia's doorsteps. Ashamed it had to be this way, but understanding why, the Master Sleeve agreed, and required the people of his world pay for Roy's reentry into the world's most smashing entertainment. As expected, they were willing to pay, which was good because getting Roy ready for battle again had already cost a few shiploads of gold- the reverse aging treatment, the medications and therapy for psychosis and the wrath of Venus were in no way cheap. As for the Binding Blade- that white elephant of a weapon, it was discovered that dropping it into a world within the FE universe, which is without a name, but to describe it I would have to call it fatalistic, would somehow make the weapon infinitely durable. Which then gave the Master Sleeve another idea- which the royals of which were all too happy to agree too- they loathed the three kingdoms' idiot deep in their hearts. Anyhow, that is the story of Roy after Binding Blade. He now forever lives in this world of brawls, unless the Master Sleeve sometime in the future decides he isn't bringing in the crowds that he used to. Not that Roy is too concerned, he's awaiting the international debut of a modernized telling of his origin legend, he knows it'll happen sometime in the foreseeable future.

As for which sister leads the group, Palla is the eldest, but Catria is kinda more popular I guess? She's also the originator of an archetype they didn't need to make into an archetype. Then we have Est- the originator of an archetype that is fine existing and which you love or hate. If they didn't mind, they could do lines and VA for all three and make the two who don't lead costumes. Or, they could add a character switch feature for the Whitewings- when Palla leads the attacks are extra strong, with Catria they're extra fast, and Est has some other modifier. And this reminds me, we need the Four Sword for Toon Link in HW2. And if legal issues don't get in the way, Ezlo in Minish form, Vaati in Sorcerer and Giant Boss Demon forms, plus the Oracles and Onyx and Veran, and then we can bring in Twinrova and use her as a transition into adding the missing OoT Sages, plus a Shadow Knife or something for Impa.

The infant probably didn't have a name. It clearly wasn't Soren otherwise Almedha would have recognized it. I don't think Ashnard cared enough to give his son a name, and if Almedha gave him one, she probably stopped using it once her son was taken from her. She probably calls Pelleas Pelleas because it's the name he grew up with and she'd rather be kind and call him that than force a new name on him- his royalty revelation is enough for him already. I'll guess Almedha gives birth, Ashnard see the child looks like an ordinary Beorc and that Almedha is now powerless and thus finds little use for either. He then shoves them away somewhere and gives them just enough care to keep them alive for some reason (maybe he hopes something useful will come of them). Within what I'd imagine is a year of Almedha giving birth, Rajaion and his cohorts find Almedha. And for Ashnard finds the idea of having Red Dragons and a royal Black one under his control fascinatingly powerful, so he rips his son out of Almedha's arms and uses him as a hostage. Rajaion's group is captured and drugged (random bandits have the feral drug in PoR C14, so it has to be rather commonplace), and then Ashnard out of a loathing for Almedha chucks his useless child aside. Why the child ends up in the care of an old woman, I don't know, I would've thought Ashy would have chopped the kid to bits. But his hatred may not have been so strong as to want that, if they lived- he didn't care; if they died of disease, hunger or exposure, oh well. Ashnard was King of Daein at this point I think- he came to power in 627, PoR starts in 645 and Soren is ~16 at the time- so he might have had a grunt take the baby and abandon it somewhere, where the old woman discovers it. As for what happens to Almedha- Dragon Laguz look very Beorc-like, it wouldn't have been much of a challenge to hide her origins and blend in. Even if Ashnard didn't give her a tiny stipend in a remote royal estate to live on, she could easily have run off to a convent and spent two decades there- for it's the classic medieval abode of women whose lives are ruined.

Chibi art they made for Ujiyasu Hojo from Samurai Warriors, like Ogma and Greil he's a middle aged man, so that's why I thought of him. If you need prettier thoughts, think of someone like Serra or Forrest. Or maybe Sanaki, those robes would be need a good bit of work put into them.

Wonder how they'd do a Nendoroid Gonzales. I'd also like to see them try making Greil or Ogma into one. I can't help but imagine something like this resulting from it for some reason.

I never really forgot Tellius, I played the games too much in the past to do so. I'm doing a RD draft right now, and the game holds up very well still, nearly all the quality of life elements found in the 3DS games can be found here, barring that all enemies' danger zones combined feature (and Casual Mode, but I never use it). The game has flaws sure, but none of them are due to archaisms. Playing FE7 on the VC several times on the other hand was interesting since I had last played it years ago when I was a newbie. Gosh Normal Mode is painfully easy, though Hard is a pretty good challenge, though it is too restrictive on deployment slots. And I hate having to count out the distance on the Bolting tomes of Aion, Ursula, Sonia, and Limstella since their attack ranges shows them as able to move, when none of them can save low-HP Ursula.

The Branch of Fate does make the most sense for the point when the Fates world merges with the others- it's the tense moment right before a route is chosen, and there is no way any particular route can be chosen unless they all in some way play out. Although I very much doubt Corrin will be instantly killed on the spot by some unknown source and Nohr and Hoshido will think it was each other who did it so they start fighting. With Azura then fleeing with Corrin's corpse in the chaos while she unfortunately loses the Yato and Corrin's Dragonstone to Hoshido and Nohr respectively. Such was the idea I had before FEW was actually announced, and contains a clear anti-Corrin bias since they only would be resurrected at the game's end, that and I compared Corrin to Liu Shan. As for Archanea, they could set it after the War of the Shadows but before the War of the Heroes. But that is assuming KT and IS won't snub Mystery just as it was in TMS. Unfortunately I'm thinking Mystery is going to be left out, which is going to turn Hardin into turn into True Super Mega You're All Royally Screwed Dark Dragon God Emperor because his time in the black sun is being left in the dark and it'll fill him with bitterness, jealousy, envy, hate and anger. I have no other speculations to make on the plot at this point. Don't expect too much from it b/c it's a crossover and it isn't like prior KT crossover plots were that good either. That said, I'll lightheartedly enjoy it for whatever it's worth if I get the game.

And Divine Dragon contrasts with Earth Dragon. Divine = Heaven, so Heaven and Earth, which just so happen to offer the exact opposite bonuses as Affinities in Tellius (massive Hit from Heaven, equally massive Avoid from Earth).

Level doesn't reset when class changing in this game (and you can do it without needing to hit level 10 first). Going from a level 6 Malig Knight to Berserker will make you a level 6 Berserker. And you can just use a Heart Seal to turn Camilla back to Malig Knight (or make her a Wyvern Lord or Sorcerer or Dark Knight). If you hit level 20 before class changing to learn a different class's skills, you won't be able to learn said skills due to not being able to level up anymore (an Eternal Seal would raise the level cap and fix this though). Also, because promoted classes can't revert to unpromoted ones in this game, unlike Awakening, if a character in a promoted class levels up and hasn't learned the unpromoted skills of the class the promoted class came from, you'll get the unpromoted skills first. So let's say you have Camilla A+ Selena and have her turn into a Hero. She would on her first level up learn Strong Riposte, and on her second Good Fortune, she'd only learn Sol after her third level (provided she was at at least level 5). She wouldn't learn HP+5 or Gamble, despite Heroes being able to get that, because the origins of Camilla's Hero access is from Mercenary and not Fighter. Now if you had her A+ Selena and S Arthur and made her a Hero, she'd learn all of HP+5, Gamble, Strong Riposte, and Good Fortune (not sure of the exact order of learning) before getting Sol.

More like defensive about Soren. It is isn't like I have a serious problem with any of Atlus's silent self-insert protagonists (Istuki I do have a bit of a problem with, but that's it). I accept them for the flatness they are and move on to optimizing their builds. Said cursing was just me raging against the impossibility of winning against an avatar figure. And if they do lose, it's always a tragic little loss and somebody else says it's okay and wipes away their tears for them. (And now I realize I'm less Petrine and more Shinon.) *Sigh* While I yield to this law of the universe, I nonetheless, when I want to, bear the bitterness and muster the energy logically better spent elsewhere than on this meaningless opposition.

But Soren does change. It is outright stated in early Part 3 RD that he has worked on being more sociable, and you don't see him saying stuff like this in RD, only PoR: Soren might be cold and governed by reason and logic, but he does realize others have emotions and that he has to work around them. As I stated before, if he was truly arrogant and immune to the emotions of others, he'd have forced negotiations on the Laguz Alliance after 3-3, he doesn't and instead compromises by preparing a new battle strategy, even though he realizes it'll be difficult to make one that works and that, apart from emotion, it isn't necessary. Also, Soren knows how to work with Aimee's emotions both in PoR and RD. Again, the Zelgius challenge which hurts his reputation in RD wasn't exactly predictable, nor was Naesala's betrayal (and the strat for 3-2 wasn't even Soren's in the first place- the Laguz came up with it). And Robin's big mistakes- the Emmeryn rescue, the Grima halting, and the Fort Stieger attack were all beyond their ability to predict just the same. As for the idea of taking Ike hostage, we'd have little idea of how Soren would act, but just because he's Ike-obsessed doesn't mean he'd burst into tears and be all illogical once Ike is gone. If he really cherished Ike he'd do his best to keep himself together and think of a strategy for freeing Ike, realizing that if Ike cannot be freed right away without an unnecessary cost, he'd delay it. Similarly if Ike died, he, I speculate, and that is all we can do, would seek to carry on in the vein of whatever Ike would have wanted until the conflict was over and then spend the rest of his life a hermit. Robin surely is more charismatic and sociable, which would make them a better leader overall. But wit for wit, Soren could match them in strategy, and if Robin ultimately has a slight lead in a war of attrition, I'd curse them to oblivion for being a stupid avatar, as futile as it'd be, for I'd have to ultimately accept it the way I do Anankos as the strongest FE villain ever. And before anyone brings up Smash Brethren 3- that was a Soren Einherjar- not the actual Soren. The Einherjar are shallow copies of the individuals they portray, they lack the true depth of the human mind. Ergo, the Soren Einherjar is but a pale imitation of the real deal, therefore SB3 is in no way a true Soren vs. Robin contest. And that Amiibo thing- bah! (Now I'm sounding like Petrine.) IS needed a grandiose title for Robin to hype him up and make people want to buy his amiibo for Fates, and came up with "Godly Strategist". If PoR and RD had been the breakout hits Awakening is, Soren would possibly be called "Great Wind Sage of Strategy" or something. They came up with the honorific "Young Lion" and "Sage-Lord" for Roy and Leif in Awakening, despite the former being more a lamb and a sage in Binding, and the latter relied on Dorias and August for strategy. Titles be questioned!

Soren did give in on the negotiations matter- the 3-4/General's Hand only happens because Soren gave into the Laguz's desire to fight once more before a peace is made. He then does his best to put together a strategy for one more victory, and it's not until right before the battle begins when Zelgius issues a challenge to Skrimir, which undoes Soren's grand strategy. And there is no way Soren could have predicted this would happen, because Begnion/Zelgius hadn't ever done such a thing before. And, Soren had in the past gotten Skrimir to yield to logic as in the case with Mugill in 3-1, and in having him be part of the strategy used in 3-4. Heck it's after 3-4 when Skrimir finally realizes strategy is very important and totally submits to the necessity of it. As for Soren vs. Robin. Robin comes off as too perfect to me. Not that Soren is any less perfect (and I don't like it when strategists never fail), but at being an antisocial genius, he fits into the trope of a "beautiful, strange mind", which is better than Robin's "Avatar of Amazingness and Total Likability". I do like FE actually having dedicated tacticians though. But if I ever got into Heroes and Robin vs. Soren was in a gauntlet, I'd go down with the burning ship with Soren. And @Captain Karnage, nice typo.

Such is the nature of online forums I guess? Would you rather have strict TC/Forum Moderator power able to shut down anyone who, operating within rules of civility, expresses their opinion? And I do think that people are responsible to a degree as to whom we associate them with- if they took a moment to consider whether others really want/would mind their harpings in yet another post, perhaps they'd self-edit and not develop so strong an association in the minds of others. I myself am a pretty big Bramimond and Sephiran fan for instance, but I don't go around bringing them up everywhere, though I admit to perhaps bringing up Sephy a little too much in Tellius plot discussions. I try to have some self control and avoid committing the sin of vainglory the Internet is so conducive to by not throwing my opinions everywhere whenever I feel like it, wanting attention from them. Should I admonish myself some more? Yes, I can see that. Seconded. The best hope we have is characters able to wield two weapon types and having Minerva use Lances and Axes. And if Minvera got in, we'd almost certainly need Maria and Michalis as unique NPCs at the very least.

Didn't tackle Thabes yet, but I agree that dungeons were underwhelming (though they looked nice). The first duo was okay due to being the first dungeons, and I'm willing to forgive the Secret Shrine being it's a secret. But the Lost Treescape wasn't puzzling enough, nor was Duma Tower (though its fights were fairly tricky), the Sylvan Shrine was a step back from the Deliverance Hideout. The only dungeon that really clicked for me was Fear Mountain Shrine, it's theme and its layout were solid. Not being able to flee encounters as soon as they began was also annoying given how it was sometimes tricky to avoid them. Making it like TMS where your sword strike simply knocks the foe down for a while, with you only engaging the enemy in battle with an advantage if you touch them while knocked down, would have been so much better (why didn't IS mimic that?). At least the battles are fairly short in duration. Provisions and alcohol were indeed too plentiful and too useless, and given the generous drops of them in dungeons, it isn't like you really need to stock up on them in advance.

You haven't played Tales of Graces then. It's all "friendship pact" and "I can't kill my friend, despite him doing evil things!" even though they are CLEARLY POSSESSED BUT SOMEHOW NOBODY NOTICES IT. Even the back of the game's box has the phrase "Bonds of friendship are eternal" on it. The game had potential in its story (I didn't actually complete it yet, but I played pretty far in), yet it is so wasted- Abyss and Symphonia aren't perfect, but they're as sure as anything much better; the gameplay in Graces is amazing though. Lissa will be getting the Clover Cleaver. I'm joking. If the Bolt Axe is the base of Lissa's weapon line, she could get upgrades titled things like "Lightning Axe", or something in line with her background/personality- such as an "Exalted Axe", or since Hector won't be in the base game at least, she can take Armads- which has as its title the "Thunder Axe". I was wondering when they'd rip the characters from their respective games. So Awakening will be pulled from the very start, I'm guessing Fates will be taken from the Branch of Fate. As for Archanea- it'd make most sense to do it after Shadow Dragon, but before Mystery- unless Mystery is being ignored like it was in TMS.

So what does everyone think of the various overhauls IS made in this game to weapons, skills, forging, non-weapon equipment, etc.? I think IS did pretty well with the new weapon system. It maintains the spirit of old Gaiden with the equipment quantity still being relatively finite, and adds some depth. Each weapon type has a couple good selections even when we're talking about ultimates; in Bows for instance Killer, Long, Radiant, and Parthia all have their uses in addition to Luna- which is so rare that it deserves to be broken. Forging evolution does have significant tradeoffs sometimes too- replacing your forged Blessed Lance with a Gradivus results in an power loss vs. Terrors and can make it difficult for those who aren't super fast to use when confronted with middling Speed foes. There are some imbalances- the Rapier for instance requires the sacrifice of a valuable Brave Sword, while the Royal Sword makes Alm a little too good. Forging costs seem to me to require a little too much Gold, but are generally bearable and force one to spend wisely for a DLC-free main game. Overall this was a job well done. Provisions and non-Weapon equips aren't so good though. Unless you're a magic user, forsaking a weapon means a serious loss in damage deal capabilities. Shields needed more Combat Arts (though Defensive makes the Steel Shield amazing for tanking) and to be forgeable- leaving them out of the system was a waste. Rings are a similar case, okayish for physical units, better for Mages. Well more like amazing and specifically designed for Mages, the really good Rings (Speed and Mage) fortunately show up pretty late to keep them balanced. Provisions are invariably the weakest part of this item system, you'd almost never want to use one given that one slot competes with weapons and equipment, and a 1-use healing item isn't worth much, and running back to Alm/Celica for another isn't conducive to quick or well-fought battles. Having a second item slot specifically for Provisions or non-weapons might have been broken, but on the other hand it might have made non-weapons better. Combat Arts were a fairly good idea. It gives physical units variety in their offense, while not being as luck heavy as proc Skills. The HP cost and need to master a weapon first to unlock a lot of the good stuff makes room for strategy. If you're aiming for Blitzkrieg, you can't expect to master that many weapons with single character, so you have to choose wisely which ones you give them.

We don't need a Fire Emblem in every game, particularly if it somehow detracts from the plot. Treat the series name as a vestige of its past. There isn't anything fiery about the original emblem even, so even then the title didn't make much sense. There are worst item-based titles for games by the way, I once heard of an NES game called Ironsword. You don't have to be an FE fan to realize how pathetic that sounds, a name worse than Falchion for a blade of legendary power.

This reminds me, you know what's also kinda annoying in the hands of the AI? Fake Out. Petty damage that just wastes a turn, and in the hands of a player, is certainly inferior to Protect/Detect.

Personality matters not for me- I try not to be so illogical as to drop someone solely on the grounds of looks or behavior. I prefer practicality, but I do try to make room for a couple experimental pet projects on a given run. And themed runs I find fun too.

My contribution to the discussion of rewriting things: I would've liked more Soane and Stefan's Branded Village as I've indicated before, but it wouldn't make much sense to get much of either ingame as is. It'd be more of a developer's notes thing. Hatari could also use more detail, and I like world building so I'd take more of that everywhere if I could. Supports don't really work well for RD with the Part structure really limiting availability. More Base Conversations as suggested before would work better, even if it'd be nothing more than dialogue for dialogue's sake with no gameplay benefits. But of course- why add meaningless dialogue when it's just more work for the writers? I guess RD didn't have the time and resources or its writers the willingness to do such writing. It just doesn't feel like the discrimination is portrayed equally on both sides. Laguz are felt to mostly be the victims, while Beorc are mostly felt to be the aggressors. Maybe they should've included some Beorc living in Gallia/Phoenicis or something who get discriminated against- a self-contained community at the mercy of their Laguz superiors' wills and forbidden from leaving the country due to the useful services they provide the Laguz with. They could have also kept Naesala morally ambiguous to even things more, or included an instance of Phoenicis attacking Begnion including innocents. Looking at your Meg: 103 turns. No, just no. The tedium of that grind, I can feel it. As for Shinon having Provoke- have you paid any attention to his personality? Provoke is gameplay reflecting on his tendency to be provocative disposition, just as Ulki and Janaff have Vigilance and Insight; Personal Skills of sorts before Fates ran with the idea all the way. As for Elincia in PoR, I accept her role for what it is, given that from its earliest days in development, FE9 was centered on Ike, with his parents, Mist, and Sephiran all present as well. The title Afterthought Princess belongs to Hinoka, but Elincia was a later addition, not that that excuses her portrayal completely, it just makes it understandable why she isn't more proactive/central to FE9.

Mathilda is far superior to Clive, don't know how she compares vs. a Villager Cav as I haven't made any of them one yet. Her starting stats are solid with good growths, and she doesn't need that many resources to excel against nearly anything. Delthea does turn out to be an amazing magic user, but she isn't quite a growth unit without issues in their entirety as some would hype her up to be. No 3 range spells limits her attack range, compared to nearly all other Mages. The Mage Ring is a remedy, but you might want to constantly pass that around. Her base stats aren't so astounding to be problem free- in particular her Speed needs a good bit of leveling before she can really be a doubling ORKOing machine, especially since Aura is rather heavy. She never gets Excalibur, and though Seraphim is accurate and light, Alm faces far fewer Terrors and it takes some time for Delthea to learn. Aura is pricey on the HP cost too, and Ragnarok is fairly situational and costly too. Her only real competition in the magic department is Kliff though, Tobin ultimately fades to a Physic bot and Luthier is Tobin with Physic traded for Thunder and Saggitae- neither of which he can double with except with the Speed Ring vs. slow things.

Making her playable in the main game is obviously impossible seeing how she's the final boss and Binding came before the idea of a postgame was a thing. Also, Idunn isn't the only villain not available in the postgame, Jahn isn't. And looking forward to SS, Vigarde and Mansel weren't given playable status in Creature Campaign either (though their classes are redundant with Fado and Riev, no CC characters are of the exact same class). Interestingly, in case you didn't know, there is an unused Demon Dragonstone in Binding's data. And Idunn already has a Manakete sprite, so she could work as a playable character. Just have her shift into her Demon Dragon form in battle, any issues arising from its size are solved.

Is on said Pokemon team.

The Crossbow does get sent to the convoy, I don't think I ever noticed that before. 3-1 12/173 It was down to the wire with this one, and it took a couple tries. Using Gatrie as my freebie was vital, he was incredibly tanky, surprisingly dodged every spell tossed at him and ORKO'ed them in return (he had plenty of 1-2 between the Short and Hand Axes plus the Short Spear- unlike Ike), and even doubled some of the enemy Generals. Ike got Provoke, and between that and Lethe and Lyre set to Roam on the two turns they lasted, surprisingly nobody who wasn't drafted didn't get targeted. I started by getting the Blue Gem and making a wall of Ike and Gatrie near that house, with Rolf helping and everyone else staying out of the baddies' ranges. After a couple turns I created a safe zone for the non-drafted and had Rolf and Gatrie proceed east and north while Ike went west and north. I confess used the Bond crit bonuses of Oscar and Boyd have with Rolf to boost his critical to make rigging one hit to kill a baddie easier (though Rolf did have visible crit on the foe even without the bonuses and thus could've killed the foe without Oscar and Boyd's Bonds) and while I don't see that listed as forbidden by draft rules, it probably is and I'll give myself a 8 turn penalty at the end of this draft playthrough (a penalty that could have been better spent on actually using other characters in a greater capacity). I missed getting the Seraph Robe because Ike and Gatrie were busy elsewhere and Rolf can't get it. Rolf is sad because I would've used it on him to help him out. Ike and Rolf got an okay and a good levelup each I think. 3-2 4/177 Now that the Crimean freelancers, and the Convoy Quintet have joined, I can at last rest easy. Used the Silver Card and the Red and two Blue Gems from the last chapter and Ilyana to buy loads of Steel Knives and Daggers and Wind Edges and two Steel Blades (on top of the one Brom brought), plus an extra Steel Bow, a couple Bowguns, and the Bargain Concoction and the Wyrmslayer for the boss. I ran pretty low and cash when all was said and done. Fielding Ike and my draftees, I had Heather and Rolf hide in a corner, only earning a little EXP on the last turn, enough to Heather to get a good levelup off of. Ike had Celerity and just charged through the south, dodging and ORKOing the enemy Sages which alone threatened him, and made his way to the edge of the boss Istvan's range. Injuring him badly with a Wind Edge, I didn't even need the Wyrmslayer to finish him. 3-3 14/191 Ike got most of my BEXP before this fight, and managed to cap HP, Str, Skl, and Def, with Spd at 29- which is great for ORKOing, helpful for when I have to take him down, as a capped Speed Aran has 33- if Ike had capped Spd, Aran would be needing Resolve to do him in. Now, I might be able to run Wrath instead if I get lucky. Skill-wise Heather got Cancel and Adept, and Rolf got Wrath. Ike and Rolf also started a Support together- hopefully Ike will keep Boyd away from Mist if the two hit A. Nearly down to the wire here, but it felt nowhere near as bad as 3-1. Gatrie once again was used as my free unit. I was able to spare one Senator and had Heather steal the Ashera Icon, the other Senator had to die, oh well, the White Gem is worth it. Ike went west and north, Gatrie too the east, Heather tagged near Gatrie when she wasn't burning stuff. Rolf went west following Ike and burnt supplies too. Shota and Lesbian alike got some sweet exp, levels were generally good here. Some rigging was done with Killer Bow crits (which I do when the rates are high enough to not need massive resetting), and maybe an Adept proc or two. Didn't get Blossom, but the Hammerne and the Master Crown were obtained. 3-4 9/200 Mordecai rejoined- yay? He didn't actually do too much outside of an Ike Smite. I tried sending him eastward originally (and he earned a crappy level and burned a Laguz Stone use and some Olivi Grass in the process), but he couldn't OHKO the Elfire Sage, so instead he joined everyone else in taking the western path. Towards the end he did help with like two kills, so he had his uses. Ranulf did get hit by two Ballista bolts, which might be forbidden by draft rules, but hey the NPC Beasts were alive- they would've taken the hit instead, so it isn't like this really affected my victory (maybe slightly), but keeping Ranulf forever outside of Ballista range would have tacked a bunch of turns onto my count (though I could've rescued him with Mordecai it is true). I got lucky at one point when Rolf using an Iron Longbow made a single digits crit with ~30 hit on a clifftop Sage, allowing me to send Heather and Ike atop it thus speeding things up. The levels Rolf got (egregiously bad ones being rigged away when I had the luxury to do so) brought him to 24 Spd, basically enough to double all non-SMs it seems, his Str is actually lagging behind his Spd at this point. I shifted Ranulf in order to give him just enough move to seize with Ike on the final turn, but I don't think shifting itself on non-draftees is forbidden. 3-5 4/204 Heather had capped Res and was near capping Skl and Speed. So I BEXP'ed her to 20, getting within 1 point of her Strength cap in the process and giving her generally very nice stats. I then Master Crowned her to Whisper and gave her Celerity. Reyson used Vigor to move her an extra space or two from her starting position in the south, and was afterwards held by Ike on the Defend space for the rest of the fight. Rolf sat in a niche near Ike where only one foe could attack him a range 1, protecting him from being killed and letting him build his support with Ike more and earning a bit of EXP. Thanks to her innate Pass, Heather slipped through the south and got in Lombroso's range on turn 2. Unfortunately, it took an extra turn to kill off one of his bodyguards and thus open him up to thieving and dagger hits. Heather was so incredibly dodgy that of all the enemies that attacked her, only twice did they hit. She also burned through 3 Steel Knives countering things and attacking Lombroso before the final turn, and I should've packed another. On the final turn, Heather stole the Energy Drop (don't know who to give it too- Ulki or Mordecai most likely), and then finished him on the enemy phase. 3-6 12/216 I could have done this faster had I let the yellows die instead of having using them to defend Micaiah. I left Savior with the DB, so Sothe could have hid in a corner and as long as he could tank two Tiger hits, he'd have been fine. As things were, the yellows distracted enemies from Aran who I expected would butcher everything quickly. They also pulled units away from the Black Knight, who I used rather inefficiently by not having him charge east, and even had him obtain the Brave Bow on a turn when his Biorhythm was at Best (I traded the Brave Bow and the Olivi Grass he got from killing a beast to Micaiah, but unfortunately her inventory was full so she had her cheap Light tomes taken away- does the BK's non-Alondite stuff go to the convoy at the end of 3-7?). The Blizzard King did slaughter Laguz, and some who refused to attack Aran chose instead to attack him for some reason (it must be the red cape), but not as many or as quickly as he should've. And of course, I lacked Beastfoe, another source of horrid inefficiencies. Micaiah got a couple kills during this fight, but healed using Physic a bunch too, getting two levels that were bad because neither had Speed, though that stat is a lost cause for her at this point no matter how you spin it. Sothe had already capped Skl and Str, and all the EXP he earned proved for naught as his levelups were bad (a lone Spd proc for one level was the best he got). I never even touched the second Beast Killer or halfway consumed first one I bought him for fear of death by killing too many foes and thus opening himself to more hits than he could survive. Aran was my shining star here, no surprise about that. I used the Speedwing on him to bump his Speed to 18. Then I dumped all my BEXP on him, capping Str and Skl and then earning loads of Speed since Def was already maxed too, getting to 23 by the time I ran out. He still took about 7 damage from Tigers, but surprisingly they didn't hit that often, and Micaiah and Vulnerary use kept him alive no problem. I kept Paragon on Aran to make sure he'd be ready for Tier 3 by the battle's end. Thanks to RD's 1 Stat on Levelup Minimum, he actually managed to cap his 26 Speed, doubling Cats by the end even, and with a Steel Greatlance he could ORKO the less durable of the Tigers. He promoted on one of the last turns and earned enough experience after that to gain another level, a beautiful Str/Skl/Spd/Def one. KOing Ike for 3-13 will be an issue I will easily be able to manage at this point, and I still have 3-12 for loading Aran with more experience. Since he's uncapped again, Aran doesn't likely need BEXP and Sothe can take that instead if I want him to have it. Resolve won't with all certainty be necessary for 3-12 and Micaiah gaining levels doesn't matter much, so Aran can Paragon through 3-12 and emerge extremely powerful. The BEXP earned after that fight can be used to max Speed if I need to for 3-13 (Aran's Biorhythm might get in the way of Impale, but it can't mess with Wrath).

The Spotpass Paralogue characters all have really good stats. As for the Einherjar, there are plenty of promoted capped or near stats ones. To name a few, Navarre, Hardin, Lewyn, Seliph, Jaffar, Sephiran, Camus, Ishtar, Narcian.