soly

Neck needs to be a little thinner. You might get better results cropping off Legault's entire neck and pasting someone else's neck (Guy's, probably) in its place. Also, Guy's frinds looks odd without the headband, I feel like it should flop a bit more. As for the hair, it's... floating away from Bors' neck, which is odd. Perhaps try splicing someone else's hair onto the back of his neck?

Echidna is locked to one half of this route split - 10A/10B. Offhand I don't recall which half she's in, but this is a thing, so if you intend to use her make sure you visit the correct village. Aside from that, a bunch of lategame enemies have massive def but low res and 1 range, so definitely consider picking up a couple of mages at least.

Gregor passes Axefaire and Swordfaire to Severa, so Gregor!Severa will be more or less usable, though strictly worse than Vaike!Severa for the most part. He passes Axebreaker and Patience to Yarne, so Gregor!Yarne will be solid. Worse than Archer dad Yarnes, but decent behind a counterattacker with Vengeance and Anathema. Gerome inherits Berserker and can pull off breaker spam sets similar to Vaike!Gerome. Gregor!Noire is a decent specialty Sniper. Basically also strictly worse Vaike!Noire, though. Nah gets Axefaire to use with Wyvern Lord, Hero to use with her new Axefaire, and Valkyrie to use with her innate Tomefaire, so will be a versatile hard support. Her 4/1 Str/Mag leans her physical, though. As a physical Nah she's worse Vaike, as a magic Nah she's worse Henry, but she's the best Nah who can do both. Though usually her partner won't need both, either. Lucina, Cynthia, Kjelle, Owain, Inigo, Brady all don't benefit in the slightest or can't get Gregor, and Laurent is Laurent.

Haha! Yes, very sharp! They're sort of kids even if not really, and they don't have their own kids either way unless Morgan, and in my head they are children, so using boyfriend/girlfriend was a little more comfortable for me.

So yeah title, I wrote an Apotheosis pairings guide. There's a lot of info on Apotheosis pairings out there, but it's seriously scattered - among 300 pages of the Pairing Thread, across GameFAQs guides and forum posts, and there's one gem I found on like page 1'200 of a TVTropes thread. Not to mention all the stuff with next to nothing out there that I had to bring together myself. No one's ever really bothered to bring it all together before, so I gave it my best effort. Here's the link. Any feedback would be appreciated. In any case, I do hope it proves of some use to you. That's why I wrote it, after all. https://docs.google.com/document/d/13b2KxYlWGqnMPbXMqjGj850dKa88sAytTCCJw7gpaS4/edit?usp=sharing

My Olivia pulls her weight on Lunatic. I don't bring her every chapter, but keeping her safe and alive is nowhere near impossible. It's not even that hard with the right setup. But that's a digression. None of Olivia's supports really do it for me, either, but... for me it's probably Stahl, I think.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not certain Grima required an origin story/motivations to begin with. He's the big bad, sure, but the game's major antagonist is really Validar. I think it's perfectly fine for Grima to be just 'hurr durr evil kill everything' if the game's other villains can pick up the slack with respect to things like evil motivation. I quite like Gangrel as a villain, but I'm not certain the other villains have picked up that slack. Still...

https://serenesforest.net/awakening/characters/maximum-stats/complete/ Gerome's War Monk/War Cleric class, which he has native access to via his Priest, is not enabled by default. You can only give him the War Monk class on this page if his dad would pass it to him (like Libra!Gerome).

Is it wrong that I'm thinking of Rutger? Because I'm definitely thinking of Rutger somehow.

You sort of have to figure that with Limit Breaker and Rallies, you're gaining +22 to your unit's "regular" maximum stat, which is already enough to put an above-average kid unit on par with Anna, the map boss. Add in Pair-Up and Dual Strike and you're doubling her with Brave weapons for six times expected damage (1-2-2-1-2-2-1-2-2-1-2-2). I don't think it needs to be said that you just stomp the mooks flat. Take away all DLC skills and your above-average kid unit is still stomping mooks (with 50-55 stats) for the most part, since they still have +8 to all stats from Rally skills, +2 from stat tonics, and their pair-up. They'll be on par with maybe a mid-level Apoth boss and... a grade or two below Anna, maybe. Even then Stahl!Severa can muster the stats needed to ORKO the bosses of waves 3, 4, and 5. Pair-up is exceptionally strong in this game.

Apotheosis. Final DLC map, only real challenge map in the game. You don't need to pick it up immediately (or at all), but this is the hardest map in the game and it's the only map you really need to optimise your army for, so for me it adds a lot of longevity to the game. Also, Chickenwings is spot on here: Though I would possibly add DLC Palla to that list (Roster Rescue, I think) she's definitely nowhere near essential - her main claim to fame is Rally Str/Skl/Spe/Heart/Spectrum on one unit, but it's shared by DLC Katarina from Apotheosis itself and you can always run 2 Rally users. Lost Bloodlines 3 is also one of the fastest grinding maps available and drops the Paragon skill for doubled EXP gain, so it's also useful to streamline grinding for Apotheosis. In a similar vein, the DLC gold and EXP maps are nice, but I don't see them as essentials, EXP especially. Future Past is always a recommendation for character development and that glimpse into the future. Infinite Regalia is skippable IMO.

Gaius!Noire's three (four) major sets are Sniper, Assassin, Bow Knight (and Bride, but you're no DLC) with 44/50/45/(46) speed in order, or 54/60/55/(56) with Rallies and Spe Tonic and 62/68/63/(64) with a Berserker pocket (Yarne). Assassin seems attractive, but you won't have the Def to live Anna's Aether anyway (even with the Knight's Def+2 skill) which means it's mostly for doubling Thronie. If it were me, I'd probably favour Sniper in the general case and only pick Bow Knight if you need her to double Invincisorc - which shouldn't be the case. Gaius!Noire Sniper x Berserker doesn't really do anything particularly special in terms of speed but she's good at what she does.

Dual Support+ only affects the unit in front, so no. It's still fine as filler skill 5. If you're doing Severa x Gerome, you can probably do Vaike!Gerome with his Breaker skills; I really do consider them very good and I honestly just don't hesitate to do so if I need Henry elsewhere.

Yes, this is after Rallies and Spe tonic - though I think I forgot to give Severa Def Tonic so you might be able to drop Defender no matter what. Ugh, def tonic, now I need to recheck a lot of my calculations. My bad, I did give her Def Tonic. 34 base Def, +8 Rallies, +2 Tonic, +1 Defender puts her neatly at 48 Def. Virion!Yarne is always going to have the edge on accuracy, gaining +35 hit on player phase (Prescience, Hit Rate +20), but Gerome edges him on damage (+3 Str) and has good hit on specific targets (due to breaker skills). Vaike!Gerome will basically always carry Axebreaker and Lancebreaker, I think, alongside Axefaire, Str+2, filler, so if you keep him on those weapon types he'll be better, but Virion!Yarne will edge him on things like Invincisorcs and Celica's Sages in wave 4. +Spe on Apo challenge runs is pretty staple. Morgan will have 48 Spe as a Sage, 58 after Rally and Tonic, so given a Dark Flier he's hitting 66 Spe (not doubled by Anna). Check if he lives Aether (48 Def) but if you're using Stahl!Severa it doesn't matter. Your alternative is to go Grandmaster to boost a female Sage to a higher Spe tier, but most of the female Sages don't really care unless you can give them double-Thronie (69 Spe) or Anna survival (66 Spe 48 Def). You don't really have that much business being that much faster than 60 Spe anyway. +Mag Morgan has a 4 Spe modifier and is just fast enough to reach 60 Spe with a Sage and Defender. This also has knock-on effects with Lucina (who's now locked into magic), but if she gets Laurent she doesn't care as much. Obviously Morgan's girlfriend is going to depend on whether he's physical or magical as well as whether he needs to get +Spe from a class bonus or not... Henry!Cynthia is good on magic galeboys for the most part, and you can go Donnel!Kjelle on physical ones maybe. Nah will be good on Morgan either way - since Morgan won't necessarily need +Spe as a Sage, Nah's free to take someone like Libra for +Mag mod instead of requiring Henry's Valkyrie inheritance (important since you're probably requiring Henry!Cynthia). And as physical she has dads like Vaike and Gregor to pick from.

No DLC Apoth is doable with Chrobin + other kids for sure @ChickenWings. If you don't have any major objections, you can try packing Stahl!Severa, too, Stahl!Sev @ Assassin can ORKO both Thronie and Anna on Enemy Phase (if her Berserker doesn't Dual Guard for her). Set is Assassin pocket Berserker, Galeforce/Vengeance/Bowfaire/Spe +2/Defender to hit 48 Def (survives Anna's Aether) and 69 Spe (doubles Thronie; Severa actually reaches 70 Spe with this set). You can drop Defender if Olivia Special Dances for Severa.