Rhaegar Targaryen

If this were the case, I wouldn't marry the two to each other. If I could decide the gender of each, I'd make both male and have the first marry Tiki and the second marry Nowi. Why yes, I will take 5 manaketes, thank you very much. Time to replenish the population! :D

If they have a 3DS but no Fire Emblem data, or if they have legacy characters in their team, you'll get a generated team.

Owain Dark makes my sword hand twitch.

I see your point. However, I find Vengeance to be one of the best skills in the game, especially for Sorcerers. Also, when facing enemies who can deal absurd amounts of damage (read: enemies with Lethality, Vengeance, Counter, or Luna), Miracle,Vengeance, and Vantage win. Even before Game Breaker DLC was released, this was a fairly reliable way of securing victory. My dragon daughters would casually slaughter anything that didn't use a Longbow, almost always OHKOing. Of course, I rarely used this Skill combo, since practically nothing would ever threaten my daughters. However, it's quite amusing how it trivializes StreetPass battles where the enemy has Lethality. Also, it's tremendously useful in Double Duel.

I have...a lot. Taking my 3DS to an anime convention caused my map to be covered in StreetPass teams for hours. The only teams I had time to fight were capped ones with good skills and forges. For every team I dismissed because it was too weak or didn't have good items to buy, two more would take its place. I like to think of it as cutting off the heads of a hydra. So, to better answer the question, my logbook overflowed and loads of avatars had to go.

Alternatively, Nosferatu/Aversa's Night + Sol in conjunction with high Skl. Partner's class gives Skl. The front unit should equip Lethality if no enemies have Dragonskin or Miracle + Counter. Partner should have a Brave Something, of course. Any Dual ___+ skills plus relevant Faires would be good for the partner. Additional healing in the form of Lifetaker or Renewal would be helpful for the main unit. Heck, just about anything would be helpful for the last Skill slot (except Astra). Both units are presumed to be Limit Broken and maxed. EDIT: For example, a +Spd -Lck Sorcerer will hit 50 Skl. After Pair Up (+10) and three Rallies (+10), you're looking at 70 Skl. 17% chance to proc Lethality. You have only a 25% chance to fail to proc either Skill. This, of course, is where Lifetaker or Renewal come in. For another alternative, just grab a Brave Bow and Pass. To avoid being locked to range, be a Warrior, Assassin, Bride, or Bow Knight. You could actually have your pocket unit with this setup while you use whatever you wish. For added lulz, throw Galeforce and Pass on both Skill-giving, Brave Bow-wielding spouses and watch as you either safely kill 2 Counter enemies and switch to prep for enemy phase, or kill three Counter dudes and deal with what you have equipped. Hitting 12 times, 8 of which are bypassing Aegis, makes the enemies far less threatening and trivializes the game in general.

I can add two things to the discussion: First, Maiden's Support points are definitely represented by a nonzero value. It's awfully low but it's still there. Second, it feels that there may be a difference in Support point gain rates between Pairing Up and simply being adjacent. However, I think this is not actually the case. Rather, it's an effect of how I grind levels and Supports simultaneously with a minimum of two Pairs adjacent to one another.

That, too. Do you know if the EU version has that bug?

I can confirm that an Avatar Army is perfectly fine. I found out about the bug the hard way: training 9 DLC/SpotPass characters and never seeing my friends StreetPass my team. After writing to Nintendo, I trained 9 more Avatars.EDIT: Ninjas. Damn.

First, let it be known that I really like dragons. My choices make more sense in this context. 1) My One True Pairing is Myself x Tiki. This is my waifu. There are many like her but this one is mine. I chose her the moment I saw her new art and knew she'd be a marriage candidate in Awakening. This was before an international release was announced, IIRC. It was also before I knew whether Manaketes would be any good, or whether Morgan (then Mark, even for girls) could even become a Manakete. Tiki is my first and favorite option by a large margin. I got quite lucky, actually, that she has great "modifiers", if you know what I mean. No, really, her modifiers are fantastic for Manakete Morgan. This pairing, like virtually all of the pairings I made in my first run, was for love, not stats. Also, it's cool that 2) My second run was with female Avatar. Her husbando was Chrom, since he's a cool guy and I wanted to make the best Lucina possible. Chrom was my bro in my first run, so it made sense to pair him with female Avatar. Also, the story significance of was too good to pass up. 3) Avatar married Nowi. I got over the whole youthful appearance thing during my first run, so, in a run focused on stats rather than love, she was the perfect candidate. Sure, Tiki!Morgan is my favorite unit in Fire Emblem, but I'd prefer to have two statistically inferior, albeit still powerful, versions of her in battle. I am, of course, referring to Morgan and Nah, neither of whom turned out as well as Tiki!Morgan, due to different caps. However, Nah is one of my favorite characters in Awakening, and it's nice to have two daughters instead of one, especially since Morgan looks and acts more like Nowi, whereas Nah looks and acts more like Avatar.

I've been torn on this since Day 1. Since I pretty much always make her Chrom's wife, she has to be useful, since she'll either be in his pocket 24/7 or switching to cover things he can't. I tried justifying leaving her as a Dancer but those caps are horrendous. Plus, Galeforce happened, which caused this to be the first FE that featured a Refresher unit that I didn't use for that purpose. So, after maxing her through every class, she ended as Chrom's Bride. I gave her Limit Breaker and whatever else was needed, be it Rallies and Bond or actual combat abilities, like Galeforce, Astra, Lethality, and Lancefaire. Heck, she's one of only four first gen characters that get used beyond breeding better units: Avatar, Chrom, and our waifus (Tiki and Olivia).

Why not? Anyone who attains the Ultimate Emblem will almost certainly have Limit Breaker on their combat units, since the enemies will be absurdly strong. The sort of person who'd buy TSON would also likely buy R&R3.

Exactly. Limit Breaker is in effect at all times and makes such a tremendous difference that nothing else even comes close. It's like having Rally Spectrum, Rally Heart (minus the +1 Mov), and every other Rally active at all times. It works during StreetPass and Double Duel. It is, in every situation, the best option for any unit that will see combat. Heck, even staffbots could use the extra +5 range. The +10 Lck makes Armsthrift, Despoil, and Miracle significantly better, too. Exactly. The elation you feel at seeing your caps raised is tempered with the knowledge that, when Limit Breaker is actually necessary (read: TSON), you're basically playing with only 4 skills, rather than 5, because the devs know you'll have LB on your units if you're going to face TSO. The post you quoted was probably the least constructive among those that were on topic. Also blatantly false, as evidenced by some other posts in this thread.

Defeating the Strongest One is what matters to me. That's...kinda lame, actually. I want to fight all maxed enemies, with progressively nastier skills. Dragonskin, Vantage+, two Breaker skills, and one special skill on all enemies. Pavise+ on Generals, Aegis+ on Paladins, Luna+ on Great Knights, Hawkeye on Snipers, Astra+ on Swordmasters, etc. Heck, with the exception of Lethality, all of their skills should always activate. I want them to Rally like their lives depend on it. Bring on the forged effective, Superior, and Brave weapons! Fortify staves and Elixers to heal all the enemies! Manakete Morgan will feast on their hearts! ...Sorry, what were we talking about?

I can confirm that this is not the case. On my first attempt at pairing Chrom and Olivia, Sumia had 0-1 points, Olivia had between 1-5 points, and Chrom married the Maiden. I wasn't sure if Sumia had accidentally gotten a point with Chrom, so I made sure to give Olivia more than Sumia, by having Olivia dance for Chrom and be his pocket unit for a couple of battles. Satisfied that this would result in Olivia marrying Chrom, I completed the chapter. I was wrong. Also, this took place on February 7.

Agreed. Disregarding Skill inheritance, Sol is easier to get and more reliable than Galeforce-Lifetaker for most of the game. Postgame is another story, of course.

Oh, I don't doubt their ability to reliably activate Sol. What I doubt is anyone's ability to reliably activate it when they also have Lethality or Astra equipped. And if they have Luna, Ignis, or Vengeance, none of those are likely to activate, since Sol's activation takes priority. Lethality, Astra, Luna, and Ignis synergize quite nicely in any combination. Vengeance works well, I've found, when not paired with another such skill, but it's activation has the lowest priority. My ultimate goal is to defeat the Strongest One. Galeforce-Lifetaker will help because it'll allow me to regain health while also increasing my damage, courtesy of activated skills. Thanks for the tip. I also find it very reliable to simply attack with two paired units with Braves, as they can usually kill them easily. However, regarding low defenses, I sometimes find myself facing Generals with Vengeance, using only a pair of physical units. Lifetaker's fantastic healing capabilities, coupled with Luna's reliable activation (thanks to the exclusion of Sol) allows me to force my way through without needing a more sophisticated plan. Yes, choosing to do the smart thing by using magic against Generals is more sophisticated than brutishly clobbering them to death in a less efficient manner. Absolutely. However, I prefer to eschew tactics, letting my units' power and positioning secure my victory. This saves time, which is helpful when you don't have a lot of it. Pretty much. The only things that have ended careless runs of chapters have been Suicidal Counter Warriors, Lucky Vengeance Generals, and Start Enemy Phase Reinforcements. However, the Strongest One still remains for me to defeat.

As promised, the (sorta) full reply: I love it for the ease in grinding it brings. However, Paragon gets dropped like a hot potato the moment a unit has reached their destination. Also, it's useless in Double Duel and StreetPass, both of which I frequently use. True, but Galeforce opens up new tactics, making battles more dynamic. Also, it cannot be learned by everyone. Of course, I did breed it onto 10/13 children... Please read my post more carefully before denouncing my argument with such an implausible first sentence. The inclusion of Limit Break effectively removes a skill slot because the skill is undeniably the best in the game. Therefore, not using it would be handicapping oneself. If one wishes to optimize one's team, all units must have the skill. If all have it, and it negatively impacts the number of viable skill combinations, none should have it. Since I don't wish to handicap myself, I am compelled to equip the skill on every unit I intend to use in TSON. They do. However, most classes don't give +Lck during Pair Up, meaning that any unit with at least 30 Lck will grant the lead unit only +3 Lck. Too bad Armsthrift has such poor distribution. I'm not overly fond of her writing or philosophy, as a matter of fact. However, BioShock both embodied Ayn Rand's Objectivism in the form of Andrew Ryan (and totally didn't make their names similar at all) and was a good game. So, I simultaneously pick both of your options and only the second one. Thank you for both your reading comprehension and your unnecessary, if well-intended defense. It's heartening to see someone who will stick up for whom they perceive as an underdog. Bravo. Bingo. Variety is the spice of life and Limit Break removes a significant amount of that. Your argument has merit. This, then becomes a matter of how many skills one would prefer their units to have. I think 6 would be too many, and 4 are too few. 5 just feels right, y'know? Of course, that's mainly because the game caused me to grow accustomed to running 5 skills on everyone. Being stripped of 1 slot and given a passive buff in its place doesn't sit well with me. If it matters to have stats that average around 50 instead of 40, IS should've made those the original caps. Bringing up Ayn Rand was a thinly veiled way of comparing the inclusion of Limit Break to communism. Since the comparison only narrowly applies, I chose to mention someone who was famously opposed to communism. After all, if we're all equal, there can be no disparity. I don't want to derail the discussion (yes, I know that paying to level the playing field doesn't resemble communism), so I'll leave it at that. I don't like it but I must (ab)use it to optimize my team. How could I justify willfully handicapping myself? I'd much prefer the game to be balanced without Limit Break. Either program stat caps to be at their Limit Break levels from the get-go or reduce enemy stats. Also, thanks for reminding me how hungry I am for the processed flesh of deceased mammals. Curse you, smoked ham! Still, perfect (im)balance should always be sought. If everything were perfectly balanced, everything would be identical to everything else. That would be boring. What is needed is a state where there is a tremendous amount of variety, with a system of checks and balances. The number of viable combinations of characters, classes, and skills is wonderfully high in this game and it's a darned shame to see that negatively affected. Haha, thanks. It would be most unexpected to find my fellow forum members in a state of grief over my soon-to-be reduced number of skillsets. It's unsurprising to see a fellow mathematician in this forum, given how prominent a role the optimization of skills, stats, and items plays in Fire Emblem. Oh, how I wish enemies could Pair Up. Imagine the fantastic battles we could have! Instead of facing enemies who were just stronger than us, we could face enemies who were using intelligent Pair Up combinations! I dearly hope the next FE includes Pair Up for allies and enemies alike.

I'll make a multi-quote reply when I have access to a computer. For now, though, I'd just like to clarify to a couple of people that I find the skill to be so incredibly good that it's guaranteed a skill slot. Plus, while obviously more effective, increasing numbers is less exciting than changing the dynamics of gameplay. No other skill can simultaneously be learned by everyone that you'd want to keep on your maxed units. It's too good to pass up and makes otherwise different characters one skill closer to being functionally identical. And now my phone's attacking me with Lagfaire and Aggressor. :(

No, he's correct. It is, of course, a far better idea to kill the Warriors from a distance than to engage them at melee distance. However, Galeforce-Lifetaker let's me safely engage them at melee distance, while reliably activating combat skills to increase my damage output. If I can ORKO them, I can heal off the damage and be at full health during the enemy phase. This tactic wouldn't work without Pair Up, since the pocket unit's attack doesn't proc the selected enemy's Counter. Thanks to Pair Up, I can often hit Counter Warriors in the face on the player phase with impunity, thus saving myself a potential reset following the enemy phase. The point I'm trying to make is this: Galeforce-Lifetaker can make the enemy phase significantly safer. Since the enemy phase is much more dangerous than the player phase, this is tremendously helpful.

Virtually anything that reduces the number of viable skill combinations is a bad thing, because doing so reduces variety. Limit Break is so good that it's necessary for every character you intend to bring into The Strongest One's Name. Before LB, each character can have 5 different skills; after LB, each can only have 4 skills + LB. Instead of making a skill so good that every character needs it, Intelligent Systems should have not included it in the game. To counteract this, enemy stats in TSON should have been reduced by 10 each. What does the inclusion of Limit Break achieve? 1) It reduces skill variety by effectively removing an entire skill slot. 2) It increases the amount of grinding that must be done. 3) It guarantees activation of Armsthrift, which could be done simply by increasing the Lck cap to 50. 4) It benefits units that don't have more than 4 decent skills, while punishing units with more than 4 decent skills. Andrew Ryan Ayn Rand would not approve. Now everyone will have Limit Break, thus partially homogenizing all of your best characters. Yaaaaay...

Sol's reliable with high Skl and/or Rightful King, and only if you don't have Lethality/Astra. When equipped to a unit with Luna, Ignis, or Vengeance, it usually prevents those skills from activating. This is presuming that Limit Break and/or Rightful King push the activation rate well over 50%. During my very first playthrough, my first promoted class for Avatar was Hero. Sol made the game significantly easier. After that, though, I chose to go War Monk first, since Renewal doesn't rely on Skill% and doesn't require a kill to proc. What I have in mind is postgame. Specifically, difficult DLC and StreetPass teams that, like mine, are significantly more difficult to defeat (on a decent map) than anything this side of Lunatic+. I agree that the enemy phase matters most and Galeforce is an incredibly useful tool for ensuring that you can secure an advantageous position. For instance, killing an enemy General with your Sage and switching to your own General to meet the enemy phase is wonderful. If you're using Galeforce to make your tactics as flexible as possible, you might as well throw Lifetaker in there, since they synergize so well. Counter Warriors are deadly in numbers, even if you're far stronger than they are. Being able to avoid getting swarmed by them is quite handy. Plus, Galeforce chains save turns, if you're into that sort of thing. I don't mean to come across as bashing Sol. That'd be rather amusing, actually, since so many of my units have it equipped at all times. While one can't usually go wrong by throwing Sol onto a unit, it's not always optimal. I like to optimize as much as possible, as I'm sure most of us here do. Sol (like so many other things) trivializes the main game. Enemies can be mixed together enough that I can't always meet enemy armors with effective weapons or magic. Taking them down to very low HP and suffering a nasty Vengeance in return isn't fun. Sometimes, skills like Luna can be necessary to OHKO or ORKO. It's times like those that Sol can be a hindrance, especially since it seems to activate more frequently when I'm at full HP than when I actually need it. I know PEMN but I can't be the only one to get occasionally screwed by that. With a powerful enough unit in your pocket, you can reliably ORKO Warriors. Lifetaker will then give you up to 40 HP as a reward for doing so. Fighting multiple Warriors in a single enemy phase can be deadly. Having the opportunity to eliminate more than one of them during the player phase with units that would normally be unable to do so safely allows you more tactical flexibility.

E That's actually why I like Galeforce-Lifetaker so much. I've often seen three or so Warriors in a cluster, which I've then eliminated in a single Galeforce chain, ending with full HP, despite lacking ranged attacks. Since Armsthrift is disappointingly rare, I don't like to use Brave weapons unless absolutely necessary. If neither units in a pair have Braves, offensive skills (e.g. Luna) can make the difference between ORKOing (and healing 40 HP) and suffering massive damage. Sol can mitigate the damage but won't save you from retribution, where offensive skills not called Astra can result not only in fewer enemies on the field but more HP to protect you during the enemy phase.

Sol is a godsend early on. However, it doesn't work well with other activated skills, since it has a different purpose. I'll disregard Aether in this discussion, since it's Sol followed by Luna. Lethality, Astra, Luna, Ignis, and Vengeance are meant to make other things die; Sol is meant to keep you from dying. If you dedicate only one skill slot to healing, and already have at least one activated skill, I believe Sol is less useful than either Renewal for durable units or Lifetaker for units that proc Galeforce. Double Duel, of course, is another matter entirely, since Sol is the only way for a unit that wields neither dark tomes nor swords to regain health during the battle. Tougher DLC warrants the use of activated skills. How annoying is it to hit a unit who activates Aegis or Pavise, in addition to having high defenses? Failing to ORKO sucks when the enemy has Vengeance. If you use tomes, you're at risk of killing yourself by counter attacking Warriors. If you use bows, you'll need some way of restoring your health while also killing the Warriors quickly. To kill quickly enough, you may need a skill like Luna or Astra, which won't proc with Sol. In this case, both Renewal and Lifetaker are preferable to Sol.

And now we come to the heart of the matter. I've played hundreds of hours across multiple files, so I usually presume grinding is involved. Anything that makes grinding safer or quicker is a good thing in my book. Also, Galeforce-Lifetaker helps against units with Counter quite nicely. If you're locked into 1 range, pairing two units with Galetaker, Brave weapons, and an A Support can keep you alive long enough to kill three Counter units in a row. 1) You hit for 20 damage and suffer the same 2) Your partner hits twice, dealing 40 damage 3) You hit for 20 damage, receiving the same in return 4) Enemy is now dead and you regenerate 40 HP This way, you can also activate Lethality, Astra (which I hate to use against Counter units), Luna, Ignis, or Vengeance, thus possibly killing the enemy faster.