X-Naut

Why now? You have room for him for at least a few more chapters, the only really solid joins before 12x are Minerva and Boah.

I want tomes that are just 1-range or 2-range more than I want good 1-2 range swords and bow.

They have a talk convo in Chapter 9.

Binding Blade 1) Boost weapon hit rates 2) Give Roy a passive leadership aura

Well, I was only thinking FE1. It is possible for FE3 but it sure won't be easy.

lol good luck Serious talk though the run is impossible because Medeus is immune to 2-range attacks. And as other people have said soloing with an archer is pretty much impossible in this game due to the 1-range blind spot.

Troubadour -> Paladin (F) lord who starts staff-locked but gains lances on promotion. In a game with Tellius rescue and some obstacles to mounted mobility indoors.

One point that neither of you are really touching on is the matter of necessity. Gordin is required to recruit Jeorge and the promotion lets him accomplish this faster, not to mention better hold his own along the way. At that point they're near-equal at worst and with Parthia+Starsphere shards low growths isn't a point against either. By contrast it's a lot less urgent to train other units. Sirius and Cain can handle the cavalry work, the Whitewings and Minerva have flight covered, and Linde isn't needed for staffs when Marisha/Yuliya, Wendell and insta-promo Merric/Arlen join by the time the first ring comes in. (You can buy another early promotion item in the Ch5 secret shop but you're not getting much value out of it.) Also, Horseman's extra movement isn't all that useful period. Chapter 9 and 11 are deserts, 12 starts indoors and you fight the wyverns early, and Snipers have better mobility in 13 because they can cross rivers. Beyond that you have Warp, and the main bow targets tend to be close to start. The only places it'd make a huge difference are Chapter 19 and the second half of Chapter 21.

There are two ways I can see this being done: Auto-EXP gain is a feature for units that haven't been deployed, to help keep them on track. It's not supposed to be as potent as what they'd gain being deployed but to make them salvageable if deployed late. Think of it as a fail-safe for ironman players who need a replacement. Everyone gains free EXP and proper in-chapter sources (combat, staffs) are scaled down considerably. Like, cut it by 50-70% at base and have it fall off faster. EXP management (and the associated favoritism) remains a thing but is less of a focus and the "EXP stealing" problem is solved. Either way, auto-EXP would scale based on chapter/level and I cannot see them getting rid of traditional leveling sources. You gotta keep some sense of pride and accomplishment for the units who do the work, after all!

I think your core argument derails itself by going more into class balance than actually talking about the design philosophy's consequences on unit design and the "core team" part. Like, how about how Three Houses' cast is all trainees with late-joiners merely being thrown into the auto-leveler? Characters start with minimal diversity and there's no dedicated Jagen or late-game characters. Sure, people give the excuses of the former falling off and the latter not being used much when you have the core team; but there's the positives of giving you a taste of power and having a safety net for endgame, respectively. Part of the diversity problem is built into the class system itself though. Mounted units have a ton of mobility advantage without any real downsides while armor is strictly a negative trait. Lock away some of the tools to foot units, take mounted terrain penalties more seriously and give armors something. Dismounting isn't the holy grail of this for a reason below and because it's too free even outside of Three Houses. In fact, I'd argue you'd balance mounts and fliers better by making indoors their own personal desert. The core team part isn't just a matter of growths accelerating the game's progression, although a slower curve would help enable rotation. Reclassing has been a staple in the core cast formula because it lets you get the roles you want with the same set of characters. That said, I think the games have been getting better with handling it; FE12 is arguably the worst offender because it's free and promoted classes get free weapon EXP, its only restriction is the class limits. The 3DS games have an opportunity cost to it and don't give you weapon ranks, while Three Houses makes you earn those ranks first. All that said, there's another complaint I'd like to address about the series that the new philosophy exposes: the bench is such a dead weight zone that it makes deviating from your core team all the more punishing. I know EXP is supposed to be a resource, but if characters could level up on the sidelines we'd have less issues with them taking a chapter off. Not to the extent of deployed units, just enough that a late-deployed unit has a fair shake at catching up. I think the monastery activities would be a great addition for benched units, as needing to tutor for a chapter could be a good cost to reclassing.

His movement isn't that big a problem, the worst chapter for him is 5 (7 is oppressive to all grounded units). Chapter 1 has the starting bandits and a conga line of thief reinforcements from the cave. Send him up the right in Chapter 2 (from the rightmost deployment) and he can take the right Draco that Arran lures on turn 2. From there he's not far off from the boss, 1-3 turns depending on how and when you pull him. Chapter 3 is anywhere from three to six Dracos easy depending on whether you want to share with Linde or another archer. Chapter 4 has the bandits around the start. Send him right in Chapter 6 and he can take the treasure room mage, the two bishops and maybe the upper-right mage pretty freely. None of these run into "fierce competition" because the Kaga's Pets will be across the map doing high movement things.

All true, plus the starpshere shards can neutralize his low-ish growths, although his bases are serviceable enough on their own.

There's a topic for this kind of thing in the Heroes subforum you know

I don't think monster mechanics would work well for player units beyond the size gimmick, and even that is sketchy. Multiple health bars and the damage neutering barrier mechanics are not something intended for the player to pit against an enemy. Couple that with the player's wide tools to outstat the enemy and you have something that's close to unkillable barring a mass of beefed up enemies. The size thing could be a way to make transformations feel unique but would require an awful lot of maps with one-tile choke points, which aren't too common in outrdoor maps and can be problematic for map design.

Three Houses has auto-leveling and makes heavy use of it for out-of-house recruitments. Skipping Part 1 would be a matter of finding the right auto-level point for Chapter 13.

TELLIUS MAYBE? No seriously, that's gonna be on everyone's mind until they actually get another banner.

If they're going to keep personalized caps and free-range weapon ranks then classes proper may as well be an enemy thing.

Canas, Pent or Miriel for someone who can geek out on magic without being overbearing.

Nah, he's better in FE3 Book 1 where he has uncontested Gradivus use indoors. Throw him a Power Ring or two and a few Starsphere levels and he's a decent candidate for fighting Medeus!

I know it's not in the same phylum, but does shellfish count? Because that's where most of my favorite seafood lies. Steamed clams, boiled lobster, and especially breaded n' fried shrimp! That last one's my favorite, even if it's a pain to make by hand. As for proper fish, my favorite is salmon for its natural flavor and texture. Flounder and tilapia are nice baked or fried too.

Y'know this would be pretty interesting since he'd be a fallen acting on his own will instead of possessed, mind-controlled or lost to bestial urges. I've wanted to see a Fallen unit in the sense that they are genuinely at their lowest point.

As an addendum, I feel like the split between Sniper and Horseman/Ranger doesn't add much, especially with recent games. Why have the bow-lock specialist be infantry, and why give the bow cavalry a sword when they're using their bow most of the time? We already have precedent for high-range bow cavalry, just let the Bow Knight the bow-lock specialist, with Sniper as a dismounted form or a mid-tier milestone. Warrior and Assassin can handle our infantry bow needs.

I'm hoping for Tellius too if it's not Fallen III or some other novel concept to replace it.

If the split returns like this, then archers' longbow niche needs to be better capitalized on and I feel like they should get a better Strength stat. Hunters focus more on agility, may go rogue and typically go after lighter targets (animals, unarmored foes) with lighter weapons; archers were meant to fight in squads and longbows required a lot of upper-arm strength. Besides having higher in all the offensive stats and mobility is seriously overdoing it. Also you neglected to mention the Jugdral incarnation of the class, where they were enemy-only and had more HP, less skill/speed and the same strength/def.

I don't think level scaling like that has happened outside of Fates paralogues.