Barren

Hilda as a Warlock Felix as a Mortal Savant Bernadetta as a Holy Knight Manuela as a Great Knight Hanneman as a Grappler

That could have been a good idea yea. Plus there would not have been anything wrong with Petra and Mercedes getting their own solo paralogue battle since Petra seeking aid from her people from Brigid and Mercedes confronting her brother as the Death Knight are good side plots on their own

So Swordmaster or Wyvern Lord barely makes a difference in terms of avoid stacking. Good to note. Still, I was happy with the result of him being a Swordmaster. I wonder if maybe assassin would be better since 6 move is better than 5 and assassins can move through thickets much better. He'll lack in kill power though as an assassin but his dex and speed will go up due to stat modifiers. Though Swordmaster rocks better kill power.

I've experimented with Swordmaster Ferdinand on my BL playthrough. I was messing around with some idea builds on normal mode at the time. I certified him in the White Heron Cup so he can get Sword Avoid +20 as a dancer. Then leveled up his sword prowess to max so he can achieve max avoid. Then gave him his own battalion which jacked up his avoid even further. It was literally close to 0. Now obviously he would want this on a Wyvern Lord since it also rocks avoid +10 and a flying battalion that he could use. I think Cichol Wycern Co is the better one. But as a concept, I enjoyed seeing Swordmaster Ferdie just be a dodge god and I'm sure on another playthrough he'd be a better dodge tank as a WL with sword avoid.

Caspar having his own paralogue could have been interesting. Though not every paralouge battle involved two people with a support chain. The solo ones that I recall were, Dude, Dimitri, Claude, Edelgard, Hubert, Marianne, Felix, Sylvain, Rhea (non CF) and Lorenz. (Technically Sothis as well but she is not a playable character). Anna also shares one with Jeritza if on Black Eagles route and hers is solo on Blue Lions and Golden Deer. Not available on Silver Snow as far as I'm aware which is odd. I guess they did have with Caspar and Mercedes because of Caspar wanting to prove he's strong by beating the Death Knight basically and Mercedes want to see her baby brother again. But yea, no support between the two which is strange. I did find interesting that you can only get the Scythe if you actually defeat him which is a really powerful weapon. You get the Lamine Gem regardless if you defeat him or not

I think it depends on when you recruit them is what makes them viable to your team. For example, you can recruit Marianne between chapters 3 - 5 with her reason proficiency at rank D. That can be a good thing because from there you could get her reason to rank D+ pretty easily for her to go into the mage class and learn fiendish blow. Same with Ignatz except his axe would be at D rank and you can raise it to D+ rank faster so he can go into brigand and get death blow. As far recruiting Ingrid mid to late game. There are up and downsides to it as Regnor explained. You can tutor her in authority up to rank D by the end of chapter 6 and then she can equip a flying battalion. Plus her sword rank would already be at C rank (or at least very close) anyways so she can always get her axe rank up as high as possible if need be. Especially if you want her to go into wyvern rider then falcon knight/wyvern lord. Not to mention that her being a pegasus knight already by chapter 6 means you don't have to waste a intermediate seal on her. But yea, this also means that you have less time to train her and her stats might not be up to snuff. You could in theory though save the stat boosting items and use them for what she is lacking in

I like Mercedes myself as a healer but compared to Linhardt and Marianne she has a really rough start on her faith rank being at D. Meaning that you won't be able to gain physic until around chapter 3. Which really makes chapter 2 more difficult for some people. (I did preview Maddening BL for myself to get a taste). I'm not sure why the devs weren't consistent with their healers. If Lin and Mari can have D+ rank starting out why not Mercie? But anyways, yea it's really tough because you want to make sure everyone is close together and mercedes can only heal up to a total of 5 times. Having fortify by the end of the game sounds nice but it really depends on how often do you see your units get hurt because they would be well suited to dodge/tank hits at that point. I don't think Mercie is a terrible healer by any means but she does have the worse start out of the 3.

I've once recruited Balthus during chapter 3. And during that time, his bow proficiency was at rank D (which he is bad at). So getting him to rank D+ was very doable and him getting Hit +20 is worth it if you want him on the front lines as a Hero (ironically), Grappler or War Master

I agree with both of your points. These options you mentioned for Bernie allows her go Bow Knight or Paladin which is easier for her to get into. Falcon Knight, which is better than paladin but no guard adjutant and flying battalions are limited so I would be careful when picking your fliers. Pass is really useful for her since it's not only a good filler, but it still allows her to gain advantages that no one else (besides Anna but she pales in comparison) can get. As for Jeritza, him gaining Death Blow really easy helps him a lot. Darting Blow is also great for obvious reasons. Battalion Desperation oddly enough is an ability worth considering if you're thinking about him using a Brave Lance for example. Wyvern Lord also is a good option for him. Plus it gets him to use Alert Stance. Though I understand that having him join at the second half of the game might devalue your opinion on him a little and that you have less than enough time for him to get there. Especially since CF is the shortest of all the routes and he's only available in that route

It could be because of certain points in the game. Like there are cut off points for some bonds i.e Catherine x Lorenz or Byleth x Leonie

Do the Ashen Wolves count as non lords? They are DLC and Yuri (along with Seteth) knows Model Leader which is something that the 3 lords and Byleth can learn as well

I've also experimented with Darting Blow + Battalion Desperation with Ingrid as a Falcon Knight. If you're fast enough she can hit an enemy with an immediately follow up attack. That tends to work really well with Death Blow and maybe Brave Lance pending on the speed stat. Jeritza can also do that same combo as well

Breaker skills are situational but can be useful for specific counters i.e lancebreaker for pegasus knights and falcon knights.

I think Ward or Pure Water can stack with her waiting and gaining res +4. I haven't tried it out as of yet but I am currently in my Black Eagles run so if I ever get the chance, I will see how it goes. I'm not normal mode currently since I'm just experimenting around with class ideas at the moment.

I wanted to correct myself on something, I thought that Edelgard's personal ability post timeskip would stack with rally resistance. It doesn't. Because like Dedue's ability, it's a self rally when you wait so my bad on that. Still, the possibility of having Resistance +2 and her +4 Res when waiting still has her taking magic hits decently. Though you can access a similar combo with Dedue much earlier on Blue Lions

That's something that has also crossed my mind as well. It's like to wanted to balance out the classes and spell kits to the point where everything and everyone is unique and different. And while I do think they did just that, doesn't necessarily equate to being good. Faith should have gotten more of a offensive presence like you said which is also why Holy Knights are regarded as one of the worst classes to go for. Yes Marianne is technically the best candidate for it since she learns Aura and can pull off the offensive white mage. But that means sacrificing the pure healing role that a bishop provides for white tomefaire and canto. Plus bishops are far more preferred than holy knights because of obvious reasons. It's why nearly every team wants at least one bishop (maybe two in case you need a secondary physic user with maybe warp, silence, etc). As far as Byleth goes, I feel that the devs didn't really do a good enough job making Byleth a jack of all trades character because it's obvious that the EO class is geared to be a sword class. Even when you don't purposely level up Byleth and let the EO unlock itself, it's starting magic stat is 8. It's low compared to the 17 strength stat it gets. I'm sure that nosferatu tanking is achievable on hard mode since the enemies are not that much tougher and 12 uses seems okay but could do better. But as many have pointed out when I first asked about the white magic dodge tanking, it's generally not recommended because nosferatu runs out quicker than iron sword/gauntlets dodge tanking with their sword/brawl avoid respectively.

Maybe the devs thought that it could serve some particular small niche roles, if for example you're using an avoid tile or some bushes as a way to lure the enemy, then have them miss and have someone else take advantage of it by attacking the enemy you've successfully lured in. But that seems more like a pitfall than anything else. At least sword avoid and brawl avoid are decent filler abilities for front liners to use for both phases

Yea I wasn't exactly impressed with Byleth's faith spell list as well. I mean Recover is fine at rank C, but having no spells between that and Rank B+ up until Rank A to get Aura feels like you're putting in too much effort just for a complete list. I agree with pretty much everyone that Byleth really needed Seraphim. Hell, give him Abraxas instead of Aura so you have a nuke of a white magic spell. Or Entrap if it's like a combat based white magic spell from one of the previous games.

Not to mention that even as Emperor her only way to use her magic stat is either the Lightning Axe combat art which she gets at rank A or if she uses a forged Bolt Axe. Even by then her only way of hitting with either move is if she masters the Archer class for Hit +20. Though she has a bane in bow and arrow s that will take longer (though thankfully not impossible) for her to get there. As far as her resistance growth, the only niche set up I can think of maximizing her magic resistance is mastering the lord class to get resistance +2, have someone with rally resistance and then have her wait to get a res +4 adding it all up for her to get a whooping Resistance +10 when waiting. This in theory makes her a big magic sponge if you're having her draw in warlocks and such.

Whichever team you try to go for, try to make sure you limit the fliers you make on your team to be around 3 to 4 maximum because there are not too many flying battalions to choose from. A couple of rank B and A battalions should suffice. Maybe a rank C but that's about it. Also The Nueville Flying Co. is the only flying magic battalion out there so having at least one Dark Flier can be good

Makes you wonder what the developers were thinking when designing these classes. I would have loved to have been in that conversation and see where they are coming from. Maybe similar to swordmaster, they felt that the class can be a good choice because of a innate sword/axe crit +10 so you could use them as crit-stackers. But Warmaster is a straight upgrade from Warrior or even Grappler like you said because they have a critical hit +20 class ability. But it's a male only class so I'm guessing that wanted to give girls with a axe boon an option to be a warrior (Hilda's canon class). But everyone knows she's way better as a Falcon Knight or Wyvern Lord anyways.

Definitely the highlight for me are the characters and the soundtrack. The characters for me were enjoyable in their own way, not everyone is my favorite per say but I liked the vast majority of the cast. Their performances were great and noteworthy. The soundtrack is great! I love their music especially by the second half of the game! The story for all routes while not all perfect are enjoyable enough for me to warrant another playthrough with new game+.

That's true yea. Plus their strength modifier isn't as high as Wyvern Lord. It really does seem like Assassins are the way to go by process of elimination

Not counting Mortal Savant the only other master class that gives you any additional experience using a sword is Falcon Knight. And having sword avoid + defiant avoid for example can make a lucky girl a damn good dodge tank. Especially with C.A.S with its high crit rate

I mean anyone can make a decent to good dancer no matter who it is. And sometimes you can even forsake the dancer class and just get sword avoid +20, i.e Ferdinand, Dimitri, Felix, Petra, Ingrid, etc. I remember using Marianne as a dancer in my GD play through and she was really good. She can easily reach movement +1 with her riding boon and can still be a secondary healer if need be. There is still also linked attack support like from Dorothea since she carries meteor (though that and her having thoron and physic is enough reason why people decide against dancer).