Othin

Kanna and Sophie (siblings). They were the first kids I got, around chapter 16, so maybe game progress is a factor for that as well? In addition to lacking the seal, they were level 18 unlike the others.

Wait, what? I was told you adopt.

Ahh, main story progress makes sense; I only started trying them once I'd already unlocked the final chapter. But no, the kids most certainly do not all start out at level 20 and with a Child Seal. It seems like most do, but not all.

Yeah all of Corrin's kids get Dragon Vein and access to their base classes, although only Kanna starts in it so the other will have to use a Parallel Seal to get Dragonstone access. None of this extends to Corrin's spouse, though.

I'm pretty sure Ryoma doesn't actually need to level up ever.

I don't know what's the cap on seals available. They showed up on Shigure, Deere, Kisaragi, and Grey, but not Kanna or Sophie. Parents were almost always below 18 and the chapters with those kids always featured level 18 promoted enemies so I'm pretty sure it's set.

Children seem to start at either 18 unpromoted or 20 unpromoted. The ones I've seen that started at 20 unpromoted (four out of six so far) all joined with a Child Seal, which gives them the same promotion options as a Master Seal but rockets them straight to level 18 promoted with massive stat gains on top of the regular promotion ones that I assume correspond to the expected gains from 17 levels. They also learn both appropriate skills and gain a ton of WExp in all weapon types, to the point that they already have a C in any new weapons.

Ryoma constitutes a safety net all by himself, and I'm guessing Xander does too. And there are definitely other high-level characters that join later, plus the Child Seals that a bunch of kids join with and can use to jump way ahead in level.

Yeah Child Seals are fucking ridiculous. Ticket straight to level 18 promoted? Yes please.

Yeah it seems that Jacob and Felicia have inbuilt Eternal Seals; I got Jacob to 20 and then he just kept going. Corrin and Ryoma don't, though. I don't know about other characters.

Yeah, FE5 did not have a developed roster at all, and I'd argue neither did FE4. It was only with FE6 that they even really started to give more than a handful of characters the kind of attention we expect today.

The character roster is not so small as to be worth complaining about, and yeah it is definitely not the smallest in the series. Furthermore, given that you can buy two routes and get like twice that many characters for only one-and-a-half times the price of a full game total, it's hardly a fair comparison anyway. As for deployment, it's the same as Awakening: capped at 16 (under normal circumstances) but typically a bit less.

The V-necks aren't sexist; they seem to show up as just as much on guys as girls. I do think they're overdone but I'm not overly concerned. But the underwear treatment is absolutely sexist. If male Paladins and Great Knights and Generals and Dark Princes were just as frequently pantsless and showing off their crotches, it'd still be a terrible design for an armored character, but it wouldn't be sexist; it'd be equal treatment like the V-necks. But assigning those ridiculous outfits specifically to female characters is sexist.

Just so you know, your entire post appears to be repeated three times.

Their "vision" is sexist and looks like shit. That's the frustrating part. The infuriating part is the people claiming no one has any right to be bothered by it.

Checked, and this is correct. Corrin's base class tree is available to both of their kids, but not to their spouse.

Don't get your hopes up. Nintendo does not seem to consider the existence of underpowered characters a problem that needs to be fixed.

Parents are Jacob, a LV21 Butler, and Azura, a LV26 Singer. Most active characters are far below LV18 promoted; only Jacob, Corrin, and Ryoma are at or past it. All four Paralogues I've seen so far where the kid joins with a Child Seal have LV18 promoted enemies, so it seems to be purposeful. They're also the Paralogues where the kids join at LV20, while the other two I've seen have the kids join at LV18.

It's hard to be god tier just by being really great at healing. This is a good example of why growths are a distraction and make no sense to compare directly.

Okay, what the fuck is a Child Seal? I'm looking at promotion options for Shigure and: Pegasus Warrior --> Falcon Warrior (Master Seal): HP +2, Str +2, Mag +4, Skl +1, Spd +3, Luck +1, Def +1, Res +3 Pegasus Warrior --> Falcon Warrior (Child Seal): HP +9, Str +10, Mag +7, Skl +10, Spd +12, Luck +10, Def +8, Res +11 Pegasus Warrior --> Golden Kite (Master Seal): HP +1, Str +1, Mag +1, Skl +4, Spd +1, Luck +1, Def +2, Res +1 Pegasus Warrior --> Golden Kite (Child Seal): HP +8, Str +8, Mag +3, Skl +14, Spd +10, Luck +10, Def +7, Res +8 And by continuing to stare at it I seem to be answering my own question in seeing that the Child Seal results in getting promoted level 18 rather than 1. Shigure is at 20 unpromoted currently, so it's not just carrying over. Strange. Also it gives a bunch of WExp, to mid-C level. Oh, I see. Level 18 allows two level ups to learn skills. Nope, learned automatically.

I've found that he stays plenty able to survive, heal, and sometimes chip at things, but it seems that even with plenty of use he eventually loses the ability to deal much damage or take on large numbers of enemies, at least on Hard. What difficulty were you playing?

I love the game, but I gotta go with yes. I don't mind the kids. The explanation for them seems a bit weird, but whatever. It's a fun feature and it's popular. Fates is packed with enough new stuff to justify keeping a few things like that. I don't feel like removing the kids would make it a better game, although I'd be in favor of removing just the incest. Also the face game is pretty weird and could probably stand to go; even an optional feature can cause more trouble than it's worth. I can't imagine who actually wanted it and how it seemed like a good idea. What really bugs me is the character designs, which aren't optional. And really not even the Dark Mages, actually. They're weird and magic so I can understand them having outfits that don't make any sense by human standards, so if they all want to parade around in their underwear, regardless of gender, I say that's fine. But what gets really obnoxious is the stuff that's blatantly impractical at times it shouldn't be and when the fanservice designs disproportionately affect female characters. The knight-like classes are where this gets really bad, and while Awakening was already pretty screwy about them (Cherche), it seems to be getting even worse. You get classes like Corrin's where the male version has a full suit of armor and the female version has the same thing except around the crotch, where it has basically nothing over the underwear. It makes no sense to portray someone who would bother to wear armor as thinking that would make any sense as battle wear, and having the men get a relatively practical outfit while the women get a clearly impractical change for fanservice is just ridiculous.

Third Path Corrin gets a new Yatogami upgrade path that combines the benefits of both the Hoshido and Nohr upgrade paths. It would make a lot of sense for Corrin to also get a new class, potentially one that functions as a Dragonstone specialist.

Different swimming attire doesn't change what makes sense for battle, especially for someone who's bothering to wear armor.