Skarthe

I think the only Lunatic+ chapter where I really used a guide was the Prologue, to learn how to do the water trick. (I read Interceptor's playlog a bit too but haven't been using its chapter-by-chapter strategies anyway, so...) So far I'm on chapter 16 of Lunatic+, though I have done some of the early DLC to see how it plays on Lunatic+. (The answer: not very differently from Lunatic) After I finish this run I think I might do a pure no-DLC run for comparison's sake, to see if the extra little bit of exp from the DLC affected anything major. I don't think it did though, I was careful to not use my normal battlers much in the DLC.

The best grinding map depends on how much exp your units are getting. If they've bottomed out on exp gains (8 per kill, 12 with Veteran, etc.) then I think the fastest map is Champions of Yore 2, which can be one-turned by two or three units: the one receiving the grind (send them to the space above Marth on turn 1), a possible flier pairup for mobility, and a third unit to kill Roy, who is just out of range on turn 1. With Veteran, this is worth around a level each time for the grind unit (96-108 exp depending whether Eliwood goes for your grinder or the Roy unit), a bit less without Veteran of course, but still respectable, and this can be done in around a minute per run if you use the start button to skip viewing EP. Haven't tried LB3 for it though, might try that to compare.

I kinda guessed I'd end up in lategame trouble trying stuff like that; the offense would just be too high. Hmmm... Mechanics question. Does Dual Guard+ (Great Knight 15) work regardless of which unit in the pair is running the skill? If so, can it stack if both units have it? If it stacks I think I can get a Warrior (incidentally, I think Warrior has the highest Defense of any bow-wielding class) to like a 53% Dual Guard rate with Morgan or Nah, 43% if not (in which case I'd swap Morgan/Nah for Nowi, putting me around 45%) Hardly a reliable way to mitigate damage, but guarding one hit when I can be 4HKO'd means that I'd have to be attacked at range to be killed, at which point I'd be able to Sol back some health. ...Sounds ok in theory, but it's probably highly impractical: getting to Great Knight 15 would be a pain, especially since I'd have to class Morgan or Nah through it and back to Manakete (maybe stopping in Tactician along the way for Veteran, I dunno). I guess I'm just kinda aimlessly theorycrafting at this point, huh?

I've read through a good deal of your in-progress playthrough - hence how I know how far ahead your Miriel was compared to mine at this point, haha. Mine's around Mage 17 and I just finished Paralogue 4; got her a few levels picking off kills, but it's nowhere near the Mage->Dark Mage->Troubadour that I think yours was at this point. But yeah, I wasn't planning on doing an entirely solo lategame. I just know that, at least this early, Fort tanking is a good way to mass up units for others to pick off one-by-one; this is how I cleared a rather Counter-heavy (50%+ of enemies) roll of Chapter 5, by sitting Avatar+Chrom (not as overlevelled at that point, with just enough defense/avoid to only take real damage from stuff like Luna+ myrms and Hawkeye mages) unequipped on the fort to gather all of the enemies, then letting Frederick pull them one-by-one to the rest of the group. Was just wondering if the same concept can be applied later in the game in a similar manner, with a bit of added offense from Counter.

I know I'll have at the very least a serviceable Nowi!Morgan and Avatar!Nah, plus availability of Stahl!Severa and Chrom!Cynthia (maybe Gregor!Laurent and someone!Yarne) as soon as child paralogues unlock. Lack of decent prepromotes might hurt a bit but I think I can squeeze by; Lissa, while Mag-screwed, can be promoted if I need her utility, and I've got some levels on Cordelia, Panne and Miriel as well (not -nearly- as many as the Miriel in your playthrough, but still functional; she can't take more than one hit, but she does double and ORKO quite a few of the enemies provided no Aegis+) Odd question: has anyone tried using Avatar as a bow-wielding Warrior for Lunatic+? Doesn't get hit by Counter and, provided other damage is carefully managed, can probably clear a map by turtling with bows+Counter (+Sol for recovery). Maybe I'll reclass to Warrior once he hits 15 or 20 in Hero.

I'll have a female Morgan, I'm going MaleAvatar/Nowi to spread Galeforce (not like I expect Galeforce optimization to matter in-game, but I may want to try postgame with it, so may as well, right?) so Morgan will also have Manakete access.

So... I've overlevelled my Avatar a bit on Lunatic+ (+DEF/-RES) and now, at Chapter 9, he's kinda trivializing every map without some kind of secondary goal. For example, I got tired of trying to keep people alive in Chapter 7 and just deployed him and Chrom. and to my surprise it worked for both Chapter 7 and Paralogue 3 (couldn't save the villagers, but I think that's almost assumed on Lunatic+ anyway). He's going into Chapter 9 as like a level 11 Hero (Tactician -> Mercenary -> Hero), and with an Alm's Blade I found on a shining tile he's onehitting everything on the map that doesn't have Pavise+, except the boss. At some point I figure he'll cap stats and the enemies will keep growing such that this is no longer possible; about how many chapters do you think I have of this silliness? I'm trying to feed other people kills where I can, but I don't think that's very possible on Chapter 9 since I have to rush to save Libra. (Can't feasibly rescue him since my level 14ish Cleric Lissa has around 7 Mag, +4 or 5 from a Miriel or Ricken pair-up for a Rescue range of 5-6) Sorry if that kinda turned into a (shortish) ramble; just looking for feedback and advice.

I like "Get thee hence!" That may be because I've played Valkyrie Profile though (one of the main character's victory quotes is "Get thee hence; oblivion awaits thee!")

Wait... Doesn't Cynthia naturally inherit Luna access from Sumia's Knight tree? But yeah. You can't really go wrong with any of Sumia's pairings, though I'd say Gaius is arguably the worst, in addition to being a bit of a waste on Sumia when he should be spreading the Pegasus Knight love around.

I've beaten Lunatic, started working on Lunatic+. Had an easier time than expected with chapters 2-4, running into a couple issues on Ch5 though.

He has this interesting power curve where he's awful early, great from midgame to lategame if trained, but not good postgame. As mentioned, he makes a great father for Nah, Kjelle, or Noire.

I don't think an extra 6% Armsthrift chance is worth the negative stat mods in most other stats (I think Defense is also a +1) plus giving only Troubadour, if we're still talking about Severa. Just for fun, since I sometimes have trouble remembering his last class that he passes to daughters... Sons get Villager/Mercenary/Fighter, which is Donnel's own class set. Daughters get Pegasus Knight/Mercenary/Troubadour.

Stats are different but I'd expect skills to be the same, since they're the same on all other difficulties.

The Brave Axe user being talked about is Linus, plus Counter is flat damage, so Frederick's defense wouldn't matter at all.

This. On top of that, he's also very close to Ike and a few other enemies, so the Counter damage might really screw you over.

I think there are a couple of enemies with Counter as well. Pretty sure Linus does, but lemme have a look real quick. EDIT: Linus seems to be the only one with Counter. In addition to most of the Sorcerers though, Hardin, Area, Narcian, and Sephiran also have Vengeance. As mentioned, Ike and Jaffar are very dangerous. I think Arvis also might give you trouble; he's very strong on both offense and defense, with Valflame's magic bonus, plus Vengeance, Swordbreaker, Tomebreaker, and Pavise.

There are eight sorcerers in R&R3: Arvis, Nergal, Gharnef, Deirdre, Oliver, Julius, Lyon, and Raigh.

What we're saying (or at least, what I'm saying) is that you're misusing the word "unable." Not wanting to do something is one thing (although asking for help and then outright rejecting the majority of the suggestions is kind of rude) and not being able to do something is something else. Aside from EXPonential Growth grinding, you're able to do everything suggested here.

Hold on, I'm confused. Except for EXPonential Growth grinding, what is it that you're actually unable to do?

You can turn him down altogether, y'know: there's that "Recruit Roy? Yes/No" prompt. Your call though.

If you do end up wanting to grind a bit though, Champions of Yore 2 is also a pretty decent grinding map, since it can be 1-turned by three units (the unit to be levelled, probably paired with a flier, and a unit to pick off the one enemy that's too far to the right) and gives most of a level each run if you're getting minimum XP per enemy. With animations off, this can be done in roughly a minute per run, making grinding pretty trivial.

Nihil in FE10 was pretty nice on boss chapters. Sure made Ashera/BK much less scary. Wasn't it good against some bosses in FE4 also or something?

The Avatar is pretty much the best pairing for anyone of the opposite gender, so that's really a matter of where MU is best used, which depends on what you're after. Maximum Galeforce distribution puts MaMU with Nowi, Sully, or Tharja (Donnel and Gaius get the other two). Maximum single-unit optimization puts MU with a child character, and which one depends, again, on what you're after. You can give female Morgan a stupidly high defense cap by doing something like Kellam!Nah!Morgan or male Morgan a really high strength cap by going Vaike!Gerome!Morgan or anything you want, really. Morgan can be basically whatever the hell you want if you build your file around it. Otherwise, yeah, generally class > skill > mods for anyone you aren't pairing with MU.

Cash isn't quite as easy in Hard or Lunatic but it still isn't horrible. Your call. Of the early sets,I liked the Lost Bloodlines pack best because I'm a huge FE4 fan, but aside from that I don't think any of the Series 1 character maps (so, Champions of Yore, Lost Bloodlines, Smash Brethren, Rogues and Redeemers) are that great content-wise. The first maps in each series (plus Rogues and Redeemers 2 and Champions of Yore 2) are honestly completely skippable unless you really want them or you want the better deal for grabbing the pack. Aside from that though, I definitely want to add the the people recommending The Future Past. Easily my favorite DLC set. Challenge pack is pretty neat too.

If taken to the Final Chapter, Tiki refers to Grima as male for either Avatar, so Grima is male if anything.