Czar_Yoshi

So you mention playing under restrictions that would mostly apply to maingame, and talk about growth rates (caps matter in minmax, growths matter in main game), but under those restrictions you're not going to be getting any children until postgame when those two things don't matter anymore. I'll just give postgame advice, so correct me if that isn't what you're looking for. Anyway, those pairings are mostly fine, but you might want to give Inigo a father who gives him Luna or Vengeance. General skill passdown rules: Mothers with Galeforce and male children should always pass down Galeforce. Panne should pass down Swordbreaker if she's not marrying someone with Wyvern Rider, but she is so it doesn't matter. Maribelle and Miriel should pass down DS+, though it's not very important. All other mothers don't matter, just pass down whatever is convenient (usually your best training skill, so things like Sol, Veteran, and *Faire are strong options). Fathers with female children and male-exclusive classes should pass down skills from said classes (Barbarian and Fighter). You have several options here: Axefaire: valuable if the child has a viable axe-using ending class, the best of which is usually Hero. Counter: sometimes helpful when fighting powerful Risen or when making a Streetpass team. Despoil: speeds up farming if you have nothing better to do, and makes a very satisfying noise when it activates. Sol: although Hero isn't gender-specific, some fathers like Gaius have Fighter but don't pass down Mercenary, and thus the daughter won't have access to this. All+2 is always a viable filler skill. Donnel gives Armsthrift, so if it's your cup of tea than it's an option too. Kjelle also gets Deliverer, which is another skill that falls into the category of not required but often helpful. You could even run double Faires as a Paladin just for fun, though it would probably be more effective to use just Lancefaire and Axebreaker (or Swordfaire and Lancebreaker).

From the other responses in this topic and the present pairings I gather TC is more into pairing for story/aesthetics and stronger characters are just a bonus. But yes, if you want a strong Gerome Gregor and Henry are solid options.

Taken that way, you'd just wind up with tiny class pools/skillsets. However, a similar (and possible) efficiency combo that I've grown fond of is Maribelle!Lucina!Morgan x Chrom!Brady, which lets me do all manner of interesting things to the harder DLC maps with only 3 marriages (one of which is automatic). No problem.

Oy, I think you mean Miriel x Ricken. Laurent is her son.

Go summon the weakest spotpass team around (Wolt) on Cht.3, then have your strongest sword user sit on the gate and tank until they're all dead. You won't get any exp, but you will get 50 Renown which will bump you up to the amount you need for the Second Seal. If you need a boost for a tricky boss kill, you have two options: That Glass Sword from 50 Renown (only 3 uses, but E rank and 11 mt), and the legendary weapons from the bonus box, which for some odd reason are free. You'll need an A rank to use most of them, but Frederick can wield the 14-mt Luna right off the bat.

Unless someone specifically says they're playing Lunatic+, it's generally safe to assume they aren't. There's nothing Tome users can do against Range 1 Counter that Javelins and Hand Axes can't do. Range 1 Counters aren't dangerous because they limit your attacking options, they're dangerous because they mob you on EP and if you retaliate, you'll take damage. And the important property of Bows in Lunatic+ is that they don't retaliate at 1 range, not how much damage they do, so Bowfaire isn't required to use them well.

What you believe to be canon regardless of what anyone else says, which 99% of the time (with this game, anyway) is waifu-related.

Promoted/special classes have a Lck cap of 45. Anyone can use a Lck tonic for +2, so +3 needs to be made up somewhere through mods/skills. Ways to do that include +Lck Avatar/Maribelle/Lissa/Donnel's children (sometimes depending on the father), RK Inigo/Morgan/Spotpass characters, spotpass characters with Lck+4, and the elusive Barracks Boost. So no, 100% AT+Galeforce without DLC/Pairup isn't limited to Avatar and Cordelia. I think it's silly to compare the two skills because they're different skills with very different purposes. One is a skill to make farming and training easier/faster, and one is a skill that massively improves your kiting/skirmishing ability. Edit: Availability: They're both readily available, but in different ways. Armsthrift is one Second Seal away, obtainable as early as Cht.4, on the character who is likely going to be getting a majority of your exp/levels for most of the game and the only one to stand a chance ingame at getting it high enough to make a difference (and possibly allow some forge/legendary spam). Galeforce takes a bit of work to get, but isn't entirely unfeasible: Sumia can get a pile of exp by hiding behind a choke holder in Cht.3 and killing stuff with her Javelin, both Pegs can get some safe, easy exp in Cht.8 due to movement disparity and an abundance of weak Mages, and in Cht.12 there's a pile of Cavalry waiting to be Beastkillered and an easy choke to funnel them through. The important thing about Galeforce, though, is that once you have it, if you have Sumia marry Chrom (or either one with Avatar) then you get two practically free children with Galeforce who grow fast enough to be able to use it right off the bat and use it well a few chapters later.

Regardless of exactly how many there have been, there are enough to justify a "not this thread again..." I consider whatever pairings I'm currently using to be canon. In this case, I'd have none because I just started a new file.

That Second Seal you're looking for is also called 100 Renown. For recruiting Gaius, have Chrom (unpaired) run up and talk to him, then pair up with him, and then move Gaius back out of enemy range and either drop Chrom or give him to Avatar/Sumia.

I've cycled through all the replacements in SD and never seen Neubee. I guess Awakening added more...

Which is exactly why most people don't like her.

That Morgan is also a Lv.14 GK, which would have Luna naturally on an ORO. I've found some strange things with mine, but the one that takes the cake is a pink-haired Morgan(M), which isn't possible to obtain normally regardless of parent. However that was a real team, not an ORO, so I don't know what happened there.

So I'm not exactly sure if you said non-DLC characters because you've already looked through them, or because you don't have them, but just in case... Katarina and the Whitewings are completely insane. Katarina can reclass to Dark Flier for more move with that Shadowgift, replace Rally Str/Mag (whichever one you don't need) with Rally Move, and either be an ultimate offensive Rallybot or a Thief sniper. The Whitewings all come with Galeforce, which Palla can use to be a long-range rescuebot. Palla can also be a physical Rallybot or a Counter/Sol tank for Route chapters. Catria is more offensive with her proc, DS+, and dual Faires, and Est is your typical growth unit who comes with Galeforce+Luna. Other non-DLC characters who come in handy: Ashnard and Travant are flying tanks with massive Def and good Avo thanks to their skills, perfect weapon ranks for Javelin/Hand Axe spam, and Renewal for HP recovery. Ashnard has oddly high Mag and Res to boot, making him an ideal candidate for Bolt Axe spam and able to shrug off some wind magic to boot. Zephiel comes with Pavise and Conquest, letting him scoff at the forged effectives that trouble other high-move tanks midgame, and has Rally Def for turtling and training weaker units. Elincia is very cheap and has decent Mag/Mov if you need another rescuebot. This might go without saying, but the strongest of the DLC units completely wreck the game. Unless you're going to restrict access to them, I'd advise trying this on Lunatic+ to make the run a bit of a challenge.

A rundown on all of those options: Gaius x Nowi: Nah is a little faster, but still slow and lacks procs to kill with (well, Astra and Lethality). This Nah works better as an Assassin with Swordfaire than a Manakete. She could also be a Dark Flier with either Faire. Donnel x Nowi: Natural Sol so you can pass down a Warrior skill as well, but Nah is even slower than she already is and still lacks a proc to kill with. Dragonstones aren't forgeable so AT isn't very important. Gaius x Tharja: Inherent Galeforce+Luna, as well as good offensive stats. Vantage is also present for VV, but Sage is missing so you'd have to use DF for that. Donnel x Tharja: Same as Gaius, but trades Vantage and Spd for AT, Renewal and Sol. The tankier option, but tanks don't care for Galeforce as much. Gaius x Sully: Myrmidon overlap. Kjelle gets good Spd and Galeforce to go along with her Luna, though. Donnel x Sully: Offers lower offensive mods, but has the skills to easily switch between tanking and offense, which is useful for training. Hero makes a strong ending class for Kjelle with her natural Swordfaire.

Er... You dislike all those, but don't mind Phila and Excellus?

...To have the Lunatic+ Classic show up on their Streetpass team?

I'm not seeing anything wrong with that, though do remember that there's a cap on how many battle points can be obtained per map.

What classes are you using? Putting all of those units into their standalone optimal classes yields some strange pairs. Lucina and Gerome: Why Kellam? Gerome doesn't have Galeforce to use Luna with, he doesn't have Berserker to support with, but his mods are clearly physical. Sumia!Lucina, meanwhile, is typically either a Sage or a Dark Flier, neither of which benefit from a physical support. Unless you want to make Gerome a Trickster (they do give interesting pairup bonuses, after all). Cynthia and Owain: Dark Flier + Sage = good enough. Avatar and Brady: Avatar can support anyone he/she wants. Morgan and Severa: Same as Avatar. Kjelle and Inigo: Unless you plan on using VV on Inigo (which is somewhat hard to use if you don't know what you're doing), you might want to look for someone to give him Luna instead. Yarne and Nah: Neither of them have Galeforce, and will thus probably get benched. A shame, because Vaike!Nah and Anyone!Yarne are both awesome support units. Noire and Laurent: Libra gives Laurent all of +1Mag and War Monk. Nothing else. Fred, on the other hand, wrecks his Mag and Spd... I'm not fond of either of those options. Sage x Dark Flier is still solid, so Libra is probably better.

Don't forget Pass. Pass is equally as important as Galeforce on a Bowlocked class. And Cordelia has a decently quick path to Galeforce + Bows, if you want it for maingame on a non-Avatar Gen1 unit. BK Chrom is actually kind of useful because it's Chrom's only class that both has 8 Mov and gives +Mov. Additionally, he can benefit from Bows+Swords lategame more than other units can thanks to Falchion. DK has a less powerful ranged Brave and can't avoid EP Counter. It's still (usually) better, but you can't really declare one promoted class to be outright superior to another in every way.

Plenty of spotpass teams sell Levin Swords, I use Leif (Map -> Wireless -> Bonus Box -> Bonus Teams -> Thracia 776 -> Leif). They have a lot more than just Levin, if you have a hankering for other nice things like Spears, Tomahawks, or earlier powerful Tomes.

Unless you happen to need a mounted Bow class (mostly early on before their low caps kick in) that promotes from a good earlygame class... But yes, lategame they are indeed quite useless.

Skip the Galeforceless children in favor of what? They also come with very high stats and very low ILs, so even without Galeforce they can easily carry a team maingame. But for no grind, I'd recommend using a smaller team of children and putting more work into making them turn out good. Lucina, Morgan, and two others to S with them is probably a good number.

Isn't it normal practice when grinding supports to do a pairing + parent and child supports, then save over a different file to update the support log? That would split up your Renown gain over a ton of files. Unless you're clearing files one at a time and just getting one pairing per character per file, which I'm not sure is faster than ~7 hours of Wolt/GG.

Or you could just make him a Sage...