My 1st run of Radiant Dawn; questions, comments, thoughts, etc.

[bookwormbabe29]

Hi there!

I'm making a 'vague-ish' topic here to use to ask questions and such, to avoid making 20 topics on these boards. Who needs that, right?

My big concern at the moment? (unlikely spoilers) I've made it to 3-2, and many awesome units just rejoined Ike's forces. Based on the suggestion of others, Ike's team was sent a lot of items via Ilyana, Brom, Heather, etc as well. Add in a silver card, and I'm in information overload right now, worrying over where to START.

I mean, I love (and would like to use) ike, Titania, Soren, Mist, Boyd, Mia, Rolf, Nephenee, Brom, Heather, Haar, Ilyana, and I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to squeeze Oscar and Rhys in there too. That would be 14 out of 16 units! (Shinon and Gatrie are the only two I know I'm benching; I don't care how his stats are, I don't like Shinon. And I like Brom over Gatrie). I know it's too much, especially if the paths end up merging (as I'd then be adding in Elincia and Marcia, Micaiah and Sothe, etc)

In PoR, the team members trickled in slowly, making team selection easier. Having this many good units to pick from all at once just seems evil, tempting with me all the awesomeness at once. And the stages seem to let you use more characters so far, as even the next stage lets me us all 16 characters. I'm torn over how many to actually use/train, who should get forged weapons this chapter with a silver card, and skills too (On skills, team has to give out: Discipline, Pass, Fortune, Nullify, Celerity, and Savior, though I'm thinking I might sell Fortune for more forged weapons).

Oy. This is like, Fire Emblem 101, deciding who to use, how many to train... and yet it hurts to bench any of these units, like trying to pick a favorite among your kids. I'm hoping someone(s) can suggest a limit to how many I should use for this part of the game and/or end game, as at least then I'd know what size of a roster I should have on hand. From there I need to narrow down weapons and skills, which I am not looking forward to, let me tell you. I'm open to any ideas/suggestions you can give, as I'm doing this 'deer in headlights' things, not sure what to do.

Anywho, I should shut up before I do anymore ranting. Thank you for your time!

[ClLoulD]

Ok I don't want to spoil things for you and I won't.

All I am going to say is the game does a great job of giving 90% of characters a decent amount of screentime. Now what you really need to do in your situation is prioritize things like forges and who gets them and work down the roster like that. What I would also recommend is including someone like Rhys into your team but not being afraid to bench him, you have Mist for all his duties! Similar to how you have both Soren and Ilyana; cuts can be made but don't make them until you have to and don't stress about forges/skills as these can be traded over; EXP isn't a worry due to how much BXP this game throws at you.

Heather also isn't that necessary, use her for now but she doesn't contribute too much to the game and the same can be said about Rolf. Other than that your team looks great! Sacrifices should be made when necessary don't panic about it until then :)

Edited October 11, 2015 by ClLoulD

[bookofholsety]

imo it's a good idea to actively use and level as many units as you can, and everybody you can currently deploy is a solid start on that. for the most part, ike's party is powerful enough that you don't need to worry too much about anybody falling behind beyond repair, so long as they see consistent use. and at the risk of vague spoilers, having a large variety of powerhouses ready to go is very valuable for part 4, so i figure putting effort into almost your entire current party will pay off big-time

with this in mind, i figure that for forge assignments you can't really go wrong if you just sort of generically prepare for all eventualities. have one or two each of forged swords, lances, axes and bows on hand (forego forged knives and tomes), if you can afford it, and you should be set for a good while. as far as specific skill assignments go, i favour putting celerity on either your current heron or mist, and for discipline candidates i suspect that brom might get the best use out of it, since the only other characters with multiple weapon types at that point are your mages, and frankly there's not much reason to put effort into grinding their other weapon levels. MAYBE rhys could get some use out of it, but i've always found him to be a lacking combat unit so investing in his light wex might not be the best use of your time? idk

[Lord of Gabriel Knight]

I disagree about Rolf. Rolf is an excellent unit. He ends up slightly better than Shinon, but you do have to train him. Gatrie is a much better choice than Brom, because while they both have a 60% defense rate, Gatrie also has a 60% speed rate and a 35% res rate, both much higher than Brom's own rates.

Honestly, Mist is far inferior to Elincia. While they have similar defense and resistance rates, Elincia's strength is 40% higher than Mist's and her speed is 20% higher. Elincia's weapon is very strong, gives a brave effect, and doesn't break, while Mist's weapon doesn't even work as intended, so Elincia will be the better combat unit. Elincia's magic rate is 80%, while Mist's is 40%, so Elincia will be better at healing as well. Elincia also rides a pegasus, which grants obvious benefits to just a horse. Use Mist for healing in Ike's, but you shouldn't take her to the endgame.

Consider dropping Brom for Gatrie and Mist for Elincia based on stats, which would free up space in Ike's chapters for Oscar.

Also, you have to use the silver card immediately, because it disappears after you leave the base.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Lord of Gabriel Knight

[Tragonight]

Sothe is forced so using Heather might be tough.

If you plan to use Titania, then she might overshadow Oscar. Keep that in mind.

Use Mist instead of Rhys for primary healing. Micaiah has the Light Magic that you need. You'll have plenty of healers without Rhys.

Other than that, your team looks good.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I can tell you so much: With reaching 3-2 you've done "only" about 50% of the game.

In the GM's chapters you can't do much wrong because 80% of your units are or will turn out amazing.

Micaiah's chapters in part 3 are much harder: The enemies are tougher and it's harder to train the DB because of their lower availibility.

Paragon scroll from 1-6-2 will help you though.

For part 4 you should balance your teams.

Ike's chapters have stronger enemies than Micaiah's and Tibarn's ones.

I highly recommend to bring many flying units to Micaiah's party.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[Water Mage]

Laguz units are a bit better in RD than in PoR, but Beorc units are still superior, also some units in Micaiah's side can be recruited to Ike's side in part 3, Jill and Zihark, however that's usually not a good idea.

[Quintessence]

First of all, RD is a game where you can freely choose tons of characters from a huge roster without worrying much having in mind a good usage of EXP system and an adequate number of units. Somethinf you should know is that you can't use everyone at the same time, so you should prioritize units and invest resources on them in order to not struggle by endgame. RD has a large replay value so you won't need to worry about this issue.

I stronlgy recommend one thing: use at most 10 units excluding plot important characters like Micaiah, Sothe, Ike, Sanaki and a Heron. Focus on these 10 units, choose whoever you want. For fun's sake, don't worry on using this over this or stuff like that, but if you trully want to enter in optimization subject then you should consider one unit over another.

Assign your skills and forges accordingly to these units and preferably give them forges like javelin, hand axes and knives. Tomes and melee weapons aren't so needed unless you're in hard mode or something, OR if you're training FIONA.

The most important skills like Adept/Vantage and such are best on units that struggle on getting ORKOs, like Oscar, Mia, Rhys, Ilyana, Brom, Nephenee, Heather, Marcia. Just alternate these skills. Resolve is better on Micaiah in order to make her a good combat unit, get higher avoid and ORKO enemies. Discipline is cool on either mages or units you want to weapon level faster. Pass can be given to Ike by 3-3 to get through chokepoints.

Edit: and regarding the Dawn Brigade, use at most 2 units or max 3 asides from Miccy and Sothe, because DBers need more help in the EXP subject than the mercs.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Quintessence

[Shadow Mir]

One thing to note: units can't S (or I should say SS) rank any weapon they want in this game. Also, I honestly disagree with the earlier assessment that laguz units are better in this game than in PoR.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Levant Colthearts

[bookwormbabe29]

(Dusts off topic)

Wow, feels like forever since I was able to sit down and play. Silly real life getting in the way! I have to go save Tellius!

Anywho! I had another question to pose to the board, and again, in other games this seems so simple to me.

Promotion.

I mean, that's easy! Why wouldn't you you wait until level 20, right? More levels, more stats, all good, right? And yet, I just gained my first master crown (stolen from lazy freaking nobles in 3-3) and I'm actually thinking of using it. Consider my Haar: He is a level 16 Dragonmaster, and every stat but luck is Maxed already (thank you, transfer bonus'!). He can still gain 4 levels, but with only gaining luck, is it still worth it? Or is it better to promote him now, so when he levels he gains more than one stat?

I have other characters in similar situations, too. Nephenee is a Lv 11 Halberdier and has maxed all but Mag, Luck, and Def (which needs 1 more point) and Ilyana is blowing my mind, being a level 7 Thunder sage and having maxed all but Luck and Res (which is 3 short, which she'll get going to level 10). I did a LOT of resets in PoR going for grand transfer bonus' and right now, these characters seem too good to be real. So yea, I'm really thinking some of these characters are better off being promoted early. I was hoping for a second (or third, or fourth, etc) opinion on the matter.

Thank you for your time!

Edited October 25, 2015 by bookwormbabe29

[Mage Knight 404]

It is generally preferable to use your Master Crowns as soon as you're able in Part 3, as many units will ram their caps with or without Bonus EXP. and will also benefit from not only having the extra promotion gains immediately, but access to their mastery skill as well, which will help in mowing down the waves of enemies yet to come.

Judging from how it looks for you, Haar is certainly the one who calls dibs on that first MC.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

In easy mode with higher exp. gain, you can wait till level 20.

However in hard mode with a MUCH less exp. gain you should promote them earlier to get the mastery skill and the promotion gains. You can even promote them at level 10 already, when a few stats are maxed out. Nephenee is a good example, who tends to max out skill, speed and res. early. It's still possible to equal the skipped levels (with blossom).

In general using bexp. is very recommended, when at least two stats are capped already. So you can increase the weaker stats.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[bookwormbabe29]

I thought as much, and yet it goes against my typical FE mentality. And according to the handy dandy item location chart, there are only 5 of these items in my English version. That's rough. Hm... I wonder if it's better to use the crown on units like Ilyana who would have ten levels of only luck without it, or Haar who would only need 4 levels? Decisions, decisions.

[Vapo]

I would say wait for Ilyana to hit Level 10 and then give it to her, Haar destroys enough that he can gain enough exp to go without the Crown without it being a serious defecit. Nephenee can also take one if she's still like level 10-13. The other 3 crowns should be saved for units like Ily and Neph in the future that you end up getting.

[bookwormbabe29]

(unlikely spoilers)

Hm, chapter 3-6 and we're back to the Dawn Brigade. Fun times.

The team has little cash, and a whole lot of rare/awesome things to buy here. Any thoughts on which to prioritize? I'm leaning towards the physic staff myself, but there's plenty of other nice options too.

[Vapo]

Physic staff is awesome for Micaiah purposes, since she can use it immediately. If your units aren't that good, Beast Killer will save your life. Depending on who your best units are, buy whatever of the other weapons you want. Don't worry about money, in the next Dawn Brigade chapter you get 10,000 at base.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Things to buy:

• physics
• storm sword for Edward or Zihark (better for Edward actually, bring him to wrath zone and let him attack from 2 range till the end of this chapter)
• short axe is very favorable, so why not
• torch is meh, because the enemy movement range is very low anyway due to the swamp. Only useful in turn 1.
• beast killer is only good in easy mode. On higher difficulties Sothe can kill himself easily with this, because two tigers can kill him. Make at least sure to equip a different weapon, after he has attacked!

Edited October 26, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[bookwormbabe29]

Hey all!

So I've made it to chapter 3-9 and back to Crimea. These guys do not get much use, so I'm debating my best strategy with this team. I've been feeding Marcia (lv 8 falcon) and Geoffrey (lv 15 paladin) the most EXP, though Calil (lv 6 fire sage) isn't too bad either thanks to transfers. The others are not looking too hot, which is sad as I loved Astrid in PoR and in RD she's like a different character altogether. I would so use Marcia in a final team, so I plan to steal Astrid's paragon for her, hopefully let her soar. I'm angry with Geoffrey, as I had hoped to A support with Elincia, and didn't see they only share three chapters together until it was too late (didn't get their C support during Elincia's gambit, which blows). Without the support, my interest in Geoffrey is little, as I don't care for him and his availability after this is near zip. I'm thinking of giving his Paragon to Calil, see if she can thrive with it. If i'm reading this chart right, this is the last chapter with the royal knights on their own anyway, so they'll get bunched up with better units so it shouldn't matter if the majority of these units hit the bench after.

It seems like the knights join up with Ike after, so does that mean their bonus exp and/or convoy merges up finally? I'll likely stock pile the characters just in case. I grabbed Adept from the shop already, and i'm debating grabbing a few silver weapons to pass along.

At least, those are my plans/thoughts as of now. These chapters that switch point of view through me off, as I feel like I'm going to RUIN EVERYTHING if I don't do it just right. If I'm making a huge glaring error, I'd love to know lol.

[Shadow Mir]

Hey all!

So I've made it to chapter 3-9 and back to Crimea. These guys do not get much use, so I'm debating my best strategy with this team. I've been feeding Marcia (lv 8 falcon) and Geoffrey (lv 15 paladin) the most EXP, though Calil (lv 6 fire sage) isn't too bad either thanks to transfers. The others are not looking too hot, which is sad as I loved Astrid in PoR and in RD she's like a different character altogether. I would so use Marcia in a final team, so I plan to steal Astrid's paragon for her, hopefully let her soar. I'm angry with Geoffrey, as I had hoped to A support with Elincia, and didn't see they only share three chapters together until it was too late (didn't get their C support during Elincia's gambit, which blows). Without the support, my interest in Geoffrey is little, as I don't care for him and his availability after this is near zip. I'm thinking of giving his Paragon to Calil, see if she can thrive with it. If i'm reading this chart right, this is the last chapter with the royal knights on their own anyway, so they'll get bunched up with better units so it shouldn't matter if the majority of these units hit the bench after.

It seems like the knights join up with Ike after, so does that mean their bonus exp and/or convoy merges up finally? I'll likely stock pile the characters just in case. I grabbed Adept from the shop already, and i'm debating grabbing a few silver weapons to pass along.

At least, those are my plans/thoughts as of now. These chapters that switch point of view through me off, as I feel like I'm going to RUIN EVERYTHING if I don't do it just right. If I'm making a huge glaring error, I'd love to know lol.

Their convoy and BEXP pool will merge with the Mercenaries' in a couple chapters' time.

[Vapo]

Yes, their bexp and convoys will merge at 3-11 I believe. It's best to focus on just one person in 3-9 from personal experience, as there isn't much exp and all the CRKs are behind. 3-9 gives a ton of bexp if you save all the villages, so you can use that to help train whoever you want to. Just a quick warning: if you want to keep Calill's Meteor (or any other important weapons), don't have it on Calill at the end of 3-9 for slightly spoilerish reasons.

By the way, remember the bridge chapter from Path of Radiance? Yeh, that's coming up soon. Get a guide ready.

[Mage Knight 404]

Yes, once the Crimean Knights merge with the Laguz Alliance, everything will merge, convoys, EXP. gold and all. If you're considering using any of the CRKs longterm, now would be the time to do it. (in general the GMs completely eclipse the CRKs so there's no real reason to use most of 'em unless you like them) Paragon kills will go a very long way on lagging units.

Silvers are okay, but very expensive, where you can get about the same results from steel blades, greatlances, and poleaxes for about a third of the price. Adept is a good purchase though. It's not too big of a deal if you make a few mistakes in the macro department of the game; a lot of Part 4 is a learning experience anyway.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

[spoiler=About 3-9]

Take off Geoffrey's paragon before you start this chapter and take off all his weapons before you end this chapter.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[bookwormbabe29]

Yes, their bexp and convoys will merge at 3-11 I believe. It's best to focus on just one person in 3-9 from personal experience, as there isn't much exp and all the CRKs are behind. 3-9 gives a ton of bexp if you save all the villages, so you can use that to help train whoever you want to. Just a quick warning: if you want to keep Calill's Meteor (or any other important weapons), don't have it on Calill at the end of 3-9 for slightly spoilerish reasons.

By the way, remember the bridge chapter from Path of Radiance? Yeh, that's coming up soon. Get a guide ready.

This is news. I was planning to load up as much equipment onto the CRK (except Geoffrey) as possible. Do they lose their equipment or something?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

All the units will keep their equipment.

[spoiler=Exception is my spoiler.]Geoffrey will get a second brave lance in 3-10, only for this chapter.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Mister IceTeaPeach

[bookwormbabe29]

Ok, good to know. New question on saving houses. How does the Computer determine who will burn down a house? Are there certain units that will go to burn things down, or is it random? Haven't figured out a pattern as of yet. I had hoped to let Marcia solo most of the chapter, but if we're running around like mad, that's going to make things tricky.