pairing suggestions without galeforce

[izanagi61]

i'm playing that mod for awakening that removes galeforce from the game, but now i have no idea what my pairs should be since all my legacy knowledge is centered around give peg knight to as many characters as possible. i guess now the goal would be pairing to make kids as well rounded as possible, i'm sure optimal pairings must be alot different now. any suggestions?

[Use the Falchion]

Hmm...In this case, I'd probably just focus more on the child units who can either function well without Galeforce or never had that option in the first place. Which to me is pretty much every kid, honestly. Galeforce is a great and a primary function for a lot of builds, yes, but it's not the ONLY build for kids. You can have a lot of fun experimenting with new builds now that you have an extra free slot. But that depends on whether or not you're playing Hard, Lunatic, or Lunatic+ I guess. I'm treating this for Hard since that's what I play, but I'm sure you can find a way to make some of this work for Lunatic. 

For Miriel and Cherche, if you're grinding, I'd recommending passing down Dual Support+ since that's a female-only inheritable skills and they're great in making the sons solid support units. This also a solid option for Maribelle and Lissa, but if Falcon Knight is still in the game, they can pass down Lancefaire instead...assuming that you'd want Brady and Owain in a class that uses Lances. (Admittedly, this isn't really a good option unless you're doing a full magic/hybrid mixture here, or really messing with their growths for the lulz.)

Vaike/Sully is a solid option since it's not centered around Galeforce anyways. The same is true for Vaike/Cherche, if you want to focus on having the best Strength mods. 

Ricken/Miriel of course - you get the highest second gen magic growth (outside of +Mag/-Str Robin/Emmeryn) and Luna. 

Frederick/Panne - my personal shipping is very present here, but I think it's a solid pairing. Frederick bulks Yarne up quite a bit but his speed growth and inheritance are still good due to Panne giving +7 in stat inheritance instead of +5 or +3 like most other mothers IIRC. (Or maybe it's +5 to others' +3.) Nowi is similar. 

Lissa still has a lot of options open, since Owain can be purely magical or a magical hybrid. Again, if you want him in a lance-using class, pass down Lancefair from Falcon Knight. If not, then pass down Dual Support+ or give something that will make grinding a lot easier. Personally, I'd stick with Henry for shipping reasons, but Donnel gives Owain the hghest Luck in the game, making it completely possible for him to never break a weapon. 

Chrom...I'd honestly either go with Sully or Olivia. Sully doesn't have Galeforce anyways, so you don't have to worry about what to substitute in when pairing the two. On the downside, Lucina and Kjelle won't have access to Lancefaire (or Lancefaire or Axefaire in Kjelle's case), so maybe not this one. Sumia's a good option, but Gaius is probably a better fit. If you're not worrying about Galeforce, then you don't have to worry about using Gaius to pass that around, which means that you can pair him and Sumia up and make Cynthia the fastest unit in the game. Back to Chrom, Olivia offers Lucina the Myrmidon line - which you can further exploit due to having a free space where Galeforce went - while Sumia offers Lucina the Knight line (aka Pavise since Lucina naturally has access to the Great Knight class). I'd still go with Olivia for shipping reasons and because Inigo can put Rightful King to good use, but you are missing out on a third Aether unit. You decide. (Also, while it may not be much, Chrom!Inigo has a max Luck of 47. Having him inherit Olivia's Luck+4 actually would put him at 51 Luck, which means so long has he has Armsthrift equipped any weapon he uses will never break. Give him a Regalia or Relic that has a built-in ability so you're not taking up a space there, give him the necessary skills, and let the boy go to town! Like Brady and Owain, he'll also have natural access to Barbarian, which means that he can be a phenomenal source of Bullions when defeating opponents.) Still, Maribelle does have some benefits. Outside of F!Robin, she's the only mother that can give Lucina full access to all three Dual + skills. (Lucina has natural access to Dual Attack+ via the Lord class and Dual Guard+ via Great Knight, but she can only gain Dual Support+ via the Valkyrie line, and Maribelle and F!Robin are the only mothers who pass that down.) ...so yeah, Chrom and Lucina actually don't change that much IMO. 

Stahl and Cordelia is still my go-to so Severa can have something like: Aegis, Swordfaire, Lancefaire, Vantage, Armsthrift. But that's just me. Lon'qu!Severa is a beast, and you can go nearly Full Breaker with her and not have to worry about a space for Galeforce. (I mean, you can go Full Breaker with her, give her the sword Sol or the lance Luna for Procs, and have fun, but I think a carefully curated couple of Breakers and some other skills mixed in is a smarter option.) Frederick!Severa is builkier than the first two options and has access to all Knight and Cavelry classes alongside the Wyvern line...alongside everything else Cordelia gives her. Severa, Inigo, Owain, and Morgan are very hard to mess up, so I wouldn't worry too much about Severa not having Galeforce, because that just means that there's room for another skill Severa will most certainly put to good use.

Maribelle is a difficult choice...honestly, I'd either go with Henry or Libra in this case, so Brady can be full support or full Dark Mage. 

Cherche - I mentioned Vaike/Cherche above, and while I still stand by it, my personal ship/pair is Gregor/Cherche. I think their supports are pretty cute, and Gerome gets nearly everything he needs. Since he was never going to have Galeforce, I usually focus on making him the best supportive Wyvern Lord/Hero he can be. That to me usually means Bowbreaker (if a Wyvern Lord, and Swordfaire if a Hero), Axefaire, a proc skill like Astra, and Dual Support+. But again, that's me, and that's with a LOT of grinding. Getting Cherche to learn Dual Support+ takes a level of dedication that I'm not always up for...

Nowi/Kellam - it's Nowi's most popular non-Galeforce!Nah pairing. Just stick with it. 

Tharja - maybe Lon'qu? Noire can go either physical or magical honestly, and she already has access to Dark Knight via the Dark Mage class. Lon'qu can give her Swordfaire, Astra, Vantage, and even Lancebreaker (although Noire's natural access to Pavise may negate the need for this) so she can use a Levin Sword to the fullest capabilities. The only things missing are Tomefaire and Armsthrift, but Levin Swords can use both sword and magic stats so it's not necessary. They can also be bought in late-game stores, and it's not like Noire will need them too much before then. Alternatively, the Trickster class may be a very solid option for Lon'qu!Noire, as it allows her to use her Magic stat to heal as well as fight, and her Speed & Skill stat inheritance alongside the sword skills without worrying about offensive magic. So yeah, I'd say go: Swordfaire, Vantage, Anathema/Lifetaker/Magicbreaker, Astra, Lancebreaker/Pavise.

F!Robin - Robin really can go with anyone and anything. Depending on who you want to pair Robin with, either Lancefaire or Dual Support+ is recommended IMO, but there are other gender-locked skills that are worth passing down. For the lulz, part of me recommends F!Robin/Walhart so you can actually use Conquest and Lancefaire without fearing the number of Skills you're taking up. (Or having to choose between Lancefaire or Galeforce...which is never really an option to be honest...) I'm lowkey tempted to try this build out someday, but Galeforce is too broken for me to give it up, and I personally ship Priam and F!Robin. Oh, and Morgan is far too good to wait until the game is over to unlock. Alternatively, Chrom!Inigo!Morgan is super popular since it gives you a fourth character to use Rightful King. However, because of that, Inigo won't pass down whatever Olivia gave him. That does you mean you can build two separate-yet-linked Proc Skill niches, though. 

M!Robin - M!Robin is much of the same. Either pass down a gender-locked class skill like Axefaire or Despoil from the Barbarian/Berserker line or something that makes training easier. In the same vein of Walhart and Conquest, I'm actually a big fan of Aversa!Morgan. Shadowgift is a blast to use as a Sage or Valkryie, but without Galeforce it may lose a bit of its charm. Maybe go with Lucina (or another daughter of Chrom if you decide to go that route), pass down Axefaire, and then go Wyvern Lord or Hero? That way you can get Aether via an Axe and have a lot of fun with that. 

Anyways, that's all I can really think of at the moment. I hope this is helpful!