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Min/Max Plans, revised version
I've decided that since this is probably going to be my insanely perfectionist file, I should save the toying with all-weapon-breaks and high-activation-lethality and stuff for some other time. They just aren't very effective when considering Lunatic+. Besides, a thousand pretty skills have come out since then.
So here's what I came up with instead a few nights ago.
I started out by deciding what I wanted the basic structure of my team to be. I settled on:
FLIERS: 1 physical, 1 magical
HORSES: 1 physical, 1 magical
SNIPERS: 2
MELEE FOOT: All other eligible strong units
SUPPORT: Units who don't make the cut
I decided on this distribution because in the harder modes, the movement advantage of mounted units is much less noticeable because running ahead tends to get you killed. It also means watching out for a lot of beastkillers and whatnot and sometimes puts you in difficult positions while turtling.
I also decided on 2 snipers because 3-range bows are terribly, terribly useful.
So here's what I decided on, in the order of my decisions. By the way, Limit Break is on everyone. That's why there are four skills listed.
Laurent - Sage (healbot)
Father:Gregor Ricken
Skills:Armsthrift, Dual Guard+ Sol or Aggressor, Dual Support+, All Stats+2
Notes:Sol for a defensive build, Aggressor for if I'd rather Laurent hit something sometimes. Considering that he'll have a pretty solid 49(+10) mag cap and the Armsthrift to go around spamming legendary weapons, that's a likely possibility. The logic here, of course, is that a staff user with Armsthrift can spam the Goddess Staff all day... and then you basically wouldn't need anyone else with a staff. He can pull the weight of many staff users alone. (But just in case I need to heal and rescue at once, or heal Laurent while having Laurent heal or something, I have another in this specification. Wait for it.)
EDIT: Apparently Armsthrift doesn't work with staves. I'm sad. However, you can buy Fortify from L'Arachel, so the principle of the matter is roughly the same. I've put down Ricken as his father for the statline and Dual Guard+.
Nah - Wyvern Lord
Father: Donnel
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, All Stats+2
Notes: I realized right away that Nah's race would be no detriment if I put her down as a Wyvern Lord, so that decision I made right away. I decided her father later, after using up Avatar and Gaius elsewhere. Nah's speed cap will be 36(+12), which is on the worryingly low side, hence the suggestion of All Stats+2 instead of the more offensively useful Sol or Lancefaire or something. Well, Ephraim's Lance is an option to help her speed out a little more (and basically put her in the middle of the road speed-wise), or the Luna Lance to help give her a little more killpower... though with 49(+12) strength she has quite a bit of base firepower to begin with.
EDIT 6/14: New plans. I realized that at this point a nice strong tank might be more useful than yet another well-rounded do-anything unit, so I'm putting Nah down as a Manakete (because mmm manakete defenses -- 58/51 before limit break -- well worth avoiding the occasional super-effective shit, and high enough to afford being doubled) and giving Wyvern Lord duty to Severa instead, who can pull it off and still have amazing speed.
Father: Still Donnel
Skills: Galeforce, All Stats+2, Wyrmsbane, Sol
Yarne - Sniper
Father: Stahl
Skills: Aggressor, Astra, Luna, Bowfaire
Notes: Similarly, Yarne's race is less of an issue if I either put him on a mount or put him in a role not meant to be in the line of fire. I didn't want him as a mounted unit, as mounts are much more versatile with Galeforce, Yarne doesn't get that as an option. So instead, he's a Sniper fully loaded up on offensive abilities. He'll be shooting with 46(+25)+[bowmight] attack*, with a 86% chance of activating either Astra or Luna on any given shot (not to mention criticals). Mmm. (Stahl is here for being a rare donor of the perfect class set: Cavalier (Luna), Archer (for Sniper), Myrmidon (Astra).)
* That works out to 85 attack with a forged longbow.
At this point I remember trying very hard to decide who to put down as my other Sniper, but while Aggressor seemed particularly excellent on the sniper class, I just didn't like how the boys' statlines lined up. Owain and Brady both inherit dramatic strength deficits (and magic boosts) from their mothers.
So I figured I'd sort them out first.
Owain - Dark Knight
Father: Henry
Skills: Galeforce, Acrobat, Aggressor, All Stats +2
Notes: Lissa's statline is a little better than Maribelle's for anything requiring endurance, as Lissa merely has a -1 to defense while Maribelle gives -3. Brady's slotted as a Sorcerer and he can suck that defense back, whereas Owain might be placed in situations requiring him to take a few hits. Anyway, with Galeforce and Acrobat, Owain can sail in, kill something with that 45(+20)+[tomemight] magic attack of his, and canter back in to a safer position. Or kill something else. (It's also worth noting that Henry automatically donates the Dark Knight+Acrobat combination to any child of his.)
Brady - Sorcerer
Father: Libra
Skills: Galeforce, Luna, Tomefaire, Aggressor or Aegis or Dual Guard+
Notes: Libra is the only (standard) father other than Henry to give the Dark Mage class, so that's why we're here. (Otherwise, he has an amazingly redundant class set to give Brady. But that's okay, we don't need variety.) Brady's, well, he's a sorcerer. It's really hard to mess up a sorcerer. (Alternatively: If uncomfortable running around with only two staff users, he'd be a fine enough Sage as well.)
Gerome -Warrior Paladin (Still arm candy.)
Father:Kellam EDIT 6/14: Frederick (freed up from Severa)
Skills: Dual Support+, Dual Guard+, Aggressor, All Stats+2
Notes: Gerome is here to be paired up with someone and add devastating dual strikes to their arsenal. He'll do an okay job of protecting them too. Kellam as his father was a choice I made after the fathers were divvied out and I had to find him a father who could give him Dual Guard+ as an option. (Theoretically I could put Gerome down as that other Sniper, but I'd like at least one of my Snipers to have Galeforce, and I've gotten fairly attached to the idea of Gerome hitting things with a warrior's strength from behind someone more sturdy but less forceful...)
Edit 6/18: Momentarily forgot about class-based pair up mechanics. Paladin's more spread out so after A support bonuses it'll give 16 points, while Warrior would give 12.
Lucina - Great Lord
Mother: Sumia
Skills: Galeforce, Aether, Rightful King, Aegis
Notes: After further consideration, I figured... I wanted Chrom to have two daughters. What with limit break and galeforce taking up two slots, Aether becomes a more valuable addition than Rightful King. Rightful King can support at most two other skills, and near the endgame, a 10% boost is kind of... tepid, for anything other than Lethality. (And Lunatic+ has a dozen skills dished out among its enemies that specifically keep Lethality from working, so that kind of defeats the purpose.) I mean, you'd raise your chances better by just stacking another skill with a similar purpose. Meanwhile, Aether is both one of the best damage skills in the game and heals you. So, daughters. Kjelle can't get Galeforce with Chrom as her father, which left Cynthia. Thus Chrom/Sumia. Lucina's skills here are straightforward: Aether for offense and healing, Aegis for defense, and Rightful King to help out both of the above since there's no good substitute for Aether (though in my stranger moments I consider swapping out R.K. for Pavise.)
Cynthia - Bride
Father: Chrom
Skills: Galeforce, Aether, Aegis, Pavise
Notes: I had waffled about Cynthia earlier on a great deal, but having Chrom as her father sealed her fate. She'd have underwhelming magic, so I decided to let someone else be my Dark Flier, and looked for a sturdy physical class for her instead. Funnily enough, the sturdiest physical class available to her (without a vuln) is Bride, which boasts base 41 def/40 res alongside a very solid attack/speed statline. Hey, works well enough -- and that means I have a backup staff user in the mix, too.
So this left Severa, Kjelle, Noire, Inigo, and Morgan to be determined. I waffled about the idea of Aversa!Dark Flier Morgan quite a bit, as it was a deliciously tempting idea, but ultimately decided that shafting either Kjelle or Noire out of Galeforce couldn't possibly be worth it. So then I decided that I still wanted vengeance-vantage-waste in my lineup, noticed that Tharja would pass down good magic, and went with...
Noire - Sorcerer
Father: Avatar (+spd -str)*
Skills: Galeforce, Vengeance, Vantage, Armsthrift
Notes: The beauty of Vengeance-Vantage is that it doesn't only produce beautiful results near death. It's basically always at least a little helpful. Armsthift means I can also give her a forged Aversa's Night and have her tank things the normal way, too. Also, the speed boost makes Noire a comparatively quick magic user, a full speed bracket above Brady.
* I considered +mag -luk instead, but with a pair of magic-wielding kids the str stat is as much of a dump stat as luk. That 2 difference in speed between +spd and +mag makes a pretty noticeable distinction IMO, and I can recover a point of magic under +spd -str since -luk takes away from magic. I'd rather spare the point in skill and defense.
Morgan - Dark Flier
Mother: Tharja
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, Sol or All Stats+2 or Ignis
Notes: Sometimes I feel like no matter what I do with Avatar's kids, somehow it'll be a waste... but I do feel like this is a good use of both of Avatar's kids. Anyway, Morgan with this parentage will be blazing around with 46(+12) magic and 48(+12) speed which I feel like is almost the best allocation you could ask of any character as a Dark Flier. Oh, and she can wave legendary books at everything. Heeeee. (Sometimes Armsthrift feels like cheating.)
I think I decided on Kjelle simultaneously with the above, because there was another father who suited her.
Kjelle - Paladin
Father: Gaius
Skills: Galeforce, Acrobat, Luna (or Aegis or Dual Guard+ for more defense?), Pavise
Notes: Once again, Galeforce and Acrobat on a horse, yay.
So then just Severa and Inigo. Ironically I'd been hesitant in placing them until this point because I thought they were too valuable to be put in any particular role I was looking at -- both come with Galeforce and Armsthrift right out of the box. Inigo was particularly enchanting because on top of this he could also get the male-only Aggressor skill.
Though, well... I did say I was slotting a second sniper, so I guess it falls to him.
Inigo - Sniper
Father: Virion
Skills: Galeforce, Aggressor, Armsthrift, Counter or All Stats+2
Notes: Virion donates the archer class. Not much choice in the matter. That's okay, gray-haired Inigo is lovely. And he can wreck with a Double Bow at 42+22+13+5 = 82 might... and then he can do it again. (This actually doesn't manage to be as high as Yarne's attack, but Panne gives a pretty big str endowment to her kid. And hey, Yarne has to be good for something. :P)
Severa - Hero
Father: Frederick
Skills: Galeforce, Armsthrift, Luna, Dual Guard+
Notes: Severa's already got everything to be a powerful unit, but Frederick helps her out even more with more bulky stat boosts and delicious delicious Great Knight skills. You could switch Sol or Stats+2 for Dual Guard+, but honestly? I think Severa will be protecting gaps at close quarters with another unit often enough that Dual Guard+ will make the greater difference. (Overkill idea: you could make Gerome her arm candy, and they'd just about be invincible...)
EDIT 6/14: Since Nah is now a tanky Manakete, Severa's now a Wyvern Lord (with a speed of 44, at that).
Father: Lon'qu
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, All Stats +2 or Pass or Sol
So that's all the kids. By the way, that ends up with 5 people on foot: two magic, three physical.
But I'm not done yet.
Apotheosis, also known as The Strongest One's Name, also known as the crazymaxdifficulty DLC, lets you take Chrom + 19 units. So I'm thinking of 19 units as kind of my maximum team size right now, which means deciding what else to do with that space.
Well, first there's the obvious...
Female Avatar - Bride
Skills: Rally Spectrum, Rally Love, Rally Speed, Rally Movement
Note: I'd take her along even if it weren't Apotheosis. And yeah, I did give this playthrough a male avatar. I'm pulling F!Avatar from the Avatar Log. I guess that kind of feels like cheating -- though if you don't like it, you're welcome to substitute with the Actual Avatar below, plus a different mommy who has the Pegasus Knight class (because Speed is a big deal).
I'm bringing up additional rally users to a chapter as gigantic as Apotheosis because I'm very likely to split up my team.
(In the class listings, the first one has more movement, the second has more defenses. Per my last playthrough, defenses often end up being more important, but I'm a little undecided yet.)
Cherche - Valkyrie? Bride?
Skills: Rally Love, Rally Res, Rally Luck, Rally Mag
Notes: Cherche is special in that she can get 4 different Rallies while being objectively useless for anything else after the kids enter the stage. I have no regrets turning her into a rallybot at all.
Actual Avatar - Bow Knight? Grandmaster?
Skills: Rally Spectrum, Rally Str, Rally Def, Rally Skill
So that roughly takes care of Rallies, and I think three units allocated to this purpose (even out of 20) is quite enough.
Of course, the following will be joining us:
Chrom -Great Lord Paladin (Arm Candy)
Skills: Dual Strike+, Dual Guard+, Aggressor, Charm or All Stats+2
Notes: While Chrom isn't bad (strictly speaking), under Lunatic's restrictive EXP rules he's unlikely to achieve his max stats without a lot lot lot of EXPonential growth, making him quite a liability. Thus he's better attached to someone as support.
Edit 6/18: Paladinhood -- see explanation for Gerome.
Olivia - Dancer
Skills: Limit Break, Galeforce, Special Dance, Swordfaire, All Stats+2
Notes: With strong enemies and defensive tactics, Dancers are sometimes more of a liability than an asset, but there's plenty of situations in which they're still hella useful, with a gigantic kill-them-fast map being one of them.
That still leaves two slots to fill. Theoretically, you could just attach parental units to some kids as A-support guarders, but I think the following parents deserve special recognition:
Galeforce Mommies:
Lissa, Sumia, Maribelle, Cordelia. Cordelia even has the ability to get Armsthrift. So if you're patient enough, they might have their uses in the kids' generation, though their max stats are mostly underwhelming (each averaging 8 points lower) and you don't have as much chance to optimize them. But they could be useful.
Dual Guard+:
Kellam, Frederick, Stahl, Sully, Sumia, Tharja. Dual striking requires the parent to attack with their own might, which might not be up to par. But dual guarding is always useful.
Dual Support+:
Lissa, Miriel, Maribelle, Cherche. With more than just the parent supporting them, Dual Support+ basically amounts to adding +5% to Hit, Avoid, Crit, and Crit Avoid. It may not look like much (and it isn't), but it's one way of boosting the kid's abilities without relying on the parent. Also... if the kid is alone with the parent, this changes the crit modifier from 0% to 10%, which is pretty significant.
(You know, if only Cavalier/Knight and Troubadour ever co-occurred, you'd have a pretty awesome protective parent with both Dual Guard+ and Dual Support+. But eh.)
Lissa, Maribelle, and Sumia in particular have more going for them because aside from having two of the above listed merits, they can also serve as staff support. Even if Laurent's healing everyone, they can help move the army around with Rescue staves, toss out Wards, and so on and so forth.
Okay, I'm done rambling.
I should probably try to make a dent in that schoolwork.
So here's what I came up with instead a few nights ago.
I started out by deciding what I wanted the basic structure of my team to be. I settled on:
FLIERS: 1 physical, 1 magical
HORSES: 1 physical, 1 magical
SNIPERS: 2
MELEE FOOT: All other eligible strong units
SUPPORT: Units who don't make the cut
I decided on this distribution because in the harder modes, the movement advantage of mounted units is much less noticeable because running ahead tends to get you killed. It also means watching out for a lot of beastkillers and whatnot and sometimes puts you in difficult positions while turtling.
I also decided on 2 snipers because 3-range bows are terribly, terribly useful.
So here's what I decided on, in the order of my decisions. By the way, Limit Break is on everyone. That's why there are four skills listed.
Laurent - Sage (healbot)
Father:
Skills:
Notes:
EDIT: Apparently Armsthrift doesn't work with staves. I'm sad. However, you can buy Fortify from L'Arachel, so the principle of the matter is roughly the same. I've put down Ricken as his father for the statline and Dual Guard+.
Father: Donnel
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, All Stats+2
Notes: I realized right away that Nah's race would be no detriment if I put her down as a Wyvern Lord, so that decision I made right away. I decided her father later, after using up Avatar and Gaius elsewhere. Nah's speed cap will be 36(+12), which is on the worryingly low side, hence the suggestion of All Stats+2 instead of the more offensively useful Sol or Lancefaire or something. Well, Ephraim's Lance is an option to help her speed out a little more (and basically put her in the middle of the road speed-wise), or the Luna Lance to help give her a little more killpower... though with 49(+12) strength she has quite a bit of base firepower to begin with.
EDIT 6/14: New plans. I realized that at this point a nice strong tank might be more useful than yet another well-rounded do-anything unit, so I'm putting Nah down as a Manakete (because mmm manakete defenses -- 58/51 before limit break -- well worth avoiding the occasional super-effective shit, and high enough to afford being doubled) and giving Wyvern Lord duty to Severa instead, who can pull it off and still have amazing speed.
Father: Still Donnel
Skills: Galeforce, All Stats+2, Wyrmsbane, Sol
Yarne - Sniper
Father: Stahl
Skills: Aggressor, Astra, Luna, Bowfaire
Notes: Similarly, Yarne's race is less of an issue if I either put him on a mount or put him in a role not meant to be in the line of fire. I didn't want him as a mounted unit, as mounts are much more versatile with Galeforce, Yarne doesn't get that as an option. So instead, he's a Sniper fully loaded up on offensive abilities. He'll be shooting with 46(+25)+[bowmight] attack*, with a 86% chance of activating either Astra or Luna on any given shot (not to mention criticals). Mmm. (Stahl is here for being a rare donor of the perfect class set: Cavalier (Luna), Archer (for Sniper), Myrmidon (Astra).)
* That works out to 85 attack with a forged longbow.
At this point I remember trying very hard to decide who to put down as my other Sniper, but while Aggressor seemed particularly excellent on the sniper class, I just didn't like how the boys' statlines lined up. Owain and Brady both inherit dramatic strength deficits (and magic boosts) from their mothers.
So I figured I'd sort them out first.
Owain - Dark Knight
Father: Henry
Skills: Galeforce, Acrobat, Aggressor, All Stats +2
Notes: Lissa's statline is a little better than Maribelle's for anything requiring endurance, as Lissa merely has a -1 to defense while Maribelle gives -3. Brady's slotted as a Sorcerer and he can suck that defense back, whereas Owain might be placed in situations requiring him to take a few hits. Anyway, with Galeforce and Acrobat, Owain can sail in, kill something with that 45(+20)+[tomemight] magic attack of his, and canter back in to a safer position. Or kill something else. (It's also worth noting that Henry automatically donates the Dark Knight+Acrobat combination to any child of his.)
Brady - Sorcerer
Father: Libra
Skills: Galeforce, Luna, Tomefaire, Aggressor or Aegis or Dual Guard+
Notes: Libra is the only (standard) father other than Henry to give the Dark Mage class, so that's why we're here. (Otherwise, he has an amazingly redundant class set to give Brady. But that's okay, we don't need variety.) Brady's, well, he's a sorcerer. It's really hard to mess up a sorcerer. (Alternatively: If uncomfortable running around with only two staff users, he'd be a fine enough Sage as well.)
Gerome -
Father:
Skills: Dual Support+, Dual Guard+, Aggressor, All Stats+2
Notes: Gerome is here to be paired up with someone and add devastating dual strikes to their arsenal. He'll do an okay job of protecting them too. Kellam as his father was a choice I made after the fathers were divvied out and I had to find him a father who could give him Dual Guard+ as an option. (Theoretically I could put Gerome down as that other Sniper, but I'd like at least one of my Snipers to have Galeforce, and I've gotten fairly attached to the idea of Gerome hitting things with a warrior's strength from behind someone more sturdy but less forceful...)
Edit 6/18: Momentarily forgot about class-based pair up mechanics. Paladin's more spread out so after A support bonuses it'll give 16 points, while Warrior would give 12.
Lucina - Great Lord
Mother: Sumia
Skills: Galeforce, Aether, Rightful King, Aegis
Notes: After further consideration, I figured... I wanted Chrom to have two daughters. What with limit break and galeforce taking up two slots, Aether becomes a more valuable addition than Rightful King. Rightful King can support at most two other skills, and near the endgame, a 10% boost is kind of... tepid, for anything other than Lethality. (And Lunatic+ has a dozen skills dished out among its enemies that specifically keep Lethality from working, so that kind of defeats the purpose.) I mean, you'd raise your chances better by just stacking another skill with a similar purpose. Meanwhile, Aether is both one of the best damage skills in the game and heals you. So, daughters. Kjelle can't get Galeforce with Chrom as her father, which left Cynthia. Thus Chrom/Sumia. Lucina's skills here are straightforward: Aether for offense and healing, Aegis for defense, and Rightful King to help out both of the above since there's no good substitute for Aether (though in my stranger moments I consider swapping out R.K. for Pavise.)
Cynthia - Bride
Father: Chrom
Skills: Galeforce, Aether, Aegis, Pavise
Notes: I had waffled about Cynthia earlier on a great deal, but having Chrom as her father sealed her fate. She'd have underwhelming magic, so I decided to let someone else be my Dark Flier, and looked for a sturdy physical class for her instead. Funnily enough, the sturdiest physical class available to her (without a vuln) is Bride, which boasts base 41 def/40 res alongside a very solid attack/speed statline. Hey, works well enough -- and that means I have a backup staff user in the mix, too.
So this left Severa, Kjelle, Noire, Inigo, and Morgan to be determined. I waffled about the idea of Aversa!Dark Flier Morgan quite a bit, as it was a deliciously tempting idea, but ultimately decided that shafting either Kjelle or Noire out of Galeforce couldn't possibly be worth it. So then I decided that I still wanted vengeance-vantage-waste in my lineup, noticed that Tharja would pass down good magic, and went with...
Noire - Sorcerer
Father: Avatar (+spd -str)*
Skills: Galeforce, Vengeance, Vantage, Armsthrift
Notes: The beauty of Vengeance-Vantage is that it doesn't only produce beautiful results near death. It's basically always at least a little helpful. Armsthift means I can also give her a forged Aversa's Night and have her tank things the normal way, too. Also, the speed boost makes Noire a comparatively quick magic user, a full speed bracket above Brady.
* I considered +mag -luk instead, but with a pair of magic-wielding kids the str stat is as much of a dump stat as luk. That 2 difference in speed between +spd and +mag makes a pretty noticeable distinction IMO, and I can recover a point of magic under +spd -str since -luk takes away from magic. I'd rather spare the point in skill and defense.
Morgan - Dark Flier
Mother: Tharja
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, Sol or All Stats+2 or Ignis
Notes: Sometimes I feel like no matter what I do with Avatar's kids, somehow it'll be a waste... but I do feel like this is a good use of both of Avatar's kids. Anyway, Morgan with this parentage will be blazing around with 46(+12) magic and 48(+12) speed which I feel like is almost the best allocation you could ask of any character as a Dark Flier. Oh, and she can wave legendary books at everything. Heeeee. (Sometimes Armsthrift feels like cheating.)
I think I decided on Kjelle simultaneously with the above, because there was another father who suited her.
Kjelle - Paladin
Father: Gaius
Skills: Galeforce, Acrobat, Luna (or Aegis or Dual Guard+ for more defense?), Pavise
Notes: Once again, Galeforce and Acrobat on a horse, yay.
So then just Severa and Inigo. Ironically I'd been hesitant in placing them until this point because I thought they were too valuable to be put in any particular role I was looking at -- both come with Galeforce and Armsthrift right out of the box. Inigo was particularly enchanting because on top of this he could also get the male-only Aggressor skill.
Though, well... I did say I was slotting a second sniper, so I guess it falls to him.
Inigo - Sniper
Father: Virion
Skills: Galeforce, Aggressor, Armsthrift, Counter or All Stats+2
Notes: Virion donates the archer class. Not much choice in the matter. That's okay, gray-haired Inigo is lovely. And he can wreck with a Double Bow at 42+22+13+5 = 82 might... and then he can do it again. (This actually doesn't manage to be as high as Yarne's attack, but Panne gives a pretty big str endowment to her kid. And hey, Yarne has to be good for something. :P)
Father: Frederick
Skills: Galeforce, Armsthrift, Luna, Dual Guard+
Notes: Severa's already got everything to be a powerful unit, but Frederick helps her out even more with more bulky stat boosts and delicious delicious Great Knight skills. You could switch Sol or Stats+2 for Dual Guard+, but honestly? I think Severa will be protecting gaps at close quarters with another unit often enough that Dual Guard+ will make the greater difference. (Overkill idea: you could make Gerome her arm candy, and they'd just about be invincible...)
EDIT 6/14: Since Nah is now a tanky Manakete, Severa's now a Wyvern Lord (with a speed of 44, at that).
Father: Lon'qu
Skills: Galeforce, Iote's Shield, Armsthrift, All Stats +2 or Pass or Sol
So that's all the kids. By the way, that ends up with 5 people on foot: two magic, three physical.
But I'm not done yet.
Apotheosis, also known as The Strongest One's Name, also known as the crazymaxdifficulty DLC, lets you take Chrom + 19 units. So I'm thinking of 19 units as kind of my maximum team size right now, which means deciding what else to do with that space.
Well, first there's the obvious...
Female Avatar - Bride
Skills: Rally Spectrum, Rally Love, Rally Speed, Rally Movement
Note: I'd take her along even if it weren't Apotheosis. And yeah, I did give this playthrough a male avatar. I'm pulling F!Avatar from the Avatar Log. I guess that kind of feels like cheating -- though if you don't like it, you're welcome to substitute with the Actual Avatar below, plus a different mommy who has the Pegasus Knight class (because Speed is a big deal).
I'm bringing up additional rally users to a chapter as gigantic as Apotheosis because I'm very likely to split up my team.
(In the class listings, the first one has more movement, the second has more defenses. Per my last playthrough, defenses often end up being more important, but I'm a little undecided yet.)
Cherche - Valkyrie? Bride?
Skills: Rally Love, Rally Res, Rally Luck, Rally Mag
Notes: Cherche is special in that she can get 4 different Rallies while being objectively useless for anything else after the kids enter the stage. I have no regrets turning her into a rallybot at all.
Actual Avatar - Bow Knight? Grandmaster?
Skills: Rally Spectrum, Rally Str, Rally Def, Rally Skill
So that roughly takes care of Rallies, and I think three units allocated to this purpose (even out of 20) is quite enough.
Of course, the following will be joining us:
Chrom -
Skills: Dual Strike+, Dual Guard+, Aggressor, Charm or All Stats+2
Notes: While Chrom isn't bad (strictly speaking), under Lunatic's restrictive EXP rules he's unlikely to achieve his max stats without a lot lot lot of EXPonential growth, making him quite a liability. Thus he's better attached to someone as support.
Edit 6/18: Paladinhood -- see explanation for Gerome.
Olivia - Dancer
Skills: Limit Break, Galeforce, Special Dance, Swordfaire, All Stats+2
Notes: With strong enemies and defensive tactics, Dancers are sometimes more of a liability than an asset, but there's plenty of situations in which they're still hella useful, with a gigantic kill-them-fast map being one of them.
That still leaves two slots to fill. Theoretically, you could just attach parental units to some kids as A-support guarders, but I think the following parents deserve special recognition:
Galeforce Mommies:
Lissa, Sumia, Maribelle, Cordelia. Cordelia even has the ability to get Armsthrift. So if you're patient enough, they might have their uses in the kids' generation, though their max stats are mostly underwhelming (each averaging 8 points lower) and you don't have as much chance to optimize them. But they could be useful.
Dual Guard+:
Kellam, Frederick, Stahl, Sully, Sumia, Tharja. Dual striking requires the parent to attack with their own might, which might not be up to par. But dual guarding is always useful.
Dual Support+:
Lissa, Miriel, Maribelle, Cherche. With more than just the parent supporting them, Dual Support+ basically amounts to adding +5% to Hit, Avoid, Crit, and Crit Avoid. It may not look like much (and it isn't), but it's one way of boosting the kid's abilities without relying on the parent. Also... if the kid is alone with the parent, this changes the crit modifier from 0% to 10%, which is pretty significant.
(You know, if only Cavalier/Knight and Troubadour ever co-occurred, you'd have a pretty awesome protective parent with both Dual Guard+ and Dual Support+. But eh.)
Lissa, Maribelle, and Sumia in particular have more going for them because aside from having two of the above listed merits, they can also serve as staff support. Even if Laurent's healing everyone, they can help move the army around with Rescue staves, toss out Wards, and so on and so forth.
Okay, I'm done rambling.
I should probably try to make a dent in that schoolwork.
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And I'm convinced that Laurent makes the perfect staffchick, sans the chick part. :-P
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...now I feel inadequate D:
Admittedly, since I can't even beat the mission where you get Limit Breaks, I think your way is better :P
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