Fire Emblem Three Houses post. That is all.


I finished my Edelgard playthrough. The final battle had an interesting and challenging mechanic, but climaxed in an arduous slog against a *gasp* dragon who could oneshot pretty much anyone. How did my well-considered maddening-difficulty plans fare?

Well, let's start with one prevailing observation: through much of the playthrough, any enemy unit could oneshot most of my squad. This was with xp gain focused on my starting lineup of twelve. The only way to have milked more experience out of the run would have been to bypass motivation-restoring exploration for battles.

• Canto and especially flyers played out well. They tend to have a high avoid and can do damage and retreat to an inaccessible location. Objectives-permitting, my tactics tended to be tower defense, so my flyers were the only way I could thin enemy numbers or break the steady stream of attackers into discrete waves (allowing my other units to finish a wave without being left exposed).
• I often needed to kill an enemy by any means necessary to avoid burning through your wheel of time. Combat arts sometimes helped, but are often a wash based on lowered attack speed. Having unique weapons like Luln and the Sublime Creator Sword were the best way to drop an enemy when it would otherwise mean taking a casualty.
• My tanks were useless since they could, at best, survive one attack. Aegis and Defiant Strength simply did not go very far on this difficulty. My tanks ended up being anyone with 2x5 charges of Impregnable Wall (batallion).
• FE3H has a lot of defiant _____ and other skills that trigger at low health. The one-hit thing made these pretty pointless unless I wanted to intentionally keep a unit at low health.
• This playthrough (plot path?) had more enemy monsters with barriers that were invulnerable to magic. It wasn't the end of the world, but it takes one class of ranged units out of the pool to take down the shield and trigger a stun.
• Speaking of stuns, this difficulty level meant I learned to pay much closer attention to (and not waste) the momentary stun triggered by removing any single monster shield square. On easier difficulties you can just burst on the full-turn stun and finish the monster quickly.
• Lethality didn't trigger quite as often as I expected, but it was a really nice way to take down a full phase of a tough monster. It's also a great feeling to have a unit with Impregnable Wall trigger Lethality.

Since it is *three* houses, I decided to make a second maddening run with Dimitri. To add some spice, I grabbed the DLC and ran through the okay side arc.


The gameplan:

• Paralogues are important xp and unique weapons farms. I'm not sure if I missed out on any in the last run, so recruiting and getting buddy-buddy with everyone is a priority (while not burning xp on actually fielding them). This means tea time and adjutant usage.
• No tanks, just archers, mages, and flyers.
• Bring someone with Silence along. Ranged magic is rough.
• Use my favorites (Lysithea, Cyril, Petra) but try out the DLC characters and classes.
• Do my homework to avoid dead ends and units receiving suboptimal growth rolls.

The DLC added a really neat alternative final class for Byleth. Rather than walking around with Enlightened One or being a non-swordsman with Wyvern Lord, a female protagonist can go Dark Flyer and focus on sword and black magic all while floating effortlessly above rooftops.*

*Pure digression, but it'd be an interesting (and maybe bad) gameplay mechanic where flyers couldn't be attacked by non-ranged ground units.


Completing the DLC campaign is best done before a new playthrough. Completing it provides a few things, including:

• New recruitable characters
• New classes
• Skirmish battles that have greater rewards
• Access to a sauna that, I guess, boosts learning or something
• A few items, including a (permanent) MV+2 consumable and an equippable ring that (like most bosses) allows counterattack at any distance

I reformatted some info from Serene's Forest to be more (in my mind) useful.

Class growth rates

Last time around, I summed all stats and used those as an "all things being equal, what classes are great and what classes suck". I've since realized that HP (for maddening), Luck, and Charm are situational at best; judging a class by speed and dexterity gains is far more important. So I came up with a different metric:


Since you have limited control over your attacker, I equally weight defense and resistance, then throw a half-weighted luck value in since it plays a role (and roll XD) in crit resist. There is a case to be made for ingoring defense altogether (maddening) and also for adding speed and dexterity and even HP. Since I'm using Defense' as a stepping stone value for my real metrics, I left it simple.


So this is basically a measure of how good a given class is for a physical attack build. It takes the physical attack combat modifiers and sprinkles on a devalued/mixed defensive ability while totally ignoring HP and Charm.


Same deal for magic. There's something to be said for a third, combined metric to cover Dark Flyers and Tricksters and the like. But let's take the growth chart and add columns for total stats, physical stats, and magical stats:

Type	Class	HP	Str	Mag	Dex	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Cha	Tot	D'	Phy	Mgc
Unique	Noble	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	5	0	0	0
Unique	Commoner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Unique	Dancer	20	-5	0	0	0	0	-5	-5	10	15	-10	-15	-10
Unique	Enlightened One	20	10	10	0	0	0	5	0	5	50	5	15	15
Unique	Armored Lord	20	5	5	0	0	0	5	5	10	50	10	15	15
Unique	High Lord	20	5	0	5	0	0	5	0	10	45	5	15	10
Unique	Wyvern Master	20	10	0	0	5	0	5	0	10	50	5	20	10
Unique	Emperor	30	10	10	0	0	0	5	5	10	70	10	20	20
Unique	Great Lord	30	10	0	10	0	0	5	0	10	65	5	25	15
Unique	Barbarossa	30	15	0	0	10	0	5	0	10	70	5	30	15
Beginner	Myrmidon	10	0	0	0	5	0	0	-5	5	15	-5	0	0
Beginner	Soldier	10	0	0	5	0	0	0	-5	5	15	-5	0	0
Beginner	Fighter	10	5	0	0	0	0	0	-5	5	15	-5	0	-5
Beginner	Monk	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	5	15	5	5	5
Intermediate	Lord	20	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	10	40	0	10	10
Intermediate	Mercenary	20	5	0	0	5	0	0	-5	5	30	-5	5	0
Intermediate	Thief	20	0	0	10	10	0	0	0	5	45	0	20	20
Intermediate	Armored Knight	20	0	0	0	-10	0	10	-5	5	20	5	-5	-5
Intermediate	Cavalier	20	5	0	5	-10	0	5	0	5	30	5	5	0
Intermediate	Brigand	30	10	0	0	0	0	0	-5	5	40	-5	5	-5
Intermediate	Archer	5	0	0	10	0	5	0	0	5	25	3	13	13
Intermediate	Brawler	30	0	-10	10	10	0	0	-10	5	35	-10	10	0
Intermediate	Mage	5	-5	10	5	0	0	-5	5	5	20	0	0	15
Intermediate	Dark Mage	5	-5	10	5	0	0	-5	5	0	15	0	0	15
Intermediate	Priest	5	-5	5	5	0	0	-5	10	10	25	5	5	15
Intermediate	Pegasus Knight	15	0	0	0	10	0	0	5	10	40	5	15	15
Advanced	Hero	30	10	0	0	10	0	0	-5	5	50	-5	15	5
Advanced	Swordmaster	25	10	0	0	20	0	0	-5	5	55	-5	25	15
Advanced	Assassin	20	0	0	20	20	0	0	0	0	60	0	40	40
Advanced	Fortress Knight	30	10	0	0	-10	0	15	0	5	50	15	15	5
Advanced	Paladin	30	10	0	5	-10	5	5	5	5	55	13	18	8
Advanced	Wyvern Rider	30	10	-5	0	0	0	5	-5	5	40	0	10	-5
Advanced	Warrior	40	15	-5	0	0	0	0	0	5	55	0	15	-5
Advanced	Sniper	10	5	0	20	0	10	0	0	5	50	5	30	25
Advanced	Grappler	40	10	0	10	10	0	0	0	5	75	0	30	20
Advanced	Warlock	10	0	10	0	0	0	-5	5	5	25	0	0	10
Advanced	Dark Bishop	10	0	10	0	0	0	-5	5	0	20	0	0	10
Advanced	Bishop	10	0	10	0	0	10	-5	5	10	40	5	5	15
Special (DLC)	Trickster	20	0	0	15	20	10	0	5	0	70	10	45	45
Special (DLC)	War Monk/Cleric	40	10	5	10	0	0	0	5	5	75	5	25	20
Special (DLC)	Dark Flier	20	0	0	0	10	0	0	10	10	50	10	20	20
Special (DLC)	Valkyrie	5	0	5	0	-5	5	5	10	10	35	18	13	18
Special (DLC)	Death Knight	30	10	10	0	-5	0	5	5	0	55	10	15	15
Master	Falcon Knight	30	10	0	0	20	0	0	5	10	75	5	35	25
Master	Wyvern Lord	30	15	-5	0	10	0	5	0	5	60	5	30	10
Master	Mortal Savant	20	10	10	0	-10	10	0	0	5	45	5	5	5
Master	Great Knight	30	10	0	0	-10	0	5	-5	5	35	0	0	-10
Master	Bow Knight	10	0	0	0	-5	0	0	0	5	10	0	-5	-5
Master	Dark Knight	10	5	10	0	-5	0	5	10	5	40	15	15	20
Master	Holy Knight	10	0	10	0	-5	10	5	10	10	50	20	15	25
Master	War Master	40	15	0	0	10	0	0	0	5	70	0	25	10
Master	Gremory	10	0	10	10	0	0	0	5	10	45	5	15	25

Neat, but verbose. Should we be happy with this metric, a more useful chart shows classes, proficiencies, and the derived combat values:

Type	Class	Proficient	Proficient	Proficient	Growth	Phys	Mgc
Unique	Noble				5	0	0
Unique	Commoner				0	0	0
Unique	Dancer	Sword	Authority		15	-15	-10
Unique	Enlightened One	Sword	Brawl	Faith	50	15	15
Unique	Armored Lord	Axe	Authority	Armor	50	15	15
Unique	High Lord	Sword	Lance	Authority	45	15	10
Unique	Wyvern Master	Bow	Authority	Flying	50	20	10
Unique	Emperor (Edelgard)	Axe	Authority	Armor	70	20	20
Unique	Great Lord (Dimitri)	Sword	Lance	Authority	65	25	15
Unique	Barbarossa (Claude)	Bow	Authority	Flying	70	30	15
Beginner	Myrmidon	Sword			15	0	0
Beginner	Soldier	Lance			15	0	0
Beginner	Fighter	Axe	Bow	Brawl	15	0	-5
Beginner	Monk	Faith	Reason		15	5	5
Intermediate	Lord	Sword	Lance	Authority	40	10	10
Intermediate	Mercenary	Sword	Axe		30	5	0
Intermediate	Thief	Sword	Bow		45	20	20
Intermediate	Armored Knight	Lance	Axe	Armor	20	-5	-5
Intermediate	Cavalier	Sword	Lance	Riding	30	5	0
Intermediate	Brigand	Axe	Brawl		40	5	-5
Intermediate	Archer	Sword	Bow		25	13	13
Intermediate	Brawler (M)	Axe	Brawl		35	10	0
Intermediate	Mage	Faith	Reason		20	0	15
Intermediate	Dark Mage (M)	Faith	Reason		15	0	15
Intermediate	Priest	Faith	Reason		25	5	15
Intermediate	Pegasus Knight (F)	Sword	Lance	Flying	40	15	15
Advanced	Hero (M)	Sword	Axe		50	15	5
Advanced	Swordmaster	Sword			55	25	15
Advanced	Assassin	Sword	Bow		60	40	40
Advanced	Fortress Knight	Lance	Axe	Armor	50	15	5
Advanced	Paladin	Sword	Lance	Riding	55	18	8
Advanced	Wyvern Rider	Lance	Axe	Flying	40	10	-5
Advanced	Warrior	Axe			55	15	-5
Advanced	Sniper	Bow			50	30	25
Advanced	Grappler (M)	Brawl			75	30	20
Advanced	Warlock	Faith	Reason		25	0	10
Advanced	Dark Bishop (M)	Faith	Reason		20	0	10
Advanced	Bishop	Faith	Reason		40	5	15
Special (DLC)	Trickster	Sword	Faith	Reason	70	45	45
Special (DLC)	War Monk/Cleric	Axe	Brawl	Faith	75	25	20
Special (DLC)	Dark Flier (F)	Sword	Reason	Flying	50	20	20
Special (DLC)	Valkyrie (F)	Faith	Reason	Riding	35	13	18
Special (DLC)	Death Knight	Lance	Reason	Riding	55	15	15
Master	Falcon Knight	Sword	Lance	Flying	75	35	25
Master	Wyvern Lord	Lance	Axe	Flying	60	30	10
Master	Mortal Savant	Sword	Reason		45	5	5
Master	Great Knight	Lance	Axe	Armor	35	0	-10
Master	Bow Knight	Lance	Bow	Riding	10	-5	-5
Master	Dark Knight	Lance	Reason	Riding	40	15	20
Master	Holy Knight	Lance	Faith	Riding	50	15	25
Master	War Master (M)	Axe	Brawl		70	25	10
Master	Gremory (F)	Faith	Reason		45	15	25

Base stats

On to a hyperoptimization. Units qualify for promoted classes at a particular level and, by definition, their stats will be the lowest at that point. It is then advantageous to stop xp gain at that threshold and let the unit qualify for whatever classes they can and thereby harvest the 'free' stat boosts. An example would be a physical attack build that happens to qualify for a magic class, they'll likely be stunted in Mag and Res and thereby harvest the gains for momentarily speccing into that class. A brawler may not use magic very much, but he'll certainly benefit from resistance.

Type	Class	HP	Str	Mag	Dex	Spd	Lck	Def	Res	Cha
Unique	Noble	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Unique	Commoner	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Unique	Dancer	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Unique	Enlightened One	28	17	8	12	14	10	12	10	0
Unique	Armored Lord	38	17	8	12	6	10	17	8	0
Unique	High Lord	30	16	7	11	13	9	13	9	0
Unique	Wyvern Master	30	17	9	13	19	11	14	11	0
Unique	Emperor	38	17	8	12	6	10	17	8	0
Unique	Great Lord	35	17	8	12	14	10	14	10	0
Unique	Barbarossa	35	18	10	14	20	12	15	12	0
Beginner	Myrmidon	20	7	3	6	6	4	5	2	0
Beginner	Soldier	20	8	3	6	6	4	5	2	0
Beginner	Fighter	20	8	3	6	6	4	5	2	0
Beginner	Monk	20	4	8	6	6	4	3	4	0
Intermediate	Lord	25	9	6	10	10	8	6	3	0
Intermediate	Mercenary	25	9	6	10	10	8	6	2	0
Intermediate	Thief	25	9	6	11	11	8	6	2	0
Intermediate	Armored Knight	30	9	6	7	4	8	12	1	0
Intermediate	Cavalier	25	9	6	7	6	8	6	2	0
Intermediate	Brigand	28	10	6	7	7	8	6	2	0
Intermediate	Archer	25	8	6	8	7	8	5	2	0
Intermediate	Brawler	28	9	6	7	8	8	6	1	0
Intermediate	Mage	25	4	10	7	6	8	3	5	0
Intermediate	Dark Mage	25	4	10	7	6	8	3	5	0
Intermediate	Priest	25	4	9	7	6	8	3	5	0
Intermediate	Pegasus Knight	25	8	6	7	8	8	5	4	0
Advanced	Hero	30	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Swordmaster	30	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Assassin	30	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Fortress Knight	35	17	8	12	8	10	17	7	0
Advanced	Paladin	32	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Wyvern Rider	30	18	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Warrior	32	19	8	12	14	10	13	8	0
Advanced	Sniper	30	17	8	12	14	10	12	8	0
Advanced	Grappler	32	17	8	12	14	10	14	7	0
Advanced	Warlock	30	8	17	12	14	10	12	15	0
Advanced	Dark Bishop	30	8	17	12	14	10	12	15	0
Advanced	Bishop	30	8	15	12	14	10	12	15	0
Special (DLC)	Trickster	28	14	12	10	14	12	10	10	0
Special (DLC)	War Monk/Cleric	32	17	10	10	10	10	14	11	0
Special (DLC)	Dark Flier	25	8	6	7	8	8	5	4	0
Special (DLC)	Valkyrie	20	5	10	10	9	9	9	13	0
Special (DLC)	Death Knight	32	10	17	14	16	12	13	15	0
Master	Falcon Knight	32	18	10	14	20	12	13	14	0
Master	Wyvern Lord	32	18	10	14	20	12	15	12	0
Master	Mortal Savant	32	17	17	14	16	12	14	12	0
Master	Great Knight	34	18	10	14	10	12	17	10	0
Master	Bow Knight	32	17	10	14	16	12	14	10	0
Master	Dark Knight	32	10	17	14	16	12	13	15	0
Master	Holy Knight	32	8	15	14	16	12	13	16	0
Master	War Master	33	20	10	14	16	12	15	10	0
Master	Gremory	32	8	17	14	16	12	13	16	0

Character	Final class	Notes
Byleth	Dark Flyer Sword Reason Flying	Byleth should be pretty formidable as a flyer with movement boosts, her preferred sword abilities, and reason magic. Transmute plus the light magic avoid skills could be pretty neat. Since New Game+ allows the relearning of skills, I gave her Seal Strength (defender receives Str-6) to help level new units.
Dimitri	Wyvern Lord Lance Axe Flying	Training Dimitri up on riding gives him Seal Movement which could be helpful - then again, what's movement - 1? He natively has increased avoid at full health, so it makes sense to make him a flyer.
Ashe	Bow Knight Lance Bow Riding	Ashe was a favorite from my last playthrough where he got movement boosts, learned Pass, and could pick locks. With Stride and Impregnable Wall, he could safely get to the far corners of the map even without a buddy casting Warp. Since I wanted to go a different direction and he's somewhat made to be an archer, I decided to take him the Bow Knight route and get that dexterity stat with Bowrange +2. Ashe is also able to bring Seal Strength to the table in NG+, letting my low level magic units class into physical attack classes temporarily for speed and dexterity bonuses.
Lysithea	Valkyrie Faith Reason Riding	Having the greatest magic stat growth rate, Lysithea is irreplaceable. Rather than walking around in robes, I'm hoping as a Valkyrie she can use extended movement, Canto, and the bonus magic range to wreck enemies from a safe distance.
Petra	Bow Knight Lance Bow Riding	Petra is the Lysithea of dexterity. That made sense. She natively has bonus critical chance to enemies with less-than-half health, which could be very useful if I can remember it. I liked her as a Pegasus Knight and I'm hoping that popping off arrows from horses will work just as well.
Anna	Dark Flyer Sword Reason Flying	I wanted to use most of the DLC characters, Anna being the fan favorite among them. She emphasizes luck, which is a weird - possibly pessimistic stat to build around. Since she can gain Pass from riding and has decent dexterity and magic growths, I decided to make her a dark flyer with maxed out avoid. Aside from the normal flyer skills, winning the Heron Cup will give her Sword Avoid, which makes Dark Flyer the right choice.
Yuri	Wyvern Lord Lance Axe Flying	Yuri's personal ability is bonus damage against lone enemies. While this difficulty level isn't great for operations behind enemy lines, making him a flyer was as good a choice as any. He's bad in like all Wyvern Lord skills, so it's gotta be a secret build, right?
Constance	Valkyrie Faith Reason Riding	Constance gets offensive buffs outdoors and defensive buffs indoors. Or the opposite. Either way, she's a magic-focused DLC character who seemed to make sense as a Valkyrie.
Hapi	Dark Flyer Sword Reason Flying	Hapi feels a lot like Constance but with the personal ability of having attacks that are always effective against monsters. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but if she can blast a magic shelled dragon with a tome, I'm all for it.
Cyril	Trickster Sword Faith Reason	Cyril made a formidible Wyvern Lord since Aptitude gives him monster stats. As a Trickster, he gets a big bonus to a random stat every round, so maybe that could be really neat.
Shamir	Falcon Knight Lance Sword Flying	Shamir gets a neat stat bonus after killing an enemy. That might help her survive the occasional counterattack, but it could also be good with the dance batallion that Dimitri's plot unlocks.
Mercedes	??? [Magic]	My #12 slot was kind of a toss up. Since I had leveled Mercedes in my first playthrough, having her get NG+ upgraded faith and reason abilities seemed like a nice thing to have in the early game. That is, physic is a handy spell when the game expects you to just have heal. Also casting high level spells is easy xp.