Mages

[Luninareph]

So, I may start playing Radiant Dawn for the first time sometime in the near future, and most of my favorite characters in Radiant Dawn are mages, who are also generally regarded as woefully underpowered. As I feel little need to play Radiant Dawn on hard mode (if I'm itching for a challenge, I can just play Thracia 776 again,) my question is: assuming that I am dedicated to bringing Ilyana, Soren, Calill, Bastian, Sanaki, and possibly Laura, Rhys, Tormod, and/or Pelleas into the final tower area, will I be able to beat the game on Normal difficulty, or is that virtually impossible and I need to try it on Easy instead?

[Shadow Mir]

It should be doable. Also, Pelleas requires you to be playing on clear data.

[Magical Glace]

I would imagine.

You'd be able to blessed weapon trade a lot, since Mages share weapon types often.

[bottlegnomes]

It should be plenty doable provided you don't care about turn counts. I've taken Calill, Soren, Ilyana, Tormod, Laura, and Pelleas to endgame at various points, though never all at the same time. Soren's not a problem at all, as he usually cap rams a few stats quickly, meaning he's a good candidate for a bexp dump or early seal. Calill, Pelleas, and Tormod are all pretty easy if you give them paragon in their maps (part 3 for Calill and 4 for Pelleas and Tormod) and feed them all the kills on the map. Ilyana has plenty of time, so she's not too bad, though not as easy as Soren, since she'll probably be lower leveled than most of the GMs. Laura's probably the hardest of them, but between staff spam/abuse, bexp, and combat and paragon when she promotes, she should be able to get there if you take your time.

Rhys, I imagine, is like an easier version of Laura, since he doesn't have as many levels to go. Bastian and Oliver are essentially ready to go for endgame the moment they join. They won't be stellar, but they shouldn't be liabilities.

Sanaki's required for the endgame party, IIRC, so she'll be there anyway. Her biggest issue is that she's so frail, which'll never really change. But with some training, and maybe stat boosters (speedwings, seraph robes, and an energy drop being the best), she should be fine.

Overall, training will probably be kind of tedious, but it should be plenty doable, especially with how many enemies are in part 4 and how much experience they give.

For blessing magic, since I'm guessing you're not too concerned about beating maps quickly, I'd recommend Nosferatu, Rexaura, Thani, and Valura/Purge in that priority order for the light users (Miccy, Sanaki, Laura, Rhys, and Oliver)—possibly Cymbeline for Sanaki if there's not enough Nosferatus; Rexflame for Soren or Calill with the other getting Bolganone; Rexbolt for Ilyana; and Rexcalibur for Soren.

Edited October 17, 2014 by bottlegnomes

[Shadow Mir]

For blessing magic, since I'm guessing you're not too concerned about beating maps quickly, I'd recommend Nosferatu, Rexaura, Thani, and Valura/Purge in that priority order for the light users (Miccy, Sanaki, Laura, Rhys, and Oliver)—possibly Cymbeline for Sanaki if there's not enough Nosferatus; Rexflame for Soren or Calill with the other getting Bolganone; Rexbolt for Ilyana; and Rexcalibur for Soren.

You only get 2 Nosferatus in the game - the one Oliver comes with and the one Micaiah's handed in an Info conversation in 4-3. Also, I assume you meant Tormod for Rexflame.

[Luninareph]

I probably should have mentioned, I may very well download a "completed game" save in order to unlock Pelleas early. I dislike having a branch of magic made completely unavailable to me.

It should be plenty doable provided you don't care about turn counts. I've taken Calill, Soren, Ilyana, Tormod, Laura, and Pelleas to endgame at various points, though never all at the same time. Soren's not a problem at all, as he usually cap rams a few stats quickly, meaning he's a good candidate for a bexp dump or early seal. Calill, Pelleas, and Tormod are all pretty easy if you give them paragon in their maps (part 3 for Calill and 4 for Pelleas and Tormod) and feed them all the kills on the map. Ilyana has plenty of time, so she's not too bad, though not as easy as Soren, since she'll probably be lower leveled than most of the GMs. Laura's probably the hardest of them, but between staff spam/abuse, bexp, and combat and paragon when she promotes, she should be able to get there if you take your time.

Rhys, I imagine, is like an easier version of Laura, since he doesn't have as many levels to go. Bastian and Oliver are essentially ready to go for endgame the moment they join. They won't be stellar, but they shouldn't be liabilities.

Sanaki's required for the endgame party, IIRC, so she'll be there anyway. Her biggest issue is that she's so frail, which'll never really change. But with some training, and maybe stat boosters (speedwings, seraph robes, and an energy drop being the best), she should be fine.

Overall, training will probably be kind of tedious, but it should be plenty doable, especially with how many enemies are in part 4 and how much experience they give.

For blessing magic, since I'm guessing you're not too concerned about beating maps quickly, I'd recommend Nosferatu, Rexaura, Thani, and Valura/Purge in that priority order for the light users (Miccy, Sanaki, Laura, Rhys, and Oliver)—possibly Cymbeline for Sanaki if there's not enough Nosferatus; Rexflame for Soren or Calill with the other getting Bolganone; Rexbolt for Ilyana; and Rexcalibur for Soren.

I fear no training exercise! I have married Azel to Lachesis, used Ronan as a primary fighter, and trained both Sophia AND Cecilia (in the same playthrough, no less!) >:3

Radiant Dawn, however, has more exacting requirements for its ending than most, considering the strange setup of the final boss and the whole "blessed weapons" thing. The stat caps also caused me some concern. I always set aside at least two spots in my army for "crap characters I will be training anyway," but in Radiant Dawn's case, MOST of the characters I like are regarded as low-tier and the standards they needed to clear seemed to be higher. Thus, I was concerned.

However, this is all very reassuring, thank you everyone :) I'm not planning to make it a "mage-only playthrough," either, so there will be some fighters along to help out and tank hits, and not all of the mages will be coming with (i.e. no Oliver... *shudders*) I can say for certain that Ilyana, Soren, Calill, and Bastian will make the "likability" cut, as will Sanaki (who is indeed required for endgame,) but I don't know if the others will or not. I suppose I'll just have to get there and see.

As for blessed tomes, the Rex's and Nosferatu seem like a must, but below that, WOULD it be best to bless the S-ranked tomes such as Bolganone? Or would it be better to bless some siege tomes instead?

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I think it's possible, though I never have done a challenge like it yet.

• Endgame-1 will be very tough, because it's a rout mission with tons of enemies (mainly generals). You have to good make use of supports and the cover spaces.
• E-2 is a defeat boss mission, you can beat in the first turn.
• In E-3 you have to fight dragons, which hit very hard. A red dragon could kill Sanaki instantly, if she hasn't enough HP.
• E-4 you have to fight animas, which have a very high resistance. You have to hope for flare. The boss is hard to beat only with mages because of his very high resistance. Nasir is very useful for the mages in this map.
• In E-5 you definitely should bring Nasir and Kurthnaga and probably a Heron to this map.

I would go for a Ike x Soren support to get +30 evasion.

Edited October 17, 2014 by TalesOf Hysteria

[Paper Jam]

I never like to let an SS weapon go to waste, so I've always brought Ilyana (who alone can use the SS thunder tome) and two or three other mages to endgame. Granted, I've only played Easy and Normal modes, but I never had much trouble with the mages.

In addition to Ilyana, I generally bring Soren, Pelleas, and Calill. Bastian and Tormod don't have very good availability, and they have the same specializations as Soren and Calill respectively, so competition for use of the SS tomes is an issue.

I have occasionally used Tormod instead of Calill, and didn't have much trouble using him, but I have never used Bastian and thus don't know how well he holds up in endgame.

[bottlegnomes]

You only get 2 Nosferatus in the game - the one Oliver comes with and the one Micaiah's handed in an Info conversation in 4-3.

In this case, I'd say the 2 Nosferatus and 2 of Thani/Rexaura/Purge.

Also, I assume you meant Tormod for Rexflame.

I did. Should probably proof read these things.

On one hand, the S tomes are more powerful and positioning is pretty easy. But on the other hand, it'd be pretty easy to get 4 characters to attack twice with full Nasir boosts every turn with siege tomes.

Endgame's not so bad. Just bring some physics and fortifies and you should be fine for Ashera.

Edited October 18, 2014 by bottlegnomes

[Topazd]

From personal experience, I'd say the mages can be pretty ballin' in Endgame even on Hard mode. And since you're going with Normal mode, I can see no reason why it wouldn't work. The only potential issue might be the somewhat inflated turncounts.

[Cancer Lancer]

Illyana demolishes dragons lol

I say a mage saturated run is fine, especially since blessing siege tomes are swag AF.

Especially if you manage to get that bolting tome on I think it was 3-3? The one with the dragonmaster boss. Then you be ballin' like nobody's business. Especially on that dragon chapter rofl. But it's hard to get.

IIRC, gotta use heather to steal after baiting his elthunder with a paladin or haar or the like (he doesn't move I think) while bolting still has uses. Don't move low res units within range of his bolting, to make sure he prioritized elthundering your ass.

Edited October 22, 2014 by Cancer Lancer

[Shadow Mir]

Illyana demolishes dragons lol

I say a mage saturated run is fine, especially since blessing siege tomes are swag AF.

Especially if you manage to get that bolting tome on I think it was 3-3? The one with the dragonmaster boss. Then you be ballin' like nobody's business. Especially on that dragon chapter rofl. But it's hard to get.

IIRC, gotta use heather to steal after baiting his elthunder with a paladin or haar or the like (he doesn't move I think) while bolting still has uses. Don't move low res units within range of his bolting, to make sure he prioritized elthundering your ass.

The main issue I see with stealing a Bolting is that Heather's Strength growth is le crap. And given that you need to have more Strength than the weight of whatever you're trying to steal... (For the record, Heather has 15 Strength, and Bolting weighs 19 - a 5 point deficit. It doesn't help that you only have 3 chapters to try to get 5 Strength procs if you even want to steal it in that chapter)

Edited November 1, 2014 by Levant Caprice