Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn/Characters

There are a variety of characters throughout the game, each one has their own strengths and weaknesses. However, if one dies, you cannot play as that character for the rest of the game, and if that character is the main one, you lose the game.

Part one
The Dawn brigade are the group you control in part one. Their mission is to free Daein from begnion's control. to do this they search for Prince Pellaes, the son of the mad king Ashnard. Their group consists of Sothe, Micaiah, Nolan, Edward and Leonardo. Eventually they become the Daein liberation army.

Micaiah

 * Class: Light mage --> Light sage --> Light priestess
 * Starting level: 1
 * Strengths: Micaiah is the only light mage, She has good magic and speed and is the best healer to use in her chapter's during part 3.
 * Weaknesses: She, like the rest of the dawn brigade, has very low defence and, to begin with, won't double attack anything.
 * Summary: 6/10
 * Description: A good strong unit whom you are forced to use, making it vital you train her up so that your other units won't have to get the burden of protecting her. She automatically promotes just before the endgame of part 4 and just after the endgame of part 1.

Edward

 * Class: Myrmidon --> SwordMaster --> True Blade
 * Starting level: 4
 * Strengths: Like all Myrmidon's, Edward has very good Speed and skill
 * Weaknesses: Like all Myrmidon's, Edward has low strength and low Defence. Meaning that he won't kill anything. He also lacks the time to level up, wheras the other Myrmidon's do have time.
 * Usefullness: 4/10
 * Summary: Edward is the average myrmidon in every aspect. But this is used against him as he has to be used to defend Leonardo, Micaiah and Laura which puts him in harms way, because of this, he is easily killed. This can be a hassle however, as he is needed to help defend micaiah in the part 3 chapters which he can be played in.

Leonardo

 * Class: Archer --> Sniper --> Marksman
 * Starting Level: 4
 * Strengths: Leonardo isn't too bad when it comes to strength or skill, but his best stat lies in his resistance. Unlike both Edward and Nolan, Leonardo easily caps resistance making him effective against mages. He never gets the resistance of a mage, but he's better in that aspect than non-magic users.
 * Weaknesses: Leonardo is incredibly slow, he never double attacks anything around his level which severly limits the damage he can cause. He's also quite fragile, with hp and defence close to Micaiah's and to add insult to injury he is vulnerable to melee attacks for the majority of the game.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: One of the worst units in the game, but still necessary to help micaiah in part 3. After this, he becomes severely outclassed by all the other beorc units.

Nolan

 * Class: Fighter --> Warrior --> Reaver
 * Starting level: 9
 * Strengths: one of the best in the dawn brigade. Decent defence and Hp - something all the others lack. He can easily hold his own in a fight and can deal quite a bit of damage to the nemy at the same time.
 * Weaknesses: Although his defence is good, it's still below the level you'd want it to be. He will need to be healed from time to time, just not as much as the others.
 * Usefulness: 5/10
 * Summary: Vital if you want to survive Micaiah's chapter's in part 3 and does become a good character to use in part 4 if he's levelled up enougth.

Laura

 * Class: Priest --> Bishop --> Saint
 * Starting level: 1
 * Strengths: Because she's the only healer in part one, you will use her. She'll level up and become quite a decent priest, healing enougth to allow your units to survive.
 * Weaknesses: She doesn't fully heal Sothe or Nolan - the characters that will be taking the most of the forces down, and she comes in so under-levelled that she doesn't promote unless you waste a master seal on her.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: You'll only use her in part one, but she is necessary to complete it.

Sothe

 * Class: Rogue --> Whisper
 * Starting level: 1
 * Strengths: He easily maxes strength and because he's a rogue, he has very good speed and skill. He's already promoted, making him have good defence and hp.
 * Weaknesses: Hard to level up before his automatic promotion and his defence levels start to drop in comparison with others in later levels.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Arguably the Jeigen of this game, his high stats are very useful throughout Micaiah's chapter's. He automatically promotes at the end of part 4 prolouge.

Ilyana

 * Class: Thunder Mage --> Thunder Sage --> Arch Sage (Thunder)
 * Starting level: 12
 * Strengths: Attacks res instead of def and can double some enemies early on.
 * Weaknesses: Comes with only 3 defence which stays consistently low throughout the game.
 * Usefulness: 4/10
 * Summary: Like most Dawn brigade units, Ilyana has very low defence. But offensively, she is one of the best units in the dawn brigade when she joins. Little use in part 3 when outclassed by Soren.

Aran

 * Class: Soldier --> Halberdier --> Sentinel
 * Starting level: 7
 * Strengths: Another useful unit to defend the weaker units like Leonardo and Micaiah, Good strength as well.
 * Weaknesses: Very low resistance throughout the game, his speed and skill stats also provide problems.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Most useful Halberdier in the game because Micaiah's team really needs the defence. Struggles when it comes to double-attacking however.

Meg

 * Class: Armor Sword --> Sword General --> Marshall (Sword)
 * Starting level: 3
 * Strengths: Very good growths and decent luck and resistance stats.
 * Weaknesses: Extremely under levelled when you get her, starts with low speed, defence and skill and uses the worst weapon type in the game - swords.
 * Usefulness: 1/10
 * Summary: Easily defeated in the level you get her on and has to hog bonus experience in order to catch up with the group. The worst marshall in the game, but if she was 10 levels higher she'd be one of the best.

Volug

 * Class: Wolf
 * Starting level: 15
 * Strengths: Comes in very powrful and can protect the weaker units of Micaiah's chapter. Very high luck skill throughout the game
 * Weaknesses: Stats barely increase over time, making him inferier to other units.
 * Usefulness: 1/10
 * Summary: One of the worst laguz in the game, deceives you into thinking he's worthwhile to use so you waste experience on him, which you regret later on.

Tauroneo

 * Class: Lance General --> Marshall (Lance)
 * Starting Level: 14
 * Strengths: Starts off veyr powerful, able to kill every enemy.
 * Weaknesses: Starts off very over-levelled and isn't available for many of the later part one chapters to help out.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Fantastic if Micaiahs squad is under-levelled but goes away too quickly, limiting his usefulness.

Jill

 * Class: Dragonknight --> Dragonmaster --> Dragonlord
 * Starting Level: 14
 * Stregnths: Unaffected by terrain and has the canto skill. Good defence and offence.
 * Weaknesses: Not a lot of time to train her, her speed is fairly low during part 3.
 * Usefulness: 4/10
 * Summary: Great to use in part one to help defend the weaker units, After that she becomes inferier to the rest of the dawn brigade.

Zihark

 * Class: Swordmaster --> Trueblade
 * Starting level: 3
 * Strengths: High resistance, speed and skill and comes with good strength. High critical hit percentages all game long.
 * Weaknesses: Starts slightly over-levelled, low def compared to other beorc.
 * Usefulness: 9/10
 * Summary: The best trueblade in the game. Very useful in parts 1 and 3 and can put up a good fight in part 4 if he's at a good level.

Fiona

 * Class: Lance Knight --> Lance Paladin --> Silver Knight (Lance)
 * Starting level: 9
 * Strengths: Good speed, defence and resistance.
 * Weaknesses: Under-levelled when she joins so she's inferier to your group.
 * Usefulness: 1/10
 * Summary: the worst paladin in the game, like Meg if she was 10 levels higher she'd be very good.

Muarim

 * Class: Tiger
 * Starting level: 19
 * Strengths: High defence and high offence.
 * Weaknesses: Overlevelled and doesn't come back until part 4.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: Worst tiger in the game, be better if he returned to your party earlier than he does. Only good to help defend some of Micaiahs team.

Tormod

 * Class: Fire Sage -> Arch Sage (Fire)
 * Starting level: 5
 * Strengths: Good stats in Micaiahs chapters.
 * Weaknesses: Leaves at the end of part one and doesn't return until part 4. Low speed, magic and resistance levels compared to other mages.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: Beats Ilyana, but not by much. Becomes useless after part one.

Vika

 * Class: Raven
 * Starting level: 13
 * Strengths: great growths, great speed, skill and resistance throughout the game. Starts off with decent strength and HP too.
 * Weaknesses: She leaves with Tormod and muarim and joins with them in part 4. Low defence throughout and her strength becomes obselete later on.
 * Usefulness: 3/10
 * Summary: The best unit in Tormods team, but she doesn't help in any way past part 1.

Nailah

 * Class: Wolf (Nailah)
 * Sarting level: 33
 * Strengths: Formshift allows her to stay transformed. Great fangs deal massive damage and her stats are all high throughout the game.
 * Weaknesses: Low strength compared to the other laguz royalty.
 * Usefulness: 9/10
 * Summary: The third unit who can defend against any attack (Tauroneo and muarim being the first two.), unlike the previous two, however, she remains consistently good throughout the game.

Rafiel

 * Class: Heron (Rafiel)
 * Starting level: 12
 * Strengths: High magic so his blessing skill comes in handy, good resistance and luck.
 * Weaknessses: Just another unit needed to be defended all the time.
 * Usefulness: 5/10
 * Summary: The ability to refresh always comes in handy, but Micaiahs team doesn't have the man power to keep defending weak units like Rafiel. Worst heron in the game.

The Black Knight

 * Class: Black Knight
 * Starting level: 20
 * Strengths: Useful to defend weaker units and for diverting enemy units his way by unequipping his weapon.
 * Weaknesses: Can steal exp away from other members in your party.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Needed to unlock lehran later on in the game and can proove useful in levelling Micaiahs units up. It's a shame he came in so late as his use is limited in part 3.

Part Two
In part two you play as Crimea on the brink of Civil war. You control the royal knights and even the queen of crimea herself - Queen Elincia.

Elincia

 * Class: Queen
 * Starting level: 1
 * Strengths: High speed and skill, can heal and move afterwards.
 * Weaknesses: Slightly weak and has low defence. Vulnarable to archers and crossbows.
 * Usefulness: 8/10
 * Summary: Comes in as third tier, capable of double attacking nearly everything throughout the game and with her sword amiti, her low strength and defence doesn't matter.

Marcia

 * Class: Falcon Knight --> Seraph Knight
 * Starting level: 5
 * Strengths: High resistance, hit-and-run capabilities and large movement range.
 * Weaknesses: Low strength and defence, not a lot of time to level up.
 * Usefulness: 3/10
 * Summary: Pretty fragile for most of the game, but you don't even see her for most of it. Worst Falcon knight in the game.

Leanne

 * Class: Heron (Leanne)
 * Starting level: 5
 * Strengths: Comes with the refresh and blessing abilities. Good magic for the blessing ability. Canto ability.
 * Weaknesses: Vulnerable and can only refresh two units at a time.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Although she can't refresh four units even when transformed, Leanne has the canto ability which reduces the pain Rafiel makes from having to have units protecting him all the time.

Nealuchi

 * Class: Raven
 * Starting level: 22
 * Strengths: Fast and can dodge most attacks.
 * Weaknesses: He is outclassed by laguz royalty in every way.
 * Usefulness: 1/10
 * Summary: Worst raven in the game, only useful for the prolouge of part two.

Haar

 * Class: Dragonmaster --> Dragonlord
 * Starting level: 11
 * Strengths: High defense, strenght, skill, Hp and has the canto ability.
 * Weaknesses: Low resistance and speed.
 * Usefulness: 10/10
 * Summary: One of the best beorc in the game, he's useful in every chapter you can use him in because of his mobility and high stats.

Brom

 * Class: Axe General --> Marshall (Axe)
 * Starting level: 2
 * Strengths: Very good luck, defence and offence.
 * Weaknesses: Won't double-attack most enemies throughout the game, low resistance as well.
 * Usefulness: 7/10
 * Summary: Not quite as good as Gatrie but still a pretty good unit to use, especially during part 2 endgame.

Nephenee

 * Class: Halberdier --> Sentinel
 * Starting level: 1
 * Strengths: Very balanced fighter. very good speed
 * Weaknesses: Lots of competetion for the Wishblade, generally outclassed by other units.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: A very balanced unit with good speed, but does not shine compared to other characters.

Heather

 * Class: Rogue --> Whisper
 * Starting level: 7
 * Strengths: High res, luck and speed.
 * Weaknesses: Low strength and defence.
 * Usefulness: 5/10
 * Summary: Good to steal items and pick locks during part 2, 3 and chapter 4 in part 4 but for endgame you're forced to use Sothe and taking more than one whisper is disadvanteous. Especially because Heathers got such low strength.

Lucia

 * Class: Swordmaster --> Trueblade
 * Starting level: 14
 * Strengths: High speed and strength for the majority of the game.
 * Weaknesses: Low def, strength and Hp. Comes in to part 4 slightly underlevelled.
 * Usefulness: 4/10
 * Summary: Great against every enemy when she joins, but when part 4 comes around, she will struggle to deal good damage.

Lethe

 * Class: Cat
 * Starting level: 21
 * Strengths: Fast enougth to double enemies throughout the game. Very good HP and good resistance.
 * Weaknesses: Low strength and defence. Can't counter-attack at range.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: Inferier to the laguz royals and struggles to kill and to avoid being killed.

Mordecai

 * Class: Tiger
 * Starting level: 16
 * Strengths: Very good strength, defence and HP.
 * Weaknesses: Low speed, skill and resistance.
 * Usefulness: 3/10
 * Summary: Inferier to laguz royals endgame but can be used effectively against part 2 enemies.

Geoffrey

 * Class: Lance paladin --> Silver Knight (Lance)
 * Starting level: 15
 * Strengths: When he joins has very good stats.
 * Weaknesses: Lategame, his stats become inferier to other characters.
 * Usefulness: 4/10
 * Summary: Usable, but joins underlevelled in part 4.

Kieran

 * Class: Axe Paladin --> Gold knight (Axe)
 * Starting level: 11
 * Strengths: Good defence, strength and HP all game round. Good speed in part 2.
 * Weaknesses: Speed is low during parts 3 and 4. Low resistance.
 * Usefulness: 4/10
 * Summary: Better than Geoffrey, but not by much.

Makalov

 * Class: Sword paladin --> Gold knight (Sword)
 * Starting level: 7
 * Strengths: Great speed, good HP, Strength and defence.
 * Weaknesses: Low resistance and low levelled in part 3.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: One of the best paladins, but that's not saying much.

Astrid

 * Class: Bow paladin --> Silver knight (Bow)
 * Starting level: 2
 * Strengths: Good luck and res.
 * Weaknesses: Everything else is low.
 * Usefulness: 2/10
 * Summary: The second worst paladin in the game. Astrid requires too much attention to level up and just isn't worth it.

Danved

 * Class: Halberdier --> Sentinel
 * Starting level: 9
 * Strengths: Very fast early on and has good strength, skill and HP all game round.
 * Weaknesses: Underlevelled
 * Usefulness: 5/10
 * Summary: Quite underrated by most fans, but isn't the best character in the game by far.

Calill

 * Class: Fire sage --> Arch sage
 * Starting level: 6
 * Strengths: Second fastest sage in the game. Comes with meteor, a long ranged spell, good skill.
 * Weaknesses: low HP and defence and her offence is lacking compared to other sages.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: Third best magic user in the game, and the fastest until Lehran.

Part 3
In part 3 you play as the Greil mercenaries from Path of Radiance, but in some chapters you play as the Dawn brigade and the Royal knights.

Ike

 * Class: Hero --> Vanguard
 * Starting level: 11
 * Strengths: High strength, defence, speed, skill and HP.
 * Weaknesses: low res.
 * Usefulness: 10/10
 * Summary: One of the best characters in the game with his very good stats and weapons.

Titania

 * Class: Axe paladin --> Gold knight (Axe)
 * Starting level: 17
 * Strengths: canto, 9 Movement range, good speed and good skill.
 * Weaknesses: Low defence and HP, mounted restrictions and bad resistance.
 * Usefulness: 7/10
 * Summary: Best paladin and quick to promote. Speed problems at start, but soon erases them.

Soren

 * Class: Wind sage --> Arch sage (Wind)
 * Starting level: 5
 * Strengths: High Magic and resistance.
 * Weaknesses: Struggles to double, comes in underlevelled, low defence.
 * Usefulness: 6/10
 * Summary: better than Calill.

Shinon

 * Class: Sniper --> Marksman.
 * Starting level: 13
 * Strengths: great speed, skill, HP, strength and defence.
 * Weaknesses: Can't counter attack to melee weapons without a crossbow.
 * Usefulness: 9/10
 * Summary: One of the best members of the Greil mercenaries. Doubles nearly everything throughout the game, hits them the majority of the time and deals great damage.

Gatrie

 * Class: Lance general --> Marshall (Lance)
 * Starting level: 10
 * Strengths: Very good HP, strength, defence and skill.
 * Weaknesses: Doubling problems early part 3. Low resistance.
 * Usefulness: 9/10
 * Summary: The third best Greil mercenary (Behind Ike and Shinon), capable of dealing good hits with one attack whilst taking nearly nothing in return.