Just got to the first mission where it let's you decide who you want on the field and since I don't have enough places for everyone, one person has to be left out. I'm wondering if this kind of thing really matters. Like, should I build up a sort of A Team that I always use or constantly be switching people out? As far as I know, there isn't any grinding or other way to level up people who aren't in my active party, so I'm kinda confused on where to go from here...

@MistaSparkle: You should try to switch people in and out. If you lose someone and have no one to replace them it can literally cripple your team.

Around chapter 5 random enemy spawns start popping up on the map. It seems like they're timer based as a new one appears anytime I've had m system on standby for a while. As far as leveling everyone is concerned, I have a rule of always taking my lowest level characters into battle with few exceptions. I'm playing on hard which has been tense and tenuous but manageable.

I never bothered to raise more than one team in the other games, so I can't imagine this one would be different. I guess it depends on how reset happy you are. If you're one to let all your dead party members stay dead then you'll probably want to have some backups. If not then it's not really an issue.

@Karkarov said:

@MistaSparkle: You should try to switch people in and out. If you lose someone and have no one to replace them it can literally cripple your team.

And if I ever do get to that point should I just start a new game?

@StarvingGamer said:

Around chapter 5 random enemy spawns start popping up on the map. It seems like they're timer based as a new one appears anytime I've had m system on standby for a while. As far as leveling everyone is concerned, I have a rule of always taking my lowest level characters into battle with few exceptions. I'm playing on hard which has been tense and tenuous but manageable.

That's good to know! I'll have to try that soon...

yeah try to rotate guys in to level them up, still use a core group of guys but try to keep a couple extra leveled up in case you ever save a char death

btw im at mission 18 and the maps have around 14 char slots

Also avoid using Frederick in the early game whenever possible, you need that exp for your lower level mans.

@MistaSparkle: It's possible to rotate guys in and out, but your list of party members tends to get pretty big by the end of the game, and there just aren't enough chapters in the game to level them all up. I'd suggest you pick a core team (with a mix of classes and weapons) and just permanently bench everybody else. As you get new characters, if you get somebody who seems really good or you just like the character, don't be afraid to have the new guy (permanently, or on a trial basis) take the place of somebody who filled a similar role (or has similar stats, or however you want to decide it).

@BisonHero: Does a lot of the replayability come from playing through multiple times with different character combos to get the other support dialogue stuff? I mainly only have Sumia in to hang out with Chrom so I can see where their relationship goes. I wouldn't say she's useless because her Avoid rating is pretty high and she has a lot of movement, but she's definitely not a really powerful asset to me yet...

@MistaSparkle: Yeah, that's the general idea. There are more possible party members and support conversations than you can possibly make use of in a single playthrough, so that's a major incentive to do more than one playthrough.

@MistaSparkle: Yeah pretty much, if you let yourself lose too many people and you play with permadeath I would seriously start over. It is perfectly possible to get to the last battle and just not be buff enough to win. Personally if there is an option to disable permadeath I would take it if I were you. Internet bad asses may mock you, but you will probably enjoy the game more and not have to constantly replay fights.

@Karkarov: Yeah, I've been thinking of starting over since I'm not too far in.

I'm really quite far in my normal playthrough - probably within striking distance of the end of the game. However, well over half of my roster have gone completely unused, and I'm finding that the challenge of the game has been reduced sharply since Lon'qu and Donnel have basically turned into human meat grinders. I'm definitely planning on starting over and using different party members on Hard difficulty.

Will your hard run use permadeath? Trying to decide if that adds anything to the game before I start.

@ehker: Permadeath definitely strikes a fear in your heart. It also can make the game much more repetitive, depending on whether you're willing to live with certain deaths. I would play with it on - it really makes you quite cautious and tense with how you approach scenarios. There are some arguments to playing with it off, I think - I've heard one person say that since you immediately restart after you lose someone, you don't get the "picking up the pieces" aspect of dealing with a shitty situation. But, if you're willing to let people die, or at least some people, permadeath adds a very cool aspect to the game.

Getting tense because you don't want to restart will probably make it more interesting. Thanks!

Even with the whole "restart if someone dies" thing, I still prefer having permadeath on. You can look at each battle like a puzzle, with consequences for not thinking your actions through, or you could just play with permadeath off and bonk your dudes into the other dudes until everyone falls over, yay!