So I've never played a fire emblem game and was wondering if this matters at all and if it does what would be the best idea for a main character? I figure I'll have a ton of different squadies with different strengths and weaknesses but is there an optimal for the main character?

Also to make this more of a conversation what did you guys make your strengths and weaknesses?

Your strength and weakness add or subtract small bonuses to your starting statistics. Which is best depends on what level of difficulty you plan on playing on. The harder dificulties are much less forgiving and will force you to min/max to win sometimes. The normal or casual difficulties you can pretty much just choose whatever you like and you should eventually be able to deal with whatever choice you made through leveling up.

I think I chose speed for my bonus and strength as my weakness. I want to be able to move more and potentially get those x2 hits in, and since I plan on being mage-y I won't be needing the STR to hit dudes anyhow.

@Rayeth: Yeah, in general, I feel like the weakness should always be either Strength or Magic, because those are literally the only two stats that it's ever OK to be low on, depending on your class. So right off the bat, commit to your character either being a melee weapon guy, or a mage. Even with a slight Strength deficiency, your mage should be strong enough to never really be impaired, and Magic is almost completely useless to non-mage/healer classes, unless Awakening has dramatically changed the Fire Emblem formula. It usually only comes up with the handful of magical swords you find near the end of the game, and they usually aren't even that great.

All the other stats are just too useful.

I'm playing on Lunatic with Strength: Luck and Weakness: HP.

...

Because I hate myself.

My Strength is Strength and my Weakness is Skill. It's worked out pretty well on Hard once I popped a Secret Book or two to offset the lowered Skill growth.

it really depends on what you want to build. what you pick alters early game stats but more importantly your growths, go to the link for more

(http://serenesforest.net/fe13/char_growth.html)

some examples for you:

fast attack/dodge char: +spd - def

phys attack: +str -mag

balanced/staying start class: +luk -skill

etc

I think I went with + speed, - resistance on my female MU and + HP, - magic on my male MU.