Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, gameplay help

[Slew Foot]

So I started this a couple days ago and it seems pretty cool. Im new to the series though and something I cant figure out are the promotions. Do your units promote automatically when the hit level 20 or do you have to use the master seal thing? What's the point of promoting anyway?

 

[beat mania]

Either way, although if you use the master seal you'll lose a bunch of leveling opportunities. (ie if you go from lvl 11 to the next class you lose 9 levels of stats)
The best way to use the seal is to use it right after lvl 20 so you'll save the 100 exp needed to promote.
Promotion is just another level up from what I see ... I think its just a way for the game to limit your stats so you can't go crazy and up only like luck, or something, since every class has a max number to an attribute.

 

[skace]

*I haven't played Radiant Dawn*

But the point of promoting in every other Fire Emblem is to allow you some class progression. You can usually choose between 2 different classes at promotion time, which means you can sculpt your party into what you want or need through promotions. The games ability to promote before 20 is one of the many things that creates it's steep learning curve. Every single person that knows FE games, never promotes before 20 because you loss possible stat gains, so the only person then that would promote before 20 is someone who doesn't know the game very well.

Technically, if stats weren't as important as they are, promoting early would be a great way to get early access to a better class. But that "pro" is almost always outweighed by the fact that any early promoters will be useless towards the end of the game when their stats max out early.

 

[Evander]

"Every single person that knows FE games, never promotes before 20 because you loss possible stat gains, so the only person then that would promote before 20 is someone who doesn't know the game very well."

I'm currently about to finish my 3rd FE game (all on the GBA) and I've never waited until level 20 to promote, and have never had difficutly beating the game. Just have the strongest character or two take on the bosses and you'll be fine. It's never been my goal to max out a character's stats, I just want to get through the game. Besides, some characters may be too slow to gain levels if you don't promote them b/c before promotion they don't have enough (or any) chances to attack (such as a weak swordsman who can later attack freely with a bow after a promotion, or a healer who can attack with magic after promotion - and yes I do have the healers heal every little injury, even 1 point of damage).

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Evander
"Every single person that knows FE games, never promotes before 20 because you loss possible stat gains, so the only person then that would promote before 20 is someone who doesn't know the game very well."

I'm currently about to finish my 3rd FE game (all on the GBA) and I've never waited until level 20 to promote, and have never had difficutly beating the game. Just have the strongest character or two take on the bosses and you'll be fine. It's never been my goal to max out a character's stats, I just want to get through the game. Besides, some characters may be too slow to gain levels if you don't promote them b/c before promotion they don't have enough (or any) chances to attack (such as a weak swordsman who can later attack freely with a bow after a promotion, or a healer who can attack with magic after promotion - and yes I do have the healers heal every little injury, even 1 point of damage).

That's what I've used them for as well - promoting the guys that are just too weak to keep up early in the game, but that I know I'll want to have around late in the game.

I'm not sure I understand the point of using it once you hit 20 - what's the point of using it at all then? In PoR I didn't have any trouble getting most of my final party to max out or darn near it, so using the master seals at 20 wouldn't have done anything for me. Using it earlier made my magic users useful earlier in the game and allowed me to level them up farther than I would have if I hadn't used the seal.