I second and third all comments that the people whining are n00bs.

Fire Emblem is not supposed to be easy.  It's supposed to be hard.  You need to think to win.  If you can't think critically and plan well, you will be crushed. 

For example, in a match earlier today, I left my Priest wide open... and within the attack range of a Dracoknight.  Next turn, the Dracoknight flies over to the Priest and criticals her.  The Dracoknight didn't even need a critical to kill her, it would have been a one shot kill anyway, but Fire Emblem just had to do the insult to injury thing.  One reload later, my Priest was out of the attack range of the Dracoknight and had a blocker just in case it came near.  I also hunted that thing down immediately and ripped it in half with a couple other units (satisfying vengeance I tell you).

Radiant Dawn doesn't actually feel as challenging as other Fire Emblems though even if the Part 1 party is more fragile than in other games.  Wait, you mean I start with a Fighter, a Myrmidon, a Light Mage, an Archer, and a Rogue as my first units?  That means that I have exactly one unit that can take a hit or two (the Fighter).  Some might say that the Rogue can take hits as well, but that requires taking its weapons away so it can't fight at all (if you do not understand why the Rogue shouldn't be fighting you are a n00b).  Surprisingly, the early maps allow you to pretty much take out everyone without ever really getting seriously attacked so it works out well.

There's a learning curve with Fire Emblem games, but that's part of the fun.

It sounds like your biggest problem with the game is the difficulty, which I guess I can see. It's unfortunate that Fire Emblem is not for everyone, it's one of the harder games around.

That said though, I love the game because it's one of a very small number of games (Mario, Metroid and Zelda being the exceptions) that is capable of actually frustrating me. I like the fact that you can't just use the same strategy over and over again and that you really have to adapt to what the mission calls for.

Still, I can understand that not everybody appreciates the amount of frustration this game can cause, but you do get those other characters back I believe. I don't own the game, but I read the wikipedia article on it.

I'd say all the Fire Emblem games suck.

Well, I guess I can understand why a person wouldn't want to use a Rogue to fight.  However, when at the beginning of the game, no enemy can hit him and he counters for a near instant KO, I am going to use him for fighting.

I'm not much of a poster but seeing this topic about some characters almost never getting hp made me want to post.

There is quite a simple answer to that dilemma which includes the battle-save. I’m also playing FE Path of Radiance. In normal mode by the way.

My solution is to battle-save right before using any unit that’s about to win a level. Then I use and let him level up. If I don’t like the level or I wanted something else to raise I simply reset, go to resume game and do the same action again and again until I get what I wanted. It doesn’t take a lot and my characters mostly always finish capping most of their stats.

I use this tactic in other ways also. I hate missing when I attack the enemy so reset it and do it again and make sure to lay the hit! Mostly when using longbows, Meteors, Bolting and stuff like that. Even if it is the same situation the outcome always varies.

By using this these tactics I have yet to redo a single chapter and I'm already in the Endgame of Part 4.

That is, of course, exactly why you shouldn't use him. He's (this specific Rouge, not Rouges in general) is very close to being a "Jeigan" character, someone initially strong who sucks experience from the rest of your party while never getting stronger due to terrible growth rates. (The Rouge in question actually has pretty good growths, which is why he doesn't quite qualify.) You should use him sparingly so that your other units can get EXP and level up, so they can become as good or better than him.

Lol that would be a terrible game design choice. Let's have the player reset right before an attack over and over till they get it right. When you are trying to build a fan base this is not how you design a game. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this game is hard at all. Most fights end in 2 hits and are extremely easy. Bosses fall to your Laguz in 2 hits. It's that characters don't get enough of a stats increase to make the game fun. They need to increase everyone's hp including the enemy so they can endure more than one round of combat.

This is my 2nd favorite SRPG of all time, behind only Final Fantasy Tactics. (It's been suggested that I try Tactics Ogre, but I haven't found it yet).

Btw, I'm currently on my 2nd playthrough of the game (I didn't continue from the previous finish because I wanted to see some of the special relationship endings, so I replayed PoR on normal and then transferred that data so I could play with it. :)

On 3 Endgame right now, gonna try to take out the "Prince" with one helluva attack crew, including 3 Seraph Knights, 2 Dragonlords, 2 Arch Sages (Illyana with both ArcThunder and Thoron, very effective against dragons), my Hero and a Marksman.  The rest of the crew will run a defensive line to keep the regular grunts away.  Hopefully I can take him out before I hit the magical 75. :)

That's why movement strategy is crucial. You have to think ahead by a few moves. Like chess. And no, you couldn't direct a better game. Nice try though.

That's half of it.

1)  Pre-promoted characters generally (this goes for most all Fire Emblem games that I've played) turn out to be inferior to their non-pre-promoted counterparts.  Spend your time raising someone who will not suck later.  Unless you know for a fact (guide or personal experience) that a pre-promoted character won't suck, assume it will.*

2)  Promoted characters take a lot more experience to level.  Get that Rogue 1 level or get the Myrmidon 3 levels?  Tough choice.  It is much more beneficial to have a high average party level than a single high level character.

*The real exception to this is when the story forces you to use the character over and over.  In which case, you should level it but wait until everyone else is also leveled up before worrying about that character.