Soren was always a liability in my playthroughs, but the magic is just so much fun. I never use more than one mage.

I forgot to add Kieran, he's powerfull as well.
I see I'm the only one that likes the Laguz. Their leveling is bad, but I love their power.

Volke has by far most avoid, and always gets to double attack, so despite low stats you don't really have to protect him.

Can't wait til Radiant Dawn FINALLY releases in Europe.

Hey, what a coincidence. I'm playing through this game right now, and nearly finished it again. As nordlead posted above me, you really can't go wrong with a team of interlocking supports between Ike, Soren, and Oscar. But you forgot to add Kieran to the mix as well! I think that both Ike and Oscar are getting 40% or more to their avoid rating - that's a nearly untouchable front line.

By the end of this game, it really doesn't matter all that much which characters you pick, since you can create a godly team quite easily. I ended up with:

Ike
Soren
Oscar
Kieran
Boyd
Rolf
Mia
Nephenee
Jill
Gatrie
Volke
Rhys

Even on the American "Difficult" setting, this game is still one of the easier Fire Emblems. It's a ton of fun to play regardless though.

Ike's special allows him to recover life. That basically allowed him to dominate any army. He had excellent hp and def stats for a lord and got a special at around 30-50% if the times he attacked, plus he could also att ranged units. But I have to agree; most of the characters are good and just depends on your preference

My favorite team is this one :
Ike
Soren
Boyd
Oscar
Rhys
Mist
Rolf
Nephenee
Kieran
Volke
Zihark
Jill

Basically, one of each type. I also take some units like Tauroneo or the Laguz heron prince (forgot his name) or Elincia for late chapters, to complete my party.
But these are the main ones.

And none of them are liabilities to me, as I master the strategy and tactic thing.
I think people prefer to say that some characters are bad instead of saying their strategy suck, like saying it's easy in the first chapters because they always use the same characters, and then they can't keep the weak ones alive without great luck and difficulty later.

I'm waiting eagerly for FE:RD, as it seems it's very good difficulty wise (I loved the hard mode) and it revealed all the people that were saying the game was too easy, but were all playing on Easy. Some people have no shame.
Like PoR, I'll play RD first in Normal, then in Hard mode for the second playthrough which reveals the true story.

I didnt use Rolf, Boyd, Oscar, Rhys, Mist much, just happend so (even though, Ill surely use Mist on the hard playthrough, and probalby Rolf, Boyd and Oscar too for the Triangel Bonus)

- Ike (lv 20)
- Titania (vl 20) (yes, its true, she's one of the weakest at the end, but she had the most kills in my playthrough on normal, she was my #1 Killer overall, Ike was #2, but on my 2nd playthrough on hard, I won't be using her much, she just really turned out to be too weak in the final chapters, maby I promoted her by accident once to early though, not sure anymore....)
- Marcia (lv20) (#3)
- Mia (lv 18) (#4, or was she #3 and Marcia #4? just am not so sure anymore....)
- Jill (lv 20)(#5)
- Nephenee (lv 18)
- Soren (lv19)
- Haar (lv 17)

and a bit of:

- Kieran (lv 17)
- Zihark (lv 17 or so...)
- Tanith (??)
- Elincia (lv 18?? cant really remember, but only a few really mad it to level 20, I experimented too much with diffrent charas for too long, with I sure wont do on my hard playthrough)

on my next playthourgh, just stared it on hard, like I said, ill try to use the 3 brothers, and will really stick ot the one I once chose throughout the whole game this time (and not expermiment so much with so many Charas, so that all my Charas will make it to level 20, but ill try Lucia and Geogrfy this time, and ill try to get Stefan, hes the only one missing in my  group.....)

what do you recommend, the bonus or fix EXP?

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance & Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn forever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(please let there be a third FE, please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

____

For the final boss run, i last went with (i think, long time ago): Ike, Soren, Mia, Jill, Oscar, Kurthnaga, Micaiah, Sothe, Caineghis, Tibarn, Nephenee, Haar, Reyson, Nailah, Shinon, and Sanaki

I think, some of those might be out.

EDIT: holy crap necro thread. Should've been tipped off by the fact that BengaBenga's in here.

^^ you also have the wrong game

PoR = GC
RD = Wii

to top it off, I guess I posted in this thread years ago, but my latest playthrough had different team members, so...

-Tannith
-Titania
-Kieran
-Rhys
+Mist
+Boyd
+Gatrie
+Ilyana

Mia has better luck (Stefan's Luck's grow rate sucks) and  her attack caps a little lower so can't hit way too hard. I played with Zihark

For me as far as i remember, my team was:

Ike
Soren
Oscar
Shion
Jill
Nephenee
Haar
Reyson
Zihark
Elincia
Mist
Volke

Maybe i didn't play Elincia and Mist and just one and added Ranulf/Geoffrey don't quite know

Haven't played in ages, what a great game

damn. Path of Radiance i've actually done more recently, though. I'll go with Ike, Soren, Jill, Haar, Oscar, Boyd, Titania, Kieran, Lethe, Mordecai, Naesala, Elincia, Ena, Rhys

Well-timed necro, I just started a new game last night!

I always let the levels decide who I'll keep and who I'll ditch. So far, Boyd and Gatrie are looking very strong, while Ike hasn't gained a single point of defense in ten levels! I slapped a knight ring on him in the hope of addressing this issue.

I intend to avoid using laguz, even though they're pretty good in PoR. They're crap in RD, and I want to carry my team over. I'll probably end up taking, Mist, Rolf, Nephenee, Elincia, Jill and Haar to endgame. Everyone else is going to have to work for the privilige!

This time I know to ignore Sothe... in my first playthough I invested a lot of experience in him, and he was looking really strong until I found out that he can't be promoted.