Wouldn't that mean that you have to baby every single Dawn Brigade member all the way thru the first chapter, except Tormod's guys, Nailah and Tauroneo?

Haar was a bit of a risk in the finals. But he was an insane warmachine apart from his resistance. But overall his range made up for the incidental near death experience. (and his coolness of course, he and Volke are so cool, i had to bring em into my final team).

That explains why my Jill had no problem then.
She was my best characters in my PoR power save, meaning she was the one that maxed the most stats (in non RNG mode). Thus, she could go single from the get go in RD, and pawn every units.
I have to finish this game, I'm just taking my time now, approaching the end of chapter 3. Won't make a second run before a long time though.
When I look at my characters, it's amazing sometimes, there's lots of green stats. I have one character which is not 3rd tier promoted (IIRC that's Ike) with only one stat which is not maxed (Luck).
The power save is a good thing, but it's not so essential, as when you start maxing out several stats, your chances of gaining more than 1 stat lessens quickly. You're guaranted to always get 1 stat up for every level, except if you maxed out every stat, but that's impossible at least before 3rd tier.

Anyway, the game was too easy once past the 3 first missions of 1st chapter + the one where you join with Zihark (was the hardest one, I couldn't get everything in this one). Now I'm taking my time, as every chapter is a slaughter, despite me maximizing XP. I haven't even finished chapter 3 and Ike is already level 20, so he's running everywhere unarmed. It's funny, he gets hit perhaps once every mission, despite being countlessly attacked.
I've kept my favorite characters that everyone loves to hate (except Nephenee): Jill, Nephenee, Zihark, Mist, Rolf. I realize I won't be able to bring everyone in the last chapters though. So sad.
I'm split between going with Nolan or Boyd, but surely I will choose Boyd. I think I will keep the three brothers together for the finale.

Why do you think people hate them?

Nephenee is lance-wielding death in Radiant Dawn.

Jill is awesome once she gets going.

Zihark is the best swordsman in the game (Earth element > everything).

Mist is the 2nd best healer in the game.

Rolf is... well... he's okay.  ^_^

I've always used Rolf, just because Shinon's a prick. He became less of a prick in RD, but he still is one. :p

Off topic @ WoW: What's with those cards in your sig?

Eh, Archers in Radiant Dawn were meh.  I never really felt the need to use them.

As for the cards, they're all characters from games.  You should be able to recognize a few.  There's a group attempting to make one giant SSB-style game with dozens of characters from all different games.  Dunno if it'll ever happen, but it'd be awesome if it did.  Looks like it's playable by now; here's a trailer:

We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.

Wow, no way. Rolf was a killing machine. Never misses, always doubled, 1 in 2 change on instant kill, +1 attack range, loads of luck. He was my strongest character in the endgame. Really. He was better than Ike and Haar.

Rolf's max attack power is 61, which is nothing to laugh at. And Marksmen get both Deadeye (triple damage, pretty much always an instant kill) and boosted crit chance, so they're pretty effective when it comes to killing things, even from lower ground.

The problem with bowmen is that you can forgo all of them and not lose anything significant from your team (excluding Leo, you pretty much have to use him in chapter 1). Sure, Marksmens range of 3 is very useful, especially in the endgame, but you can get by just fine without them. And there are only a few usable ballistas in the game, as well.

That's pretty much my feeling as well.  In past Fire Emblems, archers and snipers have been among my favorite units combining high attack with great evade and range.  You could find them in my groups usually around the front even.  In Radiant Dawn they were just... less awesome somehow.  That's the way I feel at least.

That might be because pretty much every unit in Radiant Dawn is ludicrously strong compared to the previous games - even the DBers once you get past the first part of the game. You don't even need armor units or paladins as meatshields anymore, since every melee class breaks 30 def in the final tier.

I'm playing the translated version of Sword of Seals at the moment, and man, do these guys suck compared to PoR or RD guys and gals.