I just found out Shadow Dragon only has 25 chapters. I wouldn't care except I would have liked a maxed out Marth as he is only level 21

He is more than powerful enough (at least in chapter 24) but it would have been nice.

Also, Est is a level 10 dracoknight, and she is by far the strongest character in my play though.

Damn these games have good music. it really doesn't get enough attention.

Guys I gave Edward Paragon during 3-6. He started out as a level 1 Swordmaster. I am not done with the mission yet, but victory is essentially assured.

Here are his stats:

HP: 37
Str: 24 (max)
Mag: 3
Skill: 26
Sp: 24
Luck: 19
Def: 14
Res: 7

Level: 7

This kid is a freaking monster.

That's not so insane. It's +3 str, +1 skill and a few slight ups (as in, less than +1) compared to the average. Chances are that a few of your characters will be RNG blessed.

As for Est... Est quite simply is brilliant. She comes in late and has the, by far, best potential in the game. Actually, all the 3 pegasi knights are brilliant in that game.

So I just read what the Satori Sign does and it terrifies me beyond my ability to express.

Should I raise Ranulf?

You don't need him and he levels slowly.  Caineghis also basically squashes most of the utility Ranulf would have...

I'm in chapter 3-10.

I did it before I got an answer and holy shit Rend is awesome.

What is rend's proc chance? I'm thinking of playing part 4 again with Laguz only. It has to be bloody good. You get another beast Laguz (with Roar though. Name is Giffca)) at 4-E - he pretty much has better stats allaround. 10 more health, 6 more def, 4 more str, and 2 more skill (rest is about even) at level 36. Remember that these stats double when transformed (well, not health). (Oh, and he isn't one of the Royal Laguz either).

Essentially, you have a load of beast/flying Laguz units to use among your final group. You can choose from; Nailiah, Caineghis, Tibarn, Naesala, Tibarn, Skrimir and Giffca. 

All of those are better than Ranulf (or so I'd say).

raising the laguz is a waste of experience in my opinion. They always turn out lousy compared to the amount of experience they suck up.

Laguz are kind of oddballs really. In this game, you have far, far more characters than you're going to use. You have around 60 characters in 3 groups (Part 4). Before that, Laguz aren't very viable. They start out at ~ lv 10-20 on tier 2 (Laguz have no tier 1, to say it that was), so they should pretty much match your Beorc levels when Part 4 starts. Before that, it's Beorc all the way.

But in Part 4, they're not that much of a waste. They get roughly the same amount of exp as your Beorc, and you're generally on the offensive side (Laguz are great at offense, as you can decide when to attack, but not so good on defense, as they're not always going to be shapeshifted.

Well, that's not really the point. You're going to be using a good 30-40 units here. You'll only be able to take 17, and only 11 of your choice to the endgame. So half of the units you use are going to get ditched. Thus, it's not essential that all your characters would "turn out good". Being good at that moment is more important.