you get used to the games after you first play them, but yet- they're difficult. especially (IMO) 7 and 10, but those are also my favorites.

u get used to it

Man I hate the RNG sometimes. I think this is going to be my first playthrough where Hector doesn't max out his Strength, and I even gave him those drops.

Good to know it's still the same.

And 48 chapters, damnation. That is a hella long game!

Adding a 3rd tier and kicking stats up to stupidly high numbers is about the only change.

Average Ike from Radiant Dawn at 20/20/20:

HP  65 / 65
STR 37 / 37
MAG 9  / 15
SKL 40 / 49
SPD 35 / 37
LCK 22 / 30
DEF 32 / 32
RES 15 / 23

With BEXP you can easily max all those non-maxed stats.

Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn also have the Laguz, people who have the ability to transform into animal counterparts. They only have one tier, but are really powerful off the bat. The only thing is that they need to be in their animal forms to attack and defend, so it's an interesting trade off. Here's my favorites: Tibarn (Hawk), Nailah (Wolf), and Naesala (Raven). Herons, Lions (and their ilk), and Dragons are also available.

I got far enough into Path of Radiance to experiment with the Laguz. They seem kind of unwieldy!

Thank you, WOW, those stats are indeed bananas.

In Radiant Dawn, Laguz (minus the royals) suck.  Their level-ups are too slow and their non-transformed stats are pathetic (plus the enemy AI will target an untransformed Laguz character over even a weaponless character).

Yeah, I don't think my final team in RD had any Laguz. In PoR I used them regularly though.

In RD they can be helpful for a few chapters, but really avoid making kills, cause they simply won't grow. I never understood why someone would use a heron anyway.

Oh, I definitely agree with you on that one. Notice how my favorites are only royals.

But yeah, their non-royal ilk are too unconsistant for me to keep an eye on. I don't want to spend half the time giving them laguz stones while I could be spending that money on arms scrolls or other non-laguz items that seem more useful for me.

Still, those royal laguz are beasts (pun intended), I pity the fool who ever tries to take down Caineghis.

...What's a royal laguz, then?

 Kinda like how you have Kings, Marqueses, Apostles, etc.  You have high-ranking laguz.