History Characters / FireEmblemCharacterClasses

* TheresNoKillLikeOverkill: They can easily OneHitKO [[AntiCavalry Cavaliers]] and [[AntiArmor Knights]] with halberds and [[DropTheHammer hammers]], respectively, as the effective properties of these weapons are further bolstered by their [[TacticalRockPaperScissors weapon triangle advantage]] over the lance-using Cavaliers and Knights, and the inherently high Strength of Fighter units. However, the shaky accuracy of these weapons makes them AwesomeButImpractical, an option to fall back on only when the player absolutely needs to dispose of a dangerous enemy immediately.

* BowAndSwordInAccord: Typical for the advanced [[TheArcher bow-using]] variation, whether it is part of the Cavalier line or not.

*** This was a joke that was [[LostInTranslation lost in translation]]. In Japanese, Brigands, Pirates, and Corsairs were referred to as "Mountain Thieves," "Ocean Thieves," and "Lake Thieves" respectively. The map the Corsairs appear in features a large lake in the middle, and their unit description mentions them being skilled at fighting in lakes, rather than at sea.

* LongLived: To the point that a Manakete can be a child by their species' years but really over 1000 years old. In the case of truly old Manaketes like Bantu, they're suggest to be ''thousands'' of years old. It also turns out that half-blood Manaketes inherit this long life-span as well, in the case of Corrin, Kana, Nah and (optionally) Morgan.

** Generals in ''Path of Radiance'' can wield swords, though the way they swing their swords make it look clumsy. Of course, this is not the case for the Black Knight.

* AlwaysFemale: Playable Pegasus Knights are always female, though as mentioned in EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, enemy ones were male in ''Mystery''. ''Fates'' averts this, although the explanation is different depending on the version of the game: the Japanese version calls them Tenma (the Japanese word for Pegasus, confusingly used for regular Pegasi in the past), while the English version simply says that they are a different breed from the traditional depiction. However, it's still played with, as the men who have this class, Subaki and Shigure, are known to be very pretty. Pegasus Knights go back to being female-only in ''Three Houses''. Notably pegasi are known to accept a man as an additional passenger to a female rider (as seen when Sumia rescues Chrom in ''Awakening''), and may carry a man they trust (by picking him up with their mouth in a ''Three Hopes'' support conversation), they just draw the line at the man riding on their back and directing them.

* WingedUnicorn: Normally, their mounts look like this after class changing to Falcon Knight, though it's entirely possible that the horn is just part of the pegasus' head armor. In ''Three Houses'' it is made clear that at least their version of promoted pegasi have a real horn growing from their forehead.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: In contrast to [[MasterSwordsman Sword]][[FragileSpeedster masters]], Heroes can wield axes as well as swords and are built to be stronger but slower than them.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Whilst Armored classes are more civilized than Fighters and Brigands, they are still extremely tall and muscular men wearing scary armor. With this in mind, it isn't surpising that axes are their most common weapon after lances.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: In contrast to [[MasterSwordsman Sword]][[FragileSpeedster masters]], Heroes wield axes and are built to be stronger but slower than them.

* AchillesHeel: The rarely appearing SwordSlayer, introduced in ''Mystery of the Emblem'', deals effective damage towards Mercenaries and Heroes even if they aren't wielding a sword.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Fighters and Warriors are all [[MightyLumberjack Mighty Lumberjacks]], savage gladiators, tough outdoorsmen and rough mercenaries that wield axes. They also tend to be the largest and most muscular men. Thus it comes as no surprise they are the primary axe class in the series. The weight of axes in many titles means Fighters/Warriors will be some of the only units with the [[MusclesAreMeaningFul constitution/strength]] to wield them effectively.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Fighters and Warriors are all [[MightyLumberjack Mighty Lumberjacks]], savage gladiators, tough outdoorsmen and rough mercenaries that wield axes. They also tend to be the largest and most muscular men. Thus it comes as no surprise they are the primary axe class in the series. The weight of axes in many titles means Fighters/Warriors will be some of the only units with the f[[MusclesAreMeaningFul constitution/strength]] to wield them effectively.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Fighters and Warriors are all [[MightyLumberjack Mighty Lumberjacks]], savage gladiators, tough outdoorsmen and rough mercenaries that wield axes. They also tend to be the largest and most muscular men. Thus it comes as no surprise they are the primary axe class in the series. The weight of axes in many titles means Fighters/Warriors will be some of the only units with the [[MusclesAreMeaningFul constituion/strength]] to wield them effectively.

* BrutishCharacterBrutishWeapon: Fighters and Warriors are all [[MightyLumberjack Mighty Lumberjacks]], savage gladiators, tough outdoorsmen and rough mercenaries that wield axes. They also tend to be the largest and most muscular men. Thus it comes as no surprise they are the primary axe class in the series. The weight of axes in many titles means Fighters/Warriors will be some of the only units with the [[MusclesAreMeaningFull constituion/strength]] to wield them effectively.

* MusclesAreMeaningfull:

* AchillesHeel: Bows and wind magic, [[AntiAir being flying units]], as well as Wyrmslayers or any other anti-Dragon weapons. ''Radiant Dawn'' changed their weakness from bows and wind magic to thunder magic, the same weakness as Dragon Laguz.

* DamageIncreasingDebuff: In ''Fates'', all knives and shuriken have the added effect of lowering the target's defensive stats.

** The Armored Cavalry: Exclusive to games with branching class change options, this variant mixes traits of both Paladins (mobility and weapon usage) and Generals (high Defense, poor Resistance, and anti-armor weakness), functioning as an in-between of the two classes.

Knights (or Armored Knight in ''Three Houses'') are heavily-armored footsoldiers. They usually wield lances and tend to be very bulky, but this comes at the cost of their Speed and Movement on top of giving them a weakness to AntiArmor weapons. Their Resistance also tends to be very low, making magic an effective way to take them out.\\\

Knights generally Class Change to '''Generals''', which occasionally grants them a secondary weapon such as axes. Third-tier Knights are known as '''Barons''' in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]'', and '''Marshalls''' in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]''. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]'', ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'' they have '''Great Knight''' as an alternative Class Change option.\\\

The Jugdral games and ''Radiant Dawn'' split the Knight class into four separate armoured classes, each specializing in a different weapon type: the '''Sword Armor''', '''Lance Armor''', '''Axe Armor''', and '''Bow Armor'''[[note]]Jugdral only[[/note]]. They all class change into similarly weapon-specific variants of the General[[note]]in ''[=FE4=]''/''[=FE5=]'', only the Sword Armor/Axe Armor can class change; the others are enemy-only and thus don't class change, though the Jugdral General can use all four weapon types anyway, implying that the others would also class change into it[[/note]]. In ''Gaiden'', the Armor Knight serves as a second-tier class for the '''Soldier''' (see below).\\\

** To Cavaliers. Both classes are heavily tied to knighthood (Cavaliers to the horse and quest part of the knight, Knights to the armor and castle defending part of knightood), frequently enlisted by TheEmpire and class change with the Knight Crest in the earlier games, but Knights make use of terrain bonuses and block chokepoints due to their lower movement and high Defense while Cavaliers focus on chasing down enemies with their high movement and are encouraged to fight on the open field. Some skills they get in ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' also contrast each other and may help with their specializations.

* MageKiller: In ''Radiant Dawn'', Generals have unusually high resistance that even rivals the '''Falcon Knight'''.

* WeakTOMagic:

** Engage's incarnation of Knight/General this trope is played 100% straight.

** Despite the class roll in ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'' and ''Mystery of the Emblem'' describing them as having low defense, the Fighters in your army have high defense growths that allow them to be {{Mighty Glacier}}s (in fact, they have a higher defense growth than '''Draug'''), likely compensating for their inability to class change.

* MightyGlacier: The Oni Savage introduced in ''Fates'' is slow, but with high defense.

* RangedEmergencyWeapon: What the bow amounts to for Warriors, given that they could only promote from axe-weilding classes, and thus will always have an inferior ranking in bows.
* SpectacularSpinning: Warriors' criticals in the GBA games, and the Reaver's mastery skill Colossus in ''Radiant Dawn''.

* StoneWall: The Oni Savage/Chieftain line in ''Fates'', in contrast to the [[GlassCannon normal performance]] of axe units.

** Like the fighters, the Brigands/Pirates had stats more along the line of a MightyGlacier in the original ''Shadow Dragon'', despite the class roll in the first and third games describing them as having low defense. It is likely to compensate for Darros not being able to class change.
** Pirates and Barbarians can't destroy villages in the Archanea games, a trait that appears in later games. Only Thieves could destroy villages in those games.

** There is a [[InNameOnly "Berserker"]] in ''Mystery of the Emblem'', except it was just a renamed Hero and only existed in one chapter[[note]]They are also called "Evil Fighter", but it's not the name of their class[[/note]]. In the remake, the "Berserker" was replaced by a Swordmaster.

* CompositeCharacter: The modern version of the archer class is a composite of the original Archer class and the Bow Fighter SuspiciouslySimilarSubsitute. Starting from ''Binding Blade'', Archers have the name of the original archer class, but like Bow Fighters wear casual clothes and have good movement.

* AchillesHeel: Anti-armor weapons, like the Hammer and Heavy Spear, and, again, most of the lords' starting exclusive weapons. Their low Resistance also makes them vulnerable to magic-based attacks (though Jugdral's Barons and the Tellius armored line lack the latter weakness). Ironically, they have weapon triangle advantage in ''Fates'' since Tomes are in place with Swords, which are bad against lances. In addition, they can usually take at least one Armorslayer hit to the face, since they initially wield lances that gives them weapon triangle advantage over sword-wielding units.

** To Cavaliers. Both classes are heavily tied to knighthood (Cavaliers moreso than Knights), frequently enlisted by TheEmpire and class change with the Knight Crest in the earlier games, but Knights make use of terrain bonuses and block chokepoints due to their lower movement and high Defense while Cavaliers focus on chasing down enemies with their high movement and are encouraged to fight on the open field. Some skills they get in ''Awakening'' and ''Fates'' also contrast each other and may help with their specializations.

* WeakAgainstMagic: Enemy Knights consistently have low Resistance, so magical attacks can easily take them out. Playable Knights play with this, in games where Resistance isn't a luxury, since the promotion bonus to General usually gives ''more'' Resistance than other promotions, and they can be outright better at taking magic in games where they have decent Res to begin with (e.g. ''The Blazing Blade'' and ''Radiant Dawn'') or where player Resistance is low overall (e.g. ''The Binding Blade'' and ''Shadow Dragon''). In Engage's incarnation of Knight/General this trope is played 100% straight.

** In ''Thracia 776'', Archers are a {{Mook}} class with terrible stats, while Bow Fighters are the playable class that class changes into Sniper.

* DragonRider: You don't say. Averted with the Griffon Rider in ''Awakening''.

* GiantFlyer: In the GBA games and ''Radiant Dawn'' in particular, they're downright enormous.

* LightningBruiser: They are one of the strongest physical classes thanks to their high Strength, Skill, Defense, movement range, and decent Speed. This is especially prominent in the Archanea duology and ''Three Houses'', where they can gain high Speed growths as Pegasus Knights before class changing. Enemy factions would sporadically deploy them early-game to serve as BossInMookClothing, and then field even more of them in the late-game chapters. Most playable Wyvern Riders join mid-to-late game because of their powerhouse status.

* MightyGlacier: What the class has slowly evolved into. While in their earlier incarnations, they were basically stronger Pegasus Knights but without their MageKiller capabilities, more recent titles have settled for making them aerial tanks with high Attack and Defense but low Speed and Resistance, in order to make them more of a {{Foil}} to the [[FragileSpeedster Pegasus Knights]].

* WeakToMagic: In contrast to [[MageKiller Pegasus Knights]], Wyvern Riders tend to have a high Defense but poor Resistance.

* FacelessMooks: Generic Gremories in ''Three Houses'' have veils covering their faces.

* {{BFS}}: As fitting their position, their weapons are often very large. Averted by Arvis, who uses the magic tome [[PlayingWithFire Valflame]] instead (though he ''does'' have a Silver Blade, the strongest non-legendary sword, in his inventory, even if he was hacked to not be able to use Valflame, Arvis will not use the Silver Blade).

* WeakAgainstMagic: Enemy Knights consistently have low Resistance, so magical attacks can easily take them out. Playable Knights play with this, since the promotion bonus to General usually gives ''more'' Resistance than other promotions, and they can be outright better at taking magic in games where they have decent Res to begin with (e.g. ''The Blazing Blade'' and ''Radiant Dawn'') or where player Resistance is low overall (e.g. ''The Binding Blade'' and ''Shadow Dragon'').

** For a good portion of the series, Cavaliers could only promote to Paladin. This meant all Cavaliers were similar, and thus meant growths were often more important to determining which character was better than the other. The creation of the Great Knight helped clear this issue up by making it possible for more unique options for Cavaliers.

** In ''Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light'', the Ridersbane is effective against Cavaliers, '''[[CripplingOverspecialization and only against cavaliers]]'''. It does normal damage against Paladins.

* AchillesHeel: Anti-armor weapons, like the Hammer and Heavy Spear, and, again, most of the lords' starting exclusive weapons. Their low Resistance also makes them vulnerable to magic-based attacks (though Jugdral's Barons and the Tellius armored line lack the latter weakness). Ironically, they have weapon triangle advantage in ''Fates'' since Tomes are in place with Swords, which are bad against lances. In addition, Armorslayer is paradoxal as an anti-armor weapon, as Knights initially wield lances that gives them weapon triangle advantage over sword-wielding units.

** Barons in ''Shadows of Valentia'' have Heavy Armor as their inate skill, which lowers damage taken by bows by half of the damage inflicted.

* HeavilyArmoredMook: Knights boast the highest defense of any class, but are known to be slow and are weak to anti-armor weapons like Armorslayer and Hammer.

* WeakAgainstMagic: Knights tend to have a low Res stat, so magical attacks easily take them out.

* NonIndicativeName: Even though the promoted variant of Soldiers is called Halberdiers, they cannot wield Halberds due to them being classified as axes.

Related is the '''Bard'''[[note]]not to be confused with the normal Bard support class, discussed below[[/note]], a class exclusive to the Jugdral games which wields all three types of Anima Magic and Light Magic and also class changes to Sage, and the enemy-exclusive '''Queen''' class which can use all three types of Anima Magic and Staves. Also related is the '''Empress''' class, exclusive to Sanaki in ''Radiant Dawn'', which also can wield all three types of Anima Magic and Light Magic, but does not class change to or from anything[[note]]it's treated as a third-tier class in-game[[/note]], and the class families '''Noble''' and '''Vidame''', exclusive to Céline, which both classes wields tomes and swords and the latter also wields staves, and '''Fell Child''', exclusive to Veyle, which wields tomes and daggers, in ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage Engage]]''.\\\

->'''Playable characters of this class family:'''[[note]]Characters marked with a * were originally Bishops in the first and third games, before the remakes added the separate Sage class[[/note]] Merric, Wendell*, Linde (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Mystery of the Emblem]]''); Gotoh* (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemShadowDragonAndTheBladeOfLight Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light]]''); Luthier, Delthea, Mae, Boey, Sonya, Nomah (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGaiden Gaiden]]''); Jubelo, Arlen (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem Mystery of the Emblem]]''); Azelle, Lewyn, Tailtiu, Arthur/Amid, Tine/Linda, Ced/Hawk (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar Genealogy of the Holy War]]''); Asbel, Olwen, Homer, Ilios, Miranda, Ced (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThracia776 Thracia 776]]''); Lugh, Lilina, Hugh (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade The Binding Blade]]''); Erk, Pent, Nino, Athos (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBlazingBlade The Blazing Blade]]''); Lute, Saleh (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]''); Soren, Ilyana, Tormod, Calill, Bastian (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]''), Sanaki (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]''); Katarina (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemMysteryOfTheEmblem New Mystery of the Emblem]]''); Miriel, Ricken, Laurent, Emmeryn, Celica (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''); Orochi, Hayato, Rhajat (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]''); Dorothea, Annette, Lysithea, Hanneman (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses Three Houses]]''); Clanne, Céline, Citrinne, Lindon, Veyle, Gregory (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage Engage]]'')

->'''Playable characters of this class family:''' Robin, Morgan [[note]]Morgan needs to have specific mothers/fathers to start out as Tactician, otherwise they will join as a different class (based on their non-Robin parent) and need to reclass into it.[[/note]], DLC Katarina (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]''); Toys/{{amiibo}} Robin (''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'')

* JackOfAllStats: Their stats in ''Awakening'' are generally high in all areas, though not necessarily the best possible.
* MagicKnight: They use both swords and tomes and have good Strength and Magic. In ''Awakening'' they are equally proficient with Swords and Tomes (both top at "A"), while the ''Fates'' Grandmaster leans more on the Magic side with a higher max Tome rank (Swords go to "B" while Tomes go to "A").
* SpellBlade: In both appearances, the class line is capable of learning [[PlayingWithFire Ignis]], a skill that uses half of their Strength or Magic to boost the other stat when they attack, depending on whether they're using a physical or magical attack.

* EvilCounterpart: Several Monster classes have human counterparts. The Titanus can function as one to the Golem and Altered Golem, with the latter two having close ties to the Chruch of Seiros while the former is employed by one of the two church's enemy factions[[spoiler:—Those who Slither in the Dark]].

Wyvern Riders generally Class Change into the '''Wyvern Lord''' ('''Dragon Master''' in Japanese), which usually gives them access to a secondary melee weapon. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]'', they can alternatively Class Change into the '''Wyvern Knight''', which only wields lances, but compensates for the lack of weapon diversity with [[ArmorPiercingAttack a unique skill]]. In ''Radiant Dawn'', they can Class Change again into the third-tier '''Dragonlord''' class ('''Lindwurm''' in Japanese). The Jugdral games feature the weaker '''Dragon Rider''' class, which was made the first tier to the (now second-tier) Dragon Knight in ''Thracia 776''. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening Awakening]]'', they gain the alternate Class Change of '''Griffon Rider''', a [[JackOfAllStats generally well-balanced class]]. In ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'', they gain the alternate Class Change of '''Malig Knight''', a MagicKnight class that uses axes and tomes.\\\

* MsFanservice: Dancers tend to be this to some extent, thanks to their minimal clothing and sultry dances. The only one who doesn't solidly fit this description is Ninian.

* GeoEffects: In the GBA games, Pirates and Brigands are unique among infantry units for being able to walk on water and mountain/peak tiles, and Berserkers can cross both. The latter is especially helpful, since mountains and peaks give phenomenal defense and avoid bonuses that can compensate for their low defenses and turn them into functional LightningBruisers.