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So after seeing some discussion going on in the Best/Worst thread as well as in the Blast, an idea got me curious. So FEFers, answer me this: What makes a character worth leveling?

I've seen people discussed about characters, based by their experience leveling with the character or based by the stats of growth exp, based stats, and such. But what defines the character worthy to level? After all, we can tell if the character is worthy to level based by the stats given by Serenes Forest and other FE resources. But when new FE game comes and new characters are introduced, it's unknown what stats and exp. growth will that character has until being tested to level.

So tell me:

Do you judge the character is worth based by his/her class, using the class based stat?
What sort of stats and exp growth do you expect when you see a certain unit?
Is there a character that you feel need some love due to unfair stats and growth?
When you first use the character, regardless if you know the character's stat and growth, does his/her level comes out what you expect?

What makes a character worth using? Why, the fact that you want to use them of course!

And if a character comes out good for you, by all means, use them! And if they don't, by all means bench them! In both cases, if you want to. Do whatever the heck you want. It's your game, and no one is telling you how to have fun.

However, for the sake of character comparison, people compare many facets of a character such as availability (how much they are around, for instance I would typically rather use Ross than Ewan because while they are both trainees, Ross is around much longer so I don't have to go out of my way as much to level him) base stats (the stats that the character starts with) and average stats (which you can find on SF). Plus plenty of other things that vary from game to game, character to character, whatever. If you think something is worth mentioning, by all means, bring it up (for instance, Louise might only be able to use bows, but the fact that she starts strong and has an auto A support from with Pent makes her more valuable). It might entirely change the conversation.

Don't be hatin' on average stats and people that trumpet them, because the stats are exactly that, average. They are averages of the stats that they get as they grow according to their growths. You might get a character who is blessed or screwed when you play, but for the sake of comparison we use those averages.

People say that personal experience means nothing when talking about this stuff, and that's because if everyone talked about their own experiences we wouldn't be able to get anything done. "Whoa this character sucks, he got such low stats when I used him." "No, he's great, I used him and got high stats, what the heck were you playing?" We look at the averages to level the playing ground, so to speak. It doesn't matter what that character was like for you specifically, at least in a thread like best/worst. In the character thread and more casual discussions you can talk about personal experience all you like.

I agree with people doing what they want and using whom they want and playing however they want.

But if you want an objective criteria for what makes a character worth leveling (which is specific enough that I want to point out it shouldn't be mistaken with "what makes a character good" or "what makes a character worth using" which have different answers I would argue, to those using that phrasing)...

It's a question of the unit's rate of return. Yes, I'm appropriating a financial term, and levels given to a character are the investments. You are investing resources (exp, bexp, deployment slots, promotion items, stat boosters, etc...) into a unit, and what makes a character worth leveling specifically is if the return from the investment outweighs or justifies it.

What constitutes justifying or outweighing the investment depends on the game and the unit. But generally speaking, it's expected that units you invest in should be able to better perform over time, meaningfully participate in and contribute to the completion of future chapters in ways they otherwise would not be able to if not invested in and reach other benchmarks of substance (reaching a point of being 4hko'd instead of 1-2hko'd, getting enough speed to be able to double enemies from a certain point in the game onward, etc...).

Being able to meet such requirements with less levels required makes one even more worth investing in than units who require more levels put in to them. Availability, the limitation of resources, and varying levels of effort for different units also come into the equation (especially the first one). This is what makes many Est-type characters less worth leveling then they might appear. Est's definitely grow more per level invested into them compared to most characters, so it might seem like they'd definitely always be worth leveling. But they require a greater amount of investment in a shorter amount of time, which because of availability, makes their 'worthiness' plummet when you consider the return typically isn't anything you couldn't accomplish with the other units you've already invested in already who are generally by that point steamrolling more and more effectively. Investing in units that come earlier generally makes investing in units that come later who aren't already near or on par harder to justify, essentially.

I think that's the gist of it, although it's more nuanced than that.

Sorry to kind of necro this, since I've been away, but lemme add a bit of my opinion. (Not that it's worth much xD)

Basically, uh, for me?

>_> I'm pretty guilty of the aesthetic design factor. "OOOH THEY LOOK COOL LEMME TRY USING THEM!!!"

Yeah, that's more often than not my first factor.

Second is the class.

Magic users, Archery peeps, wyvern ridas, cavalier types, thieves, and myrmidon/swordmaster (and now with Awakening, Tricksters and Assassins) go on my top tier list of classes I pick.

I finally found my Awakening cartridge I lost (YAY ME OMFG)

And I took one look at my party....

....and totally overhauled it.

Now, jeeeeeez... I have a crapton of galeforce, uber-move-set people with Limit Breakers.

My Severa, she WAS an Assassin before the overhaul with 9 in MOV cause I had her learn Mov+1 AND fed her the boots from the Valm arc. Now? fff, I took a detour and had her learn Galeforce, then reclassed her to a Bow Knight, or whatever. |D Cause that's pretty much the upgrade to the assassin, bows and swords BUT ON HORSEBACK. So, now she has an almighty 11 in Mov and galeforce to boot....have her hubby, Gerome pair up with her with his super str and....everything dies. The end. xD;;

BUT, UH, as I said, those are my first two GENERAL reactions.

Having started playing that FE7 Draft, being forced to use units with classes I am not really used to or liked before hand, it has really kind of changed my mind on some things and I have been more inclined to try different approaches now. I don't remember if I ever mentioned this, but I have FE8 as a ROM, also on a cartridge, and I also recently downloaded it for my 3DS.

Well, I booted up all three and took a look at all the differences in my files.

Got to say, I see a huge, different approach between my ROM files (which is where I first played the games, ect), and on my 3DS files. The one on my GBA, was more or less similar to my ROM files.

In my ROM files, I really, reaaaally went with my typical Magic/Archer(/Sniper)/Myrmidon(/Swordmaster)/Cavalier(/Paladin)/Thief setup that I was rather used to.

In my 3DS file, I have branched and my set up was more, well, balanced.

I didn't have an entire party filled with mostly long-range users. It was quite mixed, if not a bit on the defensive side (aka bringing all the healers to the party xD). I have, let's see, going from memory, I had Lute, Moulder and Natasha, Joshua, Vanessa, Franz, Neimi, Colm. Yeah, sounds kind of like my normal, but I've trained Ross and Garcia, and this time around have kind of ignored training Kyle and Forde, I'm not as far as I'd like to be in my 3DS file so I've not gotten everyone but soon I'll be getting L'Arachel and Dozla. When I do, I'll probably try to use Dozla, too! Holy crap, I mean, before, I just stuffed him in the time out corner and never bothered. This time, I really want to try using him!

My entire outlook and approaches on the chapters have been different and to be honest, I kind of like the change with the way I approach them now.

...And I'm starting to get long winded, but I figured I'd throw my two cents in.

But yeah, generally I go off my first instinct of the "OOER SHINY/PRETTY/COOL/BADASS" approach xD;;;

...Honestly. She leaves me with little room to say anything...

Regardless, for me, my approach is, more or less, class and stat based decisions. I will work with a character for a few levels to give them a shot, but if the RNG decides to screw me over or they're not as up to par as I expect, more or less, they get left behind. Class has always been a factor for me. While I am not as particularly biased in using mostly magic and archery units, ect, I tend to favor long movement ranges. Mounted units, flying units. they are my big priority. The more ground I can cover to reach and enemy, the better. The next is generally stats. If a unit already has fairly good stats compared to others, I am more inclined to use them. High Spd and Def are a must, I'm alright with average Atk/Mag, Skill must be above average, and everything else is kind of luck of the draw, it's not as necessary, but good to have in high stat.

That being said, I think my preference comes down to whether or not they balance my team, have decent stat out-comes, and will be the most useful.