Dread Fighter

The Dread Fighter (魔戦士 Masenshi, see below) is a combat physical and magical class that is introduced in Fire Emblem Gaiden. In all its appearances, the Dread Fighter is a powerful Sword-wielding class noteworthy for high Resistance and skills that further boost their Resistance.

History in the Series
In Gaiden, the Dread Fighter is the third-tier class in the Mercenary line, possessing high HP, Strength and Resistance. Characters of this class can further promote into a Villager, which allows looping of the promotion chain.

The class later reappears in Awakening, where the class is DLC-exclusive, requiring the use of Dread Scrolls in order for male characters to access it. This iteration of the Dread Fighter class is widely considered to be the male counterpart to the DLC female-only class, Bride.

The Dread Fighter returns in Fates as a unisex class, and is again DLC-exclusive, but treated as a Hoshidan class. Usage of Dread Scrolls are again necessary for characters to access the class, and this time it is considered the Hoshidan counterpart to the rechristened Dark Falcon (itself being a unisex Nohrian Class only accessible through the Ebon Wing item).

The Dread Fighter reappears in Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, the remake of Gaiden, where it retains both its status as the third tier Mercenary and the ability to naturally promote back into Villager, now possessing the ability to instead promote further into the newly introduced Over Class, the Yaksha.

Combat
In Awakening, the Dread Fighter is treated as a base class in terms of its Experience Point gain calculation when fighting and defeating other units, despite the class having the stat caps of an advanced class. This enables a unit promoted into the Dread Fighter class to gain levels at a much faster rate than other advanced classes when fighting units of the same caliber, while allowing them to be on-par with advanced classes stat-wise.

Additionally, a unit promoted into the Dread Fighter class can only reclass into a base class at lower levels. However, like the Villager, Manakete, Taguel, Lodestar, Conqueror, Bride and Dancer classes, if a character is reclassed at Level 30, they can then reclass into promoted classes as well as base classes.

The class cannot be obtained through the inheritance system in Awakening. The Dread Scroll item must be used to transfer a character into the class.

Combat-wise for its Awakening incarnation, the stat caps the Dread Fighter possesses are below average Magic and Defense, average Skill above average Strength and Speed, and high Resistance (tied with the War Monk/War Cleric) that is only beaten out by the Sorcerer, the Valkyrie, and a Manakete wielding either the Dragonstone or Dragonstone+; its resistance stat can be bolstered even further with its Resistance +10 skill. Its growth rates are respectable in that they are all either the third or second best in their category. Wielding the Sword, Axe, and Tome weapon categories gives it a wide array of opponents to successfully deal with; it is tied with the Paladin and the Hero as one of the strongest sword-wielding class (only weaker than the Great Lord, the Conqueror, and the Great Knight) and tied with the Griffon Rider and War Monk/War Cleric as the third fastest axe-wielder (behind the Hero class and behind the Berserker class).

The Dread Fighter is among one of the decently powerful sword-wielders on the field, posing a particular threat the Berserker, an axe-wielding Hero, the Warrior, the Griffon Rider, and the War Monk/War Cleric thanks to the classes' average-to-low defense stats. Many other sword-wielders may best the Dread Fighter in skill and/or speed (and strength and defense for the Great Knight and Paladin), but the Dread Fighter still possesses a good resistance compared to the generally poor resistance that most other sword-wielders are plagued with (exceptions being the Great Lord, Paladin, and Trickster). As an axe-wielder, there is also some competition in where there are more powerful (Great Knight, General, Warrior, Berserker, Wyvern Lord, and Conqueror) or more accurate options available (Hero, Warrior, Griffon Rider), but the Dread Fighter's well rounded stats allow them to face many different scenarios with little issue that would trouble the other axe-wielders, the case-in-point being able to punch through magically powerful (and often poor in defense) users such as the Sage, Sorcerer, Valkyrie, and Dark Flier with ease while the other axe users sans the War Monk/War Cleric could face a very quick death because of their poor resistance stats. Lastly, the Dread Fighter is capable of wielding magic; it is definitely the weakest when compared to all of the other tome-wielders but its magic is not as weak compared to many other classes that cannot use a tome at all (the exceptions being the War Monk/War Cleric and the Trickster), and with this ability to use physical and magical weapons with stats not far from the average it is one of the few classes that can competently take on virtually any opponent they face (a trait shared with the low number Grandmaster, the War Monk/War Cleric, and the Dark Knight). If raw power is ever an issue in case the Dread Fighter is being outperformed by other naturally stronger attackers, the Dread Fighter is capable of learning Aggressor which grants +10 Atk to it while it's on the offense, turning it into one of the deadliest warriors usable without reclassing involved. It also provides a decent boost to strength and resistance with minor magic and speed boosts. The only clear weaknesses the Dread Fighter seems to have is a lack of specialty in stats outside of their resistance and their below average defense (which is still better than many other sword wielders), meaning that it must be absolutely careful around high strength units such as Generals (who can wield lances to deal with a Dread Fighter's sword), Great Knights (who also wield lances in addition to swords that can deal with a Dread Fighter's axe), and the other high strength axe-wielders who will take advantage of a neutral coverage towards the Dread Fighter's axe and tome. With this low amount of weaknesses aside, the Dread Fighter is certainly one of Awakening's strongest units.

In Fates, the Dread Fighter is similar to its Awakening incarnation when it comes to experience points, that being comparable to an advanced class stat-wise while earning exp similar to a base class. Class changing is also similar in that at lower levels it can only reclass into base classes and at higher levels it can reclass into advanced levels. It still cannot be obtained through the inheritance system in Fates, requiring use of the Dread Scroll to change into it.

Combat-wise, the Dread Fighter received some notable nerfs to fit along with the lower stat caps and growth rates of Fates compared to Awakening—including the rebalancing of the HP and Luck stat caps, all the while retaining much of its statistical layout from Awakening. The Dread Fighter still possesses below average Mag and Def, above average Str and Spd, and high Res as before, but now it comes with below average HP and Skl with poor Lck. It's weapon usage is also slightly different than before, now excelling in swords/katana out of it, the axes/clubs, and the shuriken/daggers it can wield. Its growth rates still see decent HP, str, spd, and great res but now carry poor mag, skl, and def with nonexistent lck.

Just as before the Dread Fighter is one of the more damaging sword-wielders as its strength has not diminished in the transition, coupled with the wider variety of powerful swords at its disposal (such as the Brave Sword, the Venge Katana, the Ganglari, etc.) and there is no shortage of poor defense units. When serving as a pair-up unit, they grant decent boosts to str and spd with a high res boost. Its competition with other fast axe-wielders has decreased somewhat, with the War Monk/War Cleric and the Griffon Rider not making the transition; however, the Blacksmith—a new class that can wield axes/clubs and swords/katana, has equal speed with the Dread Fighter but has higher HP, str, skl, lck, and def stats with superior or equal growths in those areas. The two classes are evenly matched in sword power thanks to the difference in str cap and sword proficiency bonus when capped being the same. While the Dread Fighter retains its status as a reasonably powerful unit with high res, Fates has introduced an unusually high amount of physical units with decent to good resistance as well as increased the res stat through a lower res stat cap for all classes (the lowest being a 25 to the average 30 instead of the lowest being 30 to the average 40 in Awakening). Such examples of classes with better resistance include several other returning classes (including the Swordmaster, General, Bow Knight, Dark Knight, and especially the Falcon Knight) and newly introduced classes/restructured returning classes that possess decent if not excellent resistance themselves (Oni Chieftain, Basara, Great Master/Priestess, Master Ninja, Nine-Tails, Adventurer, Malig Knight, etc.). The Dread Fighter finds itself facing much greater competition functioning as the go-to "mage-killer" (a role somewhat taken up by the Falcon Knight) that can also tackle many different enemies with physical and magical weaponry, made worse by its loss of being able to use tomes; the magic weapons that the Dread Figther can use (Levin Sword, Leo's Iceblade, Bolt Axe, Flame Shuriken, and Felicia's Plate) are saddled with a variety of counterbalancing weaknesses that will not allow it to tear through low resistance units as easily as it used to compared to the tome-users in Fates, not helped by the class's and many characters' lower magic growths. Also, with the reintroduction of offensive staves in Fates that rely on the user's mag and skl targeting the enemy's res and lck, the Dread Fighter may find itself frequently hit by offensive staves such as Freeze, Enfeeble, and the infamous Hexing Rod more than other high res units thanks to having one of the lowest lck growths and caps out of all of the classes with high res. The low lck also hampers the previously average if not excellent evasion and hit rate that the Dread Fighter possessed in Awakening, and more bad news for the class is the reintroduction of innate class boosts exclusive to the S-ranked classes barring the Butler/Maid, all of whom have an increased critical hit ratio; the Killer weapons and similar weapons now deal increased damage for their critical hits (times four instead of times three), and the Dread Fighter's below average health and defense will spell its doom against these kinds of weapons in the hands of such classes, especially against the Berserker who with their unmatched str, first-time decent skl, and +20 crit bonus means very frequent and very painful critical hits.

Even the Dread Fighter's powerful skills that, while still powerful, have been weakened from the transition to Fates; Resistance +10 has been replaced with Even Keel (a skill that reduces magic damage by 4 during even numbered turns) and Iron Will (a skill that reduces magic damage by 4 during the user's defending phase) while Aggressor had its power lowered from +10 to +7. The Dread Fighter does get a new skill that helps it out in the new battlefields: Clarity—while not reducing oncoming stat drops from shuriken/dagger weapons, does allow the user to recover from them twice as fast. This is especially useful against the weak but highly accurate shuriken/dagger-wielding Master Ninja and the Butler/Maid class (which can wield not just the accurate shuriken/daggers but can wield offensive staves with the highest accuracy too).

Ultimately, the Dread Fighter in Fates still possesses the attributes that made it a force to be reckoned with in Awakening, but now it must be even more careful thanks to the new balancing system in play. With its ability to operate as a mixed offensive unit nerfed to a noticeable degree, its main focus should primarily be tackling the powerful magic-users that have low HP and physical stats such as the Onmyoji, Sorcerer, Strategist, Dark Falcon, and the Witch to keep them from taking out its poor-res allies. All characters in this class should always be on the lookout for enemies with high skl and crit ratios to avoid an early death, moreso the physical ones, and despite the lower magic proficiency the Dread Fighter now possesses coupled with the limited magic weapons available to it, the characters with decent magic should still try to use these magic weapons to create openings in a physical army—a job best suited to the Flame Shuriken and Felicia's Plate thanks to their debuffs, or finish off physical units with poor res using any of the other magic weapons mentioned above. Optimal usage of the Dread Fighter's stats and skills with the weapons they can use will help it keep its position as one of the more powerful classes available in Fates despite all of its nerfs.

Uniform
Across its multiple incarnations, there are few consistencies between each depiction of the Dread Fighter aside of the feudal Japanese/ninja-influenced attire that includes a tachi sword sheathed on their backs. In Gaiden and Awakening, Dread Fighters are shown to have a pointed, head-concealing helmet with a thin horizontal visor and braid-like cords down its sides. This helmet is retained in Awakening where the Dread Fighter attire is now depicted with dark-gray fabric and light-gray armor padding worn over dark blue clothing, held together with small ropes and a brown belt. It is in this incarnation that the Dread Fighter also acquires a nebulous red aura surrounding their body (similar to the blue-colored variant of the Einherjar from the same game) as well as a kitsune mask serving as a pauldron; these two features carry over into Fates (but with a fiery blue aura replacing the nebulous red aura), but the Dread Fighter loses the helmet in the process. During this time the outfit is more closely styled after the Ninja of Hoshido: the attire has a face mask for generics, a white fur collar in place of a shawl, thicker armor pieces adorning the forearms and forelegs (lacking the vambrace blades of the ninja), large kunai strapped to the thighs, and a white faux-fox tail attached to the back of the outfit. This design choice makes it similar in appearance to the Nine-Tails, a white fox with two blue wisps of fire hovering nearby it (both classes incidentally possess high resistance). In Echoes, the class undergoes another redesign that only keeps the aforementioned tachi from previous iterations and the face mask from Fates. New additions include a shawl with a hood, a gray breastplate worn over the red torso armor, arms covered in sashes and segmented red-and-yellow armor (with the pauldrons and right-elbow pad bearing resemblance to the Master Ninja's bladed sleeve pieces) and most notably the structure on their back that depicts one large flaming halo on top of a half-ring of five smaller flaming halos (the structure itself is alight with a fiery aura during battle). This design piece is likely inspired by Buddhist halos that are sometimes depicted as rings of fire. Only the unique enemies belonging to this class—Grieth, Xaizor, Cerberus, and Naberius—do not have this structure or the shoulder pads in their artworks, having replaced them with long capes for the former two and long cloaks for the latter two.

Gaiden/Echoes

 * Grieth - The leader of a band of pirates and the major antagonist of Chapter 3 in Celica's route.
 * Xaizor
 * Cerberus
 * Naberius
 * Possible Promotions for: Deen, Saber, Kamui, Kliff, Tobin, Gray and Atlas.

Awakening

 * Alm (DLC)

Etymology
The exact intended meaning of Dread Fighter's Japanese name is unknown. Because of this, Dread Fighter has gained many names in fan translations, such as Demon Fighter, Magic Fighter, or even Slayer. This is possibly due to the kanji 魔 (ma, demon) and its presence in the spelling of magic (魔法 mahou). The similar pronunciations of magic and demon lord (魔王 maou) may also explain the "Slayer" translation.

Unlike most classes, no official transliterated Japanese name exists that would indicate any of the fan translated names as official.

Due to the demonic physical appearance of the Dread Fighter and the naming conventions for classes such as Axe Fighter and Thief Fighter, as well as Nintendo of America's choice of translation, its possible that "Demon Fighter" is the intended or closely intended name.

Alternatively, it is suggested that the Dread Fighter's high resistance points to its name being "Magic Fighter" instead, but the -senshi (Fighter) part of the name reflects the character being a warrior and not a slayer of something.

Similarly, the name "Mage Fighter" has also been suggested, but Dread Fighters did not wield magic in Gaiden and Mage Fighter is alternatively known as Mahousenshi in Genealogy of the Holy War (and not Masenshi). Despite this, the name in the French version is indeed Héros Mage (Mage Hero) in Awakening, although this was changed to Terreur (Terror) in Fates.