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.

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 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. Usage of Dread Scrolls are again necessary for characters to access the class.

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.

Gaiden

 * Geyse - The leader of a band of pirates and the major antagonist of Chapter 3 in Celica's route.
 * Saizor - A boss with neither dialogue nor a portrait.
 * Possible Promotions for: Deen, Savor, Kamui, Cliff, Robin, Grey 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).