Good Units

[Sakura]

Which of the characters in this game are the good units?  I am training everyone equally, but I don't want to overtrain a bad unit and not know that he or she will turn out worse than the others.  Ronan and Sety are keepers, though!  >

[Mage Knight 404]

You'll find your fair share of good units to use, whether it's from stats, their personal weapons, or both, or something else in between. It'd help to know what type of units will take your fancy.

Leaf is forced, so there's not much there, but he stays alright throughout, and he cannot be fatigued(obviously).

[Neofox]

Once you're allowed to bench them, you can stop using Marty, Dagudar, and Brighton. Aside from that, if you just want usable units rather than "teh best EVAR!1", FE5 has a lot to offer, and even the ones that aren't very good can usually be helped by the fact that scroll items increase stat growths (as well as negate any criticals against the unit).

In short: Use ones you like. If they fall behind, put a scroll in their inventory to help with the proper stat.

[Lord Fuckboy]

Try building up a wide variety of units as well.  If you don't, then fatigue will bite you right in the ass.  You don't just want to stick to a core 10-15 like other FE games, you want around 20.  It's somewhat manageable.  That is, if you don't want to stock up on Stamina bags later in the game.

[Pukachi]

Just remember that the lower stat caps can affect your style of playing, but it also allows you to promote earlier without significant punishment.

[xcomfan]

One thing to keep in mind is that having an A-rank in staff is amazingly powerful in FE5. Warp and Rewarp have infinite range and Rewarp staves are plentiful after chapter 14G. B-rank and C-rank in staff provide lots of nice uses also. However, all the higher-level staves burn fatigue very quickly so you may want multiple staff users rotating.

[Lord Kratos]

Try building up a wide variety of units as well.  If you don't, then fatigue will bite you right in the ass.  You don't just want to stick to a core 10-15 like other FE games, you want around 20.  It's somewhat manageable.  That is, if you don't want to stock up on Stamina bags later in the game.

Just remember that the lower stat caps can affect your style of playing, but it also allows you to promote earlier without significant punishment.

I agree with that. I especially recommend to build more than 1 healer (you don't want to have one healer and then get it fatigued).

Good units I suggest:

Fin - Hero lance (thus great at capturing) support bonuses
Othin - probably best combat unit
Halvan
Fergus
Asvel, Homer - Asvel is especially good at killing earlygame bosses. Homer grows fast and averages great. Both get staves.
Dean - Best flyer. Has dragon lance, good stats all around, weapon levels, movement stars and doesn't need a promo item
Shiva
Carrion
Mareeta
Roberto
Safy and Nanna - Probably your primary healers.
Rifis and Pahn - Thieves are really useful.

People like Karin, Trewd, Linoan, Sara, Xavier and Delmud are also pretty useful

[Somewhat Overcooked Cheese]

Do note that scrolls can make anyone good, especially with the arena.  You can give up to 7 to someone ( or 6 if you actually want to make your unit fight/heal )

Fin - Hero lance (thus great at capturing) support bonuses
Othin - probably best combat unit
Halvan
Fergus
Asvel, Homer - Asvel is especially good at killing earlygame bosses. Homer grows fast and averages great. Both get staves.
Dean - Best flyer. Has dragon lance, good stats all around, weapon levels, movement stars and doesn't need a promo item
Shiva
Carrion
Mareeta
Roberto
Safy and Nanna - Probably your primary healers.
Rifis and Pahn - Thieves are really useful.

People like Karin, Trewd, Linoan, Sara, Xavier and Delmud are also pretty useful

To that list, I'd like to add a few:

Brighton is a pretty good mounted unit, while not being as good as Carrion.  He has the Wrath skill, which helps his offense a lot, and he uses axes, which are great in this game.  He's also quite useful in chapters 4-7, IMO some of the toughest in the game.  His growths aren't too great and his bases are only ok at that point, though, so you might feel like giving him a scroll.

Dalshien's not too bad as an early tank.  Once he promotes, he can also use all 4 physical weapons, making him one of your rare lance users indoors.  He also mains axes, which is again a great choice for him thanks to his high BLD.  If you can, try to give him the Sety scroll ; he needs that speed.

There's 2 Mageknights you might like: Eyrios and Olwen.  The thing is, you can only have one at a time.  They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, among them:

Olwen Pros and Cons:

• Comes earlier
  She supports Leaf, and Fred ( not a really great unit ) supports her
  Pursuit critical of 4 ( that means her critical multiplies by 4 on her second attack if she doubles, which doesn't count "Brave" effects )
  Higher magic
  2 Personnal weapons
  
  Frail, and that low HP means she's fatigued easily
  Can't use swords well due to low Con
  While her weapons are good, they drain her evasion and attack speed a lot
  No skills

Eyrios Pros and Cons:

• Better stats in everything but magic.  Much higher HP, strength and defense
  2 Skills: Prayer and Sun Sword, which makes him very tough to kill
  Higher HP means fatigue is much less apparent
  
  Pursuit critical of 0 ( which is somewhat countered by the fact he's the best candidate for the Wrath skill.  The others who have 0 Pursuit critical either already have Wrath ( Xavier and Sara ) or aren't meant to fight that much ( Rifis, Sleuf, Cyas ))
  Annoying to recruit
  Only recruitable in one of the two chapter 16s.

In short, Olwen is more offensive while Eyrios is more defensive.  Since most mages in this game aren't too great in defense, I try to balance things a bit and use Eyrios.

Once you get him (chapter 24), use Galzus.  You will not regret it.

You may want to use Lara as a dancer.  For that, have her to recruit Parn in chapter 12x ( by warping her with Saphy on the first turn ).  Her stats will get weaker, but not only she's the only dancer, but she can still steal things.

[Mekkah]

Don't Warp and recruit Parn instantly. Trewd will leave, and the other enemies will as well. This also means you won't get the dancer reinforcements at turn #25 and #30, which are holding a Warp Staff and a Knight Crest, both very desirable. Rather, Warp someone in the middle of the fray to secure the chests and capture Trewd if you can, and don't touch the dancers at all.

Nearly every unit is good as long as they come early enough to get scrolls on them. The difference between good and bad in FE5 is more about misc traits than raw stats. Thief utility, staves, dancing, leadership stars, movement stars, personal weapons and perhaps a mount are good reasons to use someone. My personal favourite units to use are Karin, Nanna, Saphy, Asvel, Fin, Othin, Carrion, Fergus, Shiva, Mareeta and Lifis.

EDIT: Also, since Knight Proofs are so rare, prepromotes can be very valuable. Eyrios, Olwen, Dean and Fred are my personal preferences.

[Lord Fuckboy]

It's not like you need Knights Proofs for every non-promote, though.  Cap ramming early is quite effective so you don't have to hunt for knight's crests.  Plan them according to the person's stats, though.

[Mekkah]

FE5 units seem to have somewhat bad bases relatively, so you'd have to RNG whore a bit to get the stats you need. Units like Halvan are going to gain plenty of levels early on with no scrolls on him, or only 2-3. Plus promoting gives most units extra movement, an extra weapon or an extra skill which is just too good to pass up.

[Neofox]

FE5 units seem to have somewhat bad bases relatively, so you'd have to RNG whore a bit to get the stats you need. Units like Halvan are going to gain plenty of levels early on with no scrolls on him, or only 2-3.

I disagree on RNG-abusing being a requirement when in a game where everything caps at 20, a lot of characters are going to ram some of their caps no matter what due to decent to high growths. I also don't see how not having the chance to scroll abuse should count against some characters... Since when did that bother Othin? A lot of units don't need scrolls at all to fulfill their potential.

[Lord Fuckboy]

FE5 units seem to have somewhat bad bases relatively, so you'd have to RNG whore a bit to get the stats you need. Units like Halvan are going to gain plenty of levels early on with no scrolls on him, or only 2-3. Plus promoting gives most units extra movement, an extra weapon or an extra skill which is just too good to pass up.

The only people I recall this applying to (well, when it's useful) is like...  Machyua because she gets axes.  Othin/Halvan don't really need swords, and whoever else doesn't often need their new weapon.

Extra movement I will give you, though, and that's definitely useful.  But you still don't have to promote everyone to get through the game, and besides everyone has movement growth.  But another movement still isn't a bad deal.

[Mekkah]

@Fay - We're talking before promotion. There's people who can capram a lot before promotion (like Mareeta), but there's plenty who don't, like Karin who needs all Str and Bld she can get.

@Ike - You forget Saphy and Tina who would like to have the option of using Lightning at least, and Asvel and Homer who would really welcome having staves.

You're right in that you don't need to promote your entire team to beat the game, especially since you can buy Knight Proofs when you arrive at the chapter with the bridge over the Thracian river. It is highly convenient to do so, however, and I daresay easier to use, say, 3 prepromotes and 7 normally promoted people compared to 3 capped unpromoted people and 7 normally promoted ones.

[Neofox]

Homeros has Elite. He shouldn't have to promote at anything less than 20 because he's going to reach it very quickly.

[Lord Fuckboy]

How many Knight's Crests are in FE5 (aside from the buyable ones) anyway?

[Pukachi]

About a dozen or so, as long as you know where to find them...you get plenty through the first half of the game, but they are scarce later on.

Also Mekkah, with ranged staves being infinite-reach in the game, and that you get tons of Libro staves, there's not much of a need to promote Saphy or Tina just for using Lightning, which they probably won't ever use, and you only get one tome until Chapter 22, when you can buy them. god run-on sentences
With the fact that the healing item heals all HP and you will probably use a Sage or two, the usefulness of those two dwindles.

[Lord Fuckboy]

You may want to promote them if only for potential to grow more HP so Fatigue doesn't screw you over, but if you plan carefully enough you should have enough Knight Crests to go around.

[Mekkah]

There's 9 crests up to Ch13, one more on the path split (16/17), then you get one at the end of 19 and one in a chest in 20, but that's pretty much endgame already.

I still think prepromotes usually do a better job than 20/0 capped people 

[Levin]

 :Knoll:Ugh  too few knight crests and some are real hard to get.  Well at least you can buy as many as you want in Ch. 22, go go Shanam!  I always thought it is pointless to use capped 20/0 characters...I mean they get no experience its just a waste.  Plus some solid prepromotes are available.

As far as characters you want to use...there are many that will do the job, however there are a few that I think are 'must use'.

Othlin-With his personal weapon, the Pugi axe plus Wrath...just set him up by his lonesome unless a legion of foes and watch them fall effortlessly.  Pugi is very accurate and is ranged as well, so mages, archers, it doesn't matter.

Marita-Her personal weapon allows her to attack twice in a row...coupled with Shooting Star that's a possible 20 attacks per turn!  It also gives her awareness.  She will critical like crazy as well, has great stat growths, and also possesses moonlight hit!

Sety-Holsety, can use Rewarp staff from the get go...enough said

Thief-You will need one thief, and personally I think Lifis is the best choice as he will end with the highest  build probably, and its all about the build!  If he gets RNG screwed use Pahrn.

Flyer-You'll want at last one to get those hard to reach villages.  I use all 3.....since they are all awesome...Karin is your mage killer with high magic (good with a wind sword too!) and ends up with real good stats, except for build of course.  Dean has the dragon spear, so he gets 4 attacks per turn he also has very balanced stats.  Eda is a stat monster and will max a lot of them.

Asvel-Excaliber....100 hit, 40 crit...means bosses die in one round almost guaranteed.

Healer-You'll want to use Saphy, Tina, and Nanna.  Saphy and Tina both have very unique staves that are incredible...Nanna has the all so useful charisma skill (earth sword rocks too!)

Other than that...Dalshien for his unstoppable defense and maxed build (great for capturing), Halvan, Carrion, Fin, Homer, Sara, Shiva, Robert, are all great.