A quirk of the lord’s unique classes is that they’ll get their class bases when they unlock them, so if you don’t use your lord at all they get 20 levels worth of stats over the timeskip and then level up fast because they’re still level 1. Claude’s easily the best for this because he has the best unique class, gets the most stats from it, and can put together a good skill build very quickly.
Depriving yourself of Claude in part 1 isn’t that big a deal. He’s great but not irreplaceable, and he’s rarely force deployed. You can use him as a stride bot when he is.
Also, don’t be afraid to use him for curved shot chip in the first few chapters. It really helps and as long as he doesn’t hit level 2 you don’t lose anything.
There’s suprisingly few things this Claude can do that a normal one couldn’t. He can quad easily with a brave bow and is better at one shotting armors with crits. Overall this build is surprisingly low cost but also surprisingly low reward. It’s a thing you can do.
Rank Priorities
D+ swords -> A authority -> B+ bows
Turns out when you don’t have certification benchmarks or part 1 utility the list is pretty short. Make sure you instruct Claude throughout part 1. He wants all of these by part 2. Once you’re done with these just go for more bow rank. Bow crit+10 can be good for certain boss kills. Weight -3 is worth considering.
Skill Loadout
Feed him enough kills to get level 10 in chapter 13 and use the chapter 14 quest battles to get hit +20 and vantage. Chapter 14 is a great spot to catch up on levels.
This Claude is way faster than normal so he can actually make use of battalion desperation. This is incredibly good for certain bosses, and the reason weight -3 is sometimes worth.
Battalion Recommendation
Cichol Wyvern Co