Fire Emblem: Three Houses provides a player with a wide range of characters to utilize in their armies. Between the students and faculty of Garreg Mach Monastery, players have tons of options of which characters to use, each of which can be personalized to one's taste using the game's flexible customization options. However, each character naturally comes along with their own strengths and weaknesses that influence the most effective ways to use a given character.
This can be notably seen through characters' magic, as while all characters can theoretically be made into magic classes, some excel while others fail to contribute to combat in a meaningful way. So today, we're going to examine the ten best characters that a player can use in Fire Emblem: Three Houses when it comes to magic! As we are specifically discussing recruitable characters, we will be excluding the magic-focused Hubert who is only usable in the Crimson Flower Route.
10 Hanneman
A member of the Church of Seiros that can be recruited in each route, Hanneman's primary usefulness comes in the form of his high magic growth and his useful reason spell list. Available to recruit from Chapter 8, there are two main appeals to using Hanneman. Firstly, upon reaching A+ rank in reason, he learns the fantastic spell, Meteor, allowing him to attack foes from afar. Secondly, as a male unit, he is one of the few optimal choices of a character to make into the Dark Bishop class other than Hubert, who is exclusive to the Crimson Flower route.
9 Flayn
Available in every route save for Crimson Flower, Flayn is a Church of Seiros character that while lacking in the offensive spell department, has access to many great support spells. One of the only characters to learn the ever-excellent Rescue spell, Flayn also is able to earn Restore and Fortify. While there are other healers in the game with superior flexibility and healing potential, Flayn can make for an solid unit if given enough investment.
8 Manuela
Another magic user of the Church of Seiros, Manuela has the exact same availability as Hanneman. Unlike Hanneman who has a pretty straightforward offensive magic spell list, Manuela is capable of learning numerous useful utility and support spells through faith.
Rather than learning advanced healing spells like a character like Mercedes, Manuela learns the likes of Ward, Silence, and Warp. For players looking for an interesting unit that provides magic utility rather than offense, Manuela may be the unit for you.
7 Lorenz
A student from the Golden Deer house, Lorenz distinctly has the exact same growth rate in strength than he does in magic. This allows him to reliably function as a physical or magical class. When using magic, Lorenz is capable of learning potent damaging spells such as Ragnarok and Agnea's Arrow. While he can be a solid warlock or Dark Bishop, due to his blend of physical and magical offense, Lorenz can make a stellar Dark Knight.
6 Dorothea
In addition to Linhardt, Dorothea is another premier magic user of the Black Eagles house. Dorthea has one of the most useful reason spell lists in the entire game, learning Thoron, Sagittae, Meteor, and Agnea's arrow.
This stellar spell list is backed up by a solid magic growth of 40% that is made better by classes such as Warlock!
5 Mercedes
Though her offensive spell-list leaves much to be desired, when it comes to sheer healing potential, it's hard to beat Merecedes. A Blue Lions student with the ability, Live to Serve, Mercedes gains the same amount of health that she heals from others. This pairs extraordinarily well with her faith spell list that features many of the best healing spells in the game such as Physic, Restore, and Fortify.
4 Marianne
Marianne is a student from the Golden Deer house and totes one of the most useful Faith spell lists in the entirety of Three Houses. While Mercedes primarily is locked into healing faith spells and Manuela is locked into utility, Marianne has a usefully balanced spread. Learning Silence, Physic, and the powerful Auara, Marianne can provide numerous useful effects through her use of faith, all with a great magic growth rate of 50%.
3 Linhardt
When it comes to dedicated mages, Linhardt is an excellent option for a unit that relies on either reason or faith magic. A student of the Black Eagles that can be recruited into another house if Bylthe has high enough Magic and Reason, both of Linhardt's respective spell lists are incredibly useful. This pairs quite well with his above-average magic growth rate of 45%. When it comes to offense, Linhardt is able to learn the likes of Bolganone and Excalibur, while when studying faith, he can learn Physic, Restore, and Warp!
2 Annette
Similar to Lorenz, Annette is a magic-user who gets a great deal of her usefulness from a source other than her magic. Though her spell lists are far from terrible, much of this Blue Lions student's utility comes from her ability to learn numerous rallies. By raising her authority, Annette can learn rally attack, rally resistance, rally speed, and even rally movement! This means that in addition to providing impactful magic damage, she can greatly improve the usefulness of another unit for a turn!
1 Lysithea
When it comes to the magic users of Three Houses, it's no secret that Lysithea is a useful unit. While not as game-breakingly strong as some would have you believe, her incredible 60% magic growth paired with her stellar spell list allow her to bring a lot to the table. Annihilating mounted foes with Dark Spikes, and even learning warp, it's hard to argue with the magical damage output of Lysithea.