Come up against a Risen boss in Fire Emblem Awakening.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem, because this risen, although having 80hp, has all of its stats <10. Laughably low, they have a 0% chance to deal 0 damage on my units.
However, two things catch my eye:
The boss has 37 skill. pretty decent stat... what's that used for? I... oh. Vengeance with 2 defense and 80hp? i can see how that'd be useful. It's still got 0% to hit, though.
The boss also has 50 Luck. Hot damn. I--- oh, it has Miracle. so that's a 50% chance to survive any lethal hit with 1hp left.
Okay, okay, i should be fine, piling damage onto it ---- wait, no it has Counter... alright, I'll send in some mages --- wait, if it survives the mages and attacks back, even the sturdiest ones are dead.
So this Risen had 80 hp, pretty much no defense, but decent skill and absurd luck, plus three moves that ALWAYS trigger, and two that trigger with a high % rate.
This risen could:
-Providing it survived a hit, which it would be able to with its 80 hp, it could deal that much damage back to an adjacent unit. My units are strong enough that they can deal more than their own hp with a single hit, in some cases. Those that can't are fast enough to hit twice totalling over their max. This always triggers against adjacent units, but not against units that are a tile or two away (a melee user with a throwing axe, a spear, or a Levin Sword or Amatsu, any mage, any bow user).
-With Renewal, heal 30% of its max HP per turn. This always triggers at the end of the turn.
-Vengeance had a 37% chance (based on Skill stat x 1%) to take accrued damage, halve it, and add it to the user's attack stat. Say you had 80 hp, and were on 2 hp, your attack would now deal (base damage + (total damage taken / 2)) damage - if you attack dealt anything more than 1, with a 2/80hp Vengeance powered attack, you'd be dealing into the 40s, which is an absurdly strong attack from a Risen with 2 Strength.
-Miracle had a 50% chance of triggering.
-Vantage always triggered. If on <50% total HP, attack first, even while defending. Not too dangerous in itself with the Risen's low stats, but combined with Vengeance was a potent combo.
I thought a while. I could send in my melee units wielding a ranged weapon, like Chrom with a Levin Sword or Walhart with Wolf Berg, but if the boss survived with Miracle, then attacked on its turn, they'd be dead from Vengeance or Counter.
I could send in my mages, but if they failed to reach it or failed to KO it at range, especially if it had Miracle, they were sitting ducks.
So, in the end, my only real option was to send in an archer and hope their high Avoid stat coupled with the fact that bow users do not retaliate when attacked, plus the ability to attack at range would keep the archer alive.
It paid off.
Panne moved in with Pass, dodged a few difficult to avoid hits, took one 3 damage hit, then nailed the boss with Lethality. I couldn't've been more pleased with the outcome.