Battle
And here she sings;
Chris is one of the game's premier physical fighters. With a good weapon, good statistics, heavy armor, and proficiency in every Suikoden III physical skill that matters, she's worth taking along any chance you can. Her obvious flaw is her low magic ability, but Chris doesn't need magic and she's fine with a Water Rune. What hurts her more in the long run is her lack of free rune slots. While she has one of the best physicals in the game, she can't manipulate it with runes like double-strike and fury to make it truly outstanding.
Statistics
Suikoden III has semi-random stat growth. At every level up, characters gain a random value for every stat, but certain characters will always do some things better than others. Characters like Sasarai will gain more magic than characters like Chris, but Chris will have a much higher attack stat. The Growth rate numbers in general vary from oo-o8, with o8 being game-best and oo being game-worst.
| PWR | SKL | MAG | REP | MDF | SPD | LUK | HP | |
| Growth Rate | 05 | 06 | 02 | 05 | 06 | 04 | 06 | 05 |
| Starting | 13 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 24 |
| Level 01-02 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-3 |
| Level 03-21 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 1-2 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 8-10 |
| Level 22-61 | 1-2 | 2-3 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 2-3 | 1-2 | 2-3 | 6-8 |
| Level 62-99 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 2-4 |
| Ending | 91-189 | 150-248 | 70-168 | 91-189 | 150-248 | 90-188 | 150-248 | 493-689 |
Skills
The Suikoden III skill system allows for some player customization, while each character definitely has their own strenghts and weaknessess. Essentially, each character has up to eight skill slots, each of which can be filled with a skill of the player's choice. Some unique skills are forced, and each character has different affinities for each skill. Skill ranks are between E and S.
| Battle Skills | Initial Rank | Max Rank | Magic Skills | Max Rank |
| Swing | D | B | Fire Magic | C |
| Accuracy | D | B+ | Water Magic | B+ |
| Damage | D | A | Earth Magic | C |
| Repel | D | B | Lightning Magic | C |
| Armor Protect | D | B+ | Wind Magic | C |
| Holy Dash | N/A | C | Sword of Magic | A |
| Heavy Damage | E | A | Magic Resist | B |
| Parry | D | A | Italics indicate forced skills. | |
Weapons
Every character has an individual weapon that is always equipped and can be sharpened to increase effectiveness. Weapons range from the generic swords to the more esotaric axes, knives, and polearms to the bizarre wrist rocket, hand puppet, and wonder-twin like magic ring. Chris has a special sword that has a higher attack power and lighter weight than a normal sword.
| Weapon Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| Attack Power | 6 | 18 | 31 | 43 | 55 | 78 | 88 | 98 | 107 | 117 | 127 | 151 | 161 | 171 | 180 | 190 |
At levels six and twelve, the weapon name changes. Chris's weapon is called Letzt, Stendich, and Ervich, in that order. The words are some form of German, they translate to last, constantly, and eternal, respectively.
Strategy
Chris is very good at bringing the physical pain, and she can withstand a fair amount of punishment as well. Her one good magic is water, which suits her playstyle completely. The healing is all she needs, and the limited charges and slower casting times don't matter as much with the water rune. The one problem with Chris is that she doesn't have many free rune slots. In the first three chapters, sticking her with a water rune is more than adequate. (Nash comes with one and he sucks at it, so I just took his.) After chapter three, she will have either the True Fire Rune or the True Water Rune locked. If Chris is your Flame Champion, it's basically a useless rune, because the casting times are so long for her. True Water is a much better fit, and its multiple charges of full party healing and quick Silent Lake are invaluble to any physical based party. For most of my game with Chris as the Flame Champion, I had a physical based party with quick, powerful attackers and Nei. Physicals can be as good as magic in Suikoden III when properly set up. When Chris has a free rune slot available, I alternated between Double Strike and Gale (so that she got a third swing).
Knight only final party, go!
If you defeat the final boss with a specific party, depending on which character you chose as Flame Champion, you can see a special scene. For Hugo, that party is Sgt. Joe and Fubar, for Geddoe, it includes the whole of his mercenary compan, and for Chris, it is al of the Mighty Six Zexen Knights. And Thomas. The problem is that the all-knight party is among the worst imaginable for taking on the True Wind Rune Incarnation and its True Rune buddies. The knights lack everything but healing magic and physical defense, against an enemy dependant on magical attacks. Furthermore, the Rune Incarnation is out of range for standard physical attacks for the most part. So, most of the time, the knights can't hit it, and all of the time they are badly outclassed for damage.
But I'm a huge Zexen fangirl, and I wanted that extra scene. I got it without much trouble, and now I shall relate the tale of that epic battle.
The basic strategy revolves around one thing: Silent Lake. This is the fourth level water spell that negates all magic for four rounds. This means that the 7th level spells the Runes keep throwing at you will stop completely. Hooray! Now you can focus all your attacks on the Rune Incarnation.
The problem with Silent Lake is that it also stops your magic, which means you are now reliant on items for healing. (And the Rune Incarnation still has a mean multi-target attack he'll level on you every round.) So bring many items!
The other problem is that the knights still have major problems damaging the thing. You have three consistant ways of damaging the thing: Roland, Chris's Pheonix command rune, and the glorious, glorious Knight A unite attack. Roland is pretty crappy and died really quick for me, Chris's attack unbalances her for a round, but Knight A has no drawbacks. So try to keep Percival and Borus alive at all costs.
What I did was equip the knights with their best possible equipment. If you have Fury runes, they are great for Borus and Roland. I equipped Flowing Runes on Percival and Salome (you need more than two shots of Silent Lake), and Salome was also equipped with a Shield Rune. If you have Water Magic rings, they're helpful here. The strategy depends on a Borus/Percival, I used Leo/Chris and Roland/Salome as my other units. The first turn I had Percival Silent Lake and Salome cast Battle Oath. Chris should always be using Phoenix, and Leo should generally be healing with items. Roland should always attack, and Salome should be healing with items or recasting Silent Lake. Borus and Percival should use their unite attack or try to stay alive with items. On turns when Silent Lake runs out, either Percival or Salome should reapply while the other casts Healing Rain. It's a pretty simple strategy, and it takes a while, but in the end you should be victorious. And really glad for Percival.