If you pick The Golden Deer house on your Fire Emblem: Three Houses playthrough, you're in for a nicely balanced team. Well, for the most part. Look, there's gonna be trash on every team, so the most we can do for that trash is find the best class to put it in to lessen its trash factor. Or just don't use them for the rest of the game, either one! Sure, while the Golden Deer might need a few recruits to fill in some weaknesses, they've got a great set of students in there too. Today we're going to be looking at some of the best classes that you can put the students into to make a strong team composition. Let's jump right into the list with house leader Claude.
8 Claude- Barbarossa
Claude's best class requires absolutely no training at all. You could never instruct him once and you'd be fine. It would be an absolutely horrible idea to do that, but still. Claude's exclusive class Barbarossa is actually given to him through story progression, so you don't really have to do anything to get him there. While you could put him into a different class of your choosing, there's really no need to do so. Barbarossa is an absolute powerhouse of a class, so keep Claude in there for maximum impact to the enemy team.
7 Lorenz- Dark Knight
Lorenz has good utility that puts him in a great position to become a Dark Knight. Batman who? We only know bowl cut in this house. Lorenz actually isn't one of the better students in the class though. He can follow either a magic or a lance-centric route with the same growth rate, meaning he isn't spectacular in either path that he chooses to follow. Thus, while the Dark Knight class puts his versatility to best use, he's likely not going to be able to deal the huge amounts of damage that you'll see from some of your other students. Lorenz is someone that you might want to leave for cleanup duty on lower health enemies.
6 Leonie- Bow Knight
As the other bowl cut student of the Golden Deer, Leonie can go a few different ways class-wise. Her growth stats are great, so you can definitely put her in a few different places that you feel like your team might be lacking in. The Golden Deer house is in need of a great bow user (we'll get to why in a minute), so she will certainly work well as a Bow Knight. You can still keep her stats up in the lance area to give her a little versatility too. She's great as a front-line or back-line character, so giving her that option as a Bow Knight will help get you the most use out of this unit.
5 Hilda- Wyvern Lord
Hilda is an absolute monster as a Wyvern Lord. Since she doesn't have any natural inclination toward flying, the work to get her there is a bit more of a timesink. However, the sheer power she wields puts her in a great position to be a flying class. As the fliers have the best movement in the game, she can easily get in, deal massive damage and then fly out if need be. While her entire characterization revolves around her trying to do absolutely nothing at all times (an admirable quest), put in a little extra work with her in order to make Hilda a Wyvern Lord. Her power levels are out of this world, so don't pass up this opportunity.
4 Ignatz- Bow Knight?
The question mark was 100% intentional. It's there because no one's ever used Ignatz long enough to know what role he would fill well. He's by far the worst member of the Golden Deer class. It isn't even a competition. If you feel like you need to use Ignatz, a Bow Knight would probably suit him well... but honestly, who cares? Just don't use him. Trying to keep him alive in the first post timeskip mission is a nightmare in itself.
3 Raphael- War Master
Raphael perfectly fits the bill to be a War Master. He's already great in axe and brawling skills, so he'll have no issue getting to the desired class. His sheer bulk alone is enough to keep him on the front lines to sponge hits (some heavy armor investment isn't a bad idea), but when you pair that with his incredibly powerful attacks, enemies don't even stand a chance against this unit.
2 Lysithea- Gremory
Lysithea is one of the most powerful units in the entire game, with that power mostly being highlighted through her strong magical abilities. As such, Lysithea makes a powerful Gremory to have on your side (even though they somehow still haven't fixed that Lysithea's most popular class's outfit clips directly through her hair and it's infuriating). While she is proficient in faith magic, her reason magic is completely out of control. It is true she can't take hits very well, but she can just about one-shot everything in her vicinity. While she'll need some help to stay on the field, she's an absolute maniac when it comes to dealing magic damage. Also, her defeat scream is absolutely hilarious to listen to so there's that.
1 Marianne- Holy Knight
Once she picks herself up and stops feeling bad about herself 100% of the time about everything, Marianne can really get some work done. Shes's a powerful healer that has some good utility, and making her a Holy Knight allows her to keep that utility while also moving around much faster. Holy Knight really doesn't do much other than that for her. While she can work with lances to have a few different offensive options in her toolbelt, you're going to want to mainly focus on magical offense and defense with this one. Thus, a Holy Knight is where you're going to want to take Marianne for her Master Class.