Augments

[Yar]

Are they useful? I have to be honest, I've never used them in any of my playthroughs...

What are some of the best combinations of augments to put on the characters?

[VeloZer0]

If you actually follow a guide on how to get the best ones they are insanely useful.

Omnicasting - cast a single target spell on your entire party
Dual-cast - cast two spells in a turn
Limit Break -Increases damage limit to 99999
Bluff - Doubles the character's Intelligence.
Focus - Doubles the power of the next attack command used. Can be stored up to three times.
Treasure Hunter - Doubles item drop rat

Just a sample of some of the awesome things that await you!

(Also in the levels 71-99 you get extra stat boosts when you level up. If you played your cards right with the Augments and New Game+s it is possible to max everyone's stats out.)

[Wolf Kanno]

My favorite build for Paladin Cecil is Draw Fire and Counter.

I also like getting Souleater back and its useful for Cecil, Edge or Kain.

Due to Kain's high chances of always being the last alive, give him the Phoenix augment.

Item Lore is best given to Edward, since it seriously boost his Salve ability.

[Sephiroth]

I love it when Cecil and Rosa cast Ultima together. It is so fitting.

[Roogle]

Some of the augments are very overpowered like Omnicasting and Dualcasting. They allow Rosa to Haste the entire party and cast Protect and Shell in unison. A little known fact about the White Magic in this game is that much of it stacks, so giving Dualcasting to Rosa allows her to reach new levels of efficiency when it comes to protecting and empowering the party.

[Evastio]

(Also in the levels 71-99 you get extra stat boosts when you level up. If you played your cards right with the Augments and New Game+s it is possible to max everyone's stats out.)
Do you happen to have any links to guides that show setups that can max out the final five's stats? I keep hearing that it's possible, but I've never actually seen anyone explain who to give what augments for everyone to be maxed out in the end.

[VeloZer0]

GameFAQs, where everything lives!

GameFAQs: Final Fantasy IV (DS) Stat Maxing Guide by LunarianFuSoYa (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/939425-final-fantasy-iv/faqs/54941)

[Evastio]

Gah, that's right. I shouldn't have been looking for a FFIV DS guide in the FFIV SNES, GBA, and PSP sections.

It's a shame that HP and MP can't be maxed out for the final five with Augments, but that's what Apples and Soma Drops are for.

And characters that have Augments used on them keep them on the next playthrough? I did not know that. I always thought it was best to hoard all Augments for the second New Game+ runthrough, except for bad ones which you should use on temporary characters to get better Augments (so you can get Augments like Twin from Palom and Porom).

[VeloZer0]

That is my big criticism about the augment system. There is so much to maxing it that isn't intuitive and you don't have a chance to play around and fix your mistakes because everything is permanent/missable.

[Evastio]

Yeesh, that little room for error, huh? And they just had to add the 2 New Game+'s limit. I've never actually heard of a game that limits the amount of New Game+'s you can do. And it's not like all Augments used on a character can be active at once so I don't really see why they implemented that rule.

[Wolf Kanno]

It was to increase the challenge factor of the game. That's why its limited so it would be more difficult to do a perfect game.