How are you developing your characters?

[*Lady luck*]

I am early on in the game and my characters are starting to gain more licence points. Since they all start out the same I'm not sure how I should customize them. I was thinking about this:

Ashe - mage (black/white)
Vaan - speed (with lighter weapons)
Basch - "hard hitter"
Penelo - mage (supportive)
Balthier - again a "hard hitter" focusing on physical strength
Fran - Long range (bows)

I will teach them all a little white magic.

How did you customize your characters? and is there anything i should do differently?

[Dell]

I teach them all of the magicks/technicks and all of them do the same job. This is easier, because I have three healer and three attacker.

[Cruise Control]

Actually, I make sure Vaan is amazing. I pour loads of gil into stuff. Mostly equips for him. Then the items, then the party. I really Did't put a lot of thought into it. Got some basic whit and black magic for all three. Decond equip set for all. Then headed straight for the augments. Vaan made a beeline for the Quickening under HP +100.

[im_mrbrightside20]

hmm i like my set up i made it almost a job thing

i have Vaan using sword and shield and all white magick AKA paladin

Ashe- she is using a sword and shield and using all magic AKA a red mage type

Basche- i have him using the big weapons Hammers,Spears,etc kinda like a Warrior

Bartheir(SP?)-using guns and some buffs a ranged person

Penelo- i have her using a sheild and then some daggers and ninja swords u kno light weapons with some back up healing and stealing a Theif

Fran- using a bow and all magick kinda like a red mage type just with a bow

[six underground]

Vaan - i want to make him a master thief / ninja, only ninja knives and daggers and the occasional heavy sword (the hero's sword). in battles he steals and he's mostly the one making sure everyone is supported, alive and attacking. he only has white, support and time magic.

Balthier - a ranged person with sometimes a heavy sword(share with Basch), spear or katana if it fits him. he's also my alchemist - he holds the Gambit for instantaneous healing since he mostly stays in the back. he has white, black magic and steal.

Basche - heavy swords and axes. he has white, support, time and arcane magic.

Fran - ranged/katana/pilot :) she's got all magic.

Ashe - lancer, all magic.

Penelo - so far rods and such...but eventually...swords/katanas :) if she's a dancer, then i may as well make her a sword dancer, all magic except arcane.

[El Bandito]

Basch - Tank (Spear/Greatsword, Heavy Armor)

Ashe - Quick, Combo user/Healer (Katana/Poles, Light Armor)

Penelo - All-Purpose Mage (Rods/Staffs, Mystic Armor)

I really haven't equally leveled because I'm lazy. Though I love how all the other characters I'm not playing with still get all the license points. I'm gonna have three fun lumps of clay to play with once I'm done with the story.

[Ichimonji]

Vaan and Basch are my frontline swordsmen, whom wield only the most important magickery, but harbours advance technicks. However Vaan is a slightly better magician than Basch.

Penelo and Fran are my two mages, whom focus on all that is magick, and harbours very little technicks. Penelo is a frontline mage, and Fran is an archery mage.

Ashe and Balthier dabble in everything. They are basically my red mages... Ashe with Axes/Hammers, and Balthier with Spears.

And so far only Penelo, Balthier and Vaan have Quickenings available, and Vaan has one Esper.

[abrojtm]

Mine are pretty jumpy but meh:
Vaan--Spears, Swords, White Magic, low level Black Magic
Balthier--Guns, Poles, Crossbows, low level White Magic
Fran--Bows, White, Green, Black Magic
Ashe--Rods, Staves, Mystic Armor, White Magic
Penelo--Rods, Staves, Daggers, Black/Arcane/Time Magic
Basch--Swords, Axes, Daggers, Heavy Armor lots of Techs

I tought Balthier the first Esper (I tought him Fires of War for Quickening, so it seemed right)

[aerithsloveslave]

I'm not too far yet... I'm currently on the Leviathan. So far I have been giving everyone pretty much the same abilities. Only their weapon types keep them unique right now.

[Nominus Experse]

I am a pervert, so I only use the girls...

Basically, Fran is a Rogue/Black Mage character complete with Arcane spells
Penelo is my White/Red/Time Mage
And Ashe handles the grit and dirt of being a tank loaded with stat boosts and loads of technicks

[Tainted Angel]

Halthair, Fran and Vaan have all the same magick's since they yes... all got them at the same time.

I think I bought Penelo Cure when I had the chance in the city.



Haha.

[Khaotic]

Vaan = Shield + Sword
Penelo = Shield + Sword
Ashe = Shield + Sword

[Wolf Kanno]

Vaan - Theif/speed character lots of hunting techs, daggers, poles, 1h swords and shields
Penelo - White/Green mage
Fran - Range fighter/ Red Mage (actually sh'e more of a back up caster with a little in all magic types)
Ashe - light warrior/black/time/arcane mage (making her like Terra;) )
Basch - Tank/heavy fighter
Balthier - warrior who specializes in guns

Everyone has a little white magic cause items are expensive and this way I don't get headaches from watching my party get wasted...

[Dell]

Vaan = Shield + Axe/Hammer
Basch = Shield + Axe/Hammer
Ashe = Shield + Axe/Hammer

[Zeromus_X]

Vaan= Shields and Swords, some basic Magicks.

Fran= Bows with all manner of Magick (Maria!).

Basch= Shields and Swords, with alot of Technicks and some basic Magick.

[Ichimonji]

I actually have Penelo going the way of Ninja Swords/Katana's now.

[Madame Adequate]

This is how I'm planning to go;

Vaan - White Mage/Green Mage/Thieving whilst that's not going on
Baltheir - Physical attacker/Techs
Fran - Physical Attacker/Secondary mage
Penelo - Heavy gunner (Best armor and firearms I can get for her)
Basch - Black Mage/Time Mage

Ashe gets to fill any holes I end up with. Likely technicks and some magick.

[BustaMo]

For Weapons at least:

Vaan - Swords
Ashe - Daggers + Staves
Basch - Katanas
Balthear - Spears
Fran - Bows
Panelo - Maces + Rods

Might give Panelo the heavy Axes and Hammers later on in teh game for so ironic humor and ass-kicking.

[Miriel]

I DON'T KNOW. ;_;

I'm like. Oh! I'll use Fran as my black mage. And then it's like. No! I want her to hack and slash! Ok, so I'll use Balthier as a mage type person. But I want Balthier to use his guns. Ahhhhh. *head explodes*

I keep changing my mind and now all my characters all sorta haphazardly equipped with different magicks and weapons. This is so frustrating. :(

I think I miss having a clear idea of what each character's strengths are. All this freedom to pick and choose what I want to do is making me confuddled.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Yeah, I've just been grabbing whatever looks good on the License Board without lending too much thought (if any) to evolving a character in a particular direction. I'm cool with it, though.

[Moon Rabbits]

I DON'T KNOW. ;_;

I'm like. Oh! I'll use Fran as my black mage. And then it's like. No! I want her to hack and slash! Ok, so I'll use Balthier as a mage type person. But I want Balthier to use his guns. Ahhhhh. *head explodes*

I keep changing my mind and now all my characters all sorta haphazardly equipped with different magicks and weapons. This is so frustrating. :(

I think I miss having a clear idea of what each character's strengths are. All this freedom to pick and choose what I want to do is making me confuddled.

Yep. I'm constantly changing my mind! First Fran was an attacker, but I've turned her into a support character, but now she's balancing out. I don't know what I'm doing with Vaan, although he does have the most Green Magic.

I've been focusing on Augments lately, because I've sort of neglected the top half of the Board and gotten everyone ALOT of weapon/armor liscences.

Has anyone other than me noticed that guns are really useless? I mean, the instant I got a Pole liscence for Balthier I stopped making him use guns completely...their attack power is just too low.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

I've consistently kept Balthier equipped with a gun this far based solely on the fact that, albeit pretty weak, they are totally befitting of the sky pirate mack daddy that he is.

[Dynast-Kid]

Vaan-I've got him equipped with daggers and swords and use him to Steal from enemies and to deal damage.

Ashe-She's mostly a physical fighter, and a bit of magick sprinkled into the mix. She's got the basic sword and shield thing going on.

Basch-TANK! Currently equipped with swords. (I'm anxiously awaiting some spears to appear)

Fran-Healer and master of Black and Green Magicks, mostly a support unit. She's using the bow and arrow.

Balthier-Support unit. Like Kiski said, I gotta equip da gunz!

Penelo-Healer, but does deal some physical damage. She's equipped either with a gun or a dagger. I can't decide on what I want her to use.

[isaac17]

Well, I spent 3-4 hours leveling in the Lhusu (or whatever) mines, and now (not to brag) but I'm WAY ahead of the game. Basically, I got a bunch of 140+ chains fighting the skeleton things, by running back 2 maps (while fleeing so I didn't attack anyone else), and then came back everytime they stopped coming. Once I got 99 Bone Frags, I went and sold them. Then, I bought everything any shop had to offer (except potions and the like). This also gave me a buttload of license points... Here's how I've set my characters out so far:

Vaan - Pretty much everything, as he sometimes has to be without a party at all. Mainly sword/sheild, and white magic, and a quickening (still not quite sure how to use those)

Penelope - Poles so far, I still need to work on her

Ashe - right now I have her with daggers and a lot of magic, but I think I'll switch her over to sword/sheild

Balthier - His guns sucked, so I have him a lance, and he kicks butt with it

Flan - every magic I have (and I've bought every magic I could find), and then a bow

Basche - Kept him with swords and basic white magic

Still experimenting with different stuff though.

[J0sh]

Vaan - Katana
Basch - Greatswords / Hammers / Axes
Ashe - Longswords
Penelo - Poles / Staffs / Ninja Swords
Balthier - Ninja Swords / Guns
Fran - Bow's / Hammers / Axes

Everyone has all the magic and all the augments and I don't use the Technicks except for steal, libra, and telekinesis

[Tainted Angel]

Every magic I encounter I buy, then I spend the LP for each person to learn the spell. (Lotsa thing that have three spells under one LP square I only grab because I have one spell for the square.)

[im_mrbrightside20]

so i changed my team around some and i love it now

i have Ashe as the tank...the fact that her healing is the highest and her shield and sword combo makes her a good canidate for a tank =) shes obviously using heavy armor

and then vaan is a DD using spears for now and maybe later moving to great swords...he does a lot of damage and dabbles in all magick and wears heavy armor incase of hate

penelo is a DD/main support she uses a dagger and shield with light armor and she uses all magic too but due to her higher magick i make her main heal

and each of them has 2 quickenings and penelo has the only esper i have gotten thus far

[The Unknown Guru]

Vaan - Speed tank. Tons of armor, speed items, a Main Gauche (dagger) and shield for crazy evade, and the Nethicite. No spells required.

Balthier - Guns. Armor penetration is good, and it gets more power later in the game.

Fran - Red mage with a bow. Not much else to say.

Basch - Damage, damage, damage. Axes/hammers, and I Haste him whenver possible.

Ashe - Magic. Whatever I can get my hands on, I give to Ashe.

Penelo - Versatility. Lots of weapon licences, lots of magic.

[ChocoKid21]

Vaan - I had him using spears but I recently changed him to swords. He knows a couple white magic skills.

Balthier - I had him a spears too, then ranged with a gun, and now he has a sword/shield combo and some white magic.

Fran - I had her on bow, then I moved to sword, and now I'm back to Bow. She has a little more white magic than the previous two and she has a couple black magic.

Basch - Swords and healing...period.

Ashe - Swords/Shield and healing/defensive magic

Penelo - Rod/Staff and strictly offensive/defensive magic.

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

Vaan: Light armour and daggers; secondary healer, little Black Magic
Balthier: Heavy armour and poles; little magic to buff and debuff
Fran: Magic armour and bow; magic-user

The others I do not use a lot.

[My name is...something..?]

Gave everyone white magic spells.
Vaan- Greatsword Berserker
Ashe- Basically a Paladin
Basch- Equipped with a spear and light armor.

Balthier-Gun with Green magic
Fran-Bow, with Arcane magic
Penelo-Crossbow-Black magic and Green Magic

Breezed right through the game with this.

[Fate Fatale]

Party 1:
Basch - Tank/ leader (Sword/Greatsword, Heavy Armor)
Ashe - Quick, Combo user/Healer (Katana/Spear, Light Armor)
Penelo - All-Purpose Mage (Mace/Staffs, Mystic Armor)

Party 2:
Vaan - Tank2/ 2nd leader (Sword/Greatsword, Heavy Armor)
Balthier - Quick, Healer, Fighter (Guns/Bombs, Light Armor)
Fran - Mage, Fighter (Bows/Measures, Mystic Armor)

[Cruise Control]

3 Tanks.

Right now (and since they are twenty leves higher, from now on), I'm using Vaan, Ashe, and Basch. They all know every spell available, and every technik I can use.

They are in the process of mastering every augment, and wielding Katana/Poles.

[Seifer]

Vaan - Everything
Ashe - Everything
Penelo - Everything
Balthier - Everything
Fran - Everything
Basch - Everything

So yeah, basically I plan to fill every single character's liscense board so they can do anything they want to do.

Yes, I know it will take a great amount of time to do this.
No, I don't care.

[WarZidane]

I started out like..

Vaan - Spear, heavy armour
Penelo - Sword, shield, heavy armour
Ashe - Staff, mystic armour
Fran - Bow, mystic armour
Basch - Dagger, shield, light armour
Balthier - Gun, light armour

But now my license board is full anyway, so yeah, i can give anybody any weapon or armour i want

[Ashley Schovitz]

I give all my characters the charge technique and Fran and Penelo are the mages, they both use bows, staves and poles. I usually give Penelo the last weapon that Fran used. Basch and Ashe are both hard hitters, but I make Ashe all around just like I do with Vaan. It's hard to make someone on the game a pure Mage, as the game doesn't give you enough MP for that.

[LunarWeaver]

I had Vaan with daggers, Ashe with swords, and Balthier with guns. Balthier and Vaan used light armor and Ashe used heavy armor.

At first, they had some separate skills and magic, but eventually I had no reason to punish myself by making spells exclusive to certain people...Eventually, they all knew pretty much everything on the top board. Except most of the techs, because almost all of those are rubbish.

[Timerk]

I am going old school FF, men with the big swords up front, girls with their spells in the back.

Yes, I hate myself.

[chionos]

Vaan - Daggers, although when I got the Icebrand, the best dagger available was the Gladius so I had to switch to the sword. Vaan is a thiefy sky pirate wannabe, although he's got all the spells and techs...just because

Balthier - guns n crossbows, just depends on which has the best status enhancement ammo. Right now I'm liking the xbow w/ longbolts(added effect slow) Balthier is also my techy guy.

Fran - Bow of course, mild magic user mainly green time and white

Basch - I try to stick with one-handed heavy hitting weapons so he can use a shield b/c he's my backup 'tank'. basically no magic, some techs though.

Ashe - Bow, because she reminds me of the bow-wielding lass from an antique FF(see if you can guess) obviously a major magic user. She comes in to heal-spam when necessary.

Penelo - staves mainly, main magic user, and specializes in item use too, has the remedy/potion/phoenixdown upgrades. Main esper user too

Also I'm trying to give each person the right set of quickenings. Haven't gotten them all yet but:

Vaan: [Color - Moving Shape] Red Spiral, White Whorl

Baltheir: [Weather/Element "of" Something] Fires of War, Tides of Fate

Fran: [Descriptive - Contact of Some Kind] Feral Strike, Whip Kick

Basch: [dunno] Fulminating Darkness, don't know what next Q goes with this. Viscerating Terror maybe?

Ashe & Penelo: Ashe has Northwain's Glow and Penelo has Intercession, and I'm debating on which gets Heaven's Wrath, I think it should go to Ashe, but it could conceptually fit in with Penelo's Intercession although not with the phrase/word structure.

[VengefulRonin]

Well i'm still early in the game (Raithwall's Tomb), but right now it's:
Vaan: axe, spells
Balthier: gunner/daggers, spells
Ashe: small swords, spells
Fran: bows, spells

I keep all those people pretty much on an equal level with spells, and then just outfit them all with the strongest weapons, so most know a few different weapon styles on the licence board. Only Ashe and Penelo know quickenings right now. I like quickenings, but they're bad too since i rely on magic frequently and those stupid quickenings wipe out my MP >_<

I'm pretty much ignoring everyone else...i whip out Basch on occasion though, i use him for longswords and spells

[xib]

My main party is

VAAN
FRAN
BALTHIER

THe upper grid is all maxed out on all of them
I have Fran use bow when fighting bosses and a Katana otherwise (Since katana is Magic based). The Katana looks sexy on fran and does better dmg then the bow.
Vaan is my tank he has heavy armor and an sword/axe + shield.
Bathier is the armor piercer with his badass gun. I got his best gun in the game.

I pretty much don't use the rest of the party. My main party is lvl 51 and the other three are barely 20.

[jeo2388]

well, for me its the boys... vaan with sword.... basch with GUN and balthier with sword...1st all of them should have all thier quickenings for triple MP..i found out that vaan's magic is still strong even with a sword on...and basch is good with a gun for his default evasion is higher than balthier's...and balthier with sword and shield and heavy armor coz he gets hurt easily but still has high atk power...all of them should have haste, protect, cure, cura, shell, bubble and esuna...and have at least 1 character with curaga, protectaga, shellga, esunaga and hastega...and all black magics should belong to vaan..

but for me i like going solo with no gambits on....thats just me...a party is also good but really burns MP and items

[chionos]

Suckage, just figured out that each character's quickenings are set in stone; I thought that each quickening square was a specific quickening that anyone could get.

I leave gambits on. However, since they're mostly useless so far, I override the gambits during boss/mark fights. Farming/Grinding I don't need to worry about it b/c Vaan pretty much one-shots everything.

[Tempest]

Vaan-Light armor, swords and shields, and some white magic and technicks.
Balthier-Light and heavy armor, poles, spears, guns, all the technicks and maybe ninja swords.
Fran-Light armor, measures, the bow and arrow, and some white and black magic.
Basch-Heavy armor, swords, axes, hammers and some technicks.
Ashe-Heavy armor, swords, shields, katanas, white magic, and green magic.
Penelo-Magic armor, staves, rods, daggars, cross bows, black, time and arcane magic.

[Del Murder]

I just got all my characters and this is how I'm making them so far:

Vaan - sword & shield, heavy armor, some white magic & technicks
Fran - bow & arrow, mystic armor, all magic
Balthier - guns/poles, light armor, support technicks
Basch - spear/axe, heavy armor, attack technicks
Ashe - sword & shield/staff, light armor, heal/support magic
Penelo - rod/dagger, mystic armor, offensive magic

Yay!

I like assigning set weapons to people just because it's fun that way. So when I get to katanas and stuff I'm not sure what to do.

[Kirobaito]

I only recently got Ashe and Penelo and am yet to use them in a fight.

All of my characters have to know all types of magic.

Vaan - Sword/Shield
Balthier - The second best sword/shield
Fran - Archer, main healer and spell-caster
Basch - Axe, heavy hitter
Ashe - Spear, haven't actually used yet
Penelo - Rod, haven't actually used yet.

[Raistlin]

Basch - strongest one-handed weapon (right now an axe), shield, mix of heavy/light armor depending. The least magic, but catching up now. Basically a fighter.

Vaan - I'm testing between a 2H katana that's slightly less attack and the same weapon/shield setup as Basch. So far, the katana hasn't hit multiple times enough to warrant it. Light armor. Has all the black/white magic available, plus basic other magic (protect, etc).

Ashe - bow, mystic armor. All the magic that I have so far available, including green/arcane.

I've been ignoring the technicks for the most part (besides the basics like Libra and Charge). Basch may venture into that territory soon to see if any are worthwhile. Augments/quickenings were a first priority, with armor and weapons when necessary.

Balthier, Fran, and Penelo are all neglected outside of learning whatever they need to in order to get quickenings.

[Dell]

Vaan-I've got him equipped with daggers and swords and use him to Steal from enemies and to deal damage.

Ashe-She's mostly a physical fighter, and a bit of magick sprinkled into the mix. She's got the basic sword and shield thing going on.

Basch-TANK! Currently equipped with swords. (I'm anxiously awaiting some spears to appear)

Fran-Healer and master of Black and Green Magicks, mostly a support unit. She's using the bow and arrow.

Balthier-Support unit. Like Kiski said, I gotta equip da gunz!

Penelo-Healer, but does deal some physical damage. She's equipped either with a gun or a dagger. I can't decide on what I want her to use.

Kiski. xD.


Vaan - Daggers, although when I got the Icebrand, the best dagger available was the Gladius so I had to switch to the sword. Vaan is a thiefy sky pirate wannabe, although he's got all the spells and techs...just because

Balthier - guns n crossbows, just depends on which has the best status enhancement ammo. Right now I'm liking the xbow w/ longbolts(added effect slow) Balthier is also my techy guy.

Fran - Bow of course, mild magic user mainly green time and white

Basch - I try to stick with one-handed heavy hitting weapons so he can use a shield b/c he's my backup 'tank'. basically no magic, some techs though.

Ashe - Bow, because she reminds me of the bow-wielding lass from an antique FF(see if you can guess) obviously a major magic user. She comes in to heal-spam when necessary.

Penelo - staves mainly, main magic user, and specializes in item use too, has the remedy/potion/phoenixdown upgrades. Main esper user too

Also I'm trying to give each person the right set of quickenings. Haven't gotten them all yet but:

Vaan: [Color - Moving Shape] Red Spiral, White Whorl

Baltheir: [Weather/Element "of" Something] Fires of War, Tides of Fate

Fran: [Descriptive - Contact of Some Kind] Feral Strike, Whip Kick

Basch: [dunno] Fulminating Darkness, don't know what next Q goes with this. Viscerating Terror maybe?

Ashe & Penelo: Ashe has Northwain's Glow and Penelo has Intercession, and I'm debating on which gets Heaven's Wrath, I think it should go to Ashe, but it could conceptually fit in with Penelo's Intercession although not with the phrase/word structure.

All of them have their own set of Quickening, you can't choose which Quickenings you want to give.
Like Heaven Wrath will only appear in Ashe's LB, not in Penelo or other.
Fires of War can only be obtained in Balthier's LB, and only he can learn it.
Fulminating Darkness is only available in Basch's LB. You can't obtain it anywhere other than this.
You pretty much got it.


MY THIRD DATA:
Vaan: Swords (1H)/Swords (2H) + Shields + Shirt Armor
- Famfrit, Ultima and Zodiac. Have 3 Quickenings.
Balthier: Bows/Guns/Crossbows/Hand-bombs + Ammunition + Shirt Armor
- Hashmal and Exodus. Have 3 Quickenings.
Fran: Spears/Maces + Shirt Armor
- Mateus and Zalera. Have 3 Quickenings.
Basch: Axes/Hammers/Measures + Shields + Shirt Armor
- Belias and Cuchulainn. Have 3 Quickenings.
Ashe: Poles/Rods/Staves + Shirt Armor
- Adrammelech and Zeromus. Have 3 Quickenings.
Penelo: Daggers/Ninja Swords/Katanas + Shirt Armor
- Chaos and Shemhazai. Have 3 Quickenings.
I teach them all of the magicks/technicks I have.