Need advice on creating the strongest possible characters

I'm looking into creating as kick-ass of a party as possible. In other words, making the characters do the most damage and being the most resistant to enemy abilities and attacks without using lots of summons or having to level up characters frequently other than while doing the main quest.

Are there any particular items I need to pay attention to, any abilities I must find and give to certain characters or other hints? Is there anything else to the magic system in this game besides just taking magical items and giving them to characters until they learn the associated abilities (it seems a lot less complex than FF8's system)?

-Thanks

well generally no. the best way is too use learn those abilities and max them out. equiping good items leads to better stat increases. other then that there is no other way of getting a "kick ass" party.

Keep as many + stat items as you can in reserve for level-ups. As soon as a character is near a level, equip as many of these items as possible. The higher the + stat bonuses are, the more of that stat you'll gain. So if you want to concentrate on strength then equip as many + str items as possible, etc.

For a fuller guide, check here

The characters with the best potential for

Strength - Steiner, Amarant, Zidane, Freya
Defence - Steiner, Freya
Magic + Magic Defence - Vivi, Eiko, Dagger, Quina

SO

Physical attack party - Zidane, Amarant, Freya, Steiner
Magical attack party - Zidane, Eiko, Vivi, Freya/Quina
All-round party - Zidane, Vivi, Freya, Amarant/Quina

So you don't like Summons? You still need a white mage if you're not overleveling, so you have two choices Eiko or Dagger. Eiko has better options for White magic though. I chose Dagger cause I like summons in a midlevel game and they're easy to get...

Zidane has to be there. If you steal successfully once in every random encounter the entire game, his thievery skill will be powerful without having to level him up (I did this and had approx 4000 damage by the end of the game equiping all Speed + items I had).

I like using Vivi, because Flare is a powerful spell and it can be acquired faily early and easily compared to most other high damage equipment.

Steiner is my last Character. His magic sword skill allows him to do big damage with Vivi in the party (It's like two flares a round). While he does insane damage if you do all the side quests (get shock and climhazzard), he does decent damage without and he is fairly cheap to equip.

Use these guys, and get Auto-Regen on all of them as well as Auto-Potion and Chemist for those who can learn it (Dagger, Steiner out of this group). You should be able to learn these throughout the game. About halfway through the game sell all your potions and auto-potion will use high potions on you (everytime you get hit, 450 damage recovered [900 if chemist is equiped]). Spend the of your ability points on any status-nulling abilities or something like autohaste and you have a powerful party without too much effort (or at least one that is very hard to kill).

Oh yeah, make sure you get Level-up and Ability-up for everyone so you learn spells and abilities quicker and level up with less fighting.

The most important piece of equipment for you to get in this party is the Black Robe for "Flare" spell. Get it in Disk 3 at the synth shop in Dagurrero (spelling is probably off).

The rest is optional: Just keep buying Steiners and Zidanes most powerful weapons and if you have extra cash, go to the auction house and buy up key items till you get "Magical Fingertips" give them to a guy in Dagurrero (spelling is probably off) to get Excalibur for Steiner. Buy a copy of any weapons or armor for the white mage and Vivi to get them their spells. The game doesn't require you to level up at all, and I had little to no trouble with the last boss following these guidlines.

Sorry people but you cant get +abilities on FF9 your characters abilities gain as you level up...the maximum strenght you can have with steiner & Zidane is around about 72-77...roughly anyway.

Thanks. Here are a few questions @ Danger

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Originally Posted by Danger

Zidane has to be there. If you steal successfully once in every random encounter the entire game, his thievery skill will be powerful without having to level him up (I did this and had approx 4000 damage by the end of the game equiping all Speed + items I had).

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Is there anything you need to do/accomplish in order to get that thievery attack?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Danger

About halfway through the game sell all your potions and auto-potion will use high potions on you (everytime you get hit, 450 damage recovered [900 if chemist is equiped]).

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Am I supposed to sell all potions, or only the ones that aren't high potions? In other words, with no potions at all, do I get free ones from the ability when I need them in battle?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Danger

Spend the of your ability points on any status-nulling abilities or something like autohaste and you have a powerful party without too much effort (or at least one that is very hard to kill).

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Do characters with auto-haste get the ability applied at the beginning of a battle even if they don't know the haste ability itself?

Ok, get these one at a time....

Thievery: You get from one of Zidanes weapons. I think its one of swords you synth midway through the game. Anyways, the skill basically does more damage the more you steal. So if you steal throughout the game its a strong skill. If you don't, its useless. So if you wanna spend the least amount of time possible to get a good attack this one is a good bet because the damage it deals isn't affected by enemy def, or spells like protect. So you could have a terrible weapon for Zidane and still do good damage. Zidane's speed seems to be a factor in the damage too, so to do more damage equip Zidane with things that improve his speed stat.

Auto-Potion: Every time you get hit your character uses a potion. If you sell all your regular potions and leave just high-potions in your inventory your characters use high potions (thus curing them more). This can get expensive, so I refrain from doing it till late in the game.

Auto-Haste: You learn it from the running shoes acessory... I think you can first get it in disc 3 at a synth shop or at the auction house. Basically when your character has this they are permantly hasted. They don't need the spell. It's an expensive ability to learn, I only had it on Zidane and Steiner at the end of my game.

I hope this clears things up.