Quote Originally Posted by Hazzard View Post
Xurts, I think you're best of equipping Maria with a cane, and lodging her in the backrow.

I, on the other hand, equipped her with a bow and she was also my Mage, and it never affected her Intelligence or Spirit stats, maybe it's different in the GBA version? She done major damage in the backrow with a bow, and made battles a lot more easier, also I conserved a lot more of my magic than usual.
You can't attack from the back row if you're using a cane. I've never seen my stats go down in the GBA version, so maybe it really is different there?

As for Maria's weapon, I used the traditional FF setting of having the white magic user equipped with a staff/cane, and the black magic user equipped with a dagger. I can't really recommend shields for mages because they seriously hurt both Intelligence and Soul/Spirit stats, at least in non-GBA versions.