The parties where you blew it.

[,,,]

Aight, right after I bought the Greatest Hits version of FFO, I immediately picked a party of Monk, Red Mage, Thief, and Black Mage.

Replace the BM with a WM and that was the party I had the first time through. Also, it was on the original NES version. Also, I didn't know my monk would be better without a weapon until the game was at least 2/3rds over, and until then he'd do like 12 damage. I still beat the game. It was the only playthrough that challenged me (since then I've always taken at least one fighter), but I beat it. You just gave up too easily.