What I'm doing in my current game is stripping everyone naked and having them fight with one fist and a shield. Once they derive all the benefits one can from that setup statwise, and once I've collected the most powerful equipment, I'll allocate it to my 4 monks equally and raise them as such. Spell wise, I'm giving Firion, Maria and Guy an equal portion of white and black magic - fire, thunder, ice, for example, respectively. I don't go to an inn until they've all blown their mp. Once all three of them have filled up their magic slots, I hope to have Leon back in the party, and he'll mop up all the game's last spells - seems fitting that way. I'm not doing any exploits - but I am molding characters deliberately.