Playable story characters

[SteahMeLee]

The Faith status allows him to bypass his low Faith when spellcasting while still allowing Nether Mantra to work properly, at least.

Yes but don't you think it's quite too intricate?! He can even give the Innocent status to opponents (with Gokuu Rod) before using Hell Knight skills on them but again it's abstruse to have to give a status to deal damage!

Isn't it wiser to give him a sub-Job that benefits from low Faith rather than a casting class?

That's why I gave him Monk class... It's a class that works well with low-Faith, characterization-wise it seems fitting to Malak's attire and it's also independent from White Magic to receive heals, it has it's own heals often more effective than magic itself...
Also Geomancer works well with Malak because it's a form of magic based on Mag stat but unrelated to Faith!

Holy crap, I didn't know the 'Faith' status effect worked in reverse for Malak's special abilities. This makes him almost worth considering using on par with generics.

Not exactly, some melee classes can benefit from low Faith with magic immunity and this is Malak case! He can be a sort of caster with magic immunity and another class, may it be Monk that is perfect as not-magic-dependent character, or Geomancer, another sort of caster that uses the Mag stat but not Faith!

EDIT: That sounded snarky. I mean that he still isn't as good as other special characters, but now isn't worse than generics.

Of course you can give him simply two generic classes and he is equal/better to/than generics, but his special class works well with low Faith and another class not magic dependent!