I was wondering how you went about powering up your characters. I think i do it cheaply but effectively.

With all NON main characters except Ramza, I learn Accumulate first. I then go into battle and have everyone accumulate until all the monsters come to fight, take them out until one is left. Let it hurt people until someone is near death (usually a panther or goblin, chocobos heal and become a huge pain) then win. Every should always have the Gained JP Up squire ability on. Repeat until someone can become a monk/preist. Take that job and secondary the squire abilities and accumulate again as long as possible but heal with the monk and preist (Monks are better for unlimited chakra.) Get into a 5 square + on a flat surface (theres on on the plains you first meet Algus at, I only fight there) Make the monk the center and every turn use chakra. If the monster misses (Also make sure no one has counter tacke or any harmful counters on, don't kill the enemy early!) have the monk use Reoeating fist, it does poor damage but will get him JP none the less. Once I get someone to mediator, its all downhill. Lower one enemy's brave (at begining find the monster with the lowest brave overall and lower his brave) making him transform to a chicken, THEN Mimic Daravon him to sleep. Accumulate away. I've sat there doing this for over an hour once. One guy was a new monk and by the time I was done I had enough JP to master the job. One other thing (while the mediator makes sure our chicken friend is both asleep and chickened) to boost one person is get them the reaction ability that raises speed (Archer ability I think) then lower another characters attack to 1 (Lower Brave, your mediator conveniently has that) and repeatedly hit the person with Speed Save dealing low damage. Eventually he will get like 4-5 moves for everyone elses 1, keep accumulating with that guy and Shazam, uber powering up. Really useful if you want to get the summoner class done quicker. Later on, have someone do the speed save trick while Ramza Screams at them, or himself if he's the target of powering up.

For NPCs, I usually use Knight ability, magic break every time to get JP. Or I have two NPCs with theif as their sub(or major) and keep stealing eachothers exp. Another nice way to get JP is to have Mediator skills and raise eachothers brave or faith. Like with Rafa and Malak, raise rafas faith and Malaks brave, then lower eachothers opposite. (Rafa's brave, Malak's faith) That way Rafa becomes the ultimate item finder eventually (if you lower/raise peoples brave/faith enough it will slowly permanenty go up or down.) Rafa becomes on decent Calculator and Malak become a great Ninja. For Mustadio I'd Don't Move people a lot by shooting their leg.

Anyone got a more efficient way?