Fighter, Red Mage, Black Belt, White Mage

[Lavarn]

Fi, BB, WM, BM

It seems like a good party in theory, but in practice, the BB can't hold the second position. That is my experience anyway. I've also experimented with Fi, TH, WM, BM which does a little better, and will definitely shine late game. But early on, the Fi, RM, *, * parties seem to be better.

fastest group possible

Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, Red Mage

by far the fastest clear time

Sort of a brute force party but it's certainly good - I need to experiment more with this one and see if it performs better than Fi, Fi, WM, BM. I'm most concerned about late game with this party once the red mages start to fall behind. Fwiw, I think other brute force parties (such as Fi, Fi, Fi, Fi....or Fi, Fi, RM, TH) would be weaker. Do you mean fastest as in minimum number of battles, minimum steps taken, or something like that?

My favorite combination is still Fighter, Red Mage, Thief and White Mage, though. That one is also good for running away in battles, and since Red Mage shines at the beginning of the game and Ninja at the end of the game, those classes support each other pretty well.

I have to agree - it seems that Fi, RM, TH, * is sort of the natural progression. Either a WM or BM belongs in slot 4, but which is better? I've always thought the BM is a better choice here, so the RM can focus on white magic (a lot of which is used outside of battle so the RM isn't torn between attacking and casting magic as much).

I should have asked this in my above post - how would you rank the following parties?

FI, RM, TH, WM
FI, RM, TH, BM
FI, RM, BB, WM
FI, RM, BB, BM