So the monk sucks.

[feioncastor]

I played the original FF3 a while back, and my monk was awesome. His defense was lacking, but generally speaking, I could always count on him to do more damage than my fighter/knight on any given round.

Now, on the DS version, they've ruined the monk. He's so weak. At this point (very early on), my "Warrior" does about 70-80 damage against the average enemy. My "Monk" does about 6-18 damage against the same enemy.

I hope he'll get better when I make him into a Master, or Karateka or whatever they're gonna call it.

[Zeromus_X]

The Master/Karateka is referred to as a 'Black Belt' in this version.

And yes, I too was surprised at his pathetic damage output this time around. But I suppose it's worth it, as the Thief, Viking, Dragoon, Dark Knight, and most other unused melee classes recieve a substantial boost in power.

Unfortunately, the Black Belt job is now moved to the Earth Crystal, meaning you'll have to wait until near the end of the game to even use it, making most of the Black Belt weapons from the original version that you found near Amur not so useful, unless you want to use the Monk, and my then, my Thief/Ranger/Geomancer were already far outclassing him.

And Knights are very heart with the 'Cover' ability they have. <3

[Tavrobel]

Karateka > All

Sadly, his younger version is not the case. Have you tried dequiping him and letting him go bare-fisted? Perhaps the claws/nunchakau are keeping you down.

[ValiantKnight]

Hmm so what is it with remakes of old FFs and weakening the monk/black belt class.....

DoS = weakened the black belt more than anyone, boosted thief...now if this is true for FFIII as well....

[J23]

At least he gives Vitality and Agility boost =-/

[Lunadis]

Yeah, I also gave up on the Monk after carrying him half way through the game and he still remained obsolete.

However, Black Belt is another case. It took two dungeons for my Black Belt to catch up to my Knight. Overtime, the Black Belt reached my Knight's damage and he is now doing more damage than she is, and she has the two most powerful swords in the game. And no, my Knight doesn't suck and she's over job level 80. =P

The Boost ability is pretty worthless by the time you get it. I mean, at this late point of the game; If I was already doing over 7000 damage, and it sacrifices a turn to make me do 9999 damage, what's the point? D:

So in short, forget the Monk, have he/she play another damage job and switch to Black Belt later if you desire a good damage dealer.

[Crossblades]

That's a darn shame. I loved using Monk in the original version

Oh well, I guess I'll make one of my starting characters a Red Mage or a Thief

[Sefie1999AD]

I see. That means I'll have to try something else than a combination of Fighter/Knight and Monk/Karateka as my main physical fighters. Is the Fighter/Knight class still as strong as in FF3j, though?

[Yamaneko]

Yeah, after noticing that I just switched over to two fighter/knight characters. The support from one black mage and one white mage is more than enough.

[Lunadis]

XD I beat the game on my first shot with a Knight, Black Belt, White Mage and Bard a bit over 50. The only downside of the Black Belt is low Def and MDef, which is corrected with revolving use of the Madhura and Apollo Harp. If the enemy doesn't have magic, you can play Loki's Harp insteadof Apollo and watch as you Black Belt does flawless 9999's. I giggle when I read all these cookie cutter end game strategies with 1-2 ninjas and 2 Devouts/Sages. I wish I had kept Arc as a White Mage. =P

I see. That means I'll have to try something else than a combination of Fighter/Knight and Monk/Karateka as my main physical fighters. Is the Fighter/Knight class still as strong as in FF3j, though?

The Knight is really nice. With Protect/Madhura Harp, late game enemies will be hitting you for 1 damage even at your mid 40s. Not only that, having both the end game swords with +5 to all stats each really makes up for lack of speed. If things go bad, and you can't play the Madhura Harp/don't have a Bard, you can equip two shields and Defend and the Knight can more or less sustain your party from melee attacks.

[Cruise Control]

Whats the max job level?

I'm looking forward to trying a monk, since keeping the best equipment gets very costly, quick.

[Zeromus_X]

There's free money just about everywhere until you (SPOILER)leave the Floating Continent.

The maximum Job Level is 99.

Edit:

I giggle when I read all these cookie cutter end game strategies with 1-2 ninjas and 2 Devouts/Sages.

I think that the 'omfg I'm going to use teh harp' strategy is no less cookie cutter than any other strategy. The Sage and Ninja are downpowered to not be overpowered anymore.

[Tavrobel]

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Bards aren't useless?

Oops.

[Zeromus_X]

Remember all those videos I linked to, Tavrobel?

[Lunadis]

Requiem has two damage components. A percentage based damage component of 10%, and an amount that increases with the Bard's job level (from my observation). Requiem wasn't powerful for that full video for a reason, since if you have other strong damage dealers than you'd be better off playing Loki Harp. Though if it is 10%, you could do 9999 damage on the first turns on the final boss. XD

Bards are more or less the ultimate support class. If you've been training one since you gained access to the store with multiple harps, you'll easily have one to job 99 by the time you reach the final dungeons even without grinding. They get job levels quite easily, especially since they always go first. Pllaying the Dream Harp healed about 500 HP. While this ain't no Curaja, since Bards always go first, using it in combined with White Magic kept me alive.
I say, if you plan to go three physical fighters, go for a Bard instead. They can improve your damage just enough so that they won't slow you down. =P

I think that the 'omfg I'm going to use teh harp' strategy is no less cookie cutter than any other strategy. The Sage and Ninja are downpowered to not be overpowered anymore.

Since none of my three friends are using anything remotely close to my ending party, save Knight and Devout, I can't quite say it's cookie cutter. Bards, after the first initial turns, are more or less as powerful as the party they're in. I wouldn't know about the rest of the people playing it. But from reading forums around the net, a lot of people don't even know what the songs are doing exactly. D: