The main thing I saw you doing was trying to mix character roles which doesn't tend to end well (e.g. Ramza Monk with Black Magic). Generally things go best if you take a "carrier" class (one with good stats and/or equipment options) and pair it with a strong skillset from another job. Monk can't carry Black Magic well at all due to their poor MA, so it's pretty much a waste. Later on you seemed to be catching onto this though. This is why Agrias is a lot better as a Geomancer -- it's such a better carrier class than Holy Knight.
Yep. I absolutely figured this out by the end, though obviously it took me a long time. The fight with Wiegraf was where I really started looking at what stats you get from being a certain class - it was the main reason I picked Squire and one of the first times I strongly considered Geomancer. And yeah, once Agrias lost some equipment, Geomancer was first on my list to try, and I loved it so much I never took her back out of it. The whole "Monk with Black Magic" thing was because I was trying to be a "one-man team" - infinitely versatile with high stats in every area. I assume that end result is more or less reachable, just not with these classes. Probably with something like Geomancer.
But after a while I did realize my poor M-AT was making that pretty unplayable (I was using Black Magic as more of a last resort in case Ramza couldn't reach anybody, kind of like a poor-man's Elemental ability set, and it was occasionally useful, just not optimized). And then I started playing with Squire, and I realized it fit too well for me to want to go anywhere else.
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bokonon get your sense-making the **** out of this topic now - Cat1001
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