Do you define roles?

Penelo and Ashe as mages, Basch as a tank, Penelo as a blocker/healer. And boy, does she block. I love the set-up so much that she's still using a Main Gauche even though I'm past the Mosphoran Highwaste at the moment.
 
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Vaan - Mage/Tank/Buffer, I call him my all-rounder
Balthier - Tank
Fran - Mage
Ashe - Mage
Basch - Tank
Penelo - Buffer mostly, she just cast Hastaga, Bubble, Regen etc.
Completed the game with that set up, roughly around level 61.
Still using that set up atm, it's handy. I level one group then I level the other group! :-)
 
Vaan as my ninja/thief
Balthier as my techmaster and jack-of-all-trades
Fran as my uber fighter/black mage
Basch as my human hammer
Ashe as a paladin
Penelo as a straight mage
Whippersnappers.
 
bitteroldman said:
Vaan as my ninja/thief
Balthier as my techmaster and jack-of-all-trades
Fran as my uber fighter/black mage
Basch as my human hammer
Ashe as a paladin
Penelo as a straight mage
Whippersnappers.
Click to expand...

LMAO, this dude has me dying, "whippersnappers"

Balthier was my pimping party leader
Fran was my tank
Ashe was my paladn
Penelo was my main healer
 
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I played it in rolls. My Ashe was my mage persay >_>. She used all the spells most of the time and cured and shit. Vaan was my DPS/Damage/Theif, he'd steal and just keep hitting. Bashe was my tank can't really remember what shit he did other then stand there take damage and hit.
 
I had every one in my party wield katanas since the weapon class was the best in the game up till the end when u get the great swords, and i usually have the chick on healing duty for some reason:).

Basically I hack and slashed my way through the entire game that way. Spells besides the healing/buff/debuff ones where useless unless i was fighting flying monsters.

When my healers where low on mana id just switch gambits on/off and have someone else do it or i manually heal till there mana reaches its peak.
 
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I do give them roles. As I love when my party is balanced in the term of Level, I had to play equally with all characters (at least as much as possible). Basically I have split the team into two static parties:

Party 1: Vaan, Penelo, Ashe
Vaan is the leader who used a spear/lance (don't remember what it was called) and overall physically strong (Tank type). He knows some black magics as well in order to fight flying monsters or enemies resistant to physical attacks. He as well uses Steal on each enemy. Penelo had a staff and was the White-Black Mage. She healed the party and used some buffs like Shell and Protect. She as well knew Black Magic in order to deal with bosses. Ashe had a mace and used some special magics (like Demi, or whatever it was called in this game). As well as providing some extra buffs like haste, bravery and faith.


Party 2: Balthier, Fran, Basch
Balthier was the leader and fought with a sword. Basically quite the same as Vaan (tank type + stealer), but was weaker with magic and stronger with physical attacks.
Fran had a dagger and was a total White Mage (differntly from Penelo who used both white and black). While she did know some black magics, they were of a low level and she more relays on her dagger for attacking. Basch used a bow and was inflicting statuses to the enemies. But I found it not very useful in most cases, so he was the one to buff the party (mainly with protect and shell) in order to save some MP loss to Fran.
 
I always used them in specific classes.

Van if I ever used him was my thief and would steal from any monster near death.
Fran was my Arcane Mage and had a stave at all times
Ashe was my Paladin and did healing and buffs from the front line
Balthier was my Hunter and used guns most of the time
Penelo was my Ninja so it was hand to hand unless zombies were present then various magic
Basch was my favorite only because I set him up as a Blue Mage which are my favorites
 
I always try to keep the characters unique apart from one another and not generic or carbon copied like you could actually do since they all can learn the same abilities and equip the same weapons, armor, and accessories. The only difference lies in Espers to use in conjuction with whatever character you choose it for and Quickenings are unique to that character as well.

For the most part my Ashe is my white mage/healer/priest type of class because her clothing attire reminds me so much of the traditional Final Fantasy white mage. It looks mage worthy at the very least so I thought it was fitting for her. She strictly heals the party and attacks with a knife and shield to optimize defenses.

My Balthier is a cross between an archer/ranger and a back up healer/buffer, he uses a bow and arrow shooting from a distance while healing if necessary and buffing up the party with protect/shell/bravery/faith/bubble ect.

Penelo is a black mage/sorceror using a staff, she strictly casts black magic and tries to inflict status effects on the enemy.

Basch is my tank, he's as close to a paladin/knight as you can get, he has a sword and a shield and attacks while curing himself and the party if needed and he casts decoy to get the enemies attention.

Fran is a warrior, all offense with a greatsword or a spear and just attacks and steals items.

All of my characters steal except during tough battles then I have Ashe, Balthier, and Penelo standing far from the enemy and it depends on who I'm using in the party but it's generally Ashe, Balthier, and Basch.

I barely use Vahn but hes sort of an experimental character that I use all different types of different combinations to see what is the most efficient one but he gets put on the back burner simply because it's not really needed. I do it mostly for fun and he's just a replacement character for the most part if someone dies or if I can't cast raise for some reason. He generally has a katana, so he's a ninja with a little emphasis on being my last resort if things get ugly.

With this team setup I can utilize the game mechanics to it's best potential, atleast to what I'm comfortable with.
 
I found the sameness of all the characters kind of annoying. I did try to vary them a bit by giving them different equipment and making each one focus on a specific branch of magick - white magick for Penelo, arcane magic for Basch, technicks for Vaan, and so forth.
 
I did and I didn't.
When i was going through the stages of making sure all of my characters were at the same level, I would give whatever characters the strongest weapons and armour. Skill wise I just unlocked the entire license board for every character so they all had the same magic, weapons, armour etc.
But when I was actually progressing through the story I assigned them roles.
Vaan- general swordsman
Balthier- Swordsman or gunner
Fran- Archer + Mage (with rod)
Basch- Katanas mainly
Ashe- swordsman + mage
Penelo- spears
 
I'd love to make a tl;dr post, but I won't. Instead I'll just show you the general roles.

Vaan - mage/warrior - Usually equipped with swords, heavy armor, etc.
Penelo - mage/archer - Bows and light armor, for faster attack speeds.
Balthier - mage/gunsman - Guns, heavy armor, I usually controlled him.
Fran - mage/archer - Bows, light armor.
Basch - mage/warrior - Usually maces or hammers, heavy armor.
Ashe - mage/healer - I gave her armor that boosted her magic, rods equipped.
 
I usually just knew I needed one character with stronger healing magic, a character to be a tank, and I liked having a character with a ranged weapon in case of flying. Somehow, Fran took on the role of mage, casting all magic, while Vaan was my tank, and Balthier either used a bow or a gun, usually a bow since they're faster and stronger.
 
Vaan: swords, light armor
Penelo: daggers, white/green magic, mage armor
Basch: lances, heavy armor
Ashe: rods, dark magic, heavy armor
Balthier: guns, light armor
Fran: bows, black/time magic, mage armor

I also gave all of the Espers to Ashe.
 
I leveled up everyone equally so I also just gave them the strongest weapons depending on what area I was in or what Boss I was going to fight. As for healing, whoever wasn't attacking. It made things easier than having set roles.
 
Vaan: I controlled him through out the game as a main attacker.
Balthier: Had him equiped with Guns he healed all my status effects
Fran: She was a alternative swordsman and cured evrerything
Ashe: same as fran except i used her more
Basch: was another main attacker equipped him with spears and great swords
Penelo: i used mostly for magic and equiped her with a staff

Everyone was pretty much the same lvl near the end of the game.
 
For bosses and harder marks/hunts, I usually split the 6 into two groups: Basch/Balthier/Fraan, and Vaan/Ashe/Penelo. Basch and Vaan would be equipped with heavier armor and shields and act as tanks with Decoy, whilst the rest would be set with heavier damage-dealing weapons. For Basch's group, Fraan would have half of the Dispel and Esuna gambits, and Balthier would have the rest. The same for Vaan, he would have heavier armor, while Ashe and Penelo would have half the Dispel and Esuna gambits needed to defeat the monster I was fighting. Maybe I just over-analyze, but this seemed to work for me. =)
 
I tried. By god I tried. In the end though with such an excess of license points to use up the only really difference was the armour (Fran, Penelo got mage's, Vaan and Balthier got light, Ashe and Basch got heavy) and weapons (If I remember correctly...Basch was axe, Balthier gun, Fran bow, Ashe sword, Vaan sword and Penelo staff)
 
I pretty much had everyone the same, with the exception of one person in the event of wipeout/petrify/stop or whatever. That means Fran xD I found it particular usefull while doing hunts. I can't remember any of their names, or even the locations name given how long it's been since I've picked it up, but like that big cactus monster thing in the forest with all those plank bridges that goes crazy with the status effects on your party. Was a stupid name cause it was some womans pet, a rich woman. That's all I really remember about it...but yeah, if you know what I'm talking about, it helped fighting things like THAT

And, if it helps, you couldn't attack anything on the way there to get the mark to appear.
 
My characters play so-so roles. Everyone has healing spells and everyone has them set in some way on their Gambits. This saves me a lot of items, that's for sure.

My set up is...
Vaan: Sword + Shield - Tank/Damage Dealer
Balthier: Gun - Ranged Damage Dealer (usually who I begin Quickenings with)
Fran: Crossbow + Black Magic and Negative Status Removal - Ranged
Basch: Spear - Tank/Damage Dealer
Ashe: Katana + Healer + Thief - Low Damage Dealer
Penelo: Dagger + Healer + Thief + Black Magic - Mostly Magic Damage

I run with Ashe and Penelo to keep their MP up higher.
I don't use Hand-Bombs, Maces or Measures... Ever.
 
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