I want to know what are the best party members to go with right now i have vaan, balthier, bosch active is this a good party or should i change it? I have all the characters.

MAKE A PARTY ENTIRELY OF MOOGLE

YOU NEED SOMEBODY TO CONSTANTLY DRAW ON YOUR TV TO ACHIEVE THIS

srry im lost. im up to the part where i have help princess ash look for some item there that will identify her as princess so i dont think im up to wat u just said all my chars are at lvl 16

All the characters in the game are mostly the same. Some may appear as better magic caster, but that's just a look. Every characters can learn the same exact thing as one another. So it's only just a matter of preference based on their look and personalities.

You don't ever have to pick between characters once you have them all. They can all learn anything on the license board. As a site, we're divided on whether to level your second party in tandem with your main party, or wait til you get to Archades to snag the Embroidered Tippets (they double EXP) and bring them up to speed then. There are benefits to both approaches, if you want the details, let me know.

Pick who you like the best and run with 'em. Oh, and the good Dr. is just being silly. Part of why we love him.

it seems for me that penelo is the fastest of the group.

Yea knegative plz give me the details.

Van has stoopid crazy speed....

I would pick one party based on which characters you feel you best enjoy using in battle. Then customize them any way you want them. There is never a situation in the game where you are required to use any particular characters in battle.

Agent had a pretty thought that if you keep at least one of your characters at a low level, you'll might be able to use an ether to fill a Mist Charge for them, allowing them to start a quickening chain for you if you get into a dire situation.

On the same note, it has been argued that those low level characters (if too low) may not be able to survive any damage they may sustain while you wait for the Quickening to trigger. This can be aided with Bubble Belts which you can get from the Clan Merchant in Muthru Bazaar (Rabanastre). They go on sale once you achieve the clan rank of Riskbreaker (200,000 Clan Points and 16 marks completed). They double your max HP, when equipped.

Well basically most of the characters are equal because you decide who can do what although there are some differences. I'll give you their lvl 99 base statistics as a guide to go off of. Ashe and Penelo have the highest macgick ability(69), but Ashe has slightly higher attack(73). Basch and Vaan are both tied as the most powerful in terms attacking(77), with Balthier drawing a close second(75).Fran strikes a pretty good balance between attack and magick(Attack-71 Magick 59), but Vaan is the most balanced (Attack-77 Magick 64). Basch and Balthier's magick ability is basically too low to ever consider them for a mage or healing role, not that you would considering they have the highest and second highest attack. But there's your basic outline of character's abilities.

i would suggest using Basch, Ashe, and Vaan.thats what i have and its working out very well

Knegative has a point. It depends on what point in the game you're at whether or not it makes sense to keep one really low for the advantage of cheap and easy Quickening. I'd say pretty much anytime after the Pharos, the advantage is pretty much non-existent, since Quickening only works unless one enemy anyway unless you're fighting a large group and manage to pull off a really strong Concurrence. Before the Pharos, it might be worth a shot.

I went with a party of Vaan, Balthier, and Ashe. I thought it worked out pretty well, i mean they were the only characters i used during the entire game so i really couldn't have anyone else and i had them close to level 60 when i fought the last bosses so it was extremely easy. That's just my opinion though, it all depends on who you feel comfortable using.

so if you fight the end boss at level 60 its "extremely easy", man, ill probably be a 90 or close to it before i decide to proceed in the story, that will make it like, REALLY EASY, and i like a challenge.but i used Basch instead of Balthier, like THAT will make a differene.

When I first beat the game, my best characters were around like mid-50s and the others, mid-30s. The final battle I would rate as mildly difficult --- I don't think I was ever in any real danger of losing, but it was more challenging than I thought it would be, at least the final form, anyway. Anything much higher than that and it has to be piss-easy pretty much.

srry im lost. im up to the part where i have help princess ash look for some item there that will identify her as princess so i dont think im up to wat u just said all my chars are at lvl 16your character should be stronger?

so if you fight the end boss at level 60 its "extremely easy", man, ill probably be a 90 or close to it before i decide to proceed in the story, that will make it like, REALLY EASY, and i like a challenge.but i used Basch instead of Balthier, like THAT will make a differene.

Yea it's not going to make a difference if you use Basch over Balthier if your around the level 90 area. At that level you proboly would only need to use a couple cure spells and you would still completely obliterate the end boss.

yeah,m he's right about that.

I second what forevercloud said about the stats. Also, Penelo has crazy-high MP --- I love using her in my party.

What you should have in your party is a warrior(any character who has high STR and DEF who equips axes, hammers, swords, and maybe a shield), thief/warrior(any character who has high agility and maybe magic so s/he can steal items and maybe become a backup mage), and finally a mage(preferably Penelo or Fran or maybe Ashe...? because they have high MP). The mage can focus on healing and protecting, and some magic damage, while the thief and warrior kill the enemy.

That's what I have anyways. =)

My 3 main party members were pretty much the same. They all had access to all the magick fields and they all had the strongest weapons and armor.

The way I play and set up is a Knight with high Hp Str and good solid equipment Vaan and Basch are great for this role because like Forevercloud said their base Stats on STR is the highest. I then have a Mage Knight with a focus on the white and Arcane magics Ashe was my chosen for this one but Penelo is just as good set them up with spells to protect and heal on their Gambits higher then attack so they act as the wall buliders then go into fight. Finally a Mage on Long range weapons like Bow Crossbow and Gun, Fran was my choose She was set up with Bows then Gambit and learned Black and Time magics with a secondary of Healing that way she could cast well outside normal Attackers unmolested and be aboulstly devasting though Back attacks and Surround HURT her Big espically places like Henne mine and Barhiem where enemies could pop up with you being unaware. It has worked for me so far.

idk, whenever i play any game like the FF games, i always find myself going for whatever's going to improve my STR stat by the most. I was never that fond of magic so i always had a team of heavy hitters. I had alot of spare license points so i purchased most of the magick licences for my top 3 to give them some extra firepower and abilities, making them able to heal or protect allies and to use attack magick on foes (considering that i did not use a bow throughout the whole game).

My 3 main party members were pretty much the same. They all had access to all the magick fields and they all had the strongest weapons and armor.

were the same, i have everything on everybody, everybodys a mage,warrior, and a tecknik person, but i just have the teckniks, i never use them except for libra

idk, whenever i play any game like the FF games, i always find myself going for whatever's going to improve my STR stat by the most. I was never that fond of magic so i always had a team of heavy hitters...

That's almost always my initial strategy. I start off by building up some strong melee characters and just use magic for support - as games progress I try to make the team more dynamic, but I always resort to melee; I'm a sucker for some heavy armour and a big sword :-P

Guess that's why I stink at PK'ing in MMORPG's :-[

were the same, i have everything on everybody, everybodys a mage,warrior, and a tecknik person, but i just have the teckniks, i never use them except for libra

You never steal? Blasphemy :-P As me and Deathshining were saying over in the Q&A, if you want all the equipment in the game, you're going to be needing a world of very specific loot. That requires thievery supreme.

Yeah, I can't imagine not using Steal in this game. And not all of the other tehcnicks are useless, just most of them. Expose is actually a pretty good one to use.

Indeed - Thievery is extremely helpful. When it comes to Techniks I'm not a big fan, though I do use a handful quite regularly - Libra, Steal, Charge (in dire straights), Expose, Shear, and for melee characters I tend to have 1,000 Needles set as a Gambit for flying foes (I know, but I don't have Telekinesis yet).

Telekinesis was way too late for my liking it should have been avabile at Archadia or some similar point not at end of the Game.

My favorite Techs were GP toss, Steal, 1000 needles until my normal attack out striped, and Soul eater. Soul eater is actually useful for some of the stronger hunts since the damage is not calucalted from Str and other like. Not quite too sure what it does use but I know I was doing more damage with Eater then attack on a few hunts. As well as Sight Unseeing became a god send when I got it and had to go through ANY undead areas.

I agree with Telekinesis - I haven't gone through the Feywood yet and 1,000 Needles became quite ineffective some time ago - an improved Technick for ranged attacks without a Gil or HP expense would have been appreciated prior to this - maybe by Archadia or Balfonheim (first visit).

I consider myself to be around the 1/2 way mark of the story (based on what I've read), and having to rely on 1,000 Needles to initiate ranged attacks by melee characters seems ridiculous.

I still use 1,000 Needles now simply b/c I haven't acquired Telekinesis or experimented with Souleater or Gil Toss - can you give me an idea of what the Gil / HP cost of those techniks is?

Gil toss is reflective of how much Damage is done the cap is 9,999 so if you hit that you lose 9,999 Gil How much is tossed seems to be based on your active Party Hp and total Gil naturally if you don't have 1,000 gil to toss you aren't going to do a 1,000 damage and etc. Soul eater is roughly 15-20% of max hp I think its a little hard to tell. But one thing to note is that Soul Eater can only hit if youre weapon can hit most Techs are like that.

In the Long run it is better to have a Long range weapons Liscenced for each Character it might be a Pain sometimes to switch back and forth but it can help in several areas. I would suggest Each Main party memeber having a different Long Range weapon that way everyone can have the Best equipped and shot/bolt/arrow for best effect.

Also it might be prudent to have your Mage with a Long range weapon it keeps them out of the line of fire and for the most Part unmolsted in their casting which helps SO much.

Oh geez, yes, I forgot about Telekinesis. Made available way, way too late in the game. A lot of the bird enemies seemed to be weak against lightning, though, so that was a good one to set to the Gambit. But birds are another type of foe I don't really like --- I hate their ability to self-destruct before you can finish them off.

Yes now that stinks espically Kamikaze later in Cobbi steppe Ergh so many times I nearly died because of that Dang attack.

Thanks for the technik info Ninja, and I completely agree about the birds - pain in the ass.

I almost wish that Telekinesis could be learned from the guest party members, if you have the license, much like you can learn Cure from Bathier and Fran when they join.

I would have had Telekinesis when Vossler joined :-(

Edit:

I second what forevercloud said about the stats. Also, Penelo has crazy-high MP --- I love using her in my party.

It's almost a shame that I'm (Penelo) the wrecking crew, as it were. I'm using that MP to cast Haste and Bravery on myself, and I've turned off all of my healing gambits [just Penelo of course]. It's only a jump from 5000 to 7500 with Bravery, but hey it's working, and I use Ashe too, so second best is perfectly good enough, for now anyway. Amazing how the Zodiac spear changes how you play. I'll tailor it to whatever each situation demands, but so far, so much fun.