Therion's Steal SP and and Steal HP moves may as well be his default attack for all intents and purposes. Unless you're hitting another weapon weakness or boosting for 3+ hits, why ever use a regular dagger attack over them?
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
Went exploring in an area a bit beyond my level range and found
one of the "secret" job shrines, the Starseer one. Unfortunately I didn't expect to actually have to fight for it. Guess I'll come back there once I finish everyone's chapter 3.
Really on the fence about this one. On one hand, I'm not a particular big fan of RPG's, but I'm really curious to see what all the hype is about. Anybody else who wasn't too crazy about RPG's who loved playing this game?
I think this game is very much a love letter to fans of turn based JRPG systems. If you're not specifically a fan of turn-based combat, job systems, and the art style, there's not a whole lot else here for you.
I'm not a huge fan of that stuff, but I'm enjoying it a lot. The combat is a bit more dynamic, in particular.
I've read quite a few people saying it's not just a nostalgia trip and is grabbing them like no other RPG in years.
It's got a lot of nostalgia factor for anyone who was around for the 16-bit RPG era, but it's also a pretty fun and fresh take on turn-based RPGs for people who've never played one or where an older, slower turn-based game like, Dragon Quest, might not have gotten someone's attention before.
Dragon Quest games have their own charm that keep me wanting to play that kind of game, but Octopath has a lot of nice things going for it. Turns move quick, the game is pretty, and there's a lot of style in those little sprites. Towns aren't just a sidequest cutscene either - and that's what feels like has been missing from most recent modern JRPGs. Yes you find sidequests, but you can explore that town top to bottom and can interact with it's citizens in ways that I don't think has been done before.
Even if that interaction is robbing them blind and knocking everyone unconscious.
And there's also all of the non-linearity. Were there any classic JRPGs that had this open of a world?
And there's also all of the non-linearity. Were there any classic JRPGs that had this open of a world?
They tended to be more open on the NES. For example FF1, which kind of kept you gated into the inner sea for the early game, and then just went wide open with places you could go (some limitations in where you could dock or land your airship). Quite a few early FFs were open in that respect. Early Dragon Quests also were just about going literally anywhere in the world to find the 6 macguffins lying around in random towns, only limited by monster difficulty.
As telling an epic story came more to the forefront, linearity became a tool to that end. The player has to get to this town first so they can see it get tragically destroyed which raises the stakes and gives motivation to chase the villain to the next town where he has poisoned the water supply etc. etc. Leading eventually to Final Hallway 13.
Really on the fence about this one. On one hand, I'm not a particular big fan of RPG's, but I'm really curious to see what all the hype is about. Anybody else who wasn't too crazy about RPG's who loved playing this game?
I think this game is very much a love letter to fans of turn based JRPG systems. If you're not specifically a fan of turn-based combat, job systems, and the art style, there's not a whole lot else here for you.
I'm not a huge fan of that stuff, but I'm enjoying it a lot. The combat is a bit more dynamic, in particular.
I've read quite a few people saying it's not just a nostalgia trip and is grabbing them like no other RPG in years.
It's got a lot of nostalgia factor for anyone who was around for the 16-bit RPG era, but it's also a pretty fun and fresh take on turn-based RPGs for people who've never played one or where an older, slower turn-based game like, Dragon Quest, might not have gotten someone's attention before.
Dragon Quest games have their own charm that keep me wanting to play that kind of game, but Octopath has a lot of nice things going for it. Turns move quick, the game is pretty, and there's a lot of style in those little sprites. Towns aren't just a sidequest cutscene either - and that's what feels like has been missing from most recent modern JRPGs. Yes you find sidequests, but you can explore that town top to bottom and can interact with it's citizens in ways that I don't think has been done before.
Even if that interaction is robbing them blind and knocking everyone unconscious.
And there's also all of the non-linearity. Were there any classic JRPGs that had this open of a world?
The only one that I can think of that comes this close is Chrono Trigger. But that's one of the best games ever made, so it's not really a fair comparison.
Edit: Final Fantasy VI also does it, but in the latter half of the game. The first half is pretty on-rails.
I've been swapping characters out pretty liberally and the o ly thing that kinda annoys me is how OP the protagonist character gets. My tressa has a good 10 levels on anyone else I have and most battles are really just someone to heal her while she disintegrates everyone since she hits almost every weakness with the scholar subjob
Really on the fence about this one. On one hand, I'm not a particular big fan of RPG's, but I'm really curious to see what all the hype is about. Anybody else who wasn't too crazy about RPG's who loved playing this game?
I think this game is very much a love letter to fans of turn based JRPG systems. If you're not specifically a fan of turn-based combat, job systems, and the art style, there's not a whole lot else here for you.
I'm not a huge fan of that stuff, but I'm enjoying it a lot. The combat is a bit more dynamic, in particular.
I've read quite a few people saying it's not just a nostalgia trip and is grabbing them like no other RPG in years.
It's got a lot of nostalgia factor for anyone who was around for the 16-bit RPG era, but it's also a pretty fun and fresh take on turn-based RPGs for people who've never played one or where an older, slower turn-based game like, Dragon Quest, might not have gotten someone's attention before.
Dragon Quest games have their own charm that keep me wanting to play that kind of game, but Octopath has a lot of nice things going for it. Turns move quick, the game is pretty, and there's a lot of style in those little sprites. Towns aren't just a sidequest cutscene either - and that's what feels like has been missing from most recent modern JRPGs. Yes you find sidequests, but you can explore that town top to bottom and can interact with it's citizens in ways that I don't think has been done before.
Even if that interaction is robbing them blind and knocking everyone unconscious.
And there's also all of the non-linearity. Were there any classic JRPGs that had this open of a world?
The only one that I can think of that comes this close is Chrono Trigger. But that's one of the best games ever made, so it's not really a fair comparison.
Edit: Final Fantasy VI also does it, but in the latter half of the game. The first half is pretty on-rails.
Yeah, VI is mostly open world like this once you get the airship back in the World of Ruin.
Self-righteousness is incompatible with coalition building.
The dancer's third passive and/or the merchant's fourth passive really make Steal SP obsolete. At first I thought it sounded like a great ability but I haven't needed it once.
Hits twice, no accuracy issues, pays for itself. Only downside is always being a dagger attack. In the event an enemy is weak to daggers it will tear their guards down fast. And of course Therion always has it, so you may as well and free up the passive slots.
But yeah, Primrose I can have spam anything short of Scholar's higher nukes and her SP barely moves.
Yeah I'd just rather have to use no action at all and just stay topped off all the time.
It scales with the amount of SP you have. My Cyrus gets 20 SP back (he might also be wearing the SP regen accessory, I forget at the moment). His big nukes are 22. I can use them every turn and the only time it makes a difference is when grinding and he ends the battle so the regen doesn't kick in.
As is often the case with Square games with a Job system there are multiple ways to break the game open and it's a question of how much time you want to spend and how degenerate you want to take things.
I've been swapping characters out pretty liberally and the o ly thing that kinda annoys me is how OP the protagonist character gets. My tressa has a good 10 levels on anyone else I have and most battles are really just someone to heal her while she disintegrates everyone since she hits almost every weakness with the scholar subjob
Tressa was my first but Cyrus also never leaves and each fight is just Tressa giving Cyrus BP so he can kill everything, weaknesses or not.
Currently I have 6 of 8 characters, and 5 subjobs.
Current team is Cleric Primrose, Scholar Tressa, Merchant Cyrus, and Warrior H'aanit. It's working out quite well so far.
Do any of the jobs with one single magic attack (Hunter, Thief, Apothecary) do well as Scholars, since they can use the MAG stat to make their spell powerful?
I kinda think you want Tressa or anyone subclassed merchant to be the lowest level on the team. They're never a powerhouse just a handy utility character who can play bp battery when not needed.
Elemental attacks are based off whatever weapon you have with the highest elm. atk stat. So all you really have to do is just have one weapon with a good elm. atk on it, preferably a weapon you don't think you'll be regularly doing physical damage with.
"The sausage of Green Earth explodes with flavor like the cannon of culinary delight."
My Olberics max boosted Cross Slash under a damage buff on a broken target can get close to Cyrus’ damage with the double hit spells under the same condition but that’s still just one hit on one enemy.
Finally picked this up last night. Started with Primrose. Shit gets dark real quick... That first boss fight seemed a bit unfair for a one person party as well =/ My strategy after getting annihilated the first time was to buy 2,000 monies worth of grapes. Then it was just a war of attrition, and I had 54 grapes. Picked up Olberic second, figure I'll just do a loop and recruit all the characters first.
I do like the battle system though. Seems like it'll be fun to dig into. Also kind of like that it's just 8 separate little-ish stories. Was it ever confirmed or not that they come together in the end for some overarching plot?
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
Was it ever confirmed or not that they come together in the end for some overarching plot?
Wouldn't that be kinda spoilery though? Do you want to know? Answer:
The characters' individual stories are their own. However most of them hint at some ominous thing going on in the background. There is a postgame final thing but it requires doing some specific sidequests to unlock, so basically all the reviewers missed it.
Helgenish is easier if you Allure a townsperson to summon in battle, and learn Night Ode to break his guards and take them out quickly.
All the act one bosses are weak to that particular character.
Staring to unlock secondary jobs now, you know it’s real nice that you can do immediately see several neat combinations not just one.
I’m trying to rotate my party to keep them at least reasonably close in level, but my core three at are ophilla (my first pick) with scholar, Olberic with apothecary and Theron with hunter. This set up gives me a caster with powerful heals and damage spells and crazy amounts of SP, a guy who can swing with huge single target hits with amputate/cross blade and a dude who can generate and throw out SP and has four weapon slots (four!). The only thing I’ve not got with those is dark damage, but I’m currently levelling primrose and haven’t unlocked dancer yet so that’s up for grabs.
I'm way behind most of y'all now, due to a ton of other crap that has interfered this week.
Got to my first chapter 2 last night. I was trying to get to Primrose's, because her story is the most appealing to me. And I somehow wandered into Therion's Ch2 while trying to find my way to Primrose's. Getting to hers is tricky.
And anyway, made it to Therion's 2nd town. Did not find any shrines or caves or anything along the way, so I need to go back and explore more.
My party when I started was Haanit level 19, Ophelia level 18, Therion 16, Cyrus 12. They are all quite a bit stronger now, since the areas are rated at difficulty level 22.
I made it to the end boss of Therion's chapter and had a party wipe, though. So I guess I need to do more grinding.
Was it ever confirmed or not that they come together in the end for some overarching plot?
Wouldn't that be kinda spoilery though? Do you want to know? Answer:
The characters' individual stories are their own. However most of them hint at some ominous thing going on in the background. There is a postgame final thing but it requires doing some specific sidequests to unlock, so basically all the reviewers missed it.
Not really? Most RPGs feature a central villain or antagonistic group. At least, the way you described it isn't spoilery at all.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
For 95% of players, the stories are completely separate. The characters have some interaction in chapter 2 onwards, but the rest of the time it's as if they're alone. Their story chapters certainly treat them as if they're alone.
There is a super secret postgame dungeon, but it sounds like most players won't ever see it.
Man, I'm sad. I love the combat in this game so much, but the no XP sharing thing is killing my enjoyment. Luckily, from what I understand, the stories are all totally separate, so I think I may just do my 4 main party members' stories and call it a day.
I haven't found the XP thing to be an issue at all. My main party is level 42 and I'm doing Alfyn's chapter and he's level 20 with a recommended chapter level of 32, just swap him in and go. Sure, he's weaker than my other dude because he doesn't have all his skills yet, but he's the only weak one and I share equipment between the two parties anyways, so he's almost as powerful.
Man, I'm sad. I love the combat in this game so much, but the no XP sharing thing is killing my enjoyment. Luckily, from what I understand, the stories are all totally separate, so I think I may just do my 4 main party members' stories and call it a day.
There is a post game dungeon that explains how they are all actually connected.
Man, I'm sad. I love the combat in this game so much, but the no XP sharing thing is killing my enjoyment. Luckily, from what I understand, the stories are all totally separate, so I think I may just do my 4 main party members' stories and call it a day.
There is a post game dungeon that explains how they are all actually connected.
Man, I'm sad. I love the combat in this game so much, but the no XP sharing thing is killing my enjoyment. Luckily, from what I understand, the stories are all totally separate, so I think I may just do my 4 main party members' stories and call it a day.
I'm tempted to largely ignore 4 characters and play through the game again with the other 4 characters for this reason myself. I've only done the 2nd chapters for 3 of the 4 characters thus far, so I could easily have a 2nd playthrough as Alfyn, H'aanit, Primorse, and Thirion.
How useful are the single-target elemental spells carried by Hunter, Thief, and Apothecary, when combined with the Scholar job for extra Elemental power? Do they pale in damage potential compared to the AOE spells, or can they be useful?
also, I found another separate thing in Tressa's Ch2, and I know it was talked about a few pages ago, buuuuuut~
(not actual spoilers, but, i'll spoiler it in case you want to experience it for yourself in game)
On an entirely unrelated note, I've decided to just have a party of 3 at all times and simply rotate out the fourth according to whoever's chapter I'm going through. So that's Prim (locked)/Tressa/Alfyn, 4th rotates out. I think it works better this way, those three can basically carry fights by themselves. I've slapped Scholar on Tressa and she's just a Magic powerhouse. She hits really hard. But my boy Alfyn, he hits REALLY FUCKING HARD. Amputation is hitting for like 6k at this point.
How useful are the single-target elemental spells carried by Hunter, Thief, and Apothecary, when combined with the Scholar job for extra Elemental power? Do they pale in damage potential compared to the AOE spells, or can they be useful?
I just use those exclusively for breaking, except the apothecary's ice. No time to cast ice when i'm ax-murdering everything.
How useful are the single-target elemental spells carried by Hunter, Thief, and Apothecary, when combined with the Scholar job for extra Elemental power? Do they pale in damage potential compared to the AOE spells, or can they be useful?
They can hurt if you have good stats behind them yes. But Scholar brings those shiny double hit AoEs which are usually harder hitting by a bit.
Dancer gives almost as much elemental attack and Peacock Strut though, and then you'd be using the single targets or Night Ode.
also, I found another separate thing in Tressa's Ch2, and I know it was talked about a few pages ago, buuuuuut~
(not actual spoilers, but, i'll spoiler it in case you want to experience it for yourself in game)
On an entirely unrelated note, I've decided to just have a party of 3 at all times and simply rotate out the fourth according to whoever's chapter I'm going through. So that's Prim (locked)/Tressa/Alfyn, 4th rotates out. I think it works better this way, those three can basically carry fights by themselves. I've slapped Scholar on Tressa and she's just a Magic powerhouse. She hits really hard. But my boy Alfyn, he hits REALLY FUCKING HARD. Amputation is hitting for like 6k at this point.
Ah dang i just did that chapter and i must have missed the prompt for incidental conversation.
How useful are the single-target elemental spells carried by Hunter, Thief, and Apothecary, when combined with the Scholar job for extra Elemental power? Do they pale in damage potential compared to the AOE spells, or can they be useful?
They can hurt if you have good stats behind them yes. But Scholar brings those shiny double hit AoEs which are usually harder hitting by a bit.
Dancer gives almost as much elemental attack and Peacock Strut though, and then you'd be using the single targets or Night Ode.
Intriguing. Of course, I could give Dancer to Tressa. Then she'd have two AOEs on top of Peacock Strut. Would also be able to apply so very many buffs. I shall need to experiment.
Finally got all 8 non-secret subjobs. Party right now:
Lv. 34 Primrose: Dancer/Scholar. She wrecks absolutely everything with the Soul Daggers I robbed off of some townsfolk in one of the towns. Stillsnow, I think? And she has some +48 or summat Elem.Atk Armor, and a +100 Elem.Atk accessory from an old man in Stonegard.
Lv. 30 Alfyn: Apothecary/Cleric. Healer supreme! I robbed an Inferno Axe off some lady behind a Challenge/Provoke dude in Stonegard so if he needs to do some amputating, it hits ludicrously hard, but he's also got a decent staff I bought in a shop to keep his heals top-notch.
Lv. 32 Tressa: Merchant/Hunter. She's mainly a Hunter because ohmygod look at her hat! I robbed a Holy Crossbow off a dude in Stillsnow who was taunting me to TRY to steal his weapon (you can't use Purchase to get it) and then I stole his 80% Accuracy accessory too, so Tressa is the highway bandit who will buy your stuff with a bolt aimed to your chest... or something.
Lv. 32 Therion: Thief/Knight: Knight was just there to give Therion a hit-all attack, but it's made him quite a beefy physical hitter, too. Now that I have all the jobs though, I'll probably swap him over to Merchant so he can work towards getting SP Saver and being my go-to money guy. I snatched a really strong sword off the same lady I got the Axe from in Stonegard.
Olberic is Lv. 25, but he needs more levels to start challenging some of the harder townsfolk I'm sure to come across, and will likely replace Tressa once I've farmed up enough leaves to keep my coffers in check. He's subbing a Thief right now.
Cyrus is Lv. 25. He's subbing Dancer. I don't use him much, though. Primrose does the same job right now, and as nice as it is to have a weakness exposed, Prim is stuck in my party since she's my main, so Cyrus gets benched.
H'aanit and Ophilia are both Lv. 10. H'aanit just had the unfortunate situation of being too low level while I had Olberic in my team for a while, so he was just a better option for Challenges, and Phili's out because Primrose does the same town action and can't be removed from the party. Admittedly, it's also the least used skill. I haven't had a summon set up on Primrose for probably the last 15 levels and haven't seemed to need it yet outside of completing the occasional side quest.
Also taking 3 high level people and one low level into a high zone really helps level them quickly. I've gained 4 or 5 levels in one battle, and then as you keep grinding you can get one level per battle for a while.
Man, I'm sad. I love the combat in this game so much, but the no XP sharing thing is killing my enjoyment. Luckily, from what I understand, the stories are all totally separate, so I think I may just do my 4 main party members' stories and call it a day.
There is a strategy that can give you loads of XP all at once, almost breaking the game with the levels you get from it:
The dancer skill Bewildering Grace does a bunch of random things. Among them you can get an x2 EXP multiplier and x5, and there is a 1% chance of getting x100 EXP.
The final cleric skill is Aelfric's Auspices, which makes anything an ally does happen twice. So you can use that on your dancer, and then boost Bewildering Grace x4 to roll the dice 8 times in a row. If you have a merchant you could then use boosted Donate BP on the dancer to let them do it again next turn.
There are also rare enemies called Caits which give a lot of EXP when killed, if you can kill them. If you manage to kill a Cait at the same time as an EXPx100 you can go up 20 levels at once.
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And there's also all of the non-linearity. Were there any classic JRPGs that had this open of a world?
They tended to be more open on the NES. For example FF1, which kind of kept you gated into the inner sea for the early game, and then just went wide open with places you could go (some limitations in where you could dock or land your airship). Quite a few early FFs were open in that respect. Early Dragon Quests also were just about going literally anywhere in the world to find the 6 macguffins lying around in random towns, only limited by monster difficulty.
As telling an epic story came more to the forefront, linearity became a tool to that end. The player has to get to this town first so they can see it get tragically destroyed which raises the stakes and gives motivation to chase the villain to the next town where he has poisoned the water supply etc. etc. Leading eventually to Final Hallway 13.
The only one that I can think of that comes this close is Chrono Trigger. But that's one of the best games ever made, so it's not really a fair comparison.
Edit: Final Fantasy VI also does it, but in the latter half of the game. The first half is pretty on-rails.
Yeah, VI is mostly open world like this once you get the airship back in the World of Ruin.
As is often the case with Square games with a Job system there are multiple ways to break the game open and it's a question of how much time you want to spend and how degenerate you want to take things.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
Tressa was my first but Cyrus also never leaves and each fight is just Tressa giving Cyrus BP so he can kill everything, weaknesses or not.
Twitch: akThera
Steam: Thera
Current team is Cleric Primrose, Scholar Tressa, Merchant Cyrus, and Warrior H'aanit. It's working out quite well so far.
Do any of the jobs with one single magic attack (Hunter, Thief, Apothecary) do well as Scholars, since they can use the MAG stat to make their spell powerful?
You can take them on by mid 40s. I'd highly advise looking into ele defense gear for most of them.
FFXIV: Tchel Fay
Nintendo ID: Tortalius
Steam: Tortalius
Stream: twitch.tv/tortalius
I do like the battle system though. Seems like it'll be fun to dig into. Also kind of like that it's just 8 separate little-ish stories. Was it ever confirmed or not that they come together in the end for some overarching plot?
Wouldn't that be kinda spoilery though? Do you want to know? Answer:
All the act one bosses are weak to that particular character.
Staring to unlock secondary jobs now, you know it’s real nice that you can do immediately see several neat combinations not just one.
I’m trying to rotate my party to keep them at least reasonably close in level, but my core three at are ophilla (my first pick) with scholar, Olberic with apothecary and Theron with hunter. This set up gives me a caster with powerful heals and damage spells and crazy amounts of SP, a guy who can swing with huge single target hits with amputate/cross blade and a dude who can generate and throw out SP and has four weapon slots (four!). The only thing I’ve not got with those is dark damage, but I’m currently levelling primrose and haven’t unlocked dancer yet so that’s up for grabs.
Got to my first chapter 2 last night. I was trying to get to Primrose's, because her story is the most appealing to me. And I somehow wandered into Therion's Ch2 while trying to find my way to Primrose's. Getting to hers is tricky.
And anyway, made it to Therion's 2nd town. Did not find any shrines or caves or anything along the way, so I need to go back and explore more.
My party when I started was Haanit level 19, Ophelia level 18, Therion 16, Cyrus 12. They are all quite a bit stronger now, since the areas are rated at difficulty level 22.
I made it to the end boss of Therion's chapter and had a party wipe, though. So I guess I need to do more grinding.
Not really? Most RPGs feature a central villain or antagonistic group. At least, the way you described it isn't spoilery at all.
There is a super secret postgame dungeon, but it sounds like most players won't ever see it.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
There is a post game dungeon that explains how they are all actually connected.
Well fuck
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
I'm tempted to largely ignore 4 characters and play through the game again with the other 4 characters for this reason myself. I've only done the 2nd chapters for 3 of the 4 characters thus far, so I could easily have a 2nd playthrough as Alfyn, H'aanit, Primorse, and Thirion.
TRESSA NOOOOOO
YOU ARE TOO INNOCENT NOOO
also, I found another separate thing in Tressa's Ch2, and I know it was talked about a few pages ago, buuuuuut~
(not actual spoilers, but, i'll spoiler it in case you want to experience it for yourself in game)
On an entirely unrelated note, I've decided to just have a party of 3 at all times and simply rotate out the fourth according to whoever's chapter I'm going through. So that's Prim (locked)/Tressa/Alfyn, 4th rotates out. I think it works better this way, those three can basically carry fights by themselves. I've slapped Scholar on Tressa and she's just a Magic powerhouse. She hits really hard. But my boy Alfyn, he hits REALLY FUCKING HARD. Amputation is hitting for like 6k at this point.
Battle.net Tag: Dibby#1582
I just use those exclusively for breaking, except the apothecary's ice. No time to cast ice when i'm ax-murdering everything.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
They can hurt if you have good stats behind them yes. But Scholar brings those shiny double hit AoEs which are usually harder hitting by a bit.
Dancer gives almost as much elemental attack and Peacock Strut though, and then you'd be using the single targets or Night Ode.
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Ah dang i just did that chapter and i must have missed the prompt for incidental conversation.
Nintendo ID: Pastalonius
Smite\LoL:Gremlidin \ WoW & Overwatch & Hots: Gremlidin#1734
3ds: 3282-2248-0453
Intriguing. Of course, I could give Dancer to Tressa. Then she'd have two AOEs on top of Peacock Strut. Would also be able to apply so very many buffs. I shall need to experiment.
Lv. 34 Primrose: Dancer/Scholar. She wrecks absolutely everything with the Soul Daggers I robbed off of some townsfolk in one of the towns. Stillsnow, I think? And she has some +48 or summat Elem.Atk Armor, and a +100 Elem.Atk accessory from an old man in Stonegard.
Lv. 30 Alfyn: Apothecary/Cleric. Healer supreme! I robbed an Inferno Axe off some lady behind a Challenge/Provoke dude in Stonegard so if he needs to do some amputating, it hits ludicrously hard, but he's also got a decent staff I bought in a shop to keep his heals top-notch.
Lv. 32 Tressa: Merchant/Hunter. She's mainly a Hunter because ohmygod look at her hat! I robbed a Holy Crossbow off a dude in Stillsnow who was taunting me to TRY to steal his weapon (you can't use Purchase to get it) and then I stole his 80% Accuracy accessory too, so Tressa is the highway bandit who will buy your stuff with a bolt aimed to your chest... or something.
Lv. 32 Therion: Thief/Knight: Knight was just there to give Therion a hit-all attack, but it's made him quite a beefy physical hitter, too. Now that I have all the jobs though, I'll probably swap him over to Merchant so he can work towards getting SP Saver and being my go-to money guy. I snatched a really strong sword off the same lady I got the Axe from in Stonegard.
Olberic is Lv. 25, but he needs more levels to start challenging some of the harder townsfolk I'm sure to come across, and will likely replace Tressa once I've farmed up enough leaves to keep my coffers in check. He's subbing a Thief right now.
Cyrus is Lv. 25. He's subbing Dancer. I don't use him much, though. Primrose does the same job right now, and as nice as it is to have a weakness exposed, Prim is stuck in my party since she's my main, so Cyrus gets benched.
H'aanit and Ophilia are both Lv. 10. H'aanit just had the unfortunate situation of being too low level while I had Olberic in my team for a while, so he was just a better option for Challenges, and Phili's out because Primrose does the same town action and can't be removed from the party. Admittedly, it's also the least used skill. I haven't had a summon set up on Primrose for probably the last 15 levels and haven't seemed to need it yet outside of completing the occasional side quest.
Steam: TheArcadeBear
There is a strategy that can give you loads of XP all at once, almost breaking the game with the levels you get from it:
The final cleric skill is Aelfric's Auspices, which makes anything an ally does happen twice. So you can use that on your dancer, and then boost Bewildering Grace x4 to roll the dice 8 times in a row. If you have a merchant you could then use boosted Donate BP on the dancer to let them do it again next turn.
There are also rare enemies called Caits which give a lot of EXP when killed, if you can kill them. If you manage to kill a Cait at the same time as an EXPx100 you can go up 20 levels at once.
Man, that's some dance!