For your Thief idea, there would be a lot of time lost in rearranging party order, so I don't know if it'd be worth the slight advantage of running always in the first round instead of occasionally (25% ?) on the 2nd one. Note that a first-row thief will also improve your chances of First strike (and lessen those of Monsters strike first).
Yes, Black mages are hard to include in a serious team. Let's not insist on FFWB for now. (but it's not a lost cause)
White mages are really good, though. Either FRRW or FFRW will do fine in my experience. As for FRRW equipment, I go for Short sword with the fighter, Dragon and Coral for the red mages, iron all for the fighter, chain mail for the red mages, and silver bracelet for the white mage. Later, I grab the great axe in Titan's cave, which ends up a little better than Long anyway. I cut a little bit on the Heal potions. It's true that the budget is a little tighter, but nothing dramatical. The only problem is that 2nd-row red mage you were mentioning, whom Wizards like to drop. I've beaten Lich with a dead red mage, but it's a lot more dangerous.
At the risk of repeating myself, I want a team that is good at each individual step of the game, but not necessarily in a global way (since I'll be running away all the time). There are 5 tough bosses in the game:
- Wizards: need high absorb or LIT2
- Astos: need two black magic users, or Silver sword, or MUTE
- Lich: need two mages, or Silver swords
- Kraken2: need ability to cast LIFE after the battle
- Chaos: need fighters (preferably two) and FAST (preferably with two characters)
Additionally, there are four hard dungeons:
- Earth cave, floors B3 and B4: undead, cocatrices, wizards
- (Ordeals -- no team is good)
- (Ice cave -- no team is good)
- ToFR, floors 3F and Water: Gas Ds, Waters
One of the ideas with the three mages party is that Lich will usually fall to a full discharge of level-3 spells from two mages, making one of them expendable. I've noticed with other teams, including FFRR, that one of the mages would die from time to time and that Lich would become virtually impossible.
I may have gotten lucky when I tested FRRW, but I didn't get into trouble in the Earth cave. You know, it may not be absurd to buy LIT2 for one of those red mages, if Wizards in the Earth cave are such a problem. It's not like LIT2 can't kill undead too, including Lich. It's just 33% less efficient.
Also, you don't have to feel bad skipping Opal armor. Maybe take ProCape, I don't know. Kraken2 will be more of a problem, obviously, although red wizards have unlimited charges of RUSE. I've had no problem against Chaos. It's obvious that FFRR is a lot more powerful there, but it may even be somewhat of an overkill.
I would recommend relying on GrMedusae for getting petrified before Lich2, otherwise the solo fighter may get into trouble on the first three floors of the ToFR.
I'm not yet convinced of FRRW either. It will be either FFRR, FFRW, or FRRW. I must just say that FFRR does have notable weaknesses.
By the way, try starting at offset 116. Then walk 14 steps, reset, walk 15 steps, reset again, and really start the new game there. This will give you a nice set of early battles (GrImps, Ghoul, then Ogres), as well as a Wizard-free Earth cave and a manageable battle pattern in Ordeals/Ice cave. Additionally, if you use a white mage, offset-116 will give you access to a whole lot of Geists (battle group #4 in the south marshes area). On my NES, that offset is one of the most frequent, maybe even more frequent than 0, and the little walk-and-reset thing can be used to confirm it before starting to record.
If you're interested, I have a Nestopia saved state aligned at offset 116 with the step counter exactly synchronized to its normal starting position. That can be done by taking some fights into water and some fights on land, in such a way that the 116 battles fit into a factor of 2048 steps. In this case, I went with 90 land battles @ 10 battles per 256 steps, 18 sea battles @ 3 battles per 256 steps, and 8 dungeon battles @ 8 battles per 256 steps.
Yes, Black mages are hard to include in a serious team. Let's not insist on FFWB for now. (but it's not a lost cause)
White mages are really good, though. Either FRRW or FFRW will do fine in my experience. As for FRRW equipment, I go for Short sword with the fighter, Dragon and Coral for the red mages, iron all for the fighter, chain mail for the red mages, and silver bracelet for the white mage. Later, I grab the great axe in Titan's cave, which ends up a little better than Long anyway. I cut a little bit on the Heal potions. It's true that the budget is a little tighter, but nothing dramatical. The only problem is that 2nd-row red mage you were mentioning, whom Wizards like to drop. I've beaten Lich with a dead red mage, but it's a lot more dangerous.
At the risk of repeating myself, I want a team that is good at each individual step of the game, but not necessarily in a global way (since I'll be running away all the time). There are 5 tough bosses in the game:
- Wizards: need high absorb or LIT2
- Astos: need two black magic users, or Silver sword, or MUTE
- Lich: need two mages, or Silver swords
- Kraken2: need ability to cast LIFE after the battle
- Chaos: need fighters (preferably two) and FAST (preferably with two characters)
Additionally, there are four hard dungeons:
- Earth cave, floors B3 and B4: undead, cocatrices, wizards
- (Ordeals -- no team is good)
- (Ice cave -- no team is good)
- ToFR, floors 3F and Water: Gas Ds, Waters
One of the ideas with the three mages party is that Lich will usually fall to a full discharge of level-3 spells from two mages, making one of them expendable. I've noticed with other teams, including FFRR, that one of the mages would die from time to time and that Lich would become virtually impossible.
I may have gotten lucky when I tested FRRW, but I didn't get into trouble in the Earth cave. You know, it may not be absurd to buy LIT2 for one of those red mages, if Wizards in the Earth cave are such a problem. It's not like LIT2 can't kill undead too, including Lich. It's just 33% less efficient.
Also, you don't have to feel bad skipping Opal armor. Maybe take ProCape, I don't know. Kraken2 will be more of a problem, obviously, although red wizards have unlimited charges of RUSE. I've had no problem against Chaos. It's obvious that FFRR is a lot more powerful there, but it may even be somewhat of an overkill.
I would recommend relying on GrMedusae for getting petrified before Lich2, otherwise the solo fighter may get into trouble on the first three floors of the ToFR.
I'm not yet convinced of FRRW either. It will be either FFRR, FFRW, or FRRW. I must just say that FFRR does have notable weaknesses.
By the way, try starting at offset 116. Then walk 14 steps, reset, walk 15 steps, reset again, and really start the new game there. This will give you a nice set of early battles (GrImps, Ghoul, then Ogres), as well as a Wizard-free Earth cave and a manageable battle pattern in Ordeals/Ice cave. Additionally, if you use a white mage, offset-116 will give you access to a whole lot of Geists (battle group #4 in the south marshes area). On my NES, that offset is one of the most frequent, maybe even more frequent than 0, and the little walk-and-reset thing can be used to confirm it before starting to record.
If you're interested, I have a Nestopia saved state aligned at offset 116 with the step counter exactly synchronized to its normal starting position. That can be done by taking some fights into water and some fights on land, in such a way that the 116 battles fit into a factor of 2048 steps. In this case, I went with 90 land battles @ 10 battles per 256 steps, 18 sea battles @ 3 battles per 256 steps, and 8 dungeon battles @ 8 battles per 256 steps.
