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I'm working on my party's last retirement now (retired them all at level 99), and going to finally go through the "good ending" path while getting them back up to speed.

I tend to like to see how strong my party can get using certain self-imposed restrictions in RPGs, just because it makes it more fun for me that way. So I'm going to try to put the final adjustments to my team in order to be able to reliably beat all the post-game bosses with these limitations in place:

PRIMARY LIMITATIONS:
- No item use whatsoever.
- No wearing any accessories whatsoever (all other armor types are okay though).
- No duplicate of the same primary profession in my party.

SECONDARY LIMITATIONS:
- No Hoplite skills whatsoever.
- No Monk skills whatsoever.
- No Zodiac skills whatsoever.
- No limit skills (except for Lucky Hammer).

I'm fairly sure I can do it, and only have some doubts about [hide]Abyssal God[/hide]. But killing it with these limitations in particular is going to be my ultimate goal, so we'll see how it goes. I'll bend on the secondary limitations if I just can't get it to work, but I'm going to really try to keep the primary limitations in place.

My final post-game party was just so much more effective than any other I tried. It's cheesy, relying on game mechanics that simply aren't apparent without reading wikis:

Shogun/Pirate
Shogun/Pirate

Zodiac
Ballista/Shogun

+support class of choice, I went Phalanx/Shinobi but a debuff/buff class or even a beastking might be better.

Both Shogun use swashbuckling and limit boost to churn out limit skills at a ridiculous rate. Hanging for the rare cases it's useful.
The zodiac is 'pure', with one maxed element and all three prophecies. Meteor every turn or element pressure>element.
The Ballista just churns out warrior might every turn (helps if you have the +100 TP ring), chasing each Shogun 2-8 times for ridiculous damage.
The Phalanx to stop the -def Ballista and flimsy front row from taking too much damage. Provoke, clone, line guard, overguard. I get the impression he wasn't needed 99% of the time, but came in handy for some bosses.

I've just started and I am only on the second floor at the moment. As such, my party composition is not that stable.

main combat group:
gladiator, hoplite, princess
monk, zodiac

dammage output is somewhat lacking, but i am never at risk is serious battles. I also have a ninja, buccaneer, arbalist and another spare prince sitting on the bench along with a small village of farmers. Is princess and monk at once excessive? And is there a practical way to make the monk a front liner. She seems to be kind of a lacking fighter in either line.

Princess and Monk are not excessive until you make one a serious healer. If your Princess, Monk can go fists. If the Monk, make Princess go buffs, limiting the healing.
Princess is pretty good until you need the burst healing from a Monk. Also, using the P's Monarch March, at least to 5, will keep you in the dungeons longer. At least use the princess for diving. Healer Monk is probably better at bosses.
If the healer Monk route, do not max your spells. Up or max Form Qi first. Trust me; it does wonders.
Personally, I run Monk with Princess subclass on the front line. Burst heals with the traveling. Works great. I keep her leveled so being in front doesn't hurt much.

Monk to front, Hoplite to back. Sounds weird, but spears hit fully from either line. Especially if you decide to get Long Stride. That might be all you need to do.

Pick which route to make your Gladiator; sword or mace. If you go healing Monk, making him sword might not be a bad idea, since you won't have to share maces. I think swords are mostly for multi-targetting, though. Maces are good burst, especially if you up his accuracy.
First sea boss conditional drop:
[hide]Getting maces on Gladiator might be a better idea, since there is a conditional drop involving binding its arms.[/hide]

If you want to stay in the dungeon more, maybe switch the Zodiac with an Arbalist. They hit really, really hard with a basic attack. Otherwise, the front line you'll have with the above suggestion should be fine; in fact, that's exactly how I started out.
Actually, if you want some help with the first stratum boss:
[hide]use the Arbalist, get them the lightning barrage. I'm not kidding.[/hide]

Thank you Sirth.

In general, my monk has been sort of disappointing. I cant get her fist skills to work and her heals are too expensive and powerful for day to day use. At healing 3 she runs out of tp after a short time. On the other hand, the princess's healing is insufficient in hard fights. I suppose I could always just use medica for spot healing and replace the monk with my arbalist.

I am a tad uncomfortable with shifting my hoplite to the back since it would seem to make the front line too frail and reduce the power of line guard. Still, its worth a try.

Also, is there a way to make the ninja a useful fighter early on? I know that once subclassing comes out, that they make great casters. Currently, however, they are frail and low powered and their dodges don't trigger enough to save them.

Hmmm.....Oh dear. I started playing without a real plan and so a few of my characters are build a bit oddly. After looking through some tips I've realized that some of my people may be a problem.

The ones I am concerned about:

Monk
form qi: 4/10
fist mastery: 1/10
healing: 3/10
kikouken: 1/10

it seems if I am not making a dedicated fist monk that the fist and kikouken skills were wasted. The extra heal points have also jacked up the price a bit.

Zodiac:
ether mastery: 1/10
fire mastery: 1/10
ice mastery: 1/10
volt mastery: 1/10
fire star: 1/10
volt star: 1/10
dark ether: 3/5
tp up: 1/10

She is kind of all over the place and raising the stars seems to increase the already high price by a lot.

Buccaneer
trickster: 2/10
rapier mastery: 3/10
lady luck: 1/10
lights out: 1/10
chase thrust: 1/10

chase thrust really doesn't seem to do much for me at all

Are these issues worth a rest? It seems like even a few misguided skill points sets a character back by a fair bit.

Just don't increase the element masteries. They don't give enough for the points.

The chasers are also not so great, except from one of the unlockable classes.

I'd probably rest, but they are relatively minor right now. Maybe at least get to the second stratum before resting.

Royal Veil and Monarch's March is all you'll need for every random encounter. Protect Order is what will allow you to "step up" and take down FoEs. Narmer is the first hurdle for Prince(ss) only but, really, he's easy enough to just have Royal Veil and Medicas handling everything.

In every playthrough I've done, I've yet to do anything but Prince(ss) only as a healer. It's never been a problem and, in my opinion, is vastly better than starting with Monk only due to not having to spend TP to always be at full.