Update!
The first stop on getting the dragon, for any FF5-savvy player, is Tycoon Castle. The Healing Staff would be a great help here; if it worked... Which it does! I know the Diamond Bell has a really weird attack formula; I wonder if Frog has any use for it?
Oh. Oh yes. With this little bell, my damage quintuples. And it's back row friendly! This is actually the best news ever. I need a target to invoke my new found wrath.
Shiva; you'll do! I went in as a Freelancer with Counter and Chakra, equipped with my new bell and the Elven mantle. Toad status may reduce the evasion stat to 0, but the Elven mantle doesn't check your evasion, it's a separate, fully functional, modifier. The rough plan was simple. Chakra to delay the damage I was taking (Shiva's Blizzaras dealt ~220, the Commanders attacks dealt ~110, my Chakra healed ~150, so it only slowed them down slightly.) and rely on my ability to get in Counter attacks for the kill. Sadly, this just wouldn't work. Most attempts ended with 2 Commanders down and me attempting to heal with the healing staff, but being frozen between equipping it and attacking myself. For my next attempt, I unequipped the Elven mantle; i want to be hit to trigger counters! This worked quite nicely, I actually had switched over to the healing staff BEFORE the counter attack which killed the final commander triggered, but it still went through okay. I then healed up to full (slightly out pacing Shiva all the way) and then fired off one ring of my bell. Rinse and repeat...
Done. I could have made this a bit easier by stealing a dozen or so Hi Potions from the Blocks in North Mountain, but this was more stylish.
Galura just got damage rushed by my bell, never really stood a chance. I tested out my new water crystal jobs and... Nothing. Berserker was the only class whose abilities functioned and he didn't have any. Ah well, bell ringing it is.
The journey to Karnak was fun, musically shredding everything on the way. A nice change of pace; good job there are hundreds of bells for me to choo- oh wait. The next available bell is the legendary bell in the Sealed Castle. Well, this one'll do for now, hopefully I can use Gaia or something later...
Liquid Flame went down easy; I just Chakra'd against the first form and let my counters kill her. I was never in any danger, and this way I didn't have to bother with all of the different forms. Plus I now the Flame Bow'll do nothing for me and I can buy a Flame Rod in the shop. Throw may or may not work, so I went for the Scroll.
The escape sequence was fun; I had a wierd moment where a Sorcerer untoaded Frog with a Toad spell, and I had to toggle the cheat code to turn him back. I came out with a Ribbon, Guardian and about 4 or 5 Elixirs (I actually had 2 minutes left after the Iron Claw fight, so I went back for more :P)
New jobs; lets have a look... Gaia works. Throw works, but the weapons deal 0 damage. Scrolls work, though. Aaaand Catch works. Damn; nice haul! Since I can throw Scrolls, and later mix, I know this can be finished. For now I was a Geomancer; between my bell and Gaia I was an intense offensive force!
Next up, the library. I was level 28 on entering, so was in no danger. Ifrit was looking to be a perilous fight; I couldn't out heal the ridiculous damage output. I instinctively tried Gaia, forgetting it would heal him...
And it confused him! I had no idea this would work; even Sullla didn't use it in his Geomancer solo! This was great news; with this I can stall out his MP and block his deadliest attack, Fira. Then I can easily out pace his damage with Chakra (from the Geomancers tasty high magic stats this was out healing what the Healing Staff would normally do, at 250 or so a pop!) and whittle him down with my bell.
Damn right, Ifrit. Damn right.
Onto Byblos then; my first thought was to try Gaia, but on the only attempt of about 10 that I reach his Drain stage, it flattened me rapidly, and outpaced me. I don't have the defences for attrition here; I need offence. A Flame Scroll dealt ~1250 damage, an easy 3 hit KO. So should I just go grab another from the Ship Graveyard? Nah, that's too easy! Instead I grinded out Black 1 on the Galuras. With that my magic stat went up from 15 to 41...
That's a bit better. He died to my 2 Flame Scrolls, and the rest of the game was opened up. Bring it on