[quote name='Rocko']
Oh? It seems like it'd take a while, since you need to be hit to raise HP, cast a shitload of magic to raise HP, and kill shit to rasie attack... so you need to have all kinds of different priorities to raise different aspects of your characters instead of one objective- destroy.[/QUOTE]
I found weapons off some of the first enemies that literally were powerful the rest of the game.
The other trick is to do what my friend did (which is brilliant):
Put all but one character (the big burly man) in the back row. In the back row, you can't be hit by physical attacks. So the early enemies will be forced to attack your burly dude. He takes all the damage, so his HP, defense, and evade will skyrocket. Your healer heals him, upping her magic quickly. The other two attack with bows, giving their attack abilities time to level up.
After a while you get so powerful that you can start attacking yourself, and when you reach that point, you can enter into a battle and come out with super stat increases.
Do that for a few hours and your characters will have 5k+ HP levels, super defense, etc.
Again, way, way easier than level based. Level based forces you to have to move forward in the game to fight stronger enemies. This system lets you attack yourself and heal yourself and potentially create super characters even at the beginning of the game.
Way too easy.
I'm going to add you, you create a game after that and invite me and we'll play. Should be on there in less than a few minutes.