Hmm. Re Recent changes:
Rena at .5 seems pretty awesome. She's got various status immunities and elemental resists which help make her good. Not saying this is wrong, but as noted before I was seriously considering using Rena at 1.0 (even though I tossed that team out partially due to Rena not being good enough). She strikes me as in the .7-.8 area, so it's tricky, but something to keep an eye on. (Edit: On the other hand, her healing does tail off a good bit by the end, and it is slow. So yeah. I was assuming she could maintain ~70% MT healing, but it seems from the stat topic by the end she's at only ~45% MT healing, which is meh.)
Now that Lyn has dropped to 2.0, Marisa at 2.0 is nearly pointless, since Lyn is almost always better. She's probably a 1.5 anyway, or maybe even a 1.0. She's good once she A) upgrades and B) has storebought Killing Edges to use, both of which don't happen until ~floor 4-5 or so. Even then, some people seem to force her crits to come to turn 2 anyway. Until the magical crit factory starts, she's dodgy but has below average strength, so even when she doubles she's not THAT scary. And as noted her team-based skills are non-existent. On the other hand she's fast, and that's always awesome, and obviously works great with attack buffs.
Secret of Mana guidelines: Dryad on Floor 7 seems a little harsh to me. You get Dryad in the third-to-the-last dungeon of the game in a not particularly long game, and normally (at least in my view) Floor 7 is only the final dungeon. Even if you equally split the game into 7 parts, Dryad is at best on the dividing line. I'd recommend Floor 6.
DQ8 notes:
This is totally optional and up to Nephrite, but some notes / suggested standards on DQ8 characters and when they get their skills, since I was researching the topic anyway:
Floor 1: Farebury, Alexandria, Maella Abbey
Floor 2: Ascantha, Pickham, Trodain
Floor 3: Moleworld, Ocean, Argonia
Floor 4: Dark Ruins, Arcadia, Orkutsk
Floor 5: Dragon Graveyard, Pirate's Cove
Floor 6: Empychuu, World of Darkness
Floor 7: Black Citadel
Floor 8: Early postgame
Floor 9: End postgame
Floor 10: Gratuitous overlevelling
DQ8 is a freakin' long game, so each floor is actually a considerable number of dungeons. Only exception is Floor 7, which seems to be the final dungeon / very early postgame traditionally. Also, DQ8 hands out early levels like candy, then slows down, hence the high level gain on floor 1. As a final note, from a very literalistic perspective Jessica and Angelo might be slightly screwed on Floor 1 due to technically joining with 0 skill points but not at level 1, but that's clearly an artifact of how the game works - if J&A had joined earlier, clearly they would have started gaining skill points earlier. As such I've mildly bumped Angelo's SP from what you might expect on floor 1 to reflect an earlier join, though not later on (the low-skill point join should be punished, but not THAT much). I've included the literalist version in parentheses for those who'd take Angelo's skill points exactly at level 15. The skill point gain is the same every game apparently, so the totals are not approximations (though if you adjust the level, obviously the SP will move up or down with it).
Floor Level Guv Yangus Jessica Angelo
1 ~15 38 68 45 18 (10)
2 ~20 63 87 67 33
3 ~26 95 106 97 55
4 ~31 122 137 133 83
5 ~36 158 176 169 116
6 ~39 181 195 198 140
7 ~43 209 219 225 175
8 ~47 229 231 238 204
9 ~53 243 249 247 233
10 65? 268 266 270 266
Other notes: Your level will cap the maximum amount of skill points you can toss into a single category, so no 100-SP skills until Floor 6. Also, skill seeds exist. In game you'll feed them to Angelo because he's the one who needs them the most, but probably the fairest thing to do in the DL is to distribute them equally among non-Yangus characters (Yangus gets plenty of skill points but only needs one tree mastered so it's a total waste to give them to him), so by the final floors it would be reasonable to add +10 or so to everyone's skill total (except Yangus). EDIT: Just to be clear, the table above doesn't include skill seeds at all. I knew this would be something with different interpretations, so it's been left out completely.
As for level dependent skills:
Guv:
Floor 1: Heal, Squelch (Cures poison), Sizz
Floor 2: Midheal, Sizzle
Floor 3: Fullheal (?)
Floor 4: Zing, Kasizzle
Floor 10: Dragon Soul
Fullheal is level 27, but throwing Guv a bone here.
Jessica:
Floor 1: Frizz, Sap, Crack, Sizz, Snooze, Bang
Floor 2: Crackle, Oomph, Sizzle
Floor 3: Frizzle, Boom, Insulate
Floor 4: Kaboom, Kafrizzle, Kasizzle, Kacrackle
Angelo:
Floor 1: Heal, Woosh, Buff, Tingle (anti-sleep/paralysis), Kabuff, Midheal
Floor 2: Whack, Swoosh, Zing
Floor 3: Thwack, Fullheal
Floor 4: Multiheal, Kaswoosh (?)
Floor 5: Kazing
Kaswoosh is level 32.
Also edit: Decided to include some "default" dungeon builds for skill points (Obviously dungeon runners can specify their own, but as a starting point.)
Guv:
Guv almost always wants to go Swords & Courage, but the order is not clear. It's also possible to run into Boomerangs to grab Attack +5 (12 SP), Power Throw (18SP, no attack decrease on later targets), and Attack +10 (22SP) on the cheap. Guv can also grab Defending Champion for *super Defends* off 11 Fisticuffs if you have some Firefly style effect. Fear. A sample:
F1: Swords 22, Spears 7, Courage 9 (Dragon Slash, Flame Slash, Atk +10 for Sword; Atk +5 for Spear and Mercurial Thrust (initiative spear thwack).
F2: Swords 22, Spears 7, Courage 34 (Tingle, 2 points away from Fizzle (Silence, possibly legal w/skill seed?))
F3: Swords 22, Spears 7, Courage 66 (Fizzle, Zap, MP costs 75%)
F4: Swords 33, Spears 7, Courage 82 (Kamikaze, Omniheal, Metal Slash)
F5: Swords 61, Spears 7, Courage 90 (MP costs 50%, Sword Critical Hit Up, Falcon Slash)
F6: Swords 74, Spears 7, Courage 100 (Gigaslash, Kazap, Sword Attack +25)
F7: Swords 100, Spears 9, Courage 100 (Miracle Slash, Gigagash)
Jessica:
Staves are definitely the default choice with Jessica in the dungeon; lots of good stuff there, and powers up Magic Burst much later with the MP boost. Jessica also probably wants to dip a bit into Whips for the mighty Twin Dragon Lash. Once Staves starts maxing out, you have two choices for long-term investments at 100 SP: Sex Appeal to eventually get Hustle Dance (mehish MT healing, but it's free) which also gets Kasnooze at 68 points or Fisticuffs for the mighty Magic Burst. Note that Magic Burst obviously still has its big weakness come into play in the Dungeon, but if you can status out the next match, Jessica can sit there with a staff out and slowly regen all her MP while your opponent is helpless.
F1: Whips 23, Staves 22 (Attack +10, Whiplash, Twin Dragon Lash; Accelerate, Kasap, Max MP+20, Bounce)
F2: Whips 23, Staves 44 (Magic Barrier, Max MP+50)
F3: Whips 23, Staves 74 (Caduceus, MP Recovery)
F4: Whips 23, Staves 87, Other 23 (Max MP +100) (Running into the level cap here.)
F5: Whips 23, Staves 97, Other 49
F6: Whips 23, Staves 100, Other 75 (Kazing)
F7: Whips 23, Staves 100, Other 100, OtherOther 2 (Hustle Dance / Magic Burst as noted above.)
Angelo:
Uh, you're probably on your own here. All of Angelo's non-Fisticuffs skill sets have worth; probably depends on the team which way you'd build him. Something to be said for all the options, though I suppose the major divide is between Swords (get at least SOME damage on Angelo) or Staves. I'm assuming a supporty-Staff type here.
F1: Swords 4, Staff 11, Charisma 3 (Swd. Attack +5, Dazzle (Blind), Fizzle (Silence), Bounce, Squelch (anti-Poison)
F2: Swords 9, Staff 17, Charisma 7 (Flame Slash, Drain Magic, Fuddle (Confusion))
F3: Swords 9, Staff 29, Charisma 7 (Max MP+20)
F4: Swords 9, Staff 57, Charisma 7 (Caduceus, Kathwack)
F5: Swords 15, Bows 18, Staff 66, Charisma 7 (Oomph, Swd. Attack +10, Sandman's Arrow, Cherub's Arrow (MP-healing))
F6: Swords 15, Bows 18, Staff 80, Charisma 17 (Max MP+50, Sarcastic Snigger (YES))
F7: Swords 15, Bows 18, Staff 80, Charisma 52 (Angel Eyes, Divine Intervention, Ban Dance (insta-win vs. FFT Dancer?), Chilling Chuckle)
F8: Swords 15, Bows 18, Staff 80, Charisma 81 (Kafuddle, Charming Look(paralysis+damage))
(Angelo's 100 Staff ability is MP recovery, which would be more relevant if Angelo could also have 100 Swords and be spamming Lightning Storm, which is pretty MP-intensive.)
EDIT: I have added a level to floor 7, with Neph's blessing. This avoids brutal respect splits based on whether Skill Seeds are allowed or not - Guv definitely gets Gigagash, Jessica gets whatever her second 100 SP skill is (Magic Burst / Hustle Dance / Kazing).