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Okay, I'll brag about my haul (lol).

Let me explain about the party. I just threw all the gold characters into the main party and am just leveling them up (except for Sandal – he's my husband and got a guaranteed spot there); I automatically generated an additional party for some quest with the Karlans, but haven't gotten around to disbanding it.
Another question: is it worth leveling up/upgrading bronze/silver characters, and how much sense does it make to assemble a party based on a single element? I've put together parties a couple of times on the fly just because of the element or some quest restrictions; the main quests are still easy to complete with the gold party; ideally, I want to assemble a dream team of a bunch of husbands and only use them, but that would cause problems with elemental matchups. I'm not very interested in optimization; I just want to avoid completely messing up.
Characters who stood out after playing through the story mods (I didn't play through all of them, because I didn't unlock them all).
Walder. A cool jerk.
Lowain. Another satirical jerk with his crazy buddies; a complete idiot, but he's funny. I added him to the party, and I laughed until I cried at his special attack animation.
Vermeil. The most annoying race, but this guy somehow caught my attention. Definitely not husband material, but he caught my attention.
Barawa. Not exactly my type, but he's gorgeous.
Lucius. Just glad to see a familiar face.
Richard. Low husband material.