As much as I love the later FF games I also enjoy some of the oldies just as much. In the first game you could choose 4 characters. What did you go for?

I've been through the game a couple of times and used this party:

Fighter
Red Mage
White Mage
Black Mage

It's a good, well balanced group (but a little expensive to equip)

If I was going to go through the game again i'd probably swap the red or black mage for another fighter, as they seemed to do much more damage against basic baddies.

yeah mine was group int the first game was

Fighter
Theif
BlackMage
WhiteMage

i just like them for some reasons.

I believe I had this:

Fighter
Red Mage
Monk
Thief

I wasn't keen on Theifs. They can't fight as well as Fighters and they don't do sod all else untill class change when they get a tiny bit of black magic.

and I really didn't like Monks. They got absolutely nothing at class change, and I don't think they belong in a medievil fantasy.

Thieves can double attack and have high evasion to make up for poor def. Monks are along the same lines, minus the double attack and evasion. I'm just the type that focuses more on the physical and not the magical. Sure, the loss of def might cost ya, but at least you'll have the power to do single K.O's (if you train properly)