Can anyone give me a good strat as far as equipment and job structure goes for Chapter 3? I've been facerolling because I grinded for the Angel Bow and switch all my guys to Thief and then later to Ranger and literally just 4x Brave and kill everything in a turn except for a few bosses on Auto. Heh, needless to say that doesn't really cut it in Chapter 3.
Well, for random encounters you can start spamming Crescent Moon, esp if you've unlocked Lu Bu's spear. If you haven't already try to get a Magic Fencer leveled, they get their -ara class spells at pretty low levels and virtually every enemy is weak to SOMETHING. It's worth using even in random encounters. I'd keep at least one Thief, simply because they're virtually guaranteed to outspeed everyone else which is a lifesaver if you have characters ending turns in critical health.
Chapter 3 has a lot of very good jobs that give you excellent abilities at low levels. I'd recommend you do all the side quests as soon as they are available, there's not a single bad job in the bunch. The Pirate is the best damage dealer class yet, and gets great skills right off the bat. The Singer has strong party buffs and the ability to give BP to allies.
And the Salve-Maker is stupidly useful. His starting ability lets him essentially fuse two items to make a stronger one. The really essential combo is Phoenix+Potion (full revive). Other combos can make the enemy weak to an element, really good w/ Magic Fencers, etc.
Not much to say about equipment except obviously use the strongest. Make sure you steal from the Pirate boss; the axe you get is rather strong.
Biggest wall w/ Chapter 3 is the Fire Temple boss. Best advice I can give is to get a Singer to do +def buffs, and spam Salve-Maker attack items.