You’ve cast off your semi-beginner appearance, you’ve gained a nifty hp/mp
boost and your skill book is now filled with all kinds of shiny things.
This is where it gets interesting.

First up, congratulations! (Although I can hit a bandit in a day w/o 2x exp)
Things won’t get really fun until at least level 45 but thankfully
the exp requirements are still sort of low. It’s a chore getting to that
level but it’s worth it. There’s also slightly less to think about here,
especially if you’re a strength bandit, as your skills are almost all useful
and you get a great many more points to add to them, although you do still
have a couple of things to think about.

Also, prepare for people to ask you to do that move with the symbols/letters
or some other description and ask to be hasted. (FLASHY SKILLS!!!!)
That’ll happen a lot, especially if you walk
around towns and other crowded areas.
If it bugs you, you could try buying a level 15 outfit or disabling your trades,
I guess.

—
Dagger mastery or savage blow
BBDAG
—

Daggery mastery is a wonderful thing. It increases the lower damage range
on every single attack you do, stabilizing your damage and making your
attacks much more reliable. It also adds a little more accuracy, which is
always nice, although by the time you hit 60, even 50, you’ll be genuinely
shocked to see a ‘miss’ unless you fight really, really silly things.
Savage blow is the single reason that some people make bandits. It looks
flashy, the damage looks incredible the first few times you see it and it
lets you rain burning metal death upon all who would oppose you. It’s the
single strongest attack you’ll have as a bandit, and it’s the one you’ll use
the most. Heck, you’ll probably use it nigh-on exclusively towards the end
of the job.

The problem you’ll have to think about here is that you can do one of two
things, you can increase mastery (to level 19 is best), upping the strength
of every attack you’ll EVER do but postpone savage for a few levels, or you
can get savage and risk that nasty 80% modifier kicking in on your poor
lower attack range. Either way, you’re working towards the same goal so it
comes down to whether you like reliable attacks or a bit of a gamble (though
if your lower range comes into play without mastery you’ll have spent 27 mp on
a fairly useless attack).
As a side note, the lowest level you should ever be using savage at is
37. If the skill isn’t level 21 or higher, double stab is more powerful.
Harsh but true, though level 1-10 savage blowing snails can be a pleasant
pastime for maybe 5 minutes.

—
Booster or haste
BBBOO
—

Tricky one, this. Booster is a pretty great skill, it makes your attacks
faster and if you’re in a mob of enemies most of the time you’ll level
faster too, but haste allows for faster travelling, allowing you to reach
enemies faster and clear a map while making you more popular for parties.
It’s much cheaper to get friendly with a small party that brings along a
cleric than it is to train normally, especially when all they ask is for an
occasional haste. I’ve found booster to be faster for general training though,
since enemies do usually come in groups.

If you plan to party a lot you might want to consider haste, though booster
is pretty much the better option. If you plan to get a shinkita, I mean if
you’re absolutely CERTAIN you’re getting one, then get haste, booster won’t
be worth it.

If you want to add a little booster then max haste, that’d work out well
since booster doesn’t improve with every level like haste, it always adds
one speed rank (pretty much), but adding levels lowers the casting cost and
increases the duration. Just up it to a level that doesn’t cause you any
particular grief from recasting it then add a little haste if you go for
booster first. Just don’t try to use a level 1 booster or something unless
you really like dealing significant damage to yourself on a constant basis.