The original game -was- really bad with multiple activations, you ninjas. Used to the awesome Line Guard in EO3, I specced my Paladin into Front Guard at first... which can only guard against one attack. Ugh. Does Mikiri also only guard against one attack?
If you put three points into Front Guard and three points into Rear Guard you unlock Defender. That buff will raise your entire party's defense and along with Medic's Immunize both are skills that I've heard are essential when dealing with FOEs and bosses. I made it a priority for my Protector to get Defender for that reason.
...I get a lot of my information from GameFAQs mind you. A guide I read recommended it and it has worked well for me. A guide also recommended Provoke in combination with Parry, which while I haven't tried yet sounds like a good combination.
My EO1 party, in fact, runs on P/Defender, M/Immunize and H/Exhaust. Absolute defense. I've not even met anything that can inflict double-digit damage to me while all buffs are up (at least on the physical side)
And I'd seriously recommend you stay away from Provoke. It just has never seemed to work for me (pre-EO3). The two best Paladin skills are Defender and Smite, followed by the Anti-Elements (essential, but situational), you don't really need any of the personal defense skills. (But you'll have decent levels in Fortify from speccing into Smite.) I've beaten the game, I think I know a bit about it.
And yes, Immunize is broken. But you'll have huge problems against any elemental AoE without it, and both the third and fourth stratum boss utilize those. You could try to compensate with Anti-Elements but that's a guessing game (leaving your Paladin fully unable to do, well, anything else), or you spec into the Bard's elemental resistance stuff, which is bloody expensive for how little it's going to give to you. Still, you should probably play without Immunize, it's a tad broken. (I maxed it, but didn't realize until postgame that it actually reduces physical damage too, not only elemental. So I didn't abuse it 'till no tomorrow.)
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Ah, the full farmer party. ^^' I've never approached that, but plan to do so for one New Game Plus. Your defense game isn't going to be all that bad (Rotten Egg lol), but how do you plan to kill things? SHO subclasses for Warrior's Might? (Endure + Persistence, lol)