Thank you. That is exactly what I wanted to hear.
Hell, regarding her initial weapon, for how late in the game you get her, she should be either starting with a Silverang or Rockerang.
On the "punishment" characters path, Mel can join the team anytime Kid is in your party after Korcha gives you the boat. That means on that path, you could obtain her before any other character that begins with Iron equipment (except Skelly, which becomes available at the same time). In fact, this is earlier than you can obtain Pip on that path, and he begins with Bronze equipment.
Personally, I don't find the path "punishment." Korcha and Mel are not good, but Razzly has excellent magic power from the beginning. The only downside is that you don't get Glenn, which I will admit is a major downside.
I question whether Double Take does what is indicated. The success rate of Pilfer/Pillage/Snatch/Double Take seems to be related to the character's hit probability. If you want to succeed at stealing 99% of the time, always connect with a medium (2) hit immediately before performing the move. The enemies can move between the hit and the steal as long as the character is not targetted in the process (if the character runs back up to the enemy to continue a string of attacks you are good to go). I've done it this way my last time through the game, and I've only seen Pilfer miss once, and I have never seen Pillage or Snatch miss. The funny thing is this works for Double Take, too. Just make sure the character that uses the command smacked the opponent a few times before using it. Typically, I start a fight like this: Thief does light (1) hit, thief does medium (2) hit, thief steals. If the character gets targetted in the proceess, I try to hit with the medium hit again before attempting the steal. As I said, it works 99% of the time. I'd even assume that the Ninety-Nine Element would work as well, but it is not as fast unless you use several pieces of Dreamer's equipment.
I *believe* Double Take increases the probability of getting rare steals, since I almost never see rare steals unless I use Double Take. It definitely doesn't have much of an impact on success rates since it seems to miss just as often without getting hits prior to using it.
Once again, thank you for putting my mind at ease. I doubted that I missed the Bronzerang, but I wanted to be sure.
