Final Fantasy V/Magic and skills

White Magic
There are 18 White spells divided into 6 tiers of 3 each. Each White ability earned lets you cast spells from an additional tier with the White ability equipped, so you can cast White spells at any level with the White 6 ability. A W. Mage can cast any White spell. Red Mages can cast White spells in the first three tiers but no further. Again, each Red ability earned lets you cast spells from an additional tier with the Red ability equipped. Unless otherwise noted, all White spells are reflected by targets with Reflect status.

Black Magic
Like White Magic, Black Magic is divided into 6 tiers of 3 each, and each Black ability earned adds another tier to the spells you can cast with the Black ability equipped. Red mages can also cast Black spells, but again, only up to third tier. Unless otherwise noted, all Black spells are reflected by targets with Reflect status. Since Black spell are usually hostile, the damage done is reduced according to the Magic Defense of the target.

Spellblade Magic
With two exceptions, all swords spells are the same as Black spells, the difference being that the spell is cast on a sword and then the sword casts the spell on the target whenever it is used to attack. The exceptions are that the Black spell Toad is replaced by the White spell Mute, and the Black spell Doom is replaced by the White spell Holy. The effects of Sword spells are similar to that of the corresponding Black (or White) spell, with a major advantage being that Sword spells do not have to be recast. A disadvantage is that the caster uses up a turn casting the spell before actually attacking.

Time Magic
Time Magic, as well, is divided into 6 tiers of 3 each, and each Time ability earned adds another tier to the spells you can cast with the Time ability equipped. Unless otherwise noted, all Time spells are reflected by targets with Reflect status.

Summon Magic
Summon Magic, as well, is divided into tiers of 3 each, and each Summon ability earned adds another tier to the spells you can cast with the Time ability equipped. In this case there are only 5 tiers.

Blue
There are 30 Blue spells which can be cast by Blue Mages and characters with the Blue ability equipped. These spells must be learned from enemies. This happens when an enemy casts the spell on a Blue Mage or a character with the Learning ability equipped. For beneficial spells, the enemy will only cast it on other enemies and you can only learn the spell by inflicting Muddle. In some cases, the enemy will not cast the spell spontaneously at all and you must use the Cntrl ability. Unless otherwise noted, Blue spells are not reflected.

Dance
There are four possible Dance spells which are invoked using the Dance ability or attacking with Dancing Dirk. Three are similar to other spells but do not require MP. You have no control over which spell is cast but you do select the target.

Three equipment parts modify the Dance command by replacing the very useful "Tempting Tango" with the less useful "Sword Dance". Anyway, such items have other advantages.

Song
There are eight songs which can be used by Bards. Four of these must be sung continuously and take effect gradually. This induces the Singing status, which continue until the singer is interrupted by a physical attack. If the singer is interrupted, the effect does not disappear but stops growing. The effect will continue to grow if the song is sung again.

Animal
These "spells" are invoked by the Critt ability (Lv 1 Hunter). There is no control over which animal is summoned, though most of them affect an entire party. The lack of control is a drawback, but the savings in MP can make it worthwhile. Which animals are available depends on the caster's level, with new and more helpful spells being added to the mix as the character levels up. The effects of Black Shock and LVL song are taken into account here, so you can get any animal if you let LVL song go for a while before casting.

Terrain
These are spells invoked by the Earth ability. As with animal magic, there is no control over which spell is cast or the target, but no MP is used and this sometimes makes up for this drawback. Also as with animal magic, which spells are available depends on the level of the caster. At any given location there are four possible spells, with the first spell always available and new and more powerful being added to the mix as the character levels up. The second spell starts to appear at level 10, the third at level 20, and the fourth and final spell at level 50. In this case, the possible spells depend on the terrain as well. So, for example, you will get different spells if you use Earth in a forest than if you use it in a desert. The terrain types for the world map are forest, plain, beach, swamp, desert and ship, but the actual terrain depends on the specific location. Each dungeon has one or more terrains as well, so there are dozens of different terrains in the game. Though there is some overlap in the spells between terrains, there are still dozens of different terrain spells in the game. The following is only a partial list.


 * Will O' Wisp
 * Fire based attack on single enemy. Has a chance of inflicting Muddle status.


 * Gust
 * Wind based attack on single enemy.


 * Stalactite
 * Attack on single enemy.

Mixing
These are spells invoked by the Mix ability. The idea is that two items are mixed and produce a new effect which combines the effects of the both items, or creates a completely new effect. There are twelve items which can be mixed; nine of them are ordinary items can can be found in shops, but the rest can only be used for mixing and can only be found as treasure or obtained from enemies as drops or using Steal. The twelve mixable items are The order in which the items are mixed makes no difference, which means there are 78 possible recipes. There is some overlap though so there are actually around 55 different mixing spells.
 * Phoenix Down
 * Tonic
 * Ether
 * Elixir
 * Antidote
 * Potion
 * Eye Drop
 * Maiden'sKiss
 * Holy Water
 * Turtle Shell
 * Dark Matter
 * Dragon Fang

Elements
There are eight elements in Final Fantasy V; they are Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison, Bolt, Ice and Fire. Many spells and some weapons are based on an element, and this changes their potency on some enemies. In addition, if a Sword spell is cast on a weapon, the weapon acquires that element. For each enemy, there are four possible ways that the element of an attack can affect that enemy:
 * Weak
 * Defense against the attack is nullified and the damage done is doubled.


 * Normal
 * There is no change.


 * Resist
 * Damage reduced to half.


 * Nullify
 * No damage is done.


 * Absorb
 * Damage is changed to healing.