Final Fantasy III/Magic

Many spells and skills exist in Final Fantasy III. The spells are divided into 3 categories: Black Magic, White Magic, and Summon Magic. This section also describes the effects of the Geomancer's Terrain skill and the Bard's Sing skill.

White Magic
These spells are mostly used to heal and protect your allies, though there are some attack spells among them.

White magic users:
 * Wind crystal jobs: White mage (L1-7), Red mage (L1-4)
 * Fire crystal jobs: Knight (DS only, L1), Scholar (DS only, L1-3), Ranger (NES only, L1-3)
 * Water crystal jobs: Mystic knight (NES only, L1-3 field only)
 * Earth crystal jobs: Devout (L1-8), Sage (L1-8)
 * Secret job: Onion knight (DS only, L1-8)

In the table below, only the first shop is listed. Spells are usually available in later shops after the first one.

Spells analysis
Healing spells:
 * L1/3/5/7 Cure/Cura/Curaga/Curaja
 * L5/8 Raise/Arise
 * L1 Poisona
 * L3 Blindna
 * L6 Stona
 * L7 Esuna

Field spells:
 * L1 Sight
 * L2 Mini
 * L2 Toad
 * L3 Teleport

Support spells:
 * L5 Protect
 * L6 Haste
 * L7 Reflect

Debuff spells:
 * L4 Libra
 * L4 Confuse
 * L4 Silence

Attack spells:
 * L2/6/8 Aero/Aeroga/Tornado
 * L8 Holy

Black Magic
These spells are used to deal damage and to cause status effects.

Black magic users:
 * Wind crystal: Black mage, Red mage
 * Fire crystal: Scholar (DS only)
 * Water crystal: n/a
 * Earth crystal: Magus, Sage
 * Secret: Onion knight (DS only)

Spells analysis
Field spells:
 * L6 Warp

Debuff spells:
 * L1 Sleep
 * L2 Blind
 * L4 Shade (paralysis)
 * L5 Erase (erases enemy status upgrades)

Attack spells:
 * L1/3/4 Blizzard/Blizzara/Blizzaga (element: ice)
 * L1/3/6 Fire/Fira/Firaga (element: fire)
 * L2/3/5 Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga (element: lightning)
 * L2/6 Poison/Bio (inflict "poison" status)
 * L4/7 Break/Breakga (petrify)
 * L5/8 Raze/Death (instant-death)
 * L7 Quake (element: earth)
 * L7 Drain (restores HP to caster)
 * L8 Flare (non-elemental, targets one)
 * L8 Meteor (non-elemental, targets all)

Summon Magic
Summon magic users:
 * Water crystal: Evoker
 * Earth crystal: Summoner, Sage

There are two types of Summon Magic: a type with two effects that occur randomly, and a type with one fixed effect. The former is used by Evokers, and the latter is used by Summoners. Sages can use the two-effect summons in the DS version, but in the NES version they used the fixed effect ones instead.

Unless specified otherwise, Evoker attacks target one enemy only, while Summoner attacks (and Evoker indirect effects) target all enemies. Unlike other debuff spells, the Evoker's debuff effects have 100% accuracy, missing only if the enemies are immune to the specific status ailment (sleep, stop, instant-kill, petrify).

Evoker's spells analysis

 * Support/attack spells:
 * L1 Chocobo (escape): only useful in miniaturized dungeons (e.g. Cave of the Magic Circle), where it's hard to win all battles with magic alone.
 * L4 Ifrit (heal): more useful in the deeper levels of dungeons, when the party suffered damage after fightning many battles.
 * L6 Odin (reflect): only useful against spellcasting enemies and bosses.
 * L8 Bahamut (haste): cast this spell at leisure, but not against bosses, because they are immune to istant-death attacks.


 * Debuff/attack spells:
 * L2 Shiva (sleep)
 * L3 Ramuh (paralysis)
 * These spells should be used early in the dungeons, to make battles easy during early exploration of the surroundings. Remember that physical attacks can wake up the enemies, i.e. remove "sleep" and "paralysis", so choose well your targets!


 * Attack-only spells:
 * L5 Titan: best left for battles against bosses, that are usually immune to status ailments.
 * L7 Leviathan: useful against large groups of enemies, but not against bosses (immune to instant-death and petrification)

There's no need to analyze the Summoner's spells, because all of them are attack spells that target all enemies.

Terrain
The Terrain skill is useable only by Geomancers. It harnesses the power of the earth to cause different elemental damage. The determining factor of what effect is caused is the environment the skill is used in. This skill does not consume MP.

A (+) by the skill name indicates a high chance of being cast. A (-) indicates a low chance of being cast. Note that Wind Slash, Ice Storm, or Ice Pillar occur frequently in all environments.

In the NES version, there is a chance that the Terrain ability backfires and hits the Geomancer himself. It happens if the Terrain technique misses all possible targets.

Sing
The Sing skill is useable only by Bards. Using different harps can have different effects on the songs sung. Note that the strength of the effect increases with job level.

Note that the effects of Minne, Minuet, and Elegy only last for 2 rounds of battle.

In the NES version, the Sing ability simply attacks the enemies, with no added effect. Instead, the NES bard has two more skills, as shown in the table below. Because the effects of Cheer and Scare are small but cumulative, it would be a good strategy if the Bard uses continuously the same command during a battle.