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, Red mage
 * Fire crystal jobs: Knight (DS only), Scholar (DS only), Ranger (NES only)
 * Water crystal jobs: Mystic knight (NES only)
 * Earth crystal jobs: Devout, Sage
 * Secret job: Onion knight (DS only)

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)

Summon Magic
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.

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

Unless specified otherwise, Evoker attacks target one enemy only, while Summoner attacks 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.

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, regardless of the equipped harp. Instead, the NES bard has two more skills, as shown in the table below.