Final Fantasy II/Magic

There are 40 different spells available to the player characters in Final Fantasy 2. They can be divided in two groups: White spells, mainly dealing with healing and defense, and Black spells, mainly dealing with attack and debuff.

Every character can learn any spell. Every spell has a level that corresponds to the Magic Points (MP) necessary to cast the spell itself. Every spell starts at level 1, and the level is increased after repeated use of the spell.

The effectiveness of White spells is based on the Wisdom of the caster, while the effectiveness of Black spells is based on caster's Intelligence.

How to distinguish White and Black Magic
Whenever the players find a new spell tome, there is no direct clue whether it is White or Black.

Here's an exhaustive list of hints:
 * In the first town, the shop sells a "Cure" spell that is obviously White and three offensive spells, i.e. Blizzard, Thunder and Fire, that are obviously Black.
 * At the beginning of the second mission Minwu the White Mage joins the party. He's equipped with sixteen White spells, i.e. all except four.
 * Magic shops sell White spells. There are four "black" exceptions only: the aforementioned Fire, Blizzard and Thunder, plus the Vacuum spell.
 * Later in the game, the Ultima spell is referred to as the "ultimate White magic".
 * The last three White spells are Slow, Holy and Mini. They can all be bought in shops, but Mini can also be found in dungeons.
 * On the other hand, Black spells are generally found in chests in the dungeons. The only exceptions are a few chests containing White spells that were assigned to Minwu or the Mini spell.
 * After a spell is assigned to a character, when the character casts a White spell a white and blue energy ring appears around him/her, but when he/she casts a Black spell a yellow and green energy ring appears instead.

Magic strategy
In order to maximize the effectiveness of spells, it would be advantageous to have characters with White spells only and characters with Black spells only. Every character can learn up to 16 different spells. Considering the three main characters, one example of strategy could be the following:
 * assign 16 black spells to Maria, because she starts with higher Intelligence;
 * assign just 4 Black and 4 white spells (the "leftovers") to Guy, because he starts with low Magic, Wisdom and Intelligence;
 * assign 16 White Spells to Firion, because although he's a well balanced character, the "white mage" position is the vacant one.

The eight "leftover" spells should be spells that are found somehow early in the game, so that the later and more powerful spells can be assigned to the characters with more advanced Wisdom or Intelligence. On the other hand, the "leftovers" can also be some spells with effect very similar to other spells of the same alignment, e.g. either Silence or Fog (white spells that prevent enemy magic), either Stun or Stop (black spells that paralyze the enemies).

In order to get a high level of magic proficiency, your characters should use their magic as much as they can. As soon as you saved enough money, buy three Ethers for 1000 Gil each. Then, have your characters use their magic until they deplete all their MP: now it's time to use weapons. When a character's Health Points (HP) are low, give one Ether to your White magic user; right before the boss, give the other two Ethers to your other two main characters. The temporary fourth character generally doesn't need Ether, either because he has lots of MP (Minwu) or because he has no spells (almost everyone else).

Debuff spells are defined as "battle spells that target the enemies, but deal no damage". They are generally underestimated by beginners because they miss quite often. Truth is, a leveled-up debuff spell becomes very effective in preventing the enemies from damaging your characters, i.e. a black spell becomes sort of a defensive spell. A support white spell like Protect or Shell reduces the damage your party suffers, but a successful debuff spell like Sleep or Stun prevents damage completely!