Final Fantasy/Black magic: Difference between revisions

There are several other spells that do not belong in a specific family, but tend to be focused on causing [[Final Fantasy/Gameplay#Status ailments|status ailments]], such as darkness, stone, or stop. Black magic also includes the spell [[#Temper|Temper]], which raises the targets strength and [[#Haste|Haste]], which increases the number of hits per attack.

Black Wizards can be incredibly powerful, especially later in the game. They can cast spells that do elemental damage (great against the Fiends), cause status aliments, and enhance your characters’ physical power. They can also learn a number of instant-death spells. However, these are not particularly useful since they only work a small percentage of the time. The elemental spells, Haste, Temper, and Flare are very useful throughout the game.  

: Fire and bolt are very powerful in the beginning of the game, though they only work against one enemy at a time. Neither Focus1 nor [[#Sleep1|Sleep1]] are very useful, however Focus tends to work more often than Sleep.

: Fire2 and Bolt2 are fantastic spells since they hit every enemy on the screen at once. These spells (and Ice2) are useful throughout the game since you will often be large groups of enemies at once. [[#Bind|Bind]] rarely works, but Focus2 decreases the number of hits your enemy can get in per attack, when it works.

: For obvious reasons you want Fire3 before going into the Ice Cavern, and you should also have it going into the Terra Cave, where you will fight wave after wave of the undead. Warp1 is very useful as it can pull you out of a dungeon instantly. Like all instant-death spells, [[#Poison|Poison]] rarely works and shouldn't be bothered with.

: You'll have noticed by now that the elemental spells are the most useful offensive black magic there is, so get Bolt3. [[#Reaper|Reaper]] and Stun only target one enemy at a time and barely work, though Reaper works more often than Poison. Quake is an instant-death spell that works surprisingly often, though flying enemies are immune.

: As with every other elemental spell, get Ice3. Break works often, and technically isn't an instant-death spell, so more enemies are vulnerable to it. [[#Blind|Blind]] works against almost nothing by the time you get it. Saber would be ''very'' useful, except you can only use it on the caster. Once you get the [[Final Fantasy/Weapons#Cat Claws|Cat Claws]], the Black Wizard can do a reasonable amount of damage, so Saber can be useful every once in a while.

: Flare is the strongest spell in the game, and especially useful against foes like Chaos and WarMech. Stop works often enough, just not against bosses. [[#Doom|Doom]] and Warp are both instant-death spells, Warp just works against all enemies, while Doom only works on one at a time.

Since a Red Mage can only equip three spells of each level you have to pick three of eight (well, of six or seven in many cases) spells. This is why it is not recommended that you replace both a Black and White Wizard with a single Red Wizard. There are a lot of white spells that are very useful that the Red Wizard cannot cast (Dias, Heals, Cure4, Life2 specifically). However the black magic spells that the Red Wizard can't cast are not especially useful (mostly instant death spells, which rarely work). Fortunately there aren't too many instances where there are more than three "must have" spells that the Red Wizard can learn.

Generally the white (and black) magic that the Red Wizard should learn is the same as the other Wizards, however a lot of it depends on if there is another Black, Red, or White Wizard in the party, or if the Red Wizard is the only magic user.

The Ninja can learn any level 1 - 4 spell, however by the time you get the class change, the vast majority of them will be useless. They will be too weak to bother with, or it would be better to use your Ninja, which can do reasonable damage, as a physical fighter rather than casting spells. The exceptions are the Level 2 spell, [[#Steel|Steel]], which can be used to raise a character's attack and the level 4 spell, [[#Haste|Haste]], which doubles the number of hits per attack a character gets.