Final Fantasy/Black magic: Difference between revisions

:''See also: [[#Recommendations|spell recommendations]]''

== Spells ==

* '''Slow family''': Reduces the number of hits per attack

== Black Magic ==

:'''Effect:''': Causes a small amount of fire elemental damage to one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Bolt1 ====

:'''Effect:''': Causes a small amount of bolt elemental damage to one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Focus1 ====

:'''Effect:''': Increases one character's hit rate.

:'''Range:''': One character

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==== Sleep1 ====

:'''Effect:''': Puts one enemy to sleep, disabling their commands.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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:'''Effect:''': Causes ice elemental damage to one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Slow ====

:'''Effect:''': Decreases one enemy's hit rate.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Fog ====

:'''Effect:''': Causes blind status to enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Steel ====

:'''Effect:''': Increases one character's attack power.

:'''Range:''': One character

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a medium amount of fire elemental damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Bolt2 ====

:'''Effect:''': Causes a medium amount of bolt elemental damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Bind ====

:'''Effect:''': Stuns one enemy, disabling all commands.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Focus2 ====

:'''Effect:''': Decreases all enemies' evade.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a medium amount of ice elemental damage.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Haste ====

:'''Effect:''': Increases one character's hits.

:'''Range:''': One character

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==== Sleep2 ====

:'''Effect:''': Puts one enemy into a deep sleep, disabling their commands.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Muddle ====

:'''Effect:''': Causes enemies to attack other enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a large amount of fire elemental damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Warp1 ====

:'''Effect:''': Teleports party back one floor in dungeons.

:'''Range:''': Entire party

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==== Poison ====

:'''Effect:''': Kills all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Slow2 ====

:'''Effect:''': Decreases one enemies' hit rate

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a large amount of bolt elemental damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Reaper ====

:'''Effect:''': Kills one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Quake ====

:'''Effect:''': Kills all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Stun ====

:'''Effect:''': Stuns one enemy, disabling all commands.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a large amount of ice elemental damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Break ====

:'''Effect:''': Turns one enemy into stone.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Saber ====

:'''Effect:''': Increases caster's attack power.

:'''Range:''': Caster

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==== Blind ====

:'''Effect:''': Causes blind status to one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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:'''Effect:''': Causes a very large amount of damage to all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Doom ====

:'''Effect:''': Kills one enemy.

:'''Range:''': One enemy

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==== Stop ====

:'''Effect:''': Stuns all enemies, disabling their commands.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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==== Warp ====

:'''Effect:''': Kills all enemies.

:'''Range:''': All enemies

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== Recommendations ==

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.  

: 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.

* '''[[#Level 7|Level 7]]:''' [[#Ice3|Ice3]]*, [[#Break|Break]], [[#Saber|Saber]]

* '''[[#Level 8|Level 8]]:''' [[#Flare|Flare]]*, [[#Stop|Stop]], [[#Warp|Warp]]

: 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.

: Get Steel, especially if nobody else knows it. If it is cast on a reasonably powerful Knight, you can double or triple their attack with a few rounds of Steel. Combined with Haste you can take out a boss in two hits.

* '''[[#Level 3|Level 3]]:''' [[#Fire2|Fire2]]*, [[#Bolt2|Bolt2]]*, [[#Focus2|Focus2]]

* '''[[#Level 4|Level 4]]:''' [[#Haste|Haste]]*, [[#Ice2|Ice2]]*, [[#Sleep2|Sleep2]]

: As mentioned above, Haste is a must have. Haste and Steel will soon be the two black magic spells you use the most. Ice2 is also good to have for minor enemies, since the Ninja is usually faster than the Black and Red Wizards.