Black magic is simply great to have, even if you have strong attackers capable of killing most things in one hit. You will often be facing large groups of enemies, and a physical attack (no matter how strong) can only kill on enemy at a time. A mid or high level spells can hit every thing at once, and once you start finding items capable of casting spells, you don't even need physical attacks for many fights. Black magic can also be used to augment your attackers, letting them deal hundreds of points in damage to even the strongest bosses.
While in the original version each character could cast each level of magic a certain number of times, in Dawn of Souls (DoS), spells cost a varying amount of points taken from a single pool of magic points.
Users
- See also: spell recommendations
- Black mages: Uses any level 1 - 6 spell (except Warp) and Ice3
- Black wizards: Uses any spell
- Red mages: Uses level 1 - 5 spells, and Fire3
- Red wizards: Uses most level 1 - 5 spells, Bolt3, and Ice3
- Ninjas: Uses level 1 - 4 spells
Spells
Many mid and high levels spells are not unique, but are improved versions of low levels spells. Each "family" of spells usually contains three versions, though some have two or four.
- Elemental families: Casts Ice, Fire, or Lightning spells, 2nd and 3rd levels can hit all enemies.
- Death family: Kills enemies instantly. Low chance of success, some target all enemies.
- Sleep family: Put enemies to sleep until they are hit or wake up
- Slow family: Reduces the number of hits per attack
There are several other spells that do not belong in a specific family, but cause status ailments, such as darkness, stone, or stop. Black magic also includes the spells Temper and Saber, which raises the targets strength and the spell Haste, which increases the number of hits per attack.
Black Magic
- Level 1: Fire1, Bolt1, Focus1, Sleep1
- Level 2: Ice1, Slow, Fog, Steel
- Level 3: Fire2, Bolt2, Bind, Focus2
- Level 4: Haste, Ice2, Sleep2, Muddle
- Level 5: Fire3, Warp1, Poison, Slow2
- Level 6: Bolt3, Reaper, Quake, Stun
- Level 7: Ice3, Break, Saber, Blind
- Level 8: Flare, Doom, Stop, Warp
Spells are listed under the Origins name. Original Name refers to the NES name. DoS Name and DoS MP are the Dawn of Souls name and MP cost, respectively. Spells in DoS and Origins Easy Mode cost are listed in parenthesis next to the original cost.
Level 1
Fire1
- Original Name: Fire
- DoS Name: Fire
- Cost: 100 (50)
- Effect:: Causes a small amount of fire elemental damage to one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Cornelia
Bolt1
- Original Name: Lit (Lightning)
- DoS Name: Thunder
- Cost: 100 (50)
- Effect:: Causes a small amount of bolt elemental damage to one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Cornelia
Focus1
- Original Name: Lock
- DoS Name: Focus
- Cost: 100 (50)
- Effect:: Increases one character's hit rate.
- Range:: One character
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Cornelia
Sleep1
- Original Name: Sleep
- DoS Name: Sleep
- Cost: 100 (50)
- Effect:: Puts one enemy to sleep, disabling their commands.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Cornelia
Level 2
Ice1
- Original Name: Ice
- DoS Name: Blizzard
- Cost: 400 (250)
- Effect:: Causes ice elemental damage to one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Pravoca
Slow
- Original Name: Slow
- DoS Name: Slow
- Cost: 400 (250)
- Effect:: Decreases one enemy's hit rate.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Pravoca
Fog
- Original Name: Dark
- DoS Name: Dark
- Cost: 400 (250)
- Effect:: Causes blind status to enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Pravoca
Steel
- Original Name: Tmpr (Temper)
- DoS Name: Temper
- Cost: 400 (250)
- Effect:: Increases one character's attack power.
- Range:: One character
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Pravoca
Level 3
Fire2
- Original Name: Fir2 (Fire 2)
- DoS Name: Fira
- Cost: 1500 (1000)
- Effect:: Causes a medium amount of fire elemental damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Bolt2
- Original Name: Lit2 (Lightning 2)
- DoS Name: Thundara
- Cost: 1500 (1000)
- Effect:: Causes a medium amount of bolt elemental damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Bind
- Original Name: Hold
- DoS Name: Hold
- Cost: 1500 (1000)
- Effect:: Stuns one enemy, disabling all commands.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Focus2
- Original Name: Lok2 (Lock 2)
- DoS Name: Focara
- Cost: 1500 (1000)
- Effect:: Decreases all enemies' evade.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Level 4
Ice2
- Original Name: Ice 2
- DoS Name: Blizzara
- Cost: 4000 (2500)
- Effect:: Causes a medium amount of ice elemental damage.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Haste
- Original Name: Fast
- DoS Name: Haste
- Cost: 4000 (2500)
- Effect:: Increases one character's hits.
- Range:: One character
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Sleep2
- Original Name: Slp2 (Sleep 2)
- DoS Name: Sleepara
- Cost: 4000 (2500)
- Effect:: Puts one enemy into a deep sleep, disabling their commands.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Muddle
- Original Name: Conf (Confuse)
- DoS Name: Confuse
- Cost: 4000 (2500)
- Effect:: Causes enemies to attack other enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard
Ninja - Location: Elfheim
Level 5
Fire3
- Original Name: Fir3 (Fire 3)
- DoS Name: Firaga
- Cost: 8000 (5000)
- Effect:: Causes a large amount of fire elemental damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard - Location: Melmond
Warp1
- Original Name: Warp
- DoS Name: Teleport
- Cost: 8000 (5000)
- Effect:: Teleports party back one floor in dungeons.
- Range:: Entire party
- Users: Black Wizard
Red Wizard - Location: Melmond
Poison
- Original Name: Bane
- DoS Name: Scourge
- Cost: 8000 (5000)
- Effect:: Kills all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Wizard - Location: Melmond
Slow2
- Original Name: Slo2 (Slow 2)
- DoS Name: Slowara
- Cost: 8000 (5000)
- Effect:: Decreases one enemies' hit rate
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Mage
Red Wizard - Location: Melmond
Level 6
Bolt3
- Original Name: Lit3 (Lightning 3)
- DoS Name: Thundaga
- Cost: 20000 (13000)
- Effect:: Causes a large amount of bolt elemental damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Wizard - Location: Crescent Lake
Reaper
- Original Name: Rub
- DoS Name: Death
- Cost: 20000 (13000)
- Effect:: Kills one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard - Location: Crescent Lake
Quake
- Original Name: Qake (Quake)
- DoS Name: Quake
- Cost: 20000 (13000)
- Effect:: Kills all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard - Location: Crescent Lake
Stun
- Original Name: Stun
- DoS Name: Stun
- Cost: 20000 (13000)
- Effect:: Stuns one enemy, disabling all commands.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard - Location: Crescent Lake
Level 7
Ice3
- Original Name: Ice3
- DoS Name: Blizzaga
- Cost: 45000 (30000)
- Effect:: Causes a large amount of ice elemental damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard
Red Wizard - Location: Gaia
Break
- Original Name: Brak (Break)
- DoS Name: Break
- Cost: 45000 (30000)
- Effect:: Turns one enemy into stone.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Gaia
Saber
- Original Name: Sabr (Saber)
- DoS Name: Saber
- Cost: 45000 (30000)
- Effect:: Increases caster's attack power.
- Range:: Caster
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Onlak
Blind
- Original Name: Blnd (Blind)
- DoS Name: Blind
- Cost: 45000 (30000)
- Effect:: Causes blind status to one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Mage
Black Wizard - Location: Onlak
Level 8
Flare
- Original Name: Nuke
- DoS Name: Flare
- Cost: 60000 (40000)
- Effect:: Causes a very large amount of damage to all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Lufenia
Doom
- Original Name: XXXX
- DoS Name: Kill
- Cost: 60000 (40000)
- Effect:: Kills one enemy.
- Range:: One enemy
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Gaia
Stop
- Original Name: Stop
- DoS Name: Stop
- Cost: 60000 (40000)
- Effect:: Stuns all enemies, disabling their commands.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Gaia
Warp
- Original Name: Zap!
- DoS Name: Warp
- Cost: 60000 (40000)
- Effect:: Kills all enemies.
- Range:: All enemies
- Users: Black Wizard
- Location: Gaia
Recommendations
Black Mages/Wizards
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 (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.
- * denotes the bare minimum spells to get
- 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 are very useful, however Focus works more often than Sleep.
- Ice1 will do more damage against non-elemental enemies than Fire1 or Bolt1, and every little bit helps. Steel raises the attack power of a character in your party, which makes it a spell that you should use against every boss you encounter. It is also stackable, so the character's attack can go higher and higher. Neither Slow nor Fog work very well or very often, but Slow tends to be a little less worthless.
- 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 facing large groups of enemies at once. Bind rarely works, but Focus2 decreases the number of hits your enemy can get in per attack, when it works.
- Ice2 works well against almost anything, and is especially helpful in the Volcano, which is a relatively hard dungeon. Haste doubles the number of hits your character can do per attack, so it is a spell that is useful for every boss fight. Muddle works a surprising amount of the time, but there is an item that can cast the spell for free, so get Sleep2 instead.
- For obvious reasons you want Fire3 before going into the Ice Cavern, and you should also have it going into the Terra Cave, in which you will fight wave after wave of the undead. Warp1 is nice as it can pull you out of a dungeon, but you cannot get it until after the class change. Like all instant-death spells, 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 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 and bosses 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 works against almost nothing by the time you get it. Saber would be very useful, except you can only use it on the caster. That said, once you get the 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 Chaos and WarMech. Stop works often enough, just not against bosses. Doom and Warp are both instant-death spells; Warp works against all enemies, while Doom only works on one at a time (but has a higher success rate).
Red Mages/Wizards
- main article: [Final Fantasy/Red magic|Red magic]]
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. Additionally, there are a lot of white spells that are very useful that the Red Wizard cannot cast (Dias, Heals, Cure4, Life2 specifically). Fortunately there aren't too many instances where there are more than three "must have" spells that the Red Wizard can learn.
Generally the 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.
Please see the Red Magicians' magic page for recommendations based on party configuration.
Ninjas
The Ninja can learn any level 1 - 4 spell, however by the time you get the class change, most of them will be useless. They will either be too weak to bother with or it would be better to use your Ninja, who can do reasonable damage, as a physical fighter instead of casting a spell. The exceptions are the Level 2 spell, Steel, which can be used to raise a character's attack and the level 4 spell, Haste, which doubles the number of hits per attack a character gets.
- None of them are really worth getting as the Ninja will almost always do more damage than the elemental spells, and enemies aren't very vulnerable to Focus or Sleep later in the game.
- 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.
- Fire2 and Bolt2 might be useful since you can clear out multiple weak enemies at once. However, by the time you get a Ninja you will have the Gauntlets, which can cast Bolt2 for free.
- 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.
Tips
- Elemental spells did not work properly in the original (NES) version of Final Fantasy. As a result no enemy was weak against anything - Fire elementals took the same damage from Ice2 as they did from Fire2, for example. This was corrected with all of the other versions of the game.
- Status aliment inducing spells are useless. The enemies that are powerful enough that you would bother with a spell are, for the most part, immune to these types of spells.
- Instant-death spells are, by and large, useless. They have a low probability of success, and most of the stronger enemies (including the common ones) are immune.
- Quake and Break, while they instantly kill an enemy, are not members of the death family of spells. As a result many common enemies that cannot be killed by instant-death spells can be killed by one of these. Most bosses are immune to these two spells, unfortunately.
- Haste and Saber are probably the two most useful Black Magic spells. They increase the number of hits and the strength of each blow on a character. They can also be stacked, which means that in a few rounds you can make a Knight ridiculously powerful, and able to kill bosses in one or two hits. Always open a boss fight by casting these two spells on your physical attackers.