How do you use black mage characters?

[Zorafim]

One of the classic RPG character types are the characters that can use offensive magic at the expense of physical stats. Normally, this means that they're pulling out numbers similar to the melee characters, as well as having a limited number of attacks and dieing quicker. Well, how do you use them well?

I normally have them just attack with a melee weapon, pretending that they're a meleer that sucks, until I reach a bossfight. Once that happens, I have them use their most offensive spell to deal as much damage as possible in as short amount of time as possible, to make the battle as short as possible. Of course, this means they're useless in normal battles. But, it seems to me that if I use their magic on normal enemies, they'll have nothing left for the boss fights, and their damage still won't amount to much.


Is there some way to use these characters that I'm not aware of?

[Scrub]

This isn't really a relevant question in general for games nowadays, because of the incredibly different mechanics every RPG has.

What game(s) in particular are you wondering about?

[Zorafim]

Well, in particular, FF games. FFI's blackmage had a very limited MP pool, though its system allowed for use of low level spells without using up its high level spells. FFIII had a similar system, but its MP pool was much larger, making it more practical, though its meleers were still overall more useful. FFIV went to the MP system, so I saved Rydia's spells for bosses and had her whip things. FFVI's spells weren't very useful, unless used for buffs, and neither were FFVII's. FFX went back to using a black mage character, whom I only used to take out melee resistant monsters and once I got her best weapon.

I'm talking about RPGs in general, young and old. I'm sure most, though not all, have a spell caster that has bad physical stats, and must use their MP to do anything. Surely, there must be some general formula for their use.

[Scrub]

Well I personally love spellcasters, so I generally stock up on whatever kind of Mana potions or whatever that I can, and fill my team full of them.

Most games with any sort of magic system usually have some kind of mana restoring potion(i didnt play any of the old final fantasy games because they looked boring), so as long as you stack up on those you can generally throw fireballs at your will.

In these types of games, I would rather blow all my money on Mana recovery items than new weapons for my swordsman or whatever.

[Split]

it's basically like a turn based version of being a force in PSO, you've gotta stock up on magic restoratives just like scrub said. People (including myself) are always afraid to spend money in rpgs, when it's really a lot easier to obtain than you think. I do prefer a good melee character though, because I hate relying on items...

[Angelo]

Speaking entirely of FF1, the Black Mage was awesome because not only did they have great offensive spells but this is back when the Black Mage had some really awesome attack buffs for Melee players (Temper, Haste). This basically took some weight off the White Mage's back who in later RPGs had to do all the buffing. In FF1 the Black Mage would do nice offensive, situational spells and cast attacking buffs while the White Mage would heal the party and cast defensive buffs.

That's how I used them in Final Fantasy 1.

In FF2 I basically made Maria my 'multi-purpose' mage, since magic wasn't a huge deal in that game and leveling up spells was almost more of a pain than leveling up TECHNICs in PSU.

In FF3 I swapped classes too many times to even remember.

In FF4 (I'm going to go by the GBA version since I think party-swapping is awesome) I actually ended the game with two black mages on a team. I used Rydia for her summons entirely (begining each battle with her equipped with the Mist Ring so her Dragon Summon gave the party that awesome evasion buff, 'Blink') and I swapped out Edge for Palom. Even without Porom, Palom is awesome on his own because his special ability 'Boast' raises his magic attack significantly AND it stacks, he also learns Nuke and Meteo by the end of the game.

In FF5 I used a black mage throughout the entire game with Galuf and later Krile playing the role. I admit though that this time around I wasn't as tactical with my black mage and mainly used spells because of their situational attributes (zomg! this guy's weak against lightning! *ZAP* zomg! this guy's weak against fire! *FWOM*).

It had become obvious that by the time FF5 came out RPGs were becoming significantly easier and that the tactics of using a caster, or melee fighter, or whatever wasn't really something you had to think hard about.





<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Angelo on 2007-12-26 13:33 ]</font>