Originally Posted by commodorejohn
BMFFI: You forget that NUKE is the only offensive spell besides FADE that retains full effectiveness against Chaos. All the others (FIR3, ICE3, LIT3) do laughably little damage. And by the end of the game, it's not two casts; it's typically more like four or five. And White Wizards can cast CUR4 and LIF2, both of which are practically must-haves for the final battle. (Although I did manage to beat the game without a White Mage once. Still had a BM though.)
I dont know what you are doing but in my game experiences FAST + Master with his fists and FAST + Red Wizard with Masmune > 2 Casts of Nuke/and or Fade. And if you are playing Origins ad Steel or Saber to that and you are laughing as CHAOS falls it a couple of rounds.
And IMO Cur4 and Life2 are some of the most useless spells in the game. If you have a good party than there really is no need for Life2, every time I take a Fi/?/Wm/Bm I usally end up using my Life spells ON the Wm/Bm.
And as for Cur4. Cur4 costs more than the total you'll need to spend on heal potions for the entire game. Its pointless to level up so high that you can have 5 casts of it. I usally beat the game at level 25-28 (which is easily done)so that means I only have like 2 casts of the level 8 spells.
So they are not must haves at all. Considering I have beaten a solo Thief no class change should prove it.