Eyes on Final Fantasy Forums > Final Fantasy: Nerds in Paradise > Final Fantasy I > Black Mages suck

[God]

Compare a BM+WM to a RM. The RM gets moderate fighting skills; totally worthless after, say, the Earth Cave, where the BM has enough magic to use a spell just about every turn for the rest of the game. The RM doesn't get all the level 7 or 8 magic; NUKE, FADE, LIF2, WALL, those are nice to have. RM has higher defense, but mages go in the back row, and they don't get hit that often.

If I want magic, I want as much magic as possible. If your mages are going to be sitting in the back row, there's no reason not to take a BM over an RM, because a BM gets more magic, and magic is the reason you take mages.

All depends on your style and your party though. I prefer specialized characters. A Fighter who only fights, a BM who only uses black magic, a WM who only heals. I don't like watering down my mages by trading some of their magic (their only purpose in the game) for the ability to wield the Fighter's left-over medium-strength weapons. RMs are good if you want a mage who is also a tank. RM/RM/WM/BM party is nice. F/RM/WM/BM is nice. All depends on what your party is. The WM/BM are far from useless though.

[Black Mage FF1]

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

Compare a BM+WM to a RM. The RM gets moderate fighting skills; totally worthless after, say, the Earth Cave, where the BM has enough magic to use a spell just about every turn for the rest of the game. The RM doesn't get all the level 7 or 8 magic; NUKE, FADE, LIF2, WALL, those are nice to have. RM has higher defense, but mages go in the back row, and they don't get hit that often.

It is far from worthless after the earth cave. His attack is strong and usefull throughout the game (the third best throughout majority of the game). The Bm is not. He doesnt have enough Mp to last every fight. If you go into a cave and start casting spells right off the bat he will not have anymore mp when you finally reach a boss. The Rm however can save up his magic for important fights by attacking. Yes I know that the Rm doesnt get lvl 8 magic, but so what? WOW he doesnt get NUKE! Instead he gets good Hp,defense and attack power. Something a Bm will never get! Personally I rather have all 3 of that than 2 casts of Nuke.

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

If I want magic, I want as much magic as possible. If your mages are going to be sitting in the back row, there's no reason not to take a BM over an RM, because a BM gets more magic, and magic is the reason you take mages.

Well yeah but you see the Rm can do that too. But once he runs out of magic he can attack and become usefull. Unlike the Bm who attacks for 1 dmg.

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

All depends on your style and your party though. I prefer specialized characters. A Fighter who only fights, a BM who only uses black magic, a WM who only heals. I don't like watering down my mages by trading some of their magic (their only purpose in the game) for the ability to wield the Fighter's left-over medium-strength weapons. RMs are good if you want a mage who is also a tank. RM/RM/WM/BM party is nice. F/RM/WM/BM is nice. All depends on what your party is. The WM/BM are far from useless though.

Well you can take 2 red mages and make one with all black and one with all white. But like I said I would rather have a character who can actually DO something after his job of casting magic is done. BTW I will admit the Wm is usefull at times but the Bm is utter crap.

[God]

He doesnt have enough Mp to last every fight.

A level 12 BM (pretty good time to go after Lich) has 18 spells total. Saving one FIR3 for Lich leaves 17. That's enough magic for me to make it to Lich. Depends how much you wander around, I guess.

WOW he doesnt get NUKE! Instead he gets good Hp,defense and attack power. Something a Bm will never get! Personally I rather have all 3 of that than 2 casts of Nuke.

I'd rather have NUKE, so there you go. BM isn't useless if you value NUKE, and I do, and apparently a lot of other people do too. Not to mention all the other spells a BM gets that an RM doesn't.

Well yeah but you see the Rm can do that too. But once he runs out of magic he can attack and become usefull. Unlike the Bm who attacks for 1 dmg.

I assume you're exaggerating. BM does more than 1 damage for most of the game.

But like I said I would rather have a character who can actually DO something after his job of casting magic is done.

The job is never done.

[Black Mage FF1]

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

He doesnt have enough Mp to last every fight.

A level 12 BM (pretty good time to go after Lich) has 18 spells total. Saving one FIR3 for Lich leaves 17. That's enough magic for me to make it to Lich. Depends how much you wander around, I guess.

Well yeah if you include EVERY spell. But tell me something. Is FIRE1 and ICE1 powerful enough to kill enemies in the Earth cave? I think not. It will take more then just that. Plus a lot of the enemies in the Earth Cave come in groups of 4 or higher. So you would have to use a lot of the lvl 3 spells on them. But what about when you reach Kary in the Fire cave? Thats when the Bm really sucks. All of his spells do terrible dmg on her. Same goes for Tiamat. Yeah he can cast FAST on the Fighters but what then? Cast spells for 20-60 dmg?

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

I'd rather have NUKE, so there you go. BM isn't useless if you value NUKE, and I do, and apparently a lot of other people do too. Not to mention all the other spells a BM gets that an RM doesn't.

Yeah but every other black spells are crap. Lets not forget that the Rm gets spells that the Bm does not. Like I said before I can stand to miss 2 casts of Nuke.

Originally Posted by Dr Unne

I assume you're exaggerating. BM does more than 1 damage for most of the game.

Yes I was exaggerating. But still 5 dmg isnt any good.

[Rase]

Originally Posted by Black Mage FF1

Same goes for Tiamat. Yeah he can cast FAST on the Fighters but what then? Cast spells for 20-60 dmg?

Well, you can have another person trying to exploit his strange weakness to BANE.

But as for the RM vs. BM thing, I have an idea. be like me and bring one of each. A F/TH/RM/BM team has done fine for me.

[Del Murder]

They are useful to attack everyone at once. Other than that, I prefer a Knight or Ninja.

[Black Mage FF1]

Originally Posted by Dark_Paladin_Cecil

Well, you can have another person trying to exploit his strange weakness to BANE.

But as for the RM vs. BM thing, I have an idea. be like me and bring one of each. A F/TH/RM/BM team has done fine for me.

Do you know how rare it is to get bane to work on the 2nd fight? It is pretty high. IIRC it is near 1/125 chance. As for the party suggestion, I would rather use a FT/TH/RM/WM or my favorite party, FT/TH/BB/RM then a FT/TH/RM/BM.

[Sephiroth1999AD]

I don't think Black Mages suck. They're certainly a cool class. However, they aren't meant for my gaming style, so that's why I don't use them that much. I don't want to waste spells except in really hard fights and bosses, and Black Mage still has relatively little MP so I often hesitate to use his spells. FF1 Origins Easy mode is an exception. There Black Mage is probably the best class ever because he has like 20+ MP for Fire2/Ice2/Lightning2 by the time you reach Marsh Cave. But otherwise, I like saving magic a lot. When I get spell-casting items, such as Zeus Gauntlet, Mage Staff and White/Black Shirt, I always use them with my Black Mage instead of having him spend MP on a spell.