A list of the famous and recurring jobs from the various games in the Final Fantasy franchise:
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Warrior / Fighter / Knight
Medieval duelists who wear heavy armor and battle enemies with heavy weapons and shields. Knights are often upgrades to the Warrior / Fighter class, but other times are their own class that fills the same role. Closely related to the Paladin class, with which the Knight occasionally overlaps.
Notable characters: The Warrior of Light, Garland, Firion, Guy, Luneth, Ceodore, Cloud, Zack, Angeal, Kadaj, Steiner, Tidus, Paine, Basch, Vossler, Ardbert, Gladiolus, Ramza, Delita, Argath, Zalbaag, Folmarv, Meliadoul, Marche, Cid, Luso, Cid, Machina, Morrow, Jack, Neon
- Boring Yet Practical: Often, they don't come with flashy abilities, instead focusing on doing damage with basic attacks.
- Divergent Character Evolution: This class is as varied as there are characters who use it; one of the only standard traits is that it is fairly basic and can use a bladed weapon. Stranger of Paradise divides it further; Swordsman and Swordfighter are both starter jobs, but the difference is that Swordsman (Jack's starting class) uses a BFS and graduates to more physical-oriented jobs, while Swordfighter (Neon's starting class) uses a Knightly Sword and Shield and graduates to Magic Knight jobs.
- Glass Cannon: Warriors can temporarily make themself into this in some games (e.g. III or XI), getting a massive damage boost at the cost of defense.
- Heroes Prefer Swords:
- While their proficiency with other weapon types varies, universally they're known to wield swords.
- Similarly, this tends to be the archetype or common/starter job choice for main protagonists.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Literally, as they're based on the classic image of warriors in suits of armor defending allies.
- Magically Inept Fighter: They rarely, if ever, can use magic, and then just some basic White Magic when they can.
- Mighty Glacier: Usually have poor speed, but fantastic HP, defense, and offense.
- Multi-Melee Master: Some games allow them to wield multiple different weapon types, such as swords, axes, daggers, and staves.
- Prestige Class: Sometimes Knight is an early upgrade to the Squire (a starting class), such as in the Tactics games. Sometimes they get one themselves in the form of the Paladin.
- Taking the Bullet: Their Cover ability lets them intercept attacks on allies.
Monk
Martial artists who beat enemies up with their fists. Can sometimes upgrade to the Black Belt, enhancing their powers.
Notable characters: Josef, Yang, Ursula, Sabin, Tifa, Rude, Zell, Amarant, Prishe, Snow, Lyse, Hugo, Eight, Ash
- Bare-Fisted Monk: Trope Codifier. Even in games where they can use weapons, they don't necessarily need them and can beat up enemies with their bare fists just as well.
- Charged Attack: They can use Focus or Boost to charge up energy for an extra-powerful attack.
- Charles Atlas Superpower: They rely on their physical bodies for combat so all the training definitely strengthened them to unimaginable levels.
- Counter-Attack: They either can choose to counter attack innately, or skip a turn to counter enemy attacks with a stronger attack than normal.
- Fanservice Costumes: Monks' attires tend to highlight their figure. Male monks tend to be shirtless outright, while female monks tend to give Leg Focus.
- Grievous Harm with a Body: Tossing enemies is part of their abilities, either via (or a combination of both]]) wrestling moves or sheer strength.
- Healing Hands: In several games, they have healing skills that aren't classified as magic. Chakra is usually only usable on themselves, but several can also heal allies, plus a few games even give them a revival ability.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: It's fairly common that they'll have access to a kicking attack that functions as a (possibly the only in the game) physical attack that can hit all foes at once.
- Heroic Build: Characters from other job classes can have them, but monks are certainly designed to have the most athletic physiques.
- Kick Chick: Female monks do this, naturally.
- Ki Manipulation: Some games allow them to weaponize ki to perform special attacks.
- Kung-Fu Wizard: Monks who do learn magic oftentimes have decent magic stats.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Monks almost never learn magic; even with their Ki Manipulation, they definitely aren't spellcasters.
- Meteor Move: Hitting an airborne opponent down to the ground is a staple of the job. Said move is even named "Meteor [Something]".
- Power Fist: Their weapons that aren't clawed are usually gloves in this manner.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Most common in the pre-PlayStation era games.
- Roundhouse Kick: The most popular and commonly used kicking move of the class.
- Shoryuken: Punching upwards while spinning is a common move in the class.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: With the notable exception of Zell, Monks tend to wear sleeveless clothing for easier arm movement, if they wear clothing on their upper body at all.
- Unskilled, but Strong: With the exception of their Ki Manipulation (which aren't in every game), they're usually just physical brawlers and do little else. However, they're very good at it and deal lots of damage.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Male Monks often either go completely topless, or wear an open vest with no shirt underneath.
- Wolverine Claws: The games where they can use weapons usually depict them strapping clawed gauntlets to their hands and wrists.
- Wrestler in All of Us: Wrestling moves are often part of their arsenal; suplexes, powerbombs, and press slams being the most common.
Thief / Rogue
Lightly-armored rogues that excel at using Steal and Mug to grab items from enemies. They're something of a sister job to the Ninja; they're usually entirely separate jobs but some games have Ninjas as an upgrade for the Thief, or else their abilities are shared.
Notable characters: Locke, Yuffie, Zidane, Marcus, Blank, Cinna, Rikku, Lion, Vaan, Thancred, Adelle, Jed
- Battle Boomerang: Games with a "thrown weapon" category will very frequently give thieves the option to equip them as well. Also includes Rings of Death for good measure.
- Blade Enthusiast: Thieves most commonly equip knives, daggers, and sometimes small one-handed swords.
- Fragile Speedster: Zigzagged. In games with job systems where multiple characters can be the same class, thieves tend to be fast with high evasion, but lack defense and HP and only have average offensive power. Games that have thieves as specific "name" characters such as Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX make them Lightning Bruisers with high HP and very good attacking power.
- Impossible Thief: Some games allow them to instantly steal the enemy's equipment that they currently have equipped, steal experience, steal the enemy's status buffs, steal their stats (aka, debuffing them), and even steal their hearts.
- Video Game Stealing: Archetypical example; they leap at enemies and come back holding some valuable they had.
Black Mage
Spellcasters wearing blue robes with pointed yellow hats, they excel at offensive magic. They overlap with the Magus, stronger offensive mages.
Notable characters: Arc, Palom, Reno, Rinoa, Vivi, Lulu, Shantotto, Kytes, Vanille, Papalymo, Montblanc, the Mask, Jornee, Deathlord, Meia, Sophia, Alhanalem
- Black Mage: Trope Namer and arguably Trope Maker in terms of being a purely offensive spell caster.
- Elemental Powers: They universally have the Fire, Ice, Lightning trio of Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder. They also pick up Wind, Earth, Water, and other elements in various games, with these six being the most common. Sometimes they also get Darkness, but never Light.
- Face Framed in Shadow: Their robes and hats hide their faces, allowing only their glowing eyes to be seen in many instance.
- Iconic Outfit: It's almost impossible to visualize a Black Mage not wearing blue robes with a pointed yellow hat. Blue striped robes are a common variant; some combine them into blue striped pants under blue robes.
- Magic Wand: They typically wield short rods and staves to focus their powers better; though sometimes, they wield knives too.
- Prestige Class: Sometimes the Magus is this to the Black Mage. The Magus replaced the Black Wizard upgrade that appeared in the first installment.
- Robe and Wizard Hat: They wear tall pointy hats with billowing blue robes.
- Series Mascot: The Black Mage is up there with the Chocobo and the Moogle as one of the icons of the series.
- Shadowed Face, Glowing Eyes: The Black Mages wear blue robes with a yellow hat, leaving their face obscured while their eyes glow from within. The design was initially due to the sprite limitations of the NES, but stuck around as graphics improved.
- Squishy Wizard: Amazing magical stats, pitiful physical stats.
White Mage
Defensive spellcasters that can cast healing and buffing spells on the party. Overlap with the Seer/Oracle/Devout, which are usually an upgraded White Mage with stronger powers.
Notable characters: Minwu, Sarah, Rosa, Porom, Aerith, Selphie, Garnet, Eiko, Yuna, Penelo, Hope, Y'shtola, Krile, Torgal, Alma, Ovelia, Rem, Sophia, Aemo
- Blow You Away: Several games, including Final Fantasy III where the spell line first appeared, classify Aero as a White spell, often their only means of attacking non-Undead enemies.
- Epic Flail: Some games treat flails as a type of staff, giving White Mages a way to fight from the safety of the back row.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Their highest level spell is Holy, blasting enemies with sacred energy.
- Iconic Outfit: Hooded white robes with red triangle trim along the edges. The hoods are often adorned with cat ears, making the famous Cat-Ear Hood.
- Magic Staff: Wield staves to focus their powers.
- The Medic: They specialize in healing magic.
- Prestige Class: Most often the Devout is this to the White Mage, while Seers and Oracles are sometimes entirely separate jobs. The Devout replaced the White Wizard upgrade that appeared in the first installment.
- Support Party Member: Not much for offense, but their healing spells and ability to grant status buffs and cure status ailments makes them invaluable.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Prior to the late-game, White Mages typically contribute little to the party's offensive might, unless they're in a dungeon full of undead. Then the White Mage's healing spells turn into a powerful offensive weapon.
- White Mage: Trope Namer, and also the Trope Codifier for healers as squishy wizards. Ironically, the first game's version had a medium HP pool, often ending the game with around 200 HP more than a Red or Black Mage, though they still had poor armor options.
Red Mage
Generalist characters who have some aptitude with all areas of combat, able to fight physically and use both White and Black Magic. However, they are not as good at it as dedicated characters. Most characters in games who are able to freely use magic are proficient in both to varying degrees.
Notable characters: Scott, Ingus, Terra, Red XIII, Aerith, Genesis, Freya, Arciela, Larsa, Lightning, Alisaie, Noctis, Jill, Joshua, Ritz, Elgo, Neon
- Crutch Character: Games that feature them in the larger job system tend to sort them into this. In the early game their versatility is invaluable, but in the later game once their shortcomings begin to become a problem, their usefulness heavily declines.
- Iconic Outfit: Red and white robes with a big red hat with a feather or stripe in it.
- Jack of All Stats: The Red Mage's key strength is their versatility, able to use physical equipment and cast magic from both main schools.
- Magic Knight: Able to wield swords and armour while still casting spells.
- Magikarp Power: Some games give them the Dualcast ability, but universally as the last ability they learn, meaning it takes a long time to get it. Averted in XIV, where they get it right off the bat.
- Master of None: The Red Mage's key weakness; they can't use the end-game equipment or cast the top-tier spells.
- The Red Mage: Trope Namer.
- Royal Rapier: A few games have associated Red Mages with rapiers. In such games, this is usually their only weapon option.
Blue Mage
Specialist mages that can learn the magical attacks of monsters as Blue Magic, giving them unparalleled versatility.
- Breath Weapon: Aqua Breath, Bad Breath, and Fire Breath are the most common examples.
- Deliberate Injury Gambit:
- The most common method to learn enemy skills is allowing enemies with the prospect skills to strike them (or the entire party) with the ability first.
- Some Blue Magic, like Limit Glove and ????, do an enormous amount of damage if the Blue Mage's health is low.
- Domino Mask: A blue mask was a part of the job's attire in their introduction in Final Fantasy V, and it returned in XIV and Explorers.
- Elite Tweak: Very commonly, getting the most use out of the class involves dealing with odd mechanics and/or battle tactics. However, in the games featuring the class, they're key to some of the most effective strategies.
- Healing Winds: The White Wind spell, which typically heals for the equivalent of the caster's current HP, is one of their most iconic abilities.
- Magic Knight: In most appearances, they can equip swords (or specifically, curved swords like sabres and scimitars) and, given the situational nature of their magic and the way they acquire it, tend to rely more on physical combat than even Red Mages.
- Magic Missile Storm: Their Matra Magic fires a flurry of magical projectiles that swarm enemies.
- Master of All: Like Red Mages, Blue Mages can use both offensive and support based magic, in addition to other spells like buffs and debuffs. Unlike Red Mages, the unique and unusual mechanics behind their magic allow their spells to be much more potent, allowing them to better fill in whatever role is needed at any given time (assuming the mages know how and where to learn the appropriate spells).
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Aside from the unusual way in which they learn their spells, their spells tend to work in unique ways, like missing or hitting depending on the enemy's level, doing damage based on the same, being a Fixed Damage Attack, sacrificing the Blue Mage's life to damage enemies or heal allies, and so forth.
- One-Hit KO: They can use Roulette to randomly kill an enemy or ally, and Doom to initiate a countdown to the enemy's demise.
- Power Copying: Their signature skill is their ability to learn attacks used by enemies to use them themselves.
- Status Buff: One of their most iconic abilities is the Mighty Guard spell, which casts both Protect and Shell on the entire party, and sometimes other buffs depending on the game. This spell alone is often used to justify the Blue Mage's use in the end game.
- Suave Sabre: In their Tactics appearances, Blue Mages use sabres/cutlasses. In XI, they wield scimitars/falchions. Sometimes overlaps with Sinister Scimitar.
Summoner
Mages that can summon monsters to attack enemies, usually from a selection involving the recurring summoned beasts throughout the series.
Notable characters: Rydia, Maenad, Garnet, Eiko, Yuna, Karaha-Baruha, Serah, Alphinaud, Urianger, Clive, Lann and Reynn
- Breakout Character: In their first appearance, Summoners were just one of many jobs. In later games Summoners tend to be plot-critical characters with powers that can save or doom the world.
- Composite Character: Often, Summoners are able to use another type of magic as part of their repertoire. For Rydia, it's Black Magic. Garnet, Eiko, and Yuna all use White Magic instead.
- Fire, Ice, Lightning: Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh are the three signature summons they can call.
- Horned Humanoid: While Summoners rarely have horns themselves, they often wear horned headbands to symbolize their connection to monsters.
- Iconic Outfit: Summoners typically wear green robes or capes with a horned headband.
- The Red Mage: In spinoffs, their summons often allow them to act as both healers and offensive mages. The main series focuses primarily on the offensive potential of their summons.
- Required Secondary Powers: Summoners are generally mages as well to compensate for the Awesome, yet Impractical time consuming process of summoning.
- Squishy Wizard: Often the squishiest of all. Summoners have amazing magic power but miserable physical stats.
- Summon Magic: Their iconic ability.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Most games require players to defeat a summoned monster in battle to earn the right to summon them. The SNES release of Final Fantasy IV addressed this as a law of their kind: "Test the Caller before you answer the Call."
Time Mage
Mages that can utilize the powers of time and space to use unusual magic.
- Dishing Out Dirt: Final Fantasy VIII and some spinoffs classify Quake spells as Time Magic, especially when it has multiple levels.
- Gravity Master: Their spells include the Gravity and Graviga family, as well as Float. Gravity spells typically act as a Percent Damage Attack
- Iconic Outfit: Blue/purple cloak or robe and a red conical hat (almost always with a white five-pointed star on it) is the uniform for this class.
- Meteor-Summoning Attack: The Comet and Meteor spells are often considered Time Magic in settings that have it (otherwise they're considered part of the Black Magic school). Usually, these are a Time Mage's only direct damage spell that isn't the Percent Damage Attack Gravity spells.
- Space Master: In some games, they have spells like Teleport or Warp, and that combined with their capability of summoning meteors in these games (sometimes depicted as opening a portal to summon the meteor) is meant to play into this trope.
- Squishy Wizard: When they appear, they generally have the Black Mage's stat adjustments exaggerated, so they're typically even more powerful yet more vulnerable than Black Mages.
- Star Power: They can use Comet and Meteor to attack enemies.
- Support Party Member: Their unorthodox pool of spells makes them not very good at healing or attacking, but their status spells are invaluable.
- Time Master: They can cast spells like Slow, Haste, Quick, and Stop, to manipulate the time flow for targets.
Ninja
Masters of stealth that can throw shuriken and other weapons at enemies, wield twin swords, and can use specialized Ninjutsu magic. They're something of a sister job to the Thief: they're usually entirely separate jobs but some games have Ninjas as an upgrade for the Thief, or else their abilities are shared.
Notable characters: Edge, the Eblan Four, Shadow, Yuffie, Cissnei, Weiss, Kiros, Fujin,Yugiri, Jinnai, Maina, Jed
- Catch and Return: A frequent skill available to ninjas is the ability to catch items thrown by enemy ninjas. The items are then added to their own inventory, which can be then used via their own Throw command. In cases where enemies throw equipment, it's another way to get gear from the foe besides Randomly Drops and Video Game Stealing.
- Doppelgänger Spin: Frequently have an ability that creates illusory duplicates that will prevent attacks from landing.
- Dual Wielding: Their trademark skill is their ability to wield two weapons at once.
- Fragile Speedster: They tend to be very fast and evasive with decent power, helped by their Throw skill. However, their HP and defenses are usually low.
- Fuuma Shuriken: Often directly named as one of the types of shuriken they can throw.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: Frequently no more capable of surprise attacks than any other class, and they have a habit of wearing red in many games.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Played with. Some games allow Ninja to wield Katanas, but others have them wield a separate series of swords classified as Ninja Swords, which are shorter katanas and swords.
- Magic A Is Magic A: Their Ninjutsu magic is "similar" to Black Magic, but distinct in execution and effect. Rosa notes as such in Final Fantasy IV.
- Ninja: Duh.
- Not the Intended Use: In Final Fantasy XI, ninjas were originally intended to be a pure DPS class in keeping with their traditional Fragile Speedster / Glass Cannon properties. However, their Utsusemi ability, which would completely absorb enemy attacks, coupled with their extremely high evasion, had the unintended effect of turning them into one of the best tanking classes in the game, which the developer would ultimately embrace.
- Prestige Class: The Ninja is often a direct upgrade to the Thief class, most notably in the first game. The two classes have been closely linked ever since, with the Ninja either acting as an upgrade or the two classes being merged.
- Smoke Out: They can use Smoke Bombs to blind enemies to distract them as the party flees, or to inflict Blind. Some games instead have the Smoke command as a type of Ninjutsu magic.
- Stock Ninja Weaponry: Ninjato swords, throwing shuriken, and kunai and claws are also common.
- Technicolor Ninja: In a few games, the class (or at least some characters when they use it) wear darker or more muted colors and have an increased ability to get surprise attacks on foes.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Ninjas frequently have a Throw command to use up an inventory item to do damage to a foe. Frequently, the high-end equipment also produces some of the most damage.
Samurai
Japanese-inspired warriors of tradition that wield katanas and duel enemies with a variety of swordskills.
Notable characters: Cyan, Sephiroth, Auron, Tenzen, Iroha, Hien, Gosetsu, Zenos, Illua, Jack, Parai, Jed
- Barehanded Blade Block: Invoked with their Shirahadori ability, which increases their evasion to physical blows. In games with projectiles, this also includes Arrow Catch and Bullet Catch.
- Iaijutsu Practitioner: Their Iainuki attack manifests as a One-Hit Kill where they kill enemies with a single stroke.
- Improbable Weapon User: They can use Gil Toss to damage enemies by throwing money at them.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Katanas, of course, are their trademark weapons. In XI, they are also proficient with polearms.
- Mighty Glacier: Samurai are often very good on both offense and defense, but are lacking in speed.
- Samurai: Yup.
Dark Knight
Warriors of shadow that can use darkness to attack enemies alongside steel and heavy armor.
Notable characters: Leon, Cecil, Golbez, Zeid, Ba'Gamnan, Caius, Sidurgu, Barnabas, Gafgarion, Sice, Leon Esla, Graham
- Black Knight: Clad in black or dark blue and fight with the powers of darkness.
- Cast from Hit Points: Their special attacks drain their health to utilize.
- Casting a Shadow: Their powers involve using darkness to fight.
- Dark Is Not Evil: A recurring theme between some (but not all) games, though in such cases usually overlapping with Good Is Not Nice.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Like the Paladins, they're known to favor swords...although they tend to favor dark swords. Said dark swords often require the use of both hands.
- Katanas Are Just Better: In games where the Ninja and Samurai jobs don't appear, sometimes the Dark Knight gets access to katana.
- Life Drain: Along with Mana Drain Some appearances (such as Gafgarion of Final Fantasy Tactics) of the class have the ability to drain life and mana as well with their attacks. The downsides for them compared to the dragoon's Lancet ability are that they typically can only target life or mana at one time, plus the abilities are invariably classified as dark-element attacks, making them useless against the undead. Still, their ability to drain life often acts as a counterbalance to their low defense, and it drains more health than Lancet can.
- Lightning Bruiser: On average, all their physical stats (save for defense) tend to be rather high.
- Magic Knight: They can use powerful weapons, but they sometimes also get the ability to use low-end Black Magic. In some games, they are even sometimes referred to as the Warmage.
- Named Weapon: Deathbringer is a sword regularly associated with Dark Knights in several games.
- Signature Move: Souleater, which sacrifices a portion of health to deliver a powerful darkness based attack.
- Sinister Scythe: While they're known to favor greatswords, they're also known to use scythes.
- Spell Blade: Some games manifest their powers as enchanting their sword with dark power to strengthen physical blows.
- Status Effects: In several cases, they have skills that can inflict status effects along with damage. Not surprisingly, the most frequent one they can inflict is blindness.
- Tin Tyrant: If an Evil Overlord is of the character class, expect them to have thick and detailed armors.
Paladin
Holy champions who use divine power to empower themselves. Closely connected to the Knight class, with which the Paladin occasionally overlaps.
Notable characters: Cecil, Beatrix, Curilla, Reddas, Basch, Lightning, G'raha, TG Cid, Agrias, Delita, Wiegraf, Frimelda, Queen, Gawain, Rolan
- Carry a Big Stick: While it's normally a weapon for a White Mage, sometimes Paladins are known to pick up maces too.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Paladins were originally identical to knights in function. Later games differentiated them more by focusing on the Paladin's holy-elemental abilities.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: The Paladin's iconic weapons are specialized holy swords.
- Holy Hand Grenade: Utilize holy-based magic for their powers.
- Knight in Shining Armor: Almost universally wear white and are upstanding crusaders for good.
- Knightly Sword and Shield: Upstanding crusaders for good who are usually depicted wielding a sword and shield.
- Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Paladins often specialize in shields when they are available.
- Magic Knight: They can utilize powerful weaponry often with lower level White Magic.
- The Paladin: In name and in practice.
- Spell Blade: Some games manifest their powers as enchanting their sword with holy magic to strengthen physical blows.
- Stone Wall: Their special abilities, in various forms, rely on defending themselves from enemy blows, to the point of invincibility even.
- Taking the Bullet: A common ability that they have is the Cover ability, in which there's a chance that they'll jump in front of an ally to take damage for their companion. They typically have both a passive (which doesn't always activate, but can cover any other teammate) and an active (which guarantees activation, but only for one particular teammate) version.
Dragoon
Warriors that wear dragon-themed armor and fight in the air using lances, along with sometimes traditionally bearing the surname "Highwind".
Notable characters: Ricard, Kain, Mog, Cid, Ward, Freya, Kimahri, Llyud, Fang, Estinien, Aranea, Dion, Nine, Barbara, Wrieg,Sophia
- The Artifact: Their Non-Indicative Name. Back when they were first translated as "dragoons," the proper Japanese name couldn't be used because of Character Name Limits. These days, the issue is much less of a problem, but because the series used "dragoon" for so long, both the series and the fans keep using it. It helps that real-world dragoons aren't particularly well-known.
- Black Knight: Aesthetically, at least, though some games have a distinct Dark Knight job as well. Dragoons wear baroque armor in shades of deep violet, dark indigo or black, with sharp spikes, barbs and gilded protrusions. Their draconian helms often obscure their faces, and characters who are set as Dragoons tend to be enigmatic and solemn.
- Breath Weapon: Some spinoffs allow them to mimic dragons by using elemental breath attacks, though this never occurs in the main series (except for Kimahri, who fulfills the trope in spirit except for him it's due to his Blue Magic).
- Dragon Knight: Trope Codifier; Kain Highwind from IV provides the page image. This is also the literal translation of the class name in Japanese.
- Dragon Rider: While it doesn't usually factor into gameplay, in the lore Dragoons very often tame and ride dragons into combat.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Ricard, the very first Dragoon, wielded a sword in combat as well as lacking the classic Dragoon command Jump. Later versions would give him proficiency in spears.
- In a Single Bound: Their trademark skill is Jump, leaping into the air to descend and attack enemies.
- Life Drain: Quickly becoming a signature skill alongside their Jump command is the Lancet skill, which drains both health and magic points from their target. In several cases, dragoons that predate the ability's entrance in the series (such as Kain Highwind of Final Fantasy IV) suddenly learn it in sequels and crossovers. The downside to their version, as opposed to the drains that a Dark Knight gets, are that they're lower in power (and in recovery) than what the Dark Knight usually has.
- Final Fantasy XIV dragoons have the Life Surge ability, which drains health in a similar to Lancet, but neglects the MP drain aspect, likely since dragoons in that game don't require MP for abilities.
- Non-Indicative Name: In English, at any rate, their name has little to do with the type of soldier that were called dragoons: heavily armored mounted soldiers typically armed with powerful firearms; their name comes from how many earlier firearms were described as portable dragons...and the fact that their trademark weapon is a miniature blunderbuss that is known as a dragon. They're almost never mounted in gameplay, and the only way that they can ever equip guns is if they learn the ability to do so from another class (and it's seldom an effective choice for them). This is averted in Japanese, which uses Dragon Knight for the class (which makes more sense, particularly when they frequently are useful for fighting dragon-type enemies).
Mystic Knight
Warriors who wield swords and magic in equal measure, often enchanting their blades for elemental damage or Status Effects. Sometimes called a Rune Knight, Spell Fencer, or Spellblade.
Notable characters: Celes, Rosso, Squall, Seifer, Steiner, Auron, Lightning, Serah, Noel, Clive, Cid, Benedikta, Dycedarg, Beowulf, Seven, Kurasame, Krinjh
- Magic Knight: Similar to but distinct from the Red Mage, the other primary "Magic Knight" of the series. The primary difference between the two is that the Mystic Knight is almost always fighting in close range with their blades while Red Mages switch it up with magic to make the most use of their iconic Dualcast. Basically, they're a Foil to each other, with Mystic Knight leaning more toward the physical side and Red Mage to the magical side.
- Spell Blade: The Trope Namer. The way they fight is usually to cast magic on their blade and then wield it to attack their enemies. In Tactics A2, the job (available only to Viera) is even called this. In IX, Steiner isn't even the one to cast the spells on his blade - when Vivi is in the party, the Black Mage does it for him.
- Suave Sabre: Often, but not always, the type of sword they wield. Sometimes overlaps with Sinister Scimitar.
Gunner
Sharpshooters that attack from afar with an arsenal of ranged weaponry.
Notable characters: Barret, Vincent, Rufus, Tseng, Yazoo, Nero, Azul, Irvine, Laguna, Yuna, Balthier, Sazh, Prompto, Mustadio, Cater, King
- Bottomless Magazines: Gunners never have to worry about running out of ammo, with a couple of exceptions:
- In VIII, Irvine has limited ammo to use for his Shot Limit Break. However, he only needs ammo for said Limit Break; he has an infinite supply for his normal attacks. This ammo also becomes fairly easy to acquire, so running out is rarely a concern.
- In XV and Type-0, Noctis and King, respectively, have limited magazines on their pistols, and need to reload them when depleted, but otherwise do not run out of ammo, while Prompto has unlimited bullets for his pistol, but has to procure ammo for other weapons.
- Elemental Powers: Some games allow Gunners to enchant their shot with elemental properties, either by using different types of ammunition or using special attacks.
- Guns Are Worthless: In many games, swords are almost guaranteed to have better attacking power than guns.
- The Gunslinger: Rely on various firearms to attack.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The way that the skills for Status Effects are described is that the gunner is hindering their foe by aiming and firing at certain body parts, like "Arm Shot" preventing the opponent from acting.
- Long-Range Fighter: Like their bow-wielding cousins, the Gunner's claim to fame is their ability to deal full damage from the back row.
- Multi-Ranged Master: Most games don't differentiate between different types of guns, just classifying them under that universal label. Rifles, handguns, shotguns, it's all the same to a Gunner.
- Never Bring a Gun to a Knife Fight: Played with. Most games make no distinction between swords and guns, for allies or enemies. Other games attempt to "balance" guns against swords in various ways. Final Fantasy XI makes guns powerful but slow to fire, ostensibly due to the old-fashioned types of guns used in the game that would be a pain to reload each time. XII has Guns ignore both the user's Strength modifier and the target's defense modifier, thus guns have limited damage output compared to a strong character wielding a melee weapon, which can be good or bad depending on the user.
- Status Effects: A frequent ability that gunners have available is to cause status effects by aiming for certain parts of their foes' anatomy, such as paralyzing their foes (by aiming at their arms), silencing them (by aiming at their throats), or completely freezing them in place (by aiming at their legs).
Archer / Ranger
Fighters that use bows (or a similarly long range projectile) to attack enemies from afar.
Notable characters: Maria, Rosa, Rinoa, Wakka, Fran, Serah, Hythlodaeus, Shara, Trey, Gramps, Sarah, Gnash
- Bottomless Magazines: Archers never have to worry about running out of arrows.
- Divergent Character Evolution: Early games treated Archers and Rangers as interchangeable. Later games made Rangers into a Forest Ranger, while Archers rely on support abilities with elemental or status-based attacks and exclusively use bows.
- Forest Ranger: Sometimes, the Ranger is characterized in this way, giving them more options instead of being exclusively a Long-Range Fighter. With these depictions, they are more likely to wield axes, knives, or swords and can be a Trap Master.
- Long-Range Fighter: Their claim to fame is their ability to deal full damage when attacking from the back row.
- Master Archer: Most of the time they qualify.
- Multi Shot: Their signature skill is Barrage / Rapid Fire, which lets them attack four times in rapid succession.
- No "Arc" in "Archery": Played straight in most games where this might apply. The most notable aversions are in the Tactics series, where being able to arc a bow's shot over obstacles is its main advantage over guns.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Some games have them coexist with Gunners, XII in particualr have them start as partners.
- Trap Master: Some versions of the Ranger turn them into this to differentiate them from Archers.
- Weaponized Ball: One Ranger-type character (Wakka) foregoes the traditional bow in exchange for... a sports ball.
Beastmaster / Trainer
A job that appears in various games in the series, sometimes dressed like animals and always with the ability to tame, control, or befriend animals. Usually wields daggers, whips, or axes in combat.
- Action Pet: In most cases, the beasts are part of their trainer's family as well.
- Animal Stampede: Sometimes they can summon one.
- Attack Animal: The main purpose of the job, as its name suggests.
- The Beastmaster: V is the first instance of it in the series and the Trope Namer.
- Charm Person: Often how they function. With a specific relic setup, Relm's unique ability "Sketch" can turn into "Control," making her one of these.
- Nature Hero: They are noted for having a strong connection to nature.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Rinoa has Angelo, who she uses as part of her Limit Breaks. Though Shadow from VI is a Ninja, his dog Interceptor also randomly appears during battle to help him. Yuna in X-2 has a dog as part of her Trainer dressphere. Clive in XVI constantly has Torgal, his hound companion, aid him by either attacking his foes or healing him.
Berserker
A fighter who focuses on overwhelming their enemies through sheer offensive power. Usually uncontrollable, or they have a signature ability, "Berserk," that renders them uncontrollable with the benefit of higher attack power and speed.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Often under the Berserk status effect by default, and thus can do nothing but attack their enemies with weapons.
- Lightning Bruiser: Strong, fast, and often durable.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Losing complete control of them is a bit of a turn-off for some players. In VI, Umaro can't be controlled at all. Gau can at least use magic - at least until you use one of his Rages. In X-2 they are controllable until you use Berserk, and until then they do have some unique and useful abilities.
- Nemean Skinning: Most often their outfit consists of this.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: They just hit their enemies over and over again, and they usually hit hard. Most of the time they don't even have weapons and instead sometimes just attack with their bare hands.
Gambler / Lady Luck
A unique fighter that relies on chance to deal damage or a number of various effects, both beneficial and detrimental.
- Awesome, yet Impractical: The slot ability have a specific skill that is so powerful it could One-Hit Kill even the Final Boss. Things is you have to be really, really patient to scroll it first.
- The Gambler: It's in their name. They use cards, slots, and dice to decide the fates of their enemies. Sometimes, they can even harm their own party.
- Improbable Weapon User: Cards, dice, or darts. Cait Sith uses megaphones.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Their dice is usually a Fixed Damage Attack. Slots involves calling a slot machine in the middle of the battle which can result in an instant win, an instant loss, or various random (sometimes silly) effects.
- Pirate: XI fashions them as Corsairs, which are gun-wielding pirates that use dice and cards to buff their allies.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: Sometimes their powers are explicitly described as this.
Geomancer
Spellcasters who draw upon the power of the land and the terrain around them. Often uses bells or poles as weapons.
- Convection Shmonvection: In the Tactics games, they can usually walk over fire and lava tiles just fine.
- Geo Effects: Their magic is portrayed as this, and they can usually only use magic of an elemental type depending on the kind of terrain around them.
- Improbable Weapon User: Bells, most often.
- Magic Dance: Mog draws out the power of the earth through dance.
- Nature Hero: They draw upon their connection to nature to cast their unique magic.
- Squishy Wizard: Usually averted. As far as mages in the series go, these are on the more durable side.
Machinist / Gadgeteer
Skilled fighters who use various gadgets and technology to deal damage and enfeeble their foes, often attacking at a range or dismantling mechanical enemies. May overlap with Gunner in some settings where guns are common.
- Gadgeteer Genius: They can use all sorts of gadgets to attack foes. Common recurring tools are the chainsaw, drill, auto crossbow, and bioblaster.
- The Gunslinger: They wield guns in XIV, and Prompto and Mustadio both use them as well.
- Robot Buddy: Some games, like XIV, give them one of these.
Alchemist / Chemist
Studious combatants who specialize in Item Crafting or mixing together different kinds of items for various effects. They might not have much power on their own, but their concoctions can make them highly versatile and dangerous. Sometimes wields guns.
- Forced Transformation: In the Tactics games, Alchemists can transform enemies into frogs.
- Item Caddy: Almost every instance of a job system where they're present makes them one, and always gives them the 'Item' command even if other jobs lose it.
- Item Crafting: In XIV, they're not a combat class at all and focus entirely on crafting.
Scholar
Studious academicians who often wield books or staves and are capable of exposing enemy weaknesses. Sometimes they marry black and white magic distinct from a Red Mage or Sage, other times they do not.
- Black and White Magic: Scholars in XI are a bit outside of the norm: they use both types of spells as a Stance System and enhance them with Geo Effects and Weather Manipulation.
- Damage-Increasing Debuff: Sometimes their signature spell, Libra, has this effect, but they can often do this even if it has a different name.
- Enemy Scan: They often have the spell Libra.
- Fairy Companion: XIV switches up Scholars again - in that game, they're a pure healer and Barrier Warrior that can summon the fairies Eos or Selene to augment their heals.
- Mr. Exposition: Their roles outside battles tend to be the one relaying to the player about the game's mechanics and culture.
- Support Party Member: In many games that feature them, they often can't do high damage on their own or even valuable healing, but they can support their party regardless (even if they have rather niche uses).
- Spell Book: A common weapon type for them.
Bard / Songstress
Combatants that use the power of music to either encourage their allies or burden their foes. May or may not be spoony, like the quintessential character bard, Edward.
- Always Male: In the Tactics subseries, women are incapable of becoming Bards at all.
- Instrument of Murder: In some cases their instruments are their weapons.
- Magic Music: The general use of their abilities.
- Musical Assassin: In some cases, their songs can deal physical damage. Or be able to use their harp to directly attack.
- Quirky Bard: Not uncommon, but there's some cases where they can be quite valuable.
- Status Effects: Several of their songs can inflict these - in particular, sleep, confusion, and charm are commonly available via song.
- Support Party Member: Outside of some niche strategies against certain types of foes, bards are on the weaker side in direct combat. However, they excel in buffing allies and debuffing enemies. In games where both dancers and bards are available, bards typically focus more on buffs while dancers tend to have more debuffs.
Dancer
Combatants that use the power of magical dances to both enfeeble and kill their foes, though sometimes they can also act as healers.
- Always Female: Dancers are almost exclusively female outside of a universal job system. In the Tactics subseries, men are incapable of becoming Dancers at all.
- Blade Enthusiast: Usually daggers are their weapon of choice, though there are exceptions (for example Mog and Rekoteh use spears, Penelo uses a Magic Staff, and Lyna and the Dancers of Final Fantasy XIV use thrown chakrams).
- Dance Battler: As the name implies, their physical attacks incorporate dance movements.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Mog is a dancer, but doesn't follow a lot of dancer conventions (using spears rather than knives, having little in terms of weakening enemies, and instead prefering to buff and heal allies, and being incredibly hard to kill).
- Fragile Speedster: Very fast, but possess the durability of a tissue paper.
- Life Drain: A surprisingly common ability of theirs is to drain either HP or MP with a dance.
- Magic Dance: Well, they are Dancers, are they not?
- Status Effects: Those vary, but the most common ones are Confusion and Charm.
- Stripperiffic: A lot of Dancer outfits don't leave much to imagination.
- Support Party Member: Their main use - while they can deal decent damage if the situation calls for it, other jobs can hit harder, and it's Dancers' ability to weaken enemies (and, in some games, strengthen allies) are what makes them most useful.
Mime
Unusual fighters whose sole function is often to mimic their party members. In some games, they are one of the best jobs and usually one of the most complex to use.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Usually one of the most arduous jobs to unlock and difficult to master, but they can do everything their allies can.
- Ditto Fighter: They copy their allies in combat and sometimes even their enemies. Bartz is characterized as one in Dissidia, in that he uses the abilities mastered from jobs in V to replicate his friends.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Perhaps the most unusual in the series. They often only have one command, Mimic, which will have them automatically mimic the last command of a party member - even if it's an ability they can't normally use.
Freelancer / Onion Knight
A recurring job that is either the first job or the last job - sometimes both. Freelancers and Onion Knights are not always related, but tend to have similar concepts in that they start the game off with no special abilities or weapon selections, but toward the end - and with a lot of work put into them - their stat growths and general power skyrockets.
Notable characters: The Onion Knight, Wol
- Magikarp Power: They are the epitome of this. They tend to start off as the worst job, but with enough work put into them (often by level 90 and above) they can become the most powerful.
- Master of All: Often, they become this by the end of the game.
- Meaningful Name: Their name is meant to evoke the idea of poverty, in that they start off with nothing. It can also bring to mind someone who is "green" - in other words, a novice.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Often they don't have any abilities other than a simple attack. In Tactics, even fully powered up they don't get any special abilities - just overpowered stats. Sometimes, though, they become a Master of All once they gain the abilities of other jobs that they master throughout the game and combine them all into one.
Sage
The ultimate magic users, capable of using all White Magic, all Black Magic, and sometimes other schools as well. In exchange for this incredible versatility, Sages often have less magic power and MP than other mages, and lack other non-spell abilities like the Black Mage's Focus and the White Mage's Pray.
Notable characters: Emperor Mateus, Tellah, Fusoya, Leonora, Kefka, Edea, Adel, Ultimecia, Kuja, Garland, Seymour, Ajido-Marujido, Alphinaud, Y'shtola, Ultima, Babus, Torte, Sophia
- The Archmage: If any attention is brought to it, in universe they are considered this.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: When Sages first appeared in Final Fantasy III, their magic power and MP was on the same level as the other high level magic users, and their defenses were even better, making the Seer, Magus, and Summoner classes completely obsolete. Later appearances lowered the Sage's stats across the board to make them more balanced.
- Iconic Outfit: Sages usually wear some kind of fancy robe with an elaborate hat.
- In Name Only: The XIV version of the Sage can best be described as this, in that it wields floating crystal shards that shoot aetherial bullets and are primarily Barrier Warrior healers, a new job available to players in the Endwalker expansion that Alphinaud also takes up. Y'shtola, as a Sorceress who can expertly wield both black and white magic, is a more standard representation of the classic Sage.
- Magic Staff: Sages can often use staves to power up their White Magic.
- Magic Wand: Sages can often use rods to power up their Black Magic.
- Master of None: For all their spellcasting versatility, Sages typically have less raw power than a specialist, especially when White and Black magic run off of separate stats.
- The Red Mage: Even more so than the actual Red Mage, as Sages can use every spell in their available schools. They lose what little physical aptitude Red Mages may have had, and then some, as a trade-off.
- Squishy Wizard: The squishiest. The Sage's HP and defense tends to be even worse than the specialized mages to make up for their versatility.
- Summon Magic: In their first appearance, Sages could use the complete set of Summoning spells alongside the Black and White schools. This was phased out afterward. XVI brings it back by making Ultima the master of all the Eikons' abilities.
