History Main / TheRedMage

* The ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' RPG series had the Druid class from ''III'' to ''VII''. In ''III'' to ''V'', the Druid's spell list mainly contained a combination of spells from the Cleric and Sorcerer lists (with some special Druid spells), while in ''VI'' and ''VII'' the Druid is capable of wielding all magic from the Elemental and Clerical schools. In VI, that allowed them to master all schools of magic but Dark and Light magic, while VII restricted them to the second-best level of mastery, but made the inability to learn Dark or Light magic slightly less stinging by restricting the other two strict spellcasters to one of the two[[note]]dependent upon if the party goes for the evil or the good path in the second half of the game.[[/note]] and giving Druids a potential edge in spell points (Druid was the only class that could gain grandmastery in Meditation, a skill that directly added spell points to the character's pool. They also benefitted from ''both'' spellcasting stats in both ''VI'' and ''VII'')

** Protagonist, Valkyrie Cain spent most of the series pre-Surge with Elemental magic and [[TheNecromancer Necromancy]]. After the Surge she had a new unheard of discipline that started as a combination of ShockAndAwe and PsychicPowers before becoming NewPowersAsThePlotDemands including the ability to temporarily copy a better version of other mages' powers.

*** Besides the aforementioned Mystic Theurge (arcane + divine), examples include the [[http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/cerebremancer.htm Cerebremancer]] (arcane + [[PsychicPowers psionic]]), [[http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040925b Psychic Theurge]] (divine + psionic) and [[http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20061010a&page=3 Ultimate Magus]] (InherentGift arcane + RuleMagic arcane)

** It's possible to make any character into this in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' by leveling both their [[WhiteMagic Faith]] and [[BlackMagic Reason]] skills. The high-level Gremory class, described as a master of all forms of magic, specializes in both. In addition, Byleth becomes an example very close to the TropeNamer when they receive their unique Enlightened One class; they can wield swords and white magic with equal prowess, and their black magic isn't half bad either. In terms of specific characters, Lynhardt, Mercedes, and Lysithea begin with a boon in both skills, while Dorothea and Flayn start with a boon in one and can gain the other as a budding talent.

* Red Mages in the SpiritualSuccessor of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', function in a similar manner, although since everyone can take multiple turns by default, their main secondary ability is to be able to gain BP in a variety of situations: randomly when getting hit, after defeating an enemy, when inflicted with a StatusEffect, when low on HP, and when evading an enemy attack. However, unlike in ''Final Fantasy V'', Red Mages can actually be a viable class to use with the right builds and their skillset: "B/W Magic", which would normally be useless, is preferable over simply giving a character both "Black Magic" and "White Magic" due to how the Job system works in that game.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''LightNovel/{{Overlord}}'' has Succulent, a perfect picture example of this, he is an illusionist and a swordsman, being equally good at both, which is not much. At least he's honest about his drawbacks.

* ''Manga/{{Overlord}}''has Succulent, a perfect picture example of this, he is an illusionist and a swordsman, being equally good at both, which is not much. At least he's honest about his drawbacks.

* ''Manga/{{Overlord}}''has Succulent, a perfect picture example of this, heis an illusionist amd swordsman, being equally good at both, which is not much. At least he's honest about his lackings.

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The Visoreds and Arrancar are this. The former are Soul Reapers who gained Hollow powers, while the latter are Hollows who gained Soul Reaper powers.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has both the literal Red Mage and the Scholar. The former tries and largely fails to play up the MagicKnight aspects of the class but makes up for it by making it good at StandardStatusEffects. The latter is essentially the spiritual successor to the Sage plus metamagic. Often missed due to StopHavingFunGuys being very common. The Red Mage spends a large chunk of levels as the most effective tank in the game. The combination of Phalanx, Stoneskin, Refresh, Spikes, and enfeebling spells makes them nearly invulnerable, even against leveling mobs until you reach about level 50 where the effectiveness of mobs starts growing exponentially instead of linearly and specialization becomes a must.

* Red Mages in the SpiritualSuccessor of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', function in a similar manner, although since everyone can take multiple turns by default, their main secondary ability is to be able to gain BP in a variety of situations: randomly when getting hit, after defeating an enemy, when inflicted with a StandardStatusEffect, when low on HP, and when evading an enemy attack. However, unlike in ''Final Fantasy V'', Red Mages can actually be a viable class to use with the right builds and their skillset: "B/W Magic", which would normally be useless, is preferable over simply giving a character both "Black Magic" and "White Magic" due to how the Job system works in that game.

* ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'': The Order of the Red Robes are not this, despite fitting the color scheme; Raistlin, the most iconic member of their order, is strictly a BlackMage. The color of their robes only refers to their alignment -- Neutral, rather than Good (White), or Evil (Black). In a metatextual sense, one can see them serving as Red Mages in the sense they can use both Good and Evil spells, but they remain incapable of healing and divine magic.

** The ''Literature/Dragonlance'' setting supplies the TropeNamer (which ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' borrowed the name from for their TropeCodifier, along with the WhiteMage and BlackMage). Since the [[CivilizationDestroyer Cataclysm]] that effaced Istar was preceded by a rapture of those clerics who still took the gods seriously, mages had to take on many of their roles (although not actual healing). Where the White Mages who followed the precepts associated with the white moon Solitari focused on protection, and the Black Mages who followed the barely-visible black moon Nuitari focused on domination and destruction, the Red Mages who followed the red moon Lunitari used elements of both.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' brings us the TropeNamer in the first game as a mix of all the classes. After their upgrade, they can use white and black magic up to level 7 (out of 8), except for a few exclusives, as well as a wide variety of weapons and armor.

* In ''Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant'', there are two types of magic users that can be used: [[ElementalPowers Elementals]], who use fire, water, air, earth, and Adepts, who specialize in one type of magic, which can be anything from {{Necromancy}} to {{Teleportation}} to [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Shapeshifting]]. Generally, people can use only one type or the other of magic. The only ones who can are new magic users whose magic hasn't "settled" yet, or extremely rare [[RedMage Red Mages]] who innately can use both Elemental magic and specialize in an Adept discipline.
** Valkyrie falls into the first category of Red Mage. [[spoiler:Skulduggery falls into the second.]]
** Mages who learn and seal their [[IKnowYourTrueName true names]] before anybody else does are [[RealityWarper reality warpers]] who can do pretty much anything.

The most common form of Red Mage combines WhiteMage and BlackMage with a hint of GlassCannon[=/=]SquishyWizard. In rare cases, they may also be as physically gifted as a MagicKnight or CombatMedic. However, the Red Mage isn't just a swordsperson who picks one school of magic to go with their blade, but just about any two (and sometimes more) schools of magic. Common pairings include: WhiteMagic and BlackMagic, {{Light|IsNotGood}} and {{Dark|IsNotEvil}}, or [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] and [[AnIcePerson Ice]] (and occasionally another {{Elemental Power|s}}).

*** With enough LevelGrinding everyone can learn all skills including magic by traversing entire Sphere Grid, which you're pretty much obliged to do if you decide to face the hardest [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]]. The only exception to this is summoning, which is reserved to Yuna. You can also use specialized spheres that can activate skills as long as someone in your party has them learned, meaning with correct spheres you can teach Yuna Black Magic skills that Lulu has activated and vice versa.

*** With enough LevelGrinding everyone can learn all skills including magic by traversing entire Sphere Grid, which you're pretty much obliged to do if you decide to face the hardest [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]]. The only exception to this is summoning, which is reserved to Yuna. You can also use specialized spheres that can activate skills as long as someone in your party has them learn, meaning with correct spheres you can teach Yuna Black Magic skills that Lulu has learned and vice versa.

* ''LightNovel/{{Slayers}}'':
** Rezo the Red Priest. After failing to heal his eyes with white magic, he turns to shamanic magic, and eventually black magic. His attempts usually end up with him being possessed by the demon that was sealed inside him before he was born.
** Shamans in general can be considered this. They are the setting's true masters of ElementalPowers, with magical control over [[DishingOutDirt Earth]], [[BlowYouAway Air]], [[MakingASplash Water]], [[KillItWithFire Fire]], [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]], [[AnIcePerson Ice]] and [[SoulPower Spirit]]. What makes them more than just an elemental version of the BlackMage, however, is that shamanic magic is also utility spells as well as blasting, with spells like breathing water, flight, dispelling magic, breaking curses, creating physical barriers, etcetera. In fact, WordOfGod is that {{White Mage}}s are actually practicing a very specialised form of [[SoulPower Astral Shamanism]], which means they're basically Red Mages who forgo the elemental attack spells for healing spells.

* ''LightNovel/FateZero'': Kirei Kotomine is shown to have trained in nearly every discipline of magic, switching when he's ''just'' below the point of mastery. Though this was more a result of him DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife than any desire to be an all-rounder.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': Motoharu Tsuchimikado is a talented magician who later became an esper. However, espers are unable to use magic without bursting their blood vessels (which can be fatal), which is why he's the only esper-magician hybrid around -- the others died. His Level 0 esper ability slightly mitigates this as it reconnects damaged blood vessels, but it doesn't always work, so he very rarely uses magic. Motoharu [[FightsLikeANormal usually uses martial arts and guns as a result]].
* ''Anime/AgnisPhilosophy'': Agnis is shown to use both lightning magic and healing magic. This is almost certainly a MythologyGag for the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series' TropeNamer since it is a tech demo for that franchise.
* In ''LightNovel/TheMageWillMasterMagicEfficientlyInHisSecondLife'', Zeff's specialty is that he switches between multiple magic styles rather than becoming a MasterOfOneMagic like in his last life.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' brings us the TropeNamer in the first game as a mix of all the classes. After their upgrade, they can use white and black magic up to level 7 (out of 8), except for a few exclusives, as well as a wide variety of weapons and armor. In fact, the first red mage is one of the most powerful in the series.

** Those games also feature single element mages (fire, ice, wind, and star). Level them up enough and the prism mage (master of the first three elements) and galaxy mage (all four) unlock... But note that [[MasterOfNone the prism and galaxy mages don't learn the highest-level spells in each element]]. (at least not without using the pupil system)

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' has Red Mages as one of the jobs again, but slightly more useful than III. The job system also allows any class to become a Red Mage by mixing magic commands, so you can have a Black Mage with Time Magic, or a Knight with Summon abilities if you want. The Red Mage does learn Dualcast at an absurd level though, which can [[GameBreaker break the game]] if used properly.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'' has both the literal Red Mage and the Scholar. The former tries and largely fails to play up the MagicKnight aspects of the class but makes up for it by making it good at StandardStatusEffects. The latter is essentially the spiritual successor to the Sage plus metamagic. Often missed due to StopHavingFunGuys being very common. The Red Mage spends a large chunk of levels as the most effective tank in the game. The combination of Phalanx, Stoneskin, Refresh, Spikes, and enfeebling spells makes them nearly invulnerable, even against leveling mobs until you reach about level 50 where the effectiveness of mobs starts growing exponentially instead of linearly and specialization becomes a must.

*** Some have also considered [[BigBad Kuja]] a Red Mage for his ability to use both the highest level black and white magic spells, along with a few of his own exclusive ones.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': Terra is also a good candidate: Red outfit, can naturally learn healing and attack magic, has access to the best equipment of the game. In her case, she is not a [[MasterOfNone Jack of all trades]] but a PersonOfMassDestruction. Celes is also a candidate (she has access to all the same equipment as Terra, and is the only other character to learn magic naturally), but with less raw power (whereas Terra's unique ability is a powerful but time-limited SuperMode, Celes can [[EnergyAbsorption absorb magic]] once per turn).
*** Most of the cast of ''VI'' can learn all of the spells in the game. Terra mainly qualifies for story reasons, Celes and Strago both have the only other skills that are directly magically related (Strago is even more versatile, he can use attack, healing, support, and blue magic!).

*** Kimahri is set up to be this, crossed with blue magic overdrive skills. He starts off at the centre of the Sphere Grid in all configurations and can function well in pretty much any role (although not as well as the designated character). His Strategy Wiki entry even describes him as a character who can either become a jack of all trades or a useless blue bag of empty stats and abilities. Whether players actually follow this Red Mage route, though, is a matter of individual choice; it's completely possible to have him follow one character's progression path and confine him to a single class. Indeed, with the flexible nature of the sphere grid, especially the Expert Sphere Grid, it's 100% possible to deliberately configure all characters to be Red Mages.
** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' you can, and it's entirely advised, to give everyone healing magic, along with any other magic they may use like enemy skills, Summons, or plain old offensive magic. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' is also like this, at least with characters you actually equip the ability to use magic to, though the characters that actually fit would be Selphie, Quistis, and Rinoa later on due to their limit breaks being based on various types of magic.

** Trivially easy in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', in which all four kinds of magic are easily available to everyone in exchange for license points. Want an entire party of red mages? Pick a low-level location and begin depopulating it. On the other hand, with enough investment, you can bring them to max in all of them and indeed are given a special BraggingRightsReward for covering the license grid for every party member.
*** Both more and less easy to accomplish in the UpdatedRerelease 'Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age'. With the job system introduced license boards are more limited so depending on what jobs you pick being a red mage may not be possible. Red mage was one of the jobs you could pick with a mix of black and white magic along with a few spells from the other schools. Further as you could pick two jobs for each character you could make your own red mage picking any two of the magic-focused classes.

** In the ''Final Fantasy'' games that have Blue Mages as a job class, they have abilities with similarly wide ranges of effects to red mages. The key difference is that blue mages must [[PowerCopying learn their abilities from enemies]].
* Red Mages in the SpiritualSuccessor of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'', function in a similar manner, although since everyone can take multiple turns by default, their main secondary ability is to be able to gain BP in a variety of situations: randomly when getting hit, after defeating an enemy, when inflicted with a StandardStatusEffect, when low on HP and when evading an enemy attack. However, unlike in ''Final Fantasy V'', Red Mages can actually be a viable class to use with the right builds and their skillset: "B/W Magic", which would normally be useless, is preferable over simply giving a character both "Black Magic" and "White Magic" due to how the Job system works in that game.

* Franchise/{{Pokemon}} have "Dual types" as any variation of the Red Mage (As in: Red Rogue, Red Tank, Red [[GlassCannon Glass Cannon]], the list goes on...), Dual Types gain STAB (Same-Type Attack Bonus) from two types, learn moves from both types, but also gain the weaknesses of both types, and the may even make them extra vulnerable to a certain element. The ability "Protean" [[UpToEleven takes it up to eleven]] by allowing the user to switch its type to the type of the move it's about to use to gain the STAB boost from it, and also gains that types respective weaknesses.
** This can actually work in a Pokemon's favor, by giving the Pokemon 4x resistance to a type or outright immunity to a type.
** There are also several Pokemon that use both attacks and support moves. For example, a typical moveset for Hitmontop is three powerful attacks and Rapid Spin (which removes entry hazards).

* Hedge Wizards in ''VideoGame/DungeonCrawl'' aren't limited to one type of magic but are generally weaker than other mages.

Contrast CripplingOverspecialization and MasterOfOneMagic. See also ClassAndLevelSystem and {{Splat}}. May suffer (and benefit) doubly from LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards. To avoid confusion, the Red Mage may well be a single class with access to spells from different classes, or the result of a magician who has studied in more than one magical tradition. Compare HybridMonster and HybridOverkillAvoidance.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' does away with default classes, as well as Major/Minor skills, going instead with a SkillScoresAndPerks system. It does, however, give you a healing spell and a fire spell right away at the start of the game for free. Aspiring mages can easily use these to start down the path of a Red Mage if they so choose. Additionally, for the first time in the series, they can be dual-wielded (on spell in each hand).

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', Red Mages from the ''Stormblood'' expansion are {{Magic Knight}}s who fight with magic and rapiers. However, since the game holds tight to the trinity of [[DamagerHealerTank tank/heal/DPS]], instead of serving as a MasterOfNone with spells from their individual jobs, they instead [[YinYangBomb marry both schools of magic to use them in entirely different capacities]] than Black and White mages can, while also combining the attributes of a ranged DPS class with those of a melee-based one (peppering spells on an enemy to fill up their balance gauge, then rushing in and expending that power to boost the damage of a quick series of rapier slashes and stabs, before leaping back out of melee range). This makes them a versatile DPS class [[CombatMedic that can also heal people]] at higher levels.

* ''VideoGame/Albion'':