Characters / Final Fantasy Tactics Classes

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The Classes

See also Final Fantasy - Recurring Jobs.

In General

Final Fantasy Tactics' take on the Job System adds quite a bit of depth and replay value to the game, as the ability to mix and match primary and secondary Job Commands, as well as Reaction, Support, and Movement abilities, means that your units can have all sorts of interesting variations and/or synergy with each other.

Note: In the lists below, their Job's Prerequisites and their Abilities' names are always listed with the original game's version first, and then that of the PSP port's.

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• Armor and Magic Don't Mix: All caster Jobs can't wear Armor beyond Hats, Clothes, and Robes, unless they equip the Knight's Equip Armor/Heavy Armor Support ability (though they'll miss out on bonuses to their MP).
• Body Armor as Hit Points: When units gain a Level, they also gain a couple more ticks of their HP and MP - the amounts of which varies with the Job they've gained a Level in - but otherwise, how high their Max HP and MP can be is extremely dependent on the kind of gear they're using. At least until the post-game, that is.
• Gender-Restricted Gear: Female units can equip Hairpins and Perfumes in nearly all of their Jobs, and a lot of them have an impressive variety of bonuses. Most male units, meanwhile, can't use those two gear types.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: All Jobs barring the Monk have the option to go fight unarmed, but it's generally not recommended - they won't do much damage using their fists alone, not unless they have the Monk's Martial Arts/Brawler Support ability equipped, an innately high Physical Attack, or a way to raise it even higher.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: With the physical-oriented Dancer being female-exclusive, and the magickal-oriented Bard being male-exclusive, the game subtly encourages you to invert this trope. With that being said, however, the player is free to play the trope straight, avert it, or do any combination thereof they wish.
• Handbag of Hurt: Purses, a female-exclusive weapon type that can be equipped on nearly all of their Jobs.
• Informed Equipment: The many types of Armor that units can wear aren't shown on their sprites when they're equipped, but their Weapons and Shields will show up whenever they attack others or defend themselves.
• Logical Weakness: There's a fair few weaknesses that the Jobs share:
  • All Jobs are susceptible to the Don't Move/Immobilize and Don't Act/Disable status debuffs, as moving and acting are key to achieving victory during a battle. Take one or the other out of the equation, however, and the afflicted Jobs will be hardly able to do much while the status debuffs are still active. Fortunately, there are certain gear available in the game that can prevent both from affecting them when equipped.
  • Most of the caster Jobs are extremely vulnerable to the Silence status debuff, since being afflicted with it would mean they can't use any of their spells. It's recommended for players to either stockpile on Echo Grasses/Herbs, have their other units be prepared to cure their casters of it, or otherwise equip said casters with certain Accessories that will prevent them from being Silenced in the first place.
• Magical Accessory: All Jobs except the Mime can equip one, which can drastically affect how well they do in battle. Also, how else can you explain things such as Perfumes granting their wearers useful status buffs like permanent Reraise and Regen, Boots that allows their wearer to Float, and Gloves that gives them Haste?
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Several Jobs have more versatility than "hit the enemy For Massive Damage". For example, Thieves, Mystics, and Time Mages have key abilities which can directly affect an enemy unit, such as respectively leaving them suffering from a lack of gear and from a select choice of status debuffs.
• Min-Maxing: Each Job has different growth rates attached to them. A unit who has spent a lot of time being a Monk may find themselves having that much more HP compared to one who has done so as a Black Mage.
  • In the game, on certain battlefields, are the rare Degenerator traps that lower your units' current Level by 1 whenever they've been stepped on. A dedicated min-maxer will drop their units down to Level 1 on them while they're in Jobs that minimizes their stat losses (such as the Bard/Dancer) and then, later on, allow them to regain their Levels back, but in another Job that increases their desired stats (such as the Ninja).
• One Bullet Clips: All Jobs can only shoot their targets once per turn with their guns, before needing to reload.
• One Stat to Rule Them All: The Speed stat for all Jobs (as higher Speed equals more turns and better action economy), Bravery (which also rules their Reaction ability's proc chance), and Physical Attack for physical-oriented Jobs (for better damage), with Faith/Magick Attack for magick-oriented Jobs (for stronger spells).
• The Red Mage: Take any caster Job, then have their second Job Command be one from any other caster Job, and you'll have this trope. Or, take a melee Job, then give it Math Skill/Arithmeticks - plus abilities you'd like for it to use from the rest of the caster Jobs - and you'll have the traditional Final Fantasy version of it.
• Sword and Sorcerer: The average party composition, starting from the beginning of the game to the end of it, will most likely have 2-3 tank/melee units backed up by 1-2 caster units (unless they're Arithmeticians being taken advantage of), with pure melee and/or magic parties rarely being used unless they're prepared enough.
• You All Look Familiar: Generic units (like Ramza's fellow cadets) may have randomized names, but they all share the same portraits and sprites both as males and females in all Jobs, aside from a rare few enemies who have unique portraits^*Unfortunately, if you turn them to your side via an Orator's Invitation/Entice, their portraits will default to their original ones. To avoid confusion, human enemies in the story or random encounters on the world map have different color schemes to tell you who's who.

Squire

This job serves as the foundation for all others, forming the first step on the road to becoming a legendary warrior.

-Description

The most basic physical-oriented Job, but required to access the others, Squires have a varied set of abilities that not only carries the early game, but occasionally has utility throughout the course of Ramza's journey. They can use knives, swords, axes, and flails in battle.

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• Always Accurate Attack: The Squire's Dash/Rush ability has a Success Rate of 100%, and doesn't trigger offensive Reaction abilities (like the Monk's Counter), but it comes with the downside of dealing random damage that's determined by multiplying the user's Physical Attack with a number between 1 to 4. It's particularly useful against enemies that have high Evasion - like Thieves and Ninjas - and even more so if the user's Physical Attack was also repeatedly raised via Accumulate/Focus.
• Boots of Toughness: Both male and female Squires wear boots that adequately protects their legs, with wide kneeguards for the former and more leg armor such as sabatons, greaves, polyns and cuisses for the latter.
• Boring, but Practical: The Squire is not a flashy Job, but it is fairly flexible in what it can do, making it decent to invest your time, effort, and JP in it, as it has some good Support abilities which include the nigh-essential and invaluable Gain JP Up/JP Boost. Ramza's unique variation of the Job deliberately invokes this as well; it gets buffed with a few new and special abilities over the course of the game, plus, his version is also able to equip much better gear compared to your average Squire.
  • Want your Squires to deal more damage in a battle? Let them use Accumulate/Focus until they can deal damage numbering in the hundreds! Fortunately, while the boost to their Physical Attack always fades after battles, the ability itself gives them a decent amount of EXP and JP per use, so before long you'll have yourself high-Level and JP-rich units at your disposal without too much effort.
  • The Squire's Movement ability, Move +1, allows anyone equipped with it to move further by an additional tile. It's not much in the grand scheme of things, and there are better versions of it, but in the early game it's still quite the tremendous boost as it allows you to position your units with it far more easily.
• Can't Catch Up: The Squire is one of two Jobs that is readily available to everyone at the start of the game. Yet, at the same time, the Squire's main role is to provide the first step towards the better physical-oriented Jobs, so it's sadly unable to keep up with the other Jobs succeeding it. Save for Ramza, you'll only invest in your units being Squires for a time because of the great abilities it has, not because the Job is quite good.
• Close-Range Combatant: Squires essentially function as one, as half of their Job Command's abilities require them to be right next to their targets (Dash/Rush, Heal/Salve), with the other half either being used for distant foes (Throw Stone/Stone) or for improving themselves before engaging them in combat (Accumulate/Focus).
• Combat Pragmatist: Squires in general fight as such, and some of the abilities they have access to reflects this. Not all units outside of a critical hit are able to forcibly knock enemies back a tile, and neither can they usually throw stones to damage them. Nor do they eagerly tackle their attackers after being hit in melee.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Male Squires wear leather gloves as part of their ensemble, while female Squires wear a complete set of arm protection that consists of gauntlets, vambraces, couters, rerebraces, and pauldrons.
• Counter-Attack: Their Reaction ability, Counter Tackle, allows them a chance to deal a moderate amount of damage to their attackers after getting struck in melee, the value of which scales off of their Physical Attack and is also dependent on their Bravery stat to proc. Combine it with a heavy use of their Accumulate/Focus ability, and you can make your enemies regret ever targeting your Squires.
• Defend Command: Squires can use their aptly named Support ability, Defend, to reduce the damage they'll take from melee attacks, while at the same time lessening the likelihood they'll get hit by said melee attacks until it's their turn again. It's a useful Support ability to have on your units in the absence of far better ones.
• Devious Daggers: Squires can make good use of knives. With the right knife equipped on them - such as the Assassin's Dagger or the Zorlin Shape/Zwill Straightblade - they can easily wreak havoc upon their enemies.
• Epic Flail: Squires are one of the few Jobs that can use flails, which deals inconsistent damage like axes do.
• Heavy Armor Class: Subverted. Despite what the Squires of both genders are depicted wearing in the image provided - especially the female Squire - they can only wear Clothes and Hats in-game, with said Armor and Helmet types usually being the least protective (or stat-giving) form of equipment available in the game.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Squires perform at their best when equipped with swords, rather than axes and flails.
• Knockback Slide: The Squire's Dash/Rush, Throw Stone/Stone and Counter Tackle abilities all have a good chance of pushing their unfortunate targets a tile away from their user, but that's only for as long as there's an empty, traversable tile behind the affected unit - which just means they can't be knocked into other units or be forced up a tile. A canny player can even nudge enemies into traps or hazardous terrain using them, although both are rather few and far in-between on most battlefields.
• Level Grinding: While the Squire's Throw Stone/Stone ability deals very little damage, it can hit targets from a good few tiles away... which means that stoning your best tank unit while occasionally topping up their HP is one of the best ways to level up your weaker units and give them JP while they're at it.
  • Their Accumulate/Focus ability also counts, given that Squires gain 10 EXP and the appropriate amount of JP per use of it, although it's only for as long as they haven't hit the game's Physical Attack hard cap of 99.
  • As an added bonus, you can grind for easy Levels and JP from as early as the second battle of the game. There's a lot of guides on how to pull this off too, so if you really want to, just look them up at your leisure.
• The Medic: Downplayed, and only in a very limited capacity. Your generic Squires can use Heal/Salve to cure themselves or their teammates of three relatively common status debuffs - Blind, Silence, and Poison - while Ramza, Delita, and Luso can also use Wish/Chant to heal others at the cost of some of their own HP instead.
• Never Bareheaded: Male Squires wear what seems like a hood over their head, while female Squires wear a headband covering their forehead.
• Not Completely Useless: Their Basic Skill/Fundaments (or Guts/Mettle for Ramza and Delita) Job Command has two weak damage-dealing abilities... that both have a reasonable chance to send victims reeling back a tile, including their lone Reaction ability. It's also hard to pin a Squire down too, and, if an enemy unit just so happens to be standing on a ledge that's right next to a long drop (like in Dugeura Pass), then the Squire is the Job that's ideally suited to knocking them off of it.
  • Their Job Command is also this when it's equipped by the other Jobs - you can never go wrong with dealing more damage to your enemies using Accumulate/Focus, or with curing your units of the three aforementioned status debuffs using Heal/Salve. In fact, having it on allows units in other Jobs they're struggling with to easily gain EXP and JP, up to the point of becoming much more proficient with them.
• Status Buff: Squires can use Accumulate/Focus to slowly increase their Physical Attack by 1, which they can repeatedly do during battles until they reach it's hard cap of 99. Meanwhile, Ramza and Luso can also use Yell/Tailwind and Cheer Up/Steel to individually boost Speed by 1 and Bravery by 5 to others, or all three simultaneously (including Magick Attack by 1) to themselves with their respective values via Scream/Shout.
  • There's a reason why Ramza and Luso (plus, to a lesser extent, other units who are equipped with the Squire's Job Command) are considered overpowered later on in the game - give them enough time to use the appropriate abilities, and they can end up one-shotting enemies. Doubly so for a Monk who's using it.
• Super-Empowering: The Squire's Monster Skill/Beastmaster Support ability, which when equipped on a unit, gives all of your tamed monsters who are next to that unit - while also being within 3 tiles height-wise of them - an extra ability to use, one that depends on the genus of your monsters in question^*For example, a Mindflayer from the Piscodaemon genus can get to use the Level Drain ability for as long as it's near that unit. But if it's not, then it can only use Tentacles, Ink, and Mind Blast.

Chemist

An expert in the use of items to recover HP or remove vexing status ailments.

-Description

The most basic magick-oriented Job, but required to access the others, Chemists are your go-to healers in the early game, and their ability to learn about the use of all sorts of items means that, at the very least, their Job Command will never be obsolete. They can use knives and guns in battle.

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• Adventure Archaeologist: The Chemist's Movement ability, Move-Find Item/Treasure Hunter, allows your units to uncover items hidden in the ground on certain spots of the battlefield. Unfortunately, in order to make your units be far more successful with finding a valuable item from said spots, your units in question must have low Bravery, around 16 to 6^*If your units' Bravery goes below 16, they'll start warning you that they're losing their stomach for fighting. Any lower than 6, and they'll leave your party. So don't overdo it.
• Always Accurate Attack: Downplayed. While gun-toting Chemists usually tend to have a 100% chance of hitting their targets whenever they shoot them normally, a few factors such as extreme elevation differences, other units standing in the way of their line of fire, and their target's own Reaction ability can still negatively affect their shot's overall accuracy.
  • This also extends to the items they can throw. Chemists have a guaranteed chance of hitting their targets with them, but the same factors above still applies, so they need to have a clear line of sight to them too.
  • Their innate Throw Item/s Support ability also enables other Jobs to do the same when it's paired together with their Job Command, but turning them into Chemists instead is usually a better idea by that point.
• Anti-Armor: Inverted. One of the Chemist's Support abilities, Maintenance/Safeguard, completely prevents Knights and Thieves from respectively breaking and stealing their equipment. While it's not as useful on the Chemists themselves unless they have powerful or unique gear equipped, other Jobs can still get so much more mileage out of their ability, more so whenever they're fighting the said Knights and Thieves in question.
• Anti-Debuff: One main strength Chemists have is that they can easily counteract most of the debuffs in the game by throwing to afflicted allies the item they need to be cured of them, which can range from the simple Antidote to the Panacea-like Remedy.
• Awesome Backpack: Male Chemists wear one, while female Chemists on the other hand wear an Awesome Fannypack. It's where they're keeping the items from your Inventory, all of which are ready to be thrown away at a moment's notice. Although why they aren't already bursting at the seams is simply a mystery in itself.
• Back from the Dead: Chemists who have learned how to use Phoenix Downs can do this to their allies - and even their enemies, should you wish it - just so as long as they haven't been turned into crystals or treasure chests yet, because at that point there's nothing you can do to bring the fallen back from permanent death.
• Boring, but Practical: Being a Chemist is all about using (and throwing) restorative Items. It's not a very flashy Job, but you can't deny its usefulness and viability. It later gets shades of Simple, yet Awesome when guns start appearing, as it is one of the few Jobs that can naturally use them. Especially when magickal guns start appearing - it's hard to say no to guns that can shoot Tier 1, 2, or 3 spells anyway, but on the other hand, your Chemists will need to have high Faith so they can get the most use out of them. That, or the Faith status buff.
  • What a Chemist can do to provide support to their teammates in battle is limited by the number and types of items you have in your Inventory, so be both willing and prepared to spend quite the fortune in Gil from simply buying restoratives from shops. And besides, you never know when that one extra Potion, Antidote, or Phoenix Down you bought might come in handy.
• Close-Range Combatant: Chemists initially function as one, as they can only wield knives up until the point when guns become available. While you can let them carry on as such, it's generally considered the better option for them to switch over to the latter weapon type as soon as possible.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Both male and female Chemists wear a pair of leather gloves as part of their ensemble, presumably to allow themselves a greater grip on the items they can throw at their allies or enemies, and also perhaps to avoid their skin coming into contact with possibly hazardous materials or their fingers being hurt.
• Culture Chop Suey: The male Chemist's costume is based on traveling medicine sellers from feudal Japan, whereas the female outfit appears more European, possibly Swiss or Dutch.
• Devious Daggers: For much of the early game, Chemists are forced to rely on their knives just to have a fairly decent chance of fighting back when engaged in melee. Just don't expect them to survive for long, however. As a reminder, they don't have access to good Armor and Helmets, nor can they wield much better Weapons.
• Glass Cannon: Chemists become this once they gain access to guns, particularly ones of the magickal kind. With the right equipment and abilities equipped, they can gun down an enemy all by their lonesome without frequently needing to move away. That being said, however, whenever they do need to move? Move them.
• Good Thing You Can Heal: Their Reaction ability, Auto Potion, allows them to automatically use the weakest type of Potion in your Inventory to heal themselves whenever it successfully procs - as a downside, though, this means you can potentially run out of Potions before you even realize it, as well as be forced to buy more. You also can't override how it works, but there's absolutely nothing stopping you from selling all of your weak Potions and buying X-Potions instead. With that in mind, make sure you have enough Gil to support its use.
• The Gunslinger: As Chemists are able to wield guns, doing so is a much better alternative compared to them wielding knives, since their lack of proficiency in close-quarters combat can quickly see to them getting killed.
• Healer Signs On Early: The Chemist is one of two Jobs that's readily available to all your units, since it lacks a prerequisite to unlock. Notably, two of Ramza's fellow cadets always start out as Chemists in the very first battle of the game, in contrast with the other four cadets who start out as Squires like Ramza and Delita do.
• Healing Shiv: Chemists literally hurl healing items at their intended recipients, the vast majority of which are essentially restorative liquids stored within elaborate glass flasks. There is a hilarious picture◊ of Ramza getting nailed in the face with a Potion (still in its flask, mind you, which shattered) and screaming in pain until it went into effect. Aside from the usual suspects, Maiden's Kisses and Softs/Gold Needles also count - the former being the stone bust of a maiden, and the latter being an actual gold needle... with a pointy end.
• Instant Armor: One of their Support abilities, Equip Change/Reequip, provides them the option to change any or all of their equipment during their turn. As before, it's not as useful on the Chemists themselves, but on the other Jobs? It can make all the difference in the world. And on a related but difficult note, there's nothing like killing an enemy with their own weapon which one of your Thieves happened to have stolen for you earlier.
• Item Caddy: Chemists have to learn a separate ability named after each type of item in the game in order to be able to use it in their Job Command. Of course, considering the strength of the items they have access to, this is necessary for balance.
• Long-Range Fighter: They can function as one as soon as you can get your hands on the game's guns, and they are much more effective with them compared to their use of knives. There's no good reason why you shouldn't make your Chemists start using them, unless you want a challenge or have other things in mind.
• Magikarp Power: Chemists start the game with limited options, lacking strong offensive abilities, weapons, and usage outside of being a healer or a stepping stone for the magick-oriented Jobs. However, once guns become available, Chemists suddenly become very useful ranged damage dealers, and their ability to heal themselves and others via their instant use of items sometimes makes them quicker and more practical than, say... a White Mage. So equip them with the best available gear, buy what items they need so they can shine, give them a good Support ability, and they'll quickly transform into powerful Combat Medics before your eyes. They're also one of the quickest and easiest ways to restore other people's MP, which isn't very useful early on when you only have access to inexpensive spells anyway, but which becomes increasingly powerful if you want to have the rest of your party throwing out top-tier spells every turn.
• The Medic: Chemists are a more literal example. One of their main strengths lies in being able to immediately throw out various healing items towards their teammates in battle, all without needing to spend time and MP in casting a powerful spell to achieve the same results. This makes them quite good early on, and even solid in the late game thanks to being able to heal others so quickly and efficiently. It's not uncommon, by the time Chapter 3 rolls around, that one of your units might still be one at that point, if only out of sheer practicality.
• Never Bareheaded: Male Chemists wear a puffy, forwards-drooping cap, while female Chemists wear a simple yet elegant headdress over their head. They can also equip Hats which can boost their stats in-game.
• Revive Kills Zombie: Chemists can make quick work of Undead-type enemies. Simply throw at them healing items and the occasional Phoenix Down like you would to your wounded or dead units, and all those pesky Undead will be out of action before you know it. Just remember to replenish your stock of items afterwards.
• Shoot the Medic First: As enemy Chemists can and will heal/cure their injured/afflicted teammates when given the chance, you can save yourself a lot of wasted time and effort by focusing on them first in battles. However, please be aware that the enemy AI will also actively seek to do the same thing to your Chemists.

Knight

A brave and chivalrous warrior of unmatched skill. Uses a knight's sword to unleash the Arts of War.

-Description

Prerequisite: Squire Level 2

Naturally clad in heavy armor, Knights are excellent warriors that stand firm even in the harshest of battles, who also have the power to destroy their enemies' equipment as well as sabotage their stats. They can use swords, knight's swords, and shields in battle.

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• Anti-Armor: Knights can turn enemies near-harmless by directly targeting their equipment through their Job Command, Battle Skill/Arts of War, which is one of their main strengths. By doing so, not only are they lowering their opponents' offensive and defensive capabilities, they are also depriving them of stat-boosting gear that are giving them an edge while simultaneously leaving them more vulnerable - on top of sabotaging their stats by a large margin.
• Anti-Magic: They can also damage and debilitate their enemies' MP and Magick Attack through two of their abilities, both of which are explored in the tropes further down. If you can get a Knight who has learned said abilities to an enemy caster, they can potentially stop them from harassing your units or from supporting their teammates within a few well-timed applications of them if their attacks aren't enough to outright kill them.
• Badass Cape: Knights always have a long cape attached to their armor, and in order to easily distinguish themselves from one another, those who hail from different factions wear colored capes that denote their allegiances, such as white and blue for you, green for the Death Corps/Corpse Brigade, and red for Lionel.
• BFS: The Knight is the only normal Job (besides the PSP-exclusive Dark Knight) that can use the powerful knight's swords, which are much larger, more hard-hitting, and often provides beneficial status effects to their wielders compared to most swords. Pair up a Knight with either the Samurai's Two Hands/Doublehand, the Ninja's Two Swords/Dual Wield, or even the Geomancer's Attack UP/Attack Boost Support ability, and there won't be a lot of enemies left who wouldn't fall to one equipped with both within a few decisive strikes.
• Boring, but Practical: Knights are fully dedicated melee fighters with little to no variety in their usage, aside from their abilities. At best, all what you'll be doing with them would be to make them trudge into combat to either engage with or finish off your enemies. At worst, you'll find yourself still moving them forward while your enemies have already closed in on your party, and are doing so from more tactically advantageous positions.
• Can't Catch Up: It's not as apparent as it is the case with Squires, but as the game progresses into the later Chapters, Knights will find it harder to keep up and remain useful as battles become more difficult to survive and enemies become more adept at blocking or evading their attacks, all owing to their low Move stat of 3. They also lack any sort of long-ranged abilities. Granted, what abilities they do have are powerful in their own right, but generally their strengths won't outweigh their weaknesses, which are explored in the tropes below.
• Close-Range Combatant: Knights can only attack at close ranges, which is the leading cause of them falling behind as the game progresses and more Jobs are unlocked. Though that's not to say they aren't good at it - a Knight will simply continue to hit hard with the proper equipment, and will keep reliably blocking or evading a lot of physical attacks most other Jobs can merely hope to block or evade. But spells, on the other hand...
• Combat Pragmatist: The Knight's ability to destroy equipment allows them to effectively limit what your enemies are capable of doing, and your Knights aren't above sabotaging their stats either. Is that stubborn Knight always blocking your attacks? Break their Shield. Is that frisky Ninja annoying you far too much? Lower their Speed. Is that desperate Summoner about to unleash an Esper? Drain their MP. You get the idea.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Knights are trained to hold their own against other physical-oriented Jobs, and they're quite skilled at it. But, should they ever be pitted against the magick-oriented or the more agile Jobs? They won't seem that skilled when they're being rained upon with spells, arrows, bolts, and bullets, as they can't fight back until they're close enough to their attackers - if they haven't already died by that point, that is.
  • And because all of their abilities are purely melee-based, outside of their second Job Command that you can assign anything to, Knights have nothing to use against enemies who have the advantage of range. This gets more pronounced in the later Chapters: They'll still tank attacks sure enough, but it's highly likely that by the time they'll get into position and finally fight back, they'll already be knocking at death's door.
  • But that's only if you don't give them a good Movement ability, like the Time Mage's Teleport.
• Crutch Character: The Knight's high HP and Physical Attack makes it a good choice of Job in the earlier Chapters, but, as the battlefields get more complex, and your enemies become more numerous and evasive, its short range and wanting mobility will eventually catch up to it. Not helping its case is the fact it has very situational and non-damaging abilities, and that the Job is mainly useful for the Support abilities it provides.
• Heavy Armor Class: Knights are able to pass on the ability to Equip Armor/Heavy Armor to the other Jobs, as they are typically the ones who wear it the most. The HP bonuses they gain from their choice of Armor also prevents them from getting killed as easily in a battle, compared with those who wear lighter forms of Armor.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Knights can pass on the ability to Equip Sword/s to the other Jobs, as they are more suited to wield a sword than the others. And it's more so with the knight's swords too, as them wielding the other sword type won't prevent them from using a shield in tandem with it, never leaving them vulnerable.
• Hold the Line: Knights are exceptionally good at keeping the enemy's attention on them, and this is reflected in the way they can block or evade attacks a lot easier than most of the other Jobs can. Suit them up with a Feather Mantle/Featherweave Cloak and one of the most highest quality shields available, then place them at chokepoints on any battlefield to protect your other units behind them, and they can practically guard against nearly all of their enemies' attacks with impunity while preventing them from easily getting past their positions.
  • And that's not getting into equipping them with a good defensive Reaction ability like the Samurai's Blade Grasp/Shirahadori or the Ninja's Abandon/Reflexes - with a maxed out Bravery or high enough Evasion on any of your Knights, enemy units will either simply refuse to attack them or keep missing most of the time.
• Lady of War: Female Knights are this. Their artwork portrait and unit sprite make a point to emphasize this.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The Knight also happens to be the only Job who can pass on the ability to Equip Shield/s to the other Jobs. Any unit equipped with a shield will find their chances of survival during a battle greatly increased, as the shield they're wielding will also boost their chances of blocking or evading enemy attacks, therefore making them less likelier to get hit often. Unless they're being attacked from behind or the sides, of course, in which case you need to be paying attention to the direction your units are facing.
• Mighty Glacier: Although Knights have high HP, and their use of shields means they'll often block or evade attacks, their low Base Speed and Move stats makes it hard for them to arrive on the front-lines unless their teammates are supporting them from behind. But once they're on the front-lines, however, they can and will stand their ground reasonably well... at least up until their enemies start getting a bit too strong to handle.
  • Certain Movement abilities on the other hand, can possibly alleviate their Glacier-ness by leaps and bounds, although their low Base Speed will still remain a somewhat annoying issue to bear in mind.
• Never Bareheaded: Inverted. The artwork portraits and the unit sprites of both male and female Knights show them forgoing wearing a helmet, which is unsurprisingly a bad idea in a setting where your next battle might be waiting just around the corner (and sometimes not even that). Fortunately, it's not the case in-game, as your Knights are free to wear Helmets, although you can choose to keep it inverted if you really wanted to.
• Non-Health Damage: Magic Break/Rend MP directly damages MP, which can potentially prevent enemy spells from being cast, while also possibly turning the would-be caster into a mostly harmless sitting duck.
• No-Sell: Any enemy who is equipped with the Chemist's Maintenance/Safeguard Support ability is completely immune to the Knight's Break/Rend abilities that affect their equipment, meaning the Knight units you've built up to destroy enemy gear will be pretty much unable to do so to anyone who happens to be equipped with it. Luckily, that ability doesn't extend its protection towards their normal and debilitating attacks, so hack away.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: The Knight's Job Command is essentially this. Their Break/Rend abilities all have a decent chance to hit their opponents, but that's just it - "a decent chance" usually means around a 20%-70% (give or take an extra 5%) Success Rate of actually landing their attacks, so don't let the high likelihood of their abilities connecting trick you into taking up a false sense of confidence. Unless you're fairly certain about debilitating your enemies, you're usually better off letting your Knights attack them normally most of the time.
• Reflexive Response: The Knight's Reaction ability, Weapon Guard/Parry, is this. It triggers only when the unit with this ability is about to be physically attacked by an enemy, where they'll then automatically block the incoming strike with their own weapon, although how often it procs is highly dependent on their Bravery.
• Status Infliction Attack: One other main strength the Knight Job has - aside from its aforementioned power to destroy enemy equipment - is its power to debilitate a few of your enemies' stats, which, while limited, can nonetheless still easily turn the tides of any battle in your favor. Here are the abilities that allows it to do so:
  • Speed Break/Rend Speed reduces Speed by 2, preventing an enemy from taking their turns more often.
  • Power Break/Rend Power reduces Physical Attack by 3, weakening the strength of an enemy's strikes.
  • Mind Break/Rend Magick reduces Magick Attack by 3, weakening the power of all an enemy's spells.

Archer

Equipped with a bow and arrow, this warrior provides valuable long-range attacks. May Aim for higher damage.

-Description

Prerequisite: Squire Level 2

The first ranged class in the game, not only can Archers rain death upon their enemies from afar, they can also charge their attacks to deal more damage. They can use bows, crossbows, and shields in battle, though they can only equip the latter should they wield a crossbow.

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• Always Accurate Attack: The Archer's Support ability, Concentration, allows units to ignore their target's Evasion stat whenever they attack or use their abilities on them, although it won't always guarantee that they'll connect - Concentration doesn't actually affect the accuracy of its users' attacks^*The Base Success Rates of all attacks, spells, and abilities are essentially still the same even with Concentration equipped on a unit.
• Annoying Arrows: Unfortunately, most of the bows and crossbows Archers have access to do not have great stopping power, although rare bows that deal massive damage do exist. Nonetheless, just have your Archers shoot enough arrows or bolts into their targets, and they'll eventually go down or be much easier to finish off.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: Archers are unable to shoot enemy units who are within 2-3 tiles of their current position, though they can use a trick to get around this limitation of theirs which is detailed further down.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Archer's Job Command, Charge/Aim, allows for long wind-up attacks that are usually not worth the increased damage, as the trade-off is sometimes lowered accuracy (which bows and crossbows are already in want for) and progressively longer waits for the charged attacks to be fired off.
• Badass Cape: It's not easily seen on their unit sprite, but in their artwork portrait, male Archers have a short shoulder-length half-cape covering their bow-arm, presumably to protect it from the elements or from attacks.
• Boots of Toughness: Both male and female Archers wear a pair of thick thigh-high leather boots as part of their ensemble, in order to allow them to traverse terrain easily, and to - more importantly - protect their legs.
• Boring, but Practical: The Archer's sole purpose is to harass and weaken distant enemy units with their bow or crossbow while remaining out of retaliatory range, which is literally what they'll be doing during a battle.
• Bows Versus Crossbows: Archers can choose between using a bow or a crossbow as their weapon, although what they'll use boils down to your personal preferences, as there are a few key differences between the two. A bowman can't shoot their arrows farther than a crossbowman's bolts can, and arrows tend to arc when shot whereas bolts just fly straight to their targets. The former also requires the use of both hands while the latter frees up the off hand to allow the use of a shield, and bows gain bonus range while on elevated terrain, unlike crossbows whose range remains the same at any elevation. Lastly, both suffer from minor accuracy penalties in adverse weather and at night time, although which weapon type comes off as far worse while they're under such conditions depends on the circumstances themselves.
  • In any case, Archers can pass on the ability to Equip Crossbows to the other Jobs, given that they are the only normal Job that can naturally use them. Try it out on the ones that suffer in melee, like the Chemist for example, and you might be surprised to see how well it synergizes with their pre-existing ability set.
• Can't Catch Up: An Archer is quite a good addition to your party during the early parts of the game, by letting you attack your enemies from a distance to kill or soften them up for your other units to deal with. But as you progress through the story, you'll find that your enemies will begin dodging your arrows more often than you'd like, followed shortly by them soon appearing with higher HP, better gear, and dangerous abilities to boot. There's also its bland and boring Job Command to consider, which many players feel isn't worth using at all. You'll be better off using mages by then, although they can still be of use, provided that you use them wisely.
• Charged Attack: The main gimmick of their Job Command, as explored above. Archers can spend a period of time charging up an attack that in return does more damage as a result, although not without risks involved.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Both male and female Archers also wear a pair of supple leather gloves to help them handle their bows/crossbows, and with nocking their arrows/bolts for when they need to shoot at enemies.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The polar opposite of Knights, Archers are trained to only deal with distant foes, and so can't do anything to enemies who have already engaged them save for somehow escaping, which nonetheless does nothing to solve their glaring issue at hand. Charge/Aim also lacks abilities dedicated to close-quarters combat, which means that barring an Archer's second Job Command, they literally have no real means to fend off their attackers in melee aside from indirectly targeting them.
• Difficult, but Awesome: What makes the Archer's Job Command generally unreliable is that it targets the tile an enemy unit is standing on, not the unit itself, so if the one you're aiming at moves before your Archer can get their shot off, you're not shooting anything but air. Making the most out of Charge/Aim involves checking the Active Turn list a lot, so you'll get to know for how long you can do so. Otherwise, you could fence in your enemies with your other units so that they'll still be there when your Archer finally shoots - or use spells - but this also risks the not-so-feasible outcome of them escaping anyway and killing your units as they do.
• Dramatic High Perching: Archers using bows gain a bonus to their attack range whenever they're standing on elevated terrain. They also tend to have a better sight of their enemies from on top of said locations, which can potentially boost the power and accuracy of their attacks thanks to being on such a good vantage point.
  • The Archer's Movement ability, Jump +1, helps them in that regard by making those areas easier to climb.
• Fragile Speedster: Archers are fast, but can't take a lot of hits as they are meant to stay in the back to support their teammates. Any Archer forced into melee is as good as dead if they don't try to disengage, so pay close attention to your Archers to ensure that they won't get caught in such a situation, or you're in for a bad time.
• Great Bow: The bows that the two Archers are depicted wielding in the image provided are nearly their size - although due to the fact it's hard to tell the actual length and width of the game's weapons from going off their sprites, it's downplayed, as all in-game bows still shoot the same-sized arrow and are not immediately lethal.
• Long-Range Fighter: Of course, as all Archers are pretty much unable to hit anything within 2-3 tiles of themselves with their bows and crossbows, unless some clever aiming is involved. They can make a huge difference when they have a height advantage too, so it's in your best interests that you should put your Archers in such places. And don't hesitate to make them retreat should enemies approach to attack them.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Archers armed with crossbows can equip a shield to make up for their lack of bonus attack range gained while standing on elevated terrain, although how better their chances of survival are with one equipped is highly dependent on the quality of the shield in question. So get them good ones.
• Never Bareheaded: Inverted. Both male and female Archers visually go without any kind of headgear in their artwork portraits and unit sprites, but in-game, they're freely able to wear Hats that can boost their stats.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Crossbows play this trope straight as already mentioned above, with their bolts flying straight to where they were pointed at, while bows avert it, with arrows needing to be shot high into the air first before descending towards their targets. This is what gives bows their range advantage when they're shot from the high ground, though it comes at the expense of not allowing their wielders to shoot anything within 2-3 tiles of themselves^*All bows, crossbows, and guns can only directly target something 2-3 tiles away or further, though if a nearby enemy is only on one axis, or directly diagonal of the Archer, a crossbow or gun can target the nearest tile on their other side and still hit the enemy regardless.
• Super-Reflexes: One of the Archer's Reaction abilities, Arrow Guard/Archer's Bane, gives them a chance - that's based on their Bravery - to automatically dodge incoming arrows and bolts, although sadly the ability itself sees limited use as it works only against said projectiles and nothing else.
• Super-Speed: The Archer's other Reaction ability, Speed Save/Adrenaline Rush, increases their Speed by 1 whenever they take damage, which can eventually allow them to take multiple turns in a row after tanking enough hits. That possibility, of course, operates under the assumption that they have survived the attacks they took damage from... and that their Reaction ability successfully proc'ed for every single time they got hurt, with the likelihood of that happening also being based on their Bravery and how high it is.
• Weak, but Skilled: Archers start off dealing little damage, but once you begin investing in good Weapons and Armor for them on top of using their Job Command wisely, expect to see them deal medium to heavy damage to enemy units every few turns without having to retreat from them or fearing for their reprisal. While opening up the Active Turn list every now and then does take some getting used to, when you do get the hang of it? Oh boy. Your enemies will start dropping like flies before you know it.

White Mage (Priest)

A warrior who taps into the powers of the divine, using White Magicks to cast spells of recovery and protection.

-Description

Prerequisite: Chemist Level 2

Valued for their healing and support spells, White Mages use their beneficial magicks to mend wounds, shield others from harm, and revive their recently deceased allies before it's far too late for them. They can use staves in battle.

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• Anti-Magic: Downplayed. Their one and only Support ability, Magic DefendUP/Arcane Defense, allows those equipped with it to take around 33% less damage from spells while also decreasing their chances to get hit by them. It's perfect for whenever you engage enemy casters, and is very useful on Jobs that are vulnerable to magick, such as the Knight for example.
• Auto-Revive: The White Mage's Reraise spell can grant this to their allies, automatically returning them to life upon their death but in exchange for leaving them vulnerable with little HP. It's a spell that's best cast early on your units who are about to engage the enemy in battle, as it'll spare your White Mages from spending some of their turns and MP from later reviving and healing them to a fighting fit state should they get killed in action.
• Back from the Dead: White Mages can revive fallen units through the use of their Raise, Raise 2/Arise, and Reraise spells. Raise gets them back on their feet at half HP, Raise 2/Arise resurrects them at full HP, and Reraise wakes them up from their dirt nap at one-tenth of their Max HP once their CT count reaches 100.
• Barrier Warrior: White Mages can cast Protect (and Protect 2/Protectja), Shell (and Shell 2/Shellja), and Wall upon units to grant them increased defenses against physical and/or magickal attacks, which in turn makes them take less damage from enemies, for as long as the buffs remain active or until they've been dispelled.
• Boring, but Practical: Owing to the time and MP costs of the White Mage's stronger Tiers of spells, a player concerned about their MP usage can find themselves sticking to only the first two Tiers of their Cure spell for healing their injured units when needed, rarely ever using the other two Tiers unless they can afford to do so. It's actually not a bad idea in retrospect, as it can greatly extend a White Mage's staying power during battles.
• Crutch Character: White Mages are incredibly potent in the early game, largely due to healing your wounded units much better than Chemists can. They also have more abilities to further support them. Sadly, as you progress through the game, they tend to become less effective because of the longer casting times of their stronger spells and the increased MP costs to use said spells, limitations Chemists happily ignore through their instant use of items. Nonetheless, they'll still remain a viable addition to your party in the late game.
• Difficult, but Awesome: What holds back the White Mages from shining in the early game are their limited MP pools, their lack of MP recovery outside of their second Job Command and/or other abilities, and their much longer casting times for their far stronger spells. For the most part, it's all fairly manageable albeit tedious to endure without having such alternative options, as you are forced to carefully decide which of your wounded units takes priority in healing during a tough battle lest they run out of MP, and therefore become useless at a crucial moment. When managed wisely, however, White Mages can be the decisive factor in winning a battle.
  • But should you equip them with the right gear and abilities, such as the Summoner's Half of MP/Halve MP and the Mystic's Move-MP Up/Manafont, you'll have yourself self-sufficient healers capable of supporting your units for a whole encounter without ever needing to drink a single Ether. Of course, it'll take you some time and effort to get to that point, but once you've built them up properly? Your White Mages can become a force multiplier on their own, even if all they'll be doing is heal and support your units with their spells.
• Dispel Magic: The White Mage's Esuna spell is this. It's capable of removing most of the status debuffs in the game that can be inflicted upon your units, while leaving alone the status buffs that are still active on them.
• Fragile Speedster: White Mages have a surprisingly high Speed stat compared to other mages, along with the usual frailty of a magic user. Their magic power remains high enough for this to give them a unique niche when using Math Skill/Arithmeticks as their secondary Job Command.
• Gradual Regeneration: The White Mage's Reaction ability, Regenerator/Regenerate, gives anyone equipped with it the chance to have the Regen status buff automatically applied upon themselves after they've been hit by any kind of attack. It allows them to recover one-eighth of their Max HP at the end of their turn, with their chances of successfully activating it being heavily dependent on how high their Bravery stat is.
  • They can also directly apply the Regen status buff to others by casting the eponymous spell upon them.
• Healer Signs On Early: Everyone on the starting roster of the first battle of the game can potentially gain just enough JP in the Chemist Job to have the White Mage Job unlocked by its end, just so as long as there's one taking part in it. The end result? You're likely to have two different healer units by your second battle.
• Healing Hands: Their Cure, Cure 2/Cura, Cure 3/Curaga, and Cure 4/Curaja spells replenishes the lost HP of your wounded units, with progressively stronger potency, greater MP costs, and longer casting times for each successive Tier. Be sure to use the appropriate Tier of Cure spell in regards to healing your wounded units.
• Healing Shiv: White Mages can gain access to the Healing Staff, a rare and hard to find staff that allows them to heal their allies by physically attacking them with it. While equipping it essentially takes away their ability to defend themselves from enemies (unless they're Undead), it's still incredibly useful as it enables wielders to continue healing their allies - albeit in limited amounts - and to conserve their MP usage for their other spells.
• Holy Hand Grenade: The White Mage, despite being a Job that mainly specializes in support, has access to one brilliantly powerful offensive spell, called Holy. Holy summons forth a great beam of blinding divine light from the skies to strike down a target of your choosing. It's incredibly effective against Undead-type enemies, although in practice it unfortunately has a very limited number of uses, since it costs a hefty 60 MP per cast.
  • Oh, and it has a long animation upon casting. Don't combine this spell with Math Skill/Arithmeticks unless you don't mind watching the light show, or have something to preoccupy yourself with in the meantime.
• Irony: Ramza and company are later denounced as heretics, yet that hasn't stopped any of them from still calling upon the powers of the divine for their own benefit.
• Magic Staff: A staff is a White Mage's weapon, mainly as a means to boost their Magick Attack, or otherwise, as a means of self-defense should things take a drastic turn for the worse. After all, if your White Mages bludgeon a nearby threat enough times while surviving it, that threat will eventually stop being one.
• The Medic: White Mages essentially serve as one, given that most of their abilities are based around healing, shielding, and reviving their teammates. They excel at the role too, although you have to be very mindful of their MP usage in return, unless your White Mages have a reliable way to restore their own MP on hand.
• Necessary Drawback: White Mages would have been permanent fixtures to most players' parties if it weren't for the fact that all of their spells takes them time and MP to cast, which sometimes might be too late for the units they're casting their spells for. That, and their MP is hard to recover without abilities or Chemists around.
• Never Bareheaded: Zig-zagged. As per Final Fantasy tradition, the White Mage's robes comes with a white hood. In-game, female White Mages wear theirs up, while male White Mages wear theirs down.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: One reasonable way to prevent enemy White Mages from supporting their allies - other than debuffing them with Silence - would be to cast the Time Mage's Reflect spell on their targets. Because the vast majority of their spells practically requires them to function as a support Job, this makes the eponymous status buff a wonderful counter against their effectiveness. Unfortunately, they can still cast their spells on themselves so that their wounded, Reflected allies standing beside them will get affected anyway.
• Power Copying: White Mages have a 40% chance of learning their Cure 4/Curaja spell after being hit by it. They also have a 10% chance of learning their Protect 2/Protectja and Shell 2/Shellja spells if they haven't learned how to cast them yet too, but with the added condition that their buffs must be successfully applied on them first before they can even make an attempt at learning them.
• Revive Kills Zombie: Most of their spells under the Cure and Raise lines can damage Undead-type enemies, and their Raise 2/Arise spell is capable of outright killing them (again) on the spot if it successfully connects.
• Shoot the Medic First: Given that White Mages all have the power to heal, buff, and revive other units, they're essentially high-value targets that you should probably prioritize taking down first if you ever encounter them in a battle. When left alone, they tend to make things much harder for you through their spells, so do yourself a favor and try to bump off enemy White Mages before they can cast some good ones on their teammates.
• Squishy Wizard: While White Mages make for powerful healers and provide amazing support to your other units, they're still quite physically frail. A hit or three from an enemy is usually enough to kill them, so it'll be in your best interests to keep them out of harm's way as much as possible in every battle you bring them into.
• Status Buff: White Mages are able to grant a few to their allies, namely in the form of Protect, Shell, Regen, and Reraise. All of the four buffs remain useful even into the late game, and are not to be underestimated.
• White Mage: Of course.

Black Mage (Wizard)

A warrior who uses Black Magicks to channel elemental powers into powerful offensive spells.

-Description

Prerequisite: Chemist Level 2

Feared for their knowledge of offensive magicks that cripple, harm or outright kill their chosen targets, Black Mages use their repertoire of spells to bring both woe and ruin upon their enemies on the battlefield. They can use rods in battle.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Their Tier 4 spells cannot be used as a Math Skill/in Arithmeticks, are not Friendly Fireproof, and also usually take far too long to learn and cast to be worth using in the first place. Additionally, unless you ABSOLUTELY need something to die sooner rather than later, it's generally more MP-efficient for your Black Mages to stick to their Tier 1 or 2 spells if you don't have plenty of Ethers available or another, easier way to replenish their MP reserves.
• Black Mage: As is the case with the White Mage, of course.
• Boring, but Practical: As fun as it is to make them cast the most powerful spells they know on your enemies, your Black Mages are much better off casting their Tier 1 or 2 spells most of the time during battles, only ever bringing out the big guns when you're reasonably sure they can cast them in time. Since they're also quite cost-efficient, until you can find a way to reliably restore your Black Mages' MP on demand, those spells are going to be the ones you'll be using the most as they'll continue to dish out damage worth their weight in MP.
• Can't Catch Up: For most of the early game, Black Mages serve as damage dealers who are capable of attacking multiple enemies from afar. Unfortunately, as the game progresses, they'll begin lagging behind in terms of effectiveness as your enemies start becoming sturdier and less likelier to get hit by spells. It's hard to replenish their MP too, since it means they or one of your units has to sacrifice an ability slot, an item and/or a turn in order to do so - efforts that could have been better spent on other actions like reviving fallen units. But it should be noted that if you solve their MP issues, Black Mages can become solid picks for battles.
• Casting a Shadow: The Black Mage's Death spell is considered a Dark-elemental attack by the game and, when successfully cast on Undead-type enemies, will actually fully heal them instead of killing them (again). Beware that you do not make this mistake in the heat of battle, especially if you encounter human units that are afflicted with the Undead status debuff, or monsters that are already classified as Undead by the game.
• Counter-Attack: The Black Mage's Reaction ability, Counter Magic/Magick Counter, grants them a chance that's based on their Bravery to cast the offensive spell they were hit with back at the one who targeted them, even if they haven't learned the spell yet or normally can't cast it. That being said however, they'll need to survive the caster's spell first and have the appropriate amount of MP to spare before they can even do it.
• Crutch Character: Black Mages, like the White Mages, are powerful in the early game, thanks to their use of spells that deals magickal damage during a point in the game where most of your enemies don't have high resistances to them yet. Their Tier 1 spells also cost negligible MP to cast, and are quick to be unleashed upon targets within a few turns. But their stronger spells require a lot of JP to learn, meaning that you're going to be stuck with a caster Job that can only use their basic spells for some time, until they can do otherwise... which also brings along its own slew of problems, as their new spells are also costlier to use in general.
  • However, their problems can be all averted anyhow, though it will still take a lot of time, effort, and JP on your part to get the most use out of your Black Mages. As always, giving them the best possible gear and abilities can more than make up for most of the cons of using them in battle instead of a different Job.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Black Mages share a lot of the same issues as the White Mages have, such as their low MP pools and lack of MP recovery outside of their second Job Command and/or other abilities, especially their much longer casting times for their own far stronger spells. But unlike the White Mages' case, it's more difficult for them to manage as the main way for the Black Mages to deal damage is to cast their spells, all of which costs them their MP. Even so, by wisely determining which spell to use and when to cast them, Black Mages can likewise also serve as a decisive factor in winning a battle, much like their White opposites can.
  • And again, much like their White opposites, they can also equip better gear and abilities that can boost their effectiveness in battle. For example, a 108 Gems/Japa Mala equipped on Black Mages with Magick AttackUp/Arcane Strength can make them dish out considerable damage even with their Tier 1 spells. Alternatively, Black Mages with the Time Mage's Short Charge/Swiftness and the Mystic's Move-MP Up/Manafont can become walking artillery barrages, with a Magepower Glove put on for more damage.
• The Faceless: As per Final Fantasy tradition, the only thing you can see on a Black Mage's face is their glowing yellow eyes, and they display them very prominently thanks to their completely shadowed faces.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Black Mages have four Tiers of spells for each element. Each Tier is five points slower to cast and costs more MP than the last, but in exchange, have increased power to make up for the drawbacks. Their Tier 4 spells, in particular, have an extended Area of Effect which allows for more enemies to be hurt.
• Forced Transformation: Their Toad spell can turn their target into a near-harmless and defenseless Toad. And due to their transformed state, the afflicted unit will take more physical damage, owing to their current constitution. They can also revert Toads back into their original forms at will by casting the spell on them one more time.
• Friendly Fire: Black Mages tend to indirectly cause this to their teammates. Thanks to how the enemy's AI works, it's normal to see an enemy unit a Black Mage has targeted move to stand right next to one of yours so both of them will get hit by their spell when it's cast, usually as an attempt at taking your unit(s) with them.
• Glass Cannon: For all of the damage they can bring to bear upon their enemies, Black Mages can't take much of it themselves, thanks to their physical fragility and equipment set. Like the White Mages, they're usually able to take a hit or three before they get downed, so it's for the best that you put your Black Mages in positions close enough to the fighting or in places where they can be easily defended by your sturdier units.
• Magic Enhancement: Their Support ability, Magic AttackUp/Arcane Strength, increases the sheer strength and accuracy of their spells by 33%, on top of boosting the Success Rates of Status Infliction Attack spells for the same amount. Anyone equipped with this ability will find that their spells are more powerful than before.
• Magic Staff: Black Mages wield rods to help boost their Magick Attack or proficiency with one of the types of elemental spells they can cast. And, depending on the rods in question, Black Mages can also whack their enemies with them to potentially unleash the elemental spell/status effect imbued within upon their targets.
• Necessary Drawback: All of their spells, from the weakest to the strongest ones, takes them time and MP to cast, during which the Black Mages can't do much of anything save for waiting, moving away from danger, or ceasing to cast their current spell in favor of casting a different one. The game wouldn't be as challenging if they were simply able to spam the spells you want them to cast on every turn like Arithmeticians, anyway.
• Non-Elemental: Their Flare spell is this. It is one of the strongest spells available to the Black Mages, and while it costs them a hefty 60 MP to cast every single time, it can easily empty their enemies' HP bars from full to zero. Of course, like most of the powerful spells they can learn, it also takes them some time to cast.
• One-Hit Kill: Their Death spell. Oddly enough, it doesn't only put the Death status on enemies like it does in most Final Fantasy games; it also deals damage equal to the target's Max HP before inflicting the status. This isn't clear in-game unless the target has MP Switch/Mana Shield as a Reaction ability - they will still take MP damage equal to their Max HP as usual, but will then keel over, indicating that the status has taken effect.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Enemies with the Reflect status buff on them are natural counters to a Black Mage - most of their spells will simply not land on them until the buff goes away or you find a way to get past it, either by roughly determining where their spells will end up bouncing off to or by removing the effect via a spell.
• Power Copying: Black Mages have a 30% chance of learning their three Tier 4 spells after being hit by them. However, they need to have survived the spells first, and trying to nullify the damage they're going to take by equipping certain gear does not count towards learning them. Absorbing them, on the other hand, does.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: Black Mages, despite being considerable spellcasters, suffer from a wide variety of factors that affects the accuracy (and power) of their spells. Most of them involves their Faith, since it governs how effective their spells are - as the higher it is, the likelier they'll connect and hit their target hard. However, their effectiveness is also affected by their target's own Faith stat, meaning that Black Mages are practically useless against units with low Faith. This is one of the reasons why spellcasters tend to do badly in the late game, although there are a few methods to counteract their ineffectiveness and instead turn it into a strength.
• Robe and Wizard Hat: Black Mages sport their iconic outfit here, but this time it includes striped and poofy colored pants, plus a pair of thick leather gloves and boots. And what nice hats the Black Mages all wear!
• Shoot the Mage First: Given that Black Mages have access to a repertoire of offensive and debilitating spells - in stark contrast to their White opposites - it's generally a good idea for you to also focus on taking them out too when you come across them in battles, seeing as they are capable of damaging more than one of your units at a time with their spells. The enemy AI in particular is happy to exploit that fact, and will do it, so don't hesitate to kill enemy Black Mages before they can get away with casting their spells. And if you saved them for last, thinking that they're just easy pickings, you might end up finding yourself being proven very wrong.
• Splash Damage: The Black Mage is one of the first Jobs to use abilities that can damage more than one unit at a time, which is moderately helpful if you can get your enemies to bunch up at a single spot. You can also directly target a tile an enemy unit is standing near to let their spells still affect them, if you just happened to be one tile short of locking it on to them. Make sure all your units get to avoid being caught in their spells.
• Squishy Wizard: The Black Mage is the most fragile out of all the spellcaster Jobs in the game, yet it is one of the most powerful amongst them. It helps that Black Mages can learn how to cast the Death and Flare spells on enemies, and that the majority of the spells they use also affects the general area they're being cast at.
• Universal Poison: Their Poison spell. It is capable of inflicting the eponymous status debuff upon a target, and can remove and replace the Regen status buff on those who have it. It deals damage based on one-eighth of the afflicted unit's Max HP at the end of their turn, and also happens to last quite a while.

Monk

A warrior, devoted to physical training, whose unarmed attacks are deadly. May use Martial Arts.

-Description

Prerequisite: Knight Level 2/3

Front-line fighters, Monks are good enough at Ki Manipulation that their own body has become a weapon in itself, in turn allowing them to perform feats such as attacking multiple enemies up close with their fists or from afar using Chi. And due to their proficiency in unarmed combat, forcing them to use actual weapons instead of their own fists would be pointless.

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• Back from the Dead: The Monk's Revive ability allows them to bring fallen units back to life, and gives the formerly dead much better healing than Phoenix Downs by resurrecting them with 20% of their Max HP.
• Boots of Toughness: Zig-zagged. Female Monks wear a pair of thick leather boots with wide shin guards. Meanwhile, male Monks wear what seems like a pair of ordinary shoes.
• Close-Range Combatant: Barring a certain few of their abilities, Monks essentially function as one, with their fists dealing the majority of their damage for them since their punches usually hits their targets like a truck.
• Combat Medic: Monks may not seem like it at first glance, but their Stigma Magic/Purification, Chakra, and Revive abilities allows them to function as effective ones in battle, to the point they can outperform Chemists and White Mages in their intended roles - given that they can heal units as easily as they can damage them. However, that's only because the Base Success Rates and power of their abilities happens to scale off of their high Physical Attack in particular, rather than their average Magick Attack.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Female Monks wear a pair of thick leather gauntlets, whose protection ranges from their knuckles to their elbows with wide couters covering the latter, all while allowing them ease of movement.
• Counter-Attack: The Monk ties with the Thief on having the most Reaction abilities that can be learned within a single Job, with two of them depending on a unit's Bravery stat to activate when their requirements are met:
  • Counter is an improved version of the Squire's Counter Tackle, in that the unit equipped with it will return the favor towards their attacker by striking them back with their weapon after being engaged in melee.
  • Hamedo/First Strike is an improved version of the Knight's Weapon Guard/Parry, only instead of parrying an enemy's attack, the unit with the ability will attack them first, essentially cancelling the incoming attack.
• Critical Status Buff: The Monk's HP Restore/Critical: Recover HP Reaction ability allows units equipped with it to immediately regain some amount of HP upon entering the Critical state, and while it won't heal them much, it's often enough as a stop-gap measure... at least until you get a chance to heal your heavily injured units.
• Crutch Character: When first unlocked, Monks are powerful and versatile units who combine solid damage output with a variety of useful abilities. However, your enemies will eventually start hitting too hard for your Monks to tank, and their damage will gradually begin to wane as you encounter the more powerful units and Jobs. They'll continue being strong once you start mixing and matching the abilities they can learn from the rest of the Jobs, but they won't dominate as much as they used to during the earlier parts of the game.
• Culture Equals Costume: The Monk's outfit draws heavy inspiration from a mixture of the Real-Life East's views or portrayals of monks, who are usually depicted across most media as practitioners of the martial arts, as those who fight for their faith, as both, or otherwise. But what's especially emphasised is the Monk's focus on unarmed combat - barring the occasional Chi manipulation - which can be attributed to Japanese Taijutsu (meaning "body technique" or "body skill"), which is a blanket term for anything combat-related that's also associated with the use of one's own empty fists. And on that note, the Monk is also one of four Jobs with distinct Japanese influences in their design, with the others being the Mystic, the Samurai, and the Ninja.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Monks wear Clothes, but deal plenty of damage with their bare hands or Chi, which isn't too much of a problem during the early game where you and your enemies are equipped with low quality gear and are also low-Level besides. However, as the game progresses into the later Chapters, Monks will struggle with surviving battles due to the often minimal bonuses their Clothes gives them. It comes to the point where they end up having shades of being a Glass Cannon, as they can still outright kill enemies with a single punch, but not do so well with taking a lot of damage themselves. Despite that fact, Monks remain a solid pick for battles, although it's only for as long as they don't die too quickly before making a difference.
  • This extends to most of the Monk's abilities too, as they require the Monks and their targets to be standing on similar tile elevations in order to work. For instance, a Monk can't Revive an allied unit who's lying on a raised surface, while on the other hand they can use Chakra on an ally who's standing on a flat surface. So pay close attention to the battlefield and position your Monks at areas that'll benefit them the most.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Their Earth Slash/Shockwave ability deals moderate Earth damage in a straight line at long distances, although units who have the Float status buff or are standing at extreme elevations will ignore it.
• Dispel Magic: The Monk's Stigma Magic/Purification ability, which removes most of the status debuffs in the game from their users, alongside other units who happened to be standing right next to the one who used it.
• Gradual Regeneration: The Monk's Move-HP UP/Lifefont Movement ability is an odd example of this, as those equipped with it can recover one-tenth of their Max HP upon moving at least one tile away from their current position. So, for as long as they keep moving each turn, units with this ability will regain their lost HP.
• Healing Hands: The Monk's Chakra ability, which heals both HP and MP, gives them additional synergy with caster Jobs. Unlike most healing abilities, the amount that Chakra can restore is tied to the user's Physical Attack - which means the higher it is, the more HP and MP is restored to the user (and others) with each use.
• Heroes Fight Barehanded: Being a Monk is all about this, with units becoming deadly even when unarmed. The Monk's innate Martial Arts/Brawler Support ability also allows other Jobs to do the same when equipped. Especially the Ninja Job, as it means Ninjas will punch twice thanks to their innate Two Swords/Dual Wield.
• Kamehame Hadoken: The Monk's Wave Fist/Aurablast ability is this, though its attack animation makes it look like the enemy is being struck by a concentrated pocket of air rather than a flying, glowing energy ball.
• Life Energy: How most of their abilities seem to work off from, with their Stigma Magic/Purification, Chakra, and Revive abilities being the clearest-cut examples of it out of all the other abilities they have available.
• Lightning Bruiser: Monks are very agile, with a Base Speed of 9 on top of having high Base Attack and high Base HP as part of their Job's stat spread. And, if you equip them with a good Movement ability, they can further show you how powerful they can be just by easily crossing the distance to wreck all your enemies.
  • The Monk is a fairly speedy Job, but if you equip the Monk's Martial Arts/Brawler ability on a high Speed, high Move Ninja, then just kick back, relax and laugh as your enemies fall before you like chaff within two punches after setting them up to be AI-controlled. With the right ability set^*And no Throw abilities learned at all, your Ninja can clear battles.
  • Want to know what it's like to go up against a Monk? Or worse, what about 11 Monks all at the same time? A very rare encounter involving the aforementioned group can be triggered when you enter Grogh Heights from The Royal City of Lesalia; each of them are more than capable of wiping out your units in a few turns in spite of you being extremely careful. To put things into perspective, a solo Orlandeau will still have a hell of a hard time dealing with them all. Yep, you read that right. It means that a Monk can beat even T.G. Cid.
• Martial Arts Headband: Male Monks wear one as part of their ensemble.
• Never Bareheaded: Zig-zagged. While male Monks wear a headband, female Monks don't. On the other hand, while male Monks are only able to wear Clothes and Accessories, female Monks also get to wear female-exclusive Hairpins - like Ribbons - which grants them more utility that male Monks can never have.
• One-Man Army: Because of their innate Martial Arts/Brawler Support ability, which is explored in detail further below, all Monks have the potential to become this, as their damage dealt through the use of their own fists can eventually out-DPS the other Jobs or unique units that were designed to be powerhouses by themselves. While they do have their hang ups, the power they can bring to bear veers them into Game-Breaker territory.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: Their Secret/Doom Fist ability is indeed a pretty powerful one that Monks have at their disposal, but unfortunately, its Success Rate is dependent on the user's Magick Attack, meaning your Monks are usually much better off punching your enemies to death rather than relying on it to finish them off.
• Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Their Repeating Fist/Pummel ability's attack animation looks like it came straight out of Fist of the North Star. Which is surprisingly appropriate, since the two opposing armies warring in the game also happens to easily represent those of the Northern Star and the Southern Cross if you squint.
• Revive Kills Zombie: Subverted. The Monk's Chakra ability, if used on the Undead, will actually heal them instead of hurting them. As the nature of their Chakra ability is not considered divine in origin (like the White Mage's Cure and Raise spells), it's highly recommended that you do not make your Monks do so. That is unless you have a unit afflicted with the Undead status debuff, in which case they can be healed by them.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: Female Monks wear what appears to be intricately designed backless leather leotards.
• Spin Attack: Their aptly named Spin Fist/Cyclone ability is this, which allows Monks to simultaneously attack enemies who have them surrounded. However, this ability will only truly shine when the user and their targets are all standing on similar tile elevations, with too high or too low enemies tending to not get targeted at all.
• Super-Strength: All Monks gain this through their innate Martial Arts/Brawler Support ability, which enables them to deal damage on par or even beyond what most other Jobs are capable of doing on a regular basis.
  • Because of how the game calculates the damage Monks deal, equipping them with gear that boosts their Physical Attack - or making them use the Squire's Accumulate/Focus ability a lot - will cause their damage output to skyrocket, with them dealing 999 damage per punch pretty much an achievable dream^*And just in case you're interested in the damage formula used, here you go: [(Physical Attack * Bravery) / 100] * [Physical Attack * 3/2]. This is the reason why this Job is considered a Game-Breaker by players; it can easily destroy anything.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Male Monks wear what seems to be open vests that displays their toned physique.
• You Are Already Dead: Keeping on to what this trope's name is referring to, this is the shtick of the Monk's Secret/Doom Fist ability. Those who use it gets to inflict the Doom status debuff effect on their targets, who will then die within 3 turns if it's not dispelled in time.

Thief

A warrior whose nimble fingers allows him or her to Steal from nearly anyone.

-Description

Prerequisite: Archer Level 2/3

Canny footpads, Thieves use their remarkable speed to their advantage by stealing enemy equipment that may be either expensive or unavailable in shops, simultaneously providing their party with their newly ill-gotten gains and denying them from their former owners. They can use knives in battle.

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• Badasses Wear Bandanas: Both male and female Thieves wear one that covers the top half of their heads, ostensibly to help conceal their identities or to protect themselves from the elements.
• Barehanded Blade Block: Their Reaction ability, Catch/Sticky Fingers, allows Thieves to not take damage from - and then subsequently pocket - anything that was thrown at them by Ninjas, including swords and knight's swords. Combine it with the Ninja's own Job Command, Throw, and they can practically Catch and Return things in battle. It's also a nice way to get rare, powerful weapons from enemy Ninjas who might Throw them.
• Boring, but Practical: The Thief's Move +2 Movement ability allows units with it to reach distant areas easier. It might not seem like much, but on paper and in practice, it's a helluva lot more faster for your units to equip compared to Move +3^*Male units need to unlock the Bard Job first in order to begin learning Move +3, while female units on the other hand have to go through with unlocking the Dark Knight Job to even start doing that, which is way easier said than done.
• Can't Catch Up: While the Thief Job can be unlocked fairly early in the game, Thieves generally make for poor fighters as they're only armed with knives, and wear Clothes and Hats which hinders their chances of survival during a battle. The only reason you'd want to have a Thief in your party would be for when you want to Steal stuff, which is exactly the point of the Job - Thieves who aren't stealing are better off being replaced by other Jobs. Even if you do use them as fighters, they're only as good as their knives, so don't expect them to live long either way. Just let your Thieves stick to doing what they do best and they should be fine that way.
• The Casanova: Their ability that charms units is called Steal Heart, implying that this trope is in effect, since the ability's stealing animation involves hearts floating away from the Thief's target as they're being Charmed.
• Charm Person: Thieves can become this through their Steal Heart ability, which only works on humans of the opposite sex as well as monsters, who are considered gender-neutral. The individual they enthralled will then proceed to fight for the charmer's party, until they either get hit or eventually snap out of their Charmed state.
• Close-Range Combatant: Thieves are a slippery bunch to face in battle, thanks to their innate 25% Physical Evasion rate they rely on whenever they need to get their hands dirty, but for all that they're skilled at dodging attacks, Thieves are simply half-decent fighters who don't last under prolonged fighting. While they can get in a good hit or two from time to time, try not to rely on them to finish off enemy units for you too much, since their damage output is somewhat mediocre and that their Job's purpose isn't just about taking part in a fight.
• Conspicuous Gloves: Both male and female Thieves wear a pair of supple leather gloves to help prevent their deft hands from getting hurt by the many gear they can attempt to repurpose from their unfortunate targets.
• Defend Command: The Thief's Reaction ability, Caution/Vigilance, is an indirect one. Whenever a unit with this ability gets hurt, they have a chance that's based on their Bravery to immediately assume a defensive stance, which lowers the damage they'll take afterwards while also reducing the chances of them getting hit until they take their turn. If it's equipped on your Thieves, it'll ensure they'll survive longer on the battlefield.
• Devious Daggers: As per usual in the Final Fantasy series, Thieves are sneaky characters who can do Video Game Stealing, and prefer to wield knives as their weapons.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Stealing items from your enemies in the game can be charitably described as a Luck-Based Mission in itself. There are three main factors affecting a Thief's Success Rates with nabbing an item from their target, which are their Bravery, Speed, and their Zodiac Sign compatibility with their target's own (which is already a headache to begin with). So, in order to put a Thief in your party to good use, you'll need to be mindful of those three things. Thankfully, you can boost up their Bravery and Speed with Ramza's and Luso's Cheer Up/Steel and Yell/Tailwind abilities, although their Zodiac Sign issue is still harder to deal with since enemies have randomized ones, excluding a few certain storyline bosses. Manage your Thieves well, and in time you'll end up swimming in a surplus of gear before you know it, although it'll definitely take you a helluva lot of time and hard work on your Thieves' part to get at that point. Good luck, and have fun stealing!
• Dramatic High Perching: Thieves can scale high areas with ease using their Jump +2 Movement ability, which can potentially allow them to escape from danger whenever they find themselves being backed into a corner.
• Five-Finger Discount: This is what the Thief's Gil Taking/Steal Gil ability does. Interestingly enough, human and monster enemies have an infinite amount of money that can be stolen from, so if you're in need of some quick cash, one good way of getting a lot of it would be to place a Thief or two on your party and then have them loot as much Gil as you want during a battle - preferably from a lone enemy who's been put to Sleep.
  • How much Gil you get from enemies is based on the Thief's Level and Speed, the total amount of which is determined by multiplying the two values together. For the best possible results, get one of your Thieves up to Level 99 and then raise their Speed up to 50 during a battle, for an easy 4950 Gil per ability use.
• Fragile Speedster: While quick on their feet and even quicker on the uptake, Thieves unfortunately have low HP, so if they ever fail to evade an enemy's incoming attack, they can easily find themselves in dire straits.
• Green and Mean: Both male and female Thieves predominantly wear green clothing, wield sharp and pointy knives, and lastly, are typically bandits whom you encounter a few times during the story. It's downplayed with the Thieves in your party, as while they aren't bandits themselves, they still get you Gil and gear through theft.
• Intangible Theft: Thieves can inexplicably filch the combat experience of their targets for themselves through the use of their Steal Exp/EXP ability, although how they can do that in the first place is a mystery in itself.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: This is the purpose of the Thief Job in the game. If at any point you desire more money or otherwise need gear you can't afford, having some Thieves in your party to steal them off your enemies is a good way to make up for it, even if they don't make for good fighters as they're only useful for their thievery. Besides, stealing is sometimes the only way to get items that are either rare or can't be found anywhere else.
• Medium Aware: Thieves are able to see how much EXP their targets have, and how much of it they can get. They can also somehow tell how much Gil they are able to take from an enemy without even touching them.
• Money Spider: Inverted. Thieves with the Gilgame Heart/Gil Snapper Reaction ability somehow earn Gil equal to the amount of HP they lost upon being hit, but how often this occurs depends on their Bravery stat.
• Nemean Skinning: Their Support ability, Secret Hunt/Poach, allows Thieves to reap a bonus reward from the monsters they have slain, of which must be purchased at a price from the Poachers' Dens come Chapter 3. You can also periodically get rare items from their poaches, which might not even be available at shops.
  • To give you a bit of perspective about how powerful the ability is, you might find yourself encountering a rare genus of monster called Pig on your way to the Clockwork City of Goug, whose second Tier has the immensely useful Perfume Chantage as a Common Poach. Capture that Pig via an Orator, and you can breed it to grind Chantages for all of your female units' use, or sell them later as liquid assets in a pinch.
  • And even better? The Pig's third Tier also has the equally useful Ribbon as a Common Poach. All of a sudden, getting yourself powerful gear from capturing, breeding, and then poaching certain genuses of monsters doesn't seem like it's going to be a massive waste of your own time and effort, now does it?
• No-Sell: Thieves can't snatch gear off units equipped with the Chemist's Maintenance/Safeguard Support ability, or from certain boss units who happen to have unique Jobs. There's no way around it either, meaning there's nothing you can do about it whenever you come across enemies with powerful gear you can't touch.
  • A particularly glaring example of this would be the rematch against Elmdore, where in the PS1 version of the game, you were able to steal his Genji equipment. In War of the Lions, however, you no longer have the option to do that, thanks to the game being patched which enabled him to have it innately equipped.
• Not the Intended Use: Downplayed. By equipping the Thief's Catch/Sticky Fingers Reaction ability on your units and raising their Bravery stat to just below 100, they'll basically become nearly immune to the Ninja's Job Command. And, since enemy Ninjas aren't that smart enough to check what their Reaction abilities are, you're likely to end up being given a whole lotta high-quality weapons, shurikens, and bombs entirely for free. This is completely because of the AI-controlled Ninjas' need to attack your units while ignoring how they can do so, which thus results in you having a net gain of weaponry for as long as your units stay away from them.
  • This is actually quite a decent if not difficult way of getting endgame-quality weapons relatively early in the game, provided that at least one of your units is over Level 90. A very rare encounter involving a group of Ninjas can be triggered when you enter the Araguay Woods from the Merchant City of Dorter; one or two of them can Throw your units the best weapons of their type that aren't exclusive to Melee or Rendezvous. With a lot of careful planning, positioning, and/or preparations for that encounter, in theory, you can grind unlimited copies of supposedly unique special weapons like Orlandeau's Excalibur... or the Chaos Blade.
• Percussive Pickpocket: This is how most of their stealing animations all play out whenever they attempt to make off with something from a target, along with a cloud of light whose color changes depending on the type of item they're trying to grab ahold of. Gil, meanwhile, is shown being scattered across the ground instead.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: The Steal Heart ability's Success Rate is affected by the Thief's Magick Attack stat, which Thieves naturally have a low amount of. While having temporary allies on the battlefield is quite the boon, Steal Heart sometimes isn't worth the effort for your Thieves to use, as the Charmed state briefly lasts and can be removed at any time, and that's not taking into consideration the attempts it would take to stick. Either way, it's still a very powerful ability, one that might turn out useful depending on the circumstances.
  • Most of the Thief's Steal abilities are this as well, as they have low Base Success Rates which is affected only by their Speed stat. Boost your Thieves' Speed up via gear or Ramza and Luso to help even the odds a little, and you'll find them becoming more and more successful at taking enemy gear for your own use.
• Too Many Belts: Both the male and female Thieves in the image provided have at least three belts on their person, with the male Thief having yet another belt wrapped around his right thigh for no apparent reason.
• Video Game Stealing: In addition to being able to rob enemies of their weapons, shields, helmets, armor, and accessories, Thieves can also steal their money, their combat experience, and even their hearts.

Mystic (Oracle)

A warrior who uses the Mystic Arts to bend the forces of the cosmos to his or her will.

-Description

Prerequisite: White Mage Level 2/3

Mages whose brand of magick hails from lands to the distant east of Ivalice, Mystics can inflict all sorts of debilitating status effects upon their enemies by contacting the spirit world and beseeching the many entities who dwell within. They can use poles, staves, rods, and books in battle.

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• Anti-Magic: Mystics are a powerful counter to the rest of the caster Jobs, mainly thanks to their three following spells: Spell Absorb/Empowerment, Doubt Faith/Disbelief, and Silence Song/Quiescence. The first allows them to drain enemy MP, while the others inflicts Atheist and Silence on targets.
• Awesome, but Impractical: The Mystic's spells, in general, are useful against enemies who aren't immune to the status debuffs they can inflict, but other than its Life Drain/Invigoration spell and normal attacks, the Mystic can't deal a lot of damage on its own, on top of most of its spells being quite costly to use in terms of time and MP. It also proves ineffective against enemies immune to their spells, and they're just uncommon enough to pose a significant problem.
• Can't Catch Up: Mystics have a niche use, as there'll come a point in the game where it'll be more efficient for your units to damage enemies instead of spending a turn to debilitate them. Admittedly, while debuffing your enemies can provide you with several advantages in battle, the drawbacks of using most of their spells tends to leave them struggling to replenish their MP if they can't successfully absorb it back from their targets.
• Close-Range Combatant: When armed with poles, Mystics can make for decent melee fighters owing to their high damage output with them. But however, their limited choices of Armor in the form of Hats, Clothes, and Robes leaves much to be desired concerning their chances of survival whenever they're fighting enemy units.
• Crippling Overspecialization: The Mystic's main purpose in the game is all about inflicting status debuffs on your enemies to turn them more vulnerable or leave them open to attacks, and that's pretty much it. As long as you won't make your Mystics do anything else the other Jobs can do better, that's all they can be good for.
• Crutch Character: The Mystic's usefulness varies throughout the entire game, as its effectiveness is heavily reliant on your enemies having no immunities to the status debuffs it can inflict upon them. The Job also suffers when it's pitted against units or bosses who do have immunities to some of their status debuffs, which - as the game progresses into the later Chapters - unfortunately tends to become a semi-regular occurrence.
• Culture Equals Costume: The Mystic's outfit draws heavy inspiration from the Japanese style of spell-casting called Onmyōdō (meaning "the Way of Yin and Yang"), and the shikigami that most of their spells displays before affecting their targets reinforces this. The Mystic is also one out of four Jobs with distinct Japanese influences in their design, with the others being the Monk, the Samurai, and the Ninja.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Subverted. The Mystic is notable for being an unusual Job, due to the fact that its purpose on the battlefield revolves around inflicting status debuffs on your enemies. The difficulty of utilizing the Job - and concurrently, its resulting awesomeness - however, lies in it maintaining its effectiveness throughout the course of Ramza's journey, because as previously stated above, there'll come a point in the game where your units are simply better off damaging your enemies rather than debilitating them instead.
• Dirty Coward: No, not the Mystics themselves. One of their spells, Foxbird/Trepidation, allows them to directly affect their target's Bravery by reducing 30 points from it. Enough uses of that spell of theirs can lessen the chances of enemy Reaction abilities triggering, which can be especially useful if those said Reaction abilities are of the more deadlier or annoying types around, like the Samurai's Blade Grasp/Shirahadori for example.
• Energy Absorption: Their Reaction ability, Absorb Used MP/Absorb MP, is this. It has a chance that's based on their Bravery to work whenever they've been hit by an offensive spell that was cast on them by another unit, where they'll then get to absorb the exact amount of MP that was used to cast that spell for their use.
• Gradual Regeneration: Their Movement ability, Move-MP Up/Manafont, allows units to regenerate one-tenth of their Max MP after moving at least one tile away from their current position. It's one of the best Movement abilities available in the game, and when equipped on your mages, it can prove to be a massive boon to their own effectiveness... especially when it's combined with the Summoner's Half of MP/Halve MP Support ability, or just as equally, the Time Mage's Short Charge/Swiftness Support ability for halved spellcasting times.
• Hostile Weather: Inverted. Their Any Weather/Ignore Weather Movement ability allows Mystics to ignore all stormy weather while they move through water-logged tiles, such as marshes, swamps, and poisonous fens.
• Life Drain: Appropriately enough, this is what their Life Drain/Invigoration spell does. It takes away 25% of their target's Max HP for the Mystics' own use, though it can still be used to damage their targets anyway.
• Long-Range Fighter: Downplayed. When armed with books, Mystics can function as such, but they won't have as much range as Archers do since they can only attack at a range of 3 tiles, nor are they as good at it.
• Mage Killer: Mystics can easily cripple and prevent enemy mages from casting their spells through multiple uses of their previously aforementioned spells. In just within a few successful casts of them, enemy mages can quickly find themselves hard-pressed to fight back or replenish their MP, forcing them on the back foot.
• Magic Knight: Mystics armed with poles are formidable foes to face in battle, as the damage they deal with them scales off of their Magick Attack and their pole's Weapon Attack, with their maximum attack range of 2 tiles allowing them to avoid enemy counterattacks by letting them strike your enemies from a safer distance.
• Magic Staff: Mystics can wield staves and rods like the White and Black Mages can, both weapon types of which can possibly enhance or hinder their magickal capabilities, depending on the staff or rod in question.
• Mana Drain: Their spell, Spell Absorb/Empowerment, lets them absorb your enemies' MP. It takes away 33% of their target's Max MP for the Mystics' own use, all at a measly but very cost-efficient 2 MP per spell cast.
• Martial Arts Staff: The Mystic is the first Job to have access to poles, a weapon type whose damage dealt is calculated by multiplying their wielders' Magick Attack and their equipped pole's Weapon Attack together. Pole-wielding units with high Magick Attack stats can easily catch up to or exceed a physical-oriented Job's damage output, although that's only possible for as long as they have a high-quality one equipped on them. Also, due to the length of the poles they can wield, they can attack enemy units from at least a tile away.
• Medium Aware: Mystics can somehow sense the Bravery of their targets, and can also directly affect it.
• Necessary Drawback: Likewise with the White and Black Mages, the Mystic's spells takes it time and MP to cast, with the only difference being that the majority of them are quite expensive to cast whenever necessary. Luckily, Mystics can make up for this shortfall of theirs by draining away the MP they need from their targets.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: Downplayed. Except for three of its abilities, the Mystic's debuff-inducing spells can be countered with the Time Mage's Reflect spell, as it is the case with the White Mage and Black Mage Jobs. But unlike the two Jobs, Mystics can opt to remove the buff with their Dispel Magic/Harmony spell, or ignore it entirely while using their Spell Absorb/Empowerment and Life Drain/Invigoration spells on their buffed targets.
• Percent Damage Attack: The Mystic's Spell Absorb/Empowerment and Life Drain/Invigoration spells count as such, with the former taking 33% of their target's Max MP, and the latter taking 25% of their target's Max HP.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: The Success Rates of the Mystic's spells are all affected by their Magick Attack stat, which means that they may occasionally encounter some issues with landing their spells on enemies, as the Faith of their target and their own also happens to have some effect on their spells' overall Success Rates.
• Status-Buff Dispel: Their spell, Dispel Magic/Harmony, lets Mystics remove all positive status effects that are not permanently active from their targets. It's very handy against enemy caster Jobs who can buff their allies.
• Status Infliction Attack: Mystics specialize in them, since most of their spells can't deal damage on their own. What they aim for is the utter debilitation of their enemies instead, all through the use of their following spells:
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Doubt Faith/Disbelief inflicts Atheist, preventing spells from affecting the target at all, while also preventing their own spells from affecting anyone.
  • Blinded by Rage: Blind Rage/Fervor inflicts Berserk, giving the target increased physical damage while limiting them to the Move and Attack commands, on top of always targeting the closest available unit.
  • Forced Sleep: Sleep/Repose inflicts Sleep, preventing the target from moving or acting until they wake up.
  • Forced Transformation: Foxbird/Trepidation directly lowers their target's Bravery stat, which when lowered below 10, will literally transform them into a Chicken who can't fight back.
  • Interface Screw: Confusion Song/Delirium inflicts Confuse, which forces the afflicted unit to act randomly while making it hard for them to hit a target in melee.
  • The Paralyzer: Paralyze/Hesitation inflicts Disable, preventing the target from acting during their turn.
  • Power Nullifier: Silence Song/Quiescence inflicts Silence, stopping the afflicted target from casting spells.
  • Taken for Granite: Petrify/Induration inflicts Stone, turning the target into a harmless statue.
  • Temporary Blindness: Blind/Umbra inflicts Blind, which makes it harder for the afflicted target to land a hit on their enemies, but only for whenever they try to physically attack them.
  • Turn to Religion: Pray Faith/Belief inflicts Faith, which causes spells and all status effects that can be inflicted upon targets to be more powerful and likelier to be successfully cast, including their own spells.
  • Zombify the Living: Zombie/Corruption inflicts Undead, which literally turns the target Undead, causing healing items or spells to damage them instead while life-draining or Dark-elemental attacks heals them.
• Stone Wall: Their Support ability, Defense UP/Defense Boost, allows Mystics to take 33% less damage from all sorts of physical attacks. It's a very useful Support ability to have equipped on most - if not all - of the other Jobs, since it practically means that they'll be able to tank a lot more physical hits than they normally can.
• Squishy Wizard: The Mystic's choice of Armor still leaves it a physically frail Job, but should they be equipped with the right gear or abilities, they can avert being one, unlike most of the other spellcaster Jobs in the game.
• Weak, but Skilled: Although Mystics only have one damage-dealing spell, the rest are nonetheless still very powerful in their own right. Debilitating enemies with the right status debuff at the right moment can make a huge difference in battle, such as putting your enemies to Sleep so your units can have some time to breathe.
• Weapons-Grade Vocabulary: The Mystic is also the first Job to use books. Attacking with books involves opening them and (presumably) reading a page out loud, which then damages their target. Units who have high enough Physical and Magick Attack stats can deal a surprisingly large amount of damage with them^*Any book-wielding unit's damage is calculated by adding the wielder's Physical and Magick Attack together, then by dividing them by 2, and then by multiplying the book's Weapon Attack with the end result, as shown in this example: (10+12) / 2 * 7 = 77 damage.

Time Mage

A warrior who uses Time Magicks to control space and time, toying with laws created by the gods themselves.

-Description

Prerequisite: Black Mage Level 2/3

Mages who are capable of manipulating the very fabric of the universe, not only can Time Mages toy with Time itself to their advantage, they can also control the flow of any fight they're in through the use of their spells. They can use staves in battle.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: What their Meteor spell is, in a nutshell. While it's a very powerful spell to unleash upon your enemies, it costs your Time Mages a lot of their MP to use. It's also very, very slow to cast, and - unlike the Summoner's Espers - it's definitely not Friendly Fireproof, making it incredibly easy for any of your Time Mages to accidentally kill their own allies along with their hapless targets.
• Attack Reflector: Their spell, Reflect, is an almost perfect example of this trope. When cast upon your units, all but the most powerful spells the spellcaster Jobs can cast will simply bounce off to somewhere else on the battlefield. However, this also means that any of your units who may need healing or buffs will be unable to receive any for as long as they're Reflected. But if you carefully plan out when to apply it on them, however, their spell will essentially act as an invaluable aegis of protection against most enemy spells for your units.
• Cast from Hit Points: Inverted. The Time Mage's Reaction ability, MP Switch/Mana Shield, allows them to make any damage that would have resulted in a loss of their HP instead damage their own MP. When it's combined with the Mystic's Move-MP Up/Manafont Movement ability, it can render your units functionally immortal against most conventional means of killing, though they can still die whenever their MP is empty.
• Colony Drop: The Time Mage's Meteor spell, for all intents and purposes, is practically a small-scale version of the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs. Be careful when you decide to use the spell, since using it means you're bringing down an indiscriminate, gigantic chunk of rock on the heads of your enemies and your units.
• Extra Turn: The Time Mage's spell, Quick, basically fills up their target's CT count. What this means is simple; a unit who has been Quickened will have their own turn come up as soon as possible if it's been successfully applied, regardless of whoever in the Active Turn list was supposed to go next. However, any and all units who already had full CT counts before they did, and have higher Speed than they do, will still get to go first.
• Gravity Master: Appropriately enough, Time Mages function as such, thanks to the use of their three spells, which are Demi/Gravity, Demi 2/Graviga, and Float. The latter spell, in particular, allows affected units to literally Float at least a foot above all sorts of terrain - including the more hazardous tiles and the occasional hidden trap or two on the battlefield - as well as be immune against Earth-elemental attacks while it's active.
  • This also extends to their Movement ability, Float/Levitate, as it allows them to have the Float status buff permanently active on them when it's equipped.
• Percent Damage Attack: Their spells, Demi/Gravity, and Demi 2/Graviga, respectively deals damage that is equal to 25% and 50% of their target's Max HP. While costly to use in terms of time and MP, they're usually worth using as they're extremely effective against certain boss units, not to mention that they can also easily kill regular enemies in just within 4 or 2 casts of them.
• Reality Warper: Downplayed. Befitting their name, Time Mages are capable of bending time and space for their own use, though it's usually in the form of making their allies move faster, slowing down their enemies, and/or by outright Stopping their targets in their tracks via the appropriate spells that they can learn to use.
• Status Infliction Attack: Time Mages can inflict Don't Move/Immobilize and Stop through the use of their spells that also bears the name of the status debuffs.

Geomancer

Prerequisite: Level 3/4 Monk.

Geomancers call upon the powers of the ground beneath their feet to battle on their behalf; the effects of the spell in question depends on what terrain they are standing on. Can use swords and axes in battle.

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• Cherry Tapping: Geomancy is not the most powerful skill in the game. However, it has very long range, is instant, doesn't cost any MP, and can cause status effects; a Geomancer who knows all their spells can always be causing damage no matter where they are.
• Geo Effects: The main gimmick of the class is that their attacks use the terrain to cause different effects.
• Lightning Bruiser: They are very mobile and start off with good strength but it becomes very high strength when they learn Attack Up/Boost.
• Magic Knight: Unlike most versions Geomancers here have good strength with access to swords and axes along with their good magick. Slap on a secondary magick command and you're all set. (What they don't have is access to armor.)
• Status Infliction Attack: And which status depends on the terrain you're standing on.
• Walk on Water: Variant — Any Ground/Ignore Terrain allows movement through swampy ground without being poisoned, and Move On Lava/Lava Walking allows you to ignore the damaging effects of lava.
• Whatevermancy

Dragoon (Lancer)

Prerequisite: Level 3/4 Thief

Dragoons leap high into the air and stab their opponents, doing extra damage if specifically equipped with spears. Can use spears in battle.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Two separate examples.
  • The ability Ignore Height is pretty cool, but only useful on a select few maps to begin with and made further impractical by the Dragoon's slow movement of only 3 tiles.
  • Dragoons themselves have terrible stat growth, and if you rely heavily on Dragoons you'll end up underpowered for the end game.
• Back from the Dead: Dragoon can learn Dragon Spirit/Dragonheart which allows a Dragoon to return to life after getting knocked out.
• Boring, but Practical: The Jump command. Damage equivalent to a Knight's, but at range? Will spam Jump again please and thank you.
• Fake Difficulty:
  • Jump is the only non-instant skill in the game that you cannot check the turn order to see when it will land, meaning you essentially have to guesstimate the timing and hope that your target doesn't get their turn before you land. Naturally, the AI knows exactly when ''they'' will land and will be successful every time they jump.
  • Jump is 2x the jumper's speed, so it's possible to manually calculate the landing time, which is why the computer is not technically a cheating bastard here. It's a rather annoying hassle though. One rule of thumb that nearly always works is to only use Jump against a target whose CT is currenly 50 or below.
• Goomba Stomp: The animation for Jump implies this, though of course there's also a big pointy spear involved.
• In a Single Bound: Their Ignore Elevation skill allows them to jump to any height within their move range.
• Mighty Glacier: Their spears have attack power equal to the best swords in the game and they can wear plate armor, but they only have 3 tiles of movement.

Orator (Mediator)

Prerequisite: Level 2/3 Mystic

Orators use their silk tongues to boost team morale, strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, or simply talk them to death. Can use guns and knives in battle.

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• Heel–Face Turn: Invitation/Entice can induce this in enemy units.
• I Shall Taunt You: Insult, which puts the enemy into Berserk status if successful.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: Solution/Enlighten, which lowers Faith values.
• Status Infliction Attack: Can inflict quite a few.
• Super-Empowering: Orators can raise ally Faith and Brave values (or, if you're feeling cheeky, raise enemy Faith values before dropping a spell on them, as damage scales with the target's Faith as well as the user's).
• Talking the Monster to Death: Literally and figuratively.
• The Gunslinger: Can use guns as weapons which like the Chemist lets them get around their bad strength and is preferable to using daggers.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: Condemn inflicts Doom on the target by convincing them that they are about to die.

Summoner

Prerequisite: Level 3 Time Mage

Summoners call forth the power of Espers to help allies or hurt enemies. Can use rods and staves in battle.

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• Elite Tweak: Summons may range into impractical for their high MP cost and charge times but you can cast a very strong and slow summon on one of your units (since summons don't damage friendly units) and have that unit carry it to the enemy rather than put your slow and squishy Summoner in bone crunching combat.
• Friendly Fireproof: Summon is one of only two abilities to safely distinguish friend from foe, the other being Iaido.
• Glass Cannon: Summons are the most devastating magick in the game, and distinguish between friend and foe, but Summoners are both slow and fragile so be careful where you place them.
• The Red Mage: Lots of powerful elemental and non elemental attacks but they also have a few healing and support summons like Fairy and Golem.
• Summon Magic: Of course.
• Taking the Bullet: The summon Golem blocks physical damage for the party, but this protection doesn't last forever.

Samurai

Prerequisite: Level 3/4 Knight, Level 4/5 Monk, Level 2 Dragoon

Samurai mark the start of more complicated classes; it requires levels in Knight and its derivative, but also in the Archer-descended Dragoon. In addition to attacking with their blades, Samurai can draw spirits from said blade for various effects. Can use katanas in battle.

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• Barehanded Blade Block: The Bladegrasp/Shirahadori, which also grants Arrow Catch and Bullet Catch thanks to Good Bad Bugs.
• Breakable Weapons: Using the Iaido ability has a chance of breaking the weapon in the inventory.
• Friendly Fireproof: Iaido abilities won't harm the Samurai's allies.
• Glass Cannon: Even though they can equip armor their HP will remain on the same level as most non-armor units. Their skills are still very useful at dealing heavy damage to crowds.
• Katanas Are Just Better: When they can cast area-of-effect spells that distinguish friend from foe, they are!
• Samurai Ponytail: Appropriately female Samurai sport these along with a Martial Arts Headband.
• Too Awesome to Use: Samurai's special ability is to draw out power from katanas to create various AoE effects that can either heal/buff allies or hurt/debuff enemies. Each katana in the game has a different effect. This would be pretty cool, except there is a chance that the move will destroy whatever katana you are using. Needless to say, you are not very likely to risk the one-chance-to-steal Masamune or the buried-in-the-Bonus Dungeon Chirijiraden no matter how nice the effects are, because you can't get replacements.
• Walk on Water: Available as a Movement ability.

Ninja

Prerequisite: Level 3/4 Archer, Level 4/5 Thief, Level 2 Geomancer

Ninjas are the masters of assassination, able to use two weapons at once and throw things at the enemy. Can use knives, ninja blades, and flails in battle.

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• Boring, but Practical: Ninjas can throw almost anything at their opponents but you'll probably stick to bombs and shurikens for their low price and good damage.
• Dual Wielding: Innate to Ninjas, available as a Support ability.
• Glass Cannon: The fastest class in the game, able to dish out heavy damage up close with their dual weapons, but they are very frail, relying on their evasion ability to survive.
• Invisibility: Ninjas have the reaction skill "Vanish", easily one of the best skills in the game. Your ninja becomes invisible to enemies and it only ends when you attack. There is no The All-Seeing A.I., so enemies will ignore your ninja until the ninja stabs them in the back. The only way for enemies to attack an invisible ninja is by accident (such as blasting a different character with an AoE attack).
• Super-Reflexes: Has the highest Evasion of any job, and also can learn a Reaction ability that raises Evasion.
• Throw-Away Guns: Actually, averted. Guns are the only weapon that a Ninja can't throw.
• Throw Down the Bomblet: They come in three flavors; fire, lightning and water. The water bomb is particularly useful due to water elemental attacks being scarce and sometimes impractical.
• Throw the Book at Them & Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Any weapon in the game can be thrown with the ability unlocked.

Dancer

Prerequisite: Female only, Level 4/5 Geomancer, Level 4/5 Dragoon

Dancers can hit every enemy on the field with their dances, damaging or debilitating them. Can use knives and cloths in battle.

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• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Wiznaibus/Mincing Minuet usually does piddling damage, but activates two and a half times as fast as most unboosted units move. A Dancer or two performing a Mincing Minuet from the start of the battle can leave the enemy team crippled over time.
• Flight: Somehow they are able to learn the ability to fly.
• Full-Contact Magic: Inverted. Dances have physically-based effects, but can hit from anywhere on the field.
• Level Grinding: Dances activate at a pace independent of the user's Speed, making them useful for levelling slower classes.
• Luck-Based Mission: Aside from HP/MP damage, the chance of a dance taking effect is 50%, no alterations.
• Improbable Weapon User: Cloths, which are snapped at enemies like towels.
• Status Infliction Attack: The Forbidden Dance attempts to inflict Blind, Confuse, Silence, Toad, Poison, Slow, Stop, and Sleep, at the same time.

Bard

Prerequisite: Male only, Level 4/5 Summoner, Level 4/5 Orator

Bards can assist all allies on the field with their magickal songs, healing them or boosting their abilities. Can use harps in battle.

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• Brown Note: Harps do damage by being played.
• Extra Turn: Finale immediately fills up all units' CT gauges.
• Flight: Just like Dancers they can learn how to fly. It makes even less sense than dancers learning it.
• Level Grinding: Songs activate at a pace independent of the user's Speed, making them useful for levelling slower classes.
• Luck-Based Mission: Aside from the HP/MP healing, the chance of a song taking effect is 50%, no alterations.
• Magic Music: Healing and status buffs from anywhere on the field, applied with Magick Attack from a job accessed through levelling multiple mage jobs.
• Status Buff: The Nameless Song attempts to bestow Reraise, Regen, Protect, Shell, and Haste, at the same time.

Arithmetician (Calculator)

Prerequisite: Level 4/5 White Mage, Level 4/5 Black Mage, Level 3/4 Mystic, Level 3/4 Time Mage

Though extremely slow to get a turn, once they do get that turn Arithmeticians are the game's equivalent to weapons of mass destruction. Carpet bomb the enemy with power spells, turn them all into weaklings, make your own party virtually immortal... Arithmeticks can do all that, and more. Can use poles and books in battle.

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• All Your Powers Combined: Can use the list of all the non-Summoner spells that they had learned before (except a scant few high tier spells in the White, Black, and Time Mage schools) and use them almost instantly. An Arithmetician with Summon (or a Summoner with Arithmeticks) has access to every magickal effect in the game except Quick and Meteor.
• Difficult, but Awesome: They are slow as molasses, which has the added effect of making them very difficult to train. To be functional on the battlefield, they need to know all of their abilities and have a good repertoire of spells from other classes. They're also prone to causing friendly fire easily if you're not careful. But if you're willing to take the time to work with them and do some careful planning in combat, Arithmeticks can nuke everything.
• Mad Mathematician: A player who doesn't know what they're doing is going to end up with this trope if they try and use Arithmeticks blindly.
• Medium Aware: While Height is definitely observable in-game, Arithmeticians are somehow also able to see ally and enemy levels, experience, and even CT.
• Mighty Glacier: Oh, how very slow they are (base speed 4, the lowest in the game), but oh, how very, very mighty. (Or, use Bard/Dancer to grind JP and then tack Arithmeticks on one of the other caster jobs.)
• Mundane Made Awesome: This is a Job that exploits the power of math.
• Perfect Play A.I.: With all of the variables learned, the AI can unleash utter hell upon everything, knowing exactly what to do for maximum damage output against its opponents without accidentally hurting its allies. Luckily, you can make this work to your advantage by setting your own Arithmetician to AI mode. After that, you can basically sit back and watch as your enemies get annihilated.
• Total Party Kill: Can potentially do this to your enemies under the right conditions with with a strong spell like Holy or Flare. Though if misused you can end up doing this to your own party in the process.

Mime

Prequisite: Level 8 Squire, Level 8 Chemist, Level 4/5 Geomancer, Level 4/5 Dragoon, Level 4/5 Orator, Level 4/5 Summoner

The Mime can take no actions on their own, but will mimic all (generic) ally actions, doubling the action economy. They have no innate usable equipment at all, but do have several innate abilities.

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• Asian Fox Spirit: The female Mime wears a fox mask that brings to mind the shapeshifting powers of kitsunes.
• Bare-Fisted Monk: The Mime has innate Brawler, giving them Bravery-boosted physical attacks to compensate for their lack of equipment.
• Ditto Fighter: They automatically mimic every action performed by a teammate, although this is tricky to use since they can end up hitting empty spaces. Careful positioning is required for their effective use.
• Faceless Goons: Female Mimes seem to be evoking this look, as she wears a kitsune mask over her head.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The Mime has innate Concentration, which guarantees their attacks will connect if there's something for them to connect with.
• Super-Empowering: The Mime has innate Beastmaster, which will unlock the hidden abilities your ally monsters have.

Dark Knight

Prerequisite: PSP only, Mastered Knight, Mastered Black Mage, Level 8 Dragoon, Samurai, Ninja, and Geomancer, and 20 killed enemies who have crystallized/turned into chests

Can use swords, fell swords, knight swords, and flails in battle.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Dark Knights are very strong thanks to their abilities being safely able to be used from slightly longer distances, on top of being stronger offensively then a Knight would be. However the amount of grinding needed to unlock the class renders it more or less useless except for the final bosses and the optional content. It does at least serve as a good end game class for Ramza however.
• BFS: Fell swords are basically dark versions of Knight Swords and actually require both hands to use them.
• Bragging Rights Reward: By the time you can unlock this class, you probably don't need it.
• The Faceless: All we see from the helmet are two glowing eyes, a la the Wizard.
• Cast from Hit Points: Abyssal Blade and Unholy Sacrifice expend HP to cause damage over an area.
• Casting a Shadow: The Fell Swords they can equip are Dark-elemental.
• Magic Knight: Oddly enough, it isn't this despite mastering Black Mage being a requirement. It is a class that relies only on your physical strength. In fact, it is possible to gimp your Dark Knight if you start out with mastering Black Mage early on, as many of your levels will be gained with Black Mage stat growths which are not useful for Dark Knight at all, so it is recommended to max out Black Mage last and get your physical classes finished first to take advantage of their growths while you are leveling the fastest.

Onion Knight

Prerequisite: PSP only, Level 6 Squire, Level 6 Chemist

Can use any weapon in battle but are unable to use abilities.

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• Badass Normal: Being unable to use any abilities, they count as this.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Although the Job is actually quite simple enough to unlock (simply get Squire and Chemist to level 8), by the time you unlock the Onion Knight's full potential, you DEFINITELY don't need it as you must master every other class in the game to do this, aside from the Squire, Chemist, Dark Knight, and the Mime.
• Foil: To the Mime; both have unbelievable stats, and require multiple mastered jobs to use (or in the Onion Knight's case, to use effectively). A Mime cannot equip anything, but can do almost everything; an Onion Knight can equip everything, but nearly cannot do anything.
• Jack of All Trades: Who gradually moves from Master of None to Renaissance Man.
• Magikarp Power: Laughably weak until you start mastering Jobs and getting Onion equipment.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Infuriatingly, computer-controlled Onion Knights in some of the bonus battles are fully decked out with abilities even though your Onion Knights can't equip any.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: In this case when all you have (at max level) are massive stats, the strongest equipment in the game and only the attack command the only thing to do is, well, attack with impunity.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Male Onion Knights are allowed to equip female-exclusive equipment.

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