dev1024 - healing magic

[Economizer]

Their soloing strategies typically aren't based around cure spells.

Convert + Cure V. Strategy made that largely changes how safe a RDM solo is.

Edit: I don't actually care about Cure V when discussing whether or not Red Mage should get Cure V, was just pointing this out. I'm sure I could probably think of more ways that a large cure spell would make a Red Mage solo way less risky or even possible, but I'm hoping this point gets the thought across.

[SpankWustler]

Convert + Cure V. Strategy made that largely changes how safe a RDM solo is.

Compared to gravity; bind; Stoneskin; Utsusem, Fast Cast, and Slow II working as a team; proper equipment for Elemental Magic; proper equipment to reduce or eliminate spell interruption; or just finding a really nice fence, casting one less cure after Convert wouldn't make much of a difference. Casting one cure rather than two would make the process safer, but wouldn't save anyone who used Convert right next to the monster without Stoneskin or shadow images.

You're definitely right that it would make the process less risky, but it wouldn't do so in a way that would allow any additional monsters to be killed by a lone Red Mage. It also wouldn't make the process any faster, and time spent is the main pitfall of soloing something nowadays.

Of course, this does raise an interesting point. The development team does some weird stuff so they may get all worked up over the idea of risk being reduced even with literally no other effects. I have no idea what their concept of "balance" is.