What is RDM all about?

[Ophannus]

Red Mage was terribad in FF1. My Monk and Warrior do like 3x more damage than it and my RDM has Masamune. My RDM hits for like 300-500 and my WAR and MNK hit for like 1700. In FF3 RDM is crap too, its stat gain sucks and it only learns like up to level 4 magic. Any melee outdamages it because their weapon selection sucks badly(in the original, I know nothing of how they rebalanced it in the DS version. In FF5 RDM was actually awesome until the middle of the game when Blue Mage, Geomancer and Summoner rock it death. RDM's only good feature is Double Cast which is a half decent sub ability(but Blue Magic is far superior because White Wind> Cure IIx2)

[saevel]

Red Mage was terribad in FF1. My Monk and Warrior do like 3x more damage than it and my RDM has Masamune. My RDM hits for like 300-500 and my WAR and MNK hit for like 1700. In FF3 RDM is crap too, its stat gain sucks and it only learns like up to level 4 magic. Any melee outdamages it because their weapon selection sucks badly(in the original, I know nothing of how they rebalanced it in the DS version. In FF5 RDM was actually awesome until the middle of the game when Blue Mage, Geomancer and Summoner rock it death. RDM's only good feature is Double Cast which is a half decent sub ability(but Blue Magic is far superior because White Wind> Cure IIx2)

Umm which versions of FF are you talking about, because that is NOT what I've experienced the past few months (I'm replaying the older ones right now). FF1 on PSX / GBA got a HUGE re-balance, their on all the good gear now. RDM gets Defender / Sun Sword and it's own special Deathbringer sword. With Masamune he'll do more then the Excal fighter. What your talking about, that 300~500 vs 1700 is an unbuffed RDM vs a Temper Hasted Monk. In the NES version the damage calculations favored MNK heavily, they basically got 2x the hits of everyone else and 4x once hasted. In the GBA remake they severely nerfed MNK and made magic resistance a much bigger part of the game (it's a hidden stat). MNK is still good but it's no where near as godly as it was before. They also buffed THF/NIN big time, it's basically as strong as a Fighter but with less defense but faster agility and more evasion. They redid the magic system to a MP based system instead of magic level points, thus RDM can easily nuke or heal along with meleeing although it's lack of aoe cures makes it a really bad idea to main heal on late game boss fights. Basically your going to have RDM or BLM in the third party slot, BLM having bigger nukes but RDM being able to melee and cure along with nuking and haste / temper casting (absolute MUST for late game boss fights).


FF3 again is different from NES vs DS. In NES each job upgraded to another job with ALL melee jobs "upgrading" to Ninja at the very end, all mage jobs upgraded with RDM's being to the "Sage" (able to cast all magic but limited points). RDM was a good melee in the beginning but later you swapped it out for a dedicated caster or melee. Infact the jobs you used changed as the game went on because it forced to do this you via gear acquisition. In the DS remake they threw all that out the window, Ninja was nerfed gearly, it's basically just an upgrade to Thief. RDM got buffed like crazy and put on most of the late game gear, including Excal and other super swords. RDM's stat gain was buffed and no longer resembles the Black Mage. Red Mage's "special" card item is the Crimson Vest which gives +10 to all stats, combined with the Excal and Ultima Blade the Red Mage can get +30 to all it's stats. They also redid the job level system, JL isn't only used for determining the number of fights your "weakened" its used to calculate your damage, accuracy, evasion and critical hit rate.

FF5 (what I'm playing now) is pretty much the same story, SE redid the game and buffed the previously neglected jobs like RDM / Bard / Dancer / Geomancer and such. RDM's stats resemble a Black / White Mage unless your equip a melee orientated alternate option like DW / 2H / Focus / ect. The system is now that your main job will gain the status bonus associated with that sub ability provided its not bigger then the main jobs current stat bonus. RDM being -STR and +INT means that it naturaly starts with lower STR and greater INT then that character would have, but if the melee secondary has +STR then it ignores the -STR on RDM and replaces it with the subs bonus. So if I put DW or 2H and use Enhancers (best sword until you go into the post-game areas) then the Red Mage gets really good melee options. Although the lack of L4/L5 magic means it's casting becomes severely limited late game. And honestly, late game FFV is about boosting Freelancer and Mine out the wazo. No job compares to what those two jobs become. BLU's white wind requires the BLU be at high hitpoints, otherwise it's just an expensive cura. Later on the boss's will hit you with MT damage attacks for 1~2K and put everyone into low HP. Curaga becomes vastly more effective for healing everyone. Because of this RDM really just becomes another WHM / BLM later on, it can equip both the sage staff (+50% holy damage) and Magus rod (+50% fire/ice/lightening/wind/poison damage) but not the rune bell (+50% to all except water).

Overall in every FF game Red Mage becomes a strong starting / mid game character but weaker in late game but then super again (except FFV) in post-game events. It's primary strength being that it's flexible and able to melee dungeon monsters and heal / support during mega boss fights.