I wonder what they'd make Red Mage's 15Min spell be? I'd love for it to be Re-Raise...
Honestly though, Red Mage would be in an interesting position due to the fact that it's a "Jack of all trades, master of none" type of deal. I pretty much expect them to let Red Mages use White/Black Mage spells, but due to the restrictive number of abilities a class can have, I'm wondering how many weaponskills the class would get.
Having to split the skills of a Red Mage through melee attacks and Magics (Debuffs and buffs) along with self buffs (IE: Dual Cast, Sabotur, etc), I can forsee a lot of things missing from the class. Also, factor in the fact that there can be up to like, five skills brought over from WHM and BLM, that'll be a pretty tight bar with nothing that actually dedicates the class to anything, but I guess that's the point, huh.
OP does make a good point though, although, because of the Red Mage's versatility, they've been doomed with having lower stats and things, so to have a melee in there trying to duke it out along side the melees could prove fatal what with how mages are squishy and all. I expect the Red mage to be as about as tough as a BRD to an extent health-wise.
Still though... I'm kind of boggled on how many skills the class would be able to have... what? 20 Arcanist skills split through Buffs, Debuffs, Melee Weaponskills, and Self Enhancing skills? Then 5 Red Mage skills after that? Plus the 5 cross-class abilities. That's just going to be awkward and, seemingly, all over the place. And not to mention that WHM already has Chainspell... so what then?
Eh... this is kind of making me tired thinking about it. I just want Red Mage to be really good and useful in this game... _-_