Red Mage idea

[AceofRains]

Gladiator/Thaumaturge would most definately not do this job justice as is. Red Mage most certainly needs the introduction of a new class, scout or fencer or what ever. Musketeer is a no no, we do not need to make red mage into a ranged backline job. So how do you make a jack of a trades? I have a very good example of red mage in my speculation guide but I'll give you all the short version here.

Scout Class - Weapon: Light Swords (Daggers, Rapiers, Katana) - Stealth, DPS, Enfeebles

The scout class opens up the best possiblity for red mage as it will have enfeebles right on it. I do not advocate making red mage some kind of enfeeble whore but hear me out. Now that your melee and enfeebles are covered you are free to borrow defensive and offensive magics from what even conjurer, thaumaturge, or possibly arcanist has to offer. Since the defensive and offensive magic are sub abilities, Red mage will innately never reach the strongest teir of offensive and defensive magic but will also have a variety of choices.

[Duelle]

So how do you make a jack of all trades?

You don't. You can have versatility while not making the job a pure generalist. Being a generalist worked against RDM rather than for it in FFXI. And while all generalists are hybrids, not all hybrids are generalists; Red Mage therefore needs to lean towards hybrid than towards generalist. Note: it'd probably be a different story if jobs were standalone and we had talent tress instead. Then you can create a generalist RDM and have his talent trees decide where you want to go with the job. That ship has sailed, though.

Personally, melee and magic should mesh together. Enspells are a step in that direction (a black mage doesn't need to enchant his weapons because he's blowing crap up from range, but the Red Mage would most likely bend that rule to make up for what they lack in strength compared to a barbarian or warrior). Magic spells (offensive and defensive) as openers and closers in combos is another. Abilities that play off both would also follow that ideology. This turns RDM into a job with its own identity and take on combat as opposed to a hackjob put together using scraps from the other jobs. The latter worked in single player RPGs due to you being solely in control (so if you never used RDM or had them spam only cures nobody's feelings got hurt), but RDM would need adjustments to truly be MMO-worthy.

[AceofRains]

You don't. You can have versatility while not making the job a pure generalist. Being a generalist worked against RDM rather than for it in FFXI. And while all generalists are hybrids, not all hybrids are generalists; Red Mage therefore needs to lean towards hybrid than towards generalist. Note: it'd probably be a different story if jobs were standalone and we had talent tress instead. Then you can create a generalist RDM and have his talent trees decide where you want to go with the job. That ship has sailed, though.

Personally, melee and magic should mesh together. Enspells are a step in that direction (a black mage doesn't need to enchant his weapons because he's blowing crap up from range, but the Red Mage would most likely bend that rule to make up for what they lack in strength compared to a barbarian or warrior). Magic spells (offensive and defensive) as openers and closers in combos is another. Abilities that play off both would also follow that ideology. This turns RDM into a job with its own identity and take on combat as opposed to a hackjob put together using scraps from the other jobs. The latter worked in single player RPGs due to you being solely in control (so if you never used RDM or had them spam only cures nobody's feelings got hurt), but RDM would need adjustments to truly be MMO-worthy.

My apologies I forgot to include the actually job actions that pull this all together. You called one of them and that is En-spells. With the limit of only 5 new abilities per job you need to find a shortcut on en-spells. Here the abilties I made up that help to make a jack of all trades be a melee attacker as well as a caster.

Enchant - Use a crystal to enchant your weapon with it's elemental property. This is so you have a constant flow of additional magic damage on your melee attacks.
Translation - Convert all of your TP into MP. This is so that if you happen to run out of MP, the fact that your dealing melee damage will help to recover it so you can keep going.
Delta Strike - It's name is tenative because I believe this is a Magus sister attack but this basicly deals damage to HP, MP, and TP it would be the red mage's unique weaponskill.
Free Cast - Now this skill really brings it all together. It allows you to attack and move while caating at the cost of gradual TP consumption. This makes it so that you don't have to take the time out to interrupt your melee while trying to get a spell off.
Chainspell - This allows you to essentially spam your magic for a short period, good for a 15 minute ability I'd aay.

These combinations of abilties will help red mage to be a caster on the front lines while continuing a melee onslaught. This is what I mean by a jack of all trades. What it really equates to is just a damage dealer with a few spare tricks up his sleeve such as raise and cure from conjurer.

[TaalAzura]

My apologies I forgot to include the actually job actions that pull this all together. You called one of them and that is En-spells. With the limit of only 5 new abilities per job you need to find a shortcut on en-spells. Here the abilties I made up that help to make a jack of all trades be a melee attacker as well as a caster.

Enchant - Use a crystal to enchant your weapon with it's elemental property. This is so you have a constant flow of additional magic damage on your melee attacks.
Translation - Convert all of your TP into MP. This is so that if you happen to run out of MP, the fact that your dealing melee damage will help to recover it so you can keep going.
Delta Strike - It's name is tenative because I believe this is a Magus sister attack but this basicly deals damage to HP, MP, and TP it would be the red mage's unique weaponskill.
Free Cast - Now this skill really brings it all together. It allows you to attack and move while caating at the cost of gradual TP consumption. This makes it so that you don't have to take the time out to interrupt your melee while trying to get a spell off.
Chainspell - This allows you to essentially spam your magic for a short period, good for a 15 minute ability I'd aay.

These combinations of abilties will help red mage to be a caster on the front lines while continuing a melee onslaught. This is what I mean by a jack of all trades. What it really equates to is just a damage dealer with a few spare tricks up his sleeve such as raise and cure from conjurer.

I don't see why FNC couldn't get en-spells, considering it's a melee based spell, and give RDM's job abilities magic oriented spells such as haste and refresh.

[AceofRains]

I don't see why FNC couldn't get en-spells, considering it's a melee based spell, and give RDM's job abilities magic oriented spells such as haste and refresh.

Because it would make the class too similar to PUG with its fist stances, and it would eliminate room for variety in skills. That;s why I prefer the scout design over fencer. Scout allows for a few of the needed magics and evasive combat.

Plus do you really want to learn Enthuder, Enstone, Enfire, Enwater, Enaero, Enblizzard, and waste 6 skillslots on your job when you can just condense it into one action that is unique to redmage?

If you put en spells on fencer then ALL of the jobs that come with fencer-which I don't particularly see much more than red mage-will have have enspells, defeating the purpose of this unique job.

[Duelle]

Because it would make the class too similar to PUG with its fist stances, and it would eliminate room for variety in skills.

Not necessarily. PUG stances are more to overcome the issue MNK had in XI with melee-resistant opponents (really, the stances are basically Formless Blow but with elemental flavoring instead). Enspells should and have been about making up for the damage you lack compared to the big hitter jobs. In theory it's supposed to supplement your melee, not replace it to get around defence mechanics.

One of the suggestions in the design thread was built around that idea. Fencer learning enspells in the form of Brands (Firebrand, Icebrand, etc), and then Red Mage getting the ability Magic Sword, which would allow them to insta-cast a nuke based on the elemental brand they have up.

And now, some fun with photoshop: a) Fencer b) Red Mage

...blame the guy that made this. >.>

[Eremor]

Some really really really old data, I don't even remember where it was from or if it was credible or not, certainly isn't relevant to the current build of the game much less 2.0.



But hey look, Fencer and Musketeer as separate classes.

Just an attempt to stifle the Musketeer -> Red Mage enthusiasts. Sorry, but it just won't work, it would be even worse then Archer -> Bard. Musketeer is obviously ranged DPS whereas Red Mage is anything but.