Red Mage

A red mage refers to a fictional type or order of wizards. The definition varies according to the source.

Final Fantasy

In the Final Fantasy series of video games from Square Enix, the Red Mage is a character class similar to the Bard in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Traditionally, Red Mages in Final Fantasy use the abilities of both Black Mages and White Mages, as well as occasional spells from other schools of magic. They also have the combat abilities near to a Warrior but are not as good at any one ability as are any of the other classes. In general, they are only able to cast lower-level spells and not necessarily every one of those. They are basically a Jack of all trades but master of none.

Traditionally, Red Mages are distinguishable from other classes for wearing a distinct red hat with a white feather. Other articles of clothing vary from game to game, though a red cape is common. In the first game it was thought they were wearing a mask covering hes mouth but it's actually part of their cape.

Red Mages first appeared in the game Final Fantasy for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). At this time, they were extremely overpowered compared to the other characters because of their ability to heal themselves and deliver decent melee damage. They next appeared in Final Fantasy III where they were fundamentally unchanged, weakened only slightly by the fact that their ability to wield heavy swords and armor was much more limited than before. Final Fantasy V, brought about the creation of their trademark "Doublecast" skill, which would appear frequently in subsequent Final Fantasy games, even when the Red Mage itself was absent.

In Final Fantasy VI, Terra Branford and Celes Chère roughly resemble Red Mages. While their official character classes are Mage Knight and Rune Knight, respectively, they both exhibit physical strength (both start off wielding swords) and are the only two in the game who learn magic automatically.

Increasingly, however, the Final Fantasy series began to deemphasize the distinction between white magic and black magic, and it was no longer unusual for characters to be able to utilize both types of magic equally well, essentially eliminating the need for the Red Mage. In Final Fantasy IX, Red Mages could be found in various towns, but existed in the game for nothing more than dialogue. However, the game's main antagonist Kuja can be considered a Red Mage due to his skills in Black and White magic. The Red Mage class did not reappear as a playable class until Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, where, once again, it proved to be mildly unbalanced due to its ability to cast two spells in a row (this ability was usually paired with a Summoner subclass to allow doublecasting of two powerful spells). Doublecast is learned by equipping the Red Mage with a Madu, and is mastered after 999AP, or roughly 20 battles.

Final Fantasy XI

In the MMORPG incarnation of the series, the Red Mage is a mage/melee hybrid class with particular aptitude for enhancing and enfeebling magic. Red Mages may equip a variety of weapons from swords and daggers for melee damage to wands and staves for stat bonuses. Spells exclusive to the Red Mage include Refresh, which regenerates an affected character’s MP, and Dispel, which removes a beneficial status effect from an enemy. Red Mage abilities include Convert, which swaps current HP and MP pools; traits include Fast Cast, which reduces the casting time of a spell and cooldown timer. The Red Mage's 2-hour ability, Chainspell, allows for chain-casting of spells without the normal cooldown period. Due to their jack-of-all-trades nature and their access to several defense-reducing and -absorbing spells, Red Mages at high levels are one of the few classes in the game capable of soloing monsters in their own range of level and strength.

Notable Final Fantasy character classes
Bard — Beastmaster — Black Mage — Blue Mage — Chemist
Dark Knight — Dragon Knight — Geomancer — Ninja
Red Mage — Samurai — Summoner — Warrior — White Mage
Lists: Final Fantasy character classes — Final Fantasy XI character classes

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