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Although ill-suited for wielding weapons, Black Mages easily bend destructive black magic spells to their will.

Dawn of Souls instructions

The Black Mage is a job available to the Warriors of Light in the original Final Fantasy. Its upgrade is the Black Wizard (くろまどうし, Kuromadoushi?, lit. Black Sorcerer).

The Black Mage is the game's dedicated offensive spellcaster, able to cast all Black Magic that can deal heavy damage to enemies or outright kill them. However, its physical strength is minimal.

Characteristics[]

Appearance[]

Blackmage-ff1-art

Artwork from Dawn of Souls.

The Black Mage has had a consistent appearance across all ports of Final Fantasy. They wear long blue robes with loose sleeves and a pointed yellow hat. Their face is obscured with only two yellow eyes visible within the shadows of their hat. In the NES version of Final Fantasy, it was unclear if the Black Mage was wearing gloves or had bare hands emerging from its robes; the PlayStation Origins port makes it clear it is the Black Mage's hands. The Origins port also adds a light brown stripe around the Black Mage's hat.

The Black Wizard's appearance in the NES version has them remove their hat, revealing their face and short brown hair, and they have brown shoulder pads added to their robe. The MSX2 port gives the Black Wizard darker blue robes and purple hair and shoulder pads. From the Origins release on, the Black Wizard was redesigned and draws on elements of the Magus, an "upgraded" Black Mage job that first appeared in Final Fantasy III. The Black Wizard wears a blue coat with gold trim and fastened by a belt, and green and yellow striped pants. It retains its yellow hat, which still conceals its face in shadow, but the stripe on the hat is now green. The PlayStation Portable 20th Anniversary port used a variant of this design that gives the Black Wizard a blue cloak worn around its shoulders, pants striped with two shades of brown, and the stripe in its hat is brown again.

Names[]

The Dawn of Souls and subsequent versions have are ten optional auto-names for each character class. Each alludes to a character or place name in the Final Fantasy series.

The ten names for the Black Mage class are:

In addition, the name Vivi from Final Fantasy IX was used in screenshots for the Final Fantasy Origins manual.

In the Final Fantasy I * II * III: Memory of Heroes official novelization, the Black Mage is named Teol (テウ, Daewoo?). He bears the Earth Crystal Shard.

Personality[]

In the Memory of Heroes novelization, Teol is a silent type whose every word counts. He is a kindhearted and quiet man, who is highly intelligent and in tune with beasts and other aspects of nature.

Abilities[]

The Black Mage specializes in Black Magic, giving them the ability to lower enemy stats, inflict them with status ailments, and cast damaging spells against them. They are not strictly focused on offensive magic, however, and can learn a few spells that buff physical fighters to improve their damage output. As a downside, they have a poor equipment draw and the lowest HP of the jobs available.

After completing the Citadel of Trials, Bahamut grants the party their class change and any Black Mages in the player's party become Black Wizards. Black Wizards are able to learn all Black Magic in the game, giving them a large variety of spells, including many Instant Death spells to wipe out enemy parties in one turn. They also have the Flare spell to deal damage to enemies without an elemental weakness to exploit.

Towards the end of the game, bosses will have increasingly higher magic defense and hence the Black Wizard's most powerful magic will barely deal noticeable damage to them. They are better suited to buff physical attackers with Haste, along with Temper; since Temper stacks and Haste does not.

Equipment[]

Weapons[]
Daggers Katanas Swords Staves
Armor[]
Shields Helmets Body armor Gloves

Magic[]

Black Magic

Other appearances[]

Final Fantasy Portal App[]

006x Black Mage

Black Mage appears as a Triple Triad card.

Dissidia Final Fantasy (2008)[]

The Black Mage makes a cameo as a tutor from the in-game manuals, occasionally making use of Spoonerism word play; for example, "Bart Stutton" as opposed to "Start Button".

Gallery[]

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