Red Mage Development Thread

[Ilium]

Chainspell: (innate ability) CT resets at 15 if using the same ability as last turn.

Fire/Ice/Bolt

Cure

Cura

Protect

Haste

Blind

Bio

Comet: moderate non-elemental

Doublecast

Reaction

Reflex: occasionally avoid basic attacks.

Counter

Support

Magick Attack UP

Physical Attack UP

Movement

Move-Gain MP

[kablizzy]

I've liked Red Magi, but I want to explore the concept of Spellswords as well as the more Physical Red Mage, with splashes of more unique Red Mage abilities. I think between the three concepts, we can come up with something cool to do here.

[Ilium]

I figured if we outfitted Red Mages with Daggers, Swords, and possibly Armor, the RM would be the most physically-oriented of all the mages. Their attack command DPS would be by far the highest of all of them at least, and with armor the Red Mage has the option of picking HP/Armor focus or MP/Robes focus. I also only included the physically-effective status abilities Protect and Blind instead of their magick counterparts Shell and Silence.

But your right about needing unique Red Mage abilities. Some magick dps and heal unique to the Red Mage, and maybe some skills that would benefit other skills, namely secondary choices. Instead of limiting the skill sets usable to the RM in their own list right off the bat, we allow the Secondary/Tertiary JP caps to be the limit to their choices.

[pendejochy]

Since Black Mages have fire/ice/lightening, why not give RMs water/air/ground elemental attacks? As for unique heal spells, maybe make the red mage's healing spells single target instead of AoE?

If we're going the spellsword route, maybe a support ability that gives them an attack boost, but at the cost of MP? Like, RM attacks, does 100 damage, plus 10 damage and he loses 10 mp?

[kablizzy]

Pruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh-cisely what I was thinking. Like, 110%. Give him Aero, Water, Quake, and then some nifty stuff for healing / utility and give him some melee attacks as well.

[Ilium]

One aspect of the Red Mage that hasn't been explored very much is the role of the 'fast mage'. This is a canonical representation of the job throughout Final Fantasy, marked by the point that Red Mage is the fastest of all his compatriots, however never gets the high-level spells. Therefor a case can be made for the Red Mage having the highest base speed rating of all the other mages, even if growth is the same (if we even decide to implement speed growth).

The innate spell Chainspell in my original list fits this role nicely, while providing proper restrictions. The Red Mage will be a versatile class, but if you don't mind spamming that one spell you like round after round, here go ahead and do it that much faster. Thematically, it can be said that the Red Mage acting in its 'fast mage' role has learned over the years how to channel a specific arcane ability and can call it almost at will.

Doublecast also fits into this niche well, and is a pretty fucking epic spell. Like, in the top tier of all rattata spells. This alone would make a Primary-Red Mage a very attractive choice.

Quake/Sliprain/Aero: Are we absolutely positive we don't want these abilities on Geomancer? I think they would go a long way towards helping solve that class' skill set issue, and are just as thematic for that class as they are for Red Mage, if not more so. We might be able to come up with enough spellsword role abilities to fill the gap.

[Ilium]

Poison Blade

Oil Blade

Sleep Blade

Slow Blade

Confusion Blade

Stun Blade

Maim Blade

Doom Blade

Reaction

Critical: Evade UP

Support

Blood Price: Use HP instead of MP for casting. HP cost is twice the usual MP cost.

[Ilium]

Rush: Damage and knock back

Wild Swing: Damage surrounding units

Beat Down: Double damage, half accuracy

Blitz: half damage, double accuracy

Air Render: Ranged attack

Aurablast: Ranged AoE attack

Air Blast: Wind damage in a T area in front of unit

Back Draft: Fire Damage; 1/4 of the damage dealt is dealt to the unit as recoil.


Reaction

Bonecrusher: Counters with one-and-a-half times normal damage if hit. Only counters basic Attacks.

[Ilium]

------------
Support Abilities
------------

Quick Charge
The Sorcerer is so well versed in the field of magick that any spell known can be uttered by heart and in the fastest of speak.
CT is reduced by 80%. However, MP cost increases by 20% and damage is reduced by (CFa/3)%.
JP: 1000

Sure Cast
The Sorcerer is so well versed in the field of magick that any spell known can be directed with truest of aim.
Spell has a 100% success rate before M.EV. MP cost is increased 20%, and effectiveness is reduced by 25%.
JP: 1000

Power Cast
The Sorcerer is so well versed in the field of magick that any spell known can be emphasized for effect.
Spell does 20% more damage. MP cost is increased 20%, and CT is increased by 20%
JP: 1000

Spell Aiming
The Sorcerer is so effective at casting spells that he can actually control where the damage is dealt, allowing nearby allies to escape the powerful magic.
Makes all of the Sorceror's spells discriminatory in damage (beneficial spells will not effect enemies; damage spells will not harm allies). MP cost is increased by 10%, and CT is increased by 10%.
JP: 1000

[Ilium]

Updated list, with Quake/Water/Aero left off pending further discussion. If determined that these abilities fit best with Red Mage, we shouldn't have any problem removing some of these. I'm having trouble coming up with a movement ability for this guy, and some of these basic skill abilities probably won't make it past the chopping block regardless, but here ya go.

Chainspell: (innate ability) CT resets at 15 if using the same ability as last turn.

Break: Earth elemental damage.

Hold: Physical attack with chance to Immobilize.

Stun: Physical attack if successful adds 15 CT to target unit.

Temper: Increased chance of critical hit on a physical attack the next turn. Effect is negated after next turn.

Imbue: Add element of Red Mage's choice to next round's attack command. Element must be one belonging to an ability the Red Mage has learned. If attack command is not used on the following turn, then Imbue's effects are negated.

Back Draft: Fire elemental attack command with increased damage. Red Mage is hit with recoil equivalent to 10% of inflicted damage.

Poison Blade: Attack command with chance to inflict Poison.

Comet: moderate non-elemental

Doublecast

Reaction

Reflex: occasionally avoid basic attacks.

Critical: Evade UP

Support

Quick Charge: The Sorcerer is so well versed in the field of magick that any spell known can be uttered by heart and in the fastest of speak. CT is reduced by 80%. However, MP cost increases by 20% and damage is reduced by (CFa/3)%.

Blood Price: Use HP instead of MP for casting.

Movement

Saberwalk: If equipped with a sword, +1 Move. If not equipped with a sword, -1 Move.

[kablizzy]

I really hate all of the conditional move effects, since if they're equipped, they're taking a slot that should be at least relatively decent. I'll see if I can come up with something cool for this shortly, and also throw some stuff of my own in here when I get a spare second.

[Ilium]

Yeah I know, for some reason I am not coming up with some good and unique movement abilities for these last few base classes. I struggle with each one I post but I include them in the skill set for posterity. Barring any creative ideas that work that you or someone else comes up with (which we would definitely roll with in that case), should we explore the idea of sharing R/S/M abilities across classes?

[Tendehka]

Red Mages are near and dear to my heart, for reasons many of you might be familiar with.

I am not overly opposed to the idea of giving them the off-specialty spells - Quake/Water/Tornado/Whatever - but those have traditionally been Blue Mage spells. The Red Mage is, in my mind, all about tradeoffs. You're faster, you can do everything,but you can't do very much of it well. Red Mages get early-game flexibility at the cost of the raw power of specialization. I don't want to lose that with whatever ends up being chosen.

If we go with the Quake/Water/Tornado choice, there's really nothing to separate them from Black Mages with different elemental abilities. Making them physically focused makes them not Mages.

[Ilium]

It's hard to incorporate the 'jack of all trades' role into the skill set for the Red Mage for this game, because of how Master and Secondary/Tertiary jobs are handled. We don't want to create a situation where the Red Mage has already limited his choices in his secondary, if that player has chosen Black Mage as the secondary and the RM already knows a couple BM spells. We might have to rely on more of the 'fast mage' and 'spellsword' roles for Red Mage for its skill set, and add a couple unique spells to its repertoire. As the game is structured already, with secondary alternates the Red Mage's jack of all trades role is essentially covered, with the added bonus of allowing the player to choose which magick arts they would like to blend with.

[Tendehka]

If we're going with 'fast mage' or 'spellsword', change the name of the class. Calling those the red mage is only going to invite confusion.

This is also the reason that I'm not a fan of the direction we're taking classes, but that's not really a changeable thing at this point.