I've never beaten the game with a black mage. I love them to death and his evil sarcastic 8 bit nukes but in the end the Redmage provides all neccesary Black magic with better everything else. one fighter is almost a must for the ultimate party. Between BB and Thief it's gotta be up to how many RM's I have. If I have like one redmage and no BM I gotta give myself some Black magic buffs from the ninja. Otherwise I'm fine with the BB but do you really need that much damage? WELL DUH! YES!!!!!!!!