Squire (Ramza)

Prerequistes: None

Role: Multi-role attacker

Sprites: It's Ramza, the main character.

Default Weapons: Knife, Sword, Hammer, Knight Sword

Default Helmet: Helmet, Hat

Default Armor: Armor, Clothes, Robe

Compatible: Best with either frontline melee, long range offensive support, or solo play.

Guts/Mettle

Accumulate/Focus: Increase your PA +1. Good early game for JP and early melee damage buff. Loses effectivness late game once replaced by Scream.

Dash/Rush: Attack by ramming into an enemy's body, has a 100% chance to hit. Effective in very early game to get killing blows and to attack enemies head on with high evasion. Beyond the initial stages of the game, this skill start losing effectivness.

Throw Stone/Stone: Throw a stone at a distant foe. Effective very early game as the only means of ranged attack. This skill loses effectiveness almost immediatly once Archers and Wizards become available, but can be a big help until then. It is also the best skill the game to remove sleep and confusion.

Heal/Salve: Remove blind, poison, and silence. A great support ability. Often overlooked or underestimated, this skill has no charge time and no mana cost, making it one of the best anti-blinds/poisons/silencers. For you, the main strength of it is to remove silence, the others are just bonus.

Wish/Chant: Sacrifice HP and restore twice as much to an ally. A decent heal spell, though not as good as some others. At higher levels this spell becomes pretty effective, but the price you pay also increases. Used mostly as a last chance heal.

Yell/Tailwind: Boost an ally's speed +1. Great skill the entire game, there is no reason you shouldn't get it.

Cheer Up/Steel: Boost an ally's brave +5. Once again, this skill starts off strong and finishes up strong. It is effective the whole game.

Scream/Shout: Increase your brave +10, speed +1, PA +1, MA +1. This skill is the reason this build works. It's the ultimate buff (that you can learn). The only downside to this skill is that it's a self buff only.

Ultima: Moderately powerful magic attack with a range of 4 and effect of 2. For some this skill is great, but for you, it's useless. The magic is weak compared to what you'll be using. The only reason you'd want to is to become a master.

Black Magic/Black Magicks

Fire, Fire 2, Fire 3/Fire, Fira, Firaga: Inflict fire damage on an enemy. A staple spell in your arsenel.

Bolt, Bolt 2, Bolt 3/Thunder, Thundara, Thundaga: Inflict lightning damage on an enemy. A staple spell in your arsenel.

Ice, Ice 2, Ice 3/Blizzard, Blizzara, Blizzaga: Inflict ice damage on an enemy. A staple spell in your arsenel.

Fire 4, Bolt 4, Ice 4/Firaja, Thundaja, Blizzaja: Inflict massive fire, lightning, or ice damage in a large area. Very powerful level 4 spells, but they suffer from long charge times, high mana cost, and target ally/enemy alike. Effective use of these spells can render fascinating results, but you are likely to pass on them for a shorter CT level 3 spell or a more powerful Flare cast.

Poison: Poison enemy reducing HP each turn. Sounds good on paper, and it might be slightly effective in long drawn out battles, but the total damage caused by this spell is easily overcome during it's duration.

Frog/Toad: Turns your target into a toad. Toads are weak, deal little damage, can only use basic attack, cast Frog/Toad, and lasts the entire battle unless dispelled. The primary use of this spell is obvious, but it's necessary for a different reason, mass EXP/JP accumulation. Turn everyone on the battlefield into a toad (enemies and allies), set your team to auto-attack, and walk away. Come back a couple hours later 5-10 levels higher and thousands of JP better.

Death: Instantly kill an enemy. Sounds good, but the low hit chance of this spell makes it useless. Most enemies will be dead by regular means before you manage to get this spell to land.

Flare: Very powerful dark magic spell. This is your ultimate spell. Only the greatest and most powerful will hope to survive it. The target area is only one panel, so they can't walk up to you and spead the love.

Magic Atk Up/Arcane Strength: Increases damage caused by magical attacks. This is the other reason this build exists.


Setup

Guts/Mettle
Black Magic/Black Magicks
Blade Grasp/Shirahadori
Magic Atk Up/Arcane Strength
Move +3

Rune Sword
Aegis Shield
Grand Helmet
Robe of Lords
Bracer/Genji Gauntlet

Battlemage: One of the most versatile offensive strategies. The Battlemage has the powerful melee damage that Ramza can deal or an arsenel of powerful magic at his disposel. While you may scoff at the Rune Sword instead of using a Chaos Blade, the Rune Sword adds +2 MA and it packs a punch in melee too. The nature of this build renders you fairly well defended against a wide range of attacks and gives you a wide range of offensive and support skills to use. Your role is primarily an offensive nuker, rather than a front line fighter, but front line is possible as a Battlemage thanks to your Reaction Skill.

Overall Rating: 8. A very well balenced machine. The Battlemage has a wide range of skills at his disposal to beat down the enemy with. Fully capable of utilizing might or magic entirely or a combo of both in battle. He makes for a great compliment to your team, as he can fill several roles at a moments notice. The time you will spend as a Wizard/Black Mage will ensure that you have plenty of mana late game to supplement your Robe of Lords. His drawbacks are: magic requires CT, lacks offensive physical skills, lacks HP of a warrior and MP of a mage, and only viable with Ramza (and Luso for PSP version).