FF2 Magic

[yousefi99]

After playing FF1 for the last 15 years or so, I've finally moved on to try FF2. I am enjoying it, but I'm not sure what the deal is with magic. How do I use it? When I buy it, it only shows up in my "items" menu, and after I use it once in battle it is gone. What's the deal?

[Captain Maxx Power]

Select the item in the normal item menu, and then select one of your characters. They will then permenantly learn that spell (or until you bin it). It starts at level 1, which is usually utter junk, and levels up the more you use it. Note that at certain levels it will only start significantly gaining "experience" if you start fighting stronger monsters, but I still recommend levelling up your spells regularly. FYI you can only learn 15 spells maximum, so try to give yourself a good spread. As a general rule though make sure everyone has Cure, Life and Exit. Max Cure as much as possible, but try to keep both Life and Exit as low as possible.

[DJZen]

That's such a terrible strategy...

Designate a white mage and give white magic to them only, then designate a black mage and black magic to them only.

The reason your spells "go away" after you use them in battle is because you're using them as an item. This causes the spell to be cast at level 8, which is somewhat equivalent to fira/thundara/blizzara in other games. Use ful if you have extra copies early on in the game and you're fighting a boss with a weakness to that element, otherwise it's not so good. Usually you're better off just selling your extra spells anyway.

Magic in FFII is kind of a tricky affair. PM me for extensive help on magic (and party setup in general) as I'd rather not eat up bandwidth by posting the full version on the boards.

[Captain Maxx Power]

I've managed to complete the game quite easily using a combo of various White/Black magics on my characters, so don't tell me it's "such a terrible strategy. It's perfectly legitimate.

[DJZen]

oh it's legitimate, it just takes longer.

[Garland]

In FF2 DoS, stats only go up, and a paired stat never goes down. In FF2 NES, raising certain stats would cause others to drop. In FF2 DoS, there's no real reason not to give everyone a nice blend of skills, whereas in FF2 NES, specialization was a big time saver.

[DJZen]

It saves time in DoS as well since you'll wind up spending less time levelling up spells overall. If you want to take the time to level up cure, life, fire, blizzard and thunder for everyone, be my guest.

[Fireblade13]

Yeah I like having a white mage and a black mage but giving my white mage osmose just to save ethers and then making guy have Drain, Haste, and Berserk [Same for Leon and other 4th charecters. other than Minwu.]