Black Mage (job)

The Black Mage (黒魔道師 or 黒魔道士 Kuromadoushi Lit. Black Magic Adherent) is a special Job class in the Final Fantasy series, and is featured in several installments.

Profile
Black Mages wear outfits similar to classic wizards, consisting of blue robes and pointy hats, usually yellow or brown. Their faces are not visible in the shade of their hats, except for their eyes which shine brightly. A Black Mage's primary ability is to cast Black Magic, which usually consists of attack spells, but also contains some effect spells. In later installments, Black Mages were given the Focus ability, which allowed them to store power for the next turn. However, their magic is their main focus. In this, Black Mages are one of the simplest, but most effective Jobs there is. Black Mages usually equip magical rods and staffs, but also sometimes daggers. Their armor is limited to lightweight vests and mage robes. Black Mages, as with most mages, have high magical stats but low HP and defenses.

The Black Mage has become one of the most recognized symbols of the Final Fantasy series, similar to the name "Cid", Chocobos, and Moogles.

Final Fantasy
One of the six basic Job classes, Black Mages have the lowest HP of any class, but have powerful magic. They upgrade to Black Wizards, which have even greater magical abilities.

Final Fantasy III
The Black Mage is a Job class obtained from the Wind Crystal and has powerful magical stats. The Magus is very similar to the Black Mage, but learns stronger magic and has a larger equipment pool in exchange for different stat growth. It is obtained from the Earth Crystal.

Final Fantasy IV
Rydia and Palom are both Black Mages. However, because Rydia is also a Summoner, she learns her Black Magic at a slower rate than Palom. Black Mages also appear as NPCs.

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years
Black Mage is a character who, along with White Mage, accompanies Ceodore and the Hooded Man as they pass through the Devil's Road. Rydia and Palom also return as playable characters. More focus is put on Rydia's Black Magic for the first part of the game as she is unable to summon.

Final Fantasy V
The Black Mage is one of the first Job classes received from the Wind Crystal. It focuses on using Black Magic, but the addition of the Mystic Knight hampers its effectiveness slightly, as Mystic Knights can enchant their swords with Black Magic and have much better equipment and offensive abilities than Black Mages.

Final Fantasy VIII
Black Mage makes a cameo in Final Fantasy VIII in the Triple Triad tutorial, where a pointy-hatted Black Mage can been seen playing the famous card game.

Final Fantasy IX
The Black Mage is not a mere Job class, but an entire race. Produced from Mist by Kuja's magic, the majority of Black Mages are soulless dolls who serve Kuja's whim to destroy kingdoms. However, a few have achieved sentience and live peaceful lives in the Black Mage Village. Vivi is the proto-type Black Mage and has a significantly longer lifespan, and appears to have always been sentient.

Final Fantasy X
Concept art of the Black Mage were created for the game, but it was ultimately not used (see gallery below). In the finished product, Lulu is a Black Mage, though due to the Sphere Grid system, all characters are capable of learning Black Magic.

Final Fantasy X-2
The Black Mage dressphere focuses on offensive magic and learns several support abilities that enable them to cast magic faster. However, they cannot attack physically.

Final Fantasy XI
The Black Mage is one of the six basic Job classes available to players. They can cast strong spells and are the only ones with access to the higher level spells, including Ancient Magic. Tarutaru make natural Black Mages because of their high MP and Intelligence.

Final Fantasy XII International
The Black Mage class is associated with the Capricorn sign. They cast Black Magick and use Hand-Bombs and Staffs as their weapons.

Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
The Black Mage is a Job for the Moogle Sky Pirate, and learns offensive magic as well as status magic. Kytes serves as the party's Black Mage.

Final Fantasy Tactics
The Black Mage has powerful magic that hits several enemies, but the spells cannot differentiate between friendly and hostile units.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
The Black Mage is a powerful magical Job class. Nu Mou are best suited to being Black Mages as they have better magic power growth. Montblanc starts out with this Job.

Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grimoire of the Rift
The Black Mage uses offensive magic. As in Tactics Advance, Nu Mou are best suited to being Black Mages as they have better magic power growth. However, learning Black Mage skills is necessary for a Human character to gain the Blue Mage and Illusionist Jobs.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon
The Black Mage is a starter-level job for Chocobo, while Croma is a recurring Black Mage in the entire Chocobo series of games.

Dissidia Final Fantasy
In the Duel Colosseum, when selected, the Black Mage Job card increases the appearance rate of battle cards.

Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light
The Black Mage makes an appearance in this game, using traditional Black Magic. However, their appearance differs from the traditionasl Black Mage look

Mario Hoops 3-on-3

 * The Black Mage appeared as a secret character in the sports game, . Black Mage's special shot is Meteor Shot. Rather than being wrapped around him, his cape is behind him and is only attached at the neck. This same Black Mage, or one of identical design, reappeared as a secret character in the Nintendo Wii game Mario Sports Mix, which was a spiritual successor to Mario Hoops 3-on-3, also developed by Square Enix.
 * Also, in some of the Kingdom Hearts games, there are recurring Heartless designed with the hats, cloaks and faces of black mages. In 358/2 days, for example, a Heartless called the Yellow Opera looks exactly like one, with the exception of floating around instead of walking.

In Popular Culture
Black Mage Evilwizardington is also a popular character in the web comic 8-Bit Theater. His character is a psychotic murderer with a hatred for everything except White Mage, whom he lusts over, pie, and cookies.

The Black Mage has a small cameo in the popular fan parody "Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series". When the other characters show off their favorite cards, Yugi holds up a card showing a Black Mage sprite from the original Final Fantasy and says "mine's the Dark Magician".

Gallery
Schwarzmagier Mago Negro