Arithmetician (Tactics)

The Arithmetician, also known as Calculator, is a job from Final Fantasy Tactics. A high-level magick class, the Arithmetician uses Arithmeticks ("Math Skill" in the PlayStation version), which can cast most magick for free and without a Charge Time, assuming they already know the spell and can do the right calculations for it. It costs 4,200 JP to master this job.

There is a rare late game random encounter against five enemy Arithmeticians on the Lenalian Plateau.

Stats[]

A learned warrior who uses Arithmeticks to analyze natural phenomena and pinpoint magickal attacks.
Description

Prerequisite	Weapons	Helmet	Armor	Equip Shields?
WotL(War of the Lions): Lv. 5 White Mage, Lv. 5 Black Mage, Lv. 4 Mystic, Lv. 4 Time Mage PlayStation: Lv. 4 Priest, Lv. 4 Wizard, Lv. 3 Oracle, Lv. 3 Time Mage	Poles, Books	Hats	Clothes, Robes	No

Move Rate	Jump Rate	Speed	Physical Evasion Rate	Base Attack	Base Magic	Base HP	Base MP
3	3	3	5	Low	Low	Low	Average

Abilities[]

Arithmeticks[]

Arithmetician job command. Employs arithmetick algorithms to pinpoint targets for magickal attacks.
Description

The damage/healing formula for Arithmeticks is as follows:

Magick Attack \times PWR \times (Faith/100) \times (Target Faith/100)

The success rate of inflicting statuses is as follows:

(Magick Attack + PWR) \times (Faith/100) \times (Target Faith/100)

Name	Range	Effect	Speed	JP Needed
CT	—	—	—	250
CT	Base arithmetick algorithm on the target's CT.
Level	—	—	—	350
Level	Base arithmetick algorithm on the target's level.
EXP	—	—	—	200
EXP	Base arithmetick algorithm on the target's EXP.
Height	—	—	—	250
Height	Base arithmetick algorithm on the height of the target's current tile.
Prime	—	—	—	300
Prime	An algorithm for targeting units whose specified attribute is a prime number. A prime number is a number only divisible by 1 and itself. A list of the prime numbers under 100 follows. 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97.
Multiple of 5 (5)	—	—	—	200
Multiple of 5 (5)	An algorithm for targeting units whose specified attribute is a multiple of 5.
Multiple of 4 (4)	—	—	—	400
Multiple of 4 (4)	An algorithm for targeting units whose specified attribute is a multiple of 4.
Multiple of 3 (3)	—	—	—	600
Multiple of 3 (3)	An algorithm for targeting units whose specified attribute is a multiple of 3.

Reaction abilities[]

Name	Description	Trigger	JP Needed
Cup of Life (Distribute)	When HP is restored, distribute any excess among one's allies.	HP Restored	200
Soulbind (Damage Split)	Split any damage taken with the opponent who inflicted it.	HP Loss	300

Support abilities[]

Name	Description	JP Needed
EXP Boost (Gained Exp UP)	Earn more EXP for the same actions.	350

Movement abilities[]

Name	Description	JP Needed
Accrue EXP (Move-Get Exp)	Obtain EXP upon moving.	400
Accrue JP (Move-Get JP)	Obtain JP upon moving.	400

Overview[]

Arithmeticians are potentially the most powerful magick units in the game, since their Arithmeticks are used without MP cost or charge time. Calculations are done by choosing a condition, like level, then choosing a number, like 5. With those conditions, Arithmeticians will cast a selected spell targeting all units (allies and foes) whose level is a multiple of 5.

To make the most of the Arithmetician, the player must learn spells from other mage jobs that are eligible for Arithmeticks and properly use Arithmeticks algorithms, which can target all enemies and allies who qualify. For example, both CT Multiples of 5 & Multiples of 4 algorithms generally target the user (100 CT is divisible by both 4 and 5), which helps with support magic as it is their turn. Even casting Haste will vastly benefit the Arithmetician if the enemy also targeted, is immediately destroyed. Height Prime helps target fallen allies with Raise type spells to revive them if their height is on a prime number (2, 3 and 5 are very common tile heights).

To offset their powerful abilities, Arithmeticians suffer poor attributes all across the board. They have the lowest Magick attack power among the mage jobs and the lowest Speed rating in the game. One way to counter this is to send the unit on errands.

Other units may take many turns before the Arithmetician's turn even comes up, especially if they move as their CT count resets to 20 if acting without moving. Another viable tactic to raise JP for them is to have their secondary action ability set to Dance for females and Bardsong for males; this will increase the turns they gain JP on since they'll perform their Bardsong or Dance action more often than their turn will come up. Tailwind and Haste also help for faster turns in addition to not moving to end their turn with 20 CT.

The Arithmeticians also have plenty of powerful abilities to be used by other jobs. Cup of Life is great for White Mages to maximize their healing output (note that as a reaction ability, it will not work with self-casting healing magic nor support like Regen/Lifefont), while Soulbind can be useful against high damage enemies. They can further increase EXP gains with EXP Boost and Accrue EXP (which stack), while also increasing JP gains with Accrue JP (which stacks with Squire's JP Boost).

To make the Arithmetician's skillset more useful, it is a good idea to switch to a class with better base Magick Power (and, naturally, far higher Speed) after obtaining enough JP for the abilities the player wants. The Black Mage class has the highest base magick attack, meaning that using the Arithmeticks skillset with one is a force to be reckoned with. Alternately, the White Mage has the highest speed stat of all magick jobs, allowing for Arithmeticks to be used with far greater frequency while still having respectable power behind it. Having a Mime copy spells like Graviga can quickly kill bosses, as it is instantly cast with the math skill and based on half of maximum HP (999 damage cap), not current HP.

Targeting quirks[]

The scope of Arithmeticks' targeting algorithms is imperfect; nearly 1/5th of the numbers between 0 and 100 do not satisfy any of their conditions. This is likely due to the use of 4 instead of 2 for targeting, as multiples of 2 would be far too inclusive and difficult to target enemies without friendly fire and vice versa. With the exception of 0, 1, 49, 77, and 91, all of these numbers are products of 2 and another prime(s), which means another algorithm (like Multiple of 7, for instance) would not have covered a worthwhile enough percentage of them to warrant inclusion.

The algorithms that are used were likely chosen to cover the largest number of values, while also ensuring each one has worthwhile utility based on the number of unique values they can target (Multiple of 3's targets shrink to be more-or-less equal to the others if one excludes overlap with Multiple of 5 and Multiple of 4, meaning if there is too much friendly fire with 3, 4 or 5 may prove more effective in spite of their smaller scope).

Several key values are targeted by more than 1 algorithm. 60 is targeted by all algorithms other than Prime (due to the nature of prime numbers, they can only be hit by the Prime algorithm, with the exception of 3 and 5).

Prime	Multiple of 5	Multiple of 4	Multiple of 3	`(untargetable)`	double-targeted	triple-targeted
2	5	4	3	0	3	60
3	10	8	6	1	5
5	15	12	9	14	12
7	20	16	12	22	15
11	25	20	15	26	20
13	30	24	18	34	24
17	35	28	21	38	30
19	40	32	24	46	36
23	45	36	27	49	40
29	50	40	30	58	45
31	55	44	33	62	48
37	60	48	36	74	72
41	65	52	39	77	75
43	70	56	42	82	80
47	75	60	45	86	84
53	80	64	48	91	90
59	85	68	51	94	96
61	90	72	54	98	100
67	95	76	57
71	100	80	60
73		84	63
79		88	66
83		92	69
89		96	72
97		100	75
			78
			81
			84
			87
			90
			93
			96
			99

Other appearances[]

Pictlogica Final Fantasy[]

Arithmetician appears as a job.

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Final Fantasy Artniks[]

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Final Fantasy Trading Card Game[]

Arithmetician appears in Final Fantasy Trading Card Game as Ice-elemental Backup and Forward cards.

Gallery[]

Etymology[]

[view · edit · purge]Arithmetic or arithmetics (from Greek arithmos) is the oldest and most elementary branch of mathematics used for tasks ranging from simple day-to-day counting to advanced science and business calculations. It involves the study of quantity, especially as the result of operations that combine numbers.