Places a magical shield around the target that boosts physical defense.
Description
Protect, also known as Safe,[1][2] is an Effect spell in Final Fantasy VI. It grants the protect effect to a target, mitigating all physical damage received by around one third. The spell is learned naturally by Celes, and taught by magicite.
Protect is also an enemy ability used by Level 20 Magic, Cherry, Moebius, Gilgamesh, Kaiser Dragon, Visage, and Dadaluma.
Obtained[]
Celes learns Protect at level 22. Party members can learn the spell through magicite. It is learned from Unicorn (rate of x1), Carbuncle (rate of x2), and Golem (rate of x5).
Mechanics[]
Protect is affected by reflect and Runic.
Use[]
Protect is a potent and relatively inexpensive buff that halves physical damage received by a character. Against enemies that rely on physical damage, Protect is especially useful to cast, particularly on characters with low Defense (namely those who cannot equip heavy armor). Because the spell can only be used on one target at a time and costs a turn to use, it should be reserved for long battles.
The spell Shell grants the shell effect, which does the same for magic damage. Shell should be used when enemies rely more on magic damage than physical attacks. Aside from Protect, the Vanish spell can be cast to shield a party member from physical attacks completely, causing them to evade attacks. This spell is an upgrade on Protect, but has a slightly higher MP cost.
Because the Protect spell is not improved or weakened by the caster's stats, it can be taught to and used by any party member. In fact, it may be better for non-spellcaster party members to use Protect on their allies, allowing spellcasters to preserve their MP for offensive or healing spells where their MP is more important. For example, Edgar can afford to grant Protect to Relm, who will have a much lower Defense.
Gallery[]
Citations[]