Part 131: Let's Learn Jobs: Spell Fencer
Let's Learn Jobs: Spell Fencer
Spell Fencer gives the best of both offensive worlds: a high physical damage job able to add extra magical damage to their weapons. On taking an action to add the magic, its effects last for several turns. With a bit of preparation, this allows them to target elemental weaknesses, giving their already hard-hitting attacks an extra punch.
The job is successor to Final Fantasy 5's Mystic Knight.
Job icon is the men's hat. Job Command icon is a sword imbued with magic. Straightforward enough.
Stats are decent across the board but nothing outstanding. Spell Fencers are made to use swords, nothing but swords, which is luckily not too bad of a limitation given how many good swords the game throws at you. Use of heavier armor is a plus.
Blue are support abilities, red are skill abilities.
Level 1 - Sword Magic Lv.1: Blizzard, Fire, Thunder
Level 2 - Sword Magic Lv.2: Poison, Silence, Sleep
Level 3 - Firewall: 50% chance to counterattack with fire damage when hit by single-target physical attack. (Cost: 1)
Level 4 - Sword Magic Lv.3: Blizzara, Fira, Thundara
Level 5 - Auto-Aspir Blade: Autocasts Aspir at start of battle. (Cost: 1)
Level 6 - Magic Armor: Elemental damage of same type as sword magic is reduced. (Cost: 1)
Level 7 - Sword Magic Lv.4: Aspir (drains MP), Drain (drains HP), Fear
Level 8 - Memento: When user is K.O.'d, non-K.O.'d allies restore 50% of MP. (Cost: 3)
Level 9 - Sword Magic Lv.5: Blizzaga, Firaga, Thundaga
Level 10 - Anti-Magic: Allows other jobs to equip the Spell Fencer specialty. (Cost: 2)
Level 11 - Sword Magic Amp: Sword Magic MP cost doubles, but damage increases by 1.25. (Cost: 1)
Level 12 - Sword Magic Lv.6: Dark, Death, Holy
Level 13 - M.Def Specialize: P.Def lowered by 25%, M.Def raised by 50%. (Cost: 1)
Level 14 - Phantom Weapon: Damage from equipped weapon added to magic attacks. (Cost: 3)
Though excellent at single-target damage, Spell Fencers lack multi-target abilities, so they're best paired with a more versatile physical damage job. Sword Magic lasts for ten turns before the effects wear off and it must be recast. Status effects have a 75% chance to be inflicted if target is not immune.
M.Def is raised by 50% when hit by magic attack, up to 150%.
Spell Fencer is notable for having one of the biggest discrepencies in design between the sexes, which is really a shame, because who wouldn't want to see Ringabel sashay around in those shawls?
The men are wearing outfits based on traditional clothing of the Bedouins, who built their culture up around being desert-dwelling nomads. The horns on the headpiece are an unusual decoration, perhaps meant to evoke a mystical or demonic image. The women are wearing an outfit in the bedlah style, originally used in the middle eastern folk dance known today in the West as bellydancing. Nowadays, it is perhaps best known for being a symbol as Exotic/"Oriental" sexuality, due to its use in erotic stories popularized in the West during the 1800s-1900s about Oriental harems, where women were stolen away and forced into being sex slaves in lush, exotic locales (from which western men could rescue them or take part, depending on the story's intentions).
