The Classes of Final Fantasy V

Read the text or click here for a visual of the class system.

Classes are different types of fighters. The traditional FF classes are Knight, Black Belt, Thief, Ninja, Black Magician, White Magician, and Red Magician. In FFV, you can change any character to any class, as often as you wish. However, you must find that class first. Whenever you find a new crystal, a new set of classes will be added to your list of classes you can choose from. I won't tell you which crystals give you which jobs, again for the purpose of retaining the pleasant surprise factor when you play the game. I will, however, tell you all of the classes, their special attacks and built-in abilities, and which strengths they excel in, such as strength, agility, wisdom, etc.
Before I start, I will explain a couple of terms.

-SpecialAttack is the unique option in the menu (Jump, Sneak, Twin, and Peek are SpecialAttacks you see in FFII) that the class inherently has, or earns over time.

-ClassAbility is an ability that acts in the background. Again, some ClassAbilities are inherent in a class, ad some are earned over time. ClassAbilities are different from SpecialAttacks in that they do not appear in the command window when you fight monsters. They are like, well, remember how Cecil (Paladin) gets between monsters and a fellow fighter who is crouching because he/she has very little HP left, and Cecil took the blows instead of the crouching person? You didn't need to tell him to do that, 'cause he did so automatically. Such are ClassAbilities. Others include, say, "see hidden passageways" for the Thief. If you have this ClassAbility, passageways which are normally hidden become highlighted with white lines. Another is "catch blows" for the Samurai. He will sometimes catch the blow of enemies with his hands and take no damage for that blow. Another one is "knowledge of medicine" for the Medicine Man. Any potion, ether, and other recovery potion will have double its normal effect if it is administered by the Medicine Man. None of these must be selected as a command during battle; their effect is totally automatic.
Each class can also use one SpecialAttack or ClassAbility acquired from another class. The exceptions are Travelers, who can use two, and Mimics, who can use three. This is where the true fun of this complex class option comes in. By being able to cross abilities from another class into a different class, you get potent fighters, like Knights who can use black magic, White Magicians who have the bare-hands attack power of a Black Belt, and so forth. Most of the best combinations are not as obvious as those mentioned above. To acquire such attacks and abilities for use with other classes, one must spend a lot of time as one class, collecting "Ability Points", along with the usual experience points and money. Usually the ABPs (ability points) awarded in battle are very little compared to experience. Near the beginning of the game, most battles only award 1 point, and near the end they award 5-7 points. A party member receives additional ClassAbilities and SpecialAttacks (in addition to the inherent ones that come with the class), as his class level increases. The ClassLevel is something totally different from the standard "level" of the character, and is the special experience that character has had AS A CERTAIN CLASS. ABPs are what gives you additional ClassLevels, much as EXP points will give you additional "levels", in the traditional sense of the word. In my class descriptions, I will also say what sorts of weapons a member of the class can wield, and what sorts of armor they can wear, like "heavy" armor (gold armor, crystal armor, full plate, and anything lighter) "medium" armor (chest plate, chain mail, and anything lighter) and "light" armor (leather clothes, white robe, kung-fu clothes, etc.).

THE CLASSES:

Knight
-SpecialAttack: "block" He/She protects himself/herself (this he/she stuff is tiring. I'll just randomly use different genders.) from all physical attacks and receives NO damage from them. Kinda like a souped-up form of the standard command, "parry".

-Class Ability: "protect" She will protect any fellow fighter who is crouching and receive any physical blows directed toward him.
-Armor: heavy
-Weapons: All swords, including "Knight swords", which only Knights and Travelers may wield.
---Description: The Knight equips very heavy and protective armor, and wields all swords, weapons which usually excel in their offensive power. A potent physical attacker who look after his party members.

Black Belt
-SpecialAttack: "kick" Jumps through a crowd of enemies, kicking each (this attack may miss some enemies), and inflicting damage equal to one of the Black Belt's punches to each. (When you attack, normally, you deliver two punches to a single enemy.)
-ClassAbility: "counter" When physically attacked, the Black Belt sometimes fights back automatically with punches half the strength of his normal attack.
ClassAbility: "martial arts" If you stick this ability onto another class, that class will acquire the strength and the attack power of the Black Belt.
-Armor: light
-Weapons: none
---Description: A martial arts master, his attack power rivals even that of the knight, despite the fact that his only weapons are his limbs. His maximum HP level is high, which partially compensates for the fact that his defense is somewhat limited due to his armor equipping limitations.

Thief
-SpecialAttack: "steal" steals any item the enemy might have. Unlike FFII, FFV's monsters OFTEN hide weapons that are far better than the ones you might have at the moment. Stealing is often the only way to get at them, for finding them after defeating the monster is fairly rare. Monsters also have potent potions with them, like superpotions and ethers.
-ClassAbility: "hidden passageway" any hidden passageways will be highlighted with white lines when a member of your party has this ability.
-ClassAbility: "dash" If you hold down the B button while moving around dungeons, castles, towns, anywhere but outside, you will run with twice the speed of your normal walk. This is often the only way to get to certain areas; say a door is a good distance from a switch that opens it for a couple of seconds. If you walk the, the door closes before you get there. If you dash, you can go through the door with a couple of seconds to spare. This is only one actual scenario in which the dash command is extremely useful. Other applications are, like, if you're walking underwater and you can only hold your breath for seven minutes, but your objective will take ate least eight if you walk to get there. There are others.
-ClassAbility: "alertness" With this ability, your party will never be surprised with a back attack.
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: knives
---Description: The thief has the best agility of all classes, and sometimes his ClassAbilities can be lifesavers, not to mention the booty you can get with his "steal" attack.

Dragoon
-SpecialAttack: "jump" When the Dragoon jumps, she jumps so high that he will be missing from action for one turn. Nothing can hit her while she is in the air. With this attack, she will never miss, even those enemies with the highest agility, and if (and only if) she is equipping a spear, the damage done to the enemy when she lands on it will be double that of a regular, land based attack.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: heavy
-Weapons: spears, knives
---Description: Although her defense ranks with that of the Knight, her attack power is consistently slightly lower than the Knight. Her jump attack, especially when battling dangerous bosses, more than makes up for such weaknesses though. Not only does it double the attack power, but it is also the ultimate form of defense, since no attack can reach the Dragoon in the sky. Also, the jump attack's strength isn't affected by whether the Dragoon is in the front or back row, so if you find yourself consistently jumping in battle, you can put the Dragoon in the back row and half any damage that befalls upon her. However, when she is in the air, no beneficial things (potions, healing magic) may reach her either.

Ninja
-SpecialAttack: "throw" The Ninja can throw spears, knives, swords, ninja stars, and scrolls. The object will be lost forever, but the effect is many times that of a regular attack with the weapon. Some items cannot be wielded and are made for throwing, such as ninja stars and scrolls. Scrolls have various ninja magic written on them, and throwing them unleashes the magic. There are these types of scrolls: thunder, fire, and water. They affect all of the enemies on screen.
-ClassAbility: "weapons in both hands" The Ninja may wield two weapons at once, thereby attacking twice, once with each weapon, each time he attacks.
-ClassAbility: "ambush" The chance of ambushing an enemy party greatly increases with this ability. Ambushing is when the whole party goes through one round of attacking before the enemy can react.
-Armor: light
-Weapons: knives, ninja knives (the knife equivalent to knight swords), and ninja weapons, like boomerangs.
---Description: The Ninja sports great agility, and his "ambush" ability can spell the difference between a battle which your party leaves unscarred and one where the party leaves wounded, possibly heavily. His two-handed attack is very potent, especially if the "weapons in both hands" ability is stuck onto a Knight, or Dragoon (jumping with two spears....it will be 4 times the regular attack power!). The only weakness of the Ninja is his strength, which is consistently lower than the Knight or Dragoon, and his armor limitations.

Samurai
-SpecialAttack: "money throwing" This is probably the strongest attack available, and will inflict extreme damage to every enemy on the screen. It also depletes your money reserves, but sometimes the sacrifice is well worth it. It is safe to expect that it will instantly eradicate every enemy party you meet, and ease battle with bosses greatly. The money sacrifice and power of the attack increases as the thrower's level increases. The money sacrifice ranges in the 200-600 (average damage to every enemy on the screen: 2500+) when you first get this class, and ranges around the five thousands near the end of the game (average damage to every enemy on the screen: 5700+)
-ClassAbility: "catch blows" The person with this ability will sometimes catch physical blows with their bare hands and reduce the damage done to zero.
-Armor: heavy
-Weapons: Samurai swords, knives
---Description: The Samurai is equal to the Knight in attack power and defense, only the Samurai is far more likely to unleash a super attack (the kind where the screen flashes and the damage done is twice the normal amount). The "money throwing" attack can get you out of otherwise mortally threatening situations in one, quick, easy, somewhat expensive step.

Berserker
-SpecialAttack: none
-ClassAbility: "berserk" It is sad that many inexperienced RPG players who play FFII never find out the beauty of the white magic "beserk" for a long time, due to faulty instruction manual coverage. What "beserk" does is it doubles the spell's recipient's attack power, but the person who is beserked is put beyond the players control and keeps on attacking the enemies until they are all dead, or he is dead. A person with this ability is always in this condition, and will only listen to you outside battle.
-Armor: heavy
-Weapons: axes, hammers, knives
---Description: The Beserker sports the most strength of all the classes. Only he can wield the ax, which is, usually, the most potent weapon which your party can have. On top of all this attack power, he is always beserked, which means all his built-in attack power is doubled. This "berserk" ability has its ups and downs. Downs: SpecialAttacks are wasted on him, since he won't do anything but attack anyway. Since you can't control which enemy he attacks, he sometimes attacks enemies in the middle or back of the enemy party, inflicting upon them relatively little damage because of their position. He also misses his target more than most of the other fighters. Ups: Obviously, the doubled attack power is most beneficial, especially when battling bosses, and there is only one enemy on the screen (no middle or back rows). If you stick the ClassAbility "weapons in both hands" onto him, his attack power is four times that of a regular attack, without the wait of jumping... In sum, the Beserker is the ultimate powerhouse.

Hunter
-SpecialAttack: "aim" Much like Rosa's "aim" command in FFII, this makes the attack take *very* slightly longer to execute, but the attack guaranteed never to miss, unless the enemy has created illusionary images of itself. Note that, although it may sound as if it is an attack limited to bows & arrows, it is applicable to any weapon that the character with the attack may have with himself at the time.
-SpecialAttack: "animals" The Hunter calls upon little animals who normally inhabit the forest to do various tasks. He may call upon a flock of nightingales to heal your whole party with the equivalent of a very strong Cure2, or he may call a swarm of bees to fly over the enemies, stinging them mercilessly, and he may call upon a flying squirrel to swoop around the enemies and distract them from attacking. There are many more.
-SpecialAttack: "spray shot" With this attack, the Hunter will attack 4 times in a row, each blow carrying half the power of a normal blow. You will not, however, be able to control which enemy he hits.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: bows & arrows, knives
---Description: A mid-strength attacker who can attack with equal might in the front and back rows, the Hunter has above-average agility. His real strengths lie in the abilities he learns as his ClassLevel increases: "animals" and "spray shot". "spray shot" is a great ability to stick onto a another class, especially a Ninja, who will then be able to attack eight times, each time with a chance of unleashing a super attack.

White Magician
-SpecialAttack: "white magic" You can use white magic of all levels, regardless of the current ClassLevel of the White Magician.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: light
-Weapons: staffs
---Description: A virtual pre-requisite to all parties is a white magic user. Whether fighting bosses, going through even minor dungeons or just walking around on new and unfamiliar terrain, a White Magician is a must. His healing magic covers a wide range; from recovering HP, curing conditions like poison, confusing enemies, doubling comrades' defense rates, and other protective, preventive, and recovery magic. Quite possibly the most inept fighter, he cannot even wield knives. As with ALL magics, the strength of the magic is proportional to the wisdom of the fighter. Thus, a Knight will cast much weaker magic than a White Magician. The point of that informational bit is: If you don't need the extra fighter, then keep your White Magician a White Magician, or just change him to another type of magician.

Black Magician
-SpecialAttack: "black magic" Can chant black magic spells of all levels, regardless of the Black Magician's current ClassLevel.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: light
-weapons: rods, knives
---Description: A very handy class to have around when battling bosses, and a good addition to the party at other times. The black magics range from basic elemental spells to spells that instantly obliterate one enemy, spells that suck HP or MP from the enemy and add them to the spellcaster, and other harmful and useful attacks. Most of the spells can be spread to affect all of the enemies, although doing so lessens the individual impact of the spell.

Time/Space Magician
-SpecialAttack: "time/space magic" Can use time/space magic of all levels, regardless of the current ClassLevel of the Time/Space Magician.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: light
-Weapons: staffs, knives
---Description: Time/Space magic shows its great strength when battling unusually powerful foes or bosses. Considering the abundance of both of these, the Time/Space Magician is a worthwhile addition to the team. Her magic ranges from speeding up friends, slowing down foes, throwing them into different dimensions, making them grow older and weaker by the minute, dropping heavenly bodies on foes, and a number of others.

Caller
-SpecialAttack: "call magic" Use call magics of all levels regardless of the Callers current ClassLevel.
-ClassAbility: none
Armor: light
Weapons: whips, rods
---Description: Since call magic takes up the most MP of all the spells in the game, the Caller's MP maximum grows the fastest of all the classes. Call magics are very powerful, and are great tools to get you out of sticky and potentially lethal situations. Since the sheer power of call magic is most suited for battling bosses, it may be a little wasteful to use on normal enemies. But if there are MP-restoring agents available, call magic can make dungeon-roaming and level-upping (roaming outside and mindlessly slaughtering hapless enemies for and meager sum of EXP) much easier. Although most call magics are offense-related, some of them are powerful defense magics. One calls a golem which totally prevents all physical damage to the entire party. There's also one that casts the magic-reflecting Wall spell on all of the party members. The most powerful call magic casts the damage casts the damage equivalent of the most powerful black magic, Nuke, (Meteo is a time/space magic spell) on all of the enemies, just to give an idea of how powerful the spells can be. A final note: call spells are not reflectable, and I doubt if they are weakened by the white magic Shell.

Blue Magician
-SpecialAttack: "blue magic" Can use all the blue magic spells collected up to that point.
-ClassAbility: "learn" If a blue magic special attack is performed on a fighter with this ability, the fighter will learn that special attack after the battle is over.
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: swords, knives, rods
---Description: A very decent physical fighter, the Blue Magician comes close to the ranks of the knight in fighting power. There are innumerable special attacks out there that are launched by monsters, and which can be learned. Even if you can't have Blue Magician in your party for some reason, it is a very good idea to keep the ClassAbility "learn" on at least two of your fighters, so if an enemy launches a special attack, you have a good chance of learning it. A Blue Magician certainly makes inane level-up battles much more gratifying, and because of this the Blue Magician ranks high in my personal list of favorite classes.

Red Magician
-SpecialAttack: "black magic", "white magic": can chant black and white magic spells up to level three magic.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: swords, knives, rods, staffs
---Description: An equal fighter to the Blue Magician. Near the beginning of the game, when the only magics available in stores are of levels 1,2, and 3 anyway, it is highly recommended that you turn a good number of your party members into Red Magicians. They have very decent fighting skills, can equip mid-class armor and can chant spells up to level 3. once you go further into the game and gain access to higher spells, the Red Magician starts to become rather obsolete. I recommend that you bring them up to ClassLevel 3, then change classes.

Monster Trainer
-SpecialAttack: "capture", "release": After weakening an enemy (draining its HP to a relatively low level), the Monster trainer can capture the enemy monster and release it whenever an extra helping hand would come in handy.
-SpecialAttack: "control" The Monster Trainer will take total control of one enemy, selecting its attacks and targets for it. This has the obvious benefit of using a monster tactfully against its own party, and also the less explicit benefit of being able to make a monster unleash an otherwise rarely cast blue magic on a particular party member with the Learn ability.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: whips, knives
---Description: A fighter who's strength relies on the strength of the monsters, the Monster Trainer's SpecialAttacks all center around controlling the enemy to the party's benefit. Even the whip she wields sometimes stuns (freezes) an enemy. She has almost nothing save her monster-handling skills (she has mediocre HP and defense, the whip doesn't pack a punch, and she doesn't have the wisdom to use magic effectively). The Monster Trainer has one of the best SpecialAttacks, "control".

Medicine Man
(I�m sorry, but the translation "Medicine Person" just seems to vague and unintuitive for my tastes. Yes, the female characters are fully capable of becoming "Medicine men".)
-SpecialAttack: "drink" Drink special medicines.
-SpecialAttack: "heal" Has the effect of the white magic Cure (which expends 10MP per chant) an ALL the party members without using any MP.
-SpecialAttack: "revive" Has the effect of the white magic Life (twentysomething MP per casting) on, again ALL (!!!) of the fallen party members.
-ClassAbility: "knowledge of medicine" When a potion type item is used by the Medicine Man during battle, it will have double the effect of its normal use. (A high-potion, when used by a fighter with "knowledge of medicine" will recover 1000HP, when used by any other fighter, it will recover 500HP.)
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: knives
---Description: This is a class which isn't worth much at all while the fighter is a Medicine Man, but the SpecialAttacks learned are extremely useful when the fighter changes classes. Special medicines are cheaply and abundantly available, and they great things for you, such as double your current and maximum HP for the duration of battle, double your strength for the duration of the battle, double your agility for the duration of the battle, etc. A nice set of SpecialAttacks to give the people you have decided will not use magic.

Nature Psychic
-SpecialAttack: "natural forces" Use the elements of where the battle is occurring against the enemy.
-ClassAbility: "damage floor" If there's a fighter with this ability in the party, none of the party members will receive damage from lava, spiked floors, etc.
-ClassAbility: "drop trap" If there's a fighter with this ability, then when the party steps on a floor section that opens under their feet, they will jump back a step without dropping.
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: rods, staffs
---Description: A psychic who uses his telekinetic powers to harness the forces of nature. The "natural forces" attack varies in strength, depending on the level of the attacker and where the battle is taking place. The less advantageous places are deserts and open fields. Forests provide pretty nice attacks, which mainly center around hailstorms and conveniently sharpened branches impaling the enemy. His "damage floor" ability is sometimes a lifesaver, especially when whole floors are covered with lava in dungeons.

Bard
-SpecialAttack: "sing" Sing songs taught by other bards roaming the land to powerfully affect the enemy or party.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: medium
-Weapons: harps, knives
---Description: Unlike the weak and puny Edward of FFII, the Bard in FFV is one of the more useful and powerful classes. He only becomes useful and powerful after receiving some songs. Some of the songs have the effect of a powerful time/space, white, and other magics on entire groups, such as Confu (white) on ALL of the enemies, Freeze (time/space) on all of the enemies, Regen (time/space) on all of the party members, etc. These songs require no MP, but the bard does have a decent amount of wisdom, so he is a potential magic user. Attacking with the harp produces numerous effects, but I usually stick to singing.

Dancer
-SpecialAttack: "dance" Affects the enemy with random effects.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: light
-Weapons: knives
---Description: The only fighter, aside from the Traveler, who can equip the most powerful (by far) magic defense enhancer, the ribbon. The special attack produces strange effects, like those of the black magics Drain and Absorb, (absorbing HP and MP, respectively), the white magic Confu (confuse the enemy), and other, unique effects, like momentarily quadrupling the dancer's attack power. A rather useless class in both SpecialAttacks and raw fighting talent. I'd use it as something to increase the challenge of the battles it you find them too easy.

Before I introduce these two classes, which I call the "final classes", I will explain their great significance:
When you raise any class to a certain ClassLevel, you will become a "master" of that Class and will not rise in Classlevel for that class any further. The master level for a Samurai is 5. The master level for the White Magician is 7. The master level for a Berserker is 2. When you become one of the final classes listed below after mastering some of the other classes, that character will inherit all of the ClassAbilities and status strengths of the mastered classes. Say one of your fighters becomes a Thief master, a White Magician master, and then a Knight master. Then you become one of the final classes listed below. That fighter will have the strength and defense of a Knight, and its inherent ClassAbility, "protect". The fighter will also have the agility of the Thief, and its inherent ClassAbilities, "dash", "hidden passageway", and "alertness". The fighter will also have the wisdom of the White Magician. The more classes you master, the more powerful your "final class" character will be. I call these classes the "final classes" because they are invariably what most players use to battle the final boss. Don't just master any classes, though. Mastering classes like the Monster Trainer, which has no ClassAbilities nor outstanding strengths, gains little for your final class. Only master those classes with useful ClassAbilities, outstanding strengths, or both. The Ninja's "weapons in both hands", the Thieves "hidden passageway" and "alertness", the Black Belt's "counter", the Blue Magician's "learn", and the Samurai's "catch blows" are among my favorite ClassAbilities. A final note: when battling the final boss, the characters who will fight should be Travelers, for they can equip any weapon. The magic users should be Mimics, because they have room for three SpecialAttacks. (i.e.: three different kinds of magic, or the Red Magicians "two spells in a row" SpecialAttack and two kinds of magic)

Traveler
-SpecialAttack: none
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: any
-Weapons: any (including Ninja knives and Knight swords)
-Can hold up to 2 SpecialAttacks or ClassAbilities or both. Keep in mind that ClassAbilities of mastered classes will AUTOMATICALLY be built into the Traveler.
---Description: The Traveler is the class you start out with, with no special skills whatsoever. It will probably also be the class you end up with, as the most powerful fighter. Its greatest strength lies in the equip and wield anything feature, which the Mimic does not have. Due to this feature, you need not waste the 2 openings for ClassAbilities like "wield spear" or "wield sword". Instead, you can use them for useful SpecialAttacks like "sprayshot" and "heal", or "jump" and "money throwing". Unlike all other classes, the Traveler has no ClassLevels, and therefore ABPs are wasted on him. It is not a good idea to be a Traveler any other time than right before battling the final enemy, as you want to make use of any ABPs you can get. You can only become a Traveler master by mastering all the other classes.

Mimic
-SpecialAttack: "mimic" Imitate the action of the party member who just finished his/her turn. If someone uses the black magic Nuke, then the next fighter mimics, then he will cast Nuke as well, regardless of whether he has the SpecialAttack "black magic" or not.
-ClassAbility: none
-Armor: heavy
-Weapons: knives, rods, staffs
-Has space for three SpecialAttacks or ClassAbilities, or both. Again, keep in mind that ClassAbilities of mastered classes will be automatically built into the Mimic.
---Description: This is one of the most unusual classes in that it does not have the usual "fight" and "item" commands. Instead, he has the SpecialAttack "mimic" and space for three other SpecialAttacks/ClassAbilities. Since the Mimic cannot fight by itself, nor can he wield powerful weapons without sticking ClassAbilities like "wield sword" onto him, he is definitely not made for fighting. His three SpecialAttack/ClassAbility vacancies provide a golden opportunity to make them the most powerful wizards. You can stick three kinds of magic onto them, or stick two magics and use the third slot for magic-oriented SpecialAttacks such as the Red Magicians "two spells in a row". or the Dragoons "dragon sword". A final note: Unlike the other classes, which are pretty much forced into your hands, the Mimic is hidden, and you must look for it. For this reason, many people end up missing it before going to the final boss and suffer longer, more stressful battles. Do everything you can to find this wonderful class before moving on to the bosses' lair.