Want to make Maria a Red Mage, what weapon should I use?

[Waifu4Life]

Want to make Maria a Red Mage, what weapon should I use (or does it even matter)?

[SolusEmsu]

It does absolutely matter. 'Heavier' weapons will impose a Magic Interference penalty.
This means certain types of weapons will make your magic deal less damage than it should.
In general, "Mage" characters should use unarmed strikes, daggers, or mace/staff weapons, as these have very low penalties. For armors use the "Cuirass" type armors as they have a miniscule magic interference stat.

Avoid swords, shields, axes, lances, and bows on mages, as these all impose a heavier penalty. Avoid Heavier armor as well. The exceptions to this are the late-game swords, Excalibur and Masamune, which have reduced (Excalibur) or no (Masamune) interference stat.

You absolutely *can* cast spells with these equipments, but you will have a much lower spell accuracy with them, causing damage spells to end up dealing less damage per cast, and status spells to miss much more often.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by SolusEmsu:

It does absolutely matter. 'Heavier' weapons will impose a Magic Interference penalty.
This means certain types of weapons will make your magic deal less damage than it should.
In general, "Mage" characters should use unarmed strikes, daggers, or mace/staff weapons, as these have very low penalties. For armors use the "Cuirass" type armors as they have a miniscule magic interference stat.

Avoid swords, shields, axes, lances, and bows on mages, as these all impose a heavier penalty. Avoid Heavier armor as well. The exceptions to this are the late-game swords, Excalibur and Masamune, which have reduced (Excalibur) or no (Masamune) interference stat.

You absolutely *can* cast spells with these equipments, but you will have a much lower spell accuracy with them, causing damage spells to end up dealing less damage per cast, and status spells to miss much more often.

Well I've been using the Mythril Mace for a while now, mainly because it looked like a casting weapon. Guess I just need to drop that shield now.

Cheers

[Charlie]

It's better to have them as pure mages (I assume you would have a white mage and a black mage already prior to your red mage). The penalty is too strong to have them equip any type of equipment such as armor or weapon. Having a weapon has the highest penalty from what I gathered with damage and healing statistics that I recorded personally. Armor is second but still pretty sizable. Having both is you might as well not even attempt wasting the MP casting the spell. But you could have armor on, then unequip the weapon while in battle to do just a little better with your spell casting.

I still strongly recommend not having armor on though, and using weapons only to make the random encounters go by quicker. Then, unequipping said weapons for the Mages during battle when you come across a strong, difficult encounter. (BTW, All weapons give off a penalty, even a staff gives off a penalty. The weapon type that gives off the least penalty is the dagger.)

2x Mages, 2x Warriors is what I went by. Firion as the Black Mage, who carried a bow and arrow from time to time to get past the random encounters quicker, Maria as the White Mage, who also carried a bow and arrow, Guy as the Monk, and the 4th party member as a Warrior.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by Charlie:

It's better to have them as pure mages (I assume you would have a white mage and a black mage already prior to your red mage). The penalty is too strong to have them equip any type of equipment such as armor or weapon. Having a weapon has the highest penalty from what I gathered with damage and healing statistics that I recorded personally. Armor is second but still pretty sizable. Having both is you might as well not even attempt wasting the MP casting the spell. But you could have armor on, then unequip the weapon while in battle to do just a little better with your spell casting.

I still strongly recommend not having armor on though, and using weapons only to make the random encounters go by quicker. Then, unequipping said weapons for the Mages during battle when you come across a strong, difficult encounter. (BTW, All weapons give off a penalty, even a staff gives off a penalty. The weapon type that gives off the least penalty is the dagger.)

2x Mages, 2x Warriors is what I went by. Firion as the Black Mage, who carried a bow and arrow from time to time to get past the random encounters quicker, Maria as the White Mage, who also carried a bow and arrow, Guy as the Monk, and the 4th party member as a Warrior.

I'm not quite understanding what are you saying. Do you mean that by removing her equipement, that he magic will will be automatically more powerful or that it will get more powerful with experience?

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Waifu4Life:

Originally posted by Charlie:

It's better to have them as pure mages (I assume you would have a white mage and a black mage already prior to your red mage). The penalty is too strong to have them equip any type of equipment such as armor or weapon. Having a weapon has the highest penalty from what I gathered with damage and healing statistics that I recorded personally. Armor is second but still pretty sizable. Having both is you might as well not even attempt wasting the MP casting the spell. But you could have armor on, then unequip the weapon while in battle to do just a little better with your spell casting.

I still strongly recommend not having armor on though, and using weapons only to make the random encounters go by quicker. Then, unequipping said weapons for the Mages during battle when you come across a strong, difficult encounter. (BTW, All weapons give off a penalty, even a staff gives off a penalty. The weapon type that gives off the least penalty is the dagger.)

2x Mages, 2x Warriors is what I went by. Firion as the Black Mage, who carried a bow and arrow from time to time to get past the random encounters quicker, Maria as the White Mage, who also carried a bow and arrow, Guy as the Monk, and the 4th party member as a Warrior.

I'm not quite understanding what are you saying. Do you mean that by removing her equipement, that he magic will will be automatically more powerful or that it will get more powerful with experience?

Their magic is more powerful without having any equipment, yes. More damage or more healing with the black mage or white mage respectably.

Don't equip armor or weapons for your mages and your spells will be more powerful. Equip them and they will be significantly weaker. More than half of their potential is wasted.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by Charlie:

Originally posted by Waifu4Life:

I'm not quite understanding what are you saying. Do you mean that by removing her equipement, that he magic will will be automatically more powerful or that it will get more powerful with experience?

Their magic is more powerful without having any equipment, yes. More damage or more healing with the black mage or white mage respectably.

Don't equip armor or weapons for your mages and your spells will be more powerful. Equip them and they will be significantly weaker. More than half of their potential is wasted.

I see, does that include gloves and helmet as well (sorry, I'm at the office at the moment, can't try it out for myself)?

[Charlie]

Originally posted by Waifu4Life:

Originally posted by Charlie:

Their magic is more powerful without having any equipment, yes. More damage or more healing with the black mage or white mage respectably.

Don't equip armor or weapons for your mages and your spells will be more powerful. Equip them and they will be significantly weaker. More than half of their potential is wasted.

I see, does that include gloves and helmet as well (sorry, I'm at the office at the moment, can't try it out for myself)?

I think Gloves and Helmets are actually safe to equip.

[Waifu4Life]

Originally posted by Charlie:

Originally posted by Waifu4Life:

I see, does that include gloves and helmet as well (sorry, I'm at the office at the moment, can't try it out for myself)?

I think Gloves and Helmets are actually safe to equip.

Cool, I'll give it a try tonight, cheers!

[SolusEmsu]

Gloves and Helmets also have magic interference. It is generally less than armor of the same type, but it is there. Gloves in particular are considerably bad. Even the Thief's Gloves have a MI stat of 40, which is equal to that of having a spear equipped.

The only 'safe' gloves and hat for a pure caster are the early leather gloves/hat, the protect rings, Power Armlet, Twist Headband, Gold Hairpin, and the bronze/mythril helms are pretty light at only 8% penalty. Cuirass armors and the black/white robes are great, as well as the Power Sash and Black Garb, all of which have 0 or 1% penalty.

Daggers and Staffs have a 5% penalty, which is generally negligible even when dual-wielding. Heavy Mace type weapons are 20%. A single heavy mace, or two lighter staffs are generally fine. In particular I find the Ripper Dagger to be great, it has only a 5% MI and deals bonus true damage per hit, helping characters do damage with low Strength. If your total MI stat is around 26 or less you should do great anyway, as that is what I tended to have most of the game on my casters. Once your Int/Spirit stat is high enough, smaller penalties generally start to mean nothing.

[SolusEmsu]

This page is technically for the NES version, however by comparing these values to the Switch port of FF2PR I have found them to all still be accurate. The only statistical difference I found is that the weapon/shield Evade% has been doubled in the PR, so you hit high Evasion stats much more easily.

https://guides.gamercorner.net/ffii/armors/
https://guides.gamercorner.net/ffii/weapons/

These two pages list the Magic Penalty for every weapon and armor in the game. By looking around on there you can also learn more in-depth about how it works.