Magic Build Tips and Suggestions (KH1)

[Tag365]

Share your recommendations on KH1 Magic specialists. This may contain spoilers for the game so check this out on a replay if you want to experience the game fresh for the first playthrough.

Here are two of what I think are the obvious recommendations.
*If you haven't already, make sure to pick the Dream Rod at the start and max out Sora's MP using equipment. After Agrabah the first MP boosting equipment can be synthesized which boosts his max MP by one. After Monstro at the latest (unless you're not obtaining the seven spells as they are first available) the Spellbinder keychain can be obtained to boost his max MP by two. At this point his MP should be boosted by four points significantly increasing his magical damage due to the way the stats system works. But this is usually at the cost of his Strength so expect his Keyblade swipes to be of poor effectiveness.
*Use Bambi a lot for his ability to recover Sora's MP and ability to drop items such as Potions. This lets you spam magic spells while he's summoned. Remember, having Sora have a high Max MP makes Bambi have a higher Max MP and thus stay longer when summoned. Also his MP drops stay for a while which lets other party members recover a little MP. Just don't run out of MP completely before you intend to summon him, Bambi does require one MP to be called in.

[Vallard]

Another bit of advice for a magic build is to abuse strike raid. You get it from colloseum very early (after deep jungle iirc) and it renders sora completely invincible for its full duration of like 7 seconds while dealing high damage. It hits everything in a line and you can cycle targets between throws to maximize damage. Pretty sure it deals damage based on str but Sora's best stat is always str anyway. I beat ansem's first 2 forms without taking a single point of damage by literally standing in one spot spamming this while defensive mode goofy threw MP gift on me.