Final Fantasy III (1990)

Final Fantasy III introduces the infamous "job system" for which the series would continue to use in many subsequent releases. When you start the game, only one Job, OnionKid, is available. This Job has no skills and can't equip most armor. Every time you rescue a Crystal, more Jobs will become available. The later Jobs are obviously more powerful than the earlier ones.

Any playable character has access to every currently available job. Switching jobs consumes "capacity points" which are awarded to the entire party following every battle. Each job has a unique set of abilities, weapons, armor, and skills. A character's level of skill at a particular job increases the longer the character remains with that job.

ONION KID

Weapon Type: Sword, Knife
Special Commands: Fight, Defend
Strengths: None
Special: Can use Crystal Armor
Verdict: They are bearable for the beginning of the game, but should be changed as soon as you gain new classes/jobs.

FIGHTER

Weapon Type: Sword
Special Commands: Fight, Defend
Strengths: High HP increase rate, High Initial ATP
Special: None
Verdict: Great straight-forward class for the first part of the game. With shields they have high defense, with two swords they have high hit multipliers.

KNIGHT

Weapon Type: Sword
Special Commands: Fight, Defend
Strengths: High HP increase rate, High Initial ATP
Special: Auto-Guard: Takes damage for allies with low HP
Verdict: No-brainer upgrade from the Fighter class. They lose their usefulness when Magic Knights are needed but can be useful again at the end of the game since they can equip Excalibur.

MAGIC KNIGHT

Weapon Type: Katana, Boomerang
Special Commands: Fight,Magic
Strengths: High HP increase rate, Very High ATP multiplier
Special: Lv. 1-3 White Magic
Verdict: You could use shields with these guys but with doubled weapons they hit *very* high multipliers, sometimes well into the 20-30x range. Their defensive score is a result of the lack of equipment they can use.

MONK

Weapon Type: Fists, Nunchucks
Special Commands: Fight, Defend Strengths: High ATP level, Very High HP increase rate
Special: Fist attack results in up to 50x multiplier with levelups.
Verdict: Very good class for low money spenders. Proportional ATP increase with level ups makes this good for long term benefit.

MASTER

Weapon Type: Fists, Nunchucks, Claws Special Commands: Fight, Charge
Strengths: High ATP level, Very High HP increase rate
Special: Fist attack results in up to 50x multiplier with levelups. Claws attack results in up to 30x multiplier with levelups. Charge - Defense = 0 for one round but next round ATP doubles. Technique can be used twice in a row, subsequent attempts cause 1/2 HP loss.
Verdict: No brainer upgrade from Monk. The claws prove especially powerful after leveled up sufficiently.

THIEF

Weapon Type: Knives
Special Commands: Fight, Steal
Strengths: High Agility Level.
Special: Escape - 99% chance of escaping battle. Steal - Obtain item from enemy during battle. Thieves in front of party can pick door locks without keys.
Verdict: Nice for item salvaging, but he is best used for levels where the party is in small or toad form because of the escape command.

NINJA

Weapon Type: All
Special Commands: Fight, Defend
Strengths: High Agility Level.
Special: Can equip all weapons and armor.
Verdict: With shuriken equipped this class hits for more than 5000 HP. Although they do not have some of the bonuses of other fighter classes, their lack of restrictions makes for high ATP/Defense.

SAGE

Weapon Type: Books
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: None
Special: Can use all magic types.
Verdict: Almost essential for the Sylx tower. They suffer from less magic power compared to specialized mages but make up for it by working all three roles.

RED MAGE

Weapon Type: Swords, Knives
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: Medium HP increase rate.
Special: Can use Level 1-4 Black or White Magic
Verdict: Preferred over the Black Mage early in the game because it can use white or black magic equally as well. It loses steam after Tozas due to a slow magic gain speed.

SCHOLAR

Weapon Type: Books
Special Commands: Fight, Peep
Strengths: none
Special: Peer tells you the weakness of an enemy if they have one. Peep lets you know the enemy's Remaining/Total HP.
Verdict: Not very effective for fighting... he is best only for keeping tabs on enemies. Peer is very important for the battle with the Wizard Hyne, in order to combat his Wallchange ability.

WHITE MAGE

Weapon Type: Staffs
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic Power rate.
Special: Uses Level 1-7 of White Magic.
Verdict: Probably the most important class in the game. The white mage is what keeps everybody healthy. Attack and defense lag behind but with spells like Cure4 and Aero, its moot.

WHITE WIZARD

Weapon Type: Staffs
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic Power rate.
Special: Uses Level 1-8 of White Magic.
Verdict: Easy one - upgrade your white mage(s) to this class as soon as possible. They have all the same abilities as White Mages, but with more magic use slots and level 8 support.

BLACK MAGE

Weapon Type: Knives, Rods
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic Power rate.
Special: Uses Level 1-7 of Black Magic.
Verdict: These guys sure are handy! Loads of evil magic to rain on your opponents...just keep their magic up to date.

BLACK WIZARD

Weapon Type: Rods
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic Power rate.
Special: Uses Level 1-8 of Black Magic.
Verdict: 2 words. Flare and Meteo. They hit hard, and they hit fast. The power of nuclear energy is not to be ignored; so get it! They become fairly expendable when you get the Sage class though.

ARCHER

Weapon Type: Bows, Arrows
Sepcial Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: Attack gains strength against back rows.
Special: Uses Level 1-3 of White Magic.
Verdict: This is a tough call. The armor level is often not up to par, and lots of investment is needed for good arrows, but in the end, this is quite an effective class. Make sure you keep his arrow stock up!

GEOMANCER

Weapon Type: Bells
Special Commands: Fight, Terrain
Strengths: none
Special: Terrain: Magic Attack based on fighting location.
Verdict: Incredibly useless. They look funny in their North Pole outfit, but come up worthless in battle.

DRAGOON

Weapon Type: Spears
Special Commands: Fight, Jump
Strengths: none
Special: Jump - Dragoon leaves battlefield for one round, strikes enemy and returns in second round for up to 10x damage.
Verdict: Double up the spears and keep him flying. If bosses use some bad magic...jump may keep your fight alive.

VIKING

Weapon Type: Axe, Hammer
Special Commands: Fight, Defend
Strengths: High Attack Power.
Special: None
Verdict: A good alternative to the fighter or knight for a short time. Axes hit less but have a greater chance of critical hits.

CONJURER

Weapon Type: Rods
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic power.
Special: Uses Levels 1-8 of Call Magic (effect type)
Verdict: Its your choice. Some of the later spells are better than black magic, but there is not as much variety to the magic.

BARD

Weapon Type: Harps
Special Commands: Sing, Scare, Cheer
Strengths: none
Special: Sing lets you sing the songs of troubadours. Cheer peps the party up. Scaring enemies is just silly.
Verdict: Well...if you feel adventurous....

SUMMONER

Weapon Types: Rods
Special Commands: Fight, Magic
Strengths: High Magic power.
Special: Uses Levels 1-8 of Call Magic (attack type)
Verdict: This is basically the next level of Caller, with the only additions being able to equip new armor and increase magic effectiveness. Still very effective with Bahamut