Monk training is pretty great, in no small part because Barehanded is only their second skill and is so goshdarned useful. I don't know exactly the mechanics of how its damage output is determined, but characters with swords can do about 60 damage to an enemy with a strike -- while Monks punch an enemy for over 100. With each fist. Barehanded martial arts are three times more effective than longswords! Crazy.
The Thief allows characters to Steal items in combat. Their abilities are:
- Find Passages (passive, displays secret passages on the map screen to make them easily navigated)
- !Flee (runs from battle, better than just holding L and R together)
- Sprint (passive, characters move faster on the map. This was a lot more useful on the SNES and Playstation, before auto-dashed was introduced in this version)
- !Steal (Steal items when in a job other than Thief)
- Vigiliance (passive, party cannot be attacked from behind)
- !Mug (Steal and do damage with a physical hit. Sadly does not replace !Steal when in the Thief job...)
- Artful Dodger (Your Speed and Evasion are the same as a Thief's, regardless of job)
A Knight is a specialist with big swords and heavy armor. Their abilities are:
- Cover (passive, as Cecil's ability; protect other characters who are HP-critical)
- Guard (character takes 0 damage from physical hits)
- Two-Handed (grip a weapon in both hands for extra damage)
- Equip Shields (equip shields regardless of job)
- Equip Armor (equip armor regardless of job)
- Equip Swords (equip swords regardless of job)
I don't have screencaps of Black or White mages because they're the easiest to describe: at each job level, they learn to take !Black or !White magic commands to another spell level in their other jobs. !Black level 1 allows the casting of Fire and Blizzard, !Black level 3 allows Fira and Blizzara. White Mages get MP+10% at their last job level, Black Mages get MP+30%.
Finally, there is the Freelancer class, the same as characters were before they found the Crystal shards. There are two advantages to this...
...the first is that Freelancer has no innate abilities, so they get two slots to customize exactly what they do.
The second I can't show off at this point in the LP, because it only works after a character has Mastered jobs. See, each job gives a bonus to the character's base stats. Knights give +23 Strength and +20 Stamina, but only +1 Agility and a -14
penalty to Magic. Monks are the same but more: +26 Strength and Stamina, +1 Agility, -23 Magic. Black Mages get +15 Strength, +24 Agility, +12 Stamina, and +55 Magic.
If a character is a Freelancer and has Mastered another job, the stat boosts from that job are applied to the Freelancer. In the case of multiple job Mastery, the
highest boost from all jobs applies. A Freelancer who has mastered Knight and Black Mage gets +23 Strength and +20 Stamina from the Knight job, but the +24 Agility and +55 Magic from the Black Mage job.
Strangely, the very first crystal in the game gives two of the jobs that give three of the biggest bonuses. No other job can match a Thief's +40 Agility, and no other job tops the Monk's bonuses to Strength and Stamina.