FFI Red Mage

[robbie374]

Suppose you were making a spellcaster who had no set spell list but could learn and cast any spell. This seems a bit unfair and powerful. How to balance it? Would delaying spell progression by a level or two be appropriate? For example, such a caster could get 3rd-level spells at 6th or 7th level instead of 5th level, and later 9th-level spells at 18th or 19th rather than 17th. Which of these would be balanced, or how could it be balanced?

[Cybren]

I would just make it a valor bard. It pretty much already has all the iconic features of the red mage- versatile spell list and magical secrets to fill in the missing stuff, weapon & armor proficiencies... sounds like a red mage to me

[Unoriginal]

I would just make it a valor bard. It pretty much already has all the iconic features of the red mage- versatile spell list and magical secrets to fill in the missing stuff, weapon & armor proficiencies... sounds like a red mage to me

This.

Arguably any Bard can fit.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Would delaying spell progression by a level or two be appropriate?

While 5e's bard is a perfect fit for the FFI red mage, I would point out that you could achieve this precise effect by multiclassing two caster classes. Given the white/black magic distinction in FF, I'd say cleric/wizard is the closest match. Alternating one level of each delays your spellcasting progression, but you can pick from a vast selection of spells.

[Sicarius Victis]

While 5e's bard is a perfect fit for the FFI red mage, I would point out that you could achieve this precise effect by multiclassing two caster classes. Given the white/black magic distinction in FF, I'd say cleric/wizard is the closest match. Alternating one level of each delays your spellcasting progression, but you can pick from a vast selection of spells.

Divine Soul Sorcerer works for this as well, since they naturally have both the cleric and sorcerer lists.

[Ganymede]

Yeah, the Final Fantasy Red Mage even dresses like a stereotypical bard, jaunty hat and all.

I think the bard as-is already fits the niche you describe.

[Greywander]

I've actually designed a class like this, but I'm in the middle of rebalancing it. One thing I did was change them to a half-caster, with a class feature that allows them to cast a limited number of high level spells (a bit like the warlock's Mystic Arcanum), and even then it still required using one of their spell slots. So, they're not casting as many spells as a full caster, but they have access to a much broader set of spells. Even with these limitations, I ended up deciding to rebalance it since I couldn't see a reason to play a wizard if this class was an option.

Then again, perhaps my mistake was to make it a spellbook-based caster. If you can learn any spell but are limited to knowing a few spells, this becomes less of an issue. The wizard already fills the role of the versatile spellcaster, so making a class that has access to even more spells has to come with enough drawbacks that the wizard remains an appealing option.

[Willie the Duck]

In reality, 5e has innumerable ways to capture this base concept, just like it has innumerable ways to make a gish. Arcana cleric does this cleric1/WizardX, Wizard1/ClericX, Divine souls Sorcerer, Valor bard (or lore bard, since c'mon, red wizard's combat ability always was superficial unless you equipped them with a masamune or whatever).

As to the OP's question--there would be a theoretical class that progressed very slowly, but could pick up any spell. I just have no idea how to balance it.

[Dr_Dinosaur]

As has been said, Bards are very Red Mage-like. I’ve also been building one as Hexblade/Divine Soul to get weapons, blasting, and heals, with Twinned and Quickened metamagic to replicate the Twincast ability they got in later games.