All Jobs and Abilities in Final Fantasy III

The Onion Knight is Final Fantasy III‘s starting Job and the Job that all 4 characters use at the start of the game before reaching the Wind Crystal. Onion Knights have decent stats and are versatile in terms of their utility in battle, but they quickly lose effectiveness until very late in the game when players can put in the work to acquire special powerful equipment that only Onion Knights can use. Additionally, Onion Knights become especially viable at level 92, where they gain 12-point bonuses to all stats with each level up.
Command Ability – N/A
Availability – Default Job

The Warrior is one of the first Job upgrades players receive after communing with the Wind Crystal and starting Final Fantasy III‘s main adventure. Though they don’t have a particular command ability, the Warrior is capable of equipping heavier armor and weapons, granting them high offensive capability as melee fighters as well as being durable in combat thanks to extra defense. They specialize in wielding swords and are a great Job to use in the early hours of the game for at least one character to function as the offensive powerhouse of the party.
Command Ability – N/A
Availability – Wind Crystal

Like the Warrior, players acquire the Monk as one of their first Jobs in the set they receive from the Wind Crystal. Additionally, like the Warrior, the Monk has no command ability but is capable of dishing out plenty of damage as a melee fighter. Unlike other fighter-type classes in the early game, the Monk benefits from having no weapon equipped and has a bonus to their damage if unarmed. Players can equip Monks with Claw or Knuckle-type weapons but the Job gains a damage bonus equal to 2x their current level if they attack bare-handed.
Command Ability – N/A
Availability – Wind Crystal

The iconic Black Mage returns once again in Final Fantasy III as the requisite offensive magic user and is also one of the first Jobs players receive from the Wind Crystal. Though the Black Mage has low defense and attack power, the Job more than makes up for it through its ability to attack multiple targets at once with powerful offensive magic, even taking advantage of certain enemies’ elemental weaknesses to decimate them quickly. Having at least one Black Mage in the party is practically essential in the early hours of Final Fantasy III.
Command Ability – Black Magic (Lvl 1-7)
Level 1 Spells – Fire, Blizzard, Sleep
Level 2 Spells – Thunder, Blind, Poison
Level 3 Spells – Fira, Blizzara, Thundara
Level 4 Spells – Blizzaga, Break, Shade
Level 5 Spells – Thundaga, Raze, Erase
Level 6 Spells – Firaga, Bio, Warp
Level 7 Spells – Breakga, Drain, Quake
Availability – Wind Crystal

The White Mage is Final Fantasy III‘s de facto healing Job in the initial hours of the main adventure and quite useful to have in battle. In addition to their ability to use restorative magic and status-enhancing spells, White Mages are also capable of casting offensive spells using wind and light magic. Like the Black Mage, White Mages lack in both attack power and defense but are useful for their ability to use magic. Having at least one party member use the White Mage job is, quite literally, a life-saver.
Command Ability – White Magic (Lvl 1-7)
Level 1 Spells – Cure, Poisona, Sight
Level 2 Spells – Aero, Mini, Toad
Level 3 Spells – Cura, Blindna, Teleport
Level 4 Spells – Confuse, Libra, Silence
Level 5 Spells – Curaga, Protect, Raise
Level 6 Spells – Aeroga, Haste, Stona
Level 7 Spells – Curaja, Esuna, Reflect
Availability – Wind Crystal

Red Mages are an interesting and worthwhile Job choice in the very early hours of Final Fantasy III but they quickly lose their utility as the player acquires more powerful magic. Though they can cast both Black and White magic, giving them great versatility in battle, they can only learn up through level 4 spells of each magic type and are quickly surpassed by the classes that focus on on type over the other. Not only that, the Red Mage has relatively low bonuses to its stats on level up, ultimately being one of the weaker early classes that players acquire from the Wind Crystal. That said, they do have the ability to equip more weapons and armor than White or Black Mages, but again they pale in comparison to the purely physical Job types.
Command Ability – White and Black Magic (Lvl 1-4)
Availability – Wind Crystal

The Knight is one of the jobs players will obtain after reaching the Fire Crystal and is immediately an upgrade for melee fighters over the Warrior Job. In addition to being able to dish out substantial damage during combat, Knights also exhibit excellent defense attributes and are even capable of defending fellow party members after they fall into critical health. The Defend ability allows the Knight to take significantly less damage than they or a fellow party member might sustain the higher level they get, with Lvl 99 Knights essentially being able to Defend for a total damage of 1 HP against most attacks.
Command Ability – Defend
Availability – Fire Crystal

Despite bows and arrows appearing in Final Fantasy III‘s predecessor, the Ranger Job is the series’ first appearance of the archer/ranger-type class. As the name suggests, Rangers are great at dealing damage to enemies from afar, including the ability to deal the same amount of damage whether players position them in the front or back row during battle. That said, Rangers can be expensive to maintain thanks to the need to continually purchase arrows and monitor their ammunition. The Ranger’s Command Ability, Barrage, fires 4 arrows that hit 4 random targets, and its damage is less than what the Ranger would inflict with a normal attack. At higher levels, the Barrage ability gains effectiveness and deals 60% of the normal attack damage.
Command Ability – Barrage
Availability – Fire Crystal

The Scholar is one of Final Fantasy III‘s more interesting Jobs and a precursor to the Chemist Job type from Final Fantasy Tactics. Their base Command Ability is Study, which allows the Scholar to scan enemies in battle and identify their remaining HP as well as pinpointing any particular weaknesses. After unlocking the Alchemy ability, Scholars are able to use items at double their effectiveness, substantially increasing the utility of potions, ethers, and other consumable items that players can purchase or find throughout Final Fantasy III‘s world. Aside from their usefulness as a support Job, Scholars are also the first class in the Final Fantasy series to use Books as weapons.
Command Ability – Study; Alchemy
Availability – Fire Crystal

The last of the Jobs players unlock after reaching the Fire Crystal, the Thief is not nearly as useful in Final Fantasy III as it might be in other games in the series. However, the Thief does have some great bonuses to Agility as it levels up, making it one of the better Jobs for ensuring party members build up their speed in battle. Their baseline Command Ability, Steal, allows them to rob enemies in battle for whatever items they’re holding, though these tend to be inexpensive consumables like potions most of the time. Later on, the Thief unlocks the Escape ability, which guarantees the party’s ability to flee from an encounter. That said, the Escape ability cannot be used in encounters where escape is impossible.
Command Ability – Steal; Escape
Availability – Fire Crystal

Much like their counterparts in other RPGs, Final Fantasy III‘s Bard Job is capable of using the power of song to affect both the party and enemies. The song that the Bard performs varies depending on which harp they equip, and choosing to perform a song will always have it trigger as the first action of any battle. Some songs will boost party members’ performance in battle while others will debuff enemies, including reducing their levels. The Bard also gains additional useful skills as they level up and are an excellent choice for a support Job at the point in the game that players obtain the class as an option.
Command Ability – Sing
Availability – Water Crystal

Final Fantasy III‘s Black Belt is essentially the better version of the Monk class, and obtaining it immediately makes the Monk obsolete (despite the Monk being a great choice for melee characters throughout much of the game). Thanks to the Command Abilities of the Black Belt, it’s entirely possible to deal nearly 40,000 damage in a single turn, using Boost to store energy and then unleash it in a punishing attack. The Black Belt gains a +2 bonus to its bare-hand attack with each level, and it also gains an additional +2 bonus per character level. Equipping the Black Belt job on at least one character and keeping them as a bare-handed fighter will likely carry most parties until reaching Eureka and obtaining the Ninja job.
Command Ability – Boost; Kick
Availability – Water Crystal

Despite their cool appearance, Dark Knights aren’t actually that great or useful of a Job. They come in especially handy during the Cave of Shadows dungeon where the Bladeblitz ability can hit multiple enemies at once and prevent them from endlessly respawning, but otherwise they are easily outclassed by other Jobs. The original Famicom release of Final Fantasy III sees the Dark Knight able to cast low-level White Magic, but this ability no longer exists in the DS and Pixel Remaster versions of the game.
Command Ability – Bladeblitz
Availability – Water Crystal

Though not the first Dragoon in the series (that honor goes to Final Fantasy II‘s depiction of the class), Final Fantasy III‘s Dragoon Job is the first to be able to use the Jump command. Jump allows the Dragoon to momentarily exit the battle, and then deal damage from above that is greater than their normal attack command. Wielding spears, Dragoons are excellent melee options to have against battles with airborne enemies, especially dragons. The Jump command is already excellent on it own but deals extra damage to dragon-type enemies. The Job type gains a substantial bonus to Agility like the Thief but with the bonus of being able to equip heavy armor and deal significantly more melee damage.
Command Ability – Jump
Availability – Water Crystal

The Evoker is the first Job type players have access to that can summon Eidolons into battle. These creatures have both a primary attack (Black) and a secondary attack (White) that triggers at random when the Evoker summons them, even changing the appearance of the summon monster when it appears to signal which attack it will use. In general, the primary attack of each summon is an attack that ignores half of an enemy’s magic defense, while the secondary attack provides a boost to the party or a status effect against the enemy with 100% success.
Command Ability – Summon (White/Black)
Availability – Water Crystal

One of the more unique Job types in all of Final Fantasy, the Geomancer taps into the latent ability of the environment around them to draw out magic attacks that can deal reasonable amounts of damage and even inflict status effects. And, to make the Job even more appealing, the Geomancer uses magic abilities without the additional cost of MP. Using the Geomancer’s Command Ability Terrain, the Job will call on a different special attack depending on what the environment is that the player is fighting in. A complete list of all terrain types and their corresponding attacks is below.
Command Ability – Terrain
Plains, Cave – Earthquake
Mountains – Cave In
Underwater – Waterspout
Forest, Dungeon – Air Blade
Sky – Tornado
Desert – Quicksand
Swamp – Sinkhole
River – Rapids
Availability – Water Crystal

Final Fantasy III‘s Viking Job is the ultimate “tank” archetype, capable of equipping the heaviest and best defensive armor in the game as well as wielding giant axes and hammers to deal melee damage. The biggest downside to the Viking class is that they grow at slower rates than the other melee-focused classes, but sticking with the Job and growing it through Lvl 99 brings one of the most substantial defenders into the mix. Their Command Ability Provoke allows them to draw attention from enemies and withstand most of the damage they deal, all at a low cost to the Viking’s HP pool thanks to their excellent defense.
Command Ability – Provoke
Availability – Water Crystal

The Jobs that players obtain from the Earth Crystal are essentially upgrades to the existing magic-casting Jobs, and the Devout is the upgrade to the White Mage. Their command ability is White Magic, but they are capable of casting all levels of spells, including the Lvl 8 White Magic spells that the White Mage cannot cast. In addition to having more (and more powerful) spells at their disposal, Devouts also have an improved MP pool, allowing them to cast more befor needing to replenish with an ether.
Command Ability – White Magic (Lvl 1-8)
Level 8 Spells – Arise, Holy, Tornado
Availability – Earth Crystal

In the same way that the Devout is the upgraded version of the White Mage, the Magus is for the Black Mage. Like the Devout, the Magus has both the ability to cast all levels of Black Magic as well as a higher MP pool that allows them to dish out plenty of spells in battle before needing to recharge. That said, the Magus, Devout, and Summoner are all made obsolete by one of the final jobs that players obtain — the Sage.
Command Ability – Defend
Level 8 Spells – Death, Flare, Meteor
Availability – Earth Crystal

Contrary to the Evoker, the Summoner is able to call upon Eidolons using a combination of their Black and White abilities instead of only one triggering at random. As a result, the Summoner Job makes the Evoker obsolete and is the best summoning class in the game before players obtain the Sage Job. Instead of the summon monsters committing to both their Black and White attacks available to the Evoker Job, the Summoner is able to call upon the Eidolons and have them use a brand-new ultimate attack that is exclusive to the Job. Along with the Evoker, the Summoner is the first instance in a Final Fantasy game where players can call upon the assistance of Eidolons in battle.
Command Ability – Summon
Availability – Earth Crystal

One of the two final Jobs that players obtain inside the dimension of Eureka (which is accessible inside of the final dungeon), the Ninja is the ultimate melee class. The Ninja has the same speed as a high-level Thief when players first obtain the Job, but then grows to become the fastest Job in the game if players invest the time in grinding out levels with it in the final dungeon. Additionally, the Throw ability allows the Ninja to discard any weapons that the party is not currently using, all while dealing massive damage to targets. Ninjas are fast and strong melee fighters, and they deal damage comparable to a mid-level Knight at Lvl 1.
Command Ability – Throw
Availability – Final Dungeon/Eureka

The Sage is Final Fantasy III‘s ultimate magic-using class, making all previous magic Jobs obsolete once players obtain it. Not only can Sages cast all Black and White Magic spells, they also are able to Summon all Eidolons in the game using the same ultimate attacks available to the Summoner Job. In addition to these abilities, the Sage has the highest Intelligence and Mind stats of any Job and an impressive pool of MP.
Command Ability – White Magic; Black Magic; Summon
Availability – Final Dungeon/Eureka