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{{trope}}
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The "[[Fantasy Character Classes|player class]]" family tree is a large, branching kudzu with enough arms to print several dozen sourcebooks. One such branch is '''The Red Mage''', a magician capable of casting spells from two different or even ''[[Mutually Exclusive Magic|mutually exclusive]]'' schools of magic. Much like a magical [[Jack of All Stats]], this cousin to the [[Magic Knight]] fuses two otherwise inimical capabilities and gains strength from both... while [[Master of None|mastering neither]], and perhaps even [[Power At a Price|gaining both their weaknesses!]]
Theatrics and [[Competitive Balance|balance]] issues aside, the true wonder and claim to fame of the Red Mage is that they are talented, open minded, and have trained in a way that allows them to understand and become able practitioners in two fundamentally different forms of magic. Think about it this way: they are the fantasy equivalent of a [[Renaissance Man]] or [[Omnidisciplinary Scientist]], skilled multi-disciplinarians of already complex and taxing fields. While some mages [[Un-Equal Rites|scoff at different forms of magic]], the Red Mage takes the time to study them, and by learning them becomes truly versatile.
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{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* Rezo the Red Priest from [[Slayers]]. After failing to heal his eyes with white magic, he turns to shamanic magic, and eventually black magic. His attempts usually end up with him being possessed by a demon though.
* [[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid|Rio Wesley]] has affinity with both [[Playing with Fire|fire]] and [[Shock and Awe|lightning]]. Normally, a mage can only have one type of affinity
* Kotomine Kirei in [[Fate/Zero]] is shown to have trained in nearly every discipline of magic, switching when he's ''just'' below the point of mastery. Though this was more a result of him [[Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life]] than any disire to be an all-rounder.
* The Visoreds and Arrancar in ''[[Bleach]]'' are this.
* Motoharu Tsuchimikado from ''[[
== Literature ==
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** In the ''Craft'' series by Aleks Kosh (''Ремесло'', Алекс Кош), the local [[Wizarding School]] is divided into 4 faculties by the [[Elemental Powers|classical elements]]. During the admission exam, each candidate capable of magic sees a rubik's cube style puzzle and usually manages to solve only one of the sides, choosing the element. Zach, the protagonist, feels pity towards all the messed up sides of the puzzle and reassembles them all, later showing no clear preference for any given element.
** In the ''Alien'' series by Igor' Dravin (''Чужак'', Игорь Дравин) magic is divided in the regular 4 [[Elemental Powers|elements]] with a few added - an information element, light , dark , life and death. Elements combine in some interesting ways (e.g. earth + stone = blood, blood + information = mind; mind + death = necromancy etc.), although a mage of such a combined element not necessarily controls the basic elements. Some elements are excluded from any combinations, and any given element [[Mutually Exclusive Magic|excludes the use of others]]. Some rare individuals, as the eponymous [[Trapped in Another World|alien]] can use the 4 classical elements, and are called "universal mages" in-universe.
** In the ''Dancing Flame'' by Valentin Ivashchenko (''Танцующее Пламя'', Валентин Иващенко) a necromancer, suffering because of common [[Black Magic]] preconceptions, figures out a system of [[Geometric Magic]] granting anybody access to any magic, thus turning people into
* An example of this would be the Cleric/Mage multiclass from ''[[Dungeons
▲== [[Tabletop RPG]] ==
▲* An example of this would be the Cleric/Mage multiclass from ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', as well as the Mystic Theurge prestige class from 3rd Edition.
** AD&D First Edition example: Witch Doctor.
** Heck, the basic generalist mage in ''[[Dungeons
*** To clarify for the layperson: A third (and second) edition mage has access to a spell list that is designed to be able to create almost as many affects as possible, limited only by the power available (so no blowing up cities, or turning an army invisible with 1st level spells). Even if you manage to think of something that isn't covered by some combination of spells the rulebooks include guidelines that allow you, with the approval of the DM, to create your own. However this specifically excludes healing magic, an area best covered by clerics, who also get solid defensive and divination spells, plus a small array of reasonably powerful attack spells and a few miscellaneous/other categories including necromancy. To cover all areas the best option, with the core classes at any rate, is a cleric/wizard dual class. This does requiring you to split your level advancement between both classes until you qualify for the mystic theurge prestige class, which allows you to advance your cleric and wizard spellcasting powers simultaneously.
** The Mystic Theurge [[Prestige Class]] in ''[[Dungeons
*** Yes, but that's only if you're looking at Wizard / Cleric type combinations. By looking for the right class (usually in add-on books) you can match up an Arcane spellcasting class with a Divine one, resulting in a Theurge that suffers from not a single one of the problems you mentioned. For example, the base class Wizard matches up with the Archivist class. Both are Intelligence-based,(looking for a Charisma-based Divine? Try Shugenja.) both are unarmored (and if you want an armored arcane? [[War Mage]].) both use familiars, and both maintain spellbooks, which grants you, essentially, access to ANY spell you could run across, as Wizards can (at DM's discretion) learn any arcane spell through study or transcription, and Archivists do the same with Divine. Still a [[Red Mage]], but the Mystic Theurge doesn't HAVE to have all the flaws listed above (just being two or three spell levels behind and having more spell slots than are reasonably useful in a day's worth of encounters).
*** The now defunct ''[[Fourth Wall Mail Slot|Twinking out with]] [[8-Bit Theater|Red Mage]]'' gave us an actual homebrew Red Mage [[Prestige Class]]. Almost identical to the Mystic Theurge, except it also possesses a sheet of paper that looks [[Medium Awareness|exactly like the player's]] [[Character Sheet]]. For added versatility, the Red Mage can also [[Munchkin|swap the numbers on this piece of paper]] for one hour (lest the [[Game Master|Dee'M]] [[Not Cheating Unless You Get Caught|catches him]]). This, of course, only works because the Red Mage [[Power Born of Madness|is so deluded that this has any actual effect]] [[Achievements in Ignorance|that they, in fact, do]].
** Other "theurge" prestige classes were published or posted as
*** The Ultimate Magus is a particularly bad piece of irony, in that it's a class that spends a lot of time and focus into combining two ways of casting ''the exact same magic'' (arcane spells) into a single class that is ultimately worse at it than both the classes whose components it's made up from. Mystic Theurges can, with the right focus, get the ability to cast either 9th level arcane or divine spells. The Ultimate Magus cannot cast 9th level arcane spells with either of its two classes [http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872322/Preliminary_Ultimate_Magus_Handbook without Practiced Spellcaster].
*** Then there's the warlock/other combos introduced in ''Complete Mage''. Eldritch Disciple is invocation/divine (usually warlock/cleric), while Eldritch Theurge is invocation/arcane (usually warlock/wizard). Both prestige classes can be pretty damn lethal.
** The Geomancer merges the thought pattern of the theurge classes, while not gaining the spellcasting strength, they gain the ability to choose which advantages and disadvantages of their classes to use. Casting Arcane spells with no Arcane Spell Failure? Done. Using Int to cast Divine spells? Done.
** The True Necromancer has a lot of the qualities of the Mystic Theurge, except with a specialty in necromancy. However, it pretty much forces the character take levels in Cleric (since it requires access to the Death domain, which can generally be acquired only through Cleric levels or other prestige classes), and generally a pure Cleric will be a better necromancer than a True Necromancer (or even a Wizard with a focus in necromancy).
*** True Necromancer is an unfortunate victim of both [[Crippling Overspecialization]] and [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]. The fluff implies them to be lord of
*** The Dread Necromancer is a single player class that blends some of the abilities of divine and arcane casters with a twist all it's own, and manages to be a Red Mage with [[Crippling Overspecialization]]. The spell list pulls from both, cleric and wizard spell lists, but they're all cast as arcane spells, and, while all 9 levels of spells are available in normal progression, each level has a fixed spell list already given, with a focus on [[Black Magic|necromancy, death, destruction, evil, and fear.]] The class does allow some variance though. Every 4 levels, you can add a single spell from either the cleric or wizard spell lists as long as you can currently cast spells of that level, however it does have to be a Necromancy spell.
** The general Mystic Theurge prestige class was developed from the [[Forgotten Realms]]-only Hathran (female Rashemi shaman), which was a lot less powerful as a spellcaster (you could only level one class' spellcasting ability each level instead of both) but gained a few extra abilities. Including [[Whip It Good|proficiency with the whip]].
** Yet another Red Mage in this setting are [[Magic Music|Bards.]] They can cast certain Cleric and Mage spells like a Sorcerer, albeit they have much slower spell progression and average attack bonuses. For extra crimson, they also have average-ish combat abilities and Rogue skills. Dungeons and Dragon Bards were actually the inspiration for the Red Mage, possibly making them the [[Trope Maker]].
** But the irony here is that there's a prestige class in Forgotten Realms called the Red Wizard who is the complete opposite of this trope: he's a very focused specialist.
** In [[Dungeons
*** Hybrid or multiclass Swordmage/Artificer gets you even more stabbing, and the Swordmage bit lets you teleport everywhere imaginable whilst shielding your party from an enemy. Also works well with Wizard, but Defender/Leader is a good combination.
** The optional gestalt rules in 3e allow for a player to make a character who excels at both arcane and divine magic. This is done by combining two normal classes so that the result is strictly better than either of them. The same mechanism allows for combining magic and psionics as well as casting and physical fighting.
* [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]] has a few of these if a given book has more than one set of spells, or said character can choose from all of the core Lores. Most obvious are the Grey Seers of the Skaven, who are privied to taking spells from both Lores in the Armybook, whereas the Warlock Enginseer can only select spells from the Lore of Ruin and the Plague Priest can only select spells from the Lore of Plague. Note that due to how you select spells (rolling a dice and consulting the chart) selecting from multiple books means that you have a smaller chance of landing on the spell you want, while concentrating on one book means that you'll not only gain more spells from the book, but also stand a higher chance of getting the stuff you want. The Game system innately penalizes players trying to go [[Red Mage]].
** Then there's Kairos Fateweaver, a Greater Daemon who can theoretically know spells from all eight Lores. At once. [[Multiple Head Case|Four lores per head]].
* Neo-Mages in [[Age of Aquarius]]. Normally a mage believes in some kind of spirits and derives his power from them, be it Goetic demons for [[Hermetic Magic]], Norse gods for Rune Magic, nature spirits for shamanism, etc. But you can believe in a [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]] world and be able to use spells from all traditions. The drawback? You only get the most basic spells and abilities.
* Made extremely simple in [[Legend Game System|Legend]]. Each class has three "tracks", or sets of abilities. To multiclass you simply replace one track with a track from another class. An appropriate Red Mage build is Tactician with Tactical Insight swapped out for Shaman spellcasting, and maybe the player's choice of a combat track from one of the warrior classes.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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** ''[[Final Fantasy XI]]'' has both the literal Red Mage and the Scholar. The former tries and largely fails to play up the [[Magic Knight]] aspects of the class, but makes up for it by making it good at [[Standard Status Effects]]. The latter is essentially the spiritual successor to the Sage plus metamagic.
*** Often missed due to [["Stop Having Fun!" Guys]] being very common. The Red Mage spends a large chunk of levels as the most effective tank in the game. The combination of Phalanx, Stoneskin, Refresh, Spikes and enfeebling spells makes them nearly invulnerable, even against leveling mobs, until you reach about level 50 where the effectiveness of mobs starts growing exponentially instead of linearly and specialization becomes a must.
** Several of the [[Player Character|PCs]] from ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' combined several of the classical FF jobs. Freya Crescent, although outwardly a Dragoon, also had MP-based spell-like abilities, something that other games' Dragoons rarely had. She could heal friends and hurt enemies with these abilities , but not as effectively as the actual Black or White mages, could wear heavy armor, and didn't fight quite as well as the Knight. She wears a red coat reminiscent of a Red Mage's
*** Some have also considered [[Big Bad|Kuja]] a Red Mage for his ability to use both the highest level black and white magic spells, along with a few of his own exclusive ones.
*** The class is also namechecked with a random, otherwise anonymous NPC you can talk to who is identified only as "Red Mage."
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* The Mage/Priest of ''[[Runes of Magic]]'' is one of the most popular class combinations for the mix of healing and attack magic.
** It's not popular for being a ''red mage''. It's popular for being an ''over-the-top glass cannon'' with an ''instant five second invulnerability shield which also heals you back to full health''. Said invulnerability shield also lets you cast as normal while shielded, albeit with a slightly increased mana cost.
* In ''[[
* ''[[Wizardry]]'' has the Bishop, a class that can cast from all four spellbooks, and can [[Turn Undead]] like the Priest class.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' brings this to a sci-fi setting with the Sentinel character class, which combines tech and biotic abilities, but doesn't get the strongest abilities of either type. In the first game Sentinels were durable because they got the defensive bonuses from both ability sets, but had the weakest combat skills, which was a problem since they also couldn't deal much damage with their powers. In ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' they got a makeover, and are now [[Nigh Invulnerable|absurdly tough]] with a power that brings their shields back at full every time they go down, and enough [[Jack of All Stats|biotic and tech powers]] that they can get through pretty much the entire game without firing a shot. ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' continues them into [[Jack of All Stats]] territory, giving them greater weight capacity than the specialized tech and biotic classes as well as [[Dual-Wielding|dual-wielded omniblades]].
** With the right achievements, however, Sentinels got [[Game Breaker|much more dangerous]] because you could give them a single additional talent. Once you get the Bastion [[Prestige Class]], you now have two different shield boosting talents, [[Game Breaker|Stasis Mastery]], several skills that can completely incapacitate foes for a time, the ability to overload shields, and one more skill of your choice, which can be anything from a weapon skill to one of those talents you missed out on.
** In the first game, the Sentinel was this primarily by [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]. In theory, they were supposed to be this. In practice, they weren't actually good at anything. The only thing that made them vaguely useful was possessing some of the Adept gamebreakers, which they were less effective at using.
* In ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'', there is no traditional RPG-style "Cleric" class, because the church in the game disapproves of magic and its clergy has no supernatural powers. Healing spells get left to Mages, who can access four different schools of magic, with Creation being the one for healing. Interestingly, there's no extra benefit to sticking to just one school or penalty for dabbling in more than one, other than a limited number of skill points available. So basically ''every'' Mage PC is a Red one, with variations depending on whether offense or healing is emphasized in the build. Even a character who takes nothing but nuke spells can still take the Spirit Healer specialization. And if you take the [[Magic Knight|Arcane Warrior]] specialization, you can be a literal Final Fantasy-style
** It's possible but less feasible in ''[[Dragon Age II]]'', as a fully balanced healer-nuker requires a mode-shift that leaves half of your spell investment unusable. A [[Black Mage]] can learn and make good use of light healing, but a Healer can't cast direct damage spells. Anders is an example of extreme impracticality; not only can he not sling attack magic while his great healing talents are active, he also can't heal himself or others while amplifying his damage spells.
** The Player Character's sister, Bethany, is an example of a Red Mage. She has a rather even selection of restorative, destructive, buffing, and debuffing spells in her spell trees.
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* Due to the secondary Profession system, any magical character in [[Guild Wars]] can do this.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'' has Runekeepers, Elves and Dwarves who are able to use magical rules in order to dish out damage or heal their allies. The rub of this is that the more damaging spells used, the less healing spells you can use. Conversely, the more you are the healer, the less damage spells you can do.
* The ''[[Might and Magic]]'' RPG series had the Druid class from ''III'' to ''VII''. In ''III'' to ''V'', the Druid's spell list mainly contained a combination of spells from the Cleric and Sorcerer lists (with some special Druid spells), while in ''VI'' and ''VII'' the Druid is capable of wielding all magic from the Elemental and Clerical schools. In VI, that allowed them to master all schools of magic but Dark and Light magic, while VII restricted them to the second-best level of mastery, but made the inability to learn Dark or Light magic slightly less stinging by restricting the other two strict spellcasters to one of the two.<ref>dependent upon if the party goes for the evil or the good path in the second half of the game.</ref>
** In addition, the Ranger from III to V, being the martial version of the Druid class, has access to some Druid spells and also to steel, allowing for a wide variety of abilities.
* Your character in [[The Elder Scrolls Four]] can become one rather easily. Not only will you have access to all five schools of magic, but you can also use weapons to add to your arsenal.
* In ''[[Golden Sun]]: The Lost Age'', Jenna's base class was a textbook example. She had decent access to [[Kill It with Fire]] powers, an exclusive series of multi-target healing powers, and some decent buffs/debuffs. Ivan was the same thing with no healing. Of course, the [[Golden Sun]] series being known for its elaborate [[Class and Level System]], ''any'' character can be customized into something like this, from the resident [[White Mage]] to the local [[Mighty Glacier]].
* In [[Academagia]], your character can easily become this during the game. They can learn just about any combination of the different magic skills, including with the right circumstances the forbidden magic of Gates and Mastery and the only real limitation is the finite [[Wizarding School|school year]].
* ''[[Monster Girl Quest Paradox]]'' has the Sage class, which can use both Black and White magic.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The titular Avatar of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' is a [[Messianic Archetype|reincarnated mystical keeper of peace]] (basically the local superhero) who is most well known for being able to learn and use all four of the normally mutually exclusive [[Elemental Powers]] of the settings. They usually demonstrate great talent with their original element (as the title suggests, [[The Hero]] Aang is the [[Last of His Kind]]) and have to learn the other elements one by one, which is the main driving plot of the series.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
** Technically, if there's a spell for it, she can learn it, and if there isn't, she can ''create'' it. Most unicorns get spells related to whatever their inherent talent is, but Twilight's inherent talent is ''magic itself''.
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[[Category:Power At a Price]]
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
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[[Category:Wizards and Witches]]
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