what do red mages do

Generally they are balanced in healing and destructive magic, black and white, but not as proficient as the indivudualized casters. They can also utizlize time and status-impairing/improving spells and wield a variety of armour and weaponry again without any specific professionalism.

To put it simply; Red Mage is a ‘jack-of-all-trades’ Job – a fighter who is profficent in several different areas (sword attacks, armour, White, Black and status magic) without excelling in any one area.

However, several later FF games finally gave the Red Magi the recognition they deserved, and added their own unique specialities – in FFV, they can use ‘Red Magic’, which is rather like Steiner’s Sword Magic attack in FFIX, in that they cast spells on the swords for added damage; and in FFXI, RDM excelled in enfeebling/buffing magic compared to BLM and WHM. They also worked very well in a ‘mana battery’ role (using the spell Refresh to restore spent MP).

In summary: Red Mages rock.

And besides; they get a cool hat. 😉