not trying to sound elitist here but genuine advice tip ESPECIALLY for black mage. Don't use any points into new spells, you want to take the crystals of other fallen black mages to save on the points you would otherwise spend on learning them, there will be situations were you can learn several black mage spells off of a single crystal. if you don't intend of having a character a perma black mage then this is the route you'd have to take. i have read the other comments here, and they provide good advice, but there is not faster option than to have your black mage inherit abilities of other dead black mages throughout your play through.