In Final Fantasy 1, special abilities and spells are handled by what's called the enemy "script". The script dictates how likely an enemy is to use a spell or a skill instead of attacking, and then the order in which these options will be used. These lists are separate and cycled through individually, with up to 8 spells and 4 skills being available to a given script.
In almost every flagset created by the community, the option to shuffle both scripts and special abilities is enabled. What this means in practice that the enemies with the option to have any special abilities are first redistributed, and then what options are available to them are dealt out. Those curious about the precise process will find it on the github.
Of note is that "enemies" in the above refer specifically to monsters that are neither fiends nor WarMECH nor Chaos. The bosses guarding the four orbs are shuffled into their own pool, while their refights in the Temple of Fiends Revisited share a pool with WarMECH and Chaos. The optional Fight Bahamut flag creates a custom fight that appears in none of these pools.
For users, it may prove helpful to know how many instances of a particularly nasty skill or spell can appear in the game. As such, the following tables provide a list of skills and spells for both common enemies and the fiend pools.
This pool contains all enemies found in random encounters, as well as “mini-bosses” such as Astos and Garland.
| Skill | Count |
|---|---|
| BLAZE | 3 |
| BLIZZARD | 3 |
| CRACK+ | 2 |
| CREMATE | 7 |
| DAZZLE | 8 |
| FLASH | 2 |
| FROST | 4 |
| GAZE | 7 |
| GLANCE | 5 |
| GLARE | 4 |
| HEAT | 4 |
| POISON (Stone) | 2 |
| POISON (Damage) | 3 |
| SCORCH | 4 |
| SNORTING | 4 |
| SQUINT | 5 |
| STARE | 1 |
| STINGER | 4 |
| THUNDER | 3 |
| TOXIC+ | 2 |
| TRANCE | 4 |
+ In the vanilla game there are four instances of this skill. For the sake of community controllers, two instances have been removed.
Note that one of the normal enemy scripts will be used by 3 separate enemies (known as the “Medusa Script” because it was used by Medusa + GrMedusa + Sauria in vanilla for the skill Glance), which makes it possible to encounter a skill/spell more often than listed here. For example, there could be up to 3 STAREs despite the list only stating 1 because it landed on the Medusa Script.
| Spell | Count |
|---|---|
| AFIR | 1 |
| BANE | 1 |
| BLND | 1 |
| BRAK | 2 |
| CURE | 1 |
| CUR3 | 1 |
| CUR4 | 1 |
| DARK | 4 |
| FAST | 2 |
| FIRE | 4 |
| FIR2 | 5 |
| FIR3 | 2 |
| FOG2 | 1 |
| HEAL | 1 |
| HEL2 | 1 |
| HEL3 | 1 |
| HOLD | 3 |
| ICE2 | 2 |
| INV2 | 1 |
| LIT | 4 |
| LIT2 | 5 |
| LIT3 | 2 |
| LOCK | 1 |
| MUTE | 4 |
| NUKE | 1 |
| RUB | 1 |
| RUSE | 1 |
| SLEP | 6 |
| SLOW | 14 |
| SLO2 | 2 |
| STOP | 1 |
| STUN | 1 |
| WALL | 1 |
| XFER | 4 |
| XXXX | 2 |
| ZAP! | 1 |
This list covers the four fiends guarding the orbs. Note that this is only applicable for vanilla fiends. For information regarding Alternate Fiends, see the appropriate page.
| Skill | Count |
|---|---|
| BLAZE | 1 |
| BLIZZARD | 1 |
| INK | 4 |
| POISON (Damage) | 1 |
| THUNDER | 1 |
| Spell | Count |
|---|---|
| DARK | 2 |
| FAST | 1 |
| FIR2 | 5 |
| HOLD | 3 |
| ICE2 | 1 |
| LIT2 | 1 |
| SLEP | 1 |
| SLP2 | 1 |
| SLOW | 1 |
As with the first set of fiends, if you are using Alternate Fiends, please see the linked documentation to determine changes to the pools. The Enemy Skills and Spells page, furthermore, provides information as to which fight adds what abilities to the pool.
| Skill | Count |
|---|---|
| BLAZE | 1 |
| BLIZZARD | 1 |
| CRACK | 1 |
| INFERNO | 1 |
| INK | 4 |
| NUCLEAR | 4 |
| POISON (Damage) | 1 |
| SWIRL | 1 |
| THUNDER | 1 |
| TORNADO | 1 |
| Spell | Count |
|---|---|
| BANE | 2 |
| CUR4 | 1 |
| FAST | 1 |
| FIR2 | 2 |
| FIR3 | 5 |
| ICE2 | 4 |
| ICE3 | 1 |
| LIT2 | 10 |
| LIT3 | 1 |
| NUKE | 3 |
| RUB | 2 |
| SLO2 | 1 |
| STOP | 2 |
| STUN | 2 |
| XXXX | 2 |
| ZAP! | 2 |