Dia

Lowers an enemy's defense and gradually deals Light elemental damage.

Description Spell cost: 7 MP Spell element: Light Target: Enemy. Magic skill: Enfeebling Jobs: Level 1 Red Mage Level 1 Puppetmaster Automaton Magic Skill 1‡ Level 3 White Mage ‡Note: Automatons learn this spell automatically once they have the requisite magic skill. They do not need to use a scroll.

Timers Casting Time: 1 second Recast Time: 5 seconds Other Uses Resale Price: ???~??? gil

How to Obtain

• Automatically given if you start as Red Mage (Note: This scroll is Template:Exclusive2).

Auction House Category: Scrolls > White Magic
Can be obtained as a random reward from the Gobbie Mystery Box Special Dial and similar sources.

Merchants

Price: 82 - 95 gil
Name	Location	Type
Kususu	Port Windurst (H-8)	Standard Merchant
Regine	Port San d'Oria (J-8)	Standard Merchant
Sororo	Bastok Markets (H-5)	Standard Merchant

Other Information

• Initial damage soft caps at 2.

Enemy Defense Down effect

Defense is reduced by 27/512 (5.27%)

This effect cannot be resisted except with Magic Shield.

Dia / Bio Priority

Dia and Bio do not stack.

Bio III > Dia III > Bio II > Dia II > Bio > Dia

Example: If Dia is cast, and Bio is cast afterwards, Dia will be overwritten. If Dia II is then cast, Bio will be overwritten. If Bio II is cast, Dia II will be overwritten.

Note: This is not necessarily the case for player characters who have been hit with both spells.

Useful Macros

/ma "Dia" <t> Casts onto current target

/ma "Dia" <bt> Casts onto last target claimed by party

/ma "Dia" <stnpc> Allows you to select a target from available NPCs

The Meaning of Dia

The spell "Dia" comes from the original Japanese release of the first Final Fantasy in the series, where it is the base name of several spells, all of which inflict varying amounts of damage on undead enemies. The name of this spell in the North American release was changed to "Harm", "Hrm2", and so on. The reason for the change is speculation at best, but most likely due to the 4 character limitation in spell names combined with a desire to name spells in ways English speakers could more easily identify their purpose. Despite seeming to be a truncation of the word "diamond" in English, in Japanese the spell "Dia" bares no relationship to diamonds and is spelled and pronounced ディア(dia /diä/, "Dee-ah"), not ダイヤ(daiya /däɪjä/, "Dye-ah").

What "Dia" itself actually refers to can have multiple interpretations. "Dia" can be defined as the prefix that was derived from Greek roots, which means "to pass through or join", and also refers to God in Gaelic, being part of the greeting "dia duit", meaning "God's blessing." Most likely, however, it is meant to refer to "the day" after the word "el día" in Spanish. This is due to the fact that the spell would only damage the undead, presumably by sunlight, and is even animated as a blast of sunlight in more graphically advanced remakes of the game.

Application

• Use of Dia in a party should be balanced with the use of Bio as Bio will overwrite Dia, but Dia will not overwrite Bio.
• Use of Dia in Campaign Battles counts toward Elemental Magic Damage in terms of rewards calculation, despite its primary use being that of enfeebling. The reward is based solely on the initial damage reported in the log, and not on the overall damage-over-time.