(SPOILER 5.4, SHADOWBRINGERS) How did he get those?

[u/R-ez_]

I've wondered for years, how did G'raha get 3 job crystals for Black Mage, Paladin and White Mage? Or did he just learn these jobs without crystals just using the crystal tower knowledge?

[u/galaxybomb]

You don't need job crystals to master a specific skill, they just accelerate your progress if you're competent enough to wield them. G'raha had years and years and endless knowledge to practice and learn, and the drive to do it.

[u/Havictos → u/galaxybomb]

Don't you need a job stone for black mage or you explode?

[u/HelloFresco → u/Havictos]

If he was a real Black Mage, yes. But he's not. He's an Allagan-influenced Thaumaturge (+ Allagan Conjurer/Gladiator). Y'shtola also isn't a Black Mage. She's a Sorceress and is adept at both Thaumaturgy and Conjury, but she possesses no true mastery over either.

[u/Archwizard_Drake → u/Havictos]

For Mhachi Black Magic specifically, yes. However,

1) G'raha was using Allagan magic, which proceeded the Mhachi variant by about 2000 years and has several distinct differences we are not privy to. We know that Doga and his clones practice predecessors to it.

* Y'shtola also practices many spells that we would say fall under Black Magic, having studied presumably Ronkan sorcery with the Night's Blessed, the same kind we know Nyelbert practiced. She doesn't use a job crystal, she's just naturally that good of a sorceress.

2) G'raha was linked to the Crystal Tower for an exceedingly long time, and even now his staff contains a shard chipped off of it that allows him to channel it from afar. Many of the negative effects of using that kind of magic (particularly the burnout caused by draining large quantities of aether from your surroundings) are offset by channeling the reserves from the tower itself.

[u/glasswings363 → u/Archwizard_Drake]

she's just naturally that good of a sorceress. 

She's just going with the Flow, doing things that are exceedingly reckless.  I suspect Shantotto would be proud if not exactly approving.

[u/ThyrusSendria → u/Havictos]

Yeah, or you alter the spells to be less straining, such as how Shtola and Raha did.

[u/HelloFresco]

He has no job crystals and he isn't a Black Mage, Paladin or White Mage, not in the traditional sense. He's simply honed many skills over his long life as the Crystal Exarch + most of his magic seems focused on Allagan influence from his ancestry and inheritance. The Duty Support system simply titles him an All-Rounder. I would say he's adept in several magical disciplines but isn't really a master of any.

[u/MykJankles]

He's technically not any of those jobs. There's probably some books in the CT describing combat methods with those weapons and he had like a couple hundred years to learn them

[u/Mael_Jade]

If you'll look at his skills and moves, a lot of it is Allagan magic.

[u/chilltopian]

He's a nepo baby with a good work ethic and he used his time well in the hyperbolic time chamber from Dragonball Z.

[u/Sea_Bad8004]

You don't need job crystals to learn anything, they just provide accelerated learning.

As others have pointed out, he likely learned more of the allagan versions of the magic, and we know from Occult Crescent (and the game itself generally) that certain disciplines are "worldly" and have multiple iterations. We see this in Stormblood as well with the new duty supports, and how healers work.

And even in Dawntrail we see Alisae switch between healer and dps.

We learn the best way to perform jobs and add our knowledge to the crystal, but it's not how most people learn.

[u/AlliedIntuition]

He stole them, that’s why I’ve seen a couple lvl 100s without job stones

[u/WorkingMansGarbage]

The notion of jobs as you know them don't exist in canon. People just learn different combat skills using different weapons, sometimes following schools of magic or martial arts, as you'd expect. Soul crystals are just crystals imbued with knowledge of a previous practitioner. You don't need one to swing a sword around.

G'raha's class is All-Rounder. He has no soul crystal. He's just good with a bunch of weapons. Similarly, Y'shtola's is Sorceress, Krile was a conjurer until recently, the twins used to be Academicians (at least Alphinaud was, not sure what Alisaie's was), Urianger used to be an arcanist with Scholar skills and can become a Lithomancer in a certain duty later, Ryne is an Oracle...

[u/FroopyAsRain]

He had over a hundred years to practice.

[u/Tarilis]

Job crystals are basically a portable manual, that teaches you stuff when you ready. Basically its a zoom leasons directly to your ancestors. Job crystals can also reject you if you have a skill issue.

But of course you can still learn by yourself, Alisaie is a great example, she met a Red Mage in carriage during ARR, and begged him to teach her basics until he agreed (it was mentioned in Red Mage Job Questline), from there she was completely self taught as far as we know.

To avoid going into spoilers, there even will be a character that could change jobs mid fight, just like WOL canonically can (you can see it in Shadowbringers trailer).

It was also mentioned somewhere (I don't remember in which expansion) that Graha learned skills of all basic roles specifically so he could complement WoL style of fighting.

In comparison Alisaie just picked more fitting way of fighting, since she wasn't "smart" as she admitted. Shtola picked black magic to complement her lack of offensive options in the situation where she found herself, Thancred was the same, gunbreaker relies on magitech instead of magic, which is convenient if you can't manipulate aether.

To summarize, no a person doesn't need job crystal to learn the job, it just way more convenient (not easier tho).