Threadbare

Behind the Scenes Interlude II

Let's talk about classes and jobs.

Recently, a fan asked me for a list of jobs. While I can't give a complete one, I can certainly give a list of the most basic jobs, explain what each one does, and why classes are a thing.

There are three types of known jobs; Racial, Adventuring, and Crafting. Racial jobs are the hardest to get... you have to be born into that species, or be permanently transformed into a species of that type to gain a racial job. Or you have to have something weird going on with you, like being made as a sentient golem who looks like a bear. In which case you get both the golem job and the job of the race you look like. Ain't you lucky! Well no, not really, but to see proof of that read the rest of this story.

Racial jobs also determine how many adventuring jobs you can have. A human has a cap of seven adventuring jobs. Dragons, depending on their type, have a cap of one or two. Toy Golems, those poor bastards, are an unknown quanitity as yet.

Crafting jobs are passed down from people who know the job, or can be learned by working on basic level projects in that field of expertise. Sew something together, you can be a tailor. Hammer a piece of metal in a forge, you can be a smith. Like adventuring jobs, your race caps your crafting jobs. Humans can have 3, dwarves can have 4, etc, and so on.

Adventuring jobs are where the meat of things are, and where things get a little complicated.

So, classes are broad categories. They describe, in the broadest possible terms, what the jobs that fall under them DO. There are a grand total of seven classes, and each one has four Tier 1 jobs.

Tiers, I should probably explain tiers. I'll get to that later. For now understand that the jobs listed below are Tier 1 jobs.

THE CLASSES AND THEIR TIER 1 JOBS

The classes, and their four associated jobs, are as follows;

CREATORS

Creators cover most of the "pet" jobs. They are generally mage types that use magical minions to adventure. Each of them has a hefty dose of utility spells and effects, but at the cost of being fairly squishy.

1. Animators are the first Creator job. They animate objects, whether prepared or on the fly. Such objects are called animi, and, well, they're pretty simple.

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2. Conjurors are the second Creator job. They summon outsiders to do their bidding, and create objects from nothing. Anvils are a pretty fun mid-level conjure, usually summoned a few hundred feet up.

3. Elementalists can summon elementals of their favored element, and manipulate and create their element. Elementals are pretty powerful, but hard to control.

4. Necromancers turn corpses and souls into undead, and get some stuff for mucking around with the dead. They're not illegal, but usually shunned by polite society.

DIVA

Divas are all about getting and using people's attention. Think of them as social-focused types with a weird trick or three, and you're generally right.

1. Bards use music to do all sorts of things, and are jacks-of-all trades. They can literally learn skills from other jobs. Just a few, but it can come in handy.

2. Models are all about looking awesome, and building their body to the way they want it to be.

3. Rulers like being in charge, because they can hand out awesome buffs for their subjects, and decrees, which get them to do things for the ruler.

4. Sensates... hm, cross an artist with an illusionist and you're not wrong. They're about creating art, and messing with the senses.

PRIEST

Priests are holy folk, who are empowered by the gods and other forces for the benefit of themselves and/or their communities.

1. Clerics are messengers of a specific god, and get a good amount of healing and blessings to help convert people to the faith.

2. Cultists worship or command dark powers, gaining the ability to decieve others, curse people, and cut bargains with foul creatures.

3. Oracles are recipients of wild divine power, holy men and women who bear primal magic and future sight.

4. Shamans are the appointed guardians of nature, using their affinity for plants, beasts, and wild forces to keep things in balance.

ROGUE

Rogues are all about dealing with other sentient people in an underhanded manner, whether it's with knives, theft, or lies.

1. Assassins are all about killing people sneakily.

2. Bandits are about robbing people un-sneakily, although ambushes are sometimes fun.

3. Burglars sneak into places and steal stuff.

4. Grifters are great at lying and trickery.

SAGE

Sages know stuff! They're all about knowledge, focused or more diffused as the case may be.

1. Alchemists specialize in potions, elixirs, bombs, and things brewed beforehand.

2. Enchanters craft magical items, adjust existing ones, and can add magical buffs to ordinary stuff.

3. Tamers gotta catch 'em all! They deal with befriending monsters and using them to fight.

4. Wizards are generalist mages obsessed with the raw force of magic itself. And blowing things up.

WANDERER

Wanderers go to different places and do stuff. They don't HAVE to wander, but they're at their best potential when moving around.

1. Explorers find new places, make maps, and survive hostile climes.

2. Mercenaries go to interesting places, meet new people, and fight them for money.

3. Merchants trade and make money as they go, and make the best craftsmen.

4. Scouts travel the wilderness unseen, and spy upon others.

WARRIOR

Warriors are about fighting. Full stop.

1. Archers fight from a distance, using bows, crossbows, or other stringed tension weapons. Yes, ballista count as well.

2. Berserkers fight with rage, pushing themselves beyond their limits until the fight's done.

3. Duelists fight with style, specializing with their chosen weapon and using attitude and tricks to defend themselves and taunt their foes.

4. Knights are about bravery, heavy armor, and horses. In that order.

Those are all the Tier One jobs. They're called Tier One jobs, because they're relatively easy to get into, and simple. To unlock them, you only have to perform a simple action... for archers, you have to get to twentieth level bow skill. For Animators, you have to interact with animated objects for a few years. For alchemists, you have to mix chemicals together and observe the results until you manage to work out a stable formula. And so on, and so forth. There are multiple unlocks for each job, too... necromancers can get the job by defiling the dead, having repeated peaceful contact with sentient undead, or sacrificing people to the God of Death. And there may be more ways to unlock classes that haven't been discovered yet!

Tier two jobs are where things start to get more specialized. And tricky.

HOW TIER 2 JOBS WORK

To get a Tier Two job, you have to combine one or more Tier One jobs. Sometimes you have to mix in a crafting job, too. When you do that, you get a specialized job that pulls from the basic themes of its Tier One Jobs.

Golemists, for example, are a Tier 2 job that mixes Animators and Enchanters. They craft specialized magical dolls and statues out of various materials, then bring them to life permanently.

Lycanthropes are Tier Two jobs that draw on the best parts of Shamans and Tamers. They shapechange into their favored beast, and run with packs of those beasts.

Gunslingers are a simple mix of Archer and Duelist, with Tinker on the side so that they can actually make guns.

And so on, and so forth, with so many possible combinations that nobody's sure that there's a fixed amount. In any case, merely having the two classes isn't enough, it also takes either a teacher with the Tier Two class explaining what to do, or some research and experimentation to find the required unlock.

With this system, it's possible to make just about any class out there, from combinations of the base 28 and maybe a craft skill. And even combinations of the same Tier One jobs will unlock different Tier 2 job, depending on the unlock and the intent. Slap a Cultist with an Oracle and go live in the woods and cook children, and you can unlock a witch. Mix Cultist and Oracle another way and go rave on street corners, and you end up with a Doomsayer, who rouses mobs to madness and murder...

It's worth noting that the Tier 2 jobs aren't necessarily more powerful than the Tier 1 jobs, but they are more complex, generally, and more specialized.

Also note that learning a Tier 2 job doesn't negate or replace a Tier 1 job. If you become a Golemist, your Animator skills are still there, still useful for things the Golemist skills don't cover.

This also means that most adventurers don't have a lot of Tier Two jobs. And that the ones who do plan very, very carefully for it. Which is generally a good idea, otherwise you live your life foolishly, wandering around, grabbing random careers from the unlocks you stumble upon naturally.

I mean, who the hell DOES that? The sages all agree, that is the opposite of the path to power, and anyone who squanders their potential on such a reckless life will never amount to anything.