So when it comes to ciphers, are their abilities innate - i.e., some people are just born ciphers - or can anyone become one through study and training?  The wiki entry is vague, and it seems like there are conflicting opinions elsewhere on the internet with no official answers.  Or maybe I just don't know where to look.  If it's answered somewhere in the game, I evidently haven't gotten far enough yet.

I don't remember anything proving it either way. There was some mention about them starting to appear and being something new, so at least the first one(s) was(were) innate...

 

This isn't really a spoiler, but in Deadfire there is a book that says that some people had been favoring Ciphers for certain jobs. It doesn't mean their abilities are innate, but it gave me that impression.

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by InsaneCommander

Learned. Cipher class origins from Glanfathan brishalgwin. Grieveng Mother is exception as she probably was born with them. Or she learned somehow having no contact with 'professionals'.

 

And Vitracks are only natural ciphers but they are not kith (they are wilder).

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by White Phoenix

I thought it is innate in that ciphers have

What I see from the in-game lore:

 

1) Serafen has a unique wild cipher subclass. The description tells us that WCs are ciphers with inborn and spontaneous casting but no proper training. Grieving Mother is also wild judging from her story.

2) Dunryd Row is a formal cipher union, people come with natural talent, but are sharpened there.

 

Ciphers are like jedi. You need to have prerequisites, without training you will suffer chaotic effects, but you can't teach anyone to do cipher stuff.

 

You can ask this at Joshua Sawyers tumblr, he is cool, nice, likes to talk about lore and he designed cipher class. Or tweet Avellone, he wrote Grieving Mother and designed ciphers. This info is from ask-me-anything with Obsidian, I asked who designed ciphers and what media inspired them.