What classes would you like to see?

[Luckmann]

I've seen countless threads on a variety of topics, and having watched the forum like a hawk, I.. don't think I've seen a thread like this. If there is and it's not antiquated already, point me in it's direction and I'll see if I can trash this thread. Saw one for races a while back, but none for classes.

 

Anyway; We already know that we will be seeing some traditional fantasy "races" (god how I hate the way "race" is basically "species" in the fantasy context) such as humans, elves and dwarves (le sigh).

 

So I think that a lot of us are also expecting the nauseatingly predictable classes, as well. But this thread isn't really for what we can expect to see (although quips about that is welcome). It is about what we, I, you, want to see. I know that there's been threads on specific requests, such as Ninjas/Samurais (which I generally detest, personally, depending on setting) - but this is a chance for everyone to come out and talk about what they want to see.

 

Alchemists, Pyromancers, Knights and whip-wielding Archaeologists, step right up! It doesn't have to be specifically classes, I'd like to hear some ideas regarding Kits or Specializations, or just class features that you'd like to see a specific, expected class to have! What would you want for your dream-class to have? What kind of class would be the most suitable for your favourite kind of character?

 

I have a few ideas of my own that I'd love to see, but I'll try to write about them later in the thread, as to not derail my own thread before it starts.

[barmaglo]

Vampire - knight

Bodyguard, Necromancer (I like evil class ), Soul theorist, witch hunter

[OldRPG'sAreGood]

I'd like to see an Archer specialisation somewhere in the fighter classes, then depending on the nature of mage classes, a class specialising in each element(fire, water, etc.), then in the thief department, perhaps something like a Spy class, dedicated to avoiding combat completely.

[Oridan]

Well, all I know is that I want to play something like the dwarven ranger in the concept art - she's so similar to one of my own characters from Dragon Age: Origins. But beyond that, I don't really know what I want to play. Excited to see what others come up with in this thread though.

 

Edit: Actually, I just thought of something. I'd really like to play a mage with weather themed spells. Frost, lightning and wind, things like that. And the class should be available to dwarves, that's a must!

Edited September 23, 2012 by Oridan

[Lysen]

A Loremaster class, like in Age of Decadence RPG by Iron Tower - the concept sounds really interesting. I am not against generic classes though and will most certainly choose a thief for my first playthrough.

[Starglider]

At least one class or race that has some interesting shapeshifts, either traditional druid or something more novel (e.g. worshippers of an ancient chaos god who think static forms are a curse...). When included I always have fun with this ability in CRPGs.

[Xen]

A class combining fusilier, blacksmith and alchemy in one character alone would be in my interests. Crafting/alchemy could be used to develop different kind of ammunition, (useful) devices, traps and bombs.

 

Since the souls seem to be clearly at the center of the story, I guess there will be a (dark) mage class specialising in harnessing the power of the souls for the greater good/evil. This class could be one of the most powerful mage classes in the game, but for having such a companion in the party or as a PC, it would also bring penalties in the long run when dealing with many of the world's NPCs.

 

Also I'd like having a mage-knight that doesn't actually suck, as in most games they seem to be never as good (=useful) than pure warriors/knights or mages.

Edited September 23, 2012 by Xen

[Starglider]

Also I'd like having a mage-knight that doesn't actually suck, as in most games they seem to be never as good than pure warriors/knights or mages.

 

Well you are trying to have your cake and eat it, flexibility has to come at a price in raw ability otherwise they'd be an unbalanced class.

Presumably if you disagree with the designers that much you can just mod the game and tweak the stats Baldur's Gate style.

[Leferd]

Start with the basics archetypes:

 

Fighter

Thief

Wizard

Healer

Ranger

 

Add from there:

 

eg: Knight, Bard, or whatever fits the setting.

 

[AzureWatcher]

Ignoring the obvious archetypes that will inevitably make it in-game, I would love to see something akin to an aquamancer (or if you really want to get fancy, how about a cryomancer?)

 

How about a fighter with telekinetic abilities to give it more of a support/crowd control roll? To be able to use his mind to push enemies away from himself when he is in danger of dying or the ability to pull enemies to himself and away from his more squishy companions. Of course, he would naturally be able to move objects within the environment. His class-specific dialogue or abilities should also have plenty of Star Wars references.

[SirMonkeyMonk]

I like something for the following arch types, don't have to be specific classes.

 

Brawn warrior - Hits hard and like to break people in half

Brains warrior - Hits less hard, but has more skills to take control of the situation

Archer specialization - In a lot of RPG not the most interesting class, but like them in the RPGs with bigger parties

Oppurtunists, Rogues - Tricks and tactics to hit where it hurt, but vunerable themselves as well

Honestly, never cared too much about most casting classes, but preferably something more specific/one-sided than a class that can do everything (crowd control/massive damage/healing/buffing/transform into to warrior)

 

From a RP perspective:

I really like shapeshifters, especially companions

classes like monks that focus on using less, instead of more and get power from discipline and innerfocus

Throwing weapons and slings as specialization

[Jarmo]

I'd only like a handful of base classes, but with ability to specialize in some direction.

Either by selecting a specialization, or by putting points towards it somehow.

 

So a warrior could (if willing to specialize) become eg

heavy, better in armor&blocking, being able to shrug off more damage.

agile, hitting fast and accurate, dodging many hits

damager, sweeping through multiple opponents with 2-handed or dual weapons

 

Mage could be a summoner, elementalis, shapeshifter or whatever.

 

Nothing new or surprising here, the main point being, few classes but with many options.

If there are many classes, there almost have to be fewer available choices on levelup,

else the possible combination skyrockets and becomes almost impossible to test and balance up.

[aluminiumtrioxid]

Warriors focused on tactics - buffing, debuffing, moving companions around.

 

Mages focused on metamagics - altering enemy spells' effects or targets. Perhaps combine it with chaos magics - you won't know exactly what will it be, but the target spell changes, usually achieving a result opposed to its caster's intention (healing spell instead slows, a fireball becomes blessing etc.).

 

A school of magic focused on manipulating the shadows. Aiding rogues, providing concealment and defense, conjuring creatures out of them.

 

A magic school of passion and madness. Perhaps thematically tied to the moon.

 

Poisoner and plaguebearer-type class (race?).

[Labadal]

I'd like to see an elementalist. Not just a mage that uses elemental spells like fireballs and lightning bolts. I want him/her to be able to fight with a weapon (even if he/she is not as powerful as a pure melee class), and use magic. The elementalist would only be able to use spells based on enviroments. Fighting in a tunnel undeground? Summon a Stone golem, or he can hurl a storm of rocks at enemies. Maybe he can trap enemeies in some sort of petrification spell, and more. Fighting in a pub? Use an open fireplace to your advantage. Hurl wooden objects at your opponents. Fighting in a windy field? Create a tornado or something like that. Fighting in snowy mountains? Hail storms on enemies. It might not do great damage, but might slow or lower vision of enemies. Fighting near a river? Summon a water elemental, or drown enemies.

 

 

Another type of mage would have nothing to do with elemental magic. It could be more disturbing stuff. Spells that scares enemies, sucks their life force, shadows, insects, summoning wierd creatures.

[Zephyr Falcon]

I want a Spell Blade!

 

A sword in one hand, a spell in the other. He uses his sword to channel magic in a very direct and painfull way. Magic is also used to distract opponents and gain advantages in the battles. On the other hand he's far squishier than other frontline fighters, not at least because of the restriction to the lighter armours.

 

This class may or may not be based on awesome visuals in my head

[eimatshya]

There was a thread about classes a while back:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60292-classes/page__hl__classes

 

Anyway, here's a modified version of what I proposed (I'm not sure if this system would be too detailed for the scope of P:E, but here it is anyway):

 

Warrior - Relies on martial techniques. The Warrior subclasses/specializations would be:

• Knight - Uses heavy arms and armor; has abilities focused on direct attacks and damage mitigation
  
• Auxiliary - Uses light arms and armor; has abilities focused on teamwork with other party members and damage avoidance
  
• Archer - Uses bows and crossbows; has abilities related to ranged combat and escaping from attackers who close to melee range
  

Wizard - Relies on magic in combat; the Wizard specializations are:

• Necromancer - uses death magic to harm or heal and to communicate with/summon dead souls who have not yet been reincarnated
  
• Animist - communes with the spirits infusing the world and manipulates spirit energy; can draw out spirit energy to heal wounds
  
• Elementalist - harnesses the power of the elements
  
• Sorcerer - affects the minds of others with his magic (can hypnotize/dominate enemies, put people to sleep, or drive them mad)
  

Rogue - relies on stealth and trickery to debilitate or incapacitate foes; the Rogue specialties are:

• Thief - can hinder foes through an assortment of dirty tricks; can steal items
  
• Assassin - uses precise strikes to vital points to quickly fell adversaries; can make poisons
  
• Ranger - lives in the wild places and uses traps and ranged attacks to overcome enemies; can make curative poultices
  

Templar - A character who mixes martial and magical techniques in combat

• Holy Knight - a paladin who uses martial might to slay adversaries and white magic to heal the wounded
  
• Hell Knight - the Holy Knight's dark mirror; uses martial might to devastate foes and black magic to siphon life from one being to another (usually him/herself, but it could be used to heal others)
  
• Berserker - Draw spirits of war into themselves to attain a state of singleminded fury wherein they become killing machines who are almost immune to pain or injury
  
• Warden - A fighter who protects the wild places; can use nature magic and can take the form of various animals
  

Alchemist - A character who uses a mix of magic and technology (e.g. bombs, guns, potions, mutagens)

• Chemist - Can create bombs and potions for any situation
  
• Witch - Ingests mutagens to temporarily gain superhuman martial abilities in combat
  
• Artificer - Design and use magic infused contraptions to give themselves an edge in battle (think of the tech skills in Arcanum; the artificer can fuse magic and technology to make things like the Chapeau of Magnetic Inversion)
  

The Artificer may not be setting appropriate, but I came up with it when we know almost nothing about the world other than that it would have dwarf rangers.

 

Anyway, I also think it would be interesting to get some unconventional classes, as well.

[Bill Gates' Son]

I would defintely like to see clerics in this game. Not the "priests" in robes you usually seem in games like WoW, but the D&D style clerics based on templars from RL. In other words, the cleric should have a mace, a shield, armor, and draws magic from some divine source which can either be used for healing, buffing, defiling, or destruction.)

Edited September 24, 2012 by Bill Gates' Son

[NerdBoner]

I'm honestly not too concerned with this so long as the classes aren't rigid.

 

even if we stick with the 3-4 classic ones of: Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric i'd mainly like to see combinations of these classes.

 

~I'd want a fighter who can focus magic through his sword

 

~a thief who was an expert duelist, single weapon style, light armor no shield

 

~a wizard who could sneak and hide

 

~a cleric who could pick a lock

 

little things like that which could allow me to build a "me" character...I don't want to be too limited, if i have the stats potential and a proper tutor i want to be able to learn the skill.

[Badmojo]

Thief

Assassin

Necromancer

Cultist/priest (tap into god/priest/demon/diety power)

I also liked what the person mentioned above about manipulating shadows for thief/assassin (like teleport from one shadow to the next, create shadow wepons/monsters, invisible in shadows etc)

Constructor - make artificial creatures, like elemental golems, flesh golems (frankenstein monsters from collected body parts)

Social (non violent) character (seducer, blackmailer, intemidator, investigator, genius...etc)

[gglorious]

I think a lot is going to set by magical flavorings. I think there have been multiple class threads started at various times as well on this topic.

 

So, here's the deal: you're probably going to have a class using brute strength. They might be a very traditional warrior type. They might be more like a barbarian and fueled by rage. They might be more like a paladin and channel some degree of power through them. They might even be more twisted, so they might actually focus on body alteration, and get tougher by becoming more than normal(either through runes/tattoos or physical mutations). But, their strength will be their strength.

 

I'd like to have something more monk-ish be a major class. So, I don't necessarily mean that they're unarmed fighters, but rather their strength is their obsessive discipline and focus. So, a monk/weaponmaster kind of class. They may also have paladin-ish tendencies as well, depending on how we'd want to flavor them. However, they may have some transcendence based powers, but also some ridiculous skill based specializations.

 

I also like magic knights. I think we should have something that counts as one, preferably without being too associated with "divine/healing" powers. So, a fighting/magic class that may be really good in blades and armor, but that also can pull off buffs, debuffs, close-range magical attacks, and perhaps even transform into some uber-fighting monster. Something that really feels like a natural fit, rather than a nerfed fighter and a nerfed mage put together.

 

I think rogue-based classes can be lumped also with swashbuckler/duelist type classes. There is no need for a skill-monkey class, so whatever remains is going to be another form of fighter. There are lots of different flavorings that could be given as well. I mean, this class could just be finesse fighters, it could be assassin-y, it could be shadow magic, etc.

 

I think in terms of the magic, we can go all sorts of crazy directions though:

So, one class focuses on physics-y magic(fireballs, conjurations, transmuations), another class focuses on life-y magic(necromancy, healing, nature powers), and maybe a third class on mental powers(misdirection, manipulation, mental/spiritual harm).

 

Or maybe we have a dark magic based class(hell magic, necromancy, etc), and another class on holy magic, and a third on nature magic.

 

Or maybe a magic class that focuses on very abstract magical powers. So, maybe they do direct magical damage, conjuration, and maybe even some really bizarre alterations to reality itself.

 

Maybe even a class focusing on ghostly and spiritual powers.

 

I mean, one thing I think needs to be done is that a proper balance is given for magical powers. So, "darkness" shouldn't be more common than "light" in magic.

 

I think a "constructor" could be interesting, probably not literal construction as that creates a "collect these in order for your character to work' making it not very player friendly to those who just want to grab and go, but a class that focuses on having other creatures do the fighting could be very interesting to play. You'd have more distraction tactics, and meatshields involved.

 

I think if we could avoid putting an overly traditional spin on magic, then that would be great. In fact, we'll probably find it hard to avoid some traditional directions, but taking those traditional ideas and putting them into a less traditional direction would be the better way to go.

 

So, reality alteration, or even metamagic magic(as mentioned earlier) would be wonderful. Psychologically oriented magic would be a very interesting direction to go, whether it is psychic or even passion manipulation(as mentioned earlier). I'd oppose a straight-necromancer on flavor reasons, but maybe a spiritually oriented class very similar could be just as good. So, instead of just being "necromancer" he also deals with spirits from the afterlife, and plays a positive role as a speaker for the dead instead of a manipulator of unlife. Even making the cleric class more flavorful(cultic elements? Fundamentalist tendencies? Non-religious religion?) would be wonderful.

 

One idea that I find interesting(just to digress) is having druids that don't really support natural balance. So, instead of fighting for nature, or fighting to represent nature in man's interest, they fight for domestication and their druidic powers stem from their efforts to tame nature to support human desires and they want to put animals and plants into either a symbiotic or a subservient position to mankind. We may still want the traditional druid, but I think the notion of "nature-tamers" could be an interesting touch and a bit of a deconstruction of the traditional role of the nature magic person.(Maybe even quests where a "druid" is destroying the forest by mutating the animals into freakish creatures)

[incubus9]

I personally prefer that there are a limited number of classes with a small number of sub-classes or kits underneath them. Most of my ideas have already been posted, but I would like to add one thing.

 

Soul Mage - A mage who is by sheer force of his will able to manipulate the energies in other souls nearby him. A Soul Mage is able to affect enemy characters with soul crushing fear or unimaginable bliss. He is able to bolster allies will as well. Through the darkest of arts a Soul Mage may draw the souls of others into himself to heal wounds.

[jb.]

I'd actually rather see very few classes. Instead, have the characters extensively customizable by having all the skills/abilities/spells intertwined with each other (for example, each different fire spell a mage knows gives him +1 damage from fire spells)

 

For example, want the 'Elemental mage, fire' class? Just make a Mage and acquire mostly fire spells. He has the advantage of dealing more damage, but sacrificing versatility.

Or a 'Summoner' mage class. Make a Mage with lots of Summoning spells; perhaps each Summoning spell increases his summon duration by 2 seconds, or whatever.

 

Aforementioned "Hell Knight"? Make a Fighter and give him a few evil spells. Any class could do magic, but mages would just be way better at it. Some spells could even be targeted towards being more helpful to fighters than mages.

 

Maybe this is a terrible idea, I haven't really thought it through, but the point is that this approach allows a wide range of specializations and the ability to mimic "multiclass" without having an absurdly convoluted class list.

Edited September 24, 2012 by jb.

[nikolokolus]

Assuming the three major archtypes will be warrior, wizard and rogue and each of those can be specialized in some way, then other classes should be distinct, sort of like the ascetic monk from the original 1st ed. AD&D or the ultimate jack-of-all trades Bard (not based on the rogue archetype in D&D but more in line with the historic warrior-poet, scholars from Celtic history.

[Gorth]

My *preferred* list of classes (we don't know if people can multi or dual class yet):

 

• Torturer - Somebody who specialises in inflicting pain, breaking or crippling souls. Specialises in techniques that disables opponents and renders them cooperative
  
• Highway man - Your basic thug, that clubs people over the head and takes their valuables. Mediocre in a fight, but damn the dropped loot is good
  
• Scholar - Somebody with almost supernatural prescience, able to analyse, evaluate and anticipate things because of a wast repository of knowledge. Somebody who can have a conversation with most people, commoners and nobles alike
  
• Hunter - Somebody who specialises in ranged combat and traps. He/she can subsist of the land and don't really need all the frilly bits you can get in cities. Pretty good at maintaining non-metal armor and weapons
  
• Smith/Artisan - Somebody who can make just about anything out of metals. The best equipped fighter (not necessarily the best fighter) around. Plate's got a dent? He'll fix it and embellish it with a protective rune to boot
  
• Missionary - A zealot that wants your soul for his/her deity. No trick too cheap, no method too brutal. Also pretty good at the soul healing stuff, as long as you are on his/her good side.
  

 

Just some ideas, trying to explain my line of thinking. Some may be similar to archetypes, yet trying to adapt them to a new setting and free them a bit from moral values.

[Merin]

It really depends on what the system and game mechanics are...

 

but on a much more simplified, broader level, I'll try and list the "classes" I would like to see.

 

There's a lot of stuff I'd like to see tossed aside and have them build up some more interesting alternatives.

 

For one - get ready to hate me, 3E D&D fans - I want no multi-classing and no prestige classes. Make each class, by itself, worth taking and worth following through. Also, since it's a more limited budget and scope - don't take the time needed to balance multi-classing.

 

For two, continuing the previous thought, make each class it's own interesting and unique thing. Don't make mushy classes that are just kind of mixes of each other. Fighter, fighter/cleric, cleric, cleric/mage, mage, mage/thief... yeah, none of that. A good way to start would be to make at least some of the classes race, and more specifically, culture based. Like that dwarf ranger being based in the region she's from. Oh, wait, ranger... right... I'm fighting a losing battle here...

 

I guess those are the broad strokes.

 

I'm hesitant to even go down a path of "what I'd like to see" more specifically simply because I've no idea what the overall world and game mechanics and story are.

 

I guess, what we know about souls, I'd wager that "soul" will be some kind of measure of options. A resource or meter. So spells will drain it, perhaps, or all characters will get supernatural things they can do. How much that shapes classes, I cannot guess.

 

Clearly they will have the archetypes (again, we've been shown a ranger - of course, that term can just be a descriptive and not a class but still) so we can expect at least a fighter type, a mage type, and a rogue type. Whether there's an actual "cleric" class depends so much on how magic and gods work in the world. Almost as certain is that any more classes you have will be variations on those three types. Beyond that...

 

without more information, I refuse to even try and wish.