Adventurer classes

Shalia, the pink haired girl, waves at Kiara and then asks, "Could you perhaps tell us a bit more about the classes?”

“Good question, Shalia.” Kiara says. “Classes can be a little tricky, so let’s get things cleared up.”

“Let’s start with the fighter class.” Kiara starts her explanation. “The fighter is a class of heavily armored adventurers. Fighters have a large option of weapons they can train in and can even choose whether to focus on offence or defense, though sometimes the skills they receive may make that choice for them. The tricky part comes after the fighter has his choice between offence or defense. Those fighters who focus on offense are often nicknamed warriors while those who focus on defense are nicknamed knights. Fighters who employ spears are then nicknames lancers.”

“So, I can choose to become either a knight or a warrior or even a lancer, but I will always be a fighter?” Wendy asks.

“That’s right.” Kiara replies. “Knights, lancers and warriors all have the fighter class on their adventurer card. But the commoners like to give their own classification on top of that to better understand what which fighter can do.”

“The next class is the rogue. While fighters focus on strength, rogues instead focus on dexterity. They are a lot nimbler and much prefer leather armor over metal, as metal armor makes a lot more noise. They are difficult to spot, even without using their skills, and have an easy time getting in and out of places where they shouldn’t be. They both make for great spies and assassins as well as good counter espionage agents.”

“I don’t like them.” Leona replies. “I hate it when an opponent tries to hide from me.”

“Out there,” Kiara says as she nods with her head towards a window, “You will come across many a rogue who won’t care about your feelings towards them. If you are not careful, they will sneak up on you, even if you think it makes them dishonorable. But if you learn how rogue's fight, studying their skills and behavior, you can avoid getting tricked by them.”

“Let’s do the monk now. Monks are non-magic based combatants, similar to fighters and rogues, except monks have a tendency to not use weapons. They engage in unarmed combat.”

“Wait, hang on.” Ryul interrupts Kiara. “They get to use swords and axes and I have to use my bare hands?”

“They have their hands full.” Kiara replies calmly. “Your hands will be wide open to grab their weapons and disarm them. Don’t worry, Ryul. It won’t be as unfair as you think. Besides, as a monk you also have stances which all other classes lack. These stances are special, as each grants you both a passive ability and an activated ability once you place yourself into that stance. Some adventurers therefore consider the monk class to have an unfair advantage. One more thing, the monk class is special enough that you won’t find any monks among the E and D ranks. Only C rank and up.”

Ryul accepts Kiara’s words, but he still seems a bit down.

“Then there is the archer class. I have always felt archers to be similar to rogues, except they use bows and crossbows.”

“Great, ranged rogues.” Leona groans while rolling her eyes.

“Remain careful when you close the distance, though.” Kiara continues. “Many an archer knows their opponent will try their best to close in, so they often keep a short sword on hand. The higher-ranking archers even tend to wear riveted mail as armor.”

“Now for the beast tamers. The unique thing about a beast tamer is that this is a person that can employ an animal companion. You can tame basically any animal, Miranda. Cats, dogs, birds, just not any civilized creatures like humans, elves or harpies.”

Miranda raises her eyebrows and asks, “But wild animals are fine?”

Kiara smiles and repeats, “Wild animals are fine. Some beast tamers go and out and tame an animal just to come back and sell it. If you ever get low on money, you could try and employ this technique.”

“Oh, before I forget. You had the [mount] skill. That means, if you can tame a large animal, like a horse, a deer or a dire wolf, you can mount and ride it. And while beast tamers can be of any rank, only beast tamers of rank C or higher have ever had the [mount] skill.”

“Sweet.” Miranda smiles.

“Just know that when you come into town riding a mount, people will call you a chevalier instead of a beast tamer. It is basically the same thing as with warriors and knights. People tend to make a difference between beast tamers that don’t have the mount skill and those that do.”

Miranda nods, signifying she understood.

“The next one … ugh.” Kiara sighs. “This one should rarely apply but, for completion sake … the gunner. We don’t see many gunners around here. Rifles are a new invention, made by the dwarves. Ever since then, dwarves and only dwarves have been receiving the gunner class. I’m guessing [Imris] agrees that rifles should be limited to dwarves. Or perhaps denied to the other races. Thing is, when the annual tournament comes around, it is possible for you to face a gunner. Or you could end up going on a quest with such an adventurer in your team. I just can’t tell you much about them because I don’t know much about their rifles. The dwarves have been incredibly secretive about this new weapon of theirs. Anyways, lets move to the magic classes.

“First, we have the clerics. The doctors and nurses among the adventurers. They always have healing magic and when it comes to C rank or higher, they have an extra magic element like mages. B ranks also tend to have the ability to employ protection magic. It is incredibly useful to have a support unit like a cleric on your team and while they can dish out punishment every once in a while, you should not count on them to be the main damage dealer.”

Kiara is right about that last part. I remember how 7 months ago Amelia never defeated any monsters herself, it was always me and Oliver who had to do that. Then again, we rarely went out without Amelia on our team because her healing was much too useful.

“Next there are the mages. While clerics focus on supportive magic, mages do the offensive magic. Though there are a couple mages that are crafty enough to use their magic in defensive ways.”

“Don’t ever think closing the distance between yourself and a mage is a sure way to win.” Kiara says while looking at Leona. “He may have quite a nasty surprise waiting for you, so be careful.”

“Another thing to note about mages is that sometime they will have the [summoner] skill. Those who have will commonly be referred to as summoners instead. They still have ‘mage’ as class on their adventurer card though."

“So, summoners are a like an upgraded version of mages, same as chevaliers are an upgraded version of beast tamers?” Miranda asks.

“I guess you can see it like that, yes.” Kiara agrees. “Though you should be aware that summoners and chevaliers are unofficial class names.”

“Finally, we have the spellswords.” Kiara then announces.

Spellsword? Mia is one of those.

“Spellswords are mostly like fighters. The only differences are that one of their skill/magic slots is filled with a magical element instead of a skill and spellswords are never E or D rank. Always C rank or higher.”

Leona’s ears perk up and she says, “So I am like a stronger version of a fighter?”

“Not quite.” Kiara replies. “Imagine Wendy here has equal martial arts skill as you. Then her [null field] makes it so the light magic you have would be ineffective against her. I feel it is better to see the spellsword as just a different form of fighter. Sure, you will have your advantages. But you will also have your disadvantages.”

“The most important part about the spellswords that you need to remember, is that people love to give different nicknames based on the magic element they have. And yes, Spellswords only have 1 magic element, never more.”

“So, a spellsword who makes use of dark magic is nicknamed a dark knight. A spellsword who uses light magic is then nicknamed a paladin. When a spellsword employs fire magic he is called a crusader. A water magic spellsword is named a templar. A wind magic spellsword is called a blade singer and an earth magic spellsword is nicknamed a sentinel. When a spellsword makes use of necromancy, people refer to him as a **** knight. When the spellsword possesses healing magic he is nicknamed a paragon. Many peasants, however, treat each of these nicknames as their independent classes, but that is not true. Each of these are spellswords and they all abide by the same rules and limitations as all the others.”

Phew, that was a lot to take in. But yes, Mia said something about being a crusader in her letters. Right then, guess that covers all the classes. I sure wish I knew mine.