DevLog 5: The Classes

The Paladin. A warrior of light, and of the Goddess. Marcus’s default class. It boasts high defensive power, but also the ability to heal and buff. It won’t win battles the fastest, but it will absolutely survive the longest.

In terms of physical skills, the Paladin’s main form of attack is actually their defense; they posses a number of skills that allow them to attack using either their Defense or Magic Defense, instead of Attack. They also have the ability to reduce an enemy’s Attack and Defense, further boosting survivability and providing a bit more damage. Their ultimate skill for this path gives them one turn of complete immunity to all damage and ailments.

For magical skills, the Paladin has access to the best healing in the game, spread over multiple teirs. They also have skills for removing and preventing status ailments, increasing their defenses even further, and the ability to use Light magic to damage foes. Their magical ultimate ability is a high damaging Light attack to all enemies.

Paladins boast an increased Hit Chance over the other classes, and is the only one to be able to use Heavy armor. They can also use General Armor, Light Armor, Small Shields, and Large Shields. In terms of weapons, they can use Swords for an all around boost to Attack and Magic; Flails, which have high attack power; and Hammers, which trade accuracy for a chance to Stun enemies on hit.

Paladin’s highest stat is their HP, followed closely by their Defense and Magic Defense. In exchange, they have terrible Agility.

The Assassin. Not to far off from the Rogues of old, they have a high focus on critical hits and evasion; preferring to not get hit in the first place. They are also the game’s main status effect user, capable of inflicting almost every status in the game.

For physical skills, the Assassin has quite the variety of abilities; from increasing end of battle loot, to poisoning their weapon, to increasing their evasion even more or outright guaranteeing you dodge attacks. They can unleash a flurry of blows, or steal HP from their enemy. For their ultimate skill here, the Assassin gives themselves a buff for 5 turns that gives them a 50% chance to act twice in a turn, and a 25% chance to act three times.

The Assassin’s magic skill tree is where you will find all the status ailments; they have a few spells that deal Dark damage, but it’s mostly Bomb skills that inflict various status ailments on all enemies; from Stun and Paralyze to Blind, Poison, Confusion, or even Charm. Their ultimate magic skill, Chaos Bomb, not only deals damage, but has a chance to inflict any (or even all) of the Bomb status ailments all at once!

Assassins gain a bonus to their Critical Hit Chance, and can wear Light Armor, General Armor, or Magic Armor. For weapons, they have access to Swords for that even Attack and Magic Attack bonus; Daggers, which have low attack, but boosts Agility and gives a chance to act multiple times in a turn; and Crossbows, which trade an Agility penalty for high damage and accuracy.

The Assassin’s highest stat is their Agility, followed by Luck and Attack. Their worst stat is Magic Attack.

Dancers are this game’s resident Magic users; they focus on buffs, debuffs, and elemental damage. But as stated, I didn’t want to just do a regular spellcaster; so instead of casting spells, I did Dances and Songs instead.

That’s not to say the Dancer is lacking in terms of physical attacks. They have a buff that allows them to attack using Agility instead of Attack, and can both buff and debuff every stat in the game. They also have an ability to extend any currently active buffs instead of having to recast them. Their ultimate physical ability is one that attacks foes up to 8 times using their Agility!

Over on the magical side of things is where you will find all of the juicy elemental skills. It starts off with a buff that allows the dancer to not only use Magic Attack instead of Attack, but also imbues your basic attacks with their respective element and gives you resistance to that damage type. Then, you unlock the ability to dispel the elemental buffs for either single target or all enemy damage. The ultimate magic spell is a high damaging, non-attribute attack on all enemies.

Dancers have a higher Evasion chance than the other classes, and can use Light Armor, General Armor, and Magic Armor. For weapons, they can use Swords just like everyone else; but also Whips, which boosts Agility; and Staves, for that Magic Attack and MP boost.

A Dancer’s main stat is Magic Attack, followed by Agility and MP. However, they do suffer from the lowest base Attack in the game.

Barbarian. The definition of “A good defense is a great offense.” They are here to hit hard, and keep hitting hard. You don’t have to worry about taking too much damage in battle if the enemy is already dead.

The Barbarian’s physical skills starts off with a classic: Rage. This increases their Attack even more, but decreases their defense and limits them to making basic attacks. But it also increases their chance to launch counter-attacks. From there, they unlock a lot of different ways to hit things: hit them hard, hit a lot of things, hit a bunch of different things randomly, hit things so hard it heals you, the list goes on. Their ultimate physical skill hits so hard, it has a chance to just outright kill anything it hits.

Even if their focus is on normal Attack, Barbarians are no slouch when it comes to magic either, although their not nearly as good at it as the Dancer. They are also capable of exploiting elemental weaknesses, although it’s mostly limited to single target effects. Their spells use a combination of both Attack and Magic Attack, and can inflict a handful of helpful debuffs. Their ultimate magic skill is a special Rage that massively boosts their stats and renders them completely immortal for a short time.

Barbarians always have a chance to counter enemy attacks, and can use General Armor, Light Armor, and Small Shields. For weapons, they can use Swords for both Attack and Magic Attack; Spears, which have higher accuracy and critical hit chance; or Axes, which increase their ability to counter-attack even further.

Attack is the name of the game for Barbarians, and as such, it is their highest stat; it is followed by HP and Defense; with MP rounding things out as the thing they are bad at.