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The masters of music and story, the Bard classes use their Songs and Trickery to entrance and beguile their foes. They are the ones who are the Taunters, the ones who can easily chat up their foe and serve as a distraction so that they can lure them into being attacked by their other party members, or just so they can sneak by safely should they need to.


However! The standard title of "Bard" will get one laughed at and underappreciated. Why? Because if you're addressing yourself as a Bard, you're basically saying to people, "I'm a rookie! I'm still a student!" and you're not going to be taken very seriously as you're still essentially in college and still learning the basics of your craft. Once you complete your training at whatever school you attend/under whatever teacher you serve, you are no longer under the title of "Bard", but are addressed as a "Minstrel". And from then onwards, you're taken more seriously and you can (naturally) learn more and better skills. However, the Bard classes are usually not adventurers, and certainly aren't heroes. Not to say, of course, that they can't be good, helpful people... but they're not the sorts who usually end up in legends and history, and instead they tell said stories to people. If they do seek to explore new places, it's usually on the quest to find more stories to tell rather than to make their own. Their Songs, under proper training, can inspire strength and vigor in their comrades, make their foes ears bleed, heal wounds, calm one's mind and remove status conditions, and even call down Fire, Ice, Thunder and other Elements.

The masters of arcane Incantations, they are the hard hitters in terms of magic. The Mage classes are able to control just about all the Elements in the world, with the exceptions being Sound (what the Bard classes use), Physical (which is what is handled by the Knight classes), Light, Spirit and Nature (which are handed by the Priest classes).  Magically strong but physically weak, as you would expect.


As with the Bard above, being addressed as a Mage conveys the same unimpressed reaction as being just a Bard. And just like the Bard, once they graduate and recieve their new title of Wizard, they gain new skills and more respect.  And while some go out and become adventurers and heroes, it's just as possible for a Mage type to never go far from where they began their studies and continue on with their work, passing on their knowledge to any who manage to find them in their lonely towers. They control the Elements of Fire, Ice, Thunder, Water, Earth, Wind and Darkness and they focus entirely on offense, taking down foes with ease.

The masters of healing and protecting through Hymns and the bearers of the Element known as Light. They're more defensive than the Mage, particularly magically wise, but also have a larger general magic pool, because frankly the people who need them need them to do their best. 


Because of this, the Priest classes are respected no matter how much training they've had or what title they hold. After all, even healing the smallest wound or dispelling a simple ailment can go a long way, as left unchecked, it can swiftly turn into a bigger problem. While they may not be much for adventuring often, they're always considered heroes to someone. But just because they're healers doesn't mean they can't defend themselves as the power of Light is more than just a defensive or healing Element, but can also be used to blind and hurt others as well, should it come to that, particularly the Undead or those who dare to wield the Darkness Element. They are also the only ones who can bring back their comrades from death.

The masters of physical prowess, they are the only ones who don't initially learn some form of magic. Instead, they put their Chivalry to the test in battle, relying on the strength of their weapon and shield and them being considered the "tanks" to assist their comrades, even at the cost of their own health. However all that physical defense comes at the cost of being weaker to Fire, Thunder and Water, due to them being the only ones who can equip heavy armor and that also slows them down as well. 


However, one saving grace they have is their passive ability to go into an Adrenaline Rush when low on health, raising their attack and agility so long as they're in danger. As well as that, they are the one who seek out adventure whether it be under fealty to their lord or king or because they wish to strike it out on their own, and it is these noble soldiers and their acts of bravery and honor that are remembered in song and story by the local Bards and Minstrels. Only, that is, if said Knight isn't just a Squire, because while he gets better respect for being a novice than the Bard or Mage, he still is given odd looks and questions if he's not alongside his mentor and, like most novices, won't be taken as seriously as one with proper training would.

So, what exactly is it that I'm concerned about? The fact that I don't have a good idea what comes next. See, all four of those classes are, as you would expect, represented by the four main characters I have in the first game of my series- Alto is the Bard, Minuet is the Mage, Aria is the Priestess and Quintus is the Knight. Alto, btw, is my main main hero. In game, through character development in either sidequests or the main story, their class "upgrades" so to speak to reflect their growth. Alto and Minuet become a Minstrel and Wizard respectively near the end of chapter one no matter what, though the circumstances surrounding that change depending on whether you win the boss fight or not (I'm actually not sure if I want to have both Alto and Minuet fight Maestro Sonorous together or if it's just Alto alone and Minuet has her own boss fight by herself against her mentor, though I think the latter would make more logical sense) as while they don't kill you, as you're not their enemy but just under their teachings at The Academy, you get different scenes afterwards. So that's not so bad! 


However... I'm not sure what really changes. What does Minuet becoming a Wizard do skills wise that's different from her Mage class? And that's not even the end because her big character development sidequest is that she wishes to become an Archmage, which is a Master of All Magic and in this world, the journey takes years to complete. Archmages are rare in this world as most who seek to be one either end of dying in said journey whilst adventuring (though that's always the risk if you go on adventures anyway, Archmage or not) or they reach a certain point on the tier and decide they like it enough that they don't want to go any further. She however, is impulsive and wants to get there as quickly as possible, though if she goes through her sidequest properly, she learns to slow down and not take shortcuts. So she starts out as a Mage, then upgrades to Wizard, then IIRC she gains the Witch class (most likely that focuses on more Darkness Element type skills) and that's as far as she goes for this game, gaining more upgraded classes in each game before finally reaching her goal.


The same somewhat applies to Alto. He's a Bard at the start, gains the Minstrel class, then the Skald class and that's it for this game. I have a list of some skills, most of these will probably be tied to Minstrel, but Skald? What exactly would a Skald do that's different or more powerful skills wise than a Minstrel? I have Element based Songs, so is that what they're based upon? Or should I think of something else? I have the idea in-universe that the Bard classes can cast illusions with the stories they tell that make the room they're in look like as if the listener is right there in that location and experiencing the story first hand so it's as the story is "real" to them. Should it be an actual skill used to Taunt and distract enemies? I also have the Trickery skill type, also Bard class exclusive, that deals with stuff that a Thief would do- steal things, distraction, making the foes turn against eachother -but would it be redundant to what I could do with the Bard classes normally? Like a Corrupting Chime skill that casts Fascination, I fear, wouldn't be much different than the Rumor/Propaganda skill I made. 


Aria. She's gotten off a little bit easier, thankfully. In her character development, she becomes a Druid and then... some sort of class that deals with the Element of Spirit and the Undead that I can't think of a name for. While I have a decent idea on what a Druid could do (Nature magic, so forest-y stuff and maybe something to do with animals too), I have absolutely nothing for the Spirit class thing, not even a name or skill list. As expected, she gets new class upgrades per game, but for now it's just these.


Quintus is the one that worries me the most. He's already a Knight, which is the upgraded form of a Squire (though I do plan on having us play as Quintus as a young Squire during a chapter where he explains his past), but what worries me is the class that comes after that during his character development: The Paladin. I have no trouble thinking of skills for them to learn, but my problem is different from the others. I'm afraid that if I'm not careful, that I'll end up unintentionally making Aria obsolete as a party member. What I had in mind was for the Paladin to be either like the ones in World of Warcraft (my friend basically describes them as Priests who took up armor instead of cloth with better weapons and similar abilities) or the ones in Quest for Glory (rare example of a Neutral Good Paladin instead of Lawful Good that could heal, has two shield effects one for magic the other for physical, could raise their strength, could cast the Paladin equivalent of a Calm spell, has a power that destroys Undead, the power to see into a person's thoughts and see if they're trustworthy, the ability to Sense Danger, the ability to lower enemies morale so they flee instead of fighting you, and the ability to have their weapon be enchanted with holy fire to do more damage) more likely the latter as I first got introduced to the concept of Paladins there. But at the same time, while I like having those ideas, I still want to make it different from the Priest class. Sure, in Quest for Glory, all those abilities are tied to Stamina and Honor, therefore I could just make the difference between them be one uses MP and the other TP... except it's redundant to the Knight, which ALSO only uses TP, and with the Paladin I intend to give them magic of some sort. Yet even still, I don't want to have it be so different from the rest of the classes that you can't even tell that it's a Paladin. Paladins also gain a completely different passive ability than regular Knights, whereas they get Adrenaline Rush, Paladins get Pure Soul which helps resist against another state I have called Corrupted Soul (which Quintus would end up getting if he didn't get said Paladin quest at least started) and protects them against Darkness and IIRC Spirit (AKA the Undead).


"But don't you also have a Spellsword class in your Database, which would make the Knight with magic thing redundant as well?" you ask? Well, yes. But the Spellsword is on a different character (specifically one who is part of the Quintus's flashback chapter) entirely, and Spellsword is moreso a combination of Knight+Wizard than a redundant Paladin class, and Wizards have different skills than Priests as you already know. I also have other classes made for the characters in that chapter that are unique- Ranger is Archer (also exclusive to that chapter) + Knight, Spellsword is Wizard + Knight, Roland is Minstrel + Knight (I think this is a pretty clever name because it's a double reference to both the great hero known as Roland from medieval times AND the synthesizer)... and so on. 


I'm not even sure what comes after the Paladin class for Quintus, but I'll figure out that later. Next game.