How Many Classes & Multiclassing?

[Frostorm]

Just curious how many (if any) classes people use. And if greater than 1, do you do multiclassing? And if so, how? And by class, anything that fulfills the same function as classes can count.

 

[Kuro DCupu]

You mean for game project?
I kinda have a little bit ocd about making the structure of my project.

Lessee...
I adopt roguelike(?) system where classes are just title that boosts particular skills.
Player has no restriction on what equipment or skill they can use.

When I'm making classes, they all should be distinguishable and fulfilling.
So I categorized classes this way:

Fighter Branch
- Warrior : Adaptable equipment
- Guardian : Heavy equipment
- Predator : No equipment

Deviant Branch
- Rogue : Prefer to fight dirty
- Ranger : Prefer to fight in range
- Fencer : Prefer to fight quickly

Mystic Branch
- Wizard : Elemental magic
- Priest : Holy magic
- Warlock : Dark magic

Life Branch
- Merchant : Like to make money
- Crafter : Like to make stuff
- Bard : Like to make song

 

[Milennin]

Each character is their own class, never allowed for changing in any of my games.

 

[Wavelength]

I always just create one Class for each Character and permanently assign it to them. If it were up to me, the Actor and Class tabs would be merged into one!

 

[Ami]

I use Class as Gender.

• Male are good at Max MP,ATK and DEF
• Female are good at Max HP,MAT,MDF and AGI

 

[Jennavieve]

My characters have a set class. It's more than just their battle skills and equipment, it's part of their personality and backgrounds too. Most of the characters have a class that ties in with their personal story and the overall story as well.

However, my game is only going to be about 2 hours long so multiclassing wouldn't really fit well. If you have a very long game with a super detailed battle system, then multiclassing can be cool too.

 

[MushroomCake28]

It really depends on the game. In traditionally RPG games, I tend to prefer 1 class per character, effectively merging classes and characters like Wavelength. In my current project (a tactics game), classes and characters are separate and all characters can change their classes to anything provided they fulfill the requirements (I have a class branch system). They are also allowed to have skills from one secondary class (skills are attached to classes, so each heroes have skills they learned from their primary class and skills they learned from their secondary class, which they can select like their primary class).

 

[MichaelRIR]

Just curious how many (if any) classes people use. And if greater than 1, do you do multiclassing? And if so, how? And by class, anything that fulfills the same function as classes can count.

16 classes. Zero multiclassing.

 

[Cyberhawk]

One class per character. If the story calls for it, a character might get reclass into an upgraded class that has better stats and adds new skills to show the change that character went through.

The project i was working on in MV had 6 characters and total of 7 main classes. 3 are the main classes and the other 3 have different names with different growths and stats for them. But overall has similar functionality to the first 3. (the seventh being just a story thing.) You can't change the main class at all. Each class also learns their own special passive as their final skill that defines the character and separates them from each other so they will feel more unique.

There are also 9 subclasses (they're based off of the subclasses in Destiny. I've yet to give them all better names.)
Three are assigned to each class.
For the first 3 party members you start with one subclass. You have to unlock the other two by facing trials of the first wielders of that desired subclass. Which are scattered around the world. The bosses use skills of that subclass you unlock as you progress.

For the other 3 chars they already have 2 subclasses unlocked and you only have to unlock the 3rd.
As an example:
(MC) Huntress Starts off with Blade Dancer. This subclass focuses on stealing and damage scaling with SP(TP) and Electric dmg.
Now she has to find the place of the 2nd Trial gives you the Huntress subclass for fire damage, crits and Accuracy.
As passing the 2nd trial gives you the subclass that focuses on debuffing, weakening and dealing Dark damage to foes while buffing allies and avoiding attacks.
Each gains their job points separately and the player can switch between unlocked subclasses outside of battle.

 

[RCXDan]

Generally a character only has their character specific class in my games and that's it.

But the protagonist of my main game is known for being an elementalist, so while their main class doesn't change, they gain new subclasses as the game goes on to sell the idea that they're learning new elements.

Like Chronomancer for Space magic, Witch for Dark magic and so on.

Due to lore reasons and because I don't want to flood the game with features, this class system is something only the protagonist can do. Plus I feel it'll be a good way to make them unique.

 

[Celestrium]

A game I am working on has a lot of classes, and class change is a core mechanic. It has 144, but in truth it has 12. Each character has a variant of the same 12 classes with their character's personality, region, et cetera, impacting their version. I took a lot of time to make each class significant and valuable, but each character unique as well. I used the learn skills and equip skills to emulate secondary classes, as you would learn skills that would give you certain class characteristics in another class.

 

[Frostorm]

I always just create one Class for each Character and permanently assign it to them. If it were up to me, the Actor and Class tabs would be merged into one!

Haha, I pretty much just ignore the class tab, though lately, I've adapted it to be a "Races" tab. So I'll put all the bonuses a certain race gets into that, and any bonuses specific to certain actors in the actors' tab. It's just a bit of organization w/ no impact on gameplay.

In my project, the skill trees replace the function of classes. There are 14 different trees, which I call "Disciplines". The main protagonist has access to all 14, while party members only have access to 3 Disciplines that I've predetermined for them. A single tree/discipline maxes out at 15JP and a character gets 1JP per level, so they'll have 50JP by max level. This is why those party members only get 3 Disciplines. But this leaves 5JP leftover, so there will be a special feature they can learn that costs 5JP called "Spellweaving". This unlocks all the hybrid skills/spells in the game. Each Spellweaving skill would have different Discipline requirements to learn, however. So while the main character has access to all 14 Disciplines, they really only have enough points to master 3.



Example Spellweaving skill:
Blizzard (req. Cryomancy & Aeromancy) - An AoE spell that deals Frost damage and Blinds the targets and applies Chill.

Tbh...I'm considering removing Spellweaving altogether simply because it's a lot of work on my part lol. I would have to figure out what to do w/ the 5 remainder JP though...

 

[Celestrium]

Haha, I pretty much just ignore the class tab, though lately, I've adapted it to be a "Races" tab. So I'll put all the bonuses a certain race gets into that, and any bonuses specific to certain actors in the actors' tab. It's just a bit of organization w/ no impact on gameplay.

In my project, the skill trees replace the function of classes. There are 14 different trees, which I call "Disciplines". The main protagonist has access to all 14, while party members only have access to 3 Disciplines that I've predetermined for them. A single tree/discipline maxes out at 15JP and a character gets 1JP per level, so they'll have 50JP by max level. This is why those party members only get 3 Disciplines. But this leaves 5JP leftover, so there will be a special feature they can learn that costs 5JP called "Spellweaving". This unlocks all the hybrid skills/spells in the game. Each Spellweaving skill would have different Discipline requirements to learn, however. So while the main character has access to all 14 Disciplines, they really only have enough points to master 3.

View attachment 169630

Example Spellweaving skill:
Blizzard (req. Cryomancy & Aeromancy) - An AoE spell that deals Frost damage and Blinds the targets and applies Chill.

Tbh...I'm considering removing Spellweaving altogether simply because it's a lot of work on my part lol. I would have to figure out what to do w/ the 5 remainder JP though...

Wanted to note I like the idea of spellweaving!

 

[lianderson]

I don't do classes! Except on the weekends! But that's only when I want to feel classy!

For the gam mak though... hmmmmmm.... HMMMMMMMMMMMM..... nope, still no classes!

I've burnt them all! All characters can equip anything. Learn anything. Stab anything. Power to the options! Shame to the fearful of freedom, and the lazys who require direction. You need to lift more existentialism! Your meaning is noodles. Avoid cults! Except mine, for it is truth. Good day!

 

[Tech]

I do a sort of pseudo-Job system with Class Rings (grant a level of a class for as long as they're worn), and subclass-granting items. Each subclass item has a qualifier that denotes who can use it: The Knight gets Aegi, the Monk gets Relics, the Mage gets Talismans, and the Shapeshifter gets Totems. I'm not sure if they should permanently grant one of their abilities, however.

 

[NeptuneTron]

The only way I've used "classing" systems has been in my current project. There's 54 classes.

That said, the "classes" are just the concatenation of 3 distinct traits: Strength, Height, and Special. You just take your attribute for all three of those, string 'em together, boom, class selected. Of course, the player doesn't actually interact with these, since they're essentially just identifiers to be used for some of the puzzles...

 

[HarlekinLehl]

They way my classes are set up is as follows: 3 Base classes (Mage, Fighter, Scout) fairly basic.
They all split up into 2 classes when progressing to tier 2. And then each one again splits up into 2 classes for tier 3. I also have a bunch of hidden classes that are not worked out yet.

They way i do it however, is that classes are 90% only passives skills like stat buffs and other things like lockpicking and so on. Active skills are obtained via the equipment used.

 

[zelanius]

I do like the idea of dual and multiclassing similar to AD&D 2nd and 3rd edition. However, given the limitations of my own abilities, I ended up with a class and sub-class system in the main game I am doing (but the game itself gets really complicated to do with my limited skills, so I might put it aside and do a battle-focused short game to show off the battle mechanics first and as extra practice).

In my world, people have certain base classes (I have designed about 18 so far), and can progress through these classes up to the 3rd tier, with the 2nd tier being the key diverging factor (my base Mage class is the most divergent at 5x 2nd tier classes, and has a total of about 100 skills, while my base Mentalist (psionic powers) class has the next most skills, although it is about as divergent as my tank-based classes at 3x 2nd tier class). I am also using Yanfly's Row Formation plugin, and each class performs best in different rows. So, I will list down the my base classes based on rows.
1st and 2nd rows are reserved for summon actors (I initially used SRD Summon Core, but due to some plugin conflict, I ended up eventing the summons instead), with the 1st row being a lot of tankier than the 2nd row
3rd rows are the tank classes, each with their own style of tanking (I also used Ramza's Shield Block and Parry Chance plugins), so they can either simply have high defense and HP, able to use shields, high evasion, or can parry
4th row is where I get the main nukers like my Mage and Mentalist (although depending on class progression, they can become DOT specialist, which are good against high defense enemies, buffers/debuffers, etc), buffer/monster interaction classes like the Hunter (currently, the main monster interaction is that without this class, the party cannot recruit animals or monsters into the party), weak but sustained buffs/DOT/debuffs/heals from the Performer (who can also go DPS route as a Dancer, or keep up their niche with Bard progression), and a specialist healer in the Medic (but as they uses science, nothing too fancy) who can also progress in the Chemist route and become a monster with their status attacks
5th row is the range DPS mostly i.e. the Sniper and Tinkerer classes (using Bows+Crossbows and Firearms respectively, with Tinkerer also having some "mage" type abilities through technology and able to progress similarly), and nukers like the Dilettante (which are capable of all sorts of skills, but they have lower stats, crap defense, and are also Crossbow specialist with their own physical skills), Scholar (basically the Blue Mages of my world); Melder (similar to the Dilettante, but focus only on magic and psionic skills and no physical or science/technological skills, making them less versatile, but also easier to build and have better stats)
6th row is almost pure support, namely the Healer who specialize in "mage" type healing (so are a lot more powerful than Medic, but crappy offense and only have 2 attack skills, and both same element, making their offense non-existent if they meet enemies that null or absorb that element), Acolyte who can pray for various effects, but need to build up their power in combat, so the more powerful skills can be really infeasible (priest in training, and since my world is polytheistic, there are many deities so many effects can happen depending on the deity you pray to), and the Tactician, who is mostly there to give some buffs, some heals, but have really unique buffs that applies party wide, but also 1 unique DPS skill that does damage on an element that is very rare to have resistant to, being the physical damage equivalent of an Infinity+1 element

Add to that, there are various subclass available based on the base classes, which can supplement the skills (again, my Mage base class has the most variety, in part because of the 100 skills).

However, no 2 classes is the entirely the same, so, even if they seem similar in the base classes, the subclasses can change them mechanically or add abilities that cannot be found. One example is that my Mentalist class can be taken up the Kinesticist route, which is elemental base, and have skills that appear similar to Mage classes if taken up the Sorcerer or Shaman route (elemental nuker and elemental DOT respectively), but they are unique in that their skills can be toggle between single or multi-target (Sorcerers have to learn two different skills for that function, because Magic A is Magic A), and they have different elemental DOT compared to the Shaman. Therefore, even if roles are duplicated across characters, it is not disadvantageous at all, because in the case of multiple elemental DOT, they stack in my game, and a Kineticist and a Shaman can basically load up bosses with enough DOT to kill them in a few turns if they so choose to.

 

[Lihinel]

I used dual classes for my old main project which is in hiatus.
For the current one I don't really use classes, but 1-2 out of 20 elemental types and STABs like in Pkmn.

 

[Seacliff]

At the core, there are three class roles. DPS, Tank, and Support. Having more than three classes means you have at least multiple variants of one of those.

Which isn't bad design at all or anything, in fact, it spices up the gameplay.
A Fighter class can be a DPS class that deals a good amount of damage without expanding resources, while a Wizard can be a DPS that deals much more damage at an expense of a resource (MP).

A Tank could focus on diminishing the attacks it's receiving, or an evade tank will have a high percent chance of avoiding that damage altogether.

A Support could focus on buffing and healing it's allies, or debuffing and inflicting status effects on it's enemies.

So off the bat, that's six class ideas. And that's not considering mixing two roles, which can add a lot of interesting party-building options for games where you have a limited number of characters in your party.

I've only made one small game with a class system, but I think at the absolute most I wouldn't go beyond 20. Stepping on other role's toes is fine, but if there's too many toes stepping on one another the system just comes off as messy.