The skills that come built-in to the RPG Maker database are meant to be examples or tools for early development (they are not interesting nor well-balanced). Therefore, the sets of skills that your characters should be learning, as well as the timing at which they should learn it, are entirely based on the skills you are creating (and honestly, both should be based on the kind of combat experience you want to provide your player).
With that being said, let's take a look at how we might want to design a single combat class. The
Paladin (low attack power, high endurance, high utility in the form of healing/protecting allies) from
World of Warcraft provides a good example. Here are most of the Paladin skills, with a few omissions where they wouldn't translate well from an MMO to a JRPG:
- (Very low level) Crusader Strike - a basic bread-and-butter damage skill. Every class should have have at least a few ways to deal damage to enemies.
- (Very low level) Hammer of Justice - this stun debuff is the first skill that will allow the Paladin to indirectly protect her allies by reducing the enemy's ability to attack.
- (Low level) Flash of Light - for the first time, the Paladin can directly heal her allies, but the heal is less effective than that of a dedicated healer (who has much lower defense).
- (Low level) Hand of Reckoning - a taunt that forces enemies to attack the Paladin instead of her allies. This is the most tactical skill yet, which is why it wasn't introduced at level one.
- (Low level) Divine Shield - a self-protect skill that greatly increases the Paladin's own endurance (but would be overpowered if usable on squishy allies). Would make a great combination with the taunt, which is why you learn them around the same time.
- (Mid level) Lay on Hands - another heal. Normally you wouldn't need two heals this close together in the skill lineup, but this one is unique in that it is extremely powerful but you can't use it twice in a single battle.
- (Mid level) Shield of Vengeance - too complex to explain succinctly, but think of this as a shield plus damage skill.
- (High level) Rebuke - the Paladin's first interrupt. Some turn-based systems allow for this kind of thing and some don't, but think of this as any skill that allows the player to stop the enemy from doing something that the player really doesn't want the enemy to do. It may require the player to understand the enemy's pattern, which is why it's a high-level skill.
- (High level) Blessing of Protection - Remember how I said that an ally-targeted protect might be too powerful? Well here it is. But it comes at a time when enemy bosses can one-shot squishy party members that are unprotected, and it has a very long cooldown.
- (Very high level) Blessing of Freedom - a buff that allows a party member to be more effective. To be honest, there probably should have been a buff earlier on in this list.
- (Very high level) Avenging Wrath - a self-buff that increases the effectiveness of almost everything the Paladin does (damage, heals, protection, etc.). This is a cool "capstone" skill to place at the end because it allows you to look at everything you've been doing to this point in an even cooler light, keeping things fresh for the final stretch of the game when they may have become stale.
