Coolest, most unique classes/jobs in RPGs

[rusty_shackleford]

Templar, which was basicallt a mix of Cleric and Commissar. In addition to Cleric spells (which you received by serving the arch-wizard leading your city),

But it leaves you quite vulnerable to political intrigue. More than a few times in the lore those wizards get removed and their templars end up losing their powers iirc.

 

[Peachcurl]

Streets of Rogue has some pretty dope classes. Like Shapeshifter, Slavemaster or Zombie.

 

[Gregz]

For cool, it's hard to beat the Street Samurai

 

[DemonKing]

The most unique job is CRPGs is the guy who goes around and keeps all the torches alight in every cave and dungeon you visit.

 

[Alex]

(...) More than a few times in the lore those wizards get removed and their templars end up losing their powers iirc.

Yeah, but I can't help but feel this is mostly because TSR was committed to the captain planet bullshit aspect of the setting while also failing to support an actual campaign for the setting. And that is not even going into how silly it would be to update the campaign setting removing the wizard-king a player follows without ever giving him the opportunity to do anything about it. That would be the tabletop version of killing a PC during a cut-scene. Once a campaign is running, it would be silly to force it to follow some supplement or other just because it was published.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

(...) More than a few times in the lore those wizards get removed and their templars end up losing their powers iirc.

Yeah, but I can't help but feel this is mostly because TSR was committed to the captain planet bullshit aspect of the setting while also failing to support an actual campaign for the setting. And that is not even going into how silly it would be to update the campaign setting removing the wizard-king a player follows without ever giving him the opportunity to do anything about it. That would be the tabletop version of killing a PC during a cut-scene. Once a campaign is running, it would be silly to force it to follow some supplement or other just because it was published.

It gives DMs a powerful tool to temporarily weaken their players though.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Once a campaign is running, it would be silly to force it to follow some supplement or other just because it was published.

Off topic but that reminds me of the 3rd edition release of Dragonlance. In that setting wizards couldn't get past a certain level without joining one of the three wizard schools (red, white, or black), but in the lore of the setting when that sourcebook was printed the wizards' towers had mysteriously vanished or some shit. So playing a mage meant you were subject to a level cap with no recourse. Insane.

 

[Humanophage]

Not exactly a class, but KotC2 approaches psionic power point pool in an interesting way. You can have a real psionic and a psionic warrior, which is a fighter who self-buffs with psionics. The warrior has a low power point pool, being relatively "dumb", and getting points in intelligence is implausble (or he'll be physically too weak). But the real psionic has an ability that transfers PPs to other characters, effectively lifting the power point restriction on the warrior. I thought it was a fun synergy between classes and the Psionic Warrior is conceptually interesting because he can't function well without another class.

Shapers in Geneforge are definitely both pretty cool and somewhat original. They make creatures, including sentient ones, leading to them effectively being slave owners, a major theme in Geneforge. From a gameplay view, their creatures address an important niche between summoned units and actual characters, since the first are so entirely expendable that you do not need any tactics or preservation for them, while the latter are so unexpendable that you can never permit them to die in most games. Some games like Conquest of Elysium have an artificer or a necromancer that act a bit like this.

 

[Tony]

Darklands had some pretty weird classes. I can't remember any off hand, but I believe I had one guy that was only good at prayer at church for good things to happen to my group. I haven't played it for probably 20 years, so that's all I remember.

I strongly dislike the idea of a class in a tactical game that requires me to check the level of all enemies, then my people, and all that. I want to hit a button and bad things happen to the bad guys, or good things happen to the good guys. Checking area of effect is okay, but beyond that the class described in the original post seems like a hassle to me.

Anarchy Online had some very interesting classes, (and strange takes on standard classes). The adventurer was a lot of fun. Same with a lot of the Shadowlands classes.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Barbarian

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

Blood mage

 

[aloeh]

Not really a RPG, but I loved the idea of the Mecromancer class in borderlands 2

 

[Raghar]

Once a campaign is running, it would be silly to force it to follow some supplement or other just because it was published.

Off topic but that reminds me of the 3rd edition release of Dragonlance. In that setting wizards couldn't get past a certain level without joining one of the three wizard schools (red, white, or black), but in the lore of the setting when that sourcebook was printed the wizards' towers had mysteriously vanished or some shit. So playing a mage meant you were subject to a level cap with no recourse. Insane.

Couldn't they used tents for stuff they used towers before?

 

[gurugeorge]

The Bard.

*runs and hides*

 

[Lhynn]

Crushmaster, so unique the world wasnt ready for it.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Darklands had some pretty weird classes

Darklands is classless, it's loosely based on the Traveller RPG system.

I always enjoyed Kingdom of Loathing's classes: Pastamancer, Disco Bandit, Accordion Thief, Sauceror, Seal Clubber, Turtle Tamer.

The Jobs in Yakuza 7 are also similarly funny, because they're literally just jobs. Hostess, Foreman, Breakdancer, etc.

I also enjoy games where you unlock a bunch of classes in order to combine into super classes, like DQ7 and Wizards and Warriors. Underrated gameplay mechanic really. I think the Japanese tier 3 mage class in DQ7 is "Heaven and Earth Thunder Master" which was localized pathetically as "Druid" or "Summoner."

 

[Grampy_Bone]

In terms of actual unique mechanics, the SaGa games have some interesting ones:

-Robots: Don't level up, gain more stats from equipment, can learn moves from other robots
-Monsters: Transform by eating other monsters.
-The Alkaiser: Superhero with a secret identity, can't transform unless all allies are dead or blinded (lol).

 

[Vic]

Nobody mentioning the mythic paths from wrathfinder?

 

[notpl]

Nobody mentioning the mythic paths from wrathfinder?

Meh. Plenty of games let you be a lich or a demon. Aeon and Azata are pretty unique, but Azata is stupid and Aeon's powers were a bit lame.

 

[notpl]

To contribute to the topic, I'm fond of the Exorcist from Bravely Second: End Layer. Its gimmick is that it can revert any character's (friend or foe) variables - HP, MP, action points, whatever - to a previous state ranging from 1 to 3 turns prior.

 

[3 others]

Jew

 

[Blutwurstritter]

I like the idea behind Witchers and would like to see a game that focuses more on the day to day business of killing monsters, solving mysteries and the preparation of your tools using alchemy and mutations.

 

[deuxhero]

To contribute to the topic, I'm fond of the Exorcist from Bravely Second: End Layer. Its gimmick is that it can revert any character's (friend or foe) variables - HP, MP, action points, whatever - to a previous state ranging from 1 to 3 turns prior.

The foe part sounds largely useless unless there's one of those bosses that uses a one time healing spell to artificially inflate its HP bar or the AI tries to bank action points.

I think the Japanese tier 3 mage class in DQ7 is "Heaven and Earth Thunder Master" which was localized pathetically as "Druid" or "Summoner."

Despite dramatic literal translations "Heaven and Earth" just means "Top and Bottom" or "All-encompassing". "Heaven and Earth Forbidden" is the literal meaning of the characters in "Don't turn upside-down", and when romanized one might recognize it as the name of an influential harem comedy manga.

 

[The Limper]

I always wanted to play a ‘Knight who says Ni’!

 

[Humbaba]

Wizardry Samurai tbh, it's a very unique take on the glass cannon archetype that's usually filled by barbarian. It's thematically accurate since samurai fights (in literature and myths and such) are all about one hit kills, which is modelled by the kirijutsu skill, arguably the Samurai's most defining trait.