Hi!

Okay, so in this thread I'd like to talk about every class in the game, what they bring to the table, how they are best utilized and so on! So, if you have descriptions of classes you'd like to talk about, feel free to post them here! I'm going to study the information and make a YouTube video on it, hoping to shed some light on this obscure gem of a game!

So, I'll start.

Fighter - Good offense, Good defense. Can wear the heaviest armors and wield the heaviest weapons. Good at defending weaker characters and good damage dealer as well.

Brawler - Great offense, decent defense. Can't wear the heaviest armor but clearly deals the most damage with their combo attacks. Can use some weapons that make them even more effective damage dealers.

Cleric - Typical healer role. Can wear heavier armor so they can suffice on the front-lines, but will not be major damage dealers. Great healing oriented spells.

Alchemist - Expert support class. Can utilize many different types of status-altering spells to make tough battles much easier. Can wield whips and some ranged weapons, but aren't very good offensive or defensive characters.

Thief - Expert at disarming traps. Can wield typical thief-like weapons and hide in the back row with ranged weapons. Not a great offensive fighter but decent. Ideal for people who want the most loot.

Mage - Great offensive caster. Poor defense. Has buff spells and some utility spells that come in handy, but their main draw is inflicting magic damage against single foes or entire rows. Can wield certain ranged weapons when necessary.

Hunter - Can disarm traps but not as effective as a Thief. However, they make up for it with the ability to wield powerful bows that Thieves can't use, resulting in a higher damage output.

Lord - Great offense and defense, with the bonus of learning Cleric spells. Piety doesn't raise quite as fast as a Cleric, but can use all the spells Clerics use with the bonus of being able to wield heavy weapons, heavy armor and continue to be stout damage dealers.

Bard - Excellent support character. Can play instruments and songs that buff your party or debuff the enemy. Can also disarm traps but not as effectively as a Thief.

So, what do you guys have to say about these classes, as well as the classes I didn't talk about? Would love to hear more, and when I get enough info I will make the video. Hope you'll all chip in with your thoughts and ideas about this one. Cheers!! =)

Here are my comments:
Fighter: Gets more HP than any other class at any given experience total. For this reason, Dragonewt Fighters are incredibly useful for their dragon breath (which is based on current HP). Add Cruelty for even more damage. Note that breath damage is capped, so this setup isn't as impressive post game.

Brawler: Haven't used one seriously, but one of only two classes that can get enough AC in the final bonus dungeon. An event in Hostrana yields a very nice "Lower AC ability" ON (hence just called "AC ON") weapon that only faeries can equip, making faerie brawlers a nice choice. (That -5 AC bonus is useful.) Later on, you may want a Devilish Brawler so that you can equip Death Arms without being cursed or having to spend AP to remove the curse. In the final bonus dungeon (8F, I think), you can get an even stronger cursed weapon without being cursed. Unfortunately, they can't equip any AC ON armor. There are some nice Spirit Pact brawlers (including one with 160 turn recovery and only 60% summon resistance). For post game, brawlers need Swallow Killer.

Cleric: A moderately high level Cleric (60-100) actually can be a major damage dealier if given a hammer. Unfortunately, the game is sexist and only allows male clerics to use the Hekaton Hammer (the strongest alchemy compatible hammer), but there is the Aas Shifter which is effective against everything but Gods. Clerics do not need Hand of Kindness to be effective healer (it mostly helps with lower level healing spells), so you can choose instead to go with Chi Wave. Unfortunately, Clerics don't get Physical Attack Power Up.

Alchemist: You want yours to be in a fast leveling race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Hotlet), with Hotlet being my recommendation, so that High Purity Synthesis is more powerful. Do not take Magic Essence: it only works on mage spells.

Thief: I would consider giving a thief spells by class changing or giving her an ability like song of Healing/Protection so that she has something to do. There is one enemy appearing early in the final bonus dungeon that has a couple unique items to steal.

Mage: Nice early on, especially with learning Diomente earlier than anyone else. Less powerful later on, however, as attack magic ends up a little weak. Don Mags makes a great Spirit Pact mage. Just look at that 300% fire/ice attack bonus! (Strictly speaking, an Elf mage can eventually do more damage, but that requires a Rainbow Charm (first available on the 16th floor of the final bonus dungeon as a rare drop) and a 50+ AP material.

Hunter: Pursuit, while useful, can get in the way. If you are trying to Contract an enemy or just want to heal up with Song of Healing, pursuit could end the battle before you want it to end. (Note that I have not actually used this class.)

Lord: From a late post game stance, this class is mainly useful for Court Sanctuary. There is an interesting post game weapon (the Holy Saber) that is only usable by third-gender non-Devilish Good lords. Healing becomes weak post-game without Hand of Kindness (and even then, only heals 20%) unless using Feireed. If you want a more offensive focus, try Valkyrie.

Bard: Will want Magic Essence (which does affect items casting mage spells). Does not naturally get songs, but gets Tarot. (The best uses of tarot, IMO, are eliminating enemy status resists, healing the enemies, and setting enemy AC to -10 (even if lower)) Compared to Thief, is weaker defensively but stronger offensively. In the post game, forget about doing damage with Bard spellsm but status ailments still work OK.

My thoughts on other classes will come in another post.

Valkyrie - can attack ghosts (like Clerics), has Cleric spells and can dual-wield Spears, which makes her a strong physical attacker.

Bishop - can learn Mage and Cleric spells, but has smaller damage/healing bonus at higher levels. He is needed to complete some quests. Also he can identify items free of charge, which isn't much of a perk as gold isn't that mush useful in this game.

Valkyrie: After learning Holy Lance Art, can probably be the best reliable damage dealer. At the point I'm at, a Gungnir or Saint's Spear as a main weapon and a God Slayer (curse removed) could likely outdamage a Golden Axe (best weapon for male fighter, excluding the Mirage Lance). Valkyries and Lords are actually really good at healing starting at level 16 (when they learn Rafaireed), but fall behind in the long run. You will want Swallow Killer or Hand of Kindness later on.

Bishop: Like in Wizardry (except the multiple-of-4 games), bishops are really slow at learning spells. Combined with the fact that they have nothing useful to do in combat, bishops are really lousy until you get to high levels. Furthermore, the inability to use Holy boosting equipment like the Holy Guard, Holy Leggings, and Force Robe puts them at a disadvantage. (Fortunately, they can use Holy Seals, but you will need to do some talisman juggling with them.) At high levels, however, they actually get spell power bonuses (similar to a Cleric and a Mage, but weaker) allowing their attack and healing spells to be more powerful than the other hybrid spellcasters. I love my fairy bishop with Magic Essence. Like Clerics, Bishops do not need Hand of Kindness, but it does help their weaker healing spells. Also, there is a sizable level period (from around several hundred to around several thousand) where a bishop's Rafaireed does not beat Hand of Kindness. Also, bishops get more HP per level than mages, making one of the fairy's downsides not as painful for bishops.

Samurai: At higher levels, are actually a very good defensive class. Swallow Return prevents a portion of attacks from hitting in the first place while attacking the enemy. (I actually killed a Polete Archer that ambushed me before entering any commands.) Also, the best armor seems to be male samurai only. (At least such armore is alchemy compatible so you can remove the sexist restriction.) If you want to get a really good character, Spirit Pact a Nue. This gives you a Samurai whose normal attacks can break enemy's weapons and cause multiple status ailments as well as being able to hit for over 300 damage with Ziakalad. (Unfortunately, the lack of spell power bonuses means this does not scale in post-game.) Early game, Samurai lack Swallow Return, but can cast spells as well as a Bard.

Ninja: A very nice class, with an increased beheading rate (which stacks with behead chance from weapon or Spirit Pact), and thief skills. Very useful. Furthermore, gets AC like a brawler, but gets AC ON armor to improve it further. The problem with ninjas is their tendency to auto-hide. While this sounds nice, it means your Ninja won't get targeted, and quite often (especially if the Ninja is a spirit pact Brainsley), you want your ninja to be targeted rather than your other characters.

I have never used Shaman, and I have so far only used Summoner for Spirit Pact. I did run with summons on a thief for a while, and some summons can be quite useful (Nine-eyes with its two actions and ability to cast Feireed and Pendeku). A few classes are best made via Spirit Pact (Mage, Samurai and Ninja come to mind.)

Thanks for the responses!!

Sarisio, can you post breakdowns like that for every class that you have tried? Stuff like that is very useful as I'm looking for more basic things rather than really specialized info.

I don't see what i can add to what was already described by you and Dtgreene.

And I see Shamans and Servants aren't popular at all :)

Only note, is that you mentioned that Lord's Piety doesn't raise as fast as Cleric, I think it is just RNG-reliant. No matter the class, stats are only limited by race.

And from amount of reloading on level-ups I did, it seems every stat has a chance to go up or down no matter the class or age (though I believe stats have much higher chance to drop at age limit).

It is worthwhile to compare classes that might seem similar at first. Here is a comparison of Cleric, Valkyrie and Lord:
Cleric: Learns healing spells faster than the others, and at high levels, gets a bonus to them. Best healer, and at high levels, decent attacker. Only one of them that can heal effectively at high levels without Feireed or Hand of Kindness.
Valkyrie: Best attacker of the three. Can even outdamage Fighters.
Lord: Actually not that useful until Court Sancturary comes into play.

Comparing the main physical attackers:
Fighter: Pretty basic. Levels faster and gets a higher physical damage bonus.
Valkyrie: Can eventually treat spears as main weapons. Eventually outdamages fighter (especially with a decent sub weapon.) Can go in either row.
Hunter: Good for fighting from the back. Works best if you have characters that can inflect status ailments.
Brawler: Does high damage if lucky, but damage is less consistent than that of a Fighter or Valkyrie.
Ninja: Less damage, more beheading.

Thanks so much for the information, folks! I hope to make a new video sometime soon when I digest this all. =)

Are we sure that Lord's don't gain Piety as quickly as Clerics? Here's the thing. I changed my Fighter to a Lord and leveled him up level 11 already, and he did not gain *one* point in Piety! It was my mistake for not paying attention to the leveling up process, as I should have re-loaded (probably) and got better stat bonuses. It just seems odd that they would level up 10 or 11 times and not gain a single point in Piety. His healing spells are absolutely worthless thus far, and I'm fearing that I sort of *ruined* him.

Thoughts/ideas on this? o_O

My Lord had 17 Piety on Lv10 (yes I keep track of such stuff), so it is totally random. At this level he has access only to first 4 Spell Lvs.

Keep in mind, Lords and Valkyries are not supposed to be spellcasters, they are supposed to be in front and hitting monsters. Thus their main stats = STR, VIT and AGI. Cleric spells are just side bonuses, something they wont be really good at but which is useful when your Cleric/Bishop is in need of help.

Also, though my approach might look tedious, but I always reload when I see loss in some stat on level up (and I don't reload if there are no gains). However, stat losses seem to occur more often when you are stat-capped.

Thanks, Sarisio! Do you think I have permanently "gimped" my character? He's level 11 and his Piety is 7. His healing spells are pretty poor thus far.

Also, how exactly does summoning work? Can someone explain this more to me? Can any character in the monster encyclopedia be summoned? I have yet to roll a Summoner but would like this basic information first. Thanks in advance!!

Nah, you can't really gimp your character permanently, If you will use my approach (reload if you see stats go down), you should be able to get piety back up within 10 levels..

Any creature you can encounter in a battle that has less than 100% summon resistance can be contracted and later summoned.

To make a contract with a monster, you have to cast Contract on the monster, and you then need to get past its summon resistance three times. If you are at least 10 levels higher than the target, you only need 2 successes. Once that is done, you can summon the monster with the same level used to perform the contract. Every level of summon magic is the same, except that you can have a different monster to summon of each level.

Once summoned, the monster goes into a special slot that is treated as being on the front row. The monster will act under AI control, exactly as if it were an enemy, except that it will attack your enemies and use support/healing (if availiable) on your allies, and there are a few enemy only skills they'll never use. (Examples of such skills include Draw and Strange Miasma Wave.) Summoned monsters have infinite MP, but other resources (such as item bag items for monsters with Treatment) are finite.

A monster's HP is calculated when it is summoned. If the monster is summoned later, its HP is recalculated and its resources are refilled. If you pause and resume the expedition, the monster's max HP and resources are again reset.

A summoned monster persists until it is killed, Return (which costs no MP) is cast, the party returns to town, or another summon spell is cast. Spirit Pact will also remove your summoned monster (see my other topic for details on how that skill works).

High level summoners get a High Mastery skill that increases the level of summoned monsters.

Alternatively, once you learn Protectorate, you can use it to permanently boost your stats.

It's especially nice if you have multiple characters who can use that spell.

As a side note, two of the best Spirit Pact characters (Don Mags and Nue) happen to be able to learn that spell.

So, I'm close to having info for every class, but what about Shamans and Servants?? Can someone test these 2 classes to see what they bring to the table? I think Shamans can cast a magic barrier that reflects enemy spells (the enemy Shamans do this a lot in the game), and they can use charms, but I have no idea what they do!

Servants seem to be decent healers and can brew potions. Anything else exciting about these 2 classes??? o_O

Thanks for all the input thus far!! We need to spread the knowledge and word of this game because it's such a fantastically deep and rich experience. =)

I have not actually used Servants, but I do know a few things about them.

Treatment is a passive ability that works at the end of the round. Any character with HP below a certain percent will automatically be healed with a potion from the Item Bag. This uses up the item and you can't turn it off without emptying the bag. Tackle can prevent this, and I believe Unclean Earth can (showing an untranslated Japanese message in the process). Full-Health Potions get used before normal Potions.

Additionally, Servants get a bonus based on their level when using regular Potions. Note that Potions act like healing spells: Piety and Holy attack bonuses affect them, as does Hand of Kindness. I believe a max level Servant will heal around 1700 without Holy bonuses (tested by hex editing), but don't expect to reach levels that high.

A Servant might want to keep some potions out of her bag for when Treatment doesn't work. The bonus to Potion effectiveness still applies, and neither Tackle nor Unclean Earth can interfere.

Magic Herbs are not that useful until you reach the final bonus dungeon. Early on, they're too rare and expensive. Later on, you can just Diomente back to town when MP runs low. In the final bonus dungeon, however, Diomente can't be used and Magic Herbs are common drops on all floors.

As physical attackers, Clerics are better at reasonable levels, but Servants do get Physical Attack Power Up (which Clerics do not). I recommend giving your Servant an ex skill that gives her something to do during combat (like one of the songs).

An interesting alternative to using a Servant is to summon one. A Pixie or Ghost Herbalist can be contracted and later summoned, and will come with 1 Full-Health Potion in its bag to use, as well as status curing items (including petrification!).