Bay 12 Games Forum

Promotes from: Mage Trainee
Promotes to: Snake Charmer or Oracle
Weapon skills:
Dark (D) Instruments (D)
Class skills:
Levitation
Battle Caster: If the Sorcerer has an instrument in their inventory that they can wield, they may target themselves with it when making an attack. This uses up 1 QL of the instrument, and the effects take place before the attack is made.

Stats: Similar to the Shaman class, but with more emphasis on defense than offense.

Promotes from: Archer Trainee
Promotes to: Huntsman or Harper
Weapons skills:
Bows (D) Lyrics (D)
Class skill:
Whistling Arrow:
If the Skald has a lyric in their inventory that they can wield when making an attack with a bow, they may apply the effects of the lyric on up to two allies adjacent to the target if the Skald hits. This uses 1 QL of the lyric for each ally targeted this way. The Skald may not target themselves with the lyric, even if they are adjacent to their target.

Stats: Similar to the Archer, only with higher emphasis on skill and speed than strength and defence.

Promotes from: Soldier Trainee
Promotes to: Dragon Dancer or Harlequin
Weapon skills:
Lances (D) Dance (D)
Class skill:
Whirling Dervish:
If the Dervish has a dance that they can wield in their inventory when making an attack at melée range, they may apply the dance to their target. This uses 1 QL of the dance, and takes place after the attack is made.
Flurry of Steel:
The Dervish gains +5 evasion for each enemy in melée range.

Stats: Similar to Soldier class, but with more emphasis on speed and skill than other stats.

These classes are designed to increase the use of performance items, outside of their use by performers. Note that none of these classes can refresh allies, nor can they use their performances in a manner aside from what their class skill permits.
The Sorcerer can only target themselves.
The Skald can target two allies at once, but they must be adjacent to their attack target, and can't target themselves.
The Dervish can only hit their target, and it takes place after the attack itself. They also gain a small boost to evasion the more they get surrounded.
In comparison, the Bard can hit 4 allies at once, far beyond anyone else.
The dancer can hit 2 enemies/allies at once, at range two. While the Skald can match this (and even exceed the range with longbows), they cannot refresh, and the buff uses up QL for each ally, so they burn through their lyrics at a very fast rate, and it doesn't work at all unless they actually hit the target.
Comparing the Sorcerer to the Shaman, the Shaman has higher access to magic than the Sorcerer, meaning that the Sorcerer has to use thier instruments in order to compete, and the GM can always subtly limit which instruments the Sorcerer can gain access to.

Promotes from: Sorcerer
Weapon skills:
Dark Subcategory (B) Dark (C) Instruments (B)
Class skills:
Horseback
Snake Venom:
If the Snake Charmer is affecting themselves with an instrument when they attack, then all active afflictions their target is suffering from has their durations increased by 1. This ability takes place after the attack.
Anti-Venom:
When the Snake Charmer is first affected by an affliction, the affliction's duration is reduced by one.

Stats: Mostly improvements to MAG and RES, along with a bit of SKL and LUK

Promotes from: Sorcerer
Weapon skills:
Dark (C) Staves (C) Instruments (C)
Class skills:
Visions:
If the Oracle has an instrument in their inventory that they can wield when targeting an ally with a Buffing Staff or Healing Staff, they may choose to also grant that ally the effects from that instrument. This uses up 1 QL of the instrument.
Prophecy:
If the Oracle has Buffing Staff in their inventory that they can wield, they may target themselves with it when making an attack if they have a Weapon Triangle Advantage. This uses up 1 QL of the Buffing Staff, and takes effect before the attack is made.

Stats: Mostly improvements to RES and MAG, along with a bit to SKL and LUK

Promotes from: Skald
Weapon skills:
Bows (C) Axes (C) Lyrics (C)
Class skills:
Call of the Hunt:
The Huntsman may now use Whistling Arrow in conjunction with axes. In addition, they may now target themselves with the lyric's effects if they are within range. This takes places before the attack is made, and persists even if the attack misses.
Echos Through the Trees:
The effects from the Huntsman's lyrics now last an additional turn.

Stats: Mostly increases to STR and HP, along with bits in DEF, SPD, and SKL.

Promotes from: Skald
Weapon Skills:
Bow Subcategory (B) Bows (C) Lyrics (B)
Class Skills:
Critical Eye
Chorus of Arrows:
By expending additional QL from their bow, the Harper may attack muliple targets in one attack. These function as normal attacks, drawing counter attacks as normal, but the Harper may only attack each enemy once. Each enemy struck triggers the Whistling Arrow ability as normal. The Harper may target 2 enemies in range by expending 3 QL of their bow, or target 3 enemies in range by expending 5 QL of their bow.

Stats: Mostly increases to SPD and SKL, along with some in STR, DEF, and LUK.

Promotes from: Dervish
Weapon Skills:
Lances (C) Anima (C) Dances (C)
Class skills:
Ancestor's Dance:
The Whirling Dervish skill may now be used with Anima Tomes, and no longer requires the attack to be in melée range.
Elemental Unity:
Once per battle, if the Dragon Dancer has a lance and anima tome in their inventory, they may make an attack that combines the stats of the two weapons, using the better value in each statistic, and adding the special properties of both. The higher of STR and MAG of the Dragon Dancer is added to the attack, and uses the lower of the enemy's DEF and REF. This uses 1 QL from both the lance and the anima tome.

Stats: Heavy increase to MAG, along with increases to STR, SPD, and SKL.

Promotes from: Dervish
Weapon skills:
Lance Subcategory (B) Lances (C) Dances (B)
Class skills:
Critical Eye
Pass:
The Harlequin gains the Pass character skill. If they already possess the Pass skill, the character may immediatly take a new free skill.
Dance of Death:
If the Harlequin deals the killing blow to an enemy, they are immediatly able to make another move at up to their full movement value and make an attack, if able. Any enemy they pass through during this movement is targeted by a dance in the Harlequin's inventory, if they have one. If they have more than one dance, they must use the same dance on all enemies that are passed this way. This uses 1 QL of the dance for each enemy affected this way. Dance of Death counts against the character's limit of two turns per phase, and therefore cannot be refreshed afterwards, nor does Dance of Death trigger if the Harlequin has been refreshed, or already activated Dance of Death in the same turn. If the Harlequin deals the killing blow to an enemy during the enemy phase, Dance of Death triggers at the begining of the next player phase.

Stats: Mostly increases to SPD and SKL, along with STR and DEF.

Of the Sorcerer's promotions, the Snake Charmer gains the ability to abuse afflictions to the fullest, making them powerful users of Ancient magic, as well as reducing similar effects on themselves. Note that Snake Venom increases the duration of all afflictions the enemy suffers from, not just those caused by the Snake Charmer themselves. Makes them great team players with users of dances and ailment staves. They also become the second caster that's mounted, so the Mage Knight isn't so alone.
The Oracle, on the other hand, finally let's the Sorcerer be more supportive, by letting them use instruments on other people through staves. They don't get any bonus with ailment staves because Haspen's alchemist already fills that role.
Note that Prophecy can only be used if the Oracle has a weapon triangle bonus, so Druidic spells actually have a point now. This does mean that Oracles need to carry a crapton of stuff, since to use their full potential they need instruments, buffing staves, and multiple Druidic spells to hit whatever they come across, but they can become very powerful if you can pull it off.

On the Skald promotions, the Huntsman lets them buff themselves and go solo properly, along with giving them axes. I chose axes because Dervishs get spears, and the Dancing Blade already gets swords. The increase to lyrical duration also means that missing the enemy once doesn't screw you over.
The Harper can use Chorus of Arrows to target multiple enemies at once, which is primarily usefull because it lets you buff more than 2 allies at once. With a full shot, you can hit up to 6 allies, which even beats the bard. The odds of people lining up well enough to actually do this is extremely small, however, and will blow through your lyrics like no tomorrow.
Also, since enemies still get counter attacks, you can easily smite yourself with the ability if you aren't careful.

On the Dervish promotions, the Dragon Dancer gains access to Anima so you can throw fire and lightning while debuffing people from a distance, along with making throwing spears viable. The Elemental Unity power probably needs to be written better, as it's quirky. Basically, you takes the stats of a lance and a spell, and take the best of each. So if you're using a heavy-but-mighty pike, and a fast-but-weak wind spell, you take the higher might of the pike, the higher accuracy of the wind spell, and the lower weight of the wind spell to get a fast, accurate, and powerful attack that retains wind's bonus against fliers, and the pike's bonus against mounted enemies. And then you add either STR or MAG to it, and hit the lower of either the enemy's DEF or RES. Note that if your STR is higher than MAG, you still use that, even if you're using a magic lance at a distance. Clearly, this is only once per fight, because otherwise it would be overpowered.
As for the Harlequin, they gain Pass for free, which is mostly just so Dance of Death works properly. Dance of Death is basically a self-refresh power that triggers on killing blows, and lets you debuff hordes of enemies in the process, provided you pass through them. It makes them not really mesh that well with performers, which is intentional, because otherwise it would be majorly overpowered. It already kinda is, since nobody else can self-refresh. Might need to nerf it some.

Originally, the Snake Charmer and Sorcerer had their names switched, since the original concept of the combination of instruments and dark magic came from snake charmers in real life. However, I switched the venom idea to the promoted class, which made the first class more generic, so it made more sense like this. I don't know why I called the Oracle that, I guess I couldn't think of anything better.
The Skald, Huntsman, and Harper went through a crapload of name changes, as I didn't really like any of them. The idea of combining lyrics with bows is the idea that arrows "whistle" in flight. In the original Thief game, you actually got arrows that made a strange noise as they travelled through the air, to distract guards. The Huntsman was originally called a Ranger, but I couldn't remember if that was already taken by something else, and Huntsman sounds more badass. In my first concept of them, they got horseback, but I decided that then they seemed way too much like a Nomad.
The Harper is still a stupid name, but I can't think of anything better. Basically inspired by the ridiculous idea of sticking multiple arrows on a bowstring at the same time. Combine this with a power where you buff allies by shooting jerks in the neck, and boom. Instant class idea.
The Dervish also has a dumb name, but again, I'm uncreative. The idea of mixing spears and dances comes from real life fire dancers. You know, those guys that spin flaming sticks around at really high speed? Anyway, those guys are Dragon Dancers, and the Dervish is the first class of them, before they light shit on fire. The Harlequin basically focuses entirely on being totally surrounded, and striking a ton of guys at once by moving stupidly fast. The inspiration actually comes from Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War, where the Eldar have a unit called a "Harliquin" which has a power called "Dance of Death", where they leap rapidly from enemy to enemy, dealing attacks to them. Seems suitably anime to be in Fire Emblem. But anyway, the names are dumb, and I'd have no problem with them being renamed to something better. (Unless people actually like them, I dunno)