Chapter 3: Trainer Classes
Before we jump into the classes, there are a few more Edges and Features. By which I mean 1 Edge and 3 Features.
The Edge is Weapon of Choice, which gives you a bullshit +2 bonus vs being disarmed. If you would be disarmed, you can pay 1 AP to not be disarmed anyway. There's the aforementioned feature tax on Arcane Weapons, as well as a Smith feature that lets you make fine weapons and heavy armor and shit. Lastly, we have Type Sync, which requires an Elemental Connection, a Type-linked class like Type Aces and Elementalists, and Adept Medicine/Occult/Tech Education. You just replace up to 4 of your Pokemon's types with the one you're connected to. That's cool, but this is all? Jeez...
We start off with the
Berserker. Like all of the classes in this book, this one focuses on trainer combat. You pick up the move Rage when you get in, which puts the Enraged condition on you while you attack. You get a bunch of bonuses while you're raging like DR and Priority in addition to Fainting at -50% HP instead of 0%. They can add +X to the Damage Base of all their weapon moves, where X is how many Injuries they have... so if you lived on the edge you could be cranking your moves up so Rage does as much damage as Hyper Beam. This guy can't do shit but fight, but he will blender most things in front of him. It's worth noting that all the classes in this book also give out stats, so a maxed out Berserker has 7 more HP than if he was a different class.
The
Rune Master is an Unown specialist, which is actually sort of creative. You gain the ability to Gather Unown as if you were a level 20 Pokemon, and your Unown can be Letter Pressed into a Prime Unown, discussed earlier. You can also learn Hidden Power and, once per day, reroll the Type of you or your Unown's Hidden Power. You also gain the ability to place Glyphs, which you can see, hear, and speak through, by placing an Unown against a flat surface, as well as Alarm Runes, Explosive Runes, and Sentry Runes, which are applied to Glyphs as triggers. Alarm Runes have a range of 30 meters and you can hear it in your head regardless of the distance and if you have 1 AP bound. Explosive Runes lets your Glyph use Hidden Power regardless of distance, and Sentry Runes cause a Glyph to turn back into an Unown which can fight on its own without you commanding it. After any of these triggers, the Unown disappears back to Unown Space forever. Finally, there's Words of Power, which lets you alter the range on Hidden Power, changing it from a Burst into a Melee, 6 meter ranged attack, or Cone 2 attack, also giving you and your Unown STAB on all types of Hidden Power. This is an odd class and could go further based on canonical showings of the Unown, but it's still pretty neat overall.
The
Arcanist is our ranged blaster class. They need to eat the feat tax from earlier and they can make Soul Bonds with an Arcane Weapon, making them stronger as you level and allowing you to Force Pull it from 10 meters away. Most of the class is based around Power Manipulations, which have 2 ranks and can be applied to most Special moves, not just Arcane moves. However, the class itself doesn't give out any moves, so you'd need to pick them up from elsewhere. Despite one of the features being called Metamagic, none of the Power Manipulations are as cool or strong as actual metamagic. This is a surprisingly weak class for someone who fires off magic lasers all day.
The
Fortress is the tank class. They get to Mark people they attack and are adjacent to, and those guys take up to -6 on their Attack Rolls, depending on your Focus rank. Because we can't have nice things, other Marks overwrite yours. A -6 on a d20 roll, factoring Evasion, isn't too bad of a penalty, but I've seen the Tome Knight. I know what's up. The Fortress can also deal more damage to people faster than them OR be immune to crits, give everyone adjacent to them up to 6 DR, ready their Shields as a Swift Action and use it to "stick" to an ally, moving with them, smack Marked targets while adding their DEF to damage rolls, and completely negate one Persistent Status AND one attack per scene. The Mark could be better, but this class definitely does what it's supposed to.
Do I spy some Unlimited Gun Works here?
The
Marksman is the ranged class. They inflict triple damage on crits, can sacrifice their Shift action for +2 Accuracy & Crit range, fire off two Struggle Attacks at once, place an "overwatch", which is a 3x3 area where you can make Ranged Weapon Attacks against anyone moving in it, negate Evasion on targets not near walls or other people, Trip people at range, and their capstone is that weird thing where they declare their action on their turn and actually go at the end of the round, moving and hitting something, rolling twice to hit and critting if both do hit. Again, I don't think this class goes far enough, but again, it does its job of letting you waste fools from up to 12 meters away.
The
Skirmisher is our Dex fighter, basically. They can dodge easier or deal extra damage to people slower than them, Disengage as a Swift Action, get free AoOs on people who miss them in melee, smack a dude and make him Flanked, Slowed, and unable to use Priority or Interrupt moves, Trip people while using Weapon Moves, add their Evasion to accuracy rolls, and make any of their Weapon Moves Priority, or upgrade them further if they already were. This is a fairly frontloaded class, since all but one Features only require Adept Acrobatics, but it's good for ninjas or other slippery assholes.
We arrive at our first Elementalist, the
Swarmlord. At first, they must choose their path: The Arachnid's Embrace (the ATK route), or the Monarch's Embrace (the SPATK route). You gain the ability to shot web and climb on walls, as well as some Bug Moves and Abilities. There's a video gamey mechanic in Pheromone Markers, where your Bug Moves give people 1 Pheromone Stack, and your attacks have +2 Accuracy and +1 Crit Range per stack on them. Once a scene per foe, if someone has 3 or more stacks you can roll 1d6 and hit them with a mental status. Really, they had me at How To Shoot Web.
The
Shadecaller is our Dark Elementalist, and get the ability Twisted Power, which lets them add half their ATK to their Special Moves and half their SPATK to their Physical Moves. They also get a Living Shadow, letting you use Dark moves from a square away from you... or if you're in total darkness, you can use it a whopping 6 meters away! You pick up a lot of Moves here, both Physical and Special, as well as the ability to snag people's shadows and make them unable to flee, or you just crit people really easily. The World of Darkness feature lets you
die twice create a Burst 2 of Shifting Darkness, which moves around you and causes everyone without Darkvision to have a -3 to hit you, and it also counts as extending your shadow for Living Shadow. Plus you finally get Darkvision. Neat.
Next is the
Herald of Pride, the Dragon Elementalist. In a bit of a twist, they require Command and Intimidate to enter - both social skills. You can use either in place of Combat to determine all your weapon shit, plus you pick up the Regal Challenge Ability and can make your Weapon Attacks Dragon-type. You also learn various Dragon Moves, which can be used through your weapon. If you get Injured or Critted, then your next attack against whoever did it to you cannot miss, period. Their capstone is... well, pathetic. You Bind 2 AP and get +2 vs Volatile Statuses and being Disarmed, Grappled, Pushed, or Tripped. When you see what some of these other classes get, this is even more laughable in comparison. Why can't I at least grow some dragon scales or something, what the hell?
Our Electric Elementalist is the
Spark Master. They can Paralyze people who hit them or run really, really "fast". They gain the Magnetic capability and can use it to stick to "surfaces with significant metal content (ex: metal walls obviously, concrete with metal I-beams inside, etc). " You can even use your full Overland to walk on metal ceilings and refuse to be Pushed. You pick up some Electric Moves and your capstone gives you an Ability to absorb Electric attacks one way or another. The coolest feature here is Bottled Lightning, where you implant an Electric Move into a conductive item, and you can use a Swift Action to use the move and have it originate from that item. If someone touches it, you can do it as a Priority. Sadly, this lasts until the end of the fucking scene and you can only do it to up to 3 items at a time.
The Fairy Elementalist is the
Magical Girl Glamour Weaver. Fairy moves, obviously, but they eventually get Magic Guard or Magic Bounce, letting them shit on people who try to Paralyze them or something. Fey Law allows you to inflict a -6 accuracy penalty to a foe's Status moves, all Combat Maneuvers, DB 10+ attacks, or attacks of a chosen Type. It doesn't say you can only do this to one dude at a time, and it only costs 1 AP and a Swift Action, so... huh. They get the Enchanting Transformation, where you literally go Sailor Moon, giving you +5 DR vs Dragon/Fighting/Dark/Bug attacks and giving all your Glamour Weaver moves additional effects. Lastly, we have Magical Burst, which can only be used during your Enchanting Transformation. You use a Glamour Weaver move (AKA Moonblast) as a Burst 3, Friendly, Exhaust, Smite attack, giving your allies 1 HP Tick or curing them of a Volatile status. You end your transformation and lose your next turn because of the Exhaust, AND you lose the AP instead of getting it back like normal. I have no idea why so many penalties were attached to this, but at least it fits my mental image of how a magical girl would end a fight.
The
Fire Bringer... brings Fire. Yup. You get Fire moves, immunity to Burn and eventually Fire attacks, the Heater Capability, you burn people easier, and you have your own transformation in Blazing Inferno. You start Blazing, and when your attacks Burn you inflict 1 HP Tick of damage and -1 DEF CS, and if you hit with a Fire move at all, you can force a Burn, but expend the Blazing condition. I mean, I'm glad my capstone thematically lets me start shitting out fire everywhere, but this is almost as boring as the Herald of Pride! I can't even like, levitate or something?
The
Wind Runner is the Flying Elementalist. These guys DO start with a Levitate speed, and they eventually get straight up flight! It costs them AP to sustain, but it's better than nothing. You also get Flying Moves (including Mirror Move!) and One With the Winds, where "your sense of touch is extended through this wind, and you can guide it by thought, using it to perceive the shape and texture of objects as long as the wind can reach, even through very small cracks and holes." It can't go further than 12 meters, but this is still something I could see some clever PCs playing around with.
Guess what the
Apparition is. They use Occult Education or Intimidation to qualify for weapon things, AND their weapons always have Reach and can't be Reacted against, for whatever reason. Fucking sweet, okay! Ghost moves that can be used through your weapon, obviously, as well as either Pressure or Frighten, to debuff enemies. There's Silent Assassin, where you Bind 2 AP and your attacks are Ghost-type, and you also gain Dead Silent. On top of that, there's Shadow Form, where you Bind ANOTHER 2 AP and become "wan and obviously otherworldly". You straight up become Ghost-type and are immune to Curses, additionally gaining the Phasing capability. That's not even your capstone! That's Haunted Wounds, where when you hit someone with a Ghost attack, you can repeat the attack the next round as a Free Action, regardless of range! They resist it a step further, but that's still conceptually cool. This is probably the coolest class in the book, or maybe I just like ghosts too much. You certainly get some good capabilities out of this one.
The
Druid is our Grass Elementalist. They must pick the Flower (SPATK), Fungal (SPDEF), or Wood Oaths (ATK). They get Naturewalk (Grassland and Forest) as well as immunity to Powder moves. They get a variety of Grass moves, ranging from Ingrain to Leech Seed and Solar Beam. Druid's Call allows them to make 6 meters of flowers, mushrooms, or saplings to grow around you, blocking line of sight to anyone without Naturewalk (Forest). Your Druid moves can also originate from this wall, but you can obviously only use this where there's soil, or not much obscuring the soil, like a sidewalk. The capstone is Overgrowth, where your Druid move inflicts Overgrowth. This makes them resist Grass moves one step less and they cannot recover HP at all... if they do, you get it instead. Attacks that Grass are weak to removes the Overgrowth, but that's it. Given what I've said about combat healing... meh? It's an effort, I guess.
The
Earth Shaker is... straightforward. You mostly get Ground moves as well as Tremorsense and Naturewalk (Cave, Mountain, and Desert). You also pick up Arena Trap and Lightning Rod as abilities. Lastly, you can try and Trip people when you hit them with your Ground moves. Only one at a time, though. Because reasons. Yes, even if you hit a bunch of people with Earthquake, because you learn that. Sorry. You don't even get the ability to move dirt around or a Burrow speed, this class is fucking lame.
Now we have the
Frost Touched. You know the pattern by now - Ice moves, Naturewalk (Tundra), immunity to Ice moves, being Frozen, and Hail, as well as the ability to freeze people 5% more often. The mildly interesting feature here is Frozen Domain, where you put a 6 meter wall of Frozen Domain and anyone passing through the square might be tripped. Unless they're flying. Or levitating. When inside Frozen Domain, you can treat yourself like you're in Hail. Fire attacks obviously destroy it, as do anything else that clears Hazards. The DC on the trip check
could go as high as 16, but by that point that's really not very impressive. I can't even go Iceman on fools and make ice unless you pick certain moves that grant Freezer. C'mon, man.
The Normal Elementalist is called the
Prism. They only get Special and Status moves, and weird ones at that. Flash, Swift, Tri-Attack, Weather Ball, Hyper Beam, and Morning Sun. They're also hard to hit because of the Illuminate ability and get Starlight or Sunglow to boost one of their Special stats. Additionally, they get the Illusionist capability too. Their capstone is Prismatic Alignment, where they spend 2 AP to crank up any of the aforementioned moves. My favorite is where Hyper Beam becomes Burst 2, Smite, or 10, Ranged Blast 3, Smite. That'll ruin someone's day.
Oh hey, it's that guy again.
The
Miasmic is the Poison Elementalist. Yes, you do learn Toxic. You never become immune to Poison attacks, but you do resist them and are immune to the Poison condition. You also pick up that badass Acid Armor move I mentioned earlier, and your Miasmic Spray feature is similar to Prismatic Alignment, which is crazy when you combine it with Acid Armor, rendering you immune to Physical attacks and resistant to Special ones, removing the Slow you'd normally have from being a human puddle. Speaking of, there's the Flexible Form feature, where you don't gain Injuries from taking a bunch of damage and gain a bullshit +2 bonus to bend, squeeze, or otherwise contort your body. Because your bones can flex. Gnarly.
The
Stone Warrior is slightly more interesting than the Earth Shaker, but not by much. There's Wide Guard and Stealth Rock in here, and you can pick up the Sturdy, Rock Head, or Sand Veil abilities. There's Stone Stance, where you bind 2 AP and get a bullshit bonus in response. Falling Boulder Stance gives you +5 damage, but you eat 5 damage when you attack. Moon Mountain Stance gives you -5 initiative, but +5 DR and immunity to Push & Pull effects. Roiling Earth Stance lets you use a Struggle Attack for free when you Intercept something. The capstone of this class lets you do 2 of these at once. This class makes Toph sad.
The
Steelheart uses Athletics or Focus for their weapon qualifications and shave off 1 HP Tick when striking people who hit them with a Melee attack last round. You can make your moves Steel-type, as well as learning Bullet Punch, Metal Claw, Meteor Mash (oh, baby!), and King's Shield. You also get the very awesome Bulletproof ability, letting you laugh at ranged attacks, and the Reactive Armor feature lets you damage everyone in a Burst 1 when you get Injured or critted, gaining DR on top of that. They also get Call to Arms, which lets them bond with a weapon like an Arcanist can, and Unlimited Steel Works, where you can swap out Weapon Moves on your bonded weapon as you please. This one feels a bit phoned in, there isn't much original stuff here.
Finally, the
Maelstrom, our Water Elementalist. You pick up Gilled, as well as +2 to your Swim speed. For some reason, when your Water attacks miss everyone you get 1 Temporary HP Tick? Huh. Hydro Jet lets you make your Melee water moves Pass moves, or your Ranged water moves Line 4. You can eventually absorb Water attacks or reset your target's CS with Water moves as well as remove their Coats. Oceanic Feeling lets you gain the other effect, if it would trigger, so it's not much of a choice, is it? You can also get water moves, obviously. However, NONE OF THE ONES YOU CAN GET GIVE YOU THE FOUNTAIN CAPABILITY! You can't even pretend to make water, you just swim in that shit, fucker!
Ah, fuck, now I'm upset. These classes would all be great if they were twice as long or just went to a higher power level faster. I get that they probably don't want you outright replacing the need for Pokemon, but if I start taking a class and I can eventually use fucking Rain Dance, then it's just stupid if I can't play around with a glass of water. Some of the classes are more interesting than others, even when they really didn't have to be, and I don't know why. Conceptually, this should've been an easy chapter to write some awesome stuff for. You have your fighting styles split into 4 distinct classes you can pump up, a class that's PURELY for shooting lasers, and 18 elementalists you can crib tons of media for inspiration from. I wonder what happened? I'd probably say my favorite classes from this book are the Rune Master and Apparition, because they both can actually do things out of combat without me
assuming that they can, like how I swore the Maelstrom could spit out water and the Earth Shaker could move dirt around.
Oh, well. At least it's easy to see how these classes could be improved.
Next time: Chapter 4: Campaign Settings
I have a dubious feeling about this. What's classified as high fantasy? Epic sagas, lots of magic, non-human races... you know, fantastic shit. Quoted examples include Tolkien, Harry Potter, and D&D. They admit that low fantasy is harder to pin down.
We live in the future now, is this not just assumed by this point?
