Represent Your Power

When it comes to text-based roleplaying, the possibilities for creating diverse and engaging characters are virtually limitless. One of the intriguing aspects is the wide array of character classes that players can choose from. These classes define the roles, abilities, and traits of the characters, allowing players to immerse themselves in various roles within the game's universe. From courageous warriors, cunning thieves, to powerful mages, each class brings a unique flavor to the roleplaying experience. 

Fantasy's Top Three Classes

A common archetypal trio of character classes usually involves a Fighter, Mage, and a Thief. You’ll find this tripartite division in a lot of basic roleplaying games on the web (sometimes with added classes like Rogue or Warrior). However, we’ll present a more thorough list so you get an idea of the most used ones. To make it easier to differentiate between these classes and their talents, we’ll split them into three schools as shown below.

School of Stealth

This school usually includes the following classes:

• Thief: A skilled burglar who excels at avoiding detection. They specialize in lock-picking, disarming traps, and stealing valuable items. Some even possess the ability to merge into shadows or become invisible completely.

• Rogue: Like thieves, rogues are versatile characters who use a combination of stealth and sneaky surprise attacks (often using gadgets or traps) to gain an advantage. 

• Assassin: These characters are often disguised, and are skilled in infiltration and assassination. They often take down high-value targets by sneaking up on them and killing them quickly and quietly.

School of Magic

This school usually includes the following classes:

• Wizard: Wizards, unlike other magic users, are intellectual and highly-trained individuals who spend years studying the arcane. They are masters of spells and are best suited to provide magical counsel.

• Sorcerer: Sorcerers do not hone their magic via intensive study, and instead possess innate magical ability or raw power that is often inherited by blood or gained through powerful exposure. 

• Mage: Alternatively, mages are individuals who specialize in a specific type of magic, such as elemental magic or blood magic. They might possess a wider range of abilities and are more flexible or adaptable than the former two.

School of Combat

This school usually includes the following classes:

• Warrior: Warriors are heavily-armored characters who excel in close combat and wield mighty weapons, such as axes, maces, and large swords. They can take on a lot of punishment, and are usually the first line of defense in a battle.

• Knight: Knights are noble and honorable warriors who are sworn by oath to protect the weak and innocent. Like regular warriors, they use heavy armor and weapons to deal high damage, though some may possess holy or rare divine powers.

• Ranger: Rangers are typically portrayed as skilled hunters or trackers who work best in natural, yet challenging terrain. They have great survival and combat skills and typically wield bows or crossbows to attack enemies from a distance.

Classes in Context

Your roleplay does not need to explicitly incorporate these character classes. In fact, it’s best if you make your own original characters with a mix of their own special powers (i.e. a martial artist who can talk to animals and summon creatures). However, you’ll want to make your character’s powers sensible to their aesthetic and personality. A better example would be a martial artist—or more specifically, a ninja—who is able to manipulate shadow, become shadow, or use shadow to conjure dark weapons (think of the Black Heretic in Shadow and Bone and his infamous “cut”). This is more suitable because ninjas are naturally stealthy, wear a lot of black clothing, and typically use the darkness to their advantage. 

Character Specialization

Moreover, if you ever need to reference your character depending on their type of specialization, you can refer to the talent classes here or find a more extensive list of classes online. For example, in the Elite Team, Cassie Brylee is of the Mage class, specializing in elemental powers [particularly hydromancy and cryomancy]. This isn’t explicitly stated in the roleplay, but knowing this allows us to properly use an umbrella term to easily reference Cassie's magical area of expertise.

We'll cover character creation and development in more detail later, but dedicated roleplayers should have a general idea of the categories their characters fall under (especially if you intend to build lore).