By the time Adam headed to class he was walking with a limp, and only one arm was functional. Valla certainly didn’t pull any punches. Even Martin had been sore through lunch. It hadn’t helped that he had skipped his time working in the kitchens for lunch so he could get stomped on some more. A significant amount of time was needed to wash up, but he was reasonably presentable when he hit the classroom.
The scholar managed to turn away, but not fast enough to hide his smirk at Adam’s condition. The children, on the other hand, didn’t bother to give him that courtesy. Marcus had no reaction, but Adam was sure that was because the boy didn’t even notice, no out of courtesy. Abigail vacillated between concern and sadistic glee, once more making Adam question her sanity. He’d be questioning her upbringing, but he already knew that was crap.
Adam headed towards his corner seat, but was stopped by the scholar. “Join us here today, please, Adam. Today’s lesson will be a discussion, so more viewpoints will be helpful.”
The boy nodded, and gingerly lowered himself into a chair. He was somewhat surprised to note that neither of the children seemed upset at his presence. He had anticipated them taking a commoner and slave joining them somewhat less gracefully. Adam’s exposure to the nobility was recent and extremely limited, but he had heard plenty of stories.
“With everyone settled in, we can begin,” Scholar Kleeb said. He walked to the front of the room where a shimmer of light was glowing upon the wall. “Today we’ll be talking about Classes, and how they apply to combat roles. Your parents,” he nodded towards the children, “fully expect you two to be Gifted combat classes. Additionally, with your rank, you are likely to be the leaders of any party, squad, or other combat group that you are a part of. That means you need to understand the best ways to combine different forms of combat styles to best an opponent.”
The scholar waved his hand towards a gently glowing sphere set on the table and the light on the wall changed. A multitude of creatures appeared on the wall, some of which Adam recognized. “We will go over military ranks and tactics at a later date, leaving us to start with adventuring formations. The expectation is that your first true opponents will be against monsters as part of a hunting party. Before we start speaking on every type of monstrous creature you can come across in the wilds, we will instead start with the only marginally fewer types of combat classers you may work with to fight said monsters.”
Another gesture changed the illusionary images, this time to a number of different people kitted out with a variety of gear designed for fighting. A few of them were surrounded by a glowing circles, which Kleeb pointed out. “Here we see a number of different people geared up to fulfill different combat roles. The highlighted ones are the party we will be looking at. They match the most typical party grouping. This traditionally styled party can handle nearly any type of monster, mission, or dungeon with a minimum of changes or optimizations.
“Front and center is the defender. There are a variety of names for this role: shield, protector, guardian, wall, or basically any other type of defensive thing or action. Most commonly they are called tanks. The name comes from the majority of people that fulfill this type of role being a walking health tank. Typically they have limited damage potential, with the majority of their skills being designed to make them tougher, keep them alive, mitigate pain, and to draw attention away from other party members. Their main job is to get hit so that no one else does.”
Hearing the description, Adam winced. He had just spent most of his morning learning about how that felt, and he wasn’t a fan.
The highlighting marks changed, no longer on the people with heavy armor and shields. “Next up, healers. An absolute necessity for any adventuring group, and yet they are fairly rare as well. Healing of any kind is a lucrative skill to have, and is only occasionally attached to a combat focused class. That means that most healers stay in cities and towns, and don’t run off to risk their lives traipsing around the wilderness. Any option you get for a healer in a party, you take. And if you are lucky enough to be offered any type of healing skill, be it self-healing, regeneration, or a group heal, you take that too.”
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The highlighting moved to a number of people in dark clothes or leather. “Utility types. There are as many specialties here as there are skills, so it’s easier to group them all together. Certain types of missions, hunts, or dungeons can greatly benefit from one or two utility style skills that someone might not have. Need to track down a particular beast? You need someone with tracking skills: rangers, hunters, really any type of nature themed class. Traps in a dungeon? Find a rogue, any type will normally get it done. Magic seals or traps? Get some sort of magic user that actually has skills for these things. What’s important here is to find someone that can actually be useful for something more than killing things. And you aren’t limited to just one. Grab people with as many different and varied skills as you can, as long as they fill more than just one role.”
He looked at the illusion showing the adventurers, but turned back without changing the glowing parts. “The next role are single target specialists. There is a fair amount of overlap, class wise, with the precious role. These are the types of classes that can melt one target at a time without a lot of help. They typically can’t take many hits, don’t do as well with groups of enemies, and half of them annoy the piss out of your entire party. That last bit is more important than you think. Choose carefully, there are a lot of people out there that can fill this role.”
The glow changed again, highlighting anything that was wrapped up in cloth. “Mages, the biggest mess of all. Again choose carefully, but for different reasons. As a whole, mages are the most varied in the roles they can fill. I’ve actually seen an entire adventuring party made up of mages before. Barrier mage for defense, a woman with light and water spells for healing, and a set of triplets that each used a different element to attack. They worked surprisingly well, but a lot of their success was based on the choices they made on which jobs they took on.
“Anyways. The next role is multi target, and nearly all mages can fill this role. Keep in mind that the majority, particularly at low levels, will only have one or two area spells, and they are very mana intensive. What does that mean for a party?”
The sudden question startled all of them, but Marcus rattled off an answer fairly quickly. “They are only good for one or two spells, and then they need to rest and recover. They need to avoid helping in some battles, and then use everything in others.”
“Excellent. As leaders you will need to understand when to utilize their capabilities while they are still limited. In many ways, it is even more important that you manage the expectations of the rest of the team, as some will not take well to someone who apparently does so little taking a full share of the rewards.” All three children nodded. It was an excellent point.
“If you do get mage based classes, there are a number of skills to watch for that can add utility, survivability, or control to your repertoire. Summoning skills can get you a dedicated protector, and assistant, or a constant source of damage. Some summons are just as dangerous to you and your party as they are to the enemy, however, so choose carefully. Barriers, as I briefly mentioned, can do a lot to boost the survivability of yourself and your team. Utility can come from a number of spells and skills of mages, ranging from ways to unlock doors, detect traps, fly, or breathe water, so keep an eye out for those as well. They can be far more useful than most people think.”
The image changed again, this time with one mage, and a number of monsters with different magical effects on or around them. “The other role that mages excel at, is controller. Each of these monsters has been removed from the battle in one way or another. Frozen in blocks of ice, dropped into holes they can’t climb out of, charmed to fight for the mage, sent to other dimensions, or shocked into paralysis. There are a host of different ways mages can keep an enemy from acting, and all of them are useful.”
Images flashed, then returned to the image of the adventuring party. “Whatever role someone takes in a party, they all have the same goal at the end of the day. To make sure you and your party live through the adventure.”