My gaze was drawn to six figures on my spin, the first one immediately to the left. It showcased two swords crossed and pointed upwards, with text still visible on the slate and a new button at the bottom.
Class: Warrior You’re the backbone of your team, capable of attacking at both long and short range. You can take a hit or two. With high Constitution, you keep your party safe. Constitution + 2
Confirm
I decided to keep spinning left, so I observed the next image, a large shield with a cross in the middle.
Class: Paladin
You’re the moral compass of your team, a blend of brains and brawn, able to cast magic and hit hard. With High Charisma, you keep your party out of trouble.
Charisma +2
The next one was pretty obvious, a bow and arrow with what looked like a bear print in the background. I’d bet my boxers that it was a ranger.
Class: Ranger
You’re the tracker of your team. Focused on long-range attacks and being one with nature, you can track and hide well in the forest. With your high Dexterity, you can dodge really well and don’t trip over dense roots.
Dexterity + 2
Nailed it. The next two were a bit of a mystery, I couldn’t recognize the symbols at first glance and they weren’t really clear visually. The first one was a staff with what looked like a blade on its tip. It was strange, so I decided to read it carefully.
Class: Arcane Fighter
You’re the glass cannon of your team. You can’t focus on one single path, so you must hit hard and dump all your mana points into it. However, if you get hit, you get hit really hard!
Intelligence +2, Strength +2, Constitution -2
Not gonna lie, this class looked awesome! If it wasn’t for the whole life or death thing, I might have considered it for the next character. But it was life or death, so I had to choose carefully. Onto the last one. The symbol was really weird, it was only an eye taking up the whole space. I took a deep breath and slid the wheel to point to the eye.
Class: The Watcher
This is a Special class. You can choose an entire class to mimic once per day. You must have watched this class perform at least once in order to mimic it. You will have access to all the benefits of that class for the remainder of the day, including the attribute increase on top of your own. You are the Joker of your party, filling all the roles at once.
All Attributes +1.
“Holy Shit,” I couldn’t keep it in.
“What’s wrong, Doc?” Ghimli asked me, lifting his head over his sister’s tablet.
“I just got a class that can mimic others.”
“You mean like a doppelganger?” Amanda asked.
“Not really. If I see someone's class performing, I could mimic it for a day. This is so OP.”
“Agreed.” Ghimli said, getting closer to read my tablet. “And you know what happens with OP characters in this kind of scenario, don’t you?”
This shocked me, Ghimli being reasonable? He was right, though, OP classes were a double-edged sword. I could mimic someone’s entire class, but could I perform at a bare minimum efficiency? I doubted that. I should stick to a basic class, a class that I could help out and that I knew how to play. There was only one real choice for me.
Spinning the wheel for the shield icon, I pressed confirm.
A tingling sensation flooded my body and I almost dropped the tablet, catching it with both hands and feeling the slab vibrate in my hands. The wheel disappeared and six new icons emerged below my name. The change on the stone tablet caught me so off guard that I didn’t notice that the tingling had stopped. Ghimli was grinning next to me.
“Weird, right?” He said. I just nodded. “It felt like when I tried to fix my power supply back in high school, remember that?”
“Yeah, you twitched for the whole day. It was lucky that you survived.”
“Bah, just a jump start to the heart. No big deal.”
“What about your sister? What were her choices?”
Ghimli frowned, “A bunch of basic classes, which I was happy about, but I guess rogue is the best one. The other ones were Druid, Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard. I guess knowing that she can hide if things get out of hand is good, and sneak attack is also a good thing.”
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“I Agree. She already picked?”
“Yep. She picked right before you. I guess that with the two of us helping her, it was easy enough.”
“How about you? What have you picked?”
He grinned and handed me his tablet
Name: Ghimli.
Class: War Cleric.
It’s not all about healing and praying, clerics can also be badasses. You are the core of your party. Focus on damage spell casting and melee fighting, you have a large pool of constitution and also, can cure a few scrapes. Fight for your god and protect your party. Charisma +2, Constitution +2, Dexterity -2
I looked shocked at Ghimli for a second, before it clicked in my mind. “This is a Paladin.”
“No, it’s not,” Ghimli said, offended.
“Yes it is. I’m a Paladin. Look.” He read my class and frowned.
“It looks like a paladin, but I got better stats.”
“You got negative dex.”
“So? I got plus in Charisma and Constitution.”
“Fine. It looks like a Paladin to me.”
“It’s not.”
“What is it?” Amanda left Bea to read her class and joined us.
“Ghimli’s class. It looks like a Paladin.”
She read the class and nodded. “It sure looks like it. Why did you pick it, Ghimli?”
“My other choices were Barbarian, Monk, Fighter, and Ranger. I don’t want to be a meat shield and, also, I can’t shoot a bow with these hands.”
“Fair point.” She said. “How about you, Doc? What did you pick?”
“Paladin.” I said softly.
“What? Speak up.”
“Paladin, Okay? I didn’t know what Ghimli had chosen and I picked Paladin. There were other really cool classes in my wheel, but I didn’t ask what you guys picked, so I picked paladin. Happy?” I said, frustrated.
“Whoa, Doc. Relax. It’s good to have two healers on the party. But now we also have a babysitter.” She sighed and Ghimli started to laugh.
I felt my cheeks getting warmer and changed the focus. “And you? What did you choose?”
“Warlock,” Amanda answered, fixing her hair. “It gave me a boost in Charisma, but it said I have to find my own patron, I guess it’s kind of a quest for warlocks.”
“I picked rogue like you asked me.” Bea joined us with her voice trembling. “It’s asking me to assign attributes now. What do I do?”
We looked at our tablets and the prompt was the same. Reading from top to bottom there were symbols that were really clear of what they were, a flexed arm for Strength, a brain for Intelligence, a torso for Constitution, a book for Wisdom, a rope for Dexterity, and a wink face for Charisma. The whole thing looked like an old RPG game for PC, with arrows up and down to assign points to their respective attribute. I was glad to see that I already had 2 on my charisma and more 18 points to distribute.
I looked around and all my friends were deep in thought about their attributes, I was glad that they were taking it seriously. Bea was panicking, pressing up and down on the buttons not knowing what to do. It was better to help her out before I dug deep into my own attributes.
Talking things through, we came up with a really balanced sheet. There was a limit to 10 on each attribute, including the bonus, so we had some wiggle room on her… uhm… dump stats.
Name: Bea
Class: Rogue.
You are sneaky, cunning and perceptive, the front line of your party. You can scout ahead and hide if shit hits the fan, you can also creep your way around your enemies and hit them with a powerful blow to their backs. Dexterity +2
STR: 02
DEX: 08
CON: 04
INT: 01
WIS: 03
CHA: 02
Amanda and Ghimli were already done with their attributes, I took a look and it seemed good. Ghimli told me that his points total were only 16, and that his Dex was already at zero. It seems that there couldn’t be negative numbers.
Name: Ghimli.
Class: War Cleric.
It’s not all about healing and praying, clerics can also be badasses. You are the core of your party. Focused on damage spell casting and melee fighting, you have a large pool of constitution and can also cure a few scrapes. Fight for your god and protect your party. Charisma +2, Constitution +2, Dexterity -2
STR: 02
DEX: 01
CON: 06
INT: 02
WIS: 03
CHA: 06
Name: Amanda.
Class: Warlock.
You delved deep into your own soul to unearth power. Your arcane power is tethered to your patron and your bloodline. However, you can still deal serious damage in melee combat. Embark on a journey to find your patron and grow stronger. Charisma +2.
STR: 03
DEX: 02
CON: 04
INT: 01
WIS: 02
CHA: 08
There were only my stats to input. No pressure.
As a Paladin, I knew that my high stats should be Charisma, so my spells could pack a punch. However, I should also have a high Constitution if I want to be on the front lines. Intelligence and Wisdom could be neglected for now, but I didn’t want to come off as dumb. I think I struck a good balance.
Name: Doc.
Class: Paladin
You are the moral compass of your team, a blend of brains and brawn, capable of casting potent magic and landing powerful blows. With High Charisma, you keep your party out of trouble. Charisma +2
STR: 03
DEX: 02
CON: 05
INT: 01
WIS: 01
CHA: 08
We had a party heavily focused on Charisma. It was interesting to see how we could exploit this in the future. I could see their effects as I thought about it. The features of every single one of us softened, we became more conventionally attractive and I couldn’t take my eyes off Amanda. She was absolutely stunning. And I saw her looking me up and down too, I swear that her cheeks turned even redder.
“Looking good, Doc,” Ghimli teased me, poking my stomach. My love handles were gone. I came to this world with a couple of extra kilos, but now, I could feel my shirt drooping over my body, and the pants losing their grip.
“You too, Ghimli, green looks good on you,” I smiled at the giant Orc. His belly was still large, but I guess it was a race thing. “And now? What do we do?”
As I spoke, four large chests materialized in front of us, each one bearing the icon of our class.
“Bounty time?” Amanda said, smiling.