Explore Because Stuff!

This game has been a nebulous collection of gameplay ideas floating around in my head, so I finally took the time recently to coalesce some of them in to a more concrete design.

The gist of it is that there will be a special hero class (Tomb Raider, Treasure Hunter, or Arcane Chronicler), lots of classes for your hirelings, plenty of class switching, and loads of skill and weapon proficiency to develop.

Taking a cue from both FF6 and DQIX, I will have your teammates assume a class, with each class having a unique primary skill path, and two secondary non-unique skill paths, proficiency in up to four weapon categories, and an alternate skill (shields or unarmed abilities).

For each class's skill path, they will learn and master them at different rates (much like how Espers in FF6 had differing rates of learning for the same spells). The skill paths and weapon proficiencies themselves are inspired by the DQIX class framework. However, unlike DQIX where spells were unique and non-transferable, in this game ALL spells and abilities are learned along the skill paths. However! There is a difference between learning a skill and mastering a skill. So while, say, a Healer will learn Cure at level 1 proficiency, he would master it at a later level, and it is after he masters it that it becomes transferable.

Neat, right?

So, something like this:

	Unique	Shared	Shared	Weapons				Alternate
Fighter	Fisticuffs	Martial Arts	Acrobatics	Sword	Staff	Claw	Fan	Unarmed
Brave	Courage	Archery	Skulking	Knife	Polearm	Axe	Bow	Shield
Ranger	Survivalism	Archery	Leadership	Knife	Axe	Shotgunne	Bow	Unarmed
Warrior	Combat	Defense	Leadership	Sword	Hammer	Polearm	Axe	Shield
Rogue	Acquisitivess	Skulking	Poison	Knife	Boomerang	Claw	Whip	Unarmed
Paladin	Virtue	Defense	Spiritualism	Sword	Hammer	Staff	Polearm	Shield
Darkling	Void	Defense	Curses	Knife	Staff	Polearm	Claw	Shield
Healer	Healing	Spiritualism	Sorcery	Hammer	Wand	Staff	Boomerang	Shield
Mage	Elementalism	Enchantment	Sorcery	Knife	Wand	Staff	Whip	Shield
Wizard	Wizardry	Sorcery	Spiritualism	Sword	Wand	Staff	Boomerang	Shield
Mesmer	Mentalism	Enchantment	Sorcery	Boomerang	Shotgunne	Whip	Fan	Unarmed
Necromancer	Necromancy	Curses	Poison	Knife	Wand	Staff	Claw	Shield
Scholar	Knowledge	Enchantment	Leadership	Knife	Staff	Polearm	Boomerang	Shield
Minstrel	Song	Acrobatics	Skulking	Boomerang	Bow	Whip	Fan	Unarmed
Merchant	Economics	Leadership	Defense	Sword	Hammer	Polearm	Shotgunne	Shield
Armamentalist	Engineering	Acrobatics	Enchantment	Hammer	Axe	Shotgunne	Bow	Unarmed
Ninja	Ninjitsu	Martial Arts	Skulking	Sword	Knife	Boomerang	Claw	Unarmed
Druid	Naturalism	Spiritualism	Poison	Hammer	Staff	Polearm	Bow	Unarmed
Chemist	Alchemy	Poison	Enchantment	Sword	Knife	Wand	Staff	Shield
Godhand	Aura	Martial Arts	Spiritualism	Staff	Claw	Whip	Fan	Unarmed
Death Knight	Aether	Martial Arts	Curses	Sword	Polearm	Axe	Shotgunne	Shield
Freelancer	Heroism	Leadership	Sorcery	Sword	Knife	Staff	Bow	Shield

Maybe one day I will actually make this game.