Supplemental 1 - Classes
Welcome to my class about classes. Please be seated.
In the Etrian Odyssey series, a character's class is the basis for their everything, and is chosen at member creation. EO3 is no exception to this, containing 10 regular and 2 hidden classes.
Etrian Odyssey and Etrian Odyssey 2 had the same classes (albeit EO2 made some minor changes to them from the first game), but EO3 features entirely new classes, some of which mix-and-match the abilities of the previous incarnations.
Regular Classes:
- Prince/Princess: A primarily supportive class, Princes and Princesses deal in a large variety of helpful buffs, be it boosting attack and defense, regenerating HP and TP, or enchanting weapons for elemental damage. With well-balanced stats and the ability to equip strong weapons and heavy armor, Princes and Princesses indeed make everything better. However, while they help the party dish out damage, they lack the means to do so themselves, possessing only two offensive skills (which both rely on buffs). Nevertheless, a Prince or Princess will carry your party from beginning to end.
- Gladiator: Powerful fighters as their name implies, Gladiators are the epitome of physical damage. The entirety of their skillset revolves around dealing as much damage as possible for as long as possible, including skills to buff their attack and drop enemy defense, nullify status ailments, and inflict epic damage. Their only weakness is their inability to equip the heaviest armors, though with their damage output you shouldn't need to worry about the enemies getting a chance to attack.
- Hoplite: Tall walls of thick steel, a solid bastion of defense. Hoplites are like social workers: they're there to make things hurt less; but instead of talking about the problems, they just block them with their shields. The physical opposite to the Gladiator, Hoplites reduce the damage done to the party by enemies, able to defend a whole row at once, reduce or even nullify elemental damage for the whole party, or even take the hit for an ally. Their naturally high defense is further augmented by heavy armor, and can use their spear when not defending. However, all of this heavy armor makes them as slow as molasses, and the fact that they need a shield to be effective limits your equipment options.
- Buccaneer: A pirate by another name (probably because 'P' was taken by Prince), Buccaneers are a well-rounded class, though it's difficult to say where they excel at. They can inflict a few statuses with their skills, and chase ally attacks with their rapier or gun. A certain passive skill allows them to attack up to five times in one turn, and they can drive up the rate at which their limit gauge fills. Outside of this, though, their only notable characteristic is speed, but they are still good for filling spots.
- Ninja: Demons of speed and masters of status, Ninja exist to make the enemy's day suck. All but one of their offensive skills inflicts a status ailment, and they can create doppelgangers to attack in tandem. They can drive up their evasion to the point of being knife-wielding ghosts, and instantly flee the battle or disappear without a trace. This comes a price, though; their speed and silent nature restricts them to only the lightest of clothes, and outside of statuses are not useful for damage. Still, they are the fastest thing in Armoroad.
- Monk: Of the Eastern bare-fisted variety, Monks are known for two things: punching and healing. Monks serve as the medics of EO3, possessing a wide variety of healing and restorative skills. However, they are far from inept at offense, possessing a number of powerful hand-to-hand strikes as well, and can counterattack for massive damage. Excellent in every area and useful on either row, the Monk's only real flaw is its low defense, despite the ability to equip medium armors.
- Zodiac: Running afoul of one of these would make any day bad. The mage-class of EO3, Zodiacs deal elemental damage in the three elements, and can find the enemy's weak point to inflict massive damage. They can read the stars to predict the future, and cut off an enemy's elemental attack before it even starts, inflicting damage as well. Don't think you're safe just because you're resistant to all three elements; they'll just drop a big flaming rock from space on your head. Devoting their lives to training their minds has left their bodies, so they can't do much physically, or wear heavy things. They're also not very sturdy, so a breeze can become problematic to them.
- Wildling: Warriors that have forsaken civilization for nature, becoming more beast than man. Having become one with nature, they can call the creatures of the jungle to aid them and the party in battle, as well as inflicting any status ailment on the enemy. To them, their animal friends are family and vice versa, and may take attacks for each other. Despite being strong physically, their entire skill set revolves around calling their beasts, leaving them floundering elsewhere.
- Arbalist: What's the best way to make someone even more dangerous than a Gladiator? Give them sniper training, a grassy knoll, and a big-ass crossbow. Arbalists specialize in five things: thrust (piercing) damage, elemental damage, supplemental damage, multi-target damage, and damage. Nighttime only makes them more dangerous, and a bigger enemy just means more surface area for them to shoot arrows into. However, their big crossbow impacts their agility quite hard, and they are quite weak defensively, even on the back line.
- Farmer: Passive, peaceful gatherers that have the misfortune to be so in a world sponsored by Atlus. Absolutely horrible at fighting, Farmers are there to get the most out of gathering points as possible. They are so bad at combat that the party is forced into babysitting them, but gains extra experience if the Farmer survives. Despite this, their greatest potential shows through their ability to increase the flow of cash by getting more loot to sell.
Please forgive my prose. I will go over the hidden classes later.
Now, if you forgot, my party is:
- Gladiator (Axel)
- Buccaneer (Gabe)
- Monk (Ranko)
- Arbalist (Ere)
- Prince (Report)
This may seem somewhat lacking or counter-intuitive to the above, but I do have a reason the party is like this (outside of being that it works).
BTW, Axel is going to be a sword-type Gladiator, and Gabe will be a Rapier-type Buccaneer for now.
This concludes the seminar on classes. Next time: Our first mission!...kinda.
