Three Knight Classes: Sabers (A-F | G-M | N-R | S-Z) | Archers (A-C | D-M | N-Z | Tam Lin Tristan) | Lancers (A-F | G-M | N-Z)
Four Cavalry Classes: Riders (A-F | G-M | N-Z) | Casters (A-F | G-M | Merlin | N-Z) | Assassins (A-F | G-M | N-Z) | Berserkers (A-F | G-M | Morgan | N-Z)
Extra Classes: Rulers | Avengers | Moon Cancers | Alter Egos | Foreigners | Pretenders (Oberon)
Unplayable and Arcade Exclusive: Unplayable | Arcade Exclusive
Other Notable Characters: Chaldea Security Organization (Protagonist | Mash Kyrielight) | Villains (Beasts | Beast I | Observer on Timeless Temple Villains | Epic of Remnant Villains | Cosmos in the Lostbelt Villains (Crypters | Foreign God and Forces | Lostbelt Kings | ORT) | Ordeal Call Villains | Event Villains | Interlude Villains) | Other Characters
Heroic Spirit of Sorcery
Caster is one of the seven normal Servant classes summoned for the Holy Grail War and is also one of the Four Cavalry Classes. Servants placed within this class are usually adept in magecraft and the only qualifying condition is mastery of magic of the highest caliber compared to the specific parameter requirements of the other classes. Due to not requiring any strong parameters, they generally have low combat abilities, and due to the majority of Servants having some form of Magic Resistance, this class is thought to be the weakest of all seven. However, they make up for this with exceptional intellect and powerful magecraft modern humans can no longer use. Those of the three Knight Classes can likely challenge any Caster who uses magecraft as their main offensive ability without a plan due to high Magic Resistance, while those of lesser resistance like the Rider class may require more strategy. Their class abilities are Territory Creation, altering surrounding lands in favor of their sorcery, and Item Construction, which allows the magus to create magical items and tools.
Shared Tropes
Tropes which apply to most members of the class besides the exceptions should go here.- The Archmage: They're the magic-using class, so the most powerful Casters will qualify as this by default (and nearly all Casters count as this when compared to baseline humans). Either it's what they were most famous for when they were alive, or it's how their intellectual/artistic achievements translate into superpowers through the Servant system.
- Art Imitates Life:
- The reason why there's a significant number of artists and scientists in this class is because of the Heroic Spirit of Man category. Heroic Spirits of this category are people who made their name in history purely through their deeds and not supernatural interference, making it possible for people of ordinary descent to reach the Throne. As the artists' 'heroic' deeds were done through their creations, this trope is the reason why they can be Heroic Spirits in the first place. The Caster class is the only class container that can materialize them.
- Funnily enough, a lot of this also ends up applying to Nero Claudius Caesar, too, despite her being much older than the other examples; she's still Man category (since she was largely just a mortal emperor), and she was an enormous patron of the arts and a creator of art (well, "art") herself, which all means that when she manifests as Caster, she's actually surprisingly powerful, especially since she also has the concept of "Imperial Privilege", as a force that allows her to do things because she's Emperor, backing her up, on top of her own latent potential as a Magus.
- Brains Evil, Brawn Good: Most Casters are either amoral, or simply insufferable, with very few of them being outright heroic in character. One of the most notable exceptions is Illya, because only because she's the Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA version; if it was the original Illya from Fate/stay night, she'd fit the trope to a T. The innocent Sanzang is a Caster who fits the other half of the trope, since she's a very offensive-orientated Caster and she's not particularly the brightest person out there.
- Com Mons: THE single most numerous class in the game, with quite a large amount of Servants from the Friend point summon being casters. By the time most players will start getting other classes' Noble Phantasms upgraded, they'll likely have the Friend Point Casters already at Noble Phantasm 5.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Casters are generally looked down upon or with suspicion by the other Classes due to their difficult personalities, indirect fighting styles, and penchant for misanthropic cunning. Certain Masters may look down upon Casters due to them being the weakest of the classes (since most other classes have Magic Resistance).
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The above bits about how they stack up against various classes, and struggle against a number of them? For gameplay, ignore it; "Magic Resistance" is debuff resistance in this game, and while a fair few Casters have debuffs, MR doesn't affect their damage in any way. They also don't struggle that much against any of the "knight trio" damage-wise, since they deal neutral damage to them and are hit neutral in turn; Casters are perhaps a bit squishier than other classes, but that's it. Ironically, it's Riders who get to walk all over Casters, dealing double damage to them and taking half, probably as a call-back to various moments in Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Of all the classes with offensive based Noble Phantasms, offensive-based Casters with damaging Noble Phantasms are more likely to have AoE Noble Phantasms that hit multiple foes. Even Servants that only debuff enemies (i.e. El-Melloi II and Amadeus) have Noble Phantasms that debuff multiple enemies on field.
- Limit Break: Casters typically have three Arts cards (and never less than two) & a naturally high charge rate for their Noble Phantasm gauge, meaning that they can use them frequently.
- Planet of Hats:
- As explained above, many artists and scientists tend to be within this class thanks to their "heroic deeds" being done through their creations.
- Most of them tend to have a triple Arts deck, and their Noble Phantasm tend to be either for support or for AOE attacks.
- Powers via Weapon: Another way to qualify for the Caster class is to have access to magical items and weapons. For example, Gilles de Reis counts as a Caster because of Prelati's spell book and Gilgamesh qualifies because of all the magic items in his treasury.
- Squishy Wizard: Gameplay and lore-wise, most of the Casters tend to have very low durability, most usually have E or D rank on Endurance as the highest, although it should be noted that their Endurance is not as bad when compared to Assassins for the matter. Charles Babbage and Thomas Alva Edison are the only exceptions to this rule in both gameplay and lore-wise, as their Endurance stats are ranked B++ and EX respectively, though Edison's is misleading and effectively much lower. They also tend to have lower base stats than usual compared to classes like the Saber.
- Stone Wall: A very large amount of Casters tend to have above average HP (with Charles Babbage even having the highest HP out of all three-star servants) but middling to average ATK, which, coupled with their 0.9x damage modifier, hurts their offensive potential considerably, but makes them pretty decent for soaking up hits from enemies. Xuanzang Sanzang, Izumo-no-Okuni, Murasaki Shikibu are the only exception to this trope, having the highest ATK, second highest and third highest ATK respectively out of all Casters, but even they pale in comparison to the other classes with the highest ATK.
- Support Party Member: Most of the game's best supports are in this Class.
- Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: In terms of the game, Casters have an advantage against Assassins and a weakness against Riders. They also have the common strength and weakness against Berserkers, offensive disadvantage against Rulers, as well as an offensive advantage against Demon Pillars/Beast I, defensive disadvantage against Alter Ego (like other of the Four Cavalry classes), and defensive advantage against Pretenders.
- Wizard Classic: Their class card depicts an enrobed sorcerer with a long beard holding a staff and grimoire.
