Initial Classes

"Class" in FTR determines a character's combat capabilities. Classes are described in terms of Role and Power Source. Role is what the character does in combat ("hit hard, protect my friends, heal and support, control the battlefield") while Power Source indicates how the character accomplishes their role ("strength of arms, faith in the Gods, arcane magic, the power of nature").

The four Roles are Defender, Striker, Controller, and Leader. The four (current) Power Sources are Martial, Arcane, Divine, and Primal. Classes share mechanics across both Role and Power Source. For example, all Defenders use marks, while all Leaders start with a twice-per-scene healing power. Similarly, all Martial characters use stances and Power Strike, while all Divine characters use Prayers and Acts. The goal is to establish an underlying set of mechanical assumptions, and then have each class provide a unique approach to those mechanics. Defenders mark, but how and when they enforce those marks is different for each class.

Initially, twelve classes are planned. Roles will be evenly distributed (three of each Role), while Power Sources will be a little lopsided (four Martial, but only two Primal). The reason is that all non-Martial classes use magic of some kinds, so starting with four Martial classes will give players who don't want to use magic a more diverse spread of Roles to fill. 

The plan is to start with:

Knight (Martial Defender)

Slayer (Martial Slayer)

Ranger (Martial Controller)

Warlord (Martial Leader)

Paladin (Divine Defender)

Crusader (Divine Striker)

Priest (Divine Leader)

Elementalist (Arcane Striker)

Enchanter (Arcane Controller)

Bard (Arcane Leader)

Warden (Primal Defender)

Druid (Primal Controller)

Each Class will also feature three different "builds", or packages of class features, so that players can further specialize within their Class. The Slayer, for instance, can choose bonus damage with two-handed weapons, one-handed light weapons, or ranged weapons, and further class features gained at higher levels support each of the playstyles.

An important point to reiterate is that Class has relatively little to do with how a character operates outside of combat, during the exploration portions of the adventure. As it stands, your Power Source grants you some proficiency with a single skill (Arcane characters are naturally good with Arcana, Primal characters with Nature, and so forth). The rest of your character's skills, as well as any other exploration abilities they might boast, come from their Theme. Though Themes will be discussed later, the short-and-sweet of it is that Theme is to noncombat exploration what Class is to combat encounters. Class is intended to be tied to combat mechanics, so that players can choose what they want to do in a fight by picking their Class, and also choose what they want to do while exploring by choosing a Theme.