Let's Seek Inspiration in Jung

[chronoplasm]

Let's take a look at the classic Jungian archetypes:


The hero, who pursues a great quest to realize his destiny.
The self, the personality striving towards its own complete realization.
The shadow, the amoral remnant of our instinctual animal past.
The persona, the mask and pretense we show others.
The anima and animus, our female and male roles and urges.
The mother, primarily in the sense of our need of her.
The father, primarily an authority figure often inducing fear.
The child, our innocent beginning with all our potential in front of us.
The sage, or wise old man, one who has the profound knowledge.
The god, the perfect image of the Self.
The goddess, the great mother, or Mother Earth.
The trickster, a rascal agent pushing us towards change.
The hermaphrodite, the joiner of opposites.
The beast, a representation of the primitive past of man.
The scapegoat, suffering the shortcomings of others.
The fool, wandering off in confusion and faulty directions.
The artist, the visionary and inspired way of approaching truth.
Mana and other concepts of spiritual energy.
The journey, a representation of the quest towards self-realization.
Life, death and rebirth, the cyclic nature of existence.
Light and dark, images of the conscious and the unconscious.
The tree, the growth towards self-fulfillment.
Water, the unconscious and the emotions.
The wizard, knowledgeable of the hidden and of transformation needed.


What do I see when I look at this? I see character classes.

The Hero is the Fighter, the Trickster is the Rogue, the Artist is the Bard, and the Wizard is... the Wizard.
I'd say the Tree, the Beast, Life, and maybe Water are primal classes, but I'm not exactly sure how they line up with the Barbarian, Druid, Shaman, and Warden.
I think the Sage is the Cleric, the Scapegoat is the Paladin (a defender, taking a beating for everyone but dishing out little damage itself), the God/Goddess is the Invoker, and... I'm not sure what lines up with the Avenger.

Anyway, I'm thinking that we could use the Jungian archetypes as inspiration for new classes.
I think some sort of class based on the Hermaphrodite, perhaps a class which focuses on bringing together opposing forces and joining them, could be pretty cool.

Your thoughts?
Your interpretations?

 

[Nytmare]

I'd be more interested in tying the archetypes to characters, as a tool for story building, and less as direct ties to the classes.

You might be interested in reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces."

The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[chronoplasm]

I'd be more interested in tying the archetypes to characters, as a tool for story building, and less as direct ties to the classes.

I'll check it out. Thanks.

 

[Mythlore]

You might be interested in reading Joseph Campbell's "The Hero with a Thousand Faces."

The Hero with a Thousand Faces - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As I recall, Joseph Campbell's research deals with the concept of the 'Monomyth' -- a central, monolithic myth-story form that re-tells and weaves a plot among characters, and has been used successfully in telling stories such as Star Wars.

I find its plot flow to be effective at guiding stories through twists and turns.

 

[Camelot]

Artificer = Sage
Avenger = God
Barbarian = Water
Bard = Artist
Cleric = Goddess
Druid = Persona
Fighter = Hero
Invoker = Self
Paladin = Scapegoat
Ranger = Journey
Rogue = Trickster
Shaman = Tree
Sorcerer = Life, Death, and Rebirth
Swordmage = Mana
Warden = Beast
Warlock = Shadow
Warlord = Father
Wizard = Wizard

Anima and animus don't really have any class potential that I can see.

The mother could also be for the cleric, instead of goddess, but I think goddess goes better with a divine class. Mother would end up being some other leader who focuses on healing.

The child also seems a really tough one to base a class on, since it pretty much explains all classes. It would have to be even more focused on gaining potential. Perhaps a noble, a martial controller?

I agree, a class based on the hermaphrodite would be really interesting. It could already be the artificer, who combines magic with technology, or the swordmage, who combines magic and martial arts, both of which are very cool classes.

A class based on the fool would be a wanderer, similar to the bard, but probably a martial class. Minstrel anyone?

I think the upcoming monk will best encompass the light and dark. Having only played 4e, I don't know much about the flavor of monks except that they are like fighters who use their fists. They seem to combine the light of their potential with the darkness of their past.

 

[chronoplasm]

Monks, from previous editions at least, were kung-fu masters. Have they changed them much for 4E?

For a while I was working on a 'Jester' class as a martial controller, which would have been heavily based on the Fool archetype, but I eventually decided that my ideas were leaning more toward arcane rather than martial and that the concept could probably be best represented as a paragon path for Bards.

I think a class dedicated to the Hermaphrodite archetype certainly has quite a bit of potential.
Perhaps one of its features could let you choose a pair of opposites such as Ice vs. Fire, Law vs. Chaos, Light vs. Dark, Life vs. Death, etc.
Then maybe it could have a suite of powers each with two different effects that mirror each other?
An attack that deals radiant damage to one target and necrotic damage to another target?
A power that grants a -2 bonus to the first target and a +2 bonus to the second target?
Perhaps a power that slows an enemy and 'Hastes' an ally?
For some reason I am reminded of Daoism and the Yin and Yang.