Fantasy Archetypes and Sub-Archetypes

[Roman]

There seem to be three basic fantasy archetypes:

1) Warrior - any character concentrating on combat
2) Sill User - any character concentrating on using his wits and non-supernatural abilities
3) Spellcaster - any character dealing with magic

*Priest - this one could probably be subsumed in the spellcaster category
*Stealth Practicioner - most likely could be subsumed in the skill user category
*Socialite - almost certainly could be subsumed in the skill user category

Can you think of any more basic archetypes?

How would you divide the basic archetypes into 'sub-archetypes'?

 

[Timeboxer]

I forget, but I think those are the basic archetypes used in Unearthed Arcana... it's hard to get more basic than that, to be honest, unless you want to include "The Incompetent Guy Who Ends Up Saving The World Anyway."

 

[fusangite]

There are a lot of ways to slice this; and the term archetype has different shades of meaning depending on who is using it. From a game mechanic standpoint, I would essentially agree with your division but I would end up producing quite different lists if I were to come at this from a literary perspective or a mythological perspective.

 

[RangerWickett]

Heh. I consider the concept of a Klutz character class kinda cool.

You have few skills, barely any combat ability, little logical value to an adventuring party, but you're stupidly lucky. I like it.

 

[Acid_crash]

Add Karmic Lucky type class and your good to go.

As for subtypes, there would be so many to list but wouldn't the basics of the sub-archetype be like this:

Melee expert
Unarmed expert
Archer/Ranged expert
Sneak
Aristocraft
Priest
Wizard
Psychic - of course, for this it could be the spellcaster general archetype, or a new Mentalist archetype.
Wilderness Survivalist
Druid/Shaman

 

[Doug McCrae]

Are you talking about archetypes in fantasy books or fantasy roleplaying games? I don't think they're the same.

 

[Sejs]

Warrior: men-at-arms, barbarian warlords, knights, mercs, whatever. The guy that kills things with weapons.

Underhanded Sneaky Bastard: thieves, con men, silver tongued socialites, etc. Very skilled in whatever they do, generally not as physically focused as a warrior-type, and almost always duplicitous. In most fantasy, being highly skilled seems to almost always go hand in hand with lying, cheating, and/or stealing.

Spellcaster: arcane wizards with pointy hats and long beards, psions, witches, wild-talent uncontrolled magic users, cultists summoning horrors man was not meant to invite in for supper, and so on. The people who manipulate the supernatural as a primary means of what they do.


[Sub-Category] Priests: big church preachers, dark clergy of darker gods, tree-hugging hippy druids, tribal shamans, paladins, etc. Faith in something unseen is their bag. Usually priestly types fall into either the Spellcaster(for those with magic powers) or USB (those without) archtype, with the occasional Warrior found amongst the more militant types.

[Sub-Category] Everyman Inadvertant Hero: humble beginings, world-shattering endings. Basically the guy that starts off not being able to tell his arse from a hole in the ground and ends up stopping the big bad for... whatever reason. Samwise, Belgarrion, Luke Skywalker, the list goes on and on. They can end up in any category depending on their own inclinations and how the story wrenches them along, but the idea of the average joe who ends up saving all existance is about as staple as you can get.

 

[Whimsical]

There's no Princess class. A lot of mideval stories focus on the actions the ruling class, which isn't really represented in D&D. The going-ons of royals really captured the imagination of the people and its storytellers.

I imagine an epic level princess, a beautiful sight to behold, walking through the battlefield. Everyone, whether ally or enemy is compelled to bow down when they see her. She commands the enemy troops to join her army and they enthusiastically comply. Suddenly several dozen arrows come toward her. "Stop!" she commands, and the arrows stop. "Avenge me!" and the arrows turn around and fling themselves back to the archers. An epic level princess is so commanding that she can command reality itself.

"...Now if you were to point your pistol at a king, the majesty of royalty you see, your hand would start to shake and all throughts of death and killing would be wiped from your mind as you would stand there in awe.....but a President? Why not shoot a President?" -- English Bob, Unforgiven

 

[Whimsical]

Heh. I consider the concept of a Klutz character class kinda cool.

You have few skills, barely any combat ability, little logical value to an adventuring party, but you're stupidly lucky. I like it.

But I thought that almost everyone hated Jar Jar Binks.

 

[Remathilis]

There's no Princess class. A lot of mideval stories focus on the actions the ruling class, which isn't really represented in D&D. The going-ons of royals really captured the imagination of the people and its storytellers.

check out the noble class in Dragonlance/StarWars/WheelofTime for a good princess class