Final Fantasy Zero: Design Diary continued

[I'm A Banana]

The Soldier

I don't have the racial traits here, and I'll be tinkering with the abilities a bit (12 attack rolls = NO!), but I'm going to be posting a full release-level .pdf of the Soldier job pretty soon.

The Soldier is a job I split off. The Chronist no longer exists (the Soldier is about the equivalent), but now we also have a Fencer. This was because there were WAY TOO MANY abilities to give them all their due as a Samurai. So I'm spreading it out a little bit and filling a few niches that weren't really encouraged earlier.

For the Soldier, imagine it something like the FFT squire: a basic-level fighting class. BUT, it goes up to 50 like all the other jobs, and as it goes up it gets abilities like Braver and Omnislash and Lionheart and Quadra Slice....

It's a bit of a Frankenstien, but it's FFZ's "basic fighting-man." It'll be up pretty soon, here.

 

[GnomeWorks]

Quick question - why can't blue mages use flails?

 

[I'm A Banana]

There's no balance reason for it at all, I just don't remember them using flail-like weapons. If you'd like to add 'em, go ahead. I'd keep their weapon list a bit limited, so they're not exceptionally versatile, but there'd be no significant harm in letting 'em use flails.

The same is generally true of any of the weapons: the choice should be more about quantity and flavor, since the quality of many of the weapon types should be roughly equal.

 

[GnomeWorks]

There's no balance reason for it at all, I just don't remember them using flail-like weapons.

Quistis, from VIII. She definitely used whips.

Also, I keep looking for how subclassing works in FFZ, but I haven't come across anything. Are you still working that out, or is it just not released yet (or did I manage to miss it)?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Ah! You're right! How could I forget about hot for teacher?

There's nothing released about multiclassing yet, because it's currently going through some revision in light of the recent decision to make job-changing on the fly possible. Tentatively, it's this:

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SWITCHING JOBS
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Job advancement and character advancement are seperate forces. A character advances according to the "BASE" class, and can have a number of job levels equal to their "BASE" level, assigned in whatever jobs they choose to assign their levels to.

For instane, a character of level 5 ("BASE 5") can have 5 levels split between as many jobs as he has access to. In all situations, however, only the current highest statistic applies -- they do not add together. This means that if they split those 5 levels between 5 different jobs, it is entirely likely that they have may not have an ATK score greater than 1. Thus, there is a rule of diminishing returns on taking multiple jobs -- you gain more abilities, and more versatility, but you will loose on raw power.

It is also impossible to increase a job level beyond the job level you have access to. That level 5 character above may not have any one job pushed beyond level 3, meaning even if he selects his level 3 job, he could select up to two others at level 1 (or one other at level 2). At all times, a character can only have one Primary Job, a job that they apply JP to increasing the job level of. All others are considered sub-jobs.

Jobs can be easily switched at any Camp location, simply by choosing to do so. You can also willfully reduce your level in a job. After conducting a job change, you will be handicapped for a time, spending 1 day with negative levels equal to your base level.

In all cases, you do gain access to the job abilities of the job levels you possess (and you loose access if you reduce those job levels below the minimum level the job gains those abilities at).


EXAMPLE:

Erika is a 10th-level character with access to the Soldier, Black Mage, White Mage, and Thief jobs. She has 10 job levels in Thief, 5 in Black Mage, 1 in Soldier, and 3 in White Mage. She can mix and match her 10 levels between any of these, gaining the appropriate powers for her total job levels. If she has puts 9 job levels in Thief and 1 job level in Soldier, she has access to all Thievery and Technique abilities of a 9th-level thief and a 1st-level Soldier. She also gains the higher of the jobs' hit points, magic points, ATK score, DEF score, VIT score, etc, depending upon which is higher. In this instance, she would have the thief's base HP (27), MP (23), ATK score (3), DEF score (2), VIT score (0), MAG score (2), MND score (2) and AGI score (4), and the soldier's base DMG rating (1d10). She would have access to 9th level Thievery abilities (Steal Gil, Escape, Unlock, Secret Passages, and Steal Item) and 1st level Technique abilities (Advance). She will suffer 10 Negative Levels for 1 day as she gets used to her new job.

Erika also needs to choose a primary job, a job that her earned JP will go to increasing. She selects Soldier. This gives her the Bonuses for the job levels she has in soldier (none, yet). She would get Bonuses if she selected Thief as her main job, but she cannot raise the level of her Thief job anymore until she gains more Base levels. She also gains the skill training and proficiencies of her new job. As it sits, Erika is basically a thief, but she deals more damage with a wider variety of weapons. She isn't quite as skilled as most theives, but that's probably because she's now training in heavier armor. She also can perofrm the Advance technique, gaining an edge to damage at the expense of her safety.
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Also, here's the Soldier!

 

[GnomeWorks]

Hmm... a very Tactics-like system. I enjoy it immensely.

So you would have to track your base level, your max job level in all jobs you have access to, and how you've allocated your available levels into your jobs.

Would it be possible to have a higher max job level in a class than your base level?

Also, how do you plan on handing out JP? I think it would be interesting if you made XP the general combat benefit, but made JP job-specific. I'm not exactly certain how well that would work (and it would probably work better for some jobs than others), but it would allow you to make a bigger distinction between the two (unless you don't want that much of a distinction).

 

[I'm A Banana]

So you would have to track your base level, your max job level in all jobs you have access to, and how you've allocated your available levels into your jobs.

Yup. That *can* get complex, but I don't see people often gaining levels in more than 2-3 different jobs, due to the fact that there are diminishing returns on it that are fairly brutal. Multiclassing makes you weaker, and if you do it a lot, you might not be able to handle the challenge that faces you. Of course, you can change back into single-class pretty easily, so sometimes it might be smarter to go with breadth over depth.

Would it be possible to have a higher max job level in a class than your base level?

Nope. Your base level tracks your overall character power, the "absolute depth" you can reach. If you want a higher job level, you need a higher base level. Base level increases with XP, job level with JP.

Also, how do you plan on handing out JP? I think it would be interesting if you made XP the general combat benefit, but made JP job-specific. I'm not exactly certain how well that would work (and it would probably work better for some jobs than others), but it would allow you to make a bigger distinction between the two (unless you don't want that much of a distinction).

Read my mind, actually. XP comes from character/story goals (protect your loved one, reveal your dark past, convince Cid to loan you the airship), JP comes from job-related goals (steal the gem, learn the spell, banish the undead, march on Provoka), and AP comes from encounters (beat up the goblin, sneak past the Soldiers, fight the Boss). Most of the time, these should come hand-in-hand, but it allows a DM to add some complexity (and some extended time between levels) if he desires.

What I really wanted to accomplish was to allow both vertical and horizontal character advancement: you can go deep, gaining more power, or you can go broad, gaining more powers. This means that a GM who finds a "sweet spot" can make it last virtually indefinitely while still rewarding characters significantly.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Here, have some monsters...

 

[GnomeWorks]

I am excited by blue magic!

Though I'm curious as to why you point out the family of monster the spell is learned from. Is that significant to the blue mage class, or simply for organizational purposes?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I am excited by blue magic!

Though I'm curious as to why you point out the family of monster the spell is learned from. Is that significant to the blue mage class, or simply for organizational purposes?

Largely organizational, so that a look at the Blue Magic spell list also kind of serves as a list of critters to hunt.