[Poll] What Fantasy Archetype Do You Lean Towards?Follow

You fire up the latest and greatest fantasy CRPG (not MMORPG) and it's one where you can either directly or indirectly pick from different archetypes. You're planning on playing it through and you go for...

Even if you pick a type competent with ranges and melee, pick the combat style you tend towards. Define the separation between roles however you wish; I'd consider a plate wearing warrior with a few minor spells as heavy melee (as opposed to "battlemage") but go with your gut. I excluded MMORPGs because the social setting changes thing; I may play a healer with a group of people I like but I wouldn't want to play pure healer to a bunch of NPCs.

I've noticed that I always gravitate towards a heavy melee role the first play through, probably because it's safe and straight forward. I never enter a game like Dragon Age and set out of make a light melee rogue/scout type the first go-through, probably because I assume I'll be lolpwnt by goblins in my leather/light chain armor. I've never gravitated right away towards pure casters in any game. I guess I connect more with swinging something at someone's head than throwing mystical fire at them.

Edited, Nov 22nd 2011 3:16pm by Jophiel

For me, I usually go for the all-out spellcaster. There's something about throwing a fireball the size of a minivan that appeals to me. I like huge graphical effects, big satisfying damage-bombs, and being able not only kill an enemy, but get the satisfaction of watching his smoldering corpse collapse into a pile of ashes.

I'm picky; it depends on a few factors. I went with heavy armor melee, assuming ideal circumstances (I get to use a spear, or even better, spear + shield). If the game doesn't have spears, as is the case with Skyrim, I typically go with a light/medium armored ranged type.

There's some overlap and mix & match there, too, depending on the game. I'll tend toss a shield on any class I can if it'll let me, ditto for bows and such.

I've never been very into magic. I have absolutely no idea why. I feel like subconsciously I think it's for wusses.

Edited, Nov 22nd 2011 4:39pm by Eske

I put in a caster role but honestly?

Tradeskills. Smithing was my first skill to 100 in Skyrim for a reason. :D

Magic comes in at a distant second, with a heavy emphasis on control-type effects if they are available and not gimped, unless I can get them for free. =X But it is definitely the ranged weaponry of choice.

Everything else is kind of a "I'll use it if it's appropriate."

I always pick the closest to a Paladin as I can. My first paper and pencil D&D character was a Paladin, and every game I play I always roll a Paladin first if it's available. if not whatever comes closest will do.

Edited, Nov 22nd 2011 6:47pm by Kastigir

I like being able to use magic, but I also like being able to pull out a weapon and beat the crap out of things. Which is more or less how I'm playing Skyrim right now. I voted for "The melee-centric caster hybrid" because it's the closest fit to how I like to play. Actually FFXI's Dark Knight would almost be my ideal class if it had just a tinge more of a magic side.

When I was younger, I might have said spell casters, but for the last few years, I could care less about what my abilities are called or what the aesthetic framework is. I've become almost solely focused on function.

That, an ability that deals 50 fire damage and leaves a small DOT, and happens to be strong against ice monsters, is exactly the same to me whether it's framed as a spell caster shooting a fireball or a magic-less archer shooting a flaming arrow. I don't care how they say I'm doing it; I only care how it works.

This is why I struggle with choosing classes in a lot of RPGs, because they'll tell you if you're magic or melee, but they don't tell you muhc about how you function mechanically. I'm primarily looking for two things from a class.

1. Interesting mechanics. Bard from FFXI is a good example. It was a very useful class to have in any party, but it spent most of the time playing songs and not even targeting the mob. It was a class that did almost nothing directly, but made everyone else much better. It was also dependent on positioning of the entire party. I found all of this to be very interesting, and so it suited me well. Later when I played Rift, I decided to heal as a Warden. It was a HoT healer, but more importantly many of the healing abilities had overlapping durations and interrelated dependencies. The optimum single target healing rotation was a 5 step spell rotation, unlike the other who just had 1 primary heal they spammed over and over. Later on I played a very specialized role called a "senticar" that was far from anything the developers originally intended.

2. Reasonably effective. I like what I do to be hilarious. Summon flaming bears on top of people is fairly hilarious, but only if it is also reasonably effective. If "summon flaming bear meteors" does very little damage, has no detrimental status effect, and cost of lot of resources, then it's no longer all that amusing to me. I find amusing that a effective combat spell is essentially something ridiculous, but something ridiculous that is ineffective is just a show for when you're sitting in town.

I tend to levitate towards melee more than mage since melee damage is free. Magic damage requires mp, but typically, so does healing. Choosing melee focused allows me to spend my limited mp towards healing rather than replacing free damage.

I usually run hybrids, durable casters with lots of utility, and heavy hitters.

FFXI: I ran DRG, notably DRG/Caster, and Ninja.
WoW: Warlock, and later DK.
Dragon Age: Blood Mage/Arcane Warrior
BG2: Sorceror, Kensai/mage

I tend to the pure spellcaster types. I'd rather sit on the sidelines and lob cures, or run in and sing pretty songs to everyone.

I love me some mages. I will always use them in any game I play. From being mage heavy in fire emblem to using all mages in Final Fantasy. When given the option to build my own character I usually go with a magic focus with a decent melee abilities to back it up. I don't like to be a pure mage and I most certainly hate being a glass cannon. I like to be well rounded in the sense that I can perform in most situations. Not so well rounded I become a jack of all trades master of none. However I don't want to be in situation where I say hmm I think I'll leave my main character behind or I wish I could because he gonna be useless this fight.

So I picked Spell-centric hybrid.

On the other hand, there is something amusing about playing a race designed to be a mage and tricking it out as a heavy armored melee. In XI, I run around with a great axe the size of my entire body on WAR.

Depends on the game, but I'm usually a lightly armored melee (FFXI-Monk, FFXIV for 2 weeks- PUG, DA: O- Thief) or Heavy Armored Melee (DA 2: 2 Handed WAR, Skyrim- 2 Handed WAR).

I like to get up close & personal & either A) Punch or B) Stab a mob in the face.