Fantasy RPG Classes & MBTI

XDS · Jan 20, 2014

I think we need to make two distinctions.

1. Playing the class in a video game vs. Roleplaying a class in a tabletop RPG
Computer RPG players tend to pick classes based on their preferred strategy and how well a class can fit that strategy. For example, an ENTJ might decide that the best strategy is to stack defence and cherry tap every enemy to death and pick paladin because of that.

Contrast tabletop RPG players who tend to pick classes based on how they see themselves performing as that class. For example, the same ENTJ might like being in charge of the group and decide to pick general or captain instead of paladin.

2. How is magic treated?
Is magic a fancy new energy-thingy that's only just spreading or has it been around for centuries? Is it completely illogical or is there an underlying framework? These things matter to sensors and thinkers.

I Kant · Jan 20, 2014

XDS said:
2. How is magic treated?
Is magic a fancy new energy-thingy that's only just spreading or has it been around for centuries? Is it completely illogical or is there an underlying framework? These things matter to sensors and thinkers.

Hmm. My suggestion:

Magic is ancient but only recently rediscovered.
There is both an internal and external component: one must develop their talent, but magic is in the world and can be manipulated as energy external to oneself as well as internal to oneself, depending on the school of magic.
It isn't anti-science. It can be experimented on and explored, but requires disciplines or rituals or artifacts like wands to use safely.
There are different kinds of magic and conflicting schools of thought. Some argue it is irrational, some argue it is rational. As the internal and external dimensions are not understood and hard to verify, and the results contradictory, the magic schools of thought develop into distinct philosophies, with none of them grasping the nature of magic as a whole.
The source of magic turns out to be life, and reckless use of magic expends it causing stillbirths, forests to wither and so forth. This in turn causes controversy and ethical issues to enter, as well as different schools of thought based on what is abuse of magic and the cause of draining the net life resource from the universe.
Magic behaves like most energy in physics, except that it grants a degree of life and basic sentience to things. For example: causing some oxygen and heat to become sentient, providing energy to let move to concentrate itself and explode to create a "beam" of fire. How much life and energy one can command depends on skill, and rarely reaches an equivalent for a destructive potential for an individual greater than being hit by a charging rhinoceros. Unless it drains the users own life force, killing them. So too much potential can be fatal. Magic rewards simpler manipulation, rather than replacing crafting and blacksmiths by attempting to reorganize matter. Although basic chemistry is fair game.
Some magic users go mad for no apparent reason, raving that they have the power to grant life and thus should be treated like a God. It eventually turns out magic didn't corrupt them: humanity itself sometimes goes mad and lets things go to its head. Weakness is endemic to the species.

Hopefully that should make things interesting, yet offer scope for what most people intuitively expect of magic.

Doom · Jan 23, 2014

This is something I've been toying with, though its not really class specific (well some could essentially be a class) but more based on their functions combination ie an ENFJ would be a group healer: Fe would mean it specializes in group heals, Ni would make those kind of heals mean their spells build up over time (similar to a Resto Druid in WoW), Se would mean they use a Staff and Ti would allow their heals to provide buffs, they could have like a circle on the ground that gradually heals allies and harms enemies. Basically each function would determine their abilities and their order/combination would determine their effectiveness.

XDS · Jan 23, 2014

For the sake of being complete, prefix each description with "I would think that he or she ...".

ISTJ - Assassin
Just wants to get on with it without drawing too much attention.
ISFJ - Duellist
Doesn't like large crowds, like doing things the way they ought to be done, and prefer to know the target before condemning them.
ESTJ - Captain
Is an able fighter and often directs his or her team from the thick of it.
ESFJ - Knight
Doesn't like seeing his mates hurt and so does his best to make sure everyone stays alive.

ISTP - Mechanic (I'm so creative)
Builds and maintains automatons to perform a variety of acts.
ISFP - Medic
Concocts mixtures with medical properties.
ESTP - Paladin
Similar to the knight, but doesn't see anything wrong with using life-draining magical tools to make sure his team stays alive even if that means the enemy doesn't.
ESFP - Musical something-or-other
Performs songs that help people

INTJ - Sorcerer
Knows every practical spell like how to set people on fire.
INTP - Wizard
Knows every kind of spell like how to set fire on fire. With fire.
ENTJ - Strategist
Plans every battle before anyone else even knew a battle was coming.
ENTP - ???

INFJ - Manipulator
Knows how people work and how to make them work for him or her. Sometimes uses psychological magic if such a thing exists.
INFP - Support-ish healer... thing
All I can think of is Lulu from League of Legends
ENFJ - Weird nature guy
That guy every RPG has that worships some deity, walks barefoot, can't use weapons, and fights with his hands.
ENFP - Anti-magic
Takes destructive magical forces and channels it back into life-energy-stuff.

juilorain · Jan 23, 2014

@XDS

We don't need a classification; we normally defy them anyway.

Ctrooper2011 · Jan 23, 2014

Theoretically speaking, if such a game were made, personality type would affect decisions sooner than it would class choices.

Dedication · Jan 23, 2014

XDS , your reasoning about the ENTJ is off, only because a Ni-dom would fit this description much better.

Coburn · Jan 23, 2014

I thought this thread was going to be about RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and which MBTI types would take a class to learn how to build one...

Dedication · Jan 23, 2014

Marlowe said:
I thought this thread was going to be about RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and which MBTI types would take a class to learn how to build one...

Speaking of MBTI, what do you think about INFP's in general?

Fuzbal · Jan 23, 2014

XDS said:
For the sake of being complete, prefix each description with "I would think that he or she ...".

ISTJ - Assassin
Just wants to get on with it without drawing too much attention.

ISFJ - Duellist
Doesn't like large crowds, like doing things the way they ought to be done, and prefer to know the target before condemning them.

ESTJ - Captain
Is an able fighter and often directs his or her team from the thick of it.

ESFJ - Knight
Doesn't like seeing his mates hurt and so does his best to make sure everyone stays alive.

ISTP - Mechanic (I'm so creative)
Builds and maintains automatons to perform a variety of acts.

ISFP - Medic
Concocts mixtures with medical properties.

ESTP - Paladin
Similar to the knight, but doesn't see anything wrong with using life-draining magical tools to make sure his team stays alive even if that means the enemy doesn't.

ESFP - Musical something-or-other
Performs songs that help people

INTJ - Sorcerer
Knows every practical spell like how to set people on fire.

INTP - Wizard
Knows every kind of spell like how to set fire on fire. With fire.

ENTJ - Strategist
Plans every battle before anyone else even knew a battle was coming.

ENTP - ???

INFJ - Manipulator
Knows how people work and how to make them work for him or her. Sometimes uses psychological magic if such a thing exists.

INFP - Support-ish healer... thing
All I can think of is Lulu from League of Legends

ENFJ - Weird nature guy
That guy every RPG has that worships some deity, walks barefoot, can't use weapons, and fights with his hands.

ENFP - Anti-magic
Takes destructive magical forces and channels it back into life-energy-stuff.

I think the names Knight and Paladin should be switched, because a paladin sounds friendlier, or however you want to put it, than a knight.

Maybe Inventor or Ironsmith for ISTP (if you don't like just having the mechanic)

I think herbalist would sound better for ISFP (just an idea)

The ESFP's music could like provide buffs/debuffs.

Based on how INTJ's have Ni and INTP's have Ne, the INTP's should have a bunch of different spells and the INTJ's should focus on one area that they are really good at.

ENTP could be like a diplomat, being able to persuade people with high charisma levels.

INFP could be a scroll reader, maybe specializing in sheilds for his teammates, or maybe a healer and making the ISFP something else.

ENFJ- Monk?

I could immagine the ENFP being like that one kind of day-dreamy, spacy person that doesn't seem like a threat until you go too far, but that wouldn't really work in a videogame so I think that works.

I like your list though

this was just hopefully improving it a little bit.

Who · Jan 23, 2014

XDS said:
ENTP - ???

That sounds about right, actually.

XDS · Jan 24, 2014

Ctrooper2011 said:
Theoretically speaking, if such a game were made, personality type would affect decisions sooner than it would class choices.

Choosing your class is one of the first and one of the most important decisions you make while playing an RPG.

Dedication said:
XDS , your reasoning about the ENTJ is off, only because a Ni-dom would fit this description much better.

Maybe. I honestly don't know. I only know that, being an INTJ myself, I might not notice strategic places from which someone could ambush me since I'd be busy doing Ni stuff like wondering if wands can be made with synthetic materials. Hence giving Strategist to ENTJs and Ne.

Fuzbal said:
I think the names Knight and Paladin should be switched, because a paladin sounds friendlier, or however you want to put it, than a knight.

Knight sounds less protective, but paladin sounds more magical.

Fuzbal said:
Maybe Inventor or Ironsmith for ISTP (if you don't like just having the mechanic)

I think herbalist would sound better for ISFP (just an idea)

INFP could be a scroll reader, maybe specializing in sheilds for his teammates, or maybe a healer and making the ISFP something else.

ENFJ- Monk?

Those do sound better. I was being pretty lazy with most of the names. I was going to make INTP "magical guy who stands in the back and does magic stuff" until I remembered "wizard".

Fuzbal said:
Based on how INTJ's have Ni and INTP's have Ne, the INTP's should have a bunch of different spells and the INTJ's should focus on one area that they are really good at.

I was trying to get at that with the INTJ knowing "practical" spells and the INTP knowing... "other" spells. I didn't want to pigeonhole INTJs more than I needed to.

Fuzbal said:
ENTP could be like a diplomat, being able to persuade people with high charisma levels.

But diplomats don't really do much in combat and most RPGs are based on combat.

Fuzbal said:
I could imagine the ENFP being like that one kind of day-dreamy, spacy person that doesn't seem like a threat until you go too far, but that wouldn't really work in a videogame so I think that works.

I thought that was more INFP-ish than ENFP-ish.

Fuzbal said:
I like your list though this was just hopefully improving it a little bit.

You definitely come up with better names.

I Kant · Jan 24, 2014

XDS said:
But diplomats don't really do much in combat and most RPGs are based on combat.

I'd argue that in RPGs combat can be a matter of diplomacy and bluff.

When your party is on low life, you want the bard to talk the dragon out of finishing you off.

But this may be more of a pen and paper thing.

You could totally make an interesting RPG based on entrepreneurship in a Ayn Randian setting, as an obscure example. We make good steel.

XDS · Jan 24, 2014

@default settings, it's definitely more of a pen and paper thing.

I should clarify that I've never played a pen and paper RPG. I've read about them and I've thought about what mechanics make them fun to play, but I was never been able to find other people willing to play.

Anyway, from what I've read about them, even classes that would be considered "non-combat" classes in computer RPGs have some remedial combat skills in pen and paper RPGs to give them something to do while the others are fighting so they aren't just watching from a distance all the time. D&D clerics are given bludgeoning weapons and bards can sing songs that help the party. In exchange they usually have superior skills outside of combat like being able to heal people in their party or superior bartering skills.

I fear a diplomat class would need to be too heavily invested in non-combat abilities to have any real effect on a battle to make the distinction between a diplomat and a character with a high charisma/charm stat, making the character dull to play unless, as you stated, the RPG is not a "traditional" fantasy RPG.

I think the easiest way to find a class befitting of an ENTP would be to just ask an ENTP to describe how he would like to play an RPG because I certainly have no clue.

Fuzbal · Jan 24, 2014

XDS said:
@default settings, it's definitely more of a pen and paper thing.

I should clarify that I've never played a pen and paper RPG. I've read about them and I've thought about what mechanics make them fun to play, but I was never been able to find other people willing to play.

Anyway, from what I've read about them, even classes that would be considered "non-combat" classes in computer RPGs have some remedial combat skills in pen and paper RPGs to give them something to do while the others are fighting so they aren't just watching from a distance all the time. D&D clerics are given bludgeoning weapons and bards can sing songs that help the party. In exchange they usually have superior skills outside of combat like being able to heal people in their party or superior bartering skills.

I fear a diplomat class would need to be too heavily invested in non-combat abilities to have any real effect on a battle to make the distinction between a diplomat and a character with a high charisma/charm stat, making the character dull to play unless, as you stated, the RPG is not a "traditional" fantasy RPG.

I think the easiest way to find a class befitting of an ENTP would be to just ask an ENTP to describe how he would like to play an RPG because I certainly have no clue.

Have you ever played Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic? with every conversation you have you have multiple options including trying persuasion, and you can end up angering the enemy and fighting them, or having them help you/join you... that's kind of how I imagined the diplomat being.

Asking them to describe is probably a better idea anyway. It's probably just my enneagram type 4 wanting every character to do something different that the other characters can't do.

XDS · Jan 24, 2014

@Fuzbal, no. The only Star Wars game I've played is the pod racing game for the N64. :Þ

I was rather forcibly asked to try Mass Effect 2 (3?) a few months ago, though. It had a conversation system similar to what you're describing.

Arakkun · Sep 10, 2014

/*the famous thread necroer came*/
I can say that If you're going by the D&D classes, the wizard doesn't fit the INTP ideology at all (but fit INTJ much more).
The "Vancian Spellcasting" Wizard have is the .... "prepare-and-forget" system that does make no sense and is limiting for a Perceiver who like choosing his strategy at-the-moment instead of preparing ahead of time ( which is what judger like more ).

So, going by Pathfinder/D&D 3.5 classes

INTP - Arcanists ( Pathfinder, Semi-Prepared INT-Based Arcane Spellcasters, they do prepare spells, but don't lose them after use ) or Duskblade ( D&D3.5, Spontaneous INT-Bases Arcane Semi-Spellcasters, they dabble in both martial and arcane )
INTJ - Wizard ( Prepared INT-Based Arcane Spellcasters, they prepare spell by trying to preview what will be useful in their next encounter )
ENTP - Sorcerer ( Spontaneous CHA-Based Arcane Spellcasters, they learned magic not by study, but through their fantasy/force of will and so )
ENTJ - Summoner ( Pathfinder, Spontaneous CHA-Based Arcane Spellcasters, control monsters :3)

INFP - Oracle ( Pathfinder, Prepared Cha-Based Divine Spellcasters, they follow who they think is good not a certain god )

(will complete after)

Fantasy RPG Classes & MBTI

XDS

I Kant

Doom

XDS

juilorain

Ctrooper2011

Dedication

Coburn

Dedication

Fuzbal

Who

XDS

I Kant

XDS

Fuzbal

XDS

Arakkun

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