BLU Idea

[Mimilu]

I like the IX inspired idea and solution to teaching Blue Magic skills (it is both oddly refined and slightly shamanistic) but I think there are a few problems.
Basing if off of a crafting class and then giving it Lancer cross class skills gives it a really limited move pool and no offensive stat growth. Yes, I know with Blue Magic they can have a lot of skills they CAN learn but starting off would be a nightmare, plus this is kind of edging into one of the problems that XI had, where you had to get scrolls to learn new spells, which usually meant either paying a lot at the market board or .
I would suggest creating a class for it, giving them either a skill that lets them eat the foe (like Eat, Devour, or even something that absorbs like Lancet) or a skill that increases the drop rate of the item(s) they need for their special recipes, and some non-Blue Magic skills. I would also like to suggest that giant forks be there main weapon because they are awesome and then they can use shields. >w>

[Tonushinu]

snip

Yeah, I wasn't too hard set on the LNC requirement, I was originally leaning towards ARC for the available cross-class skills, but couldn't really find a reason how that class would mesh well with it. I was figuring that the BLU soul gem could be made in such a way that it makes up for the lack of stat progression in DoH classes, and becoming a DoW/M class would give it the extra stat points it missed out on as CUL. As for the ingredients for recipes, I do agree that Eat/Devour would be great to use, I just really liked the idea of making a dish so good that it gives you some of the power of what you ate, hence the job abilities "Iron Stomach" and "Kin Eater." There would, of course, be easy to craft recipes that would give the basic spells, so that the first few levels aren't terrible. There would definitely be a skill that can be gained from these first spells that increases drop rate.

[Tonushinu]

The reasoning behind my approach of using CUL is not only for flavor but to allow the BLU to get the most out of its spells. Having it based off of a class (Gourmand, GRM for short), could potentially lower the options for the BLU's spells to be utilized, possibly limiting the number of actual set blue magic spells to 5 as its job abilities. I was also tooling with the idea of having their first 3 job abilities be a combo set of moves, or having the Synthesis skills become the combo set which can be linked to BLU spells. I was also leaning towards BLU becoming one of the first hybrid classes that can change its role based on the spells it has equipped. I do agree with using the fork as the main weapon, and was thinking of having the pan you get from the job quest allow you to have your sub weapon be your main weapon (I had this same idea for letting DRK be based on MRD and being able to use scythes). Or, the pan could allow the use of the fork as a main weapon and the pan as a shield.