Healer NPC Diversity

[ObsidianFire]

Job Availability is always based on lore and not overall job representation. There are technically four healer jobs/classes available: Conjurers, White Mages, Astrologians and Scholars. Out of those four, Conjurers are the vast majority simply because Conjurery has the least amount of requirements needed to learn it. For starters, a Soul Stone isn't needed and there aren't any unsurmountable cultural limitations on who should learn it. So most, if not all healers seen outside of specific job quests are Conjurers by default. That's just what most, if not all, Eorzeans think of when they think of a healing mage.

White Mages are the most restricted. In order to be a White Mage, you either need to be born a Padjali or have the one known White Mage Soul Stone in existence. On top of that, the Elementals have expressly forbidden the teaching of white magic to anyone who doesn't match those requirements.

Scholar is similarly limited, but for different reasons. Scholar's faeries live in the Scholar Soul Stone and so far we only know of two of those types of Soul Stones. One is yours. The other belongs to Surito Carito from the Lvl. 60 - 70 SCH quests. Provided more Scholar Soul Stones are found, there could eventually be more Scholars. In fact, that's the overarching plot of the Scholar quests. Alka Zolka wants to revive the job and is actively studying it.

Astrologin should have more practitioners then White Magery or Scholar does. However, all those practitioners would be in Sharlyan and Sharlyan is infamously xenophobic when it comes to spreading it's own magic arts around. In fact, the Lvl. 30 - 60 AST quests are all about how the Sharalyans who want to introduce Astromancy to Eorzea are being hunted by a group of Sharlayans who don't want their native magic arts getting out. So if there's anyone who should be see using Astromancy it would be someone with a tie to Sharlayan. Although, given how the Lvl. 60 AST quests ended, it might be possible that the Ishgardians start using it sooner rather then later. All that said, we shouldn't be running into very many people who know what Astromancy is, let alone are competent at it.

Healers are not the only role that works like this. We see many more Muraders and Gladiators then we do Warriors and Paladins. And we see more Warriors and Paladins then we see Dark Knights. Likewise, nearly all damage oriented mages are Thumaturges. We see more Ninjas then Rouges and more Lancers then Dragoons. Puglists are more common then Monks, Samaurai are only seen in the Far East, we never see Machinists anywhere but Ishgard, and we've yet to see a Bard outside of the Bard quests even though we've seen plenty of Archers.

For better or for worse, the FFXIV team has never cared about "equal job diversity". What they care much more about is "accurate job representation". Once they determine how rare or plentiful a job is according to the lore, they tend to stick with it. Which gives a better world-building experience overall.

[Joven]

How is this even remotely a problem?

[Iscah]

There are technically four healer jobs/classes available: Conjurers, White Mages, Astrologians and Scholars. Out of those four, Conjurers are the vast majority simply because Conjurery has the least amount of requirements needed to learn it. For starters, a Soul Stone isn't needed and there aren't any unsurmountable cultural limitations on who should learn it. So most, if not all healers seen outside of specific job quests are Conjurers by default. That's just what most, if not all, Eorzeans think of when they think of a healing mage.

Conjury would also have an advantage of being easily teachable, as it seems to be incantation-based (although dependent on the skill level of the caster). Quite possibly as long as you've mastered the basic ability of casting a spell on a target, and know the right words for the situation, anyone can do the magical equivalent of first aid.


There's also one extra (NPC) healing discipline that's being overlooked here: arcanist as a healer.

While both of their advanced jobs are exceedingly rare in lore, arcanists themselves are more common. It's a completely separate system of magic to conjury, being mathematical and symbol-based, and has its own approaches to achieving the same effects - ie. Physick instead of Cure.

For battle instances where there isn't a true healer available, arcanist is usually the second option - in MSQ, Urianger and Alphinaud have taken the role before, and in the WAR quests we have Broken Mountain who is maybe a scholar in the general sense, but not a Nymian battle-scholar with a fairy.


Astrologian is a bit of a mystery, because it's not clear how common it is in Sharlayan either. From the AST quests we know that the Sharlayan colony was more open to Eorzean visitors for a while, so it seems like people should have had some awareness of it, but perhaps it wasn't all that commonly studied either. I expect it's similar to arcanistry in that you need more of a mathematical brain to grasp the concepts and do situational calculations (or at least have a good memory of your star map, so you don't have to inspect it closely before casting each spell).

It definitely seems like it's spreading and becoming a more accepted discipline in Ishgard/Coerthas around Lv60 and into Stormblood.


Also of course we have Urianger "switching to" astrologian for Shadowbringers - though I'm fairly sure that as a Sharlayan mage with an interest in prophecies, he would have studied it already at this point, even if he doesn't use it as his primary class.

[Anselmet]

Aren't most jobs rare? At the top of my head there are only a handful of dragoons, there aren't that many red mages, paladins are more or less the elite guards for the sultana, dark knights are rare, machinists are just starting up in Ishgard, I don't remember bard being too popular in Gridania bc they don't believe in the power of song. I don't think its just a healer diversity problem but rather its supposed to be rare and above the class roles.

[MrThinker]

I would like to point out that the lore restrictions with the types of healing magic that applies to the Source does not necessarily apply to other shards like the First. Someguy might have coincidentally developed techniques similar to our SCH, including the use of faeries and arcanima, and it so happens that the job is commonly used in the First, same with Astrologian. So if there is anywhere that SE decides to introduce new NPC healers of one of the other classes (or more importantly I believe, NPCs wielding another weapon besides a cane) they would be residents of the First, or learning their techniques there. As Iscah said, Urianger is already getting the AST treatment in ShB (whether that be Sharlayan style AST, or First style AST is unknown).

Aren't most jobs rare? At the top of my head there are only a handful of dragoons, there aren't that many red mages, paladins are more or less the elite guards for the sultana, dark knights are rare, machinists are just starting up in Ishgard, I don't remember bard being too popular in Gridania bc they don't believe in the power of song. I don't think its just a healer diversity problem but rather its supposed to be rare and above the class roles.

Lorewise, the more populous jobs would probably be Samurai and Astrologian and maybe Ninja. The others are indeed comparably rare.

[Rocl]

One is yours. The other belongs to Surito Carito from the Lvl. 60 - 70 SCH quests.

Super minor nitpick: the Warrior of Light's soulstone is Surito Carito's soulstone, which is why we have his faerie, Lily. Through the course of the Stormblood Scholar quests you discover Setoto's father's soul crystal with the faerie Lilac. Still two soulstones though.

I also feel that a need to shoutout to the unconventional healer types in certain solo duties: Cid functions as a healer in the Mor Dhona ARR MSQ when you protect Maggie from Imperials by using "Aqua Vitae" to heal the Warrior of Light. This skill is re-used by other NPCs for the same purpose. During the Interdimensional Rift solo duties, Midgardsormr will be the one to cast Cure should someone drop below a certain threshold, since neither Nero nor Cid are capable of magic. Yugiri also uses a skill "Suiyaku" to heal the Warrior of Light in several duties as well, and I believe the Ninjas in the job quests do as well. Jacke casts Physick, for some reason, showing off the now defunct cross-class skill system! Orn Khai heals the Warrior of Light in the Dragoon Stormblood finale, etc.

The rank and file healers of Eorzea appear to be mainly conjurers, this is true, but that's also because when you break it down, conjurer is the only healer Disciple of Magic class. It's not brought up as often any more, I think, but soulstones are rare (though becoming more common! think of all the soulstones the Summoner questline introduces and it's arguably the oldest job usable by the Warrior of Light!); so NPCs are often relegated only to classes, and so, the disparity.

[Rongway]

I also feel that a need to shoutout to the unconventional healer types in certain solo duties: Cid functions as a healer in the Mor Dhona ARR MSQ when you protect Maggie from Imperials by using "Aqua Vitae" to heal the Warrior of Light. This skill is re-used by other NPCs for the same purpose. During the Interdimensional Rift solo duties, Midgardsormr will be the one to cast Cure should someone drop below a certain threshold, since neither Nero nor Cid are capable of magic. Yugiri also uses a skill "Suiyaku" to heal the Warrior of Light in several duties as well, and I believe the Ninjas in the job quests do as well.

Aqua Vitae (water of life) and Suiyaku (liquid medicine) are supposed to represent them using potions on you, so anyone could have access to those "abilities" if there was a need for an improvised healer NPC. They just need to use which ever potion word fits the NPC's cultural background.

[Brightamethyst]

It's not brought up as often any more, I think, but soulstones are rare (though becoming more common! think of all the soulstones the Summoner questline introduces and it's arguably the oldest job usable by the Warrior of Light!); so NPCs are often relegated only to classes, and so, the disparity.

Soulstones are not required to become a job (except SCH and WHM.)

Soulstones are a history of the job and the abilities learned by the previous holders, making it easier for the current holder to learn said abilities. It's possible to become a paladin/bard/dragoon/etc through time and effort and training alone. The soulstone is just a shortcut that lets you skip the years of extra training. (The exceptions being SCH where the fairy is tied to the stone, and WHM where the elementals won't accept a non-padjal without it.)

[LineageRazor]

Soulstones are not required to become a job (except SCH and WHM.)

Soulstones are a history of the job and the abilities learned by the previous holders, making it easier for the current holder to learn said abilities. It's possible to become a paladin/bard/dragoon/etc through time and effort and training alone. The soulstone is just a shortcut that lets you skip the years of extra training. (The exceptions being SCH where the fairy is tied to the stone, and WHM where the elementals won't accept a non-padjal without it.)

From a lore perspective, this is correct. Take Machinist, for example - their Soulstone is completely empty. In theory, an individual should be just as accomplished with or without the stone equipped, since the stone provides no knowledge or skills whatsoever (rather, you're wearing it as a courtesy to pass your own skills and knowledge on to future bearers of the stone).

I would guess that the others are the same way. It's not impossible to learn the job skills though research and self-discovery - having them pre-packaged in a stone just makes it easier and more convenient to pass knowledge of these skills. I'd argue that this even applies to SCH and WHM. In the case of SCH, a Soulstone is a convenient place for the fairy to dwell, but it needn't be the only possible such dwelling. An animated puppet, like the one you earn at the completion of the Anima questline, could serve, as well. (As for WHM, I forget what makes their Soulstone so special and unique - but recall that Amdapor in its prime had PLENTY of folks wielding White Magic; a single stone couldn't possibly account for that, so it's clear the skills can be learned without bearing that specific stone, or likely any stone.)

[Brightamethyst]

As for WHM, I forget what makes their Soulstone so special and unique - but recall that Amdapor in its prime had PLENTY of folks wielding White Magic; a single stone couldn't possibly account for that, so it's clear the skills can be learned without bearing that specific stone, or likely any stone.

Theoretically you could come across a WHM stone in a sixth era ruin or something but you'd probably seriously piss off the elementals if you tried to use it without padjal approval.