Crafting and gathering confusion. Please help.

[Agaeme]

Hi, I am new to the game and have some doubts.

Can we be adventurers and crafters and gatherers at the same time? How does this system work? I have been searching in the forums, but can't find an answer.

Please help a fellow player in need

[CorwinAurilliac]

Search the forums for armory or job system. You'll find tonnes of post about how it works. But to answer your question yes you can be everything. You switch by changing your main hand.

[Naberrie]

You do it all on one character by changing your weapon. So, since you're a PGL from Ul'dah, as long as you've finished your level 10 class quest, all you need to do is go to the Miner's Guild and accept the quest to become a Miner. They'll give you a pickaxe. Equip it and now you're a Miner.

You will also get a slot in your Armory System, which allows you to save a gear setup for Miner.

[Niwashi]

You can unlock all of the classes and then switch between them simply by changing your equipped weapon or tool. At any one moment, you're actively just one of your available classes.

Each class has to be leveled seperately, so for instance if as a level 15 pugilist you decide to add gladiator, you'd start as a level 1 gladiator. But there are no limitations on how far you can level your extra classes. It's possible to add all 8 adventuring classes and all 11 crafting/gathering classes and then level all 19 of them to 50 if you want. (It just takes a lot of time.)

[Agaeme]

thanks for the help, guys.

[Niwashi]

And welcome to Eorzea. Hope you have fun. I know I sure am.

A few more details:
Although your current class is based on your currently equipped weapon, if you've leveled other classes far enough, then a few of their skills can be assigned as cross-class skills. That way you can make use of them on other classes. You only have a limited number of slots for assigning skills you want to use cross-class, though, and only certain skills are even available for use that way. It's still a bit of a benefit to pursuing multiple classes.

You can unlock and begin the crafting/gathering classes now, and they can make some useful gear right away. I'd hold off, however, on specifically trying to level up your crafting until after you've done the level 17 main story quest which unlocks the use of retainers. Those are NPCs who can hold excess items for you (as well as handling offering stuff for sale to other players). If, like me, you try to do too much crafting before then, you'll have a lot of problems with inventory space.

[Naberrie]

If you want to get an idea of what you can level with one character, here's mine. The link will only be good a short time, but you can take a look now.