Thanks. So if a conjurer gets a certain ability at level 35, I can assume that a white mage, being still a conjurer will get that same ability at 35. Failure to understand this was the basis of my wording. Never would have asked the question had I understood that - so I'm glad I asked - knowledge is power!

I had the dungeons and dragons approach in mind. At least the way it worked when I played. If you switched to a new class you might keep all the abilities of the old class but you would stop gaining any old class abilities and from that moment on only get new class abilities. So although the new class might be stronger you still lost something by not getting any more old class abilities.