Are we all playing Onion Knights?

[Adonan]

I was just playing some FF3 and it hit me. Our character is capable of using all weapons, armor, magic, and grows over time to reach his or her true potential. I suppose the primary problem is the Onion Knight usually can't use the skills of the other jobs. Also, the Onion Knight normally grows in small increments over time, then leaps and bounds once it begins to reach it's peak. Still, the Onion Knight is my favorite job, so I would like to think I've been playing one this whole time.

[Bright-Flower]

I don't think so. We're not onion knights nor are we 'freelancers' like in FF V when you don't have a job equiped. We area always one specific job at a time. We can swap between jobs outside of combat/instances, sure, but we can never mix and match. Can't wear that paladin armor as a black mage. Can't throw out cure while playing a dragoon We can't ever unquip a weapon entirely even. Only hide it when sheathed.

[Adonan]

Of course, I hadn't thought about that. You make an excellent point there, friend. Oh well, a man can dream.

[Enkidoh]

Not the class specifically, but the distinctive helmet is available in FFXIV in three different flavours which at least allows you to look the part (the lore for the original Onion Helm that was once on the FFXIV website mentioned they were traditional gifts in previous times once given to children upon coming of age and leaving home, and the advent of adventuring the tradition was revived.

FFXIV Lore wise Onion Knights were actually a type of robotic infantry the Allagan Empire used thousands of years ago, at least according to the description of the Wind-up Onion Knight minion in the Minion Guide, so whether that 'tradition' was a cultural memory of the Allagan robotic soldiers is unclear.

Incidentally SE did consider a bare handed 'Adventurer' class that was sort of like an Onion Knight too for the original version of FFXIV (1.0), but ultimately decided not to bother with it alas, probably due to how the Armoury System was coded requiring a weapon or tool to be equipped at all times for stability's sake.

[MsQi]

I would love to see a freelancer job, probably be limited but should allow equipping anything and use any ability you've learned in other jobs. It would be great for playing in the world and for unlimited glamour options!

[Bright-Flower]

I would love to see a freelancer job, probably be limited but should allow equipping anything and use any ability you've learned in other jobs. It would be great for playing in the world and for unlimited glamour options!

You had me at unlimited glamour options, this would be fantastic for RP.

I get not letting your cross glam weapons or artifact armor, but really wish they would let you do cross role glams. There's a lot of aiming sets that would look better on red mage than a lot of traditional caster robes do. Not to mention some sets that are fairly role agnostic like sky rat, shisui, some of the Ishgard clothing etc.