Do job *exclusions* define your character, and how?

[Omedon]

As a roleplay-minded player (if not an active roleplayer in FFXIV), one of the barriers to me immersing myself into a character, and literally a personal barrier to my going both feet into the game, has been crafting a persona of substance that could conceivably be any class/job that I felt like playing… which I once assumed to be all of them, given my fanatical “altoholism” in WoW.

What eventually contributed to my full-on commitment to FFXIV was crafting a character that would embody a big swath of classes that I was legitimately excited to play to scratch itches that WoW could never fully address. I now have somewhat firm barriers as to what jobs make sense for my character, and I’m excited to use them all in the very specific niche of content that I so greatly enjoy in the game.

Sindyr is, conceptually, a samurai, who focuses upon personal discipline and strength through martial mastery with weapons and without. I know my profile here says my main class is Dark Knight, but that’s certainly going to change with Endwalker. Sindyr *was* a “dark knight with a nodachi” until I fell in love with samurai and discovered that trusts would always have my back if I wanted to main a melee DPS. Since embracing this concept, I’ve utilized the power of glamor to branch him out into Bard, Monk, and soon Lancer and Ninja. There isn’t a casting DPS class or healing class that suits him, nor do dancer or machinist suit him, so I won’t touch those. I may find a way to stretch him into reaper if I can find a “samurai enough” scythe glamor, but I doubt I, the player can fully resist such edgelordy goodness forever!

How about you? What jobs’ exclusion strongly define your character concept? Have you crafted a character whose personality is defined by what jobs they’ve leveled as much as what they haven’t? Is there a job you love too much to exclude from your character that you’ve done some mental gymnastics to fit it in? For me, I really wanted a ranged option, so I literally wrote some musical talent into Sindyr and got him a suitably “samurai aesthetic” bow glamour before I’d let myself level bard!

[Izar_Chillen]

I dont have a lore/rp reason for playing many different jobs . What I do like about it though is because there are differences in NPC reactions to your involvement with the early class guilds or the jobs introduced in HW and on wards having some impact on story I feel its like the replay value you get similar to single player games that have large spanning stories in which you can make alternate choices from a prior play through so you get to see the other side of the coins , so to speak or that you understand more about XYZ faction, or persons because you are now seeing in hindsight ( if you play jobs after doing much of the msq already)

[Bruhai]

My character is just a mercenary and to me that sorta justifies having multiple styles of combat though I'm usually a gunbreaker. I would say for op's character you could easily say they learned these other martial skills so you would know better how to combat them if the need ever arises.

[WoW]

Mine is the casual destroyer. He learned every job so that he destroys casuals before they destroy that job.

[ItMe]

How about you? What jobs’ exclusion strongly define your character concept? Have you crafted a character whose personality is defined by what jobs they’ve leveled as much as what they haven’t? Is there a job you love too much to exclude from your character that you’ve done some mental gymnastics to fit it in?

You know, thinking about it, my character kinda IS.
Tl;Dr I am a magic pumpkin inhabiting the body of an 89 year old Lalafell, so I've shied away from the jobs I've felt were extra nimble (DNC, RDM, DRG) because I felt that didn't fit my character.

[Tsiron]

So I'm similar to you in the fact that while I don't actively roleplay, I do enjoy coming up with backstories and justifications for my characters and the things they do (or don't). I've barely touched most jobs on my character mostly because it seems... daunting and I have really narrow specific tastes, the ones I have to any extent have been WAR, DRG, NIN, DRK and SAM.

... but "canonically" it went WAR>DRK>NIN>SAM. Long story short, due to their atypical constitution, Tsiron couldn't adapt to life on the Steppe and got on the first ship to anywhere else (in this case, Limsa Lominsa), a shitty axe on their back, thinking to try and make the best of their larger-than-usual body (despite funnily enough being almost min height). They swapped for a greatsword by the time of HW as their combat ability improved and they got PTSD, which got shattered during the first fight with Zenos, after which they (and I...) lost confidence in their ability to, well, Tank. Took up NIN for a while until they were able to come to terms with the fact they don't have to take everything on themselves (power of friendship and etc.) and became SAM from that point on.

Realistically, they would've become a healer or somesuch, based on what I think their personality's like... but if I chickened out of Tanking you can imagine how scared I am of healing lmao. So instead I'm just going to say Tsiron is... really kind of just a hopeless idiot when it comes to academic pursuits, which extends to magic of any kind.

EDIT: For a bit of (meta) context, I knew from the start I wanted to play an Au Ra... but originally I was planning to make a female character. I couldn't get over... the way female Au Ra are, unfortunately (and playing one as an alt right now has done nothing to change my opinion), so making Tsiron as feminine as I could manage was my compromise. I'm happy with how they've turned out, though!

[Vencio]

I don’t actively engage on RP nor do I have the time for it,

What I do carry with me dearly its my own magical-thinking to which I project & visualize on narrating Vencio’s ongoing story & I can tap on how he feels on certain scenarios as also day-to-day errands.

Basically to address your topic, no I don’t/Vencio does not follow the rigidness of job alignment, rather what I can say about Vencio it’s that he did study the principles of a “free Paladin” and does apply it to his every day adventure/tasks/ combat but is NOT a paladin..just a mere fighter w/ tapping onto aether to perform physical feats & does not posses the ECHOE.



PS: I’ve never agreed to be WoL or being focal point of interest for the storyline. I just pretend as an additional mercenary that looked to assist the Scion’s & the “silhouette WoL” whoever it may be & its not relevant for such mystery, best to leave it as ambiguous as it is.

[SilverObi]

I don't exclude a job for RP, I level and play everything. If I'm ever IC at any point though it's usually on MNK or RDM since those are the jobs used in my character's backstory but I won't just not play a job OOC because I like playing everything. It seems like a lot of wasted opportunities to learn more lore of the world by not picking up other classes and doing their stories, lore than can enhance your RP.

[Ayuhra]

I don't exclude any jobs but not all jobs are ones I'm interested in.

Mine is the casual destroyer. He learned every job so that he destroys casuals before they destroy that job.

[Soge01]

Not an RPer in video games, but my main specializes in most of the physical DPS and Tank classes, while my alt main specializes in most of the caster DPS and Healer classes. Both having only a few exceptions.