Are jobs bound by lore?

[Yvresse]

Hi there,

The jobs seem to play a big part in the lore and plot. I am Heavensward with the Azure Dragoon, and he is referenced quite often by his class, even mentioning that I bested him in Dragoon combat.

It made me wonder, from a lore perspective.

Are you bound by the jobs in the game, or are there NPC's whom have transcended this?
For example, Alphinaud, I cannot tell if he is a Mage or an Astrologist, or something else entirely?

Could someone like Raubahn, for example, be a Gladiator/Warrior?

Or do they then become something else entirely?

Or is it just simple, Thancred is a Rogue, Yda is a Monk etc?

Thanks,

[DPZ2]

Scions may change jobs, but not abruptly, and generally at the beginning or ending of an expansion.

Their character development follows the change, but it's subtle rather than glaring.

The twins are Arcanists to begin, and each follows a different path that is not really apparent until the HW expansion.

Only the Warrior of Light appears to be able to perform all jobs at any given time. They are special like that

[Recon1o6]

nobody is bound by lore and the jobs do evolve over time. mch wol make their own stuff at level 70+

jobs are specialised fighting styles that are obtained via jobstones. It used to be job lore guided what actions the jobs obtained in game. But the devs discarded that sadly

npcs break the rules constantly, players used to be able to have a main job and take actions from other classes, but they discarded that too

[ItMe]

Are you bound by the jobs in the game, or are there NPC's whom have transcended this?
For example, Alphinaud, I cannot tell if he is a Mage or an Astrologist, or something else entirely?

Could someone like Raubahn, for example, be a Gladiator/Warrior?

Absolutely.
Y'shtola, for example, is kind of a Blend of BLM, WHM, but with some extra abilities that don't exist for player use (representing special magics she's mastered during her studies / on her journey).
The closer you look at many of the (fleshed out) NPCs the more you'll realize that few of them are strictly sticking to the jobs as they are codified for player use.

Only the Warrior of Light appears to be able to perform all jobs at any given time. They are special like that

To go along with this, the WoL also has by far the most robust kit.
Wether the scions are trust members or wether you're playing as them in a solo instance they have far fewer moves at their disposal as we do.

[MikkoAkure]

Jobs are very specific disciplines bound by job stones. You need to have a job stone to be a specific job. Classes like rogue or thaumaturge are much more open and loose.

A lot of NPCs don’t play as available classes either, Y’shtola for example being a “sorceress” and Alphinaud being an “academian”. There are definitely many more disciplines of combat outside the ones that were available to us.

The only main story NPCs currently in possession of a job stone are Estinien (DRG), Alisae (RDM), Urianger (AST), and Thancred (GNB), who all have in-story reasons for being that job. Alphinuad will likely have a sage job stone in Endwalker.

[Cilia]

Remember that the Job system only really limits the PC because they're using Soul Crystals to basically cheat their way into skill.

With enough training and/or talent it'd be entirely plausible to transcend the Job system. Without spoiling too much Thancred later changes to a Gunbreaker, but retains some stealth tricks he employs during a climactic confrontation with Shadowbringers' secondary antagonist. Of course, animations limit every Job, and given Jobs are all animated with a specific weapon in mind...

[MikkoAkure]

Remember that the Job system only really limits the PC because they're using Soul Crystals to basically cheat their way into skill.

With enough training and/or talent it'd be entirely plausible to transcend the Job system. Without spoiling too much Thancred later changes to a Gunbreaker, but retains some stealth tricks he employs during a climactic confrontation with Shadowbringers' secondary antagonist. Of course, animations limit every Job, and given Jobs are all animated with a specific weapon in mind...

Pre-Stormblood, we had access to abilities from other classes too. A lot of the abilities some jobs have are more from the class than the job itself and that some of the ancient jobs would have been radically different in their day. Remember that for the original jobs in the game, you need to play as a class for 30 levels and those abilities don't go away as soon as you pick up a job stone.


Pre-Endwalker SMN seems like it borrows a lot of its rotation from its origination class, arcanist, as does SCH. Arcanists are a newer profession invented by the lalafell from their homeland in the Southern Isles, so it probably doesn't have a direct connection to Allag, but could still have some connection to Nym. Either way, EW SMN could be a return to form if the Allagan summoners weren't DoT mages like they are now.

Amdapor didn't have the same connection to the elementals like Gridania does, which means WHMs might not have been casting stone and aero in the old times, while a Gridanian-trained conjurer-turned-white mage would.

[Brightamethyst]

Jobs exists mostly for gameplay purposes and the lore explains it after the fact. In the lore you could theoretically be every job and do everything at the same time. There's no reason a samurai couldn't also jump like a dragoon and heal like a scholar if they've trained for it. We as players are limited because it would break the game balance if you could use every skill at the same time, but NPCs in scripted fights are under no such limitations.

[RyuDragnier]

Remember that the Job system only really limits the PC because they're using Soul Crystals to basically cheat their way into skill.

I wouldn't say cheat. A lot of our progress in the jobs is already set in stone (ha!) by the time we get them, via lore reasons. Why does RDM start at 50? Because canonically the WoL has already leveled WHM and BLM (remember, all job quests are assumed done by the storyline when the X.1 patch kicks in), giving them large amounts of experience using both types of magic, and has leveled up multiple dexterous jobs giving them the basics they need to perform the acrobatics of the job well. By the end of the 2nd batch of job questlines, the WoL has already begun creating new moves. While the job stones give us the memories of the basics, we already have enough skill by that point to master them incredibly fast and then improve upon them.

[MrThinker]

I wouldn't say cheat. A lot of our progress in the jobs is already set in stone (ha!) by the time we get them, via lore reasons. Why does RDM start at 50? Because canonically the WoL has already leveled WHM and BLM (remember, all job quests are assumed done by the storyline when the X.1 patch kicks in), giving them large amounts of experience using both types of magic, and has leveled up multiple dexterous jobs giving them the basics they need to perform the acrobatics of the job well. By the end of the 2nd batch of job questlines, the WoL has already begun creating new moves. While the job stones give us the memories of the basics, we already have enough skill by that point to master them incredibly fast and then improve upon them.

Examples of our own moves include: Battle Litany (Dragoon), Living Shadow (Dark Knight), Dreadwyrm Trance (Summoner, we didn't learn this through the usual method, we had to go through a whole process to master it), Automaton Queen (Machinist) and every ability we learn through levelling rather than via job quests.