Classes in Ultima IX: Redemption

Here on overview over the various Classes that are to be featured in Ultima IX: Redemption.

Stats and Skills
First, some things about how skills and stats are handled have to be discussed.

Skills are learned by just doing the action in question enough times. That means learning by doing. Each class has bonus or malus for learning certain skills. There are no shortcuts, only hard work can advance skills. Once enough skill gains (not only one skill) are gathered, the character can level up.

Stats can not be improved by training. Instead each time leveling up gains points which can be traded in for stat gains by using the runes. Each runes advances a different stat (with exception of Humility). The order in which the runes are found is different for each class, starting with the stats most important for the player class.

Certain skills are influenced by the stats -the higher the stat the more effective the skill- therefore here which skills are influenced by which stat:


 * Strength
 * Blunt Weapon
 * Long Blade
 * Medium Armor
 * Spear


 * Intelligence
 * Britannian Magic


 * Willpower
 * Atakran Magic


 * Agility
 * Security
 * Sneak
 * Marksman
 * Light Armor


 * Speed
 * Unarmord
 * Short Blade
 * Acrobatics
 * Hand-to-hand


 * Endurance
 * Block
 * Athletics
 * Axe
 * Heavy Armor


 * Personality
 * Mercantile
 * Ethereal Magic

Note that classes are not restricted to what they are supposed to be good at. With enough work, each class can do what another can do more easily. Essentially, classes determine this:


 * Starting skills
 * Starting stats
 * Starting health, mana, endurance
 * Order in which the runes are found
 * Early access to different types of equipment
 * Different stat boni through buff food

''Note that in the following class descriptions, +2 means a big bonus, +1 a weak bonus. The same goes with the malus, with -1 a weak and -2 being a strong malus.''

Mage
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Intelligence, Willpower
 * (+1): none
 * (+2): Britannian Magic, Atakran Magic
 * (+1): Unarmord, Alchemy
 * (-1): and Strength or Endurance based skill

This tells us the Mage is a magic user.

He is extremely adept at two of the three magic schools and he can easily pick up the third too. The Mage is the only class with a skill bonus in Atakran Magic, which makes him the most offensive caster of all. But he also has plenty of magic utility, since he is extremely good at Britannian Magic too. The Mage has the largest mana pool, which is absolutely essential, because a Mage without mana is a dead Mage. When utilising some mana potions and using mana-hungry high-end spells sparsingly, a Mage should rarely ever run out of mana.

The downside of the Mage is his physical weakness. He has the smallest health pool. At the beginning of the game this isn't much of a problem, but later he should make sure to stay out of melee range, because else he will be a dead Mage pretty soon.

The Mage has no weapon skill and in fact he is horrible with most weapons. He might want to pick up Short Blades (daggers, short swords) to supplement his Magic Skills in the beginning, but the Short Blades skill will soon become obsolete, once his magic power is growing more. Note, that there is technically no reason for a Mage not to pick up the Marksman skill. He is not particular bad at it, but since the Mage has plenty of ranged spells, he has not much use for it either.

To sum up: The Mage is an offensive ranged caster, physically weak, but with a large mana pool. 

Bard
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Personality, Luck
 * (+1): Agility
 * (+2): Light Armor, Ethereal Magic
 * (+1): Security, Sneak, Marksman, Mercantile, Cook
 * (-1): any Endurance based skill

The Bard is good with ranged weapons (Agility and Marksman). He also has thief skills (Security, Sneak). And he is great at Ethereal Magic, which is the defensive type of magic in Redemption (healing spells, protection and such). Furthermore the Bard is the only class, that starts with a Luck bonus.

The Bard is not so good with melee. He has no particular weapon proficiency (though there are some weapon skills, he could pick up with some effort). Also, he usually wears Light Armor, which is really light in Redemption. He might be able to take a hit or two, but when the melee becomes more intensive the Bard is likely to go splat. But that shouldn't bother him much. After all, why would he want to go into melee? He would only risk hurting his hands (I hope we get the reference).

The Bards weakness with Endurance based skills means it would be a particular horrible idea to make a Bard into a a heavily armored, shield wielding fighter. You can do it, but it requires a substantial amount of masochism.

To sum up: The bard is a ranged class (one of three). He probably should let his fellow party members rush forward, while he stays back and uses a ranged weapon or just heals. The Bard is definitely not the best ranged fighter, but the utility of his Ethereal Magic and his other skills compensates that nicely. 

Fighter
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Strength, Endurance
 * (+1): none
 * (+2): Spear, Block, Athletics, Axe, Heavy Armor
 * (+1): Smith
 * (-1): any Intelligence, Willpower, Personality or Agility based skill

This tells us the Fighter is a melee fighter and nothing but a melee fighter.

He is heavily armoured and has a shield unless he decides to use a two-handed weapon (which is thanks to his health pool a very viable option). And that's it. There is nothing more to a Fighter. The Fighter has the largest health pool of all classes and he can easily choose from the largest range of weapons. The only utility skill of the fighter is Smithing, which means he can make his own weapons and armour.

The fighter is terrible at magic. Trying to pick up any kind of magic skill would require s substantial amount of masochism. And even if a fighter is inclined to do so anyway, his extremely small mana pool will get into the way. The fighter is equally terrible at ranged weapon. Really, he shouldn't even think about touching a bow.

You may have noticed, that the Long Blade skill (sword) is not listed here. That means the fighter has not particular inclination towards this weapons. But he doesn't have any weakness in this area either and he even has the attribute bonus required for a good swordsman. So, if a fighter wants to pick up a sword instead of an axe, he can do so with relative easy. We didn't give him the Long Blade skill mostly to distinguish the Fighter more from the Paladin. We imagine the Fighter a bit more as a wild axe-wielding barbarian. But playing him as a more classical Swordsman is certainly an option.

To sum up: The fighter is the best melee class with the largest health pool and the biggest weapon selection. 

Druid
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Intelligence
 * (+1): Speed
 * (+2): Hand-to-hand, Unarmord
 * (+1): Britannian Magic, Acrobatics, Alchemy, Tailor
 * (-1): any Agility based skill

This is a rather different kind of magic user.

The Druid is specialised in Britannian Magic only (though he can pick up the other two schools, if he wants to). He is a bit more adept at melee, though the usefulness of the Hand-to-Hand skill is somewhat limited in Morrowind (and we can't change that). The Druid is not particular bad at weapon usage, except for ranged weapons. The Druid has a smaller mana pool than the Mage, but a larger health pool. The druid will run out of mana during a longer fight, so he his to come up with an alternative (either hit-and-run tactics or a secondary weapon; more about that later). Also note that the Druid is more adept at the Unarmored skill and that he is good at tailoring, which produced "armor" used in the Unarmored skill.

In the beginning the Druid will be played almost in the same way as the Mage. Since you don't get access to Atakran Magic early in the game and both classes even get the same starting spell, there is not a huge difference at this stage. Actually it is to be expected that the Druid to be a bit harder to start with.

Once you are done with the early part of Redemption, it is time for the Druid to branch out. Here you have two options:


 * 1. Continue to play the Druid like a toned down version of the Mage class; somewhat less powerful and somewhat less fragile.


 * 2. Pick up a weapon skill and make the druid into a caster-melee-hybrid. If you go down this route, you might even consider stepping up to a higher armor type. This will require some doing, but it is certainly possible.

To sum up: The Druid is a more robust magic user, that can be played either as a pure caster or a caster-melee-hybrid. 

Tinker
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Agility
 * (+1): Strength, Personality
 * (+2): Medium Armor, Security, Smith, Cook
 * (+1): Spear, Mercantile, Fisher, Fletcher, Alchemy
 * (-1): any Intelligence or Willpower base skill

This tells us the Tinker is a melee fighter. At least at a first glance.

But let's look closer. He has a lot of Agility, which is important for ranged combat. He is also a Fletcher, which is useful for ranged combat too. This strongly suggests, that a Tinker might want to pick up a ranged weapon at some point. The real strength of a Tinker is his ability to make things. He is a Cook, a Smith, a Fletcher and an Alchemist, so he has almost all crafting professions covert. Since the stuff, that you can make with these professions, is pretty good compared to stuff you can find or buy (especially at high levels), a Trinker should spend time on crafting early and often. Because, if we are honest, he barely has anything else, that speaks in favour of him. His melee skills are only mediocre and the same can be said about his ranged skills.

The one area where a Tinker really sucks is magic. Two of the three schools are a big NO! NO! NO! for him. He could pick up Ethereal Magic at some point, but he is unlikely to become good at it. Furthermore his mana pool is hardly worth mentioning. He is probably better off with spending more time on Alchemy and use the potions instead of direct magic.

To sum up: Despite listing the Tinker as a ranged class previously, he really is a ranged/melee-hybrid with no magic, who relies heavily on crafted equipment and supplies. 

Paladin
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Strength
 * (+1): Personality, Endurance
 * (+2): Long Blade, Block, Heavy Armor
 * (+1): Ethereal Magic
 * (-1): any Willpower or Agility based skill

This tells us the Paladin is a heavy melee figther.

He is heavily armored and even has a shield. He is typically wielding the sword. And he has some healing and defensive magic to back up his enormous fighting skills, giving him an advangte over a pure Fighter, who has no magic at all. And with this short paragraph we have already summed up all the Paladin's skills. As you can see, it is a really simple class. The paladin has no crafting or utility skill at all, although he can learn it with enough determination.

The Paladin's magic is limited to Ethereal Magic. If he really wants, he can pick up Britannian Magic, but because of his small mana pool it won't do him too much good. Also, because of his malus with agility based skills, he better stays away from ranged weapons.

To sum up: A paladin is a pure melee fighter with some supportive magic and no crafting or utility skills at the start. 

Ranger
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Agility
 * (+1): Speed
 * (+2): Sneak, Marksman, Light Armor, Fletcher
 * (+1): Security, Short Blade, Acrobatics, Fisher, Alchemy, Tailor
 * (-1): any Strength based skill

This tells us the Ranger is a ranged fighter.

Agility is the primary attribute for ranged weapons. Also he has strong Marksman and Fletcher skills (Fletching is the craft most closely associated with ranged weapons). This makes our Ranger even better than the Bard and therefore the Ranger is the strongest ranged class. But please note, that the ranger also has some melee skills. He can use Short Blades (which covers daggers and short swords). And he has speed, which is the primary attribute for this weapon class. The ranger is only wearing light armor, which is not so good for melee. But he is good at the tailoring skill, which is used to produce this kind of armor and can give him some better things to wear.

The ranger is weakest with strength based skills, which basically makes several weapon classes a bad choice. Also medium armor is not a good choice for a Ranger. He could in theory wear heavy armor, but since heavy armor is heavy and he will only be able to raise his strength relatively late, this is not a good idea either.

The Ranger has no particular inclination towards any magic school. He basically starts out as a non-magic-user. That doesn't mean a Ranger can't use magic. He has no particular weakness in this area either. Actually he can pick up all the three schools. But this will take a bit of effort and won't be an option that early into the game (at least for Britannian magic). Also the Ranger doesn't have the larger mana pool of a Bard.

To sum up: The Ranger is a the best ranged class. He probably should let his fellow party members rush forward, while he stays back and uses a ranged weapon. But if needed he can go into melee too. He can use a bit of magic and he is very flexible at it, but he won't excel in this area. 

Shepherd
Stats Skills
 * (+2): Endurance
 * (+1): Strength
 * (+2): Blunt Weapon, Medium Armor, Fisher
 * (+1): Athletics, Cook
 * (-1): none

This tells us the Shepherd is a melee fighter. He has some utility skills, but that is all. The Shepherd's skill list is the shortest of all classes.

When it comes to combat, a Shepherd has a health pool between a Fighter and a Paladin (closer to the Paladin than to the Fighter). But since he usually wears only Medium Armor, he is actually slightly more fragile than the Paladin. Also, Blunt Weapons typically don't have the same power as Swords and Axes.

So far it looks pretty bad for the Shepherd compared to other classes. But here comes the twist: "Skills (-1): none" means that there is no skill, that the Shepherd could not reasonably pick up. If he wants to, he can learn to use ranged weapons to supplement his fighting skills. Or he can start to learn some magic. The small mana pool will limit him somehwat, but for some supporting spells it should good enough. Potentially a Shepherd could become a jack of all trades.