I know, long chapter title.

But this is a rather scientific look at ... Well a fantasy setting. You see classes are often the meat and bones of many fantasy settings. The creation of a class to surround your mc is very important, many may note the standard sword and board warrior of legend that tends to trope through many stories. On occasion you find alternative warriors, chain users, sickle wielders, greatsword, staff, martial arts, there are many weapons and each tends towards specific classes or personas.

For now let's label the standard classes and then the various specifications and then we move onto permutations.

Warrior- standard melee character

Mage- magic wielder

Rogue- standardly Archer or long range melee

Now, let's further divide this, often you can divide a warrior based on their weapon. But we'll not be doing it THAT specifically.

Standard warrior, uses swords, shields, and occasionally spears.

But you also have samurai which use Katana and can be a specific type of warrior,

Knight, a very defense and heavy armor warrior

Brawler, a standard melee fist fighter or grappler

Now we move onto mages.

Standard mage, long incantations but great power, often subdivided by element, or category, which means in theory, based on self permutations alone the standard mage is rather innumerable. This alone makes mages with a rather free form system quite versatile on top of being hard to figure out, thankfully often mages are shown to have a great level of pride and thus often are shown to display the or element freely in the color of their wardrobe. Not always, but often enough that their pride comes before the fall.

Summoner- obvious as a backline but often a still powerful magic user, if indirectly, but still physically, the summoner is often left untouched as an mc.

Warlock- typically a darker and more demon friendly version of a mage, it's uh... It's basically a mage using another dimensions creature to supplement their power. And usually comes with the typical Faust and Mephistopheles. The tale of a man who made a deal with a devil in order to attain knowledge, and then used it against the demon to retain his soul. Moving on.

Druid- the green mage! May my plants grow strong! May the forest spirits watch over me! *Waves a watering can violently* GROW MY ALLIES!

Necromancer- if you have no idea what a necromancer is... I can't help you and furthermore how did you even get here?

Aside from going down the standard elements and then self permutations, this surprisingly has very few specific classes.

Rogue- rogues have much in the way of specifics, as it's a physical class based on dexterity, which means things like an attempt at Dodge tanking, or relying on critical hits for damage. Onwards! To specific classes!

Ninja, this rogue relies heavily on attacking from the shadows at range using poisons and causing status problems. A good support but not a great solo due simply to the needs of massive dexterity over strength and so remaining hidden to best cause massive damage.

Thief, similar to a ninja, this rogue utilizes closer ranged combat using knives and short swords at best, often better at picking locks and many less combat useful skills like pickpocketing.

Archer, less stealth based, the Archer utilizes the bow bor long range DPS, a standard for many parties and sometimes classified as a seperate class spec than a rogue, despite both primarily needing dexterity.

Unorthodox classes- these classes have little in the same vein as other classes when you break it down to the bare bones of what the class is meant to do. Arguably they can fit into another class, but I think they stand alone quite well.

Bard- the best at making half elves! Oh... And half orcs! Err.... And buffing the party? Not as sure about that last one. XD

beast tamer- similar in aspect to the summoner, they often are as much a physical fighter as their companions in this case. It's like saying a warrior attacks with a club as a mage attacks with a close of earth. Same thing different name.

Explorer/adventurer- sometimes this is a class and focuses on movements and exploratory passive bonuses, not a bad class, but not an active class in most aspects. Sometimes it's also a title for adventurers in general.

And last is a staple too all games. Usually...

The healer! Er... THE PRIEST! or priestess. WHICHEVER YOU PREFER FOR GENDER PRONOUNS! because I don't care. Arguably this can be held by a mage, but at the same time a healer can derive power from divinity instead of Mana, this is useful in the aspect of a story, making sure you have your mechanics straight is very important should Mana forgo an affinity, however to do such a thing typically means there is only one religion, as to have a holy affinity, by which I mean the priest worships a specific god or goddess and is granted various secondary abilities based on their deity, this allows a lot of versatility within a single class name.

Now, we've covered what I consider the basics, and the intermediates, I suppose. The more you specific your classes the more unique the world, but the more math and statistics and mechanics you need to be aware of.

Onwards into permutations!

Permutations refers to the combining of two classes to make a new one with benefits and drawbacks all it's own.

An example of a permutation class is the simple PALADIN. A cross between a Knight and a priest, the paladin boasts superior physical strength and defense with an addition of low level healing.

So let's list some of these permutations, and the lesser seen ones shall be stated at the end.

Paladin- be healed even as I slam a jam into a monster ma'am!

Deathknight- the necromancer variant of paladin. If a dark paladin is not a thing. In that case the death Knight is the physically whoopass one man army, not just a sit behind the back lines general like a necromancer.

Spell sword- a mage combined with a warrior, it boasts the ability to self buff with elements to better handle various situations.

Redmage- apparently I'm color blind. I took a mage and combined the "white magic" of holy healing, and somehow it turned red.

Monk- I fight with my fists but I destroy out with the magic I push out of my fists. A tertiary permutation of brawler, mage, and sometimes priest, they utilize their own life force as a weapon, often called Ki.

Ranger- this is also arguably a tertiary class as a ranger is often seen shooting spell buffed arrows and having an animal companion, this class combines archers with a mage and beast tamer, even if only to one creature.

Battlemage- occasionally you get a reversal and find a mage has taken a physical class, whether that means a fist fighter or a other weapon.

Unorthodox permutations

Holy archers. Not sure what to say about this in particular, but it's not really been done.

Summoner permutations. I've never really seen summit or beast tamer with a physical class combination, the exception, sort of, is dungeon nursery, but that's because he summons toddler monsters. Each summon somehow is younger than the previous. Which makes them less and less useful.

Summoner archers aren't seen much either. In fact summoner anything is not often seen. I mean some have a strange contracted weapon that let's let's them utilize magic or summon creatures which also are their weapon. But that's not a true summoner to me. It's a variant of spellswords summoner. In a weird way. Maybe a weapon tamer spellswords warlock combination... If you think of it like the weapon is a demon.

All of these are standard to typical battle in the form of classes, however it completely overlooks crafting classes.

Now I understand, anyone who has played an mmo thinks a crafting class is just a drudge to get to what they really want. However, if you think about it, the permutations of crafting can work together with battle classes to make something even greater.

Rogues would go well with a leatherworker or a tailor. The dexterity used would give top quality materials for either of these classes as well as give a bonus towards crafted items.

Blacksmith would work well with warriors and warrior permutations, as the strength would do double the work, and the items made would be easier to make, if not of a higher quality, and would give an immediate use if making your own heavy weapons or armor.

Rogues would also be great as alchemists. But so would archers.

Woodworker would be great for an Archer if only for the fact of making your own bows.

Mages goes well with enchanting, even as it's beneficial over all for any class

But truthfully most crafting classes have a snowball effect upon each other, and will overall benefit any battle class.

Golemancy would be great for necromancers or mages in general, likely warlocks, necromancers as a specialty, on top of this summoners and tamers might benefit as well.

Gunslingers is a more futuristic version of Archer but it too has many permutations that would work.

Depending on how much science is in your fantasy, an alchemist would work well with this as well, or even gunblades and various physical weapons with a secondary ability to fire like a rifle, or perhaps another gun.

A spell slinger would be a great combination of mage and gunslinger. As instead of a chamber for bullets, each chamber CNA be a different spell affinity, allowing a spell slinger premade spell circles to fire out of their weapon.

Various other specifics can be Valkyries, which is basically a spellswords who uses a spear. And is theoretically typically female, if you want to use Norse mythology.

We shall end this chapter here, and hopefully you'll be able to come up with your own classes, and find a weapon and spell combination that would work well to your advantage as a writer. :3