Part 21: Sidebar: Jobs

Sidebar: Jobs



FIGHTER!

While other classes focus on learning the use of weapons, magic, or unusual skills, the Fighter follows the path of beating someone into death or unconsciousness with his or her bare hands, and gets plenty of skills to cause just that.


Stat Modifiers: The Fighter gains substantial Agility, but loses Guard, Intelligence, and MP. Happily, the last doesn't matter - all of their skills are free!

Skills:

LegSweep: Much like in The Karate Kid, you sweep the leg. This denies the monster it's turn. Some monsters are immune, but it's not anything logical - I've seen it work both on things with no legs and things that fly.

JumpKick: Do a jump kick! I've never seen this be really useful, but it seems to be slightly more powerful than a standard attack.

RoundHous: Do a roundhouse kick, which is much better, as it attacks a group and does melee damage to all of them, though it decreases with each subsequent target.

Suplex: Attempts to remove an enemy from battle by suplexing them. I tend to avoid it, as I'd rather just kill them than remove them.

WarCry: Yells at all enemies, attempting to stun them. Yet another one-turn disable, with no rhyme or reason as to who is immune to them. Happily, the AI always knows and corrects for it.

Punch: Plant your feet and punch the enemy in the face, devastating them. This is an extra-powerful melee attack, and basically replaces the fight command for the AI once you get it, unless you get a weapon with a special effect.

WindBeast: An extra-powerful melee attack that is also wind-elemental. There are a few things weak to it, so it's quite worth it.


Class Combos:
The Fighter class combines with the Cleric to allow the holy warrior, Paladin, and with the Warrior to create the pure fighting machine, the Dragoon.


Hybrid Skills: Hybrid skills are gained when you come from a class in which you are mature (at least 5 stars out of 8) then mature in another class. As an example, if I got at least rank 5 of Bard, then mature as a Fighter, I would learn WarCry. This only works with the class that was immediately preceded, so with that previous example, if I spent a little time as a Dancer in between Bard and Fighter, I wouldn't learn WarCry.

Someone who is a fighter and a thief learns the K.O.Punch, which is a free attack that does half damage with a chance of causing instant death.
Dancer who branch into the punching arts learn JockDance, which is a physical attack against a group.
Fighters who are also Bards pick up WarCry, which can scare monsters into inaction.
Mariner Fighters learn BigTrip, which makes an enemy lose a turn and causes damage.
Fighters who have studied the path of the Shepherd learn RamAttack, which lets you, well, ram an enemy out of combat.
Fighters who come from a Jester background learn to Retaliate, which lets you counter most attacks.
And Fighter Mages learn to breathe fire in the form of FireAir


CLERIC!

One of the more traditional classes, the Cleric does what Clerics are known to do in every other game - support and heal.

Stat Modifiers: Clerics get penalties to Strength, Agility, Guard, and Hit Points, but get a minor Intelligence boost. This is a class about learning spells, so stats are secondary.

Spells:

Expel: Attempts to force enemies out of the combat. You get no XP, but also don't have to deal with whatever it is.

Heal: Heal a little bit of HP for somebody, usually 20-30.

Infernos: One of the most bewilderingly named spells in the game, the Infernos spells deal wind damage to groups, and aren't fire related at all. Deals 15-20 damage.

Upper: Raises the defense of one ally. Usually not the right play.

StopSpell: Attempts to keep the opponents from casting spells. Occasionally quite useful.

HealMore: Heals waaay more HP than Heal at twice the cost. Usually heals 70-80 hp.

Infermore: Similar to Infernos, but deals 30-40 damage.

HealAll: Fully heals one person. One of the best spells in the game, but still outshined by other healing spells.

Vivify: Vivify is one of the very few skills that can resurrect someone, but it's plagued with problems. It has a 50% chance of failure, and only heals 50% of the target's HP. There is another spell, Revive, that always works and brings back 100% HP, and the skill AngelSong, which has a similar failure chance and HP restoral, but is free. So Vivify is kinda meh - just a placeholder for better things.

Class Combos:

This is where the Cleric really shines, as a Cleric can combine with a Fighter to make the almost incomparable Paladin class, and meshes with the Mage to create a Sage, the great magical class.

Hybrid Skills:
Dancing Priests learn the K.O. Dance, which attempts to end the lives of enemies.
Bardic Bishops learn HealSong, which heals all members of the party a little bit, for free.
Sea-going Clerics learn HolyAura, which prevents enemies from hurting the party at the cost of the parties actions.
And Clerics who are also Shepherds learn Increase, which improves the defense of the entire party.

WARRIOR!


One of the simplest and most traditional of classes, the Warrior is based on picking up a weapon, putting on some armor, and smashing face. It doesn't get a lot of skills, but sets you up for classes you're going to want and/or need.

Stat Modifiers: The Warrior gains some Strength and Hit Points, but loses a lot of Agility, Intelligence, and Magic Points. Ouch!

Skills:

PyscheUp: Ready yourself to make an extra powerful attack next turn. I don't bother with it, as it's usually much more effective and efficient to just attack twice, normally.

SquallHit: Attack first, but not as hard. It's an approximately 1/2 - 2/3 strength hit, so it's only useful in rare circumstances - like when you know the enemy only has a few hit points, goes before you, and is going to heal. Otherwise, useless.

DrakSlash: DrakSlash is a standard melee attack to everything except for Dragons. To Dragons, it does an extra 50% damage. It's also free, so you use it instead of standard attacks against Dragons. It's not bad.

EvilSlash: A devastating attack that is likely to miss. I want to say it has an approximately 50% chance to hit. But that hit is going to be a critical. Useful in desperate situations... or against Metal Slimes.

Class Combos:
The Warrior can combine it's forces with the Fighter to become the hard-hitting combat specialist, the Dragoon. But it can also work with the Mage class to get the interesting Ranger, who gets some of the more damaging spells but is good at both casting and fighting.

Hybrid Skills:
Warrior Thieves get Thiefhit, which is vital for getting monster items. Basically, every time you hit a monster with it, you get another drop chance on the monster. So, if the drop on the item is 1/100, you get two different 1/100 chances. Which is still an improvement.
DancerFighters get SwordDance, an incredible skill which attacks enemies four times at random, dealing about 75% normal damage. The nearest similar skill, QuadHits, does 50% damage, making Sword Dance the clear winner.
Singing Soldiers learn WarSong, which raises the defense of all allies for free. Pretty nice.
Mariner Marines learn BirdHit, which does additional damage to avian enemies. Yay.
Shepherd Warriors can learn Mineuchi, which can cure sleep or confusion. Eh.
And Jesting Soldiers can learn ConfuHit, which damages and confuses an enemy.


MAGE!


Stat Modifiers: Mages are horrible at physical combat, giving them massive penalties to Strength, Guard, and HP with a lesser penalty to Agility, but get some Intelligence, MP, and Appearance to balance that out. On the other hand, you learn a wealth of spells, some for combat, others as utility.


Spells:

Firebal: A pretty cheap, early spell that does fire damage to a group of enemies.

Sleep: Attempts to make all enemies go to sleep, keeping them from acting for (hopefully) multiple turns. Doesn't have a great success rate, though, so I rarely use it.

Return: As long as you don't have something above you (Like a roof of some kind), this allows you to teleport to a town you have visited previously. Sometimes blocked randomly.

Sap: Reduces the defense of one enemy. Useful against some bosses.

Outside: Teleport out of a dungeon. Incredibly useful and a wonderful timesaver.

BlazeMore: Does a lot of fire damage to one target. Better than Blaze.

Boom: Does fairly good explosive (Possibly lightning?) type damage to all enemies, regardless of how many groups there are. Useful for large combats.

Surround: Surrounds an enemy group with illusions, reducing their accuracy.

FireBane: The improved version of Firebal. Does more fire damage to a group.

SnowStorm: Does a bit more damage than FireBane, but of the Cold type.



Class Combos:

As you really already know, the Mage and Cleric can work together to become a Sage, the ultra-magic class.

The Mage can also join forces with the Soldier to make the Ranger, a class that can both fight and cast quite well, and get excellent spells to boot.

Hybrid Skills:

Rogue Wizards learn RobMagic, which steals MP from one enemy.
Dancing Mages learn TakeMagic, which lets you get MP from incoming spells. This isn't bad against spellcasting enemies, because you get whatever MP they spend, and get free MP when you're healed. But there's an item that does this later, so it's not *that* great.
Bardic Casters learn CurseSong, which lowers enemy defenses.
Marine Magicians learn Lightning! REAL LIGHTNING!
Shepherd Sorcerers get the poorly named SleepAll, which makes a group of enemies go to sleep, but not all of them.
Jester Mages learn PanicAll, which is just as poorly named as SleepAll but causes confusion instead.
And Mage Fighters learn FireAir, which is a light breath attack.

DANCER!


Stat Modifiers: They lose lots of Strength, Guard, HP, and MP, but get a massive Agility bonus and a decent Appearance bump. They also innately dodge a bit more often, likely because of the dancing.


Skills:
LureDance: Attempts to get an opponent to dance with you, wasting it's turn. It has a fairly good success rate, from what I've seen.

OddDance: Perform a mystical dance which damages an enemy's MP. Not very useful.

Sidestep: Improves your evasion for one round. Not very useful.

DanceShut: Prevent enemies from using dance attacks. Also not very useful, but it is on rare occasions.

Panidance: Confuses the enemies, making them try to attack each other. Not that great, since it's usually quicker to just stab them.

K.O. Dance: Attempts to murder all enemies via dance. It's about as effective as all Instant Death spells, but it's free!

Class Combos:
The Dancer doesn't get great skills and it's stats are pretty awful. But it's necessary, along with the Bard and the Jester, to create the incredible TeenIdol class.

Hybrid Skills:
Thieving Dancers can learn RobDance, which steals MP from a single enemy.
Warrior Dancers can learn SwordDance, which attacks four times with better damage than QuadHits.
Martial Dancers can learn JockDance, which performs a physical attack against a group.
Marine Dancers can learn ShipDance, which is one of the many one-turn disables of the game.
Shepherd Dancers learn RamDance, which does nothing.
Dancing Jesters can learn BoxerDance, which attempts to keep an enemy group from acting for a turn. Good stuff.
Magic Dancers learn TakeMagic, which steals mana from spells targeting you. Also good stuff.
Sacred Dancers learn the K.O. Dance, which they learn when they master the class anyway.


THIEF!

The Thief is a utility class, much like Thieves are in most other RPGs. They don't get a lot of damage, but they can sometimes steal (making them vital if you have to grind an area for items) and get a decent set of skills for the adventurer on the go.


Stat Modifiers: Thieves get various penalties to every stat but Agility. In that regard, they kind of suck.

Skills:

SandStorm: Summon a sandstorm, decreasing enemy accuracy because their eyes are full of sand.

KnockDown: Removes an enemy from combat by knocking their ass down.

CragThrow: Lob small stones at a group, dealing minor damage.

ChargeUp: Spend a turn powering up, increasing the damage of the next attack. Rarely useful.

Location: Tells you the name of the dungeon you are in and the current level. Occasionally useful for more complex dungeon navigation, but I never really used it.

TipToe: TipToe reduces the monster encounter rate, because you can hear the monsters coming and avoid them. However, this means that any monsters you do encounter are sneakier than you are and since you're preoccupied, they'll likely get a surprise attack. Useful if you're trying to postpone grinding as long as possible.

Smell: Sniff out how many unopened treasures remain on the floor of the dungeon you're in. Pretty useful in a 100% run or if you're looking for something specific in a dungeon, especially in conjunction with Location.

Class Combos:
An experienced Thief who has also spent enough time as a Mariner to do well can become the incredible Pirate, while a Thief who has spent some time as a Shepherd can become a Tamer, a class that gets monster skills and gets a bonus to befriend monsters (Which we'll go into later, once the plot event occurs that lets us befriend monsters)

Hybrid Skills:
Rogue Soldiers can learn ThiefHit, which has a tiny chance of stealing an item with each attack. Since drops are so rare anyway, every little bit helps.
Kung Fu Thieves can learn the K.O.Punch, which does some damage with a chance of instant death.
Magical Footpads learn RobMagic, which... robs things of magic.
Dancing Thieves can learn RobDance, which also robs things of magic.
And Thieving Jesters learn Giggle, which lets you giggle and does nothing useful.


BARD!

Bards, generally speaking, are not a highly regarded class in any game. They're supposed to be generally useful, but rarely manage such in video games (The only notable exception being the Bard's Tale series, of course). However, in Dragon Warrior 7, Bards aren't bad.

Stat Modifiers: Penalties to everything but Intelligence and Appearance, to which you get bonuses. Statwise, slightly better than the Thief.


Skills and Spells:
EagleEye: Tells you where the nearest town is. Only useful at sea, because you can't look at your map while sailing for some reason.

X-Ray: Tells you the contents of a chest. Identifies Mimics, mostly. But since they're not that hard, I just kill them anyway.

SleepSong: Attempts to put a group of enemies to sleep.

Repel: Reduces the encounter rate. Occasionally useful.

WakeSong: Cure all allies of sleep.

MistSong: Keep an enemy group from casting. Fairly good success rate, too.

AngelSong: One of the best abilities in the game. It has a 50% chance to revive an ally with 50% of his hit points, like Vivify, but can only be used in combat. On the other hand, it's *free*. You can use it every turn if you'd like.


Class Combos: The Bard, in conjunction with the Jester and the Dancer, can become the amazing TeenIdol, who has some of the best skills in the game and is the most attractive class to boot.

Hybrid Skills:

Marine Bards learn the WaveSong, which tries to put enemies to sleep.
Shepherd Bards learn the RamSong, which also tries to put enemies to sleep.
Joking Bards can learn the GagSong, which makes enemies laugh, wasting a round.
Warrior Bards learn the WarSong, which raises ally defense.
Fighting Bards learn the WarCry, which scares enemies for a round.
Magic Bards learn the CurseSong, which decreases enemy defense.
And Bishop Bards learn the HealSong, which heals everyone a little.


JESTER!

The king of free status effects, the Jester isn't a good class to hang out in, but it's mastered quickly enough and some of the skills you get are just useful enough to warrant it.

Stat Modifiers: Jesters get massive penalties to everything but appearance, where they get a tiny bonus. Do not stay in this class longer than necessary.

Skills:

PuffPuff: PuffPuff is a bizarre skill that is generally considered to be a weird innuendo. When used by a female character, it causes a turn loss effect, but when used by a man, it just causes damage. You'll see more on this one later, but if anyone can supply definitive evidence on what it's supposed to be I'll be impressed. Occasionally useful for women.

Silliness: You use drunken boxing to weave about for one turn, helping you dodge. Not great.

PointOut: Counter some physical attacks. Not great.

QuickJoke: One of the best abilities in the game, and one of the optional bosses uses it with devastating effectiveness. The user makes an awful joke, and most enemies waste a turn laughing at it. The game goes the extra mile in actually telling the joke in battle, so you can see what the enemy thinks is so funny.
Examples include:
Florjay? Where's his sidekick, Florabob?
A seafarer got a loan, but the high rate made him an irate Pirate!
Have you heard the one about the flat Mimic? She had no chest!
And so on, but they actually wrote 64 of these for this game. These effect entire groups and have a fairly high effectiveness rate, so you might use this one fairly often.

LushLicks: Prevent an enemy from acting next turn by licking them. Not great, but it's replaced by...

SickLicks: Prevents an enemy from acting next turn *AND* drops their defense to 0 until their next action. Great success and works on bosses.

Tickle: Another turn denial ability, but not as good as SickLicks.


Class Combos: The Jester combines with the Dancer and Bard to become the TeenIdol, the most entertaining class of all time.

Hybrid Skills: Hybrid skills are gained when you come from a class in which you are mature (at least 5 stars out of 8) then mature in another class. As an example, if I got at least rank 5 of Bard, then mature as a Fighter, I would learn WarCry. This only works with the class that was immediately preceded, so with that previous example, if I spent a little time as a Dancer in between Bard and Fighter, I wouldn't learn WarCry. (This was also edited into the first job post I made, which was Fighter.)

Jesting Thieves can learn Giggle, which wastes your turn doing nothing. Really.
Dancing Comedians can learn BoxerDance, in which you dance in your boxers, making the enemy lose a turn. Really.
Singing Goof-Offs learn GagSong, which make enemies laugh for a round.
Jester Warriors learn ConfuHit, which both damages and confuses. Not bad!
Fighting Funnymen learn Retaliate, which lets them counter most attacks.
And Mage Jesters can learn PanicAll, which confuses a group of enemies (Not all of them, as the name implies)

MARINER!

The Mariner is a sea-going class that learns sailing skills. They get a decent set of skills, though nothing too flashy, and ther stats aren't bad, either.



Stat Modifiers: Mariners get a small penalty to Intelligence and MP, but get equivalent bonuses to HP, Guard, and Agility

Skills:

Fishnet: Keeps one enemy from acting by entangling them in a net.

Ramming: Knocks one enemy clear out of combat.

BirdEye: Tells you the location of the nearest town (X number of paces north/west or whatever).

NumbOff: Removes the paralysis condition. This is good, since paralysis sucks so bad.

InferMore: A strong wind attack against a group. Reasonably good.

Tsunami: A somewhat damaging attack against all enemies. Not great, but not bad.

Class Combos: A Mariner who is also a thief can become a Pirate, and who doesn't want to be a pirate?

Hybrid Skills:
A Mariner with suffient ability to Dance jigs can learn ShipDance, which can keep an enemy from acting.
Singing Sailors can learn the WaveSong, which lulls enemies to sleep.
Marine Warriors can learn the BirdSlash, which does additional damage to bird-type creatures.
Martial Art Mariners can learn the BigTrip, which prevents an enemy from acting and does damage.
Magical Mariners can cast Lightning, which does very good damage to all enemies, and lightning isn't resisted often in DW7.
Clerical Sailors learn Holy Aura, which prevents the party from being damaged for a turn, but keeps the party from acting in that turn as well.

SHEPHERD!

The Shepherd is another class with a varied toolbox of skills and poor stats, but their basis is more pastoral in nature.

Stat Modifiers: Less awful than some, but still pretty bad. Shepherds get penalties to Strength, Guard, HP, & MP.

Spells and Skills:

Antidote: Removes Poison from a character: Occasionally important.

Heal: It heals a little! Yay!

Slumber: You regain HP & MP as you walk, but if you enter battle, you're asleep. Wow, this is waaay better than I thought it was - this is just awesome. Mp recovery is almost impossible in dungeons.

Whistle: Makes a monster show up and attack. Great if you just want to fight and don't want to wait.

WoolGuard: Reduce damage from Cold Breath attacks. Rarely useful, but when it is, it really is.

Stampede: While it doesn't always work, it does incredible damage that ignores defense that scales as you level. Very nice for a basic class.

Class Combos: A Shepherd who has cross-trained as a thief can become one of those Sheep-Stealing Tamers.

Hybrid Skills:

Dancing Shepherds learn RamDance, which does nothing. Nothing whatsoever, it is a useless skill, like Giggle.
Singing Shepherds, on the other hand, learn RamSong, which puts enemies to sleep.
Warrior Shepherds learn Mineuchi, which removes Sleep or Confuse status from an ally. Not bad.
Kung Fu Shepherds learn RamAttack, which reduces you and your enemy to 20% hp if it works. Too double edged for my taste, and doesn't work on bosses.
Magic Shepherds learn SleepAll, which attempts to put a group to sleep.
And Cleric Shepherds learn Increase, which improves the defense of all allies.



TEEN IDOL!

The TeenIdol may well be the best class in the game. It certainly is for my laid-back play style, and they get some of the best skills of the game. Oh, and as a little bonus, I'll give the Job Titles for the various parts of the Advanced Classes, because they tend to start getting funny or at least interesting.

Stat Modifiers: Teen Idols get penalties to everything but Intelligence and Appearance, but they do get a huge appearance percentage bonus *and* Icons get a +20 Appearance bonus on top of that.



Rank 1: Fan! No new skills, just the starting level of the class.
Rank 2: Groupie! You get Flash, which distracts the enemies, reducing their accuracy.
Rank 3: Rebel! You learn the spell Ironize, which makes someone invincible but unable to attack for a while.
Rank 4: Performer! You get EerieLite, which lowers the resistances of a group of enemies. Good against some bosses.
Rank 5: Star! It is at this time that you learn to do the Hustle, which is the greatest heal of the game. It heals all allies 80-100 point, FOR FREE. The only thing that stops it is DanceShut, and nobody uses that.
Rank 6: Artist! Artists can BackFlip, which attacks a group, but does more damage the fewer enemies there are.
Rank 7: Sellout! Sellouts get FireTower, which deal massive fire damage (175ish) to one target.
Rank 8: Icon! And the final Teen Idol ability is LifeSong, which isn't that great. It takes two rounds to perform and costs 10MP, then each downed member of the party has a 50% chance of being brought back with half health. AngelSong only works on one person, but is free and can be done every round.

Class Combos:
Someone who is both a Teen Idol and a Sage can become a Summoner, who call upon the elements themselves to do their bidding.


DRAGOON!
The Dragoon is an advanced class derived from both the Warrior and the Fighter classes. It has excellent attack based stats and abilities, but little magic. Master Dragoons also get a +15 strength bonus.

Stat Modifiers: Dragoons get excellent bonuses to Strength, Agility, Guard, and HP, but they also get a downgrade to Intelligence and a massive loss of MP.

Rank 1: Gladiator! No new skills.
Rank 2: Fencer! Fencers get VacuSlash, which is an air-elemental physical attack.
Rank 3: Swordsman! Swordsmen get ZombieCut, which does additional damage to undead foes. Since this is a free skill, it's usually worth it.
Rank 4: Ronin! Ronin get 2EdgeHit, which does quite a bit more damage, but also hurts the user.
Rank 5: Mercenary! Mercenaries get Massacre, which crits somebody in the face. The problem is that it could be anyone, an enemy, an ally, sometimes even the person using it. Great against Metal creatures (Since critical hits ignore their massive defense), but always risky.
Rank 6: Duelist! Duelists learn FalconCut, which deals slightly less damage than a normal attack, but attacks twice. With weapons that have a special effect on attack (Such as a Miracle Sword), this means that the effect is checked for twice.
Rank 7: Champion! Champions get nothing.
Rank 8: Avenger! Avengers get QuadHits, which is a skill that strikes four times at half strength. Not all that great.

Class Combos: One who excels as both a Dragoon and a Paladin can become the ultimate warrior, the GodHand.

RANGER!

The Ranger is a combination of the Warrior and the Mage. It's pretty good at damaging enemies, but is outshined by more skill-based classes in my opinion.

Stat Modifiers: Rangers get a small bonus to strength and MP, but at the cost of larger penalties to Agility, Guard, and HP. Master Rangers get a free bonus of +20 MP as long as they are in the class.

Rank 1: Bouncer! Bouncers get Bounce, which reflects spells back to the caster. Including healing spells, unfortunately. Rarely useful
Rank 2: Wanderer! Wanderers learn FireSlash, which is a slash that is a fire elemental attack. Not bad, not great.
Rank 3: Scout! Scouts achieve BoltSlash, which is the same as FireSlash but with elecricity.
Rank 4: Battler! Battlers get TwinHits, which massively boosts a party member's ATK stat. VERY WORTH IT.
Rank 5: Enchanter! Enchanters can use IceSlash. Much like FireSlash and BoltSlash, but with... Ice!
Rank 6: BladeMage! BladeMages can learn Disperse, which banishes an enemy, removing them from combat, but gives no XP or gold. Meh. It's useful if you're worried about being too high-leveled to grind in a given zone, but that's it. I never bothered with it.
Rank 7: Conqueror! Conquerors get Firebolt, which is a very powerful fire spell that targets a group.
Rank 8: Faust! Fausts use the mighty BlazeMost, which does incredible fire damage to one target.

Rangers are not specifically used for any other classes.

SAGE!

The Sage is a quintessential magic user, a combination of both Cleric and Mage, and effectively progresses in both, learning great healing, support, and damaging magics.

Stat Modifiers: Sages, as expected, get massive penalties to physical attributes like Strength, Guard, and HP, but get a small bonus to Agility, and larger bonuses to Intelligence and MP.

Rank 1: Student! Students learn Defeat, but not in the way that monsters learn defeat. Defeat attempts to instantly kill a group of monsters, and it's quite effective.
Rank 2: Counsel! Counselors learn Barrier, which reduces damage from Fire and Cold breath attacks. It's much more useful than it sounds, as there are enemies with devastating Fire and Cold breaths.
Rank 3: Arbiter! Arbiters learn Blizzard, a powerful Ice attack spell.
Rank 4: Seer! Seers learn to use a MagicWall, which reduces incoming Magic damage. Also not bad.
Rank 5: Oracle! Oracles learn HealUs, the third best healing ability in the game (after Hustle and HealUsAll). It heals a great deal to the entire party.
Rank 6: WiseOne! WiseOnes learn Revive, one of the most vital spells in late-game boss battles, as Revive always brings people back to life with full hit points.
Rank 7: Elder! Elders learn Summon, which calls upon a random helper monster. It's not bad, but I rarely use it as I'm too busy using more important things.
Rank 8: Prophet! Prophets learn Explodet, which does great damage to all enemies, though it'll be resisted more and more later on.

Sages, in conjunction with TeenIdols, can become Summoners, the ultimate magic class.


TAMER!

The Tamer is a master of monsters, who excels at getting them to join you as well as learning typically monsterish skills.

Stat Modifiers: Tamers take a tiny hit to HP and MP, but get a decent bonus to Agility and Guard in exchange. Master Tamers get a bonus to guard when they master the class.

Special: From what I've seen, a character has to be at least a rank 2 tamer to use monster-befriending items like Ribs or Steak.

Rank 1: PetOwner! PetOwners can emit a PoisonGas, which poisons enemies, but they also learn the Tamer skill, which improves the chance of taming a monster when used.
Rank 2: Groomer! Groomers learn nothing new.
Rank 3: RanchHand! RanchHands learn SleepAir, which puts enemies to sleep.
Rank 4: Tracker! Trackers get FrigidAir, which is a cold breath attack. All breath attacks target groups, and have separate resistances than other similar attacks.
Rank 5: Hunter! Hunters learn PalsyAir, which can paralyze monsters. Not usually effective.
Rank 6: Handler! Handlers get BlazeAir, a fairly powerful Fire Breath attack.
Rank 7: Trainer! Trainers learn PoisonFog, which also poisons the enemies, but with better poison! SUPER POISON! Poison that does about a sixth of the enemies hit points in damage! Not effective on anyone that would matter with, in my experience.
Rank 8: BeastLord! BeastLords get BeDragon, which, well, turns you into a massive, fire-breathing death machine with incredible attack and use of the best breath attacks. On the other hand, all that character can do is use melee attacks and breath attacks, so while good, it'll be outdone later.


PIRATE!

The Pirate is a sea-going robber, a plunderer of the ocean, a marine thief - you get the picture. They get advanced Mariner and Thief skills.

Stat Modifiers: Pirates get a bonus to Strength, Agility, and HP, and a larger bonus to their Guard. They take minor hits to Intelligence and MP, but are still well balanced, as befits a man of the sea.

Special: Sometimes they steal, effectively doubling the chances for enemies to drop an item.

Rank 1: ShipWreck! Shipwrecks learn Antidote... for some reason. Never was too clear on that one.
Rank 2: Barnacle! Barnacles learn FairWind, which can reflect Fire and Cold breath attacks. Not too bad.
Rank 3: Swab! Swabs learn Hurricane, which does medium wind damage to a group.
Rank 4: Cutthroat! Cutthroats learn StepGuard, which prevents damage from dangerous tiles, like Lava or Poisonous Swamps.
Rank 5: Buccaneer! Buccaneers learn MapMagic, which makes hidden treasure show up on screen. Useful for 100% runs (or when looking for the last few damn TinyMedals you need for the next objective).
Rank 6: Smuggler! Smugglers attain the secret of the StrongD, which vastly reduces (decreases by 90%!) incoming damage for one round. Not bad, but it means that it's all you are doing for that round.
Rank 7: Marauder! Marauders learn CoralRain, which damages a group fairly heavily, with a damage type of... Punch? It also costs MP, making it entirely outshone by Vacuum, which has scaling damage and is free.
Rank 8: Sea Dog! Sea Dogs get WhirlPool, which does quite a lot of damage... Wind damage again. Much more powerful than CoralRain, but also has an MP cost.

PALADIN!

The Paladin is a holy warrior, with both martial abilities and Clerical magic. They are also one of the best classes in the game.

Stat Modifiers: Paladins get a bonus to Strength, Agility, and Intelligence with no penalties. NO PENALTIES. Since he is one of the two classes that gets good bonuses and NO PENALTIES, I thought it should be pointed out.

Rank 1: Page! Pages learn Scapegoat, which lets them take damage for one other party member. Meh.
Rank 2: Squire! Squires learn Vacuum, which is the second best skill in the game. It attacks every enemy, for free, with damage that improves with the user. While not the most damaging thing, you can get it incredibly quickly, and it's free!
Rank 3: Knight! Knights learn Berserker, which is an instant critical hit, but reduces all of the user's resistances to 0 for the round as well. Rarely worth it (Metal Slimes are an exception).
Rank 4: Zealot! Zealots learn Infermost, which does a bit more damage than Vacuum, but only to a group, and it costs mana. Not that great, sadly.
Rank 5: Crusader! Crusaders learn MagicWall, which reduces incoming Magic damage. Not bad.
Rank 6: Templar! Templars get the Guardian skill, which lets them take damage for each other party member. Useful in some dire situations.
Rank 7: HolyKnight! HolyKnights get an incredibly useful spell - Farewell. Farewell reduces it's users HP and MP to 0 (But it has no set cost, you just need at least 1 mp), and resurrects and fully heals each other party member. Incredible for dire situations.
Rank 8: Martyr! Martyrs attain the MultiCut, which just does insane damage to an enemy group. Costs a lot of MP, but is worth it, especially to undead, which take extra damage.

Paladins who have also excelled as Dragoons can become GodHands, the ultimate in holy warriors.


GODHAND!

The Paladin and Dragoon are good classes for the martially inclined, but even they can only take you part of the way along the path. To complete it, one must become the mighty GodHand.

Stat Modifiers: The GodHand gets one of the biggest Strength bonuses in the game (The second highest, with the highest going to the second hardest to get monster class), and small bonuses to Agility, Guard, and HP. They take a small hit to their MP, but the trade-off is worth it. They also get a free +25 strength bonus while a master of this class.

Rank 1: Saint! Saints get nothing but their incredible stats and a sense of self-satisfaction.
Rank 2: Angel! Angels learn the MetalCut, which... cuts metal! Way more useful than it sounds, since it can deal heavy damage to MetalSlimes, MetalBabbles, and MetalKings, who are worth so much XP it almost makes me cry at the thought of not killing them.
Rank 3: ArchAngel! ArchAngels learn the incredible HealUs, which heals the entire party for a decent amount. Better than Hustle when in danger, but not as good otherwise, because it comes with a hefty price tag.
Rank 4: Throne! Thrones can use RockThrow, which... throws big rocks! The GodHand's skills are pretty descriptive, it seems.
Rank 5: Cherubim! Cherubim learn Sacrifice, which ends their life to kill an enemy. Not worth it, since all the enemies that it would be worth to use on are immune. Farewell is much better.
Rank 6: Seraphim! Seraphim get GigaSlash. GigaSlash is one of the most powerful things in the game. It hits one group of enemies for about 400 damage. For a bit of comparison, there are two things more damaging than it in the game, and the next one below it is 50dmg weaker. This is devastating at a hilarious level, but carries a heavy mana cost.
Rank 7: Celestial! Celestials learn Revive, a vital spell that returns a party member back to life with full HP.
Rank 8: DEMIGOD! Demigods attain the raw power of the UltraHit. The UltraHit is the most damaging thing in the game (600 damage), even if it only hits one target and still costs more than GigaSlash. This is vital for the endgame, as only one thing compares to it in damage, and you'll see that next time.

HERO!

So, you want to be a hero? You don't have to bother questing for glory, you can just master any three advanced classes, like Pirate, Paladin, Tamer, etc., or just steal one of their hearts. Really. HeroHearts are an available item.

Stat Modifiers: The Hero is the only class other than Paladin to get no stat penalties whatsoever, and they get decent bonuses to everything but agility and guard. They also get a +30 MP bonus when Hero is mastered. Incredible class to stay in after you get all of the abilities you need, because in addition to all that...

Special Ability: You heal some HP every round. About 20. EVERY ROUND. It's not that much, but it's free with everything else you get!

Rank 1: Archetype! Typically, Archetypes get nothing.
Rank 2: Defender! Defenders learn Ironize, which is the ultimate defensive spell. It turns someone into a lump of iron which can't be affected by anything for a few rounds. Of course, that lump also can't do anything, so not really the best spell.
Rank 3: Paragon! Paragons learn Revive, which we've gone over a few times, but remains awesome.
Rank 4: Savior! Saviors can Zap, which deals moderately high (80) electric damage to all enemies. Not bad, but Vacuum does more and is free, as does RockThrow.
Rank 5: Guardian! Guardians learn DeMagic, which is spectacular in some ways, but ends up simply really good. DeMagic removes all status effects that you don't like. Buffs on enemies, debuffs on allies, everything. It's works on more things than Gigastis. And it's absolutely free, and pretty much everyone can learn it. The thing is, most of the monsters that you worry about don't do a lot of buffing and debuffing. It occasionally comes up, but it's not a huge thing. But it's still the best at what it does.
Rank 6: Avatar! Avatars can use the power of their eight virtues to cast Thordain, which does lots and lots (200) electric damage to a group of enemies. Respectable, but not great.
Rank 7: Legend! Legends learn the mighty GigaSlash that GodHands can also learn. It does incredible damage at a reasonable cost!
Rank 8: ChosenOne! Chosen Ones get what I still consider to be the worst spell of the game, AllDain. On the surface, AllDain looks great - It does 600-700 electric damage to one person, wrecking their world. The problem is that not only does it take 10 MP from each member of the team, everyone has to be alive, and it also uses everyone's turn, preventing them from doing anything else. By the time you can cast AllDain, it's not hard to have everyone deal 150+ damage each, one way or another. For less than 10MP each, certainly. Still worth it as a class, though.

SUMMONER!

There are those that dabble in magic, like the Sage, and those who like to put on a good show, like the TeenIdol. The Summoner is the ultimate magic user, who needs to be a TeenIdol for some reason.

Stat Modifiers: Summoners get great bonuses to MP, Intelligence, and Agility, but with notable penalties to Strength, Guard, and HP. Master Summoners get a +30 to their maximum MP, but more importantly

Special Ability: Master Summoners, being the best at magic, cast all spells 1/2 off. All the time. It effectively doubles your mana pool, which is so far beyond amazing it boggles the mind. And the skills and spells just add on to that.

Rank 1: Theurgist! Theurgists learn Meditate, which is a free heal for 500hp to the caster... but it takes two turns. Usually used by bosses who get two actions per turn anyway.
Rank 2: Conjuror! Conjurors learn DefeatMax, which just tries to murder everything with one spell. Useful for the impatient, since it works on most random encounters.
Rank 3: Geomancer! Geomancers can tap into the power of Magma, which is a free skill that does acceptable fire damage to all enemies.
Rank 4: Elemental! Elemental can use the earth to call forth a Tremor, which also tries to kill all enemies and has the same cost as DefeatMax.
Rank 5: Maelstrom! Maelstroms learn HellFlame, which does very good fire damage to all targets (and isn't often resisted!)
Rank 6: Tempest! Tempests can use the mighty DeMagic, which remains as awesome as it was in the last post.
Rank 7: Fury! Furies can unleash the mighty HellBlast, which does even more damage than HellFlame, and is even harder to resist!
Rank 8: Ragnarok! Ragnaroks can use the Summoner skill, which works like the Summon spell, but summons better things. I still don't use it as much as I should, though.


Monster jobs are special classes based off of monsters. You can get these jobs by getting the appropriate monster heart, which can be found in chests or dropped by the monster, or you can reach some of the advanced jobs by mastering lower-level monsters. Monster jobs usually learn fewer skills, but have an additional bonus: When you master a monster class, as long as you remain in that class, you gain the monster's magic resistances. While not important at first, it eventually will be the main reason we bothered with these classes at all.

But on with the monsters!

SLIME!

Slimes are the adorable mascots of the Dragon Warrior series. They're marketable, they've got seniority over virtually every monster remaining in the series, and their family ever grows. The only problem is that the Slime class reduces all of your stats, with the exception of Agility, by at least 20%. Agility goes up a tiny bit. Yay. Slimes learn the following ablities:
SideStep: It improves your evasion for a round.
ConfuHit: It hits... and confuses!
Retaliate: Counters most attacks.
Slimes get some resistance to some status effects, but nothing to write home about.
People who have mastered both Slime and Lizardman can become a DrakSlime, which is a flying Slime dragon wannabe.


HORK!

Horks are the standard zombies of the Dragon Warrior line. They've been around for some time (Since 2 or 3, I believe), and do general zombie things. Statwise, Horks are infinitely worse than Slimes. They take massive penalties (10%-60%) on everything but Strength and HP, but get a tiny HP bonus. Horks get:
PoisonGas: Poisons a group.
CurseSong: Lowers the defense of an enemy group.
K.O. Dance: Attempts to murder an enemy group... through dance.
Horks get the same status resistance that a slime gets, with some additional minor resistance to Wind and Cold, and an acceptable resistance to Death.

Horks who have studied as Mimics can become Curselamps, while those who have also mastered Healer and Jewelbag can become the DeadNoble.



EVILTURTLE!

The EvlTurtle is where the monster classes start sucking less. They don't have an interesting history or anything, they're turtles, they're evil, you know what's what. They get okay bonuses to Strength and Guard, but penalties to everything else but Agility, oddly enough. Evlturtles get the following:
Upper: Increases the defense of one ally.
Increase: Increases the defense of all allies.
TwinHits: Greatly increases one allies attack.
Ramming: Headbutts an enemy out of combat.
BackFlip: Does physical damage to a group, decreases with greater numbers of enemies.
Attentive readers will notice that some of those skills are derived from Intermediate advanced classes: That's the other advantage of the monster classes. Their class skills are more of a mixed bag. EvilTurtles have the same resistances as the Hork, but get the same level of resistance vs. all elemental attacks instead of just wind and cold.

Evilturtles with sufficient experience in Lipsy and Dumbira classes can become a Varanus, while those with a tendency toward FloraJay and Wyvern classes can become SkyDevils.


JEWELBAGS!

Another DW workhorse, the JewelBags represent a typically obnoxious enemy type. They're usually difficult to hit, fairly resistant to effects, and inflict annoying status effects like Dazzle or drain MP from you, making them unimpressive on their own but hideous when supporting other monsters. The JewelBag class tries to represent this. They get penalties to Strength and MP, but fairly good bonuses to Agility, Guard, and Intelligence, as well as a tiny Appearance boost. They learn:

LureDance: Gets an opponent to dance for a turn.
Flash: Reduces enemy accuracy.
PanicAll: Confuses all enemies.
Beat: Attempts to kill one target.

JewelBags have similar resistances to the EvilTurtle, but have additional defense against MP Loss attacks as well as breath attacks of all kinds.
The shiniest JewelBags who are also master Horks and Healers can become DeadNobles, while JewelBags who have also mastered the path of the SkyDevil can become a HellGiant.

FLORAJAY!
Florajays haven't been around as long, and are a low ranking monster in the games that they're in... usually appearing shortly after the slime. The class leaves a bit to be desired. They get penalties to Strength, Guard, and HP, but bonuses to MP, Intelligence, and Agility that are fairly close. They learn:
Heal: Heal someone slightly.
SleepAir: Attempts to put an enemy group to sleep.
HealSong: Heals everyone a little.
Florajays have awful resistances - the only element they resist at all is Wind, though they do get a full course of status resistances.
Master Florajays who have become EvilTurtles and Wyverns can reach SkyDevil status.

WYVERN!
Wyverns are another pedigreed monster, being nearly as prevalent as the slime. I beleive that they have each been in every game, but the slimes have a wide family that keeps growing, while the Wyverns have mostly been pared down to the one. While in their original game they were quite fierce and worthy of respect, as a class, they're lacking overall. They get penalties to Strength, Guard, Appearance, and HP that substantially exceed their bonuses to Agility and Intelligence. Wyverns attain:
Blaze: Does some fire damage to one monster.
FireAir: The least fire breath attack, it affects one group with marginal fire damage.
Blazemore: Like blaze... but does more damage!
BlazeAir: The next fire breath attack, it does better damage than FireAir to a group. Wyvern resistances are equivalent to the Florajay, but without the Wind and with some Fire instead. They also pick up a slight resistance to MP Drain attacks as well.

As you well know by now, master Wyverns who are also experienced in the ways of both EvilTurtle and FloraJay can become a SkyDevil.