Class/Old Class System

A new class/subclass system is in the process of being implemented. Some of the information presented here is outdated and inapplicable. Some preliminary information on the new class system can be found here: New Class System.

Many are the paths that a character can travel. Many are the choices that determine what destiny the character will fulfill. What destiny will unfold and what myriad roads will one travel? The officious life of a Bureaucrat; lurking in the shadows of government, never seen but one's influence always felt? Maybe an Infiltrator; risking life and limb to be something that too few understand and none bear sympathy for? Or take the path less traveled? Will that make the difference?

(For class requirements, see Changing Classes.)

Knight

Almost all troop leaders start out life as a Knight. A knight can hire a unit, and can perform most of the basic actions in the game. This includes the ability to train their troops, and, if necessary, to do paid work. Many characters spend their entire lives as knights and are perfectly happy that way. The advantage of being a knight is that all non-class specific actions are available to you, however other classes may be superior to you in these activities, regardless of experience.

Knights cannot be killed in battle, though they can be wounded.

Cavalier

Cavaliers could be considered the advanced version of soldiers. In return for being knighted, by swearing fealty to a liege, one is able to become a cavalier. Cavaliers are able to command more men than a soldier of the same experience, and earn more honour in battle. However, cavaliers are too great to be reduced to civil work or paid work; they are unable to do these things.

Hero (Martyr)

The greatest of fighters and a true warrior, the hero is nothing less then a living legend. The trouble is, living legends may die. This is the Achilles' heel: an injury during battle that would only seriously wound a lesser man would fell a hero. However, once on the path, one may not turn back. Victory and glory or death; such is the way of a hero.

Not all men are worthy of becoming heroes. A small amount of prestige is required to advance to the ranks of a hero; however, if you are determined to follow this path the pittance required should be no trouble.

As a hero, you join your men in the heat of battle, adding your strength and ability to your unit. You are also able to inspire your men before battle and on the cold nights on campaign far away from home, raising their morale and their spirit to continue. Even peasants would welcome you to tell your tale, raising their morale and may even inspire them to greater loyalty and friendliness to your realm.

Of course, as the model warrior in your realm, you are respected more than the common rabble. Priests will always bless you in their temples should you come, and no man would expect yourself to lower yourself to do civil work or police work, nor to relegate your men to sentry duty. Should you be captured, your reputation and status as a hero will even reduce the abilities of your guards, which gives you a chance of escape not afforded to others.

Occasionally a hero can pick up volunteers from a home or allied region. These people tend to be inspired commoners; as such they tend to lower the training and cohesion value of a unit, but equipment is usually found.

Note: The martyr class available to priests is actually a hero. The martyr is merely a roleplaying description of the process of a religious noble becoming a hero.

Mentor

As a veteran of many campaigns, you are expected, as a mentor, to take a step back from actively fighting, slowly guiding and training young and inexperienced soldiers in the ways of the world. Special messaging is afforded for conversation between you and your students.

Being a mentor does not mean resigning oneself to wandering alone in the streets of the capital. As well as fighting, albeit in a reduced capacity, you may find yourself writing a book on your experiences, or a textbook for your students. You may also be commissioned to teach the children of an aristocrat, or gather tax notes or scribe notes from throughout the island, to be used as you will. Slowly but surely, you may just see your fame rising and your name being echoed in far-away lands.

Bureaucrat

A Bureaucrat's job is to ensure the smooth running of realm administration. Essentially a clerk, their job is to travel the realm and improve the stats of regions.

Most of the time, Bureaucrats will have little other than a small bodyguard for a unit, which must permanently be assigned as a Police force. Because of this, Bureaucrats are rarely found in battle unless desperately required by the realm, or when in a defensive role while the majority of soldiers are on campaign elsewhere and cannot reinforce. Units under the command of a Bureaucrat will suffer worse morale and combat strength penalties than a unit under a leader of any other class, even when the latter's troops are designated as Police units as well. Bureaucrats are also unable to attend tournaments.

The main benefit of being a Bureaucrat is the ability to do specialist bureaucratic work, intended to improve production, morale and loyalty of a region. Unlike most other kinds of work, this work will not come with a drop in morale for a Bureaucrat's unit.

Note that there is an exception to the inalienable right to choose your class. You can be ordered out of the Bureaucrat class, i.e. it is permitted to ask, and even command people, to not become Bureaucrats or to change into another class of their choice. This is because having too many Bureaucrats can adversely affect realm administration (think: too much "red tape".).

Trader

The trader is a noble who invests his time (and gold) in the movement of food, wood and other goods. Although many traders hope to make a profit by buying and selling for low and high prices respectively, others perform a selfless duty in buying food at any price merely to see that a region's population is supplied with food.

Like bureaucrats, traders cannot join tournaments, and can command fewer troops. They also do not possess the ability to train soldiers, and their units are automatically set as mercenaries.

What they gain however, is an ability to manage more caravans than any other troop type, the ability to improve their merchant skill at an academy, and the occasional side-profits in luxury goods. As well, trader scouts provide detailed economic information of the regions they investigate, although they will ignore troops, and traders can chat with merchants to learn valuable market information from all over the continent.

Infiltrator

An infiltrator will make the shadows his friend as he sneaks and spreads dissent and chaos throughout the land. This is a career entrusted to only the most experienced of nobles; do not expect to rise quickly.

Although necessary, such trickery is beneath most nobles, and there is no honour in taking such a path. There will be little fame, gain, or glory on this path, unless the glory one seeks is in doing the job necessary and taking great risks for the greater benefit of one's realm. Infiltrators lead a solitary life, filled with disguise and low profiles. One that chooses this path does not travel it to protect oneself.

As an infiltrator, one will able to damage the production or fortifications of regions, preparing them for an assault. Infiltrators can break into tax offices to steal a region's gold, carry out assassinations, and even simply play around with road signs and confuse and befuddle those that travel the path.

Unlike other men, infiltrators are not bound by relationships of the realm or even to one's own countrymen. An infiltrator may attack those that are of allied realms or even their own realm as easily as one would a hated enemy. However, infiltrators can expect to find no mercy should they be captured. It is more common that an infiltrator is first banned for crimes against a realm before being deported or executed. But this is not always true - there are those that become so notorious that they can be executed the same as even the most common of rogues. Therefore, one must be wily, diplomatic, and tread softly; always check that none follow. Paranoia, danger and silence - such is the world of the infiltrator.

The Infiltrator Central is a very useful resource that can help aspiring and veteran infiltrators alike build and improve their skills.

Priest

Becoming a priest opens up a whole new world to you, though it comes at a price. The priest class justifies its own page, because playing a priest is much like playing a whole new game, the Priest Game.

Adventurer

Adventurers are the only characters capable of dealing directly with monsters and undead before these form a group/horde and cause trouble in the region they are in. Adventurers can find and eliminate the evil creatures before they become a problem, and thus are quite valuable to a realm that wants to keep its regions peaceful and trouble-free.

Adventurers can (and often should) work together to eliminate these foul beasts.

Be aware that choosing which class to play as is one of a noble's inalienable rights in Battlemaster. Anyone who gives you orders about choosing which class to play as should be reported to the Titans or Magistrates.