If you've been following the Twitter account, you might have seen a series of threads introducing the seven classes in Dream Warrior. If you're like me, you might prefer that all of that info is in one place, rather than spread over a number of threads. So, here we go: an introduction to the classes of Dream Warrior and a bit about their design.
Warrior
Drinking Ale transforms you into a Warrior. This is one of the classes that is available from the start.
The Warrior is a strong fighter, boasting excellent stats, stat growth, and equipment selection. As you might imagine it is a simple class, focused on dealing and absorbing damage. This is a good class to start with, especially for those unaccustomed to classic turn-based RPG combat.
From the beginning, the Warrior can parry attacks, reducing their damage and stunning the attacker.
Later, the warrior gains a stunning shield bash and an improved attack which ignores armor. However for all this power and survivability, Warriors are not without weakness. They struggle to maintain enough MP to use skills, and all the heavy armor in the world will not protect against magical damage.
Cleric
Wine, the other starting drink, transforms you into a Cleric.
The Cleric is much weaker than the Warrior, and has a more limited weapon selection. However, perhaps unsurprisingly for those familiar with this sort of game, the Cleric compensates by having access to healing powers right from the start.
Additionally, the Cleric can entreat The Almighty for assistance at any time. This frequently restores MP, and sometimes HP as well. However, when seeking divine assistance, one must be prepared for silence, sometimes.
Later, the Cleric gets access to acts of faith that damage enemies (and are especially effective against the undead), prevent enemies from using magic, and heal even better.
The Cleric is also a very survivable class. Unlike the Warrior this is not achieved via brute force, but with an enormous capacity to heal damage.
Monk
Becoming a Monk requires drinking Baijiu. This is not available from the start, but if you keep going forward, surely you will find someone willing to share a bottle.
The Monk is a physical attacker like the Warrior, but one that eschews heavy armor and weapons. Indeed, one of the most striking features, pun intended, of the Monk is the ability to perform an unarmed strike from level 1. This attack circumvents the standard formulas and deals damage that scales with the Agi stat rather than Atk. A consequence of this is that the Monk can largely, if not totally, ignore weapons.
Later, the Monk gains additional abilities: stuns, modest healing... and the dread, secret attack: Deathblow. The latter does just what it says on the tin, but affording the MP cost is another matter. It is a bit dramatic, but not quite as overpowered as it might appear at fist glance.
Goth
I admit, the Goth is a personal favorite of mine. Is it a barbarian from the Dark Ages or a member of a late 20th century subculture? Yes.
Becoming a Goth requires finding a bottle of Absinthe, which should be easy enough, if you meet with tragedy.
An interesting feature of the Goth is that it forgoes wielding anything in the off hand. Instead, it carries the mightiest possible two-handed sword.
Later, the Goth is about managing HP. Some attacks damage the player and enemy alike; others scale in power with lower HP. The Goth can also self-heal, but it's quite a sad thing.
The Goth was quite fun to write. Perhaps I got a bit carried away, but possibly I didn't go far enough. If you've read this far and know where This Corrosion came from, please let me know in the comments.
Wizard
Becoming a Wizard requires truly understanding the fires of sorcery. This, in turn, requires drinking Whisky. Finding a bottle isn't easy, but if you meet with great disappointment, it's never too far away.
The Wizard is an MP-based glass cannon. Right from the start it can burn away most enemies quickly. Like the Cleric, it can also recover MP. Unlike the Cleric, this recovery requires also spending MP. Woe unto the Wizard who runs out!
Later the Wizard gains even MORE attack magic. It's kind of their thing.
They do gain another trick, though: Wizards can recover MP by stealing it from an enemy. Obviously this only works against enemies that have MP to steal.
Drunk
Perhaps the most authentic class is the Drunk. Being a Drunk requires drinking Grog. If you find the rest of the drinks, you'll surely find this one, too.
As you might have noticed, the Drunk starts with quite impressive stats. That raw power is counterbalanced by poor stat growth and unpredictable abilities which, indeed, may do more harm than good until you find larger bottles.
Much later, the Drunk does get a powerful way to remove certain enemies quickly. (Aside: Oinomancy, which provides the skillset of the Drunk, is a real thing. It may or may not work differently in real life, reports are mixed.)
The Drunk is a challenging class, by design. It is powerful at the start and potentially the end, but getting through the middle part of the game requires no small amount of skill.
Straight Edge
Quite the opposite of the Drunk, the Straight Edge is naturally tied to drinking Water. Finding that is not easy, but there's a clue on the store page, if you look closely.
The Straight Edge deals in item creation, buffs, and debuffs. Right from the beginning, it can summon a selection of vegetarian food.
This is important because the Straight Edge is bound by its philosophy to avoid things like Herb. There are honestly a lot of consequences to this philosophy, but you can at least always have healing (and buffing!) items. Just make sure you've planned well in advance of your need
Later, the Straight Edge gets more skills to summon items, as well as to debuff enemies. The final skill can be used to debuff oneself in exchange for a powerful attack against the enemy.
Writing the content for the Straight Edge was right up there with the Goth in terms of enjoyment. Also, in my humble opinion, it is quite a different experience than the other classes.
Thematically, it was also interesting to follow the progression of the player from Drunk to Straight Edge. Actually, because of that, I tried to send Davey Havok, a well-know vegan straight edge himself, a key for the game. I couldn't find his email and he never got back to me on Twitter. Alas.
Conclusion
Those are the classes in Dream Warrior. I hope the options will be enjoyable. Likewise, I look forward to seeing people unlock them! Most should be easy, but I admit the Straight Edge will require some doing.
Dream Warrior launches in 6 days, on August 8, 2024. I hope to see you then!