Classes
A class is the collection of abilities and skills that one learns while adventuring in the world. It determines the types of armour and weapons that one favours, whether one attacks or heals, and whether one is primarily in melee combat or fighting at range.
Not every class is available to every race and, indeed, some potential options might even be met with scorn or misunderstanding due to cultural norms. For example, a death knight has borderline no acceptance in any faction due to his association with the Scourge, even if he might have broken free. Likewise, a night elf who pursues being a tinker is likely to be barred from polite society due to expectations not to scrounge for raw materials that might require mining or chopping down trees. There are costs to be paid by anyone who walks the path of the pariah.
All classes have options for customisation to varying degrees, though some are simpler than others. A warrior is primarily there to punch or stab an enemy, while druids have 10,000 years of specialisations and history.
In order to see all options for a class, click on a given header.
Classes
- Restrictions: None
- Primary skill: Survive
- Restrictions: Pandaren
- Primary skill:
- Restrictions: Forsaken
- Primary skill: Shoot
- Restrictions: None, but the strongest in life are preferred
- Primary skill: Stab
- Restrictions: Night elf, high elf, blood elf
- Primary skill: Know
- Restrictions: Night elf (male-only prior to the end of the Third War), possibly also high elf and blood elf
- Primary skill: Survive
- Restrictions: None
- Primary skill: Shoot
- Restrictions: Human, Ironforge dwarf, gnome, high elf, blood elf, Forsaken, Dark Iron dwarf
- Night elves absolutely will not allow arcane usage, while the races of the Horde do not especially have any connections to the arcane due to their secret warlock practices deriving from shamanism originally.
- Primary skill: Magic
- Restrictions: Pandaren
- Primary skill: Punch or Stab
- Restrictions: Human, Ironforge dwarf, gnome, Forsaken, high elf, blood elf, orc, ogre
- Essentially any race that was impacted by the Scourge has a chance to have necromancers secretly present.
- Primary skill: Magic
- Restrictions: Human, Ironforge dwarf, high elf, blood elf
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Human, Ironforge dwarf, high elf, blood elf, Forsaken
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Troll
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Night elf (female-only prior to the end of the Third War)
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Naga (female-only)
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: None, but exceptionally rare and borderline a myth
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Any except larger species, such as tauren and ogre
- Primary skill: Sneak
- Restrictions: None theoretically, but effectively only existing among the tauren and Ironforge dwarves
- Primary skill: Perform
- Restrictions: Troll
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Furbolg, murloc, ogre, orc, Pandaren, tauren, troll, Tuskarr, Wildhammer dwarf
- The more primitive races embrace shamanism foremost. It is theoretically possible for others to practice this, but they likely lack the cultural upbringing.
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: Blood elf, high elf
- Primary skill: Magic
- Restrictions: Tauren and rarely orcs
- Primary skill: Pray
- Restrictions: None, but most are Dark Iron dwarf, Gnome, goblin, or Ironforge dwarf
- Primary skill: Craft
- Restrictions: None theoretically, but most will be blood elves, Forsaken, humans, or orcs
- Primary skill: Magic
- Restrictions: None
- Primary skill: Punch or Stab
- Restrictions: None theoretically, but most will be blood elves, Forsaken, high elves, night elves, orcs, trolls, or Wildhammer dwarves
- Primary skill: Ride
- Restrictions: Troll and rarely orcs
- Primary skill: Magic
Racial Iconic Classes
Classes from Worlds Without Number
Two of the three core classes from Worlds Without Number are potentially usable and fill a niche that might otherwise get ignored. They are not nearly as complex as the above classes and on paper have fewer options, but are simultaneously broader for roleplaying purposes. They do not have the "baggage" of lore-rich classes, but may potentially lag behind at times. They have no racial restrictions whatsoever and do not specifically rely on a particular skill to empower themselves beyond basic needs.
The expert is just that: potentially superb at certain skills. Thieves, diplomats, healers, scholars, explorers, artisans, and other such heroes should pick the expert class if they wish to focus on developing their special skills and performing tremendous feats of mastery with them. Experts gain the widest variety of non-combat skills and are the quickest to learn more of them.
Experts have an uncanny knack for wielding their skills successfully at a crucial moment, whether or not it is a skill that they have taken for their specialty. Their natural focus on personal development and determined refinement of their skills bleeds through even into those talents they do not make their special domain.
The fighter[1] is a hero born to the blade, a man gifted with a superb capacity for physical violence. Savage barbarians, hardened mercenaries, courageous young farm boys, and ordinary laborers who just happen to have an undiscovered capacity for massive bloodshed all might qualify as fighters.
Fighters are not all formal soldiers or recognized veterans of the blade. Any adventurer who excels in dealing with their problems through violence might qualify as a fighter, however peaceful their background. It is possible that their very talent for killing was what forced them out of their old life after some terrible event or awful encounter compelled them to recognize their gifts.
Endnotes
- ↑ Within Worlds Without Number, this class is actually called the Warrior, but this obviously overlaps the Warcraft class. For the ease of keeping track, a fairly traditional alternative name was chosen.