(05-05-2014, 05:38 AM)synaesthetic Wrote:That does bring up more of a philosophical question. Â Actual "job" classes require you to have a minimum working knowledge of another discipline. Â So is a White Mage, for example, a hybrid conjurer-arcanist? Â Or is that just a game mechanic? Â Or is magic a more fluid art than the game gives it credit for.(05-03-2014, 10:06 AM)Ignacius Wrote: But I'll never say he's a "dragoon" or a "bard" since he has a REAL problem with authority. Â I can see that working into some people's stories, so it's certainly on a case-by-case basis. Â Some people become dragoons and want to really play a dragoon, so they're part of that order. Â I have a tendency not to do that unless I'm really wringing something out of it I didn't have before. Â Otherwise, it's too much of a handcuff.
This is easier with the martial classes simply because the idea that a fighter could know how to use bows, swords, spears, axes and also punch stuff is fairly believable. Many martial experts are trained in the use of multiple weapon types because different weapons are designed to address different combat situations on the battlefield.
The magic classes are a bit different since the class or Job doesn't simply determine the type of training they have, but also determines what type of aetheric energy source they use to power their spells.
Aeriyn is ICly a scholar of magic, a researcher into the conscious manipulation of aether. She was a thaumaturge; she delved into the allegedly forbidden knowledge of black magic in order to better understand Allagan technology (and by extension, Garlean Magitek). In her effort to bridge the gaps between the various disciplines of magic, Aeri has also studied some conjury (she has not yet examined white magic due to the near-total control the Elementals and the Padjal maintain) and has also studied arcanima in the tradition of Limsa Lominsa, Nym and Allag.Â
She's dabbled in every form of magic that is and/or was recently practiced in Eorzea, as well as both Allagan and Garlean device magic. Her understanding of nearly all of these disciplines is academic at best, with the exception of black magic--for purposes of combat in roleplay, Aeri fights with black magic (and occasionally somewhat poorly with a shortbow) and that's pretty much the extent of it.
And here's where the issue comes in--a soldier who can use a sword, swing an axe, pick up a pike and take up a charge and then grab a bow and knock a cavalryman off his horse is a lot more believable (and far less overpowered) than a mage dropping massive explosions while simultaneously curing their own wounds and commanding a summoned primal fragment and a Nymian fairy.
So Aeriyn is for all intents and purposes a black mage, even though she knows quite a lot about a lot of different disciplines of magic.
It might be completely feasible that someone knows all the disciplines, but it's not really necessary that they practice them all. Â For instance, as per my example, Orleans knows quite a bit about polearms and bows both, but I don't play him as specifically knowing much about great axes (even though he had to learn it to be a Dragoon, so I have it). Â I'm sure it's an uncomplicated enough weapon that he can direct the sharp bit where it needs to go, but he doesn't ICly know any of the disciplines behind Mauraders (going out and breaking rocks is just a little undignified for him).
Magic might be similar; there's nothing saying you can't know everything. Â It might be a lot more like why I don't know anything about plumbing. Â As an architectural designer, I might be aware of things like floor drains, sump pumps, and so on, but I'd be terrible at actually putting them in. Â General knowledge is easy to obtain. Â However, it does seem like everything is a sort of hybrd once you're into soulstones so it might be that the weapons you bear REALLY have something to do with the magic you throw, meaning you might know everything, it might simply be impossible to cast, say, a major heal through a black mage's staff; it's just a matter of not having the tools for the job.
It might then mean that you could carry a radical and a staff and act as if you knew both disciplines at once, but you can't actually USE both at the same time. Â That's how I generally work Orleans. Â He is very versed in bows and lances and he often carries both around with him, but it's not like he can just fire an arrow while wielding a lance.