tvtropes.org

Strength, Sorcery, Finesse - TV Tropes

️Wed Oct 02 2024

Most computer and Tabletop RPGs offer the player a number of classes or specializations that they can choose. When you think about it, however, most boil down to three major archetypes for character specialization regardless of what they are called. These archetypes are based around:

Strength: Common class names: Fighter, Warrior, Soldier. The Mighty Glacier if offensively oriented or Stone Wall if a defensive specialist. A physical powerhouse of prodigious strength, this archetype solves problems by dicing or smashing them to bits with mêlèe weapons. These include swords, axes, bludgeons, flails, the occasional spear, and of course good old fisticuffs but usually not much in the way of ranged weapons unless firearms are widespread, in which case they will pick automatic weapons and shotguns or just the Biggest Gun Imaginable. This archetype usually has the best armor along with their powerful weapons, fitting the role of Heavy Equipment Class and as such, making for an effective tank. Sometimes has a special weakness to magic. Often associated with the colour red.
Sorcery: Common class names: Mage, Wizard, Psion. The Glass Cannon if offensive or Support Party Member if defensive. In fantasy worlds those of this archetype are mighty wielders of arcane or divine magic while in Science Fiction or "realistic" settings they have psionics or technology of similar power. In any case, they have a tendency to die if enemies look at them funny. This method of solving problems therefore tends to consist of blowing them up before they can get too close or shaping the battlefield to their benefit. This archetype has the ability to take advantage of elemental powers to exploit the enemy's weaknesses, and may also get a number of utility powers to bypass the stickiest situations. It's also possible for them to use their power to heal, making them The Medic.^note Tend to wield either weapons that enhance their abilities like a Magic Wand or essentially Emergency Weapons, usually a lighter weapon like a knife or handgun. They are often limited to use of light armor or no armor at all. Often associated with the colour blue.
Finesse: Common class names: Rogue, Thief, Ranger, Scout. The Fragile Speedster if combat orientated or The Sneaky Guy if not. Quite a bit squishier than strength based archetypes, though not as much as the sorcery archetype, they get around this weakness by finding ways to avoid being hit in the first place. Their methods of solving problems typically involve sneaking by them, stabbing them In the Back, sniping them from a distance, or even talking to them. Some take a more technological approach, sowing chaos on the battlefield by deploying mines, turrets, and all manner of gadgets that hinder and harm the foe as they fruitlessly try to chase this character down. The weapons of choice are usually light weapons like daggers and handguns or ranged weapons like bows, the occasional crossbow, sniper rifle and throwing knives. Survival usually depends on stealth abilities, evasion/speed, weapon range, or a combination of these factors, rather than armor, though they'll still wear better armor than the sorcery archetype. Often associated with the colour green, or yellow if playing on primary colors.

Some games allocate the skillsets differently, with finesse being the squishiest and having the highest damage potential and sorcery being middle of the road (usually on the logic that if the finesse class could take a hit and the sorcery class couldn't, then the finesse class wouldn't be the one doing all the hiding), for example. Some systems might use fantasy rock-paper-scissors instead of letting each class have their own strengths and weaknesses depending on situation, in which case, generally speaking, strength bashes through finesse, sorcery blasts through strength, and finesse blindsides sorcery.

This trend originates from Ultima IV, where the class system used in the first three Ultima games based on Dungeons & Dragons with the four classes of Fighter, Thief, Cleric, Wizard were turned into a Three Approach System, where the division between "Cleric and Wizard" magic was removed, resulting in all magic users drawing from the same spell list. This lead the game's classes being based around strength, dexterity and magic. With the influence the Ultima series had on RPGs, naturally this trend spread along many games with RPG Elements.

The modern-day equivalent, born thanks to MMORPGs and the "aggro" system, would be the Damager, Healer, Tank trio, which is more centered about team-based combat. Even them, the roles can match up: the Strength of innate toughness and heavy armored fighter for Tank, the Sorcery of healing and support magic for the Healer, and the Finesse of stealth and deadly attacks representing the Damager.

Sub-Trope to Three Approach System. Sister Trope to Combat, Diplomacy, Stealth. May overlap with Physical, Mystical, Technological. See also Combat, Magic, Trickery Trio for when a Power Trio is characterized this way and An Adventurer Is You for a breakdown of the party-based RPG (especially the MMORPG).

open/close all folders

Examples:

Action Adventure

Crimson Alliance has Gnox the mercenary as the party's tank and physical fighter, Direwolf the spell-slinging wizard, and Moonshadow the assassin and ranged-attack specialist.
The cyberpunk 1997 DOS game Project Paradise had exactly this combination for the player's party: Raven the Warrior can take a lot of punishment and has the biggest weapons (like machine guns, bazookas, and mines), Damian the Wizard is a mutant spellcaster while Quicksilver the Hacker has lightweight guns and decent HP and can hack computers and unlock doors. The plot plays out like a Doom-style crescendo as the party would face both Bad Future enemies like riflemen and tanks in military bases and Dark Fantasy enemies like sorcerers, demons, and dragons in an unholy underworld.

Beat Em Up

Castle Crashers: There are three forms of attack tied to three out of the four attributes (with Defense providing no offensive benefits). The close-ranged light attack and heavy attack have their damage tied to the Strength stat. Magical attacks not only have their damage tied to the Magic stat, but higher numbers of this attribute makes magical attacks both cost less Mana and have the mana bar charge quicker, allowing more magic use. Attacks from the Bow and Arrow item are tied to the Agility stat, with Agility increasing the damage and speed of arrows while also reducing the arc of the arrow until the arrows are unaffected by gravity.
Demon Stone has three playable characters you can switch between at any time: Rhannek, an armored warrior who fights with a two-handed sword. Zhai, a quick, stealthy half-drow rogue. And Illius, a sorcerer.

First Person Shooter

Destiny downplays this trope with the amount of gunplay on all sides, but in certain ways, the three classes fit into these archetypes with variation based on subclass;
Titans in general serve as the Strength, prioritizing high defense and resilience as well as excelling in hand-to-hand combat. In Destiny 2 they gain the Barricade class ability, allowing all Titans to have a defensive option for themselves and allies, with the Rally Barricade also providing a nice reload buff for those taking cover behind it.
Warlocks in general serve as the Sorcery, but tend not to be as squishy as is typical of Sorcery classes. They prioritize devastating shows of force, but tend to make themselves targets as a result and only have one subclass dedicated to support. In the sequel all Warlocks have the Rift class ability which allows all subclasses to have a support in option, putting them better into the Sorcery role.
Hunters fit the finesse archetype, being hardened wildsmen who prefer to be out in the field and tracking targets. The Hunters gain the dodge class ability in the sequel, which allows them to quickly dodge out of an enemy's line of fire as well as providing a number of buffs, such as automatic reloading or instantly recharging the melee ability. However, they also have the lowest resilience of any class.
System Shock 2 opens with the main character, a soldier, deciding whether to join the Marines (which specializes in combat), the Navy (which specializes in technical skills), or the OSA (which specializes in psychic powers). While it is possible to get a smattering of cross-training in other class abilities, attempting to be an across-the-board Jack-of-all-trades really will leave you Master of None.

MMORPGs

Guild Wars 2 divides its nine "professions" (the term they use for character classes) into the "soldier" professions^note (Strength), the "scholar" professions^note (Sorcery), and the "adventurer" professions^note (Finesse). Characters are relatively flexible in the roles they fill, but the "soldiers" use the heaviest armor and are more melee-focused, "scholars" use almost all magic skills and only use the lightest armor, and "adventurers" are a bit more ranged focus, with generally more movement and trickery options, and have medium strength armor.
- Worth noting that there are also three tiers of base HP value, allowing the warrior to remain the tankiest of the lot when combined with its heavy armour, and the thief to be as fragile as expected with it being in the lowest tier. This also leads to, perhaps surprisingly, the guardian having a low level of HP compared to its general toughness: (May not be relevant)
  - Warrior and Necromancer - 9,212 base HP
  - Revenant, Engineer, Ranger, and Mesmer - 5,922 base HP
  - Guardian, Thief, and Elementalist - 1,645 base HP
In Kingdom of Loathing, there are three main stats: Muscle, Mysticality, and Moxie (in that order), and two classes "attuned" to each stat (Seal Clubbers and Turtle Tamers for Muscle, Pastamancers and Saucerors for Mysticality, and Disco Bandits and Accordion Thieves for Moxie). The fact that the whole game is basically a parody of the RPG genre makes this a no-brainer.
Phantasy Star Online has three classes: Hunter, Ranger, and Force. Hunters use melee weapons and have high defense, Rangers use ranged weapons and have high evasion, and Forces use attack and healing Techniques.

MOBA

Dota 2 has this in the shape of different types of heroes in Strength, Agility, and Intelligence.
- Strength, as the name implies, is the strength. Strength heroes usually have huge chunks of vitality to tank damage and most of them are physical attackers.
- Agility is the finesse. They rely on better armors and the Agility heroes are usually built to be fast for the most part (or alternatively relying on range to keep away from the enemies)
- Intelligence is the sorcery. Exceeding at mana regeneration, the Intelligence heroes are focused on casting spells and special attacks, and most of them attack from a safe distance.

Platform Game

The playable characters across the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series fall under these molds to an extent. Kirin, debuting in 3, is the Strength, being the swordswoman with impressive physical capabilities in and out of gameplay, and her only innate supernatural powers being the ability to seal an enemy's Septima. Gunvolt himself is the Sorcery, as while he does wield a gun, its primary use is as a medium for his Azure Striker powers, and he displays the most varied set of Limit Breaks among the characters. Even in the third game, Kirin's more supernatural powers like the Arc Chain are a result of borrowing GV's power. Copen, be it in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 or the Luminous Avenger iX spinoffs, is the Finesse. Not only is his fighting style the most acrobatic and aerial-focused of the lot, but he also shows the most usage of gunplay, possesses highly-advanced technology to make up for his lack of supernatural powers, and a staple of his fighting style is "stealing" the powers of bosses he fights to use later. In Azure Striker Gunvolt 3, Gunvolt's role as the Sorcery is reprised, but the Finesse role is instead taken by ZedΩ, who is only playable in the DLC Epilogue ATEMS, as while he makes heavy use of his Golden Trillion Septima, his style revolves more around melee combat compared to GV, and he has increased aerial mobility through his innate multiple jumps and air-dashes.
The Another Side, Another Story mode of Lost Ruins has Kana, Yuri and Jun, three of the bosses fought in the main mode who fall under this compared to the more generalist Heroine of the main mode. All of them share the same health and mana pool, but each has different abilities. Kana is the warrior. She has the fastest movement out of the three and can quickly dish out damage in close range with her katana, but lacks any ranged damage other then a slashing dash that uses MP. Instead of a dodge, she can block any damage from the front. Yuri is the mage. Her two spells can deal a lot of damage, and they burn and freeze enemies and the environment as well. While she regenerates MP, all of her attacks use it and should she run dry while facing an enemy, she'll be defenseless. As she floats above the ground, she ignores any hazards on the floor. Her dodge is a short ranged teleport that can get her through some doors that the Heroine needed a key for. Jun is the archer. She has an unlimited supply of arrows and a short range but still damaging kick which makes her usable at both ranges. She retains the rolling dodge of the Heroine, allowing her to squeeze through small gaps and to quickly get out of harm's way.
In Sly Cooper, the three main playable characters have unique playstyles that correspond to this:
- Sly is the Finesse, being the most agile of the characters with missions focusing on platforming, stealth, and occasionally disguises.
- Bentley is the Sorcery, being a physically frail tech specialist whose missions focus on either hacking or utilizing gadgets and explosives.
- Murray is the Strength, being a physical powerhouse whose missions tend to focus on brawling or vehicles.
In Trine, the Mage can create boxes to use as platforms and use telekinesis to move objects; the Thief can swing on certain ceilings and use her arrow to shoot targets from afar; and the Fighter is your basic bash-things-with-your-sword character.

Real Time Strategy

Command & Conquer: Generals has the three Hero Units of the three factions. The USA's Colonel Burton is the Strength, a straightforward damage-dealing Action Hero that can level enemy buildings with timed and remote demolition charges and stand up to vehicles with an armor-piercing chaingun. The GLA's Jarmen Kell is the Finesse, who can not only one-shot enemy infantry from long range but can also hide inside buildings without revealing that they're garrisoned and can eliminate enemy drivers and leave their vehicles for the taking. China's Black Lotus is the Sorcery with a technological and support-based focus, as although she can't deal direct damage, she can speedily capture enemy buildings from range, disable enemy vehicles and steal enemy cash with nothing but her laptop and a satellite dish. Also note that all three have innate camouflage and even Colonel Burton has a combat knife to silently Back Stab infantry, allowing each of them to take a stealthy approach when needed.
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars: The three factions can be categorised into these. GDI are the Strength, emphasizing on straightforward combat, relying on brute force, and heavy power to win the day. Nod are the Finesse, as they specialize on speed, stealth, and high-tech hard-hitting weapons. The Scrin are Sorcery, utilizing powerful alien technology, with many special abilities like teleportation, mind control, and massive spacecrafts capable of leveling cities.
WarCraft III uses this as the base for the RPG-based Hero units. Heroes with the main attribute of Strength tend to be front-line brawlers with lots of hit points or supporting Stone Wall heroes with auras and defensive skills, Agility heroes are either sneaky types or ranged, and those that focus on Intelligence are, without exception, casters with powerful spells but not much in terms of physical damage.

Roguelike

Loop Hero: The classes the protagonist can adapt fit these categories. Warrior is Strength, with highest durability, increasing damage as fight goes on, traits that play off defense, vampirism or regeneration, as well as stun attacks. Rogue is Finesse, due to the specialty towards evading attacks, dual wielding and traits such as smoke bombs, attacks that hit multiple foes and critical attacks. Necromancer is Sorcery due to being a Squishy Wizard that relies on summoned skeletons to attack for him, with his traits only buffing their aspects.

Role Playing Game

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance: The three protagonists to choose in the first game are Kromlech, a dwarf proficient in melee combat, Adrianna, an elven sorceress, and Vahn, a human archer who is technically a Mage Marksman, but his magic is limited to creating Trick Arrows.
The main three characters of Deltarune features Susie, Ralsei, and Kris as the Strength, Sorcery, and Finesse respectively. Susie prefers to fight, wields an axe, and has the highest base attack, defense, and HP. Ralsei is the team healer and provides useful spells to pacify the enemies. Kris is the most versatile and can take actions to change the outcome of a battle.
Fable allows you to invest experience into Strength (health, damage resistance, and melee weapons), Skill (archery, bartering, and stealth), and Will (magic powers).
- Fable II streamlines things further, though still into Strength (melee), Skill (ranged), and Will (magic). It also has heroes as NPCs that each personifies one of these paths, so the Hero of Strength is big and muscular, the Hero of Will is glowing with magic power, and the Hero of Skill is tall and lanky, just like how the character will look if they specialize in a particular path.
Fate/Grand Order: The battle system revolves around three kinds of cards, which loosely follow this trope. Buster cards (Strength) inflict high consistent damage, Arts cards (Sorcery) quickly charge your party's Noble Phantasms, and Quick cards (Finesse) rely on lucky Critical Hits to boost their attacks' damage and secondary effects.
Jade Empire has the stats of Body (health and strength), Mind (raises Focus, which allows you to enact Bullet Time and use special or non-mastered weapons), and Spirit (raises Chi, which allows you to heal and use magical martial arts). It's not a traditional breakdown, as there's little stealth involved, but it does provide a basic breakdown between strength, speed, and sorcery.
Kingdom Hearts:
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a straighter example. It has three Magic Knight protagonists, each with a different specialty: Terra specializes in strength, Ven specializes in speed, and Aqua specializes in magic.
- In Kingdom Hearts χ, your player character's Keyblades and Medals are organized into categories: Power (strength), Magic (sorcery), and Speed (finesse).
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has three paths that you can choose to pursue: Might, Sorcery, and Finesse. However, by putting enough points into the paths, you can unlock a different path that gives you different bonuses, such as becoming a Mighty Glacier Magic Knight or a Glass Cannon version. You can also switch between paths whenever you want.
Shadows Over Loathing follows in the footsteps of its two predecessors (Kingdom of Loathing and West of Loathing), including the pattern of animal-themed Muscle classes, food-themed Mystic classes, and music-themed Moxie classes: Pig Skinner is the Strength, Cheese Wizard is the Sorcery, Jazz Agent is the Finesse.
While all Jedi are Magic Knights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic established that they're all divided into these three archetypes with the titles Guardian, Consular, and Sentinel. Jedi Guardians (Anakin & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Mace Windu) were the swordmasters whose primary focus was lightsaber combat. Jedi Consulars (Yoda, Shaak Ti, Kit Fisto) were the diplomatic mystics who preferred studying the mysteries of the Force over combat. Jedi Sentinels (Quinlan Vos, Kyle Katarn) were the Finesse, being Jack of All Trades who additionally studied mundane skills like hacking and lockpicking which led to them often serving as spies for The Order.
Played straight in The Tomb of the TaskMaker: fighters can use the most weapons, magicians can use the most spells, and thieves can steal items and pick locks.
Ultima: The series has the stats of strength, dexterity, and intellect, with the three Principles each related to one stat (Strength = Courage, Int = Truth, Dex = Love). The classes associated with the virtues derived from the principles also mostly work out, with the meleeist Fighter for Valor (courage), pure-caster Mage for Honesty (truth), ranged fighter Bard for Compassion (love), Magic Knight Paladin for Honor (truth and courage), more-agile fighter Tinker for Sacrifice (love and courage), more-agile caster Druid for Justice (truth and love), jack-of-all-trades Ranger for Spirituality (all three), and mostly-worthless Shepherd for Humility (none!).
West of Loathing, which takes place in the same universe of Kingdom of Loathing, has three choices of class: Cow Puncher (Strength/Muscle), Bean Slinger (Sorcery/Mysticality), and Snake Oiler (Finesse/Moxie), who specialize in physical damage, spell damage, and ranged attacks respectively.
Heroes in Wildermyth are classed as Warriors, Mystics, and Hunters, and you get one of each when you begin a new campaign. The lines between the classes can become a bit blurry in the late stages of the game depending on event-granted abilities and the fact that any class can use any weapon, but in general Warriors favor melee, Hunters favor ranged combat, stealth, and traps, and Mystics are the only ones who can use "intersoul" magic to manipulate and control landscape features around them.
Xenoblade Chronicles X has this dynamic with its classes:
- Strikers are tanky fighters who have high HP and an array of offensive and defensive arts. One branch of the class, Samurai Gunners and Duelists, increases the offensive capabilities of the class while the other branch, Shield Troopers and Bastion Warriors, focus on their defensive capabilities, including their ability to draw aggro.
- Commandos occupy the "finesse" niche, being nimble fighters who can deal a lot of damage very quickly. One branch of the class, Winged Vipers and Full Metal Jaguars, focuses on their ability to land and evade attacks. The other, Partisan Eagles and Astral Crusaders, favor raw damage.
- Enforcers fill the niche of "sorcery", specializing in long-ranged attacks and support. One branch of the class, Psycorruptor and Mastermind, focus on supportive arts to buff allies and debilitate enemies. The other branch, Blast Fencer and Galactic Knight, are Magic Knight classes that confer a mix of powerful melee attacks and supportive capabilities.

Strategy Game

Lords of Magic: Warrior, Mage, and Thief are the three types of champions (single unit characters that lead armies) in its gameplay, and much of the rest of gameplay is influenced by this division. Unit production buildings are divided along these lines as well, with a "barracks" producing infantry, cavalry, ships, and warrior champions, a "thieves Guild" producing thieves, ranged units, and scouts, and a "mage tower" used to produce mages and magical creatures, as well as having an associated building for spell research. Each champion can be used to "train" at its associated building, improving the experience of units produced there, and each type of unit uses different types of resources to produce and maintain depending on its category.

Tabletop Games

Although Dungeons & Dragons usually have too much granularity and specific variations to not clearly have this division outside some parties (in stories and otherwise), the variant Generic classes in 3.5's Unearthed Arcana fall here — Spellcaster for Sorcery (being the spellcasting class), Warrior for Strength (having the best attack bonus and hit points) and Expert for Finesse (gaining the most skills and the best saves, making it easiest for them to qualify for the rogue-themed special abilities). These three classes reappear as "Sidekicks" in 5e, with the same names and division of abilities.
Mazes and Minotaurs: Player classes are categorized into three groups: Warriors, Magicians, and Specialists. The Warriors are the toughest with 12 base Hit Points and have combat-related special abilities. The Specialists' abilities are geared toward adventuring more than Warriors' (the exceptions so far are Archer and its variant, Slinger, which have combat oriented abilities but functionally count as Specialists). Only Magicians can use magic.
Stars Without Number has Warrior, Psychic and Expert. Warriors have the best attack progression and the ability to negate one hit per fight; Experts have the best skill progression and can reroll a non-combat skill once per hour; Psychics can use psychic powers. This is also true with its post-apocalyptic spinoff Other Dust
Paranormal Order: The Fighter, the Specialist and the Occultist are the three agent classes in the game. The Fighter fights, the Specialist focus on tactical support and has a wide range of skills, and the Occultist can cast powerful paranormal rituals.

Wide Open Sandbox

In the late game of Starbound, this develops. Staves and magic armor focus on energy, melee weapons and armor on health, while ranged weapons and armor form a middle ground.
In the game Terraria, the weapons are classified into classes depending on whether they do melee, magic, or ranged damage. They have emblems that describes a particular class and enhances a type of weapons: Warrior for melee weapons (Strength), Sorcerer for magic weapons (Sorcery), and Ranger for ranged weapons (Finesse).
We Happy Few:
- The three characters from the main game play similarly, but have access to different abilities. Arthur is a Jack of All Trades with a focus on stealth and sneak attacks; Sally can craft powerful chemicals with weird effects; and Ollie is a strong fighter, especially after he gains access to explosives.
- The three DLC campaigns instead radically change the gameplay depending on who you play as. Roger (Strength) has a ray gun that doubles as a mace, and the entire campaign focuses on direct combat; Nick (Sorcery) can use his guitar for various ranged effects, but he has very limited options if he runs out of charges mid-combat; and Victoria (Finesse) focuses on hit-and-run tactics thanks to her whip and electric stun gun.