RPGs and Their Elements

[~Axis~]

Why not the something like the Navi Cust in MMBN 3-6? It's like you can equip power ups (like atk/def upgrades) and items like shields that appear each battle at the cost of something (Navi cust space in the MMBN series)?

[psychospacecow]

Well, as I see it, there are three primary ways you could go about this.

A large pool of selectable classes for your characters to choose from. Think, Bravely Default or Dragon Quest 9, where you unlock a class for everyone then can use said class for everyone.
The downside of these systems as implemented in the mentioned games lies in that you have to train the classes individually which can prove very tedious if necessary. Bravely Default's the better of the two from a model perspective though as you retain relative stat progression and cap a class at its own integral level (14) as opposed to bringing a character up from 1 to 99.

The second way that you could go about this would be limited class pools. This is usually done with tree systems, though doesn't necessarily have to be one. Think of World of Warcraft, Fire Emblem games with class changing, Payday 2, even. Any character can do anything within a certain division. Warlocks can be demonologists, destruction, or affliction warlocks. You choose a path and that path is what you get. Of course, WoW lets you choose another path as well, but it doesn't allow you to use both at the same time.

In Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones, lets say you have a Myrmidon. That myrmidon can become either a swordmaster, or an assassin. They both have their advantages and disadvantages but you have to measure that.

Spoiler

It doesn't even have to be that strict. Look at Fire Emblem Awakening. Aside from the main unit which can be literally every class but npc exclusives, manaketees, and taguels, every character has some natural restrictions.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/643003-fire-...faqs/67148
We'll look at a character called Gregor for this example. He starts off as a mercenary, and though admittedly I could be wrong as it has been some time since I played this game, he can only be a mercenary, hero, bow knight, barbarian, berserker, warrior, myrmidon, swordmaster, assassin, and dread fighter. That sounds like a lot, but its really only 3 starter classes and what they branch off into + a dlc class. Gregor, in all his swell aptitude is a sell-sword who for all intents and purposes is not going to be very good at magic so he can't act as any of those classes.

The final method is to have each character assigned with a primary class, them. You can source quite a few games for this method. Dragon Quest 8. Final Fantasy 1-9 (debate-ably the ones that use trees as well but that's more customization and I'd advice steering away from tech trees in a single player experience as newcomers are gonna have a bad time if they screw it up and RPGs are one of those types of games you don't replay unless you love and beat it), Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, etc. etc. etc.
You probably know what I'm talking about.

Of course, if you know another way to go about this, then great. These are just my thoughts.