Classes (Rome)

**Classes**, like in Expeditions: Conquistador, return in Expeditions: Rome in the same way to determine which skills a character has. The Skills which are usable during combat and during other activities are determined in a major way by class. Each class has three skills columns, with active and passive skills for a certain goal. Some skills have two tiers avaiable, with a fewer amount even having three tiers.

They don't have effects on the Weapon skills, which is determined solely by the wielded weapon(s) or weapon and shield combination of the charachter in the first or second weapon set. See Character build strategies for advise on how to develop a character in a certain role.

## Princeps

The Princeps class is for the classic legionnair soldier, a melee fighter who wears heavy armor, uses a shield in combat, along with an one-handed weapon, which is most likely a sword or a hasta. Pila are available as well as ranged weapons, but these are Tactical items available for all classes. As the sole shield-wielding class, they have the statistic Shield strength for themselves as the unique one.

They have the following skill colums.

* Defender is a specialism focused on protecting oneself and allies.
* Vanguard is a specialism focused on offensive and using the shield as a weapon.
* Veteran is a specialism focused on keeping the enemy locked in place during combat.

### Upsides

* Access to armour which grants highest defensives capabilities, through highest posibble armour rating and resistances of all classes.
* Access to shield grants immunity to many negative Status effects, as long as the Shield is functional. This is balanced with negative status effects specific for shield wearers.

### Downsides

* No active skills which can deal damage without requiring action points, thus limiting amount of actions per turn.
* Damage dealt by these units can be mediocre, unless equipped with a powerful weapon.

## Veles

Veles is a class of melee fighers who depend more on agility, evasion and being able to perform multiple actions per turn rather than coordinated movement and the shieldwall. They are mix of a scout and rogue and they have the statistics of Focus points for this class. It's the only class being able to dual-wield a sword, spear with a dagger or being able to use two daggers. They have the following skill colums:

* Assassin is a specialism focused on dealing high damage against a single target.
* Duelist is a specialism which focuses on evasion and hitting the enemy in surprise moments.
* Brawler is a specialism which focuses on penetrating the enemy lines and deploying versatile tactics, along with unarmed skills. It also grants access to strong armour at the end of the specialisation.

### Upsides

* Access to many skills which increase damage passively or for specific attacks.
* Unique character attribute of Focus points.
* Able to dual wield weapons, off-hand slot can only be equipped with a dagger.
* Most skilled unit with the Unarmed skills when taking the brawler specialisation.

### Downsides

* Armour provides average protection.
* Late-bloomer class, Velites start or equal to other classes around level 7-10 and become progressively better beyond. Before that point, they lag behind the other classes in capabilities on the battlefield. This is also related to focus point generation, which is poor at the start.
* Have few useful skills when not engaged in combat or for defensive purposes (holding ground, defending a certain position).
* Brawler specialisation contains a few offensive-orientated active skills, with the expection of reaping, which is a fourth layer skill and requires eight skill points to unlock and gain.

## Sagittarius

Sagittarius is the class is for the archers and uses ranged weapons as their most important weapon in combat. Accuracy, which also determines their maximum range, is the unique class statistics. Though they can still use melee weapons, such as daggers, spears and swords, the class lacks powerful melee skills. They have the following skill columns:

* Marksman, a specialism focused on defending the lines and using skills to hinder or immediately attack advancing enemies.
* Hunter: a specialism focused on dealing multiple shots and offering skills for archers forced to fight hand-to-hand.
* Sniper: a specialism focused on attacking enemies from a longe range.

### Upsides

* Only unit with access to long-ranged attacks
* Unique character attribute of Accuracy
* Capable of inflicting wide array of negative Status effects with the bow and class skills to enemies.
* Good offensive capabilities for defending ground and holding positions.

### Downsides

* Accessable armour provides the worst protection of all armour, thus making them vulnerable to harm, especially in the beginning.
* Without assistance or Pila, sagitarri cannot kill shield wielders from medium or long range.
* Class barely has any melee skills (only hunter specialisation and rebuke), thus relies heavily on the melee weapon for skills.

## Triarius

The Triarius, the so called third line class, is a class of melee fighters who use pikes or staffs in combat for either man-to-man combat or melee combat from a distance. The three different subclasses give the unit unique roles in combat, but the subclasses have few synergetic skills in these specialisations. They can be considered the support melee units in this game. Their unique class effect is armour shredding, which added to all their with two-handed weapons. Triaria have the following skill colums:

* Medics is a specialism focused on healing injured allies or inflicting status effects on enemies.
* Flagbearers is a specialism for providing positive status effects for allies and negative ones for enemies. A lot of them are focused on morale.
* Destroyer is a specialism focused on dealing with heavily armored units and making use of status effects inflicted on enemies.

**Upsides**

* Only class available to the player with support skills benefitting player-controlled units and allies.
* Best healer class, due to having passive skills increasing restored health, being able to remove status effects without Tactical items. Can also revive incapacitated allies.
* Can fight in melee from a distance with the pike or with staffs using the reach skill.
* Able to inflict high damage with a good weapon
* Able to shred armour with almost all offensive skills.

### Downsides

* With the strong body armour equipped, the unit has the poorest movement of all classes, considering passive skills.
* Does not have many class skills orientated on dealing damage or other effects. For deathblow + finisher, it relies on other classes for applying those effects to enemies.
* Compared to Princeps and Veles, below average unit with one-handed weapons as the dagger, spear and sword.

## Armour

Units have access to the following classes of armour. Heavy armour is supposed to offer the highest amount of resistances and armor rating, while being terrible when it comes to movement. Strong armor is between medium and heavy, but still inflict likewise movement penalties. Medium armor offers a balance between movement restriction and defense. Light armor is either leather, lightweight chainmail or clothing combined with a simple or body shaped piece of metal plate, but offering poor defenses, but low movement penalties.

* ! Without brawler specialisation. Otherwise, strong armour is the highest.

## Weapons

The four classes have access to the following types of weapons. The Veles class is being able to dual-wield one main-hand weapon with at least a dagger.