![]() He starts off well enough, being your first offensive symbologist and having some melee skills, but he's soon overshadowed by Lymle and Myuria in attack symbology while Edge and Meracle outclass him physically. Chest: Capulet starts at a fairly high level, but his stat growth is mediocre compared to the rest of the party and he doesn't excel at any combat role.See also Giftedly Bad.įor the novel, see here. Occasionally a Master of None is made intentionally as part of Multiform Balance, as a stepping stone to stronger forms, including a true Jack-of-All-Stats. Contrast with the Master of All, who is very good at everything. Also compare with Crippling Overspecialization at the other extreme, for the character who's great at one thing, but horrible at everything else. why ever use them at all? Some games - especially much harder ones - answer this by requiring the player to deploy the Master of None, so that they'll be using them anyway if they don't want them to be The Load.Ĭompare a Vanilla Unit, who is limited to doing things that don't require special abilities, and can fall victim to this trope if they have evenly distributed stats that are too weak to make up it. If they're not in the top spots in any situation. Even if there's a character that can do nothing but use poison spells that deal more damage than normal, that's a specialization that makes them stand out from the faceless crowds sometimes. ![]() If you can only send 4 characters in, any character 5th place or worse in your roster in that situation is a sub-optimal choice. In a strategic RPG with dozens of characters you can swap out any time you need a specialist, however, there's no reason to swap in anything but the specialist best at this particular specialization. In a game with only one character, the character needs the capacity to handle every situation themselves, and in static parties with no ability to switch characters out, the ability to just be very good in one situation means being The Load in other situations. The difference between why a Jack-of-All-Stats is useful in one game, but becomes a Master of None in another is often tied to how large the party or units are in the game. While an AI opponent would be indifferent towards which playable characters are used beyond what strategies to use against them, the psychological effect a Master of None can have on human opponents may be enough to turn the tides of a match. In a Metagame setting, the Master of None has a niche in their surprise factor and lack of predictability: not only will opponents be caught off guard at seeing an unfamiliar character, but they may not even be aware of - let alone predict or prepare for - what they can pull from their arsenal of equally viable options. ![]() In an RPG setting, they're the easiest to mold and grow, and can grow themselves with less effort than the other classes or origins because they might have started in Level 1 therefore, they're more useful for experienced players who know how to spend their skill points more wisely. However, there may be some incentive to use the Master of None in circumstances over the Jack-of-All-Stats beyond the merits of the characters themselves. If the Master of None is part of a band or Multiform Balance, it often has some useful ability (for example, Super Not-Drowning Skills) that prevent them from becoming a Joke Character, it's just that the ability isn't very versatile. The Magic Knight is easy to make into this, if the developers want to encourage specialisation in magic or physical combat. Master of None is the dark side of the Jack of All Stats, where their weakness is the fact that they have no strengths that they can capitalize on. They have no particular weakness or vulnerability that can be easily exploited, but that's offset by the fact that they're kinda vulnerable to everything. They aren't completely useless at anything they try, but they're not good at it either. ![]() But specialization has advantages, so it takes a deft touch to ensure that the generalist has reasons for being used. One of the classic and most common character types in gaming is the generalist, a jack-of-all-trades with capabilities in all fields and no particular weaknesses. Black Mage (on Red Mage), 8-Bit Theater
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