Classes

Six classes are available in a20n, divided evenly across the two paradigms of the Duality. Your class determines your abilities, your resource system, and your role in combat. Choose based on how you want to interact with the world — there are no wrong answers, only different ones.

Arcane Classes

Arcane classes draw power from the Weave, the ambient field of raw magical energy that permeates reality. Arcane combat is fluid, powerful, and resource-intensive.

Arcanist

The quintessential magic user. Versatile but vulnerable.

The Arcanist draws power directly from the Weave, shaping raw arcane energy into spells of tremendous variety. They manage a Mana pool that fuels their casting and a Focus meter that determines spell stability — lose focus and your spells become unpredictable.

Powerful spells may require multi-turn channeling, leaving you exposed. The Arcanist is the most flexible class in the game, capable of damage, control, utility, and support. But that flexibility comes at a cost: careful resource management is not optional, it is survival.

Wardkeeper

The arcane answer to heavy armor. A defensive specialist.

Wardkeepers channel arcane energy into barriers, protective wards, and restorative magic. Where the Arcanist tears things apart, the Wardkeeper holds things together. They excel at keeping allies alive, absorbing punishment, and controlling the flow of battle through zone effects and shields.

Their barriers absorb damage that would otherwise hit the party. In shared combat with multiple players, a Wardkeeper can be the difference between a clean fight and a total wipe.

Spellblade

Melee combatant channeling arcane energy through enchanted weapons. High risk, high reward.

The Spellblade closes the gap between pure spellcaster and martial fighter. Their weapons glow with arcane power, and each strike can trigger magical effects — fire on impact, lightning chains between targets, frost that slows enemies.

They operate in the thick of combat where Arcanists fear to tread. The trade-off is a smaller spell repertoire and the constant danger of being in melee range. When a Spellblade hits their stride, they are devastating. When they overextend, they go down fast.

Technological Classes

Technological classes harness energy from physical processes — machinery, chemistry, electronics, kinetics. Tech combat is systematic, reliable, and built around managing heat and energy.

Artificer

Builder and inventor. The Swiss army knife of the tech paradigm.

Artificers deploy gadgets, turrets, and drones in combat. They manage an Energy pool that powers their devices and a Heat meter that builds with sustained use — overheating forces cooldowns and can disable equipment.

High utility is the Artificer's defining trait. They can adapt to almost any situation by swapping loadouts: turrets for area denial, drones for scouting, grenades for burst damage, shields for protection. They are rarely the strongest at any one thing, but they are never useless.

Vanguard

Heavily armored frontline fighter. The immovable object.

Vanguards wear powered exoskeletons and kinetic redistribution armor that redirects impact force. They are built to stand in the front line and take hits that would kill anyone else. Their exoskeletal enhancements amplify physical capability, letting them swing heavier weapons and shrug off blows.

The catch: overheating. Sustained exertion causes system malfunctions and forced cooldowns. A Vanguard who pushes too hard becomes temporarily vulnerable — locked in cooling armor with reduced mobility. Managing heat is the difference between an unstoppable wall and an expensive coffin.

Operative

Stealth and precision specialist. The scalpel to the Vanguard's hammer.

Operatives use cloaking technology, silenced weaponry, and electronic warfare to dismantle targets before they know what hit them. They excel at picking fights on their terms — ambushes, flanking, hit-and-run strikes.

In shared combat, an Operative can mark targets for allies, disable enemy defenses, or eliminate priority threats from stealth. They are fragile if caught in the open, but a good Operative is rarely caught in the open.

No hybrid classes. Due to the volatile nature of mixing Arcane and Technological energy, hybrid classes do not exist. Attempting to wield both paradigms simultaneously risks catastrophic interference — from equipment failure to reality fractures. Advanced prestige paths may eventually allow limited cross-paradigm knowledge, but at significant personal risk.