Arcanist vs. Mage? Adept? Hybrid? Confusing Terms.

[Trentin Bergeron]

Starting my read-through today of the latest FX. :-)

First up, the terms being used to describe the "classes" are confusing IMHO. There are a couple problems here.

What really is the distinction between an Arcanist and a Mage?

Are you familiar with True20? Are you familiar with Level-Up Advanced 5e?

In True20 an Adept is a "magic user".
In LU5e an Adept is a monk.
In Most games any use of the term Hybrid generally applies to species aka kins.

I would like to suggest some more generic terms that are more apt to the nature of FX and hopefully less-confusing for players of other games coming to FX.

1. Fighter is a good generic term. A fighter's primary focus is martial skills.
2. Magic-users are primarily magic or power focused. There are many terms used to describe such characters; mages, clerics, priests, oracles, witches, warlocks, sorcerers, wizards, etc.
3. Experts are skill-focused characters. They commonly further specialize in one area like thievery, persuasion, performance, or academics (as examples).
4. Mixed-Focus characters draw from two primary focuses combining them into a unique focus.

Thoughts?

[Rasyr]

There are no classes (I don't use that term to describe any of the types of Vocational Kits). I do use the word Types, and the four types are simply there for organizational purposes mostly.

Arcanist is the type of Vocational Kit that focuses on magic. The Envoy Vocational Kit is an Arcanist Kit, the Mystic is an Arcanist Kit, etc....

Mage = a character focused on a single School of Magic. This could be an Envoy/Envoy, an Envoy/Champion, a Warlock/Cabalist, a Wizard/Wizard, etc....

Magus = a charact who has access to two Schools of Magic. For example, one of the Pregens is a Magician/Bard (His Schools of Magic are  Magery and Wizardry). Another Example would be a Mystic/Champion (Mysticism and DIvinism). (side note: in a game I used to work on for another company - this type of caster would have been called a Hybrid)

I do see that I can better define Mage in two locations to make the difference easier.

Yes, in some games a Half-Elf would be considered a Hybrid.

You said:

4. Mixed-Focus characters draw from two primary focuses combining them into a unique focus.

That is basically the definition of a Hybrid. Two things mixed to become one.   

Now, in Novus, I used the terms Casters, Fighters, Adepts, and Hybrids..... I could always change Arcanist to Caster