Vocation

Vocations are a recurring major gameplay component of the Dragon Quest series, acting as the primary character development system in multiple titles.

Unlike in titles where each party member's abilities are decided arbitrarily, the Vocation systems offer the possibility to customize each character to one's liking. While this results in the party's composition to being overall less unique, it offers greater liberty when it comes to plan a battle strategy.

Different vocations have different attributes and stat grow patterns, and they may also learn unique abilities; while each Vocation had always limitations on what weapons and defensive gear they could equip, such as heavy equipment not being suitable for the frailer classes, it wasn't until Dragon Quest IX those vocations became strictly confined within the different kinds of weapon types. In exchange for this hard limitation, however, most of the vocation systems received different skill trees for each of their weapon types, making them much more versatile in terms of spells and abilities.

Appearances

Dragon Quest III

Main article: Vocation system (Dragon Quest III)

Other than the Hero, who is permanently locked into the Hero vocation, the following vocations are available via character customisation at Patty's Party Planning Place in Aliahan:

• Warriors: Basic fighters, skilled in the art of swordplay.
• Mages: Spellcasters with dominion over attack magic as well as debilitating spells.
• Martial Artists: Masters of hand-to-hand combat.
• Priests: Goddess-blessed practitioners of the healing arts as well as of support spells.
• Thieves: Agile pickpockets with deft hands that can sometimes half-inch a treasure chest after battle.
• Merchants: Artists of the deal, who sometimes find extra gold coins following a battle.
• Gadabouts: Jovial jesters who cannot be controlled, but who stun monsters with their antics.

Each character created by the player will have their base attributes determined at random. In remake versions, the player will be given a choice of five enhancement seeds to spend toward any attribute desired, or have them applied automatically by the recruitment office. At this point, the character's personality will also be identified, from which level-up growth rate is calculated.

Any character may change vocation at Alltrades Abbey upon reaching level 20, and will retain any spells learnt. However, they start off from level 1 in the new vocation with all attributes halved.

Sages, masters of all magic, are the only advanced vocation, and can be either promoted from Gadabouts, or created with the Words of Wisdom in the desired character's possession.

Dragon Quest VI

Main article: Vocation system (Dragon Quest VI)

In this game, Alltrades Abbey is unlocked by completing the first section of the game and defeating Murdaw in the Lower World. Because the game's cast is comprised of pre-established characters with distinct personalities and stat growth tables, vocations affect a character's capabilities through percentages rather than hard numbers. For example, if Ashlynn's wisdom is 100 when she has no vocation, having her undertake the path of a mage will grant a 20% boost to the stat and raise it to 120. Such changes are adjusted with natural increases awarded through leveling up, and will be removed if the vocation is switched.

Unlike in Dragon Quest III, this game starts with nine available classes. Each of the classes has eight ranks that can be reached by battling the required number of monsters, unlocking new abilities at each interval. Through mastering the initial jobs, advanced classes can be unlocked for that character which combine aspects of the prerequisites. For example, mastering the Warrior and the Martial Artist classes will allow the character to become a Gladiator. Skills and spells mastered in one profession are permanently learned by a character. The available vocations are:

Beginner

• Warrior
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Thief
• Merchant
• Dancer
• Gadabout
• Monster Master

Advanced

• Armamentalist
• Gladiator
• Hero
• Luminary
• Paladin
• Ranger
• Sage

The Hero class is open to all characters and monster recruits, but is most easily reached by the main character.

Finally, the game has two secret classes, the Dragon and the Liquid metal slime--monster based professions which can only be accessed through two rare scrolls, the Dragonic diligence and the Liquid metal mind.

Dragon Quest VII

Main article: Vocation system (Dragon Quest VII)

The vocation implementation remains mostly unchanged from the previous game, though in the original PSX version, there existed hybrid abilities that were unlocked through mastering certain positions sequentially. For example, a character could master Sword Dance by mastering the Warrior vocation right after the Dancer. This aspect was removed in the 3DS remake, with the hidden abilities being incorporated into the normal repertoire. Instead of combining abilities from different vocations, mastering the basic human vocations allows the character to retain those spells and skills learnt from them; but any abilities learnt from intermediate and advanced vocations will not carry over to others and are only available while the character is in such a vocation.

Additionally, party members can also become monsters by using Monster hearts. By putting a monster heart in their inventory and speaking to the abbot or High Priestess Jacqueline, they can become that monster vocation. In the PSX version, the character would not take on the appearance of the monster until mastering the vocation, whereas they immediately become beastly in the remake. Furthermore, monster classes are the only way to permanently learn advanced skills and spells in the remake. While, like the human vocations, monster vocations also have a progression tree, unlocking new higher-tier monster vocations depending of the combinations of lower-tier vocations mastered, the Monster hearts are a quicker option to unlock directly a desired monster vocation for a particular character, and in the case for the 14 lowest-tier ones, their corresponding Monster hearts are the only way to access them.

In all, there are over fifty classes that a single character can become.

Beginner Human vocations

• Warrior
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Thief
• Jester
• Dancer
• Sailor
• Shepherd
• Troubadour

Intermediate Human vocations

• Armamentalist
• Gladiator
• Luminary
• Monster Masher
• Paladin
• Pirate
• Sage

Advanced Human vocations

• Champion
• Druid
• Hero

Initial Monster vocations

• Slime
• Berserker
• Chimaera
• Goodybag
• Healslime
• Jawtoise
• Kingfuchsia
• Lips
• Mandrake major
• Mimic
• Notso macho
• Rockbomb
• Serial quiller
• Walking corpse

Intermediate Monster vocations

• Automaton
• Barbatos
• Bone baron
• Delusionist
• Dingbat
• Draguar
• Drake slime
• Golem
• Malevolantern
• Rashaverak
• Seasaur
• Well wisher

Advanced Monster vocations

• Black bishop
• Djinn genie
• Ersatz Estark
• Gigalumph
• Gripevine
• Platinum king jewel
• Prism peacock
• Slaughtomaton

Dragon Quest IX

Main article: Vocation system (Dragon Quest IX)

As most of the party members available are not preset, with the exception of three, the vocation system is much more similar to that of Dragon Quest III. There are six vocations that are initially available:

• Warriors: powerful physical fighters who cover their allies with high strength and resillience, but are very slow.
• Mages: specialists in offensive magic.
• Martial Artists: physical fighters with high strength and agility, and who make good use of tension.
• Priests: specialists in restorative magic.
• Thieves: swift attackers who excel at treasure hunting.
• Minstrels: all-around entertainers, reasonably good with physical attacks and magic.

Additionally, there are six other vocations, which become available once certain specific sidequests are completed:

• Gladiators: fighters who excel at doing a lot of damage quickly.
• Paladins: knights who can protect their allies well, and have high strength.
• Armamentalists: primarily magical fighters with the unique ability to enhance their own and allies' attacks with elemental powers.
• Rangers: Warriors who can call on the powers of nature, and are very good with healing spells.
• Sages: Very powerful spellcasters who use both offensive and healing magic well.
• Luminary: An all-around vocation very similar to minstrels.

The player's primary character starts off as a minstrel. Other party members' starting vocations can be chosen as they are created.

Changing vocation

After the Master of Nu'un is defeated, players are able to change their vocations at Alltrades Abbey. Sages can learn the skill Jack's Knack, allowing their party to change vocation anywhere.

Levels, attributes and spells are tied to the character's vocation, meaning that they are reset to level 1 when the character enters a new vocation. However, skill points, abilities and skill-based attribute bonuses are not, and carry over when you change vocation. This means that you can learn a wide range of skills, and increase your power dramatically, by training in many vocations.

You can also switch back to your original vocation, and all your attributes and levels from that vocation will return.

After the main story is completed, a process known as revocation becomes available to characters who reach the highest possible level (99), by which you can reset to level 1 in your current vocation, keeping all your skill points and abilities, in order to continue training to enhance them further.

Dragon Quest X

Main article: List of vocations in Dragon Quest X

The Vocations system is unlocked upon completing a sidequest, Quest 34- Abbey Trials, which becomes available as soon as reaching level 20; the quest can be taken from the branch office of Alltrades Abbey at any adventurers tavern.

Tipically, completing the last quest of a vocation's associated sidequest sidestory will reward that specific vocation's Proof, which grants a significant buff while in said class, such as Warriors being now able to execute an action twice in a row etc.

Master Orb system

Not only each Vocation has its relative skill trees of abilities, they also have a series of passive buffs. These buffs are accessed and managed through a different menu, and they are levelled up by certain Master Orbs.

Available as soon as Version 2 is started, this Master Orb system becomes accessible as soon as one innekeper is spoken to, who will then direct to talk to one of the Masters that now appear scattered across the world near important locations in the settlements.

Each vocation has its own Master Orb; furthermore, the Master Orbs themselves are divided by five different elemental Jewels, with each element having a different category of passive bonuses, like more damage, reduced cooldowns, faster speed of casting, etc. Collecting Master Orb Jewels will reward a new specific passive buff of that vocation.

• Fire skills typically offer flat bonuses to stats as well as increasing elemental resistances, making them useful for most vocations.
• Water skills typically increase percentile chance skills, such as debuffs.
• Wind skills typically require a triggering effect but are rather powerful once activated.
• Light skills typically offer improved vocation-specific skills. Due to this, Light Jewels are not only the most numerous ones, they are also the least likely to be shared among different Master Orbs, with only a limited number that does so.
• Darkness skills typically offer weapon type-specific skills.

These Jewels however, are initially unuseable until they are appraised by one of the Masters, only then they are classified for what vocation they actually are for and what passive bonus they can potentially grant. The process will also reward Jewel points, which are a currency meant to be exchanged with the Masters for some useful items.

When gaining regular experience, Master Orb EXP is also granted, which will increase the Master Orb's level, with its maximum level being 70. The higher the Master Orb's level, the more abilities that can be allocated at a time are, up to a max number of 12 different buffs active for each element of the Master Orb of the vocation, which means a total of 60 bonuses at its peak. Each time a jewel is activated, it costs a certain number of total points for that element. While buffs at level 1 have no costs, superior levels have a higher point cost the further they increase, with a maximum level of 6; the amount of points that are able to be allocated to level up the bonuses is based on the Master Orb's level. With these two limits in mind, even with the Master Orb at max level and all Jewel collected, it is impossible to have all possible available buffs activated at max level at the same time.

Elemental Jewels can be acquired in a number of ways, such as in treasure chests or as relatively rare rewards for defeating bosses and challenges, but most of them is found by defeating specific monsters and obtain them as random rare drops: for example one of the Light Master Orbs necessary to level up one of the Dragon Magician's passive buffs are dropped by Wooper troopers, while one of Light Master Orbs for the Pirate vocation are dropped by Mimiclosets. Simply highlighting a jewel in the jewel list and pressing the Examine button will show which monsters drop the jewel in question, assuming the monster has been encountered at least once. Checking a moster's entry in the Monster List will also reveal if they drop a Jewel. Since the drop rate of Jewels is much lower than other types of drops, there is a special consumable item, the Jewel Perfume that significantly increases the drop rate of jewels for one hour.

However, only after unlocking the Master Orb system the treasure chests containing Master Orbs will become visible, as well as begin to drop at all, otherwise they will just be invisible, even the overworld ones. Obtaining duplicate jewels will just reward jewel points to spend with the Masters.

Beginner Vocations

There are six available vocations at the beginning of the game, same as Dragon Quest IX:

• Warrior: can use Swords, Greatswords, Axes and Shields. Warriors have access to the Courage skill tree, making them focused around dealing damage, protecting allies and debuffing enemies attacks by decreasing their attack and removing enemy's tension and anger.
• Mage: can use Heavy Wands, Knives, Whips and Shields. Mages have access to the Spellcraft skill tree. The most offensive magic focused vocation in the game using powerful spells to deal large amounts of damage. The main downside being that they're glass cannons but they also have attack debuffs and status ailment spells at their disposal, they are unique for the fact they can use a skill to go beyond the damage cap.
• Martial Artist: can use Claws, Staves, Fans and Spears. They are much more self-sufficient compared to other damage dealing vocations. Their Focus skill tree allowing them to recover their own HP and MP, along with being able to build up tension which is where the main damage from them comes from.
• Priest: can use Wands, Spears, Staves and Shields. Priests have access to the Faith skill tree. They are the most healing focused vocation in the game having access to most of the healing and buff spells in the game. They are most notably for their skill that gives them a goddesses grace.
• Thief: can use Claws, Knives, Whips, Hammers and Shields. A very unique vocation having access to variety of field skills with the Acquisitiveness skill tree. In battle they love to steal and drop bombs, very good against groups of enemies. They are also very good at stunning enemies.
• Minstrel: can use Knives, Staves, Fans, Boomerangs and Shields. All rounders mostly focused around healing. They aren't the best at dealing damage or healing but with the Litheness skill tree they can be very good back up support or even be a main healer. They can cure status ailments, heal,regen,buff attack,debuff attack and defense.

For these six beginner vocations, the first quest of their associated sidequest's sidestories becomes available only once that specific vocation has reached level 30, although Minstrels also need to have learned the spell Bonk for their to become available.

Advanced Vocations

After progressing through enough of the game, fifteen advanced vocations become open to be learned, unlocked after completing their unlock sidequests; these sidequests usually have some prerequisites before being available, such as having completed certain sidequest, having completed certain parts of the main story, having installed certain versions etc.

The advanced vocations introduced in later versions already start at level 50 once unlocked; regardless, more of the abilities of an advanced vocation are progressively unlocked as their associated sidequests trees are completed.

Version 1

• Battle Master (Quest 34 completed)
• Paladin (Quest 34 completed)
• Armamentalist (Quest 34 completed, at least level 30 or above, Wizard Ward skill learned)
• Ranger (Quest 34 completed)
• Sage (Quest 34 completed)
• Superstar (Quest 34 completed, at least one Tension rising skill, such as Bonk or Psyche Up, known)

Version 2

• Monster Master (Quest 34 completed, Version 2 installed, at least 30 different types of monsters slain)
• Item Master (Quest 34 completed, Version 2 installed, at least one Monster Scouting Book acquired)

Version 3

• Dancer (Quest 34 completed, Version 3 installed)
• Fortune Teller (Quest 34 completed, Version 3 installed, at least one vocation at level 30 or above)

Version 4

• Druid (Quest 34 completed, Version 4 installed, at least one vocation at level 50 or above)
• Gadabout (Quest 34 completed, Version 4 installed, at least one vocation at level 50 or above)

Version 5

• Death Master (Quest 34 completed, Version 5 installed, at least one vocation at level 50 or above)
• Demon Swordsman (Quest 34 completed, main story Version 2 completed, Version 5 installed)

Version 6

• Pirate (Quest 34 completed, Version 6 installed, Ogre Minor Key Emblem obtained)

Master Vocations

From Version 6 onward a new type of vocation was added, Master Vocations; an higher tier of vocations, after unlocking the whole Master tier by completing a trial sidequest at Alltrades Abbey, the further requirements for unlocking each specific master vocation are usually to have 2 specific vocations leveled to level 100 and to have finished their respective sidequests. Master vocations use pep power as their own version of the coup de grâces, and start directly from level 100 once unlocked, with more of their abilities being unlocked as their associated sidequests trees are completed like for the advanced vocations.

Version 6

• Guardian (Level 100 Warrior and Paladin with their sidequests's sidestory completed are required to unlock)

Version 7

• Dragon Magician (Level 100 Mage and Armamentalist with their sidequests's sidestory completed are required to unlock)

Dragon Quest Heroes II

The Vocation system is available only for Lazarel and Teresa, having been simplified to be composed by a total of only seven different vocations, five standard and two advanced.

The Beginner vocations are:

• Warrior, the starting Vocation for both characters.
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Thief; once the Thief vocation of the leading protagonist reaches level 20, and a certain point in the story has been reached, that leading character becomes able to tackle a sidequest that will reward the Thief's key, allowing to open the special, locked Treasure chests scattered across the land.

The two additional, stronger advanced vocations can be unlocked after Lazarel and Teresa increase the level of some of the starting Vocations:

• Gladiator; to be unlocked, the leading protagonist must have both the Warrior and Martial artist classes must have reached level 20; once a certain point in the story has been reached, a sidequest will become available that will unlock the Gladiator vocation for both characters, as long as they have base vocations at level 20.
• Sage; to be unlocked, the leading protagonist must have both the Mage and Priest classes must have reached level 20; once a certain point in the story has been reached, a sidequest will become available that will unlock the Sage vocation for both characters, as long as they have base vocations at level 20.

Each Vocation have its individual skills, spells, and passive abilities, but they have also passive upgrades that are shared across all other Vocations, thusly making it quite beneficial upgrading and levelling up all Vocations to some degree.

Dragon Quest of the Stars

This article is a stub. Please help Dragon Quest Wiki by expanding it.

Vocations are divided in Standard, Specialist, and Advanced/Special tiers.

Standard

• Warrior
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Merchant
• Dancer
• Gadabout
• Sailor
• Ranger

Specialist

• Gladiator
• Battlemaster
• Armamentalist
• Paladin
• Sage
• Superstar
• Pirate
• Monster Master
• Astronomer

Advanced/Special

• Magical Sage
• Arcana Lord
• Battle King
• Brave Knight
• Guardian
• Samurai
• Space Pirate
• Space-Time Mage
• Star Knight
• Ultra Star
• Strategist
• Champion
• Druid

Dragon Quest Walk

This article is a stub. Please help Dragon Quest Wiki by expanding it.

Vocations are divided in Beginner, Advanced and Special tiers.

Beginner

• Warrior
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Thief
• Dancer

Advanced

• Gladiator
• Armamentalist
• Ranger
• Paladin
• Sage
• Luminary
• Pirate
• Monster Master

Special

• Champion
• Archmage
• High Priest
• Ninja
• Demon Swordsman
• Guardian
• Dragon
• Guardian angel

Dragon Quest Champions

So far, only six beginner vocations are available:

• Warrior
• Mage
• Martial Artist
• Priest
• Thief
• Dancer

Dragon Quest: Legend of the Hero Abel

Abel's party showed a vocation for the party members for season 1's eyecatchers.

• Abel is a Hero
• Tiala first has an unknown "?" vocation and is later revealed to be a saintess
• Yanack is a Mage
• Daisy is a Warrior
• Moco is a Strongman

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Vocations are often discussed about, for instance Zap-type spells are only available to Heroes, the Puff! spell is exclusive to Mages and the purification-type spells like Glimmer is exclusive to Sages.

Vocations are shown on filler pages, according to Status pages:

• Dai is a Hero
• Popp is a Mage and later becomes a Grand Sorcerer
• Maam is a Warrior-Priest but later becomes a Martial Artist
• Leona is a princess and a Sage in-training
• Chiu is a Martial Artist
• Hyunckel is a Warrior
• Crocodine is a Beast king

According to Character pages, although some seem to be an epithet or a species they are indicated as:

• Dai is a Hero
• Pop is a Mage
• Maam is a Warrior Priest
• Avan is a Tutor
• Leona is princess of Papnica
• Hadlar is a Dark Commander but after becoming Final Hadlar he is a Superior Being
• Zaboera is Mystic Bishop but after becoming Hyper Zaboera he is a Superior Being Zombie
• Mystvearn is Shadow Vizier but his true form is an Underworld Monster
• Crocodine is Beast King
• Hyunckel is Dark Swordsman
• Flazzard is Blizzblaze General but after becoming Armord Flazzard he is Dark Fire Giant
• Baran is Dragon Master General
• Vearn is Dark King and at full power he is True Dark King
• Matoriv is a Grand Sorcerer, and he's in fact the one who coined said title for himself.
• Apollo, Marin and Aimi are sages
• Baduck is a soldier (兵士, heishi), same as DQIV's Ragnar
• Killvearn is a Reaper (shinigami)
• Merle and Nabara are Seers, same as DQIV's Meena
• Galdandy is Sky Rider
• Borahorn is Sea Rider
• Larhart is Land Rider
• Chiu is a Karateka Rat
• Zamza is Mystic Student but after becoming Hiper Zamza he is a Superior Being
• Brokeena is the Holy Fist
• Lon Beruk is a Legendary Craftsman
• The Sovereign Rock Castle is the Dark Army Walking Fortress
• Pawn Warrior Hym who keeps the same class after promotion
• Knight Warrior Sigma
• Bishop Warrior Fenbren
• Rook Warrior Block
• Queen Warrior Albinass who keeps the queen class when becoming Queen Warrior Perfect Albinass
• Nova is the Northern Hero
• Deroline is a Fake Hero
• Zulpon is a Fake Priest
• Heroh Heroh is a Fake Warrior
• Masopho is a Fake Mage
• Flora is Queen
• Roka is a Warrior
• Leira is an ex-Priest
• Jank is an Arms merchant, same as DQIV's Torneko
• Stein is Pop's mom
• Larba is a Warrior
• Gomez is a Wrestler
• Stangul is an Apprentice Lumberjack
• Baloria is a knight
• Fobster is a mage
• Hilto is a hunter
• King of Kings Maximum
• Judge is a battle machine
• Goroa is a drumun (a species of drum monster)
• Soala is Dai's mother
• Holy Mother Dragon is the dragon knight's holy mother
• Velzar is King of the Abyss

Other languages

Other languages
French
German	Laufbahn (VI) Berufung (IX,Stars) Beruf (IS)
Spanish
Italian
Dutch	Unknown
Norwegian	Unknown
Greek	Unknown
Portuguese	Unknown
Russian	Unknown
Chinese
Korean