Scope RPG

Class Perks ​

Every avatar class carries a small set of passive perks - baseline floors and multipliers that distinguish the class regardless of level or equipment. These are the reason a Knight feels like a Knight even at level one, before any allocation.

Perks are permanent and tied to the class itself - no way to acquire another class's perk, no way to turn your own off.

Class perks

Knight Perks ​

Identity: the tank. Absorbs hits, trades blows, outlasts fights.

  • Physical damage reduction floor. A baseline reduction on incoming physical hits before any Armor scaling. Compounds with Armor allocation - Knights reach the physical DR cap with far fewer points than other classes, freeing their build budget for offense.
  • Parry. A unique "the hit didn't land properly" check that runs after dodge, scaling with effective physical defense. Against magic, parry is half-effective - enough to feel meaningful, not enough to make Knights a magic-resist class.
  • Light magic resistance from heavy armor. A small magic damage reduction floor on top of normal magic defense math. Smaller than the Wizard's, but enough that Knights don't fold to magic-heavy enemies.

Knight compounding

The Knight's perks stack with allocation rather than replacing it. Armor points contribute to physical DR, which raises parry chance, which stacks with the baseline DR floor. Every Armor point does more for a Knight than for anyone else.

Wizard Perks ​

Identity: the arcane specialist. Burns through magic defenses; fragile against physical.

  • Bonus to all outgoing magic damage. A flat multiplier on top of the magic power result. Combined with the Wizard's Intelligence focus, this is the steepest scaling line in the game for players who lean in.
  • Magic damage reduction floor. A baseline subtraction on incoming magic before magic defense math - the mirror of the Knight's physical floor. Uniquely hard to burst with magic.
  • Fragility against physical (the anti-perk). Lowest starting HP, lowest starting Vitality, no physical DR floor, no parry. A surprised Wizard who takes two physical hits in a row is in real trouble. The class's survival comes from killing opponents before they close the distance.

Archer Perks ​

Identity: the precision damage dealer. One-shot burst through enemy armor.

  • Armor penetration. Arrows ignore a fraction of the target's physical damage reduction. Makes the Archer a natural counter to high-armor opponents - a maxed-DR Knight effectively takes a lot more damage from an Archer than from anyone else.
  • Elevated critical damage. The highest crit multiplier in the game. An Archer crit hits for dramatically more than a default crit. Compounds with Luck and Strength allocation - more Luck makes crits frequent, more Strength makes each crit's underlying damage large.
  • Base dodge chance. A dodge floor from ranged positioning. Not as high as the Rogue's, but enough to make the Archer a credible evasion build rather than pure glass cannon.

Rogue Perks ​

Identity: the adaptable generalist. Dodges often, crits often, acts first.

  • Highest base dodge chance of any class. Combined with the Rogue's already-high starting Speed, even modest Speed allocation pushes the Rogue close to the dodge cap.
  • Elevated critical damage. A meaningful upgrade over the default crit multiplier. The Rogue's crits hit more often than the Archer's but not as extremely. Consistent damage with regular small bursts, rather than rarer big spikes.
  • Bonus starting Luck - baked into the class distribution, enough that crit rate feels materially higher from level one.
  • First-mover advantage. Not always flagged as a perk, but practically significant: the Rogue's high Speed affects turn order, so Rogues tend to act before the opponent has swung. Getting a crit in before the enemy's first turn can swing a whole fight.

When Perks Apply ​

Perks are always on. They run during every attack, every defense roll, every turn-order calculation - baked into the combat math so they don't need to be "activated."

A few things that matter:

  • In dungeons - perks apply in both the soldier phase (when the avatar participates) and the boss phase.
  • In the boss phase - even though the boss fight is auto-resolved with only basic attacks, class perks still apply. That's part of why class choice matters for bosses.
  • In the arena - both sides' perks apply. Matches are avatar vs avatar, full perks on both.

Why Perks Aren't Balanced to Be Equal ​

The four classes aren't balanced as interchangeable picks with different coats of paint. Each perk creates a combat lever the others don't have - parry, magic multiplier, armor penetration + extreme crit, or maximum dodge + bonus luck. The choice is a real strategic fork, not a cosmetic one.

That's why class is permanent. Picking a class is picking a combat identity with its own strengths and counters - if you could swap freely, the choice would become meaningless.