Editing Iron Kingdoms RPG (section)

==Core Careers==
===Alchemist===
Unsurprisingly, the alchemist is largely a crafting career focused on doing weird shit with chemistry ''("YEAH MR WHITE!  YEAH SCIENCE!")'' and then typically throwing the results at a target.

===Arcane Mechanik===
The arcane mechanik is a combination crafting career and situational combat career.  They have the inscribe ability which lets them create new runeplates for mechanika, and they get the ability to command warjacks and can upkeep spells on warjacks for free.  BUUUTTT... they're not the ''best'' warjack drivers, and while they have some spells, they're most effective on warjacks.  In combat with stuff that bleeds, they have to fall back on mechanika gadgetry.

===Arcanist===
Put on your robe and wizard hat, it's the pure Vancian caster.  Arcanists can maintain any one upkeep spell for free.

===Aristocrat===
One of the main social careers, the Aristocrat has privilege.  Literally and unironically.  They're one of the few core careers that have the ability to learn new languages.  They also have a smattering of riding abilities, some leadership, and a broad slate of skills for social and intrigue settings.  If you want a career that falls somewhere between the military officer and spy, the aristocrat is your answer.  Only humans can be aristocrats.

===Bounty Hunter===
The bounty hunter sits somewhere between the cutthroat and the investigator, as a shady operator specializing in tracking people down and subduing them.  Their main ability is combining Waylay and Take Down, making them the go-to career for capturing people ALIVE.

===Cutthroat===
The [[rogue]].  Cutthroats are single target burst damage experts... as long as they hit from behind.  Big on abilities, but one of the weakest careers for skills.

===Duelist===
Cutthroats with manners.  The duelist career combines parry and riposte into a character that excels in mano-a-mano combat.  Also gets acrobatics for parkour gimmickry, and a sampler platter of social skills like etiquette and seduction for the swave, socialite killer.

===Explorer===
Along with the ranger and soldier, the Explorer is essentially a survival career focused to a specific setting.  Explorers are in their element hunting beasts, unravelling mysteries in ruins, and working in unfamiliar settings as they are one of the few careers with the Language ability.  While they have access to a variety of weaponry skills, aside from ''Big Game Hunter'' they don't have any combat abilities.

===Fell Caller===
The fell caller career is restricted to trollkin.  It's essentially a [[Ork#Shoutaz|buffing career revolving around talking smack]].

===Field Mechanik===
The non-magical counterpart to the arcane mechanic.  The field mechanic is a specialist in warjack control.  While they can't bond with a jack like warcasters, they get the widest selection of drive abilities and they're the best at ''fixing'' jacks.  They're also the only career that STARTS with one.

===Gun Mage===
Wizards who specialize in gun-fu.  They do their thing by casting spells on bullets and then shooting them.  One of the strongest standalone pure DPS careers, as the gun mage spell list has an answer for pretty much every combat situation.  Pairs well with stronger social careers like investigator or spy because the gun mage career doesn't need any help to wreck shit.

===Highwayman===
Starts the game with a horse and knows how to ride it.  The highwayman career on its own is sort of an all purpose 'ridin, 'fightin, 'lyin scoundrel type with enough social skills to excel at dirty dealings among rough company.  It has a mix of basic combat abilities that don't box it into a specific fighting style, but also leave it wanting combat ooomph from its other career.

===Investigator===
The thinking half of an [[inquisitor]], with all the occupational skills to sort out any mystery, and the elusive Language skill that lets them learn more than the starting two languages almost everyone else is stuck with.  Not a combat career by any measure, but they get prowl, sneak, and anatomical precision.  Pair it with whatever combat career you want to turn to when things get messy.

===Iron Fang===
Restricted to Khadoran humans, Iron Fangs hit things with grenades on spears.  Weirdo.

===Knight===
The knight career suffers from being a true hybrid class, a not-so-great leader with a focus on sword and board style fighting and an ability to mitigate the negatives of heavy armor.

===Mage Hunter===
Restricted to Iosans, mage hunters exist to fuck up casters.  Their key ability is to ignore magical defenses completely.  Backing this up is a skillset tailored to being a sneaky [[Ork_Snipers|elf sniper]].  But their actual combat abilities are mostly range and weapon agnostic... they just really hate magic users.  Warcasters in particular have a hard time with mage hunters because they bypass the effects of warcaster armor.

===Man at Arms===
Hits things with sticks and gets hit with sticks.  There's really not much more to it, the Man at Arms is a melee specialist with no pretenses at doing ANYTHING else.

===Military Officer===
The team leader career, with all the battle plan abilities and some of the warjack drive commands.  Laughably weak in terms of actual combat ability, you'll need to pair it with something that can actually throw some pain.

===Pirate===
The career for people who like to fight dirty; ya bloody pirates.  Like the knight, pirates are more of a crunchy lore career than a serious focus on either social or combat interactions.  But of all the careers that get Language they have the most combat focus (albeit mostly focused on tricks like Sucker and Head-Butt).

===Pistoleer===
Shoots things with pistols.  That's pretty much it.

===Priest===
Comes in Morrowan and Menite flavors, but both are restricted to humans.  Priests of Morrow are more of the buffing-healing sort, and Priests of Menoth are really into fire.

===Ranger===
The ranger career is the outdoorsman, an expert at surviving in the wilds.  They're pretty lean on actual combat abilities, but they have all the key components for sneaking around and doing reconnaissance, and the leadership skills to help others with doing the same.

===Rifleman===
Shoots things with rifles.  Again, kind of a one-trick pony.

===Soldier===
Despite its name, the soldier is not by itself a strong combat career.  Rather, it's principally focused on SURVIVING in a battlefield setting, with abilities that improve their ability to avoid damage.  In addition, it comes with some utility skills, like medicine and the ability to command warjacks.  Pairing the soldier career with a damage focused career like rifleman or gun mage will give you the archetypal tough as nails battlefield veteran.

===Sorcerer===
The elementalist caster class, in fire/ice/stone/storm flavors.  Compared to arcanists they have much less flexibility in spells (not exactly restricted to just DPSing but certainly wanting for utility), but they pick up some tools for playing ''hide and go sneak'' that an arcanist would need to take another career for.

===Spy===
The spy career has one of the widest occupational skill lists in the game, excelling at basically anything involving interaction and intrigue.  HOWEVER, they pay for this by having essentially no combat abilities to speak of, so their second career choice will likely have to be a heavy hitter.

===Stormblade===
Restricted to Cygnar humans, Stormblades hit things with lightning swords.

===Thief===
As the name implies, the thief is an expert at breaking into things and running away.  Their skills and abilities list reads like a college syllabus in criminal enterprise, and they're slightly better than spies at actually being sneaky thanks to getting camouflage and traceless path like rangers.

===Trencher===
Restricted to humans, trollkin, and ogruns from Cygnar, the trencher is a specialist in fighting wars.  Their ability list has a little bit of everything from bombs to bayonets, and some of the soldier's damage mitigation abilities.  But they're an unsubtle career that's at its best fighting a pitched battle with grenades and artillery, not taking down a villain in their lair or dueling with ruffians in a back alley.

===Warcaster===
The iconic warcaster career is the "makes everything better" choice.  Warcasters are defined by the bond ability, which lets them do three useful things.  First, they can bond with warjacks and pass them focus points, making them very good at jack controlling.  Secondly, they can bond with weapons and then spend focus points to get boosted attack and damage rolls on demand.  And lastly, they can bond with warcaster armor and use unspent focus as magical energy shielding.  They also get a handful of spells although even the arcane mechanik looks down on warcasters in terms of pure spellcasting.  Where warcasters excel is in the flexibility of the bond ability, particularly with weaponry.  Being able to boost rolls at will means they become very consistent at connecting with their targets, and hitting for a good deal of damage.  Warcaster armor isn't exactly discrete or subtle (stomping around with a coal fired boiler and steam turbine on your back), but it offers some of the best protection available in the game; even the lightest warcaster armor is surprisingly tanky if you just pour focus into keeping the shield charged.  The warcaster is sufficiently tough and dangerous to get by when paired with an interaction-focused career.  But when paired with another combat career, especially those that are not inherently magical on their own (using abilities instead of spells and thus not needing focus points), warcasters can become exceptionally lethal; a warcaster/mage hunter or warcaster/duelist will take opponents apart in short order.