I'm making a small mmo and things are going but I seem to have gotten a bit stuck - I have four archetypes in my game and I wanted to make five sub classes for each archetype, but now I have 6 sage classes, 5 clerics, 3 agents and 3 soldier.
I have upgrades for each of my subclasses so I really want to avoid to much overlap between classes.

Do i need more than three different Soldier types and Agent types?

Here are my current classes

Sage
Mages are adept at dealing damage from afar and placing powerful wards that impedes anyone who comes too close.

-Shadow mage
Shadow mages delve in the darker mysteries. Shadow spells apply shadow touch, a curse that snares and damages over time.

-Light mage
Light mages utilize the power of Light to infuse their surrounding, they are adept at marking targets an summoning latern archons to aid their allies. Enemies marked by light mages take more damage.

-Urge mage
Urge mages specialize in the raw stuff of the urge and the emberlings spirits that live of the pure urge energies, they specialize in damage and are very adept at setting the battlefield ablaze.

-Wyld mage
Wyld mages snare their enemies and reduce their damage potential. Their connection to the wyld allows them to heal faster and they are able to summon a great bear to aid them in battle.

-Ether mage
Ether mages are students of the all enveloping ether. Ether spells apply Ethertouch, a curse that deals damage and drains energy then the victim uses abilities.

-Alchemist
Alchemists can brew some very handy potions to heal and enhance your allies and poisons that damage and delay your enemies.

Soldier
Soldiers make up the front lines, adept at slowing down enemies and soaking up damage.

-Veteran
Veterans specialize in hindering enemies and soaking up damage, they are tough as nails and quite mobile. They are best when supported, as their healing abilities are very limited.

-Berserker
Berserkers are adept at dealing damage and can hitting multiple enemies at one. They are also quite mobile and tough.

-Warlord
Warlords uses shouts to buff nearby allies but deals less damage and a are less tanky than other soldier types

Cleric
Clerics are often found on the front lines where they heal and bolster their allies.

-Cleric of Oran
Clerics of Oran are crusaders of justice, they shield themselves with Light energies and are adept at curing conditions.

-Cleric of Dwade
Clerics of Dwade are morticians and serves as guides for the dead. Some sects specialize in undeath as a means to become eternal servants of Dwade.

-Cleric of Ianna
Clerics of Ianna specialize in healing through the powers of the wyld, clerics are good at healing their allies while joining in the fray.

-Cleric of Callysta
Clerics of Callysta are adept at removing curses from allies and blessings from foes. Their healing is also very potent and they can increase the movement speed of allies.

-Cleric of Aden
Clerics of Aden specialize in healing and empowering allies through the powers of the urge, clerics are good at improving their allies while joining in the fray.

Agent
Agents are mobile and elusive, they are adept at penetrating enemy lines to take out high priority targets.

-Fencer
Fencers excel at avoiding attacks and getting in and out of engagements easily, Their main function is to break the stances of their enemies, severely weakening them.

-Assasin
Elusive and quick, assasins are adept at killing fast and getting away. They often use poisons and light weapons.

-Archer
Ranged combat specialist, very mobile.

The game is currently in early beta and available here : http://www.parnassus.erethic.eu/page/Download.aspx

Those where pretty much my concerns too, the subclasses does not have to feel very unique (most of the mages are pretty much the same) but they have very distinct spell effects, nature mages throw leaves and make spikes shoot from the earth while a shadow mage throw shadowy tentacles and swirling patches of darkness. The game effect is pretty much the same, damage and snare or root. But I know players love to customize.

The problem with soldiers and agents is that their customization largely comes from gear, its much harder (to me at least) to invent a new agent or soldier subclass while giving it a strong sense of theme. Agents and soldier subclasses also have much greater game play difference atm.

I would lose Alchemist from the Sage class and transfer it to the Agent class....Think of Q's gadgets tied to the agent in the bond movies. Specialising in everything from explosives, gases, poisons, acids, pheromones etc.

I have no real comment on the Cleric classes as you haven't really entered the mythology of your game so am hesitant to suggest something that would upset that apple cart

Alternative Agent class suggestions
Bard
Thug
Thief
Bandit
Chameleon
Trapper

Alternative Soldier suggestions
Weapon master
Grenadier (ranged explosives)
Specialist (limited weapon range but powerful)
Armour fighter (The armour is weaponised with blades spikes etc)
Monster (Possibly to akin to Beserker - but transforms ala jekyl and hyde)


Hope these help

Damnit Stormy! that is excellent!
I have actually been thinking of a Jekyl/Hyde type character some time ago but i completely forgot about it and I can't believe I hadn't thought about the bard! I'll definitely put that in - I Just finished the archer class today a few more classes and I can move on to city upgrades (buildings and civics)

My artist just sent me two new backgrounds that I'm implementing tonight, sneak peek here :

I don't think I made it clear enough that subclasses are very much like spec, i.e. they can share abilities and play styles. Just to make clear that I'm not going for 20 unique classes (that would be insane!)

Look at League of Legends and tell me that many many classes is insane

@Stormy - I know! those guys are insane

@Jefferson - Some subclasses unlocks abilities that are then available to other classes - There are also upgrades that unlocks single abilities that can be used from then on. The whole thing is a bit restricted version of the Guild wars 1 setup.
I think one of my problems is that we have yet to create a fully realized 'skill-tree' at the moment we just have 120ish abilities that are kinda floating around.
I'm not sure it is possible to make players feel truly unique due to cookie cutting and class restrictions but it is surely a valid point.

When I started the project I wanted all abilities to be unlocks and have zero class restrictions but that just made everything very messy and weird (not to mention a balancing hell!)

I ended up renaming Warlord to vanguard - he now has the following abilities:
mouse 1 : swing (0-1 target,Low damage,energy builder)
mouse 2 : hack (0-3 target, medium damage, low cost)
button 1 : Bolstering shout (heals and increased damage, self + allies) - cooldown group [Shout]
button 2 : Defiant shout (heals and reduce damage taken, self + allies)- cooldown group [Shout]
button 3 : Tactical shout (Increase movement and remove engagement debuff, self + allies)- cooldown group [Shout]
button 4 : Camp (Long channel, heal + ress, self + allies)
button 5 : Energizing shout (all energy is drained, allies gain half that energy, allies)
button 6 : Commander (stance, removes engagement debuff periodically, self)

engagement debuff is a debuff cause by all melee attacks that reduces movement speed - this is to prevent weird kiting and running though mobs (think daze from WoW)

Mage or Cleric maybe
-Time mage (controls the speed of allies and enemies)

Soldier or Cleric maybe
-Cursed (using skills builds random amount of pain, lengthening skill cooldown the more variety of skills that are used, random combination of skills will max out the pain and triggers the character to become a demon)

Soldier
-General (places icons to represent the different playing classes on enemies, encouraging allies of that symbol to attack that target, reduce skill cooldown? long range, low damage)

Agent or soldier
-Siegeworks ("summons" siege tools to hit multiple enemies, area effect)

Agent
-Spy (looks like another type of characters, skills look like that character, uses spy skills instead)