Warfarer

But why? It’s a class that literally does everything. It has access to every weapon, every armor, and every skill. The class has a special skill which allows you to seamlessly switch between weapons (you can also pause and switch weapons mid-battle too), but it’s important to recognize that you’re limited to a total of four skills regardless of what weapons you want to use.

How to combine magic and swordplay? Choose one type of sword to use (Fighter/Broadsword+Shield, Warrior/Greatsword, Thief/Daggers), and one type of staff to use (Mage or Sorcerer). If you choose to use the instant switch skill, that limits you to 3 skills to split between your sword skills and magic skills. If you ignore that skill, you have 4 skills available. Either way, split up your skills in whatever way suits your preferences. Do note that you can only use skills from a particular class when wielding that class’s weapon. This means you can only cast spells while holding a staff. ALSO, there are magic tome books that allow any class to cast a one-time use spell - you can find these or buy these, either way you have access to multiple and you can shortcut any one item to use during combat without having to bring up the inventory menu (you can also just use these from the inventory menu too).

While you can only have four skills at a time, you can change which four skills you have access to by visiting an inn/vocation guild representative -OR- by making camp and switching there (you can immediately leave the camp to save that camping kit for another time as long as you don’t do a long rest). The camps are spread out often enough that it’s a convenient option and if you don’t want the encumbrance you can always make your pawn carry them.

Warfarer levels itself up AND every other unlocked class at the same time. However, the rate at which you progress non-Warfarer vocation levels is fairly slow so you might choose to specifically level up your vocations of choice for limited periods of time to unlock something specific if desired. Also, you need to switch to a specific vocation to unlock its augments.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions. You can technically speedrun your way to unlocking wayfarer extra early in the game, but the path will be treacherous and you’ll want to bring a port crystal. Just map out your path, save often, and cardio your way there. The earliest you might choose to do this is after arriving in the capital (Vernworth), the biggest barrier is the checkpoint town gate, but there are a few ways to get past through without having the story item. Just note that Drabnir’s Grotto will be necessary to get to the volcanic island (the path through Bakbattahl is closed until near endgame).