Characters

Four characters, each a fundamentally different game. Not "different stats" — different systems.

Ironclad — the warrior

• Resource: HP regen on kill (Burning Blood starter relic).
• Themes: Strength scaling, Block, Exhaust.
• Iconic cards: Body Slam (deal damage equal to current Block); Barricade (Block doesn't decay); Limit Break (double Strength).
• Plays like: a tanky combo brawler. Stack Strength, multiply with Heavy Blade or Body Slam, sustain with Feel No Pain on Exhaust triggers.

Silent — the rogue

• Resource: starts with extra cards in hand (Ring of the Snake).
• Themes: Poison, Shivs, Discard, Draw.
• Iconic cards: Catalyst (double poison); Bullet Time (cards cost 0, can't draw); Footwork (permanent Dexterity).
• Plays like: setup-and-payoff. Apply poison ticks, scale with Footwork, rely on draw engine. Squishy early-game, ramps hard.

Defect — the mage

• Resource: channels orbs (Lightning, Frost, Dark, Plasma) into orb slots.
• Themes: orb management, Focus (boosts orb effects), evoking.
• Iconic cards: Claw (gets stronger every play); Echo Form (first card each turn played twice); Biased Cognition (massive Focus, decays each turn).
• Plays like: a slow scaler that loses early but becomes a god if it survives. Most "engine"-feeling of the four.

Watcher — the monk (DLC, but free)

• Resource: Stances — Wrath (2× damage taken & dealt), Calm (+2 energy on exit), Divinity (3× damage dealt), Vigilance (energy from cards).
• Themes: stance dancing, Retain, mid-combat card generation, scry.
• Iconic cards: Pressure Points (deal damage equal to Mark stacks across all enemies); Lesson Learned (transform a card on kill); Wallop (block + damage).
• Plays like: highest skill ceiling. Massive damage potential, easy to OTK enemies if you flow stances correctly.

Why this matters as a design pattern

Most games offer "classes" that are reskins of the same system. Spire's characters are different system stacks sitting on top of the same combat shell (energy/block/intent/cards). The shell is universal; the character defines which mechanics on top of the shell are even available to you.

• Ironclad doesn't have poison (it's a Silent thing).
• Silent doesn't have orbs (it's a Defect thing).
• Defect doesn't have stances (it's a Watcher thing).
• Watcher doesn't have Strength scaling (it's an Ironclad thing).

This is much stronger than "this class has +20% crit". It's "this class plays a different game inside the same engine."

See orthogonal-class-design.

Patterns this exemplifies

• orthogonal-class-design