For The Kingis a turn-based strategy RPG that takeselements from tabletop gamesand roguelikes to create a unique, tactical experience. Though fans now have access to the sequel,For The King 2, there are plenty of reasons to jump back into the original game. For one,For The King 2is still receiving mixed reviews even a year after its release.
That said,For The Kingcan be a daunting experiencefor newcomers to the genre. Although players only begin with four playable classes, there are a total of thirteen available in the game. Creating a synergistic party of characters is integral to succeeding inFor The King, so it’s important to understand their strengths and weaknesses.
Updated July 04, 2025, by Harry Ted Sprinks:For The King 2 was released in November 2023 to relatively mixed reviews, with the overall Steam User Rating at the time of writing sitting at 70% and recent reviews judging the game harsher at 68% positive. However, the original For The King remains a fun, engaging, and polished game to play alone or with friends. With the game’s large variety of classes, it can be difficult to gather a strong and versatile party, and knowing the strengths and weaknesses of each class can help greatly.
Furthermore, it’s good to know which stats each class can cover, from Strength and Awareness to Intelligence and Talent. However, some of the lower-ranking classes (despite having good stats) may perform better for more experienced players. Due to For The King being a relatively well-balanced game, competent classes that are easy to play generally rank higher due to their accessibility.
13The Busker
A Selfish Class With Low Stats
The Busker is fairly weak compared to the rest of the classes due to their relativelylow stats and general lack of versatility. However, they make up for this with defensive abilities andhigh potential gold earnings.
The Busker’s passive ability, “Distraction,” gives players a random chance of sabotaging enemy attacks against allies, while “Entertain” allows them to gain gold in the Overworld. However, “Elite Flee” is the Busker’s strongest ability, allowing them to flee combat with a single successful speed roll. This means that the Buskercan avoid ambushes easily, but their selfish abilities make themless useful in a partythan other classes.
Tips For Team Composition
As mentioned, the Busker is a somewhat selfish character with relatively weak stats when compared to other classes. As a result, the Busker isn’t an ideal pick for a team composition. However, the Busker does havea higher strength statthan classes such as the Minstrel. Unfortunately, they also haverelatively low speed. As speed is arguably one of the most important stats in the game, it could be argued that the Busker is one of the worst talent-centric heroes in the game.
12The Treasure Hunter
A Situational Class That Keeps The Party Rich
This class is primarily useful for their “Find Treasure” passive, which gives themahigh chance of discovering treasuresin the Overworld. The Treasure Hunter can alsoprevent treasure chests from being mimicswith “Mimic Whisper,” but this is a fairly situational ability.
Despite starting witha relatively strong weapon(the Handgun), the Treasure Hunter isn’t as powerful or flexible as other classes. However, theirability to secure a high amount of goldfor the party can help keep everyone supplied throughout a playthrough.
Low speedmakes the Treasure Hunter one of the weaker heroes inFor The King, despite having a 79 in intelligence, talent, and awareness. However, this slight versatility simply makes them weaker than other heroes who excel in similar areas. As a result, the Treasure Hunter ishard to fit into any team composition, though in a pinch they can fill any gap(s) in the aforementioned stats.
11The Hunter
A Great DPS That Relies Too Heavily On RNG
The Hunter is agood all-around damage dealerwith some extremely handy skills. Their “Energy Boost” ability makes themgreat for quickly travelinglong distances in the Overworld, while their “Called Shot” ability gives them a chance for a perfect roll when attacking with a ranged weapon, dealing massive damage.
Although the Hunter class is useful for its steady output of damageand RNG-reliantability toassassinate squishier enemieswith “Called Shot,” theydon’t provide as much versatilityas other classes with similar strengths.
Since the Hunter is a good damage dealerwith powerful abilities, they’re a great fit for the awareness hero of the team. Theirhigh speed is also a massive boon, making them a great pick for any team composition.
10The Scholar
A Flexible But Fragile Party Member
This class isextremely squishy, making them arguably useless without a sufficient tank in the party to soak up hits. Despite this, the Scholar can bea versatile and powerful member of the partyif kept alive.
One of the best aspects of the Scholar is theirability to specialize as a support or a damage dealer, using one of the various “Tomes” for the former and using staves for the latter. However, the Scholar only starts with one, albeit useful, ability: “Refocus”, which grants the Scholara chance to regain Focusat the end of their turn.
For more experienced players, the Scholar isone of the strongest Intelligence heroesinFor The King. If players can work around their squishy nature, they can fill the Intelligence gap in a team composition with extreme prowess. Furthermore, Refocus isa strong starting abilitythat makes them less reliant on RNG.
9The Herbalist
A Powerful Healer With Good Damage Output
This class cando a great deal of magical damageand works similarly to the Scholar, only less flexible. However, the Herbalist makes up for their lack of flexibility with theirpowerful healing capabilitiesthat can help to keep the party alive, making them a powerful combination of support and DPS.
The Herbalist’s skills are directly tied to their ability to heal. “Gather Herbs” grants thema chance to gain random herbsin the Wilderness, while “Party Heal” allows them to use a single “Godsbeard” herb toheal the entire party.
The Herbalist may not be among the strongest heroes inFor The King, but they work great inany team composition for beginners. More specifically, the Herbalist has a moderate level of intelligence. However, the Herbalist also has lower speed and intelligence than other intelligence-centric classes, such as the Scholar. Despite this, their starting abilities make them useful for beginners.
8The Monk
A Strong Supporting Class
The Monk isone of the strongest support classesin the game and shares a skill with the Herbalist - “Party Heal,” whichallows the Monk to heal the entire party. Because of this, the Monk is a great choice for players who don’t want to rely on the random chance of the Herbalist’s “Gather Herbs” ability, since they have access to the more reliable and arguably more useful “Discipline” skill.
“Discipline” allows the Monk togrant Focus to other party memberswhen landing critical hits and/or killing blows on enemies. However, “Discipline” doesn’t grant the Monk any Focus, making themreliant on items to keep their Focus high. Although the Monk is a supportive class, it’s important that their damage output is as high as possible to make the most out of “Discipline.”
The Monk’s potential damage output and supportive starting abilities make them one of the strongest support classes in the game. With relatively highstrength and intelligence, they’re a moderately versatile class. Unfortunately, their lack of speed when compared to other classes is a significant downside. However, regardless of their stats, the Monk’s “Discipline” ability makes them a great fit in a team composition lacking a character with high strength or intelligence.
7The Woodcutter
A Damage Dealer That’s Great Against Groups
This class is one of thebest damage dealers in the game, especially when equipped with heavy two-handed weapons. However, despite having a relatively large health pool, the Woodcutter is not a reliable tank. This is in large part due to the Woodcutter’s nature asa glass cannon against magic users; due to a lack of resistance, the Woodcutter is often forced to rely on the support of their party members.
The Woodcutter isespecially useful in dungeons, thanks to their “Elite Door Bash” skill that enables them to easily knock down doors. Furthermore, their “Justice” ability makes themgreat against large groupsof enemies because of its chance to add splash damage to perfect rolls. Overall, the Woodcutter’s high damage output and useful skills make them one of the strongest damage dealers in the game.
The Woodcutter is a strong contender for any team composition lacking in strength, as their own total is 83. Furthermore, their relativelyhigh levels of awareness and vitalityallow them to take and/or avoid a hit or two. As well as this, their “Justice” starting ability provides some much-needed AOE right out of the gate, making themperfect for teams that lack crowd control.
6The Blacksmith
A Sturdy And Reliable Tank
Despite havinga low speed, the Blacksmith is both a sturdy and reliable tank and a decent damage dealer thanks toa high-damage starting weapon. However, the Blacksmith isbest used as a tankand not a DPS.
This is because of the Blacksmith’s most useful ability, “Steady.” This ability grants the Blacksmitha chance to block all incoming damage, provided they have a shield equipped. This makes the Blacksmith especially useful when they have access to a shield, even more so because most shields have the “Enemy Taunt” ability, whichallows the user to force enemies to target them.
The Blacksmith works well in any team composition and is one of thebest heroes for beginnersto include in their team. It could be argued that more advanced players should focus on picking characters with high stats, primarily speed, but it’s a good idea for beginners to take a hero that can tank a few hits. For this reason, the Blacksmith is a great choice thanks to their high strength and vitality, as well as theirstrong starting skill.
5The Trapper
A Versatile Class That’s Frequently Useful
The Trapper can be an extremely effective alternative to a tank thanks to theirhigh evasion statthat gives them a high chance of avoiding enemy attacks, especially when combined with certain pieces of equipment. This classcan also be used as a damage dealer in a pinchby equipping them with two-handed polearms rather than a shield. However, this is less efficient than using a more straightforward damage dealer and isn’t really the Trapper’s main strength.
The Trapper’s “Elite Ambush” skill enables them toeasily ambush enemies, and “Elite Trap Disarm” makes the Trapperespecially useful in dungeons. Furthermore, the Trapper can prevent enemy ambushes with “Counter Attack,” making them even more useful in the Overworld.
The Trapper is particularlystrong as an awareness/talent herothanks to their high speed. While they have slightly less awareness than other classes, such as the Hunter, the Trapper also works well as a talent hero. Since there are better awareness-focused classes in the game with similar speeds, it’s arguablybest to use the Trapper as a talent heroto take full advantage of their stats.
4The Hobo
A Well-Rounded And Versatile Class That’s Always Useful
Despite starting with little-to-no equipment, the Hobo is one ofthe most versatile classesin the game thanks to their high and well-rounded stats that enable them to fill almost any role in the party. However, the Hobo hasno special abilities.
The Hobo’s lack of special abilities makes themheavily reliant on obtaining itemsthat grant abilities to make up for their initial weakness. However, their jack-of-all-trades nature ensures thatthey’re always useful, no matter the situation. This makes the Hobo especially good at filling in the gaps left by other members of the party and ensures that any powerful items that players find will always be useful, as there’s a high chance that the Hobo can wield them.
Due to their nature asa massively versatile class, the Hobo can fill almost any void in a team composition. However, thanks to their high speed, they’re arguably best used as a strength-focused class. This allows players to fill the strength void in their team composition witha high-speed class, though the Gladiator is arguably a better pick as they start with similar stats and better abilities.
