Clavat[edit]
The Clavats are a good-natured race of farmers and tradesmen who value unity and peace above all else. You'll find many of them growing crops at the Fields of Fum, and they are widely-spread throughout other towns and villages in the world.
Clavats' weapons of choice are swords, and their supplementary equipment are shields. Swords have fairly variable and long-range focus attacks, and shields can be used with the Defend command to block any attack from the front, including magical or elemental attacks (like Gargoyles' elemental shots, for instance), but discluding actual spells. In most cases, simply dodging attacks outclasses the use of a shield, though it can be useful for stalling out the effects of debuff statuses like Slow and Fire when your character is afflicted with them.
Overall, they are the most balanced class in the game in terms of stats. They possess the second-best Magic and Defense stats and third-best Attack stat overall, making them jacks-of-all-trades. For solo gameplay, they are arguably the best race overall due to their ability to perform all roles well-- physical attacks and spells for both offense and support all function well with them, and aiming for a balanced stat spread is most effective with them out of all the races. In multiplayer, by contrast to solo play, it may be advisable to specialize: the equipment available to a Clavat suggests that they can perform very well by dumping Attack and choosing to focus instead on Magic, Command Slots, and HP-- combined with their strong race-exclusive endgame armor, they can make for a very durable and versatile addition to a party's spellcasting strength. That isn't to say Clavats MUST be magic-focused, of course; focusing on HP And Attack can result in a strong melee fighter who can still drop Cure and Life more easily than a Lilty can if the need arises, making them more self-sufficient and not so outright reliant on team support. Though neither role can match either Yukes or Lilties in raw damage output, playing a Clavat is a solid alternative for players who enjoy these roles but desire survivability, versatility, and self-sufficiency above all else.
The equipment options available to Clavats are nearly as varied as the roles one can fill, although it's worth noting that all of their race-exclusive accessories have an emphasis on spellcasting. All Clavat players regardless of build should aim to acquire their race-exclusive Gaia Plate (from the Earth Armor scroll), which sports the highest defense score of any armor in the game, but other gear will be more role-dependent. Magic-based Clavats can aim for the Runeblade and later Excalibur, which can deal Magic-based damage with Focus Attacks, as well as the Talisman of Wisdom to greatly enhance their spellcasting speed. (The Devil's Earring, which greatly extends the duration of statuses like freeze, paralysis and slow can also be useful, though since many enemies are resistant or immune to these effects the quicker cast time is more likely to be worthwhile.) They can opt to run the Rune Shield, allowing them to cast spells from further away to ensure their safety, though making the legendary Chocobo Shield can be a huge boon if survivability is of greater concern. Melee-focused Clavats have a much more straightforward build, albeit one that requires more rare boss drops to reach peak potential; the powerful Ragnarok (from the Dark Weapon scroll), Gaia Plate, and Chocobo Shield are the name of the game here, and good accessories to compliment this playstyle are the Force Ring (making you immune to being stunned out of attack chains) or even the aforementioned Talisman of Wisdom for quick heals or revives in the heat of battle.
Lilty[edit]
The Lilties are a race of hot-tempered hellions, dwarfish in stature compared to other races. Their size belies their power and ambition, however, as the Liltian empire once spread across the entire world before their supply of iron ran dry. Older generations of Lilties still see their race as superior to the others, and some still harbor grudges and prejudice, though at their best they are fiercely loyal and honorable warriors.
Lilties carry spears as their weapon and use gloves as their secondary armor. Spears possess some of the most powerful Focus Attacks, second only to the Selkies and their quick charge time. Lilties' Defend command is essentially identical to that of the clavat, blocking all attacks from the front except for spells. They possess great strength and defense, being superior to all other races in both regards, yet inferior to all others in magical ability, with weak spells and very slow casting time. As such, Lilties are best used as tanks, getting up close and personal and relying on their brute strength to rip through enemies. Their poor spellcasting makes them difficult to use in single-player when spells like Gravity and Holy are needed, so there may be instances when they'll struggle when playing alone. However, a Lilty can be a powerful ally in multiplayer mode, where they serve almost exclusively as physical tanks, dishing out damage and taking it with relative ease. When supported by a spellcaster to Cure and Clear them, they are a constant and reliable source of damage for bosses and enemies. Lilties should primarily focus on increasing their Attack and secondarily their HP, only choosing Defense when these two are unavailable, since their armor makes them fairly beefy on defense. Magic and Command Slot artifacts are an easy pass for a Lilty, especially in multiplayer.
Lilties also have access to the most powerful weapon in the game, the Longinus lance (crafted from the Celestial Weapon scroll), as well as another exclusive weapon, the Dragoon's Spear (though this is outclassed by the Gungnir, which is crafted from the Legendary Weapon scroll). Diamond armor and gloves are their strongest armor, and useful accessories for Lilties include the Force Ring, which allows them to tank through stun-inducing attacks to continue their assault, as well as the Dragon's Heart, which boosts the power of their already-strong Focus Attacks. Also helpful is the Pixie's Earring, which reduces the downtime induced by enemy spells like Slow or Thunder. Since they will likely forgo spells and extra command slots, especially in multiplayer, it can be a good idea to utilize a Lilty's command slots for extra weapons, allowing them to switch between different Focus Attacks on the fly or pack an elementally-charged focus attack in solo play. Equipping Phoenix Downs can also be useful in this capacity as a failsafe, since Lilties are very slow to self-heal and healers may not always be available.
Selkie[edit]
The Selkies are a nomadic race of human-like people, distinguishable from Clavats by their fur-clad outfits, natural agility, and wild hair of blues and greens. A nomadic people based in the Lynari Isles, they share a widely-held distrust of the other races, just as they are distrusted for their tendencies to resort to smuggling and thievery. At heart they are a spirited and carefree people, and Selkic merchants are among the best in the game.
In battle, Selkies wield rackets or paddles and wear belts in addition to regular armor. Focus Attacks are the forte of the Selkies, who have the quickest charge time of all the races, and a variety of ranged non-elemental attacks to wield with their cudgels. Their Defend command is quite useless, causing the Selkie to perform a simple backflip that requires precise timing and can leave them vulnerable afterwards (it's more efficient to simply dodge, so a Selkie's Defend command should pretty much never be used).
Like Clavats, they are balanced, though they have higher attack and lower defense and magical ability when compared to Clavats, making them relatively fragile and magically underwhelming. Selkies are best played in guerrilla style, utilizing their quickly-charging focus attacks for hit-and-run tactics. In solo gameplay, they can hold their own, casting Holy and Gravity spells with relative ease, and utilizing Flamestrike, Icestrike, and the like for elemental damage based off of their Attack stat for maximum elemental effectiveness. In multiplayer, they are almost as strong as Lilties on offense, yet they lack the Lilties' defensive strength, so they are best used attacking from a distance with Focus Attacks and picking off weaker enemies while Lilties deal with larger ones. With a dedicated cleric on duty to provide constant healing, Selkies can tank through enemies as well as any Lilty, however. As with Clavats, Selkies will likely want to run a balanced stat spread or focus on areas where the rest of your team is weaker, and depending on your party composition they can potentially forgo investing in Magic and command slots to focus on Attack, Defense, and HP.
Selkies' best gear includes the exclusive Dreamcatcher (crafted from a Lunar Weapon scroll), as well as Diamond Armor/Belt. Selkies also get some of the best accessories in the game, including the Angel's Earring, which massively reduces the time they are afflicted by status, and the Thief's Emblem, which speeds up their Focus Attack charge time to nigh-instantaneous. Selkies can also optimize their equipment for guerilla tactics by equipping a Winged Belt alongside the Dreamcatcher and Thief's emblem, which combine blazing-fast charge time and the most powerful Focus Attack in the game with extended Focus Attack range and speed.
Yuke[edit]
The Yukes are a mysterious race of tall, masked sages, hailing from the lakebound city of Shella. Yukes were the only race not to be conquered by the Liltian empire during their reign, and the two races are about as opposite as can be-- Yukes are patient, tall in stature, and value knowledge above all else.
Yukes wield hammers as weapons and wear helmets for supplementary armor. Hammers, while no less powerful than any other weapons, are nonetheless quite weak in the hands of the Yukes, and their Focus Attacks tend to have short ranges, but stun-inducing area-of-effect strikes. Yukes possess easily the most useful Defend command, phasing their bodies to be completely intangible for an infinite length of time! In solo gameplay, this is no more useful than simply sidestepping since it has a small amount of end lag when concluding, but with teammates, it can be used to distract enemies from teammates for an indefinite time period while they heal, cast Life, adjust their command lists... Needless to say, it's very useful.
Stat-wise, Yukes are specialized spellcasters, possessing the weakest attack and defense of any race, but the strongest magic attacks and the fastest spellcasting ability. In single-player gameplay, they possess the opposite problem of the Lilties, being capable of solo-casting very powerful spells like Firaga and Blizzaga, yet struggling greatly when physical attacks are required for Stone enemies and the like. In multiplayer, a Yuke is an excellent support character, being able to fire off Cure spells for the party quicker than any other race, as well as to provide powerful magical offense. As previously stated, Yukes are best relegated to the role of Black Mage when multiple spellcasters are present in a multiplayer party, though having a backup Cure on them certainly pays off if things get hairy. They can team up with Clavats or Selkies to cast Holy and Gravity, or even high-level elemental spells the impact an entire area. Specialize a multiplayer Yuke in Magic, giving him/her as much as possible to beef up his/her spell damage, and Defense or Command Slots whenever Magic is not an option; ideally around 4 CS is good to shoot for, but 6 would be the maximum, since that's the number of base-level magicite in the game.
Yukes receive no exclusive weapon in this game, which is fine, as they often have little need for it; their easy-to-obtain Legendary Weapon can deal magic damage with its Focus Attack, which should be all they need on that front. Armor-wise, Yukes have exclusive access to Slow and Stop-resistant helmets, though it's typically best to equip them with all Diamond gear, as they need as much protection as they can muster. Yukes also have two very useful accessories in the Wisdom Charm, which allows them to cast basic-level spells almost instantaneously, and the relatively difficult-to-obtain Forbidden Tome, which causes their spell damage to skyrocket.