How many classes? Part One

 Over the last two weeks, I've been steeped in Keith Amman's excellent 

AN EQUAL PORTION DEALT:  CULTURE IN CHARACTER CREATION

(I highly recommend it - it decouples the +2/+1 primary attributes from Race and couples it with one's Culture - something that DnDOne 5.5 appears to be implementing as well, through Backgrounds)

After devouring it, I went back and analyzed it utilizing Jungian psychological type as a lens (which is different than using Jungian Analysis on it!).  Eventually, I'll post a review with that analysis, BUT...

This led me to considering a completely different topic: the results of which are the thought experiment below.

Sort-Ranking the six classic Attribute scores of Dungeons and Dragons

Part One:  Jungian Psychology

In Jungian Psychology, there are two primary modes of operation, Perceiving (gathering information) and Judging (or reasoning).  We gather information (facts, recollections, theories, ideas, meanings), and then make decisions (analyze, synthesize, execute, evaluate, rank, sort) on said information.  

There are four distinct Perception Mental Functions, and four distinct Judgment Mental Functions, for a total of 8.

In classic Myers-Briggs theory (an application of Jung's theories), the rank-order of the first 2 of these 8 Mental Functions results in the classic 16 Psychological Types of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) (2x2x2x2).  The first preferred function is called the Dominant, and the second preferred function is called the Auxiliary.

On a side-note, in the rules of Myers-Briggs, a person has one Perception (P) and one Judgment (J) Mental Function as their Primary and Secondary preferred functions.  The rules of which 2 of the 8 are the first and second are slightly complex, but we won't be applying those rules here, anyway (eventually, I might).  I provide this as a completist's side-note.

In Singer-Loomis theory, a different application of Jungian Psychological Type, any two Functions can be in the first and second position.  This combination results in a possible 30 distinct pairings of the top two Mental Functions (and 40,320 combinations if we rank all 8!).  It is a version of this theory that we will be using when analyzing DnD.

And lastly, according to John Beebe, a noted Jungian lecturer, the eight Mental Functions occupy different functional roles depending on the order in which they are ranked, described by the Jungian Archetypes, as seen by the chart below.

1	Dominant	Hero/Heroine
2	Auxiliary	Good Parent
3	Tertiary	Child/Puer/Puerella
4	Inferior	Anima/Animus
5	Opposing Personality	Shadow
6	Critic	Witch/Senex
7	Amateur	Trickster
8	Ineffable	Demon/Daimon

For our purposes we will be focusing on the top two (and later, top three) rankings.

First, we have the Dominant, or Heroic role.  This is the captain of one's arsenal of functions.  It is the first one we develop, we develop it well, and it gets the right of first refusal.

Second, we have the Auxiliary, or Good Parental role.  This role provides guidance, support, and advice to the Hero function and keeps it in check.  

Third, we have the Tertiary, or Child role.  The Child role is the source of novelty, exploration, raw talent and has a touches of the qualities of both "beginner's luck" and "out of the mouth of babes."  

So, let's apply the rank-order model of 8 Mental Functions of Jung to the 6 Attributes of Gygax.

In DnD, there are the Mental Attribute scores (Intelligence, Charisma, Wisdom) and the Physical Attribute scores (Strength, Dexterity and Constitution) for a total of 6.  

This arrangement results in three axis, mapped to Jung's Judgment and Perception:

Functions

Judgment : Perception

Attributes

Physical : Mental

Strength (Red) : Charisma (Green) (the Presence axis)

Dexterity (Orange) : Intelligence (Blue) (the Mind-Body Connection axis)

Constitution (Yellow): Wisdom (Purple) (the Wholistic Will axis)

I'll be adding some interesting observations I've made in regards to these three axis, and other groupings (such as the Primary colors as Substantive, and the Secondary colors as Temporal) in a later posting.

Now let's sort-rank our six Attributes.

Our rules:

1) Any Attribute can be in any position, with no repeats.

2) The first Attribute is the Heroic one, with the second (Parent) supporting the first.

(This results in 30 distinct combination pairs - table at the end)

3) The third Attribute (the Tertiary, or Child) will expand the table further, resulting in 120 possible combinations.

4) While a character may have tie scores in Attributes (for example, Str 17 and Dex 17), for Reasons, there can only be one Dominant/Auxiliary/Tertiary.

5) Since there are only 6 Attributes, the top three can be considered the Conscious Attributes, and the lowest three will be considered the Unconscious Attributes.  (In Jung, it is the top and bottom four.)

Referring back to Ammann's An Equal Portion, he combines the +2/+1 Attribute bonuses to create 30 distinct Cultural backgrounds.  The +2 bonus in this case acts as the Dominant and the +1 is the Auxiliary (Hero and Parent).  

	Primary (Hero) +2	Auxiliary (Parent) +1
1	1. Str	2. Dex
2	1. Str	3. Con
3	1. Str	4. Cha
4	1. Str	5. Int
5	1. Str	6. Wis
6	2. Dex	1. Str
7	2. Dex	3. Con
8	2. Dex	4. Cha
9	2. Dex	5. Int
10	2. Dex	6. Wis
11	3. Con	1. Str
12	3. Con	2. Dex
13	3. Con	4. Cha
14	3. Con	5. Int
15	3. Con	6. Wis
16	4. Cha	1. Str
17	4. Cha	2. Dex
18	4. Cha	3. Con
19	4. Cha	5. Int
20	4. Cha	6. Wis
21	5. Int	1. Str
22	5. Int	2. Dex
23	5. Int	3. Con
24	5. Int	4. Cha
25	5. Int	6. Wis
26	6. Wis	1. Str
27	6. Wis	2. Dex
28	6. Wis	3. Con
29	6. Wis	4. Cha
30	6. Wis	5. Int

In Part Two, we will be ranking the final scores of our Player Characters, (not the bonuses), to create 6, 30, and later 120, Character Archetypes.