Intuitive, Self-Taught, Trained: Or "Three Words in Advanced Race Guide that Lead me me into Thinking too Hard!"

[BlueStorm]

There seemed to be some minor point in the Appendix of the Advanced Race guide that's got me pondering: In the Tables for "Starting Ages", there seemed to be three categories of how that character's "Training" for their class works, and thus how long it takes for them to be ready for play.

They go something like this:
-Intuitive: Rogues, Sorcerers, Oracles, Barbarians.
-Self-Taught: Bards, Cavaliers, Fighters, Gunslingers, Paladins, Rangers, Summoners, Witches.
-Trained: Alchemists, Clerics, Druids, Inquisitors, Magus, Monks, Wizards.

How I'm confused is what exactly each means for stories of a character going to what is essentially a "Hero's Academy". Not to mention how much the literal meanings of those category names conflicts with my Head-Canon.

1- A Wizard that spend most hours of the day reading books on magic, but rarely goes to see her teacher for active training. Does that not sound like "self taught"? But it's in the Trained Section. Does that mean Self Taught for her would take just as long (or longer) than being personally trained?

2- Some of the "intuitive" classes look to plausibly be able to be taught, even if it's a kind of informal training. Sorcerers are described as being able to learn their powers through introspective meditation, which theoretically, another character could be able to give them pointers on (Even though it will sound like obvious advice, "feel the magic flow through you" and all).

(Continued)- And then with Rogues and Barbarians, its easy to imagine lessons often taking the form of either obstacle courses; or straight up sparing. But still, the word "intuitive" implies that one can learn it without outside help, and the skills come easily, and yet I'm not sure that's the case, or else Every chaotic character would be a Barbarian the moment they became irritable. I don't know, I'm missing half the picture. Maybe I'm using the wrong meaning of "Intuitive" and I should use the "Instinctual" meaning instead; which would at least imply that someone needs to learn how to listen to those instincts.

3- The "Self-taught" category sounds odd. Especially when compared to Intuitive. What's the difference? That one requires thought? No, that doesn't sound right, Sorcerers probably have to put a lot of thought into learning to control their magic through their emotions or whatever. And a barbarian would probably put just as much effort into learning to fill themselves with rage. And Rogues... Well, Learning the tricks probably requires some idea of how to perform the tricks they do.

(continued- And what about comparing them to "Trained"? Logically a Fighter is more likely to have learned the tricks of combat from somebody than not, as would cavaliers and Paladins. Bards likely had a teacher at one point to show them the basics, and then took it from there. Witches although more likely to be self taught, are also one class that pretty much has the potential to learn a spell from another. And so on...

Pretty much, in terms of logic, I've come to these thoughts:
-Intuitive classes COULD be taught as if they were Trained classes, or self-taught classes; through advice or reflection on how to better harness their natural abilities and instincts, or even through trials set up to challenge them to the limit of their abilities.
-Self-Taught Classes Can, and often are, taught by another at some point, usually one on one, or through rivalry. Although, most probably strike out on their own to learn the rest in field assignments for a while; often coming back to learn more once they've mastered what they learned last time.
-Trained Classes could attempt to learn their class as if it was Self-Taught, but it would require mountains worth of devotion to learning those skills, and would probably require many a reference guide to the point they would have put in just as much effort, and got just as much knowledge from outside sources (Through books) as a trained character would. And in a few instances, they may even put in extreme levels of effort just to come up with something through their powers of deduction alone; usually to create a brand new spell.

I'm probably over-thinking this aren't I?

Oh well. Like the Tittle says, "three words made me think too hard".

[wraithstrike]

Intuitive is just something you can do almost instinctively.

Self trained is similar, but it requires practice.

Trained classes assumed that you had some instruction.

[Weirdo]

The labels are perhaps misleading, but wraithstrike's got it right - the issue here is how much practice and guidance you generally need to learn the profession. All these things can be trained, or can use self-teaching and intuition, but the "Trained" classes require more instruction or library resources to learn while the "Intuitive" classes are learned more quickly and are easier to master without expert help. "Self-taught" is the middle ground.

[3.5 Loyalist]

Of course your background can be whatever you wish. Perhaps your wizard starts later than 20, and had to carefully gather the resources to learn magic, making him far more of an urbane fellow with connections, than a wizard from a school.

Or your rogue lass is actually part of the regions spy network, and had a very ordered form of instruction.

Or your barbarian was just a simple poorly trained guardsman, but one day lost it, perhaps at a snooty superior, perhaps in a battle they shouldn't have survived, and discovered the rage inside.

Cavalier and paladins I think, don't lean so much to being self-taught. There is going to be a connection to other noble warriors, boyars, faiths, temples, aristocracy and what have you. What order do you come from? Who do your serve or what do you uphold? Where did you get this training and coaching as it were.

I had a self-taught ranger. His favoured enemy was tied to an old ruin he found and studied (with his interest in linguistics). In effect, he was self-taught the ranger way, through stories of deeds in stone, and an enemy that must at all costs be stopped.