With snappy comebacks and spontaneous one-liners, the Jester is always popular.
--Description in Dragon Quest VII.
The Gadabout (遊び人, Asobinin), also known as the Jester, is a recurring vocation in the Dragon Quest series. Design wise, gadabouts were originally split between dressing as clowns for men and bunny girls for women, but with the reintroduction of the profession in X and the 3DS remake of VII this practice has since been retired in lieu of both sexes dressing as clowns.
Gadabouts march to the beat of their own drum, often ignoring any commands from the player for their own buffoonery that can have positive or negative impact on the party. The chance of a gadabout goofing off increases with their level or rank, depending on the game, with more extreme actions becoming available. Quite literally a joke character, the Gadabout is poor in nearly every attribute, save for their incredible luck in III and a small style boost in VI and VII.
In X, the gadabout is not as foppish as in past games and players can control their chaos by selecting when to goof off instead of at random. The effects are still unpredictable, however.
Gadabouts, originally localized as goof-offs, are pretty much useless on the battlefield, but do have a great amount of luck. This allows them to avoid the affects of debilitating spells more often than other characters. The trade-off for this is the fact that these clowns have minds of their own, and the player cannot always control their actions. The gadabout is the only class that can turn into a Sage at Alltrades Abbey without the Words of Wisdom, merely needing to reach level 20 to do so. Rather than take a gadabout from the beginning of the journey with this career advancement in mind, some players opt to instead turn an existing character in to a fop and level them up in the safety of their much stronger peers.
A gadabout will only follow the player's instructions 75% of the time, disobeying with a randomly selected action. Every few levels, a new action is added to the list:
Level 1 (1/5): struck a defensive pose (Defends), just gawked at the scene(Nothing), yell for help (Nothing), run (Nothing), fell and tripped (Nothing)
Level 3 (1/7): smiled serenely (Nothing), keeled over (Falls asleep)
Level 5 (1/8): juggle stones (4~8 damage to Gadabout or monster)
Level 7 (1/9): sing and dance gaily (Nothing)
Level 9 (1/10): flick disheveled hair(F)/put on tough guy act(M) (Nothing)
Level 11 (1/11): tap dance (Gadabout's evasion rises)
Level 13 (1/12): spin finger at monster (Confuses monster)
Level 15 (1/13): preen with mirror (F)/goose other party member(M) (Nothing)
Level 17 (1/15): keel over (Paralyzes Gadabout), cast some gibberish (Nothing)
Level 19 (1/16): pray for peace (Nothing)
Level 20 (1/17): become plagued by self doubt (Nothing)
Level 21 (1/18): make up a pun (Makes enemy laugh)
Level 23 (1/20): roll a die (Nothing), sing loudly (terrible voice - makes enemy flee, beautiful voice - makes enemy lose turn)
Level 29 (1/24): start a word game (Nothing), gaze sexily at monster (Makes monster lose turn (F)/Nothing(M))
Level 31 (1/25): tell a story (Random party member can lose turn)
Level 33 (1/26): put on heels and hold a whip(F)/pull out a crown and wear it(M)(Makes a monster attack other monster or itself when alone/Gadabout attacks a monster)
Level 35 (1/28): sneak up behind other party member (Nothing), laugh maniacally (Make monsters flee)
Level 37 (1/29): cheer everyone up (Casts Deceleratle or Acceleratle on the party)
Level 39 (1/31): guzzle a bottle of ale (Gadabout won't move next turn), heckle a monster (Nothing)
Level 41 (1/32): toss up a boulder (12~14 damage to party member, or 30~32 to a monster)
Level 43 (1/33): puff-puff a monster (Makes a monster lose turn(F)/Deals 36~45 damage to a monster(M))
Level 45 (1/34): use a move on a monster (Poofchop, Poofmash; deals 35~42 damage to a monster)
Level 47 (1/35): do something illicit (Nothing)
Level 49 (1/36): lit some paper on fire (Casts Frizzle on a monster)
Level 50 (1/37): run out of things to do (Casts Multiheal on party)
Once again, Jester is one of the basic classes available. Mastering it is a prerequisite to unlock the Luminary vocation, along with Dancer and Troubadour. When Ruff is this class, his wolf has a clown's red nose.
The Jester's attributes decline in all categories save for Style which might be hard to deal with at first and the skills aren't worth using, but the vocation is required for a character to become a Luminary and then a Druid later on.
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Notable Gadabouts
Selectable class in Dragon Quest III.
Torneko can be considered a fusion of the Gadabout and Merchant classes, with a little bit of Thief thrown in.
Dhoulmagus is referred to by the party and by NPCs as a Jester. Beyond this nomenclature and a superficial resemblance, he has no real relation to the vocation.
Male gadabout, Famicom art
Female gadabout, Famicom art
The male and female gadabouts
Feeling lucky
Female gadabout, gameboy color art
Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart
Dragon Quest X
Dancing with Maya
