Character Classes

>What Systems have the best Descriptions for their Character Classes?
>Who has devised the most direct, distilled char. class list that still works effectively in-game?
>Is there a class set more difficult to be introduced to, but it makes more sense once you get it?
>What is the most Unique (in a functional way) char. class you have ever seen?
> What is the most Weird (non-functional / broken) char. class you've ever seen?
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Add your inquires as it seems fit.

Personally, I think Numenera is pretty distilled with it's three core character classes, but I've never actually played the system.

Currently I am facing the issue of wanting to create Arche types for a Savage Worlds game (scifi setting) And I'm having a hard time managing that sweet spot of having enough variety but not creating overlap / too much work for myself. I was thinking of copying some of Traveller's ideas but Numenera's short list is also tempting.

I think older D&D editions did it best, if largely because they actually explain the classes clearly.

The class descriptions in the 5e handbook are atrocious. It's obvious they were written with assumption everyone already knows what a Paladin is via osmosis.

I did hear though that 2ed had very specific requirements you had to meet via dice roll for certain classes or races.

>What Systems have the best Descriptions for their Character Classes?

I used to prefer class-based stuff back in the day, but by the late 3e D&D era I had fallen out of love with the idea of classes. I went around to various classless games after that, but was never really happy with them.
Then along came Apocalypse World, and it made me love classes all over again. Here were classes as they should be, not a hollow job description that was created as a label for a dull mechanical niche, but broad, flavorful classes built upon the archetypes of the media that the game was meant to play out, with mechanics tailored to fit the ideas.

The Skinner
>Even in the filth of Apocalypse World, there’s food that isn’t death on a
>spit, music that isn’t shrieking hyenas, thoughts that aren’t afraid, bodies
>that aren’t used meat, sex that isn’t rutting, dancing that’s real. There are
>moments that are more than stench, smoke, rage and blood.
>Anything beautiful left in this ugly ass world, skinners hold it. Will they
>share it with you? What do you offer them?

Which 2e? Even in the core books they had a hundred "optional rules", some of which went the length of whole chapters.

I honestly really love how 4e did classes. Each is a discrete, interesting set of mechanics that gives the class a unique playstyle and way of interacting with the systems of the game, while each is broad enough that you can fit it to a very broad variety of concepts, moreso with refluffing. Focusing on the classes mechanical identity made them meaningful while also letting a player choose quite freely which one best fit with their playstyle. Sadly its class selection was never completed, and the system does have its flaws, but in concept it's an approach I really enjoy.

I just prefer systems that don't uses classes and levels and go with point buy instead. It adds more freedom to the game.

While I enjoy freeform games, there are advantages to a class system, although hybrids capture the best of both worlds.

The fundamental flaw about fully freeform games is that everything you have available to you has to be compatible with every other thing available to you. Without the ability to fence off a set of mechanics or define the parameters they function within, you'll often have a lot of potential balance problems if you don't avoid certain kinds of mechanic, like ones that influence action economy. Individual mechanics are also generally less characterful, since they need to be made to fit broadly, the combination you use being what gives them character.

With classes, or a semi-class based system, you can define the parameters within which a particular mechanic functions, allowing you to do things that would shatter a class based system.

With a hybrid system you can get the best of both, giving players a choice of mutually exclusive isolated mechanics, along with freedom to pick and choose stuff to go alongside them, getting both flexibility and the distinct mechanical flavour a pure pointbuy system will almost always lack.

*shatter a classless system

Accursed failure of cognition

On the other hand, I'd say hybrid systems sacrifice the strong points of both sides. You lose the limitless possibilities of the point buy, and you lose the fast character creation, easy balance, and strong archetypes that a good class system can bring you.

I guess it's how much value you see in that compromise. A hybrid system is certainly harder than a pure class based one, but I do appreciate the added flexibility.

I feel there is some mental hurdles too. If your personal group plays a game in a really unique way, lets say heavy combat vs heavy politics. A class system probably has a little of both thrown into everywhere to appeal to both, but a pure points buy system you're buying it all instead.

That means a half and half character in Class-based you can blame the system or just accept it comes with useless abilities. In the points buy you are more likely to blame yourself instead of the group and have a more negative experience even with the same character.

That's without getting into the character creation time investment difference because dear icosahedron Jesus.

I like how Strike! does classes.

You have "jobs" and "origins" handling all the fluffy stuff, and you have "Classes" and "Roles" handling all your combat mechanical stuff. There's still an implied fluff, but the martial artist's style switching being an actual kung-fu guy switching styles, a weapon-master type character switching weapons, or a blob morphing into different configurations is entirely up to you; what the classes are focused on is having unique mechanical niches and their combinations leading to interesting gameplay.

I haven't played the game yet or anything and I think it might be cool, but what in god's name is that image? It doesn't actually have any rules or anything, and the formatting is kind of weird.

it's the class/role descriptions cut out from the pdfs and numbered so you could random roll a character with a d6 + a d20 (or d22).

> What is the most Weird (non-functional / broken) char. class you've ever seen?

I think the Acrobat gets a special mention here for retroactively overwriting rules just so he can do things others can't.

I've always been a fan of non-restrictive classes a la the elder scrolls or Gurps dungeon fantasy. You have a defined role at your core to start off with, but you're not entirely beholden to it and you can branch out and pick up new things as appropriate

Stop shilling Strike!

Why does Veeky Forums keep shilling Strike!?

Newer versions of The Dark Eye/Realms of Arkania work like this too - and that's my preferred version of a class system as well. Basically, your "class" is what you did until the game starts. Maybe you where an alchemist, or a guard, a knight, a whore, a bard, a merchant, a druid ... But that's behind you now.

I feel like this is less a class and more a "starting pack" for a point-buy system.

Which is okay, but it really doesn't represent class-based systems well, as the only advantage it retains (borrows?) is the ease of creation.

It's more or less a "starting pack" combined with a simple life path (especially if the system allows you to multi-class; you're first a whore, then become a priestess or something like that), in-universe flavour ("this combination of skills, feats and traits makes sense in this world"). Though if it's mandatory, it can also allow for more typically class-like features which determine your future too. For example, if you can get the "arcane spell-casting" feature only via a few specific classes, you need to be one of those classes if you want to cast arcane spells, point. With all the other features and limitations those classes bring about.

If it's not open ended, then it's more like Shadow of the Demon Lord's three classes you get to pick, which is actually a pretty cool system, but the initial description didn't really sound like that.

While they're technically not called classes, I love how Gamma World 7e handles them. You randomly roll two origins and that determines your powers, the abilities you get at certain levels, and even your starting attribute scores. It's by far the best example of character generation that's both random but fair and the idea of combining two separate chunks of character and trying to justify their consolidation can be amazingly fun.

To be fair, Thieves stole way more standard abilities than the acrobat did, it's why Fighters are no longer allowed to do anything beyond dealing damage through weapon attacks.

>Thieves stole way more standard abilities than the acrobat did

I assume you're talking about 3e? Though I suppose it was preceded by people misinterpreting the original TSR thief's sneak abilities to mean "nobody else can sneak ever again."