I'm in the process of developing my own videogame and was hoping you guys could help me brainstorm ideas for character classes. My game is set on a surreal setting a la alice in wonderland so there is a lot of room for going nuts. Essentially I want to stray away from the fighter/mage/thief cliches as far as possible
I'm mostly looking for theme/flavor but if you got ideas for specific mechanics that's good too. Feel free to make it as silly as you wish.
Any ideas? What's something you've always wanted to see but have never seen done right?
A sly merchant that constantly swindles people and enlists allies with his charisma and swift tongue, then stabs them in the back at the first opportunity and pins the crime on someone else
Cooper Johnson
Puppetmaster
Can create its own puppet minions and control enemies.
Some sort of that of artist that brings paintings to life
Joseph Reed
I'll take any concept based around dancing and music that's not just a shitty bard
Jaxson Moore
I should tell everyone before they even bother- Jesters are already a thing in Forgotten Realms, and they're one of the most dangerous and broken classes in the entire game. They literally have a base class, prestige and class, bard class of the same name, in addition to features in Kingdoms of Kalamar- and you can top it off with Xaiocistect levels for extra spice. They nearly effortlessly took over waterdeep. They can kill an entire room of people in casual conversation, fudge rolls, bantz you to death, and they earn more money in downtime than the adventuring party combined because they have a perform skill separate from the actual perform skill that immediately has them perform so hard that Outsiders want them to to serve, guaranteeing limitless $$$. Oh right, Jester's are immune to Insanity- you could waltz into the Far Realm as one and use the forbidden Power Word Bazinga and cause the multiverse to collapse as Azathot loses it's sides amongst the infinity of space and time, traced amongst Yog-Sototh itself.
Pathfinder even has Orcus Made Jesters who have their own Deck of Many things- except they can use it infinitely and draw whatever fucking card they want, so there goes any hope of victory.
All sorts of silly concepts, from combat mimes and atomic mad scientists to luck altering gamblers and kamen rider types powered by... a lot of options, actually.
Luis Davis
South Park's jew is more of a cleric, really.
Evan Wood
Eschatologist, a person who studies the end times. I imagine it as a priest that really channels the bizarre nature of revelations and biblical mythology. I still picture the class as being "good" though, not evil or unholy
Owen Thompson
Some guy with a music box with crank and a monkey.
Camden Collins
River Kings or Vassals of the River King, maybe Gondoleers depending on how you want to fluff it or deal with the basic concept.
Core features are >Ridiculously large grins, usually frog motif or catfish, might work with crawdads or hermit crabs. >Work for the River King or are simply called such for their talents and abilities. >Excellent at getting where they need to go, flawless navigation within a short while after starting up at lvl 1, even if they're not on a boat, but they're most mobile in or near water. >At mid to higher levels, teleport anywhere along a stretch of the river or body of water nearby, or teleport To the nearest if they want. >Can carry others along with them, but... >Other key feature is an Inventory matter. Their gullets function as a Bag of Holding sort of deal where-in they can hold extra inventory beyond what they could normally carry. >Starting wealth or assets for the class are Hugely improved; they may not be Great at most skills or fighting, but they're alright, and they'll Always have a tool for the job if they're smart about keeping track of it. >Available space grows as they do in power, can eventually vomit out whole boats or vehicles or canons in late-game. >Notorious for smuggling, local authorities hate them.
Lizard-Themed Singing class who study the Unbound Scale; a sequence of tones which, when mastered, have a specific effect. Most of them carry around instruments as being able to hit each note correctly in a hurry can be important, but vocals work especially well with creatures who have multiple heads. Unbound Choirs are easily stoppable but multiply their effectiveness.
Every manifestation of the Unbound Scale must necessarily create an imbalance as a result. The Flying Chord upsets your equilibrium with gravity and sends you off in the direction you wish, but doesn't give you a means to Stop; the world must step in to correct the imbalance you create. Best keep this one sending foes away.
The simplest chords just tip people over.
The complicated ones turn the world upside down.
Hunter Howard
I want to put Tami Kench's tongue to good use!
Nathan Brooks
A dollmaker who turns opponents into living marionettes.
A potioneer. Spends prep time and components to brew various potions, and then later drinks/throws them for spell effects. Kind of like vancian magic style, except instead of recharging every day, it only recharges when you have the time and resources. Could stockpile it all up for the entire game just to throw your entire potions bag at the bad guy and cause a nuclear explosion, or you could constantly be starving for potions throughout the entire game.
Especially alice in wonderlandish, with the whole Drink Me thing
Creates minions or objects by painting them into existence. Has a resource called Creativity is uses to paint things, but here's the trick- It takes more creativity to paint the same object/creature each additional time, meaning you have to mix it up. If you need to cross a chasm on day 1, then you can paint a rope bridge. The next time you come across a chasm, you have to paint a stone bridge, or a catapult, or a grappling hook to tie a rope to, etc.
Or when you paint a creature, you have to describe it to everyone, and depending on how creative you are, the GM rates the creature.
Jackson Wood
>It takes more creativity to paint the same object/creature each additional time that makes no sense, repeating something should take no creativity
Aaron Wilson
It takes more creativity to make sure the copy stays interesting.
If art isn't interesting, it's dead.
Ryder Watson
This tbqh. As there ever been a successful attempt?
Isaiah Cruz
chickenmancer - conjures and charms chickens to do his bidding acrobat - acrobats around, focuses on mobility, kinda useless for anything else monkey butler - uhh, serves tea for buffs, extra melee if chimpanzee, loremaster if orangutan flamenco flamingo - very particular brand of acrobat, actually, possibly unique character knifethrower - focuses on throwing shit that misses target by inches, but amazes the crowd - actually has penalties to actually hit anything fry cook - cooks, but only very basic, greasy dishes scrotum scribe - either draws balls on things, or draws things on balls, could have high attack precision/crit chance stand up comedian - debuffs enemies, tanks when they inevitably get pissed off with his shitty jokes janitor - is on a quest because somebody has to clean this mess up, innit undertaker - bluecollar, common man's cleric equivalent - undead fighting and burial specialist potion seller - sells powerful potions, but only if he has a way to acquire them first hobo - master drunkard, very dangerous to go against in a drinking match moonshiner - specialist, brewer, connoisseur and very high save against poisons snake charmer - the gayest man to ever touch a flute
Gavin Flores
>potion seller - sells powerful potions, but only if he has a way to acquire them first >Potion Seller >Selling potions mfw
>Gourmand Seeks to discover the flavours of the world, can prepare snacks and meals of various kind to feed their party for health an benefits (essentially a cleric).
>Locksmith Like a rogue, but legal. He'll get you in, but he isn't gonna brook no theivery.
Aaron Edwards
The Village Drunk
A solo type potioneer/berserker who can create his own potions (that only effect him). Just be careful of the hang over...
How about a sculptor that can animate his sculptures and turn enemies into stone?
Xavier Thompson
A very small person that walks around on stilts.
Classic, nonsinister clown.
Hatter, naturally.
Aquarius, a person that battles with a pitcher of magic water.
Cameron Butler
>fry cook - cooks, but only very basic, greasy dishes
B-but there's room to move as a fry cook user
Aaron Sanders
>Jesters are already a thing in Forgotten Realms, and they're one of the most dangerous and broken classes in the entire game. What edition are you talking about?
Mason Cox
1e-2e-3.5
I think they're only Bard Variants past that- they peaked at 2e-3.5
Cooper Green
>I think they're only Bard Variants past that- they peaked at 2e-3.5 Really. I don't remember seeing them in 3.5 as overpowered. From what I can recall, they were a bit underpowered. Is there some sort of special variant out there?
There's the base class in the Dragon Compendium, the and the PrC in Dragon magazine which gives you access to Diarmunds last jest (The undetectable Power Word Kill in radius the individual of the same canon name from 1e and the canon forgotten realms comics used to kill and entire room of people) with a perform skill which such a sharp turnout for free dosh because you'll be dancing for royalty nobles, then fucking deities outta nowhere by 10th.
base class has limited spell-use. But that's migitated because Jesters by canon do the thing shown in the FR comics where you can hide the somantics of a spell in casual conversation, except in jokes- something later detailed and used in Kingdoms of Kalamar- and you've their Guild which again, sacked waterdeep, using the reanimated skeleton of Diarmund they resurrected in ritual- which was also made Titan-sized and spat fireballs from it's mouth, nearly forcing the surrender of the Lords of Waterdeep- Despite hte fact that Jester's can't use Necromancy.
Perks man.
Jack Kelly
kek'd, love you, user
David Hill
>Except in jokes whoops, they do do it in jokes- it's the theme of the Jester PrC abilities, but it's technically a spellcraft check skill that's technically Greenwood approved canon.
Hell, back in 2e they even had literal Jest-offs which were bantz battles.
Lincoln Bailey
Also again, social debuff class who can hide spells get mad dosh from Perform and their own perform to the point where you can gear up quick to kill things at the peak of level threshold- and technically use to avoid WELL I HEARD YOU LIKED NON-EUCLIDEAN EXPERIENCES SO HERE IS THE RAVENLOFT HORROR TABLE AND LORDS OF MADNESS MADNESS TABLES FOR ABERRATIONS AND ELDER EVILS I'M RUNNING.
The Jester? Laughs it off and Cegorach's that shit. Tharizdun giving you trouble? Jester- Entropy god of madness can't datamine the guy via his salient ability, won't have scried anything about this dude.
Camden Reyes
dndtools.net/classes/jester/ This one? Because I'm reading it here and it still seems like it is underpowered, especially if the foes have immunity to mind effects via items/spells/other effects.
Charles Ward
Sasori from Naruto
Leo Richardson
Smile based teleportation expert
Carter Smith
Tarot card wizard/summoner. Might be fun as well if you give the player a real deck of cards to draw or play spells from. With different cards aligning with different effects.
actually the role seems more like a "dark knight" in that most of the abilities damage or inflict status on self as well as enemies.
Liam Watson
Chessmaster All of his powers are based on using a battle grid in weird chess piece type attack. >Red Knight Smite, hits a square 10-from away spaced away by an L-Shape >Black Bishop Beam, splits along a diagonal And so on and so forth. Get some weirder ones like a line of pawns or inspire an ally with an en passant.
Julian Jackson
Animancer. Can only use magic to bring inanimate objects.
However, just because you give something life won't make it useful. An animated brick is just a sentient brick. Also, your creations may not obey you at all.
>the critic Attacks centre around breaking the fourth wall and complaining about things in the game, resulting in various effects such as buffing/debuffing, monsters fleeing/going berserk etc. Has minor character development and admits he hates himself most of all and wishes the player had chosen another class.
>the confused A man stumbling about in a costume apparently based on one of the in-game enemies. Admits he's not sure what role he was meant to play and just grabbed the first costume he saw. Sometimes starts battles on the opposing side, and wastes enemy turns by asking them to show him how to use a certain attack again (he has a chance then to learn that attack; he has a chance of randomly unlearning attacks), or messing up horribly and having them spend their turn rebuking him. Has to be reminded to change sides. Can confuse others by asking them if they shouldn't be attacking somebody else instead. If enough people are confused by him, the fight is called off for being a complete mess. Sometimes he doesn't rejoin the party after a fight and leaves you with a random enemy from that battle until you encounter him again. If you want, you can keep the enemy and just leave him to show up from time to time in battles.
>the menu Wanting to "try something new" after a long career as an RPG menu, the menu has decided to try its hand at being a player character. It can check the bestiary as a free move to show current enemy condition (if known) or scan an enemy to start gathering said information, can cast ally healing magic (which is normally available outside of battle), can cast some time magic via the options menu to "change battle speed", use items, and can also "reload" (very expensive spell) to immediately end the current battle and teleport you back to your last save point. It has no offensive capabilities.
Leo Foster
Phantom
Can't inflict any direct damage but may possess opponents. Invisibility Flight Creates illusions
