Nytmare
David Jose
So I've been kicking around an idea for a "classless" system that mimicked what could basically be described as E6 shuffled with Obsidian skill challenges. The game would be used primarily in a play by post or wiki setting where round by round confrontations were not feasible.
In layman's terms, that would be a game without a list of character classes, with a power level that did not extend beyond 3.5's 6th level (see 3rd level spells), and would rely on tiers of skill checks to resolve conflicts.
For classes, I'm imagining that a player would choose (let's pretend 3) ranks of (for lack of a better term) "power sources." So a player who wanted to play a straight up wizard kind of character could choose "arcane x3" as his initial concept. Someone who wanted a paladin could choose some combination of "divine and martial" as could a cleric or any other flavor of holy butt-kicker.
The power sources would be: Arcane, divine, martial, and primal. For argument's sake, "psychic" could easily fit into the list, I'm just not gonna put it there.
I keep flopping back and forth on whether I should have skills should just get factored out of your rank choices, or if "skill" itself should be a power source.
I'm figuring that defenses would be a factor of rank (defenses and AC will probably exist as both a flat +10 target as well as an action option), as well as healing surges (no hit point tracking just surges and "wounded" "bleeding" "exhausted" kinds of disease track adjective tags.
Beyond that, I'm thinking that I should be able to boil feats, spells, and what would otherwise be class options into a coral reef of pre-req backed feat trees. Some basic ideas might be:
Balance issues are rearing their head. The rank choices that translate into spells are easy enough to imagine, but martial kinda leaves me scratching my head. The game world I'm cobbling this together for doesn't have Wuxia martial arts or splashy special effect cut scene attacks. Martial will probably pile on attacks, defenses, and surges; but that doesn't really feel like it will provide interesting enough options.
I guess the main problem is that the game I'm imagining doesn't have the right kind of play space for a martial character's normal set of toys. A fighter is going to have tons of cool stuff he can do in a fight and, in general, a fight in this game is going to be a single d20 roll and a lot of flavor text.
The game is going to be about having a lot of interesting options to solve different problems, and spellcasters are going to have those options built into them from the start. A martial character's strengths tend to be very narrowly focused and I'm not sure what kind of bone I can throw them aside from "You can hit things very well, and you've got great physical skills."
Also, I'm not sure how best to tackle the possible power level discrepancies between say a rank 3 arcane character, and a rank 1/1/1 arcane/divine/primal character. On the one hand, I want those capstone abilities to feel special; but at the same time, I don't want a "multi class" character to be left behind in the dust. I could easily do a special feat tree for an arcane/divine/primal character to make sure they're as good as a straight up arcanist, but even with 4 power sources and 3 ranks, that's what, 20+ possible multi-power source feat trees?
Granted I could hammer those out on a character by character basis, but bleh. Maybe the trick is to make the maximum ranks not be a worthwhile choice? Pretend that of those 3 ranks, the second gives you access to all the powers and abilities, and the third just firms up your already impressive numbers. That way players are encouraged to branch out just a little for the power boost instead of focusing for the boost.
Alright, I'm done rambling for now. I'll be back tomorrow.
In layman's terms, that would be a game without a list of character classes, with a power level that did not extend beyond 3.5's 6th level (see 3rd level spells), and would rely on tiers of skill checks to resolve conflicts.
For classes, I'm imagining that a player would choose (let's pretend 3) ranks of (for lack of a better term) "power sources." So a player who wanted to play a straight up wizard kind of character could choose "arcane x3" as his initial concept. Someone who wanted a paladin could choose some combination of "divine and martial" as could a cleric or any other flavor of holy butt-kicker.
The power sources would be: Arcane, divine, martial, and primal. For argument's sake, "psychic" could easily fit into the list, I'm just not gonna put it there.
I keep flopping back and forth on whether I should have skills should just get factored out of your rank choices, or if "skill" itself should be a power source.
I'm figuring that defenses would be a factor of rank (defenses and AC will probably exist as both a flat +10 target as well as an action option), as well as healing surges (no hit point tracking just surges and "wounded" "bleeding" "exhausted" kinds of disease track adjective tags.
Beyond that, I'm thinking that I should be able to boil feats, spells, and what would otherwise be class options into a coral reef of pre-req backed feat trees. Some basic ideas might be:
If you have a rank of arcana, divine, or primal, you can get a familiar/animal companion.
If you have at least two ranks of divine you can get turn/rebuke undead.
If you have at least one rank of martial you can get a +2 to attack a specific class of enemy (ala favored enemies, or back stabbees)
If you have at least one rank of arcana you can get Burning Hands. Two ranks and Burning Hands, you can get Flame Bolt. Three ranks and Flame Bolt, and you can get Fireball.
But, I'm running into problems.If you have at least two ranks of divine you can get turn/rebuke undead.
If you have at least one rank of martial you can get a +2 to attack a specific class of enemy (ala favored enemies, or back stabbees)
If you have at least one rank of arcana you can get Burning Hands. Two ranks and Burning Hands, you can get Flame Bolt. Three ranks and Flame Bolt, and you can get Fireball.
Balance issues are rearing their head. The rank choices that translate into spells are easy enough to imagine, but martial kinda leaves me scratching my head. The game world I'm cobbling this together for doesn't have Wuxia martial arts or splashy special effect cut scene attacks. Martial will probably pile on attacks, defenses, and surges; but that doesn't really feel like it will provide interesting enough options.
I guess the main problem is that the game I'm imagining doesn't have the right kind of play space for a martial character's normal set of toys. A fighter is going to have tons of cool stuff he can do in a fight and, in general, a fight in this game is going to be a single d20 roll and a lot of flavor text.
The game is going to be about having a lot of interesting options to solve different problems, and spellcasters are going to have those options built into them from the start. A martial character's strengths tend to be very narrowly focused and I'm not sure what kind of bone I can throw them aside from "You can hit things very well, and you've got great physical skills."
Also, I'm not sure how best to tackle the possible power level discrepancies between say a rank 3 arcane character, and a rank 1/1/1 arcane/divine/primal character. On the one hand, I want those capstone abilities to feel special; but at the same time, I don't want a "multi class" character to be left behind in the dust. I could easily do a special feat tree for an arcane/divine/primal character to make sure they're as good as a straight up arcanist, but even with 4 power sources and 3 ranks, that's what, 20+ possible multi-power source feat trees?
Granted I could hammer those out on a character by character basis, but bleh. Maybe the trick is to make the maximum ranks not be a worthwhile choice? Pretend that of those 3 ranks, the second gives you access to all the powers and abilities, and the third just firms up your already impressive numbers. That way players are encouraged to branch out just a little for the power boost instead of focusing for the boost.
Alright, I'm done rambling for now. I'll be back tomorrow.
