Playing 4th Edition Classless?

[LostInTheMists]

Hey everyone!

I currently run a solo game of D&D (my only player is my wife - having a two-year old son kind of makes it difficult to scout out any local gaming groups), and was wondering about the feasibility of a character being "classless", as was alluded to in a preview way back when. The abilities seem simple enough - just pick and choose what you want.

How would people suggest working other stuff, like hit points and skills? Just an average of what all the other classes get for each (number of trained skills, etc.)? Or should the player choose a "base" class at level 1, and just go "classless" from there?

Any advice on this would be very helpful. Thanks!

 

[Mort_Q]

I think that I'd go level 0 based on race (would need to tinker with something to make it workable) and base HP, etc off of that ....

Just adding powers as per the character advancement tables could work... add in feats to tap into different power sources, and then just let players pick powers from any list that they can tap.

I'd think players staying within one role would be self optimizing, so I'm not sure if they need any real limits placed.

Anyway, off the top of my head without any real attempt to crunch numbers for balance.

 

[Aria Silverhands]

There's a middle ground that might work better.

1. Divide abilities up by class role / power source.
2. Alter the multi-class rules to allow a different role &/or power source.

This would let you make a Striker (martial) / Defender (martial) or Defender (divine) / Controller (arcane).

 

[Sitara]

Playing classlessIMO will be a pretty popular option, I can already forsee a number of 3rd party publishers actively supporting this style of play in their products.

 

[Acid_crash]

I was thinking of going the whole route of someday making the roles the classes and within the roles the character can pick and choose from any of those powers that belong to those classes that compose the roles...

However, I don't think there are two of every role, if I am not mistaken.

 

[Kzach]

I think choosing a 'base' class at level 1 to work out all the abilities and class features and whatnot and then choosing powers cart blanche is certainly a viable option.

There is an in-built balance to it from the fact that many powers work off of class features as well as the powers generally being based around one or two ability scores that the class is strong at. This will inherently either limit your choices if you want your abilities to be any good, or will simply weaken your overall power because you're taking powers that use abilities that are low for you.

 

[Zelgadas]

On the D&D Podcast, I believe I recall Mearls saying that, were he to do it, he'd allow access to all Martial powers out of the gate, and open up Arcane and Divine powers via feats; so you take a feat, and now you can select Arcane powers. I would assume that this is because these powers tend to allow effects that Martial powers can't duplicate, and because they tend to have the advantage of not requiring a weapon (which, granted, is really only a major advantage if you're somehow separated from your weapon).

As far as class features go, were I to do it, I'd probably allow a player to take the class features/hit points/etc. from a martial class of their choice, and then open up other class features via feats. So, if you start with the fighter stuff, you can spend feats to get ranger class features. If you've taken the Arcane feat, you can take feats to gain wizard or warlock features. And so on.

Of course, this is all off the top of my head. I have no idea how balanced it is.

 

[Sunsword]

Since your running a Solo game, I'd probably let her choose the Class Feature she likes best. Give her the decent Hit Points & Healing Surges (maybe the Fighter's for instance) & simply let her pick any Powers from any class. I'd then allow her to choose a Paragon Path from her Original Class Feature & any source she took the 1st Multi-Class Feat in.

I'd probably do it differently for a whole party. But for a Solo or even 2 player game, I'd let them be versatile.