D&D 5E What if everyone in the setting had a [Class]?

[M_Natas]

Assuming the only restrictions were that every humanoid (you can draw your own line on if monstrous humanoids, or any other creatures) get classes, and that class is a real, tangible presence that can be somehow verified, how would you implement such a system?

Part of why I'm asking is that an awful lot of people play in such a manner that class, or at least some classes, are recognized elements in the setting. Even going back to AD&D, that idea never made sense to me, so I'm trying to see how people handle these elements in a diegetic fashion.

A system similar to this is the Arcane Ascension Series.
Not every humanoid gets a class in this setting, but every humanoid can undergo a judgment in one of the Towers of god (like an ever changing mega dungeon), where at the end of the judgment they get a visible attunement mark that defined their class. So just by looking at the Mark, everybody knows your attunement/class and also roughly your level because the mark changes with your power level. People can get more marks by going into the tower again (so Multiclassing) and every tower gives different attunements.

The judgement is like the easiest quest into one of the towers and further quests are harder, but the rewards (treasure, magic items and more attunements) are bigger.

So in that series you have the classes directly in the setting, but not everybody has a class. I think that is a good middle ground between classes as abstract concepts that don't have equivalents in the setting and everything is a class in this setting.

The main character even builds a Mana Watch that can read hismpower level, to get hard numbers on his abilitites.

It is like a soft LitRPG.

 

[Pedantic]

A system similar to this is the Arcane Ascension Series.
Not every humanoid gets a class in this setting, but every humanoid can undergo a judgment in one of the Towers of god (like an ever changing mega dungeon), where at the end of the judgment they get a visible attunement mark that defined their class. So just by looking at the Mark, everybody knows your attunement/class and also roughly your level because the mark changes with your power level. People can get more marks by going into the tower again (so Multiclassing) and every tower gives different attunements.

The judgement is like the easiest quest into one of the towers and further quests are harder, but the rewards (treasure, magic items and more attunements) are bigger.

So in that series you have the classes directly in the setting, but not everybody has a class. I think that is a good middle ground between classes as abstract concepts that don't have equivalents in the setting and everything is a class in this setting.

The main character even builds a Mana Watch that can read hismpower level, to get hard numbers on his abilitites.

It is like a soft LitRPG.

I'm not sure I'd describe Andrew Rowe's works as "soft" in that sense. He doesn't do frequent stat pages, but his books are roughly 60% fantasy technical manual to 40% narrative. The trend goes even harder in Edge of the Woods.

 

[M_Natas]

I'm not sure I'd describe Andrew Rowe's works as "soft" in that sense. He doesn't do frequent stat pages, but his books are roughly 60% fantasy technical manual to 40% narrative. The trend goes even harder in Edge of the Woods.

Soft in the sense that it is not an actual game where the protagonist is inside a game like an MMO or suddenly gets access to meta knowledge about abilities (like Super sales on super hereos).

Like the difference of a D&D novel and guardians of the flame, where the characters are sucked into a D&D clone.

 

[Maxperson]

@TwoSix or you could do something truly unusual and unique, and create a setting where everyone has class. I've never seen or even heard of that being done before.

 

[aco175]

Imagine the office politics in a world like this. Seems similar to knowing all the wages of your fellow employees and how many years they have been in the field.

In a D&D game where the king dies and next in line is only a 2nd level fighter or mage. Worse if the next in line is a rogue and everyone know it. Does 'tradition' keep everyone in line? Is it any different than real history when a king dies and a child took the throne?

 

[TwoSix]

Soft in the sense that it is not an actual game where the protagonist is inside a game like an MMO or suddenly gets access to meta knowledge about abilities (like Super sales on super hereos).

Like the difference of a D&D novel and guardians of the flame, where the characters are sucked into a D&D clone.

No, I get it. A harder system being where the setting is closer and closer to being exactly like a video game, like a VR type setting with an AI controlling progression.

Rowe's work is much more of a "progression fantasy", where having a class identity and growing its power is a main plot loop, but there isn't an Oversystem throwing up blue boxes with your stats. And even in that series, there's a division between the Tower-granted classes (which end up just being extremely complex craftable magic boons), and the domain sorcery Keras uses, which is much more a traditional fantasy's "soft magic".

 

[Krachek]

For players it will surely give a video game feeling.
Everyone has his name tag and level over the head!

It may fit well for a kind of mythic setting where the life is all about adventuring and dueling. The only obstacle for that is the slow leveling that don’t give a mythic feeling and why knowing the level if most people are from 2-4 range. Knowing the exact level of others may discourage dueling, and making a team to adventure more harsh,

Do monster have a name tag with level floating over their head too?

 

[TwoSix]

For players it will surely give a video game feeling.
Everyone has his name tag and level over the head!

My initial thought was that for some people it's a verbal visual cue, other people might see an aura, some people might just have a gut sense. Everyone gets the information, but the ways it's relayed as a sense can vary.

Do monster have a name tag with level floating over their head too?

Sapient monsters, yes. Level can generally be evaluated (with some caveats), but class info can be imprecise or misleading. Multiclassing or rare classes might present info that can't be understood easily, especially if there are cultural barriers.

 

[TwoSix]

maybe no features from background and class and just have 3 feats to take at 1st level and one or two feats every level after.

LOL...that's literally how one of my current 5e games works. You get race and background abilities, a few other "starter abilities", and then 3 feats at 1st, 1 feat after.

It's definitely fun, but completely in opposition to the [Class] as diegetic element concept I'm exploring.

 

[TwoSix]

I do a lot of reskinning of classes, I have played a LG noble duelist swordsman playing a straight 3e rogue, I am playing a nonmagical paladin in a 5e game right now where my smites are anime super blows and my paladin aura is just that it is awesome to be around me. I have had players use the 5e druid and barbarian to represent werewolf the apocalypse werewolves and werebears in my 5e game.

But I really see a lot of classes as things in the world. Wizards are arcane spellcasters who learn magic and prepare spells using spellbooks. NPCs can be different and the NPC mage archmage, conjuror, and enchanter statblocks are generally slightly different versions of wizards with different techniques that PCs cannot learn, but wizards as a concept with discrete features exist that encompasses both PC and NPC build options.

Ah, this is a meaty post I meant to respond to.

I love reskinning, I do it all the time. But, don't the idea of "reskinning" and the idea of "classes as fictional element" exist in opposition to each other? I feel like the approach you're describing is actually a super common one, but I'm not sure if people always explore the inherent tension between the two approaches.

Wizards, as you described above, are the poster child for "class in fiction", because spells, spellbooks, and scrolls are both a primary source for their metagame progression AND explicitly fictional elements. More so than any other core class, wizards have to engage with the fiction to increase their powers.