I will have anyone and everyone.
And yes, this concept should be fine as a "Drop in, Drop out" sort of situation. People can come and go as they will. And I wouldn't mind fewer people. There's always more coming in.
As for point buy, I chose that on purpose, so that people could upgrade themselves however they wished once they reach level 1. No on is guaranteed entrance into a specific school, so if they make an orc with a 6 intelligence, and wind up, by random luck, only getting in to the wizard's school, they can put the extra points in INT, thus making them at least a decent wizard. It also shows just how much more powerful those who come to the academy are. Even spending one year here (the amount of time it will take to get to level 1) will expand their minds and/or skills exponentially.
For the Skill school. Yes, Rogues use it almost exclusively, though some other classes use it as well. It trains any technical skill that requires training. And not every "School" is going to be "Academic".
I'm not going to give away specifics on how it works, but here's some generalities:
Obviously, characters are going to want to become one thing or another. One might love animals, and want to be able to wild shape. Another might come from a prominent wizard family, and want to follow in their family's footsteps. Still others might want to just take whatever classes they find interesting. That's up to you. People in this Academy can study whatever they are allowed to study. Depending on how you spend your downtime, I will be giving you the class you have earned.
Each class requires a certain number of credits. Think of it as a Degree Plan. Get credits in one school, you unlock this class. Get credits in another school, you unlock that class. You get five credits a year (as of now, I'm still working this out). The five base classes are the easiest to get, and the only ones I will outline:
lvl 1 Fighter - 3 Martial Credits
lvl 1 Wizard - 3 Arcane Credits
lvl 1 Cleric - 3 Divine Credits
lvl 1 Druid - 3 Nature Credits
lvl 1 Rogue - 3 Skill Credits
These are the base classes. As long as you can get in to one school, you can get one of these classes. They require fewer credits than the other classes at level 1, because of this. The other classes all require 4 or 5 credits to achieve. But, every other class, and some of the archetypes for the Base Classes, require access to multiple schools. Most require two schools. Some require three or more.
And there are some classes that cannot be accessed by any school, but have other requirements.
At the beginning of the game, it'll be pretty straightforward. You'll come to school, and right off the bat have to take the entrance exams for each school. There are ways to cheat, if you're smart. Or foolish.
After the entrance exams, you will be a little more free. I'll fast forward a month or two, and let you kind of do what you want. You can either do it together or apart, that's up to you. I'm not going to force you to stick together as a party. This isn't that kind of game unless you want it to be. You'll have little adventures, in the form of tests, confrontations with other students, or even of your own design. For example, if you want to steal something, or get rid of a rival, or pull pranks, that's cool, too. If you want to do something the others don't know about, PM me.
The main warning is that you can die. While I want all my students to survive, during the exams, I will be trying to kill you. Actively. I will set it up as level appropriate, of course, and I'll always make sure it's possible to succeed, but once I put together the level appropriate test, I will use everything in its power to kill you. Piss off a rival, and the same thing might happen. You might find assassins inside your room one night. I typically let attacks against a sleeping target kill instantly, and that goes for PC and NPC alike. Fail your check to wake up, and you die. No save.
The game will conversely get easier and harder as you level up. On the one hand, you'll be getting stronger, and be able to survive more. On the other hand, so will your enemies, and the tests will scale as well. And not every test will be solvable by combat. Sometimes, choosing combat actually means you fail.
I'm getting excited to start, I just need some more time to put this stuff together for the beginning. Anyone who wants to join, put in a character.
