D&D General 6 Core Classes: You are in charge

[Reynard]

Strong hero
Fast hero
Tough hero
Smart hero
Wise hero
Charismatic hero

Cheater.

 

[Meech17]

Strong hero
Fast hero
Tough hero
Smart hero
Wise hero
Charismatic hero

So.. I was thinking about this as well.

Just "Adventurer", or I guess you went for the term hero. But everyone just plays a Hero. All level 1 heroes are essentially the same, but with different scores, mean they have different strengths and weaknesses. Then as you level up perhaps you earn points you can spent on various skills/abilities. Maybe these skills have pre-requisite score limits. Like if you want a spell or set of spells, they require minimum INT scores. Then you can pick and choose ala carte and essentially make your own class?

Not to derail the thread, but does anyone know of a game that has a system like this?

 

[Reynard]

So.. I was thinking about this as well.

Just "Adventurer", or I guess you went for the term hero. But everyone just plays a Hero. All level 1 heroes are essentially the same, but with different scores, mean they have different strengths and weaknesses. Then as you level up perhaps you earn points you can spent on various skills/abilities. Maybe these skills have pre-requisite score limits. Like if you want a spell or set of spells, they require minimum INT scores. Then you can pick and choose ala carte and essentially make your own class?

Not to derail the thread, but does anyone know of a game that has a system like this?

Savage Worlds is levels without classes, effectively.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

STR: Warrior - A sort of Fighter/Barbarian combo. Manuevers would be a core element of this class.

DEX: Hunter - Rogue/Ranger combo, with choices letting you determine exactly what you were.

CON: Psion - Using a new rules set, not slot-style casting, and avoiding anything that didn't have a check/variable result.

INT: Sorcerer - This would be the main "caster", and you could be a Wizard-type via subclasses/choices, or say, a DND Next playtest-style Sorcerer or a Warlock or the like.

WIS: Priest - Cleric/Druid combo but broadened out further to include things like Warden.

CHA: Wayfarer (Placeholder name) - I feel like you could probably fold aspects of Bard and Paladin into the same class pretty easily, and have a class whose main deal was inspiration and bravery, for good or ill, and where through choices and subclasses, you could come out with anything from a Lore Bard to a better Swords Bard to a Devotion Paladin to an Ancient Paladin, more or less. An alternative design would be some support elements plus the ability to pick low-end stuff from all the classes.

Also, I'd be making some big changes to spells. We wouldn't have any bigass level 1-9 spell lists/charts - spells probably finish at level 5, and most spells which are absolutes would require some kind of check and variable results. On the flip side I think all caster classes should probably refresh some spells on a Short Rest-type basis. Healing would absolutely NOT be limited to certain casters either - if the INT caster wants healing/protection/res spells, they can have them.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Strong hero
Fast hero
Tough hero
Smart hero
Wise hero
Charismatic hero

When the original post said six classes aligned to the six ability scores (thereby making the ability more important to the character than the story behind the class)... my first thought was exactly this as well.

But to then go further and kinda then answer the complete question from the OP... here are the subclasses I would include:

Strong Hero: Barbarian; Paladin; Warrior
Fast Hero: Rogue; Ranger
Tough Hero: Sorcerer; Psion
Smart Hero: Wizard; Artificer; Marshal
Wise Hero: Cleric; Druid; Monk
Charismatic Hero: Bard; Warlock

 

[Remathilis]

Strong Hero, Agile Hero, Tough Hero, Smart Hero, Dedicated Hero and Charismatic Hero.

 

[Remathilis]

Strong hero
Fast hero
Tough hero
Smart hero
Wise hero
Charismatic hero

Damn, someone beat me to it

 

[Reynard]

Damn, someone beat me to it

Low hanging fruit, in addition to not being in the spirit of the thread.

 

[Horwath]

So.. I was thinking about this as well.

Just "Adventurer", or I guess you went for the term hero. But everyone just plays a Hero. All level 1 heroes are essentially the same, but with different scores, mean they have different strengths and weaknesses. Then as you level up perhaps you earn points you can spent on various skills/abilities. Maybe these skills have pre-requisite score limits. Like if you want a spell or set of spells, they require minimum INT scores. Then you can pick and choose ala carte and essentially make your own class?

Not to derail the thread, but does anyone know of a game that has a system like this?

d20 Modern,
based on 3.5E

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Low hanging fruit, in addition to not being in the spirit of the thread.

Also d20 Modern did it and it was an absolute car crash, class-design-wise.