Asgard 5's Fighting Schools and a new way to think about Class

[Tonguez]

Was reading ASGARD #5 and the stuff on Fighting Schools and was struck by how the concept could easily be extended to cover over 'Classes' and be used to customise class to setting.

Each School could have its own skill set, bonuses, SQs and bonus feat and favoured feat progression

So you could have one Paladin from the Order of St Mike the Healer who was very different to a Paladin from the Order of St Bob the OftCited, or a Rogue from the Guild Merchant who was utterly diffrent to a Thief from the Shadow Broterhood, or a Barbarian from the Clan of Cave Bear who was utterly different to a Barbarian from the Horse Clans

So the Schools would specify a bonus Feat (and favoured progression) , Skill set and bonuses (eg +2 Healing Skill for a Paladin Knight-Hospitalier of St Mike) and Special Qualities (eg Free Lodging at Church Hostels) and Obligations (eg Charity, Service to the Sick) that membership affords

um ... anyway any thoughts?

 

[RagingGoblin]

In the game I'm planning to run, the fighter of the team is part of the fighting school that uses the Falchion above all other weapons. The Mage liked the idea of the school and with my aid, made a Academy that he's a part of, which gives come bonuses on spell components and whatnot.
I love the idea.

 

[arwink]

Someone's using it? Sweet.

Tonguez, what you're proposing is doable, even suggested in the DMG somewhere (towards the beginning, with vague guidelines). Personally, though, I'm not a huge fan of messing with the rules to give classes extra stuff like feats or catch all skill bonuses. In my mind, that's what Prestige Classes are for.

Within the rules 3e offers a great deal of scope for difining characters through different skill choices and feat choices. Why give bonus feats and skill bonuses to the Knight of St Mike, when specifying people trained by the order take Ride and Skill Focus: Healing as their first two feats? If I was going to change a class for this idea, I'd probably limit myself to swapping skills in and out of the classes skill set. For me, it has the same effect without messing with the rules too much.

One thing to keep in mind about this kind of thing is that people can walk out of an order. What's to stop someone taking a Paladin of St. Mike to get the free feat and bonuses to skills, then deciding that's it, wandering off and joining a more militant order. That's one of the reasons I used feat progressions for the schools - it doesn't matter at what level your character starts training, or when you leave. There's no mechanical bonuses, just role playing ones.

I do use organisations and academy's for every class in my game, written up in the same way as the fighter schools and for much the same reason you've outlined. While I don't use a lot of free advantages in terms of mechantics, there's usually a host of Obligations, Role playing and campaign benefits associated with them (free lodging, free training, bonuses to checks in certain situations, access to certain types of information).

Choosing a school is purely optional, and most of them have very basic descriptions unless someone asks about them specifically, but they're there. I like the fact that the PC's know where they come from, and it gives them a ready-made list of NPC's and locations their automatically familiar with. For Players who aren't enthused about writing detailed backgrounds, this works to keep them involved in the world. For people who love their backgrounds, it gives them a very solid base to work around and launch from.

Didn't mean to ramble quite so much on this, but you did ask for thoughts and this is what first came to mind.

Peter.