Class-less Characters?

[taliesin15]

I've seen several such systems going back to the early 80's including one created by David Nalle (a fellow Austinite)...but here's a suggestion already within the AD&D Framework--why not use the NPC "Class" Expert? Its not by its nature all that definitive, or rather definitive by its utter flexibility. Fighting, spell casting and other skills maybe could be worked in. The NPC Experts in my milieu don't really seem homogenous. By giving the local Cobbler some skills like Read Lips and Decipher Script, she is possibly being used as a spy by some local lord. Quite unlike your ordinary cobbler or other town artisan.

 

[Aus_Snow]

You might try BESM d20 and use the classless ruleset(toward the end of the book) if you want to stick with d20. (It works equally well if you want to mix Modern and D&D they stat out how many points each "class" is. You might be able to find the SRD for it online, though I haven't had luck with it for a while.

Here is a PDF version, under 'Non-Fate Downloads'. There are also several html versions lurking around the 'net.

As someone already noted, (probably) most RPGs are 'classless'. Including some very famous ones indeed.

 

[Herobizkit]

IMXP, I've found that classless games work better in Modern than in Fantasy settings. Modern games have a wider diversity of available skills and applications of said skills; Fantasy games are generally limited to three basic templates - Warrior, Spellcaster, and Expert. Look familiar?

I really enjoyed the way these classes were treated in Blue Rose, the precursor of True20. A feat every level, pick x number of skills to be class skills, and creative feat selection that allows the non-spellcasters to pick up a school or more of spells and you have the ability to be pretty flexible w/o carrying excess baggage and leet p0w3rz based on your job.