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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hautamaki" data-source="post: 5764704" data-attributes="member: 42219">In my homebrew system I have a system that I believe adheres somewhat to the design questions of the OP.There are only 3 classes: fighters, clerics, and mages.  But PCs are free to multiclass in any way they like.  And within each class, there are a number of options they can choose from.  For fighters of course there is the choice of whether you will focus on a hand weapon and shield, two weapons, a great weapon, throwing weapons, or ranged weapons.  There are also choices for exotic weapon proficiencies and the ability to specialize in combat maneuvres (sort of like the 3.x feat system, but basically every fighter can do/attempt a mundane version of all combat maneuvres, and if a player finds himself using that maneuvre a lot he can specialize in it to get an improved version).  For clerics there is the choice of which deity you worship, which in turn affects which prayers are available and how skilled you are at using them.  For mages there is the choice of which lore of magic you want to begin with, which affects which spells are available.Which equipment you are able to use is also of course dependent upon which classes you take.There is no 'rogue' class because to me all characters should be able to shine in and out of combat.  If you put players in a situation where their character is only able to shine half the time, they are going to be bored the other half of the time.  Therefore all character classes have an equal amount of skill points to distribute among non-combat skills as they wish and of course wise player groups will make sure they assign skill points to create a well-rounded party as a whole.There are also prestige classes available at higher levels which players can take a single level in once they reach prerequisites, for example Paladins must have at least 2 levels of fighter and 1 level of cleric, which give them access to unique powers or abilities only for that prestige class.What it results in is a system in which players are given a few selection trees that allow them to infinitely but easily customize what kind of character they want to play.  Of course this system does little to protect 'niches', but experienced players know that the best parties are parties with role-players in the sense that every character has a role to play, rather than all jacks-of-all-trades.  Our gaming group party has quite naturally evolved into a group with a striker/controller (fighter w/ great weapon-mage w/ lore of darkness-cleric of Luna-Assassin), a ranged tank (3rd level fighter with shield and throwing axes and heavy armour, Swordmaster), a tank/striker/duelist/leader (3rd level fighter with great weapon and heavy armour and improved grappling, Weapons Master), a healer/buffer (2nd level cleric) and a controller/dps (2nd level mage w/ lore of darkness and lore of fire).</blockquote>

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