Yeah class names optional for sure.I mean... you could do something like.
Paladin: prerequisite, knight (warrior) and holy (magic).
Or perhaps just don't have class names.
Absolutely. Some could just be what 5e calls a feat, ie just the 1 level.Good idea. Not all branches need to be 20 levels. Or even full "classes".
I.e. the intimidation branch has only 3 levels for instance.
Not all that, just a holy knight with both magic and martial power.Depends on what you mean by a concept I guess.
Do you need to have heavy armor, smite, holy magic, and an aura at level 1 to call yourself a paladin?
The “call yourself a warrior of light” part is what I don’t like. That “of light” needs to have mechanical representation of some kind, or it’s not actually there, IMO.Or can you just start with armor, call yourself a warrior of light, and pick up the rest as you go along?
Yeah kinda like treating level 3 as level 1 in 5e.Also, kind of a hack, but having a level 0 or level -1 can let "level 1" be 3 choices.
Yeah that would be my goal as well.Hmmm..
I'm thinking as long as you meet the prerequisite, you can take a level in any branch.
I.e. if you have magic 1 -> holy 1. You can just take arcane 1. No need to take magic again.
Possibly something like...
Magic - increases spell slots, gain a cantrip.
Holy - learn a higher level holy spell
Arcane - learn a higher level arcane spell
Nature - learn a higher level nature spell.
"Multiclass" would just be taking a few levels of each of those, rather than focusing on one.
Lol oh no! I actually love that part of design.....
And here i go rewriting the original idea into something completely different again.
Hmm... speaking of feats. Level 1 feats are weaker than level 4 feats, and there are half feats...Some could just be what 5e calls a feat...
Because Warden adds 1/1 Martial/Primal.
That goes down a road that is too granular and fiddly for me, but I will gladly help with individual parts if you decide to go down that road.Hmm... speaking of feats. Level 1 feats are weaker than level 4 feats, and there are half feats...
So I guess there's no reason all "levels" need to be equal.
"your mastery of the ki flowing through you makes you immune to disease and poison." Is not the power as multi-attack.
Could be a point based tree then. Each node having a different cost, and branches of different lengths.
Fair.That goes down a road that is too granular and fiddly for me,
How about...full classes into scaffolding that everything else builds onto
Something like that, yeah. So basically I should imagine a fighter core chassis that has way more blank levels that just read “pick a feat, loser”, and like, fighting style and action surge at level 1, archetype feats at level 2, and at 5,7,11,14, and 20 (or whatever) you’d get stuff like an extra fighting style, better crit range, extra use of action surge, and your scaling attack progression, then all other levels are feat levels?Fair.
How about...
Have 3 core trunks of 20 levels, being the simple, newbie friendly options.
I.e. warrior 20 is the champion.
The all the branches are shorter and more focused. I.e. battle master is 4 levels (prerequisite: warrior 2).
Depends, is the basic spellcaster a sorcerer? With wizard and warlock as paths?Fair.
How about...
Have 3 core trunks of 20 levels, being the simple, newbie friendly options.
I.e. warrior 20 is the champion.
The all the branches are shorter and more focused. I.e. battle master is 4 levels (prerequisite: warrior 2).
Sharpshooter seems like it should be under the archer branch. Greater and lesser feats can be that way too.How about having lesser and greater feats, so like Archetype Feats are only available at certain levels, because they give you more, as they scale by level, whereas normal feats do a sharpshooter or whatever?