Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="empireofchaos" data-source="post: 6765416" data-attributes="member: 6800918">Here is a list of various class configurations I threw together, partly building on what's already been done here. The list is obviously incomplete (and has only one entry for some classes simply because that's all I thought of when writing it, not because I think it's the only possible option). At the end, I offer a few general thoughts about the general structure and organization of different classes, how such structure is affected by the setting type, its history, and the type of interactions their members experience with others.--Barbarians:•    Trained combatants in a clan of outlandersBards:•    Members of a bardic college•    Minstrels of a lose musical genre/emulating a certain masterClerics:•    Priests of a certain deity, trained explicators of sacred text, leaders of a congregation (mullahs)•    Personnel of a temple•    Religious caste (no/little intermarriage – brahmin, kohain)•    Ordained members of a large priestly hierarchy (Catholic Church, shi’a imamate)Druids:•    Initiates into partly secret religious-magical society•    Priesthood of a dethroned religion driven to marginsFighters: •    Warrior caste (no intermarriage – kshatriya; hoplites)•    Noble estate (virtual monopoly on military training, mounted combat – knights, samurai)•    Professional soldiers, perhaps organized into mercenary houses•    Corps of slave soldiers (mamluks/ghulams)Monks:•    Individual monasteries of ascetics (e.g. Shaolin)•    Secret societies and sects practicing similar disciplines (e.g. ninja; dervish orders; Cathari)•    Hermits practicing meditation techniques passed down by a master•    Vast, interconnected monastic networks connected by a doctrine (e.g. Buddhist sangha)Paladins:•    Companions of a prince or hero (e.g. posse comitatus, Chingiz Khan’s nökers Charlemagne’s paladins, Knights of the Round Table, Vladimir’s bogatyrs)•    Monastic fighting orders (e.g.Templars, Hospitalers, Teutonic Knights)•    Individuals who receive god’s call to martial heroism (e.g. Joan of Arc) Rangers:•    Military order or unit charged with guarding frontier (e.g. Night’s Watch, Novgorodian Ushkuiniki)•    Orders or bands charged with guarding roads or ensuring the safety of pilgrims (e.g. Aragon’s Rangers) Rogues:•    Members of a thieves’ guild•    Members of organized crime networks or criminal underground (e.g. mafia, yakuza, Triads, thieves-in-law)•    Population that doesn’t belong to any established social group, and people within that population who think society owes them a livelihood Sorcerers:•    Bloodlines descending from powerful being or godWarlocks:•    Covens of witches•    People bound together by pact with a particular entityWizards:•    Formal students of magic relying on written traditions and regulations (possibly trained by a master – incl. diviners, astrologers, alchemists, etc.•    Members of learned guilds organized as corporations (universities) or charitable foundations (waqf), possibly divided into individual faculties (enchantment, conjuration, etc.)•    In a magocracy, the class of scholar-administrators maybe similar to the Confucian literati•    Closed caste which keeps a monopoly on texts that teach how to access magical energyGeneral observations:1)    Types of class structure and organization (from tightest to broadest)a.    A formal organization with specified positions and offices, regulations, and initiationsb.    A collection of possibly unconnected people bound by a teaching, technique, belief, ideal, or patronage by a deity or other powerful entityc.    A broad social class or caste (which may include individuals that don’t possess class skills, but that may share its ethos and aspire to emulate its most successful members d.    People from vastly different societies who perform a broadly equivalent function within their respective societies2)    Larger (“basic”) classes (fighter, rogue, possibly cleric and wizard) likely have looser (very loose?) class structure, while smaller classes (monk, paladin, bard) have a tighter, more formal class structure3)    More distinct settings likely have more tightly organized classes, more generic settings (e.g. Forgotten Realms) that bring together characters from a wide range of societies likely have a looser class setting4)    Settings located in points of intersection between different societies (imperial capitals, merchant republics located between major empires, settlements between planes, Sigil – City of Doors) draw in people from different realms, have looser class structure; settings in places that are less well-integrated with the rest of the world/multiverse feature tighter forms of class organization (even for the basic classes)5)    On the other hand, the more different, apparently unrelated types falling under a single mechanical class rubric interact, the more defined a class will become. It will develop an organization, a hierarchy, a set of principles, and a way to expand communication more effectively among its members. One idea I had about wizards is that they were originally various casters from various classes that began collecting and writing spells down, systematizing the casting (and eliminating risks, such as the Chaos Mage’s Surges, and various complications arising from Warlock pacts). They then founded schools, where they disseminated this systematized magia, which soon broke down into individual schools (or “faculties”).6)    Hierachy. You can imagine a variety of different places for each class in the social hierarchy. The higher a class’ standing, the more “gatekeepers” formulate stringent rules that define its membership, rules, initiations, etc.7)    Class identity is situational. E.g. fighters rarely identify as such, and by that name in most surroundings in which they find themselves (they call themselves “soldier”, “guard”, “gladiator”, “knight”, etc.). However, if surrounded by others sufficiently unlike them, the broad, nearly invisible identity suddenly becomes more relevant. In the company of spellcasters, two fighters would definitely begin to think of each other as martial types in opposition to the rest. In the company of rangers or paladins, two fighters would quickly latch on to the differences, and begin wondering why these others spend so much time in the woods, or at temples, rather than just honing their fighting prowess. It’s kind of like tribal, national, and civilizational identities. In Nigeria, a person is Ibo, in England, he becomes Nigerian, and in the US – an African. 8)    Needless to say, these organization types do not necessarily apply to each person in each and every instance. The margins are always going to be messy (to varying degrees). But that doesn’t mean the categories don’t exist.</blockquote>

Verification