Let's Talk About Defining Player Characters

Fenris-77 · 2026-03-23T20:30:45+0000

Reynard said:
it will take a little rework of what classes atually ARE in SD, but that's okay.

I have often considered trying to break all the 5E class and subclass abilties into talent trees to make that game classless (but with levels still) and I decided ultimately that the juice probably isn't worth the squeeze.

For 5E? Jesus no. For SD? Why not.

Fenris-77 · 2026-03-23T20:46:12+0000

The four base SD classes all break down into essentially three tiers each. A first tier that's weapons and armor (and maybe languages) which would represent basic class training, a second tier where you get the second-best class trait, and then the third tier where you get the big skill like weapon mastery or spell casting (and then you count as level 1).

If you assume that you have three 'slots' to spend on char gen and get to add one more per level, then a PC could have the basic class features of two classes at level four. I think that's actually pretty reasonable given how much level matters to all the core class traits.

Fenris-77 · 2026-03-23T20:58:43+0000

The above breakdown would mean that you could multiclass at levels 5/3 in the ten levels you have available. That sounds suitably BX to me.

cranberry · 2026-03-23T20:59:01+0000

I personally don't care for point buy if it allows players to mix and match skills that just don't make sense together. Point buy within a defined class with a selection of abilities, specifically for that class, is what I prefer.

I know a lot of people are used to video games that allow you to select skills of any kind, so my preference is probably unpopular.

Tigris · 2026-03-23T21:01:38+0000

cranberry said:
I personally don't care for point buy if it allows players to mix and match skills that just don't make sense together. Point buy within a defined class with a selection of abilities, specifically for that class, is what I prefer.

I know a lot of people are used to video games that allow you to select skills of any kind, so my preference is probably unpopular.

This has nothing to do with video games or not. There are also video games which limit that.

Having a fixed class (to give a consistent direction) and then some customization inside is also what I prefer (however, if possible simplified over point buy, although also class feats etc. can become overly complicated (PF2)).

cranberry · 2026-03-23T21:08:19+0000

Tigris said:
This has nothing to do with video games or not. There are also video games which limit that.

Having a fixed class (to give a consistent direction) and then some customization inside is also what I prefer (however, if possible simplified over point buy, although also class feats etc. can become overly complicated (PF2)).

I didn't say it had anything to do with video games. I said the preference for point buying skills was popularized by video games.

Fenris-77 · 2026-03-23T21:12:09+0000

To continue that same thought experiment, even if you let people take the full class at a level the best they are going to get is 5/5 or 4/3/3 neither of which is going to break the game or anything.

DrunkonDuty · 2026-03-24T05:48:21+0000

I like point buy, classless systems. They let players build the character they want. If a player wants to have a character who can pick pockets, sling a fireball, and survive in the wilderness, let 'em.

HERO, obviously, is my favourite for this but I am quickly becoming fond of SWADE. I prefer the greater flexibility of HERO but SWADE is pretty nice.

I think character advancement is important. Players want to feel that their characters are improving. A system, like HERO, that gives characters lots of things to spend XP can fulfill this need without characters necessarily becoming demigods.

Re. chef skill.
In my (probably now retired due to gamer ADHD) London Calling campaign one of the PCs got into a cook off with Puck. And this is not the only time she has used her superlative pastry skills to advance the adventure (all I can say is weaponised crokenbush.)