My preference is classes (with only a little multiclassing (hybrids at most)) for the following reasons:
Of course these is for games which have tactical combat / big separation of mechanics. If its a "simple" game where there is not too much differences in mechanics between different characters, then something less strict, like Cortex Prime, is perfectly fine.
- Its easy to communicate "I am a chaosmage" is a lot easier than having to describe a list of skills etc. one has.
- It is also relatively easy to select. Choosing 1 "bucket" of abilities is a lot easier than creating one like in The Dark Eye with 1400 points point buy in the beginning...
- It makes game balancing easier, because one does not need to balance every possible combination with each other but you have different buckets separated from one another.
- In addition the above also allows to have a bigger variety of abilities / more extreme abilities, because you can balance them within a class. Like 1 character can have a huge crit chance, and another character can get a strong extra attack on a crit. And since thats separate abilities, these can be really strong because you cant combine them.
Of course these is for games which have tactical combat / big separation of mechanics. If its a "simple" game where there is not too much differences in mechanics between different characters, then something less strict, like Cortex Prime, is perfectly fine.
