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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bret" data-source="post: 61046" data-attributes="member: 713">I'll try to give a couple of examples of why classless systems are better than DnD.I've got a Wizard in a DnD campaign whose background is third son of a noble. No big deal, got trained in magic because he wasn't taking over the 'family business.' He will help, partially by doing scrying and creating magical items.Look at his skill list. Gee, almost everything related to being a noble is cross class for him. Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Speak Languages, etc. That is something a thief or rumor-monger (read: rogue or bard) would do, no someone who casts spells.He can get Knowledge: Nobility. The other stuff costs him dearly.In a system like D20, you've got a couple of choices:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Just pay the cross class skill cost and be done with it. Why are you worrying about character background anyways? It doesn't help you kill anything.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Work with your GM to have your skills changed around so some of these are class skills. Now when you talk to a different person, you have to explain that you're a 'X level Wizard, but with a custom skill list.' Good luck bringing it into a game where GM doesn't want to deal with rules varients.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Seriously damage your spell capability by multiclassing with a different class (maybe the NPC noble class, maybe the rogue). This not only seriously damages your ability to work with magic, in the case of a Rogue multiclass it gives you a whole lot of 'class abilities' that have nothing to do with the background.</li> </ul>With a classless system, you would just take the appropriate skills. They make sense for that characters' background, so it really isn't a problem.I don't see anything wrong with a stereotypical wizard coming from a noble house. This just isn't that far from the real world where the younger sons were sent to a monestary to train, what exactly breaks the GENERIC stereotype of a Wizard?Every time I try to create a character, I run into some stupid rule that gets in the way of creating the character. I've been gaming for *mumble* decades and I'm just sick and tired of not being able to represent various character backgrounds if I play a certain class of character.I prefer classless systems because they allow me to match the background I've come up with for a character with the character's capabilities. They don't have assumptions that some game designer I've never met heavily built in.They also allow for the orphan trained from birth by ninja masters who is a murder addicted psychopath, but I don't tend to play such character nor do I game in groups where others do that.</blockquote>

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