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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Synicism" data-source="post: 66978" data-attributes="member: 489">Problem, Psion.Unless your class or career path is so flexible that it ceases to be a class except in the broadest sense of the word (armsman, arcane spellcaster, divine spellcaster, and so on), it can't by definition, cater to all character types.Case in point:A young recruit in a medieval/fantasy army. He's a first level fighter. He's learned to ride horses, maintain his equipment, climb, jump, and so on. Pretty well represented by the fighter class.Now let's advance his culture somewhat. Instead of being fresh into his squire-hood, he's just hooked up with a renowned school of fence. This time, he's learning etiquette (Diplomacy/Sense Motive, dancing (Perform), acrobatics (Tumble), and so on. He's every bit as good a combatant as his medieval counterpart, but he has a different education. Is he a multiclassed fighter/expert? Why does he have to study twice as hard to get the same benefits when he is simply doing something *different?*Now let's advance the setting even further. It's World War 2, and our young warrior is now a drafted recruit on the Allied line. He's fresh out of basic training. Does he know how to wear full plate? No. He probably doesn't know how to wear armor at all. Can he use all simple and martial weapons? No. If you handed him a longbow or a glaive, he'd probably kill himself. But he can fire pistols, rifles and sub machine guns, operate basic radio equipment, and possibly do some first aid. Is he a fighter? Not by the class terms.The point is that classes have a tendency to channel characters into a specific set of archetypes that may or may not be appropriate to all campaign types. That's why Oriental Adventures came up with a bunch of new core classes, and why Rokugan ditched a number of them for its campaign setting.One of your most-repeated arguments seems to be that a classless system will lend itself to unrealistic or improbable skill combinations. It's certainly possible, and that's the price you pay for flexibility. Classless systems require a certain amount of cooperation between the game master and the players to avoid such a thing. This is where concept and communication come in. It's easy to restrain players in a classless system. It's a lot more time consuming to open up a true class-based system for the flexibility that many campaigns demand, especially in modern or futuristic games where the average person is much, much more highly educated than many class based systems give them credit for.</blockquote>

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