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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 6273714" data-attributes="member: 2067">Yeah, this totally works. If you want the class to remain an important choice, the most important bit of that is going to be proficiencies. That's the "list of things I can use." Include in those proficiencies whatever MacGuffins you want to impart class abilities.So, say, Wizards have "Book Proficiency," which allows them to gain new abilities from books. And Fighters have "Exotic Weapon Proficiency," which allows them to gain new abilities from elaborate and specialized weapons that others just can't wield (the results of this will look a lot different depending upon what edition-chassis you put this on top of). And Clerics have "Relic Proficiency," where they gain new abilities from artifacts of the gods. And Thieves have "Tool Proficiency," where they gain new abilities from specialized theives' tools (lockpicks, grappling hooks, a cloak for stealth...).If you want to jut run your home game like this, it's probably smart to find out what classes people want to play, and then make up a special "class ability proficiency" for them, just so you can avoid doing a buttload of extra, irrelevant work. Samus never comes upon an upgrade she can't use after all. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> You can expand this into 3e/5e style multiclassing by sprinkling around items that give you new proficiencies. Perhaps there's a wizard book that gives you the ability to acquire an exotic weapon or somesuch. You can break up a "level" into its individual parts. Again, this will depend upon edition, but items that grant increases in HP, spellcasting capacity, existing skills (like attack bonuses), etc., can all be individualized items, or they can be one big item. These would be "universal" items, but you can only use so many of them at once. Perhaps adopt a "slot" system, so that an HP slot, once filled with an item that ups your HP, cannot be filled with another such item -- 3e's and 4e's magic item slots are not a bad reference point for this:Armor Slot items give you extra HPs'Hands Slot items give you attack increases.Head Slot items bestow greater spellcasting power.Neck Slot items up your saves.Weapon Slot items give you a class power....or something. ...this makes me think of the FF-style "mastery" system, where your equipment gives you a particular trait and, after X amounts of fights with it, that trait becomes mastered, meaning you can use it even if you change equipment...The big thing to watch out for in this kind of set-up is a player who wants a particular kind of character, one with a particular specialty. Someone who wants to play a fire-blasting arcanist, or a spear-wielding warrior, is going to not find this kind of game very suitable. Your heroes in this kind of game are going to have a big diversity of abilities they can call on, and are going to tend to be generalists, not specialists. Which is why this kind of game pushes in the direction of classless. And you could adpot that, too, by giving everyone proficiency in everything and letting them sort it out. Maybe having "class" give you an edge with certain abilities. That might actually work OK with a game like 5e, ultimately. You could probably hammer 4e or 3e into that shape, too. But if you WANT classes, proficiencies are going to be the way to separate them out.</blockquote>

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