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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6551076" data-attributes="member: 6787650">What interferes with build-to-concept isn't classes per se--it's mechanics. If you try to model a concept within a system whose mechanics don't support it, it won't come out right even if it's a classless system. No matter how many times you try to build a fireball-chucking D&D wizard within GURPS, it never really works because GURPS magic just doesn't support discretized, resource-based magic with a uniform scale ("2 rounds per level"--although 5E has now dropped this concept). You can attempt to emulate it to some degree by bolting on an Unlimited Mana system instead of the regular FP-based system, but 1.) that constitutes a change in the mechanics, 2.) it still doesn't work well. Another example is that the concept of "a voodoo wizard who is able to kill or even control people at a distance, provided he can only gain access to their possessions/hair/fingernails" just doesn't exist within D&D 5E RAW. (Frog God's Book of Lost Spells has some interesting spells like Twig Torture which do support this concept to a greater or lesser degree, but I would argue that that is also a pretty significant change in the mechanics.) You may have a great Shadowrun-inspired concept of a spirit-walking Troll shaman who confounds everyone's expectations by attacking things from the Astral plane instead of with direct assaults--but since Astral Travel is a 9th level spell in 5E, your concept will not work in 5E. The gameworld physics simply don't support the concept you had in mind.The trick is to find a system whose mechanics support the kind of character and game that you want to play.</blockquote>

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