Write Themes with a dash like "Thief-Acrobat"?

I suggest that the 1e class Thief-Acrobat might serve as the way to write Themes on character sheets and stat blocks in 5e.

If "Acrobat" were a 5e Theme, then we could have Fighter-Acrobat, a Wizard-Acrobat, Ranger-Acrobat, etc.

On the character sheet (for campaigns which use the Theme rules module), there'd be a dash between the space for writing the Class name(s) and the space for writing the Theme name.

The themes we know so far:

Commoner
Noble
Knight
Apprentice
Planetouched
Deva
Pub crawler

So, there'd be Barbarian-Pubcrawler, Monk-Commoner, Monk-Deva, Fighter-Noble, Fighter-Deva, etc.

And keep the slash for writing multiclass. So multiclassed characters with a Theme would look like:

Fighter/Wizard-Knight
Ranger/Druid-Apprentice
Priest/Monk-Planetouched
Warlock/Warlord/Wizard-Noble

A multiclass, multitheme character would look like:

Barbarian/Paladin-Deva-Pubcrawler
Cleric/Illusionist-Commoner-Apprentice

I wonder, will Themes be tied to a particular class or not?

So what do you think of this, of using the "Thief-Acrobat" as the format for writing Class & Theme names?
 

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Just use the theme as an adjective. Adding an ly when appropriate.

Like Knightly Fighter/Wizard
or Commoner Barbarian/Monk
or Apprentice Illusionist/Thief

Thief-Acrobat was really sort of like an early attempt at a prestige class (except it was arguably worse than the thief)

Though I'm not sure those themes will always be appropriate. Like apprentice, that will be silly once you get to be 10th level or so.
 

I like both of these ideas.

The parentheses method looks like the Kits of 2e. It has the advantage of showing that a Theme is applied to a specific class in the case of multiclass character.

The adjectival method is evocative of the Templates of 3e, and so fits with Deva and Planetouched.
 


From a typographic/visualization point of view, it requires less "non-data-ink" than using parenthesis.
e.g. Thief-Acrobat vs Thief (Acrobat)
The single dash uses a few pixels whereas each parenthesis uses about twice or more pixels.

On the other hand, the dash connotes a more equal relationship between the two, and class is intended to still be the primary foundation of your character.

I think overall I'd side with parenthesis because of the way a Fighter class with Knight theme would look:
e.g. Fighter-Knight vs Fighter (Knight)

I also suspect they'll stay with Rogue as the class name and use Thief as a theme. But maybe they'll have a Thief-Acrobat theme as well... e.g. Rogue (Thief-Acrobat)
 

Thanks for the thoughtful response dangerous jack.

What does everyone think about there being two kinds of Themes:

1) Racial Themes
2) Class Themes

Racial Themes would be like 3e Templates. These would be Themes that are primarily about the physical makeup of the character.

Class Themes would be like 2e Kits. These would be Themes which are primarily about honing the profession or social role of the character.

Racial Themes:
  • Deva
  • Planetouched
Class Themes:
  • Potion-maker
  • Blacksmith
  • Pub crawler
  • Commoner
  • Apprentice
  • Noble
  • Knight
With this distinction, there'd be these typographic options:

1) Hyphenated: Dwarf-Planetouched Fighter-Knight/Wizard-Apprentice
2) Parentheses: Dwarf (Planetouched) Fighter (Knight)/Wizard (Apprentice)
3) Adjectival: Planetouched Dwarf Knightly Fighter/Apprentice Wizard
 

I dislike the idea of themes, from what little we know, incorporating both "pub-crawler" and "planetouched". They're completely different conceptually, unless you're being so vague as to say theme is just "why is your fighter not like other fighters?"

If that's what WotC is doing, fine, but if it were up to me I'd say that theme has nothing to do with your physical makeup, and should not contain special abilities beyond, say, a "knight's challenge" sort of effect.

If your character is supposed to be the hell-spawned warrior, cursed to know no home or peace, then hell-spawned should be part of your race, and your theme should be something like "drifter" or "ronin" or the like.
 

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