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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rmcoen" data-source="post: 9831274" data-attributes="member: 6692404">Maybe I missed it, but isn't the right solution "skill-based, not class-based"?Or, shoehorning that into a "5e-like" structure, take the setup of the warlock and run wild with it.Like Dragon Age, you really only have three archetypes:  Martial, Caster, Skill"Caster" would all be a "pick your invocations and powers" setup, with appropriate names.  For example, perhaps "Invoker" = warlock devoted to god-patrons, while "Diabolist" would get their powers from lower planes.  Regardless, your Patron would determine at least half your available "menu" of choices.  If you are in Invoker of Sune, expect moon-based magic and enchantment; an Invoker of Pelor is going to have a very different set of powers to choose from.  But the key is "choose from"... every Invoker of Pelor would have similar powers, but other than a few common base powers, should be different.Martial would follow the same style - which honestly just harkens back to 3e's Feat Trees (of PF1e's Ultimate Martial book).  You get lots of choices, and each benchmark, new more powerful choices... but you could still select lower/earlier choices.  So you could be a defensive armor specialist, or a peerless archer, or a jack-of-all-weapons with basic techniques in many, but no earthbreaking smites or flying shield of invulnerability.Skill - need a name, sorry, coming up short... Paragon resonates right now - would instead imitate PF2e's skill feats. training levels, and degrees of success.  Anyone can have the "sleight of hand" skill, for example, and maybe perform card tricks, but only the Paragon can steal the money out of the wallet inside the hidden belt-pouch under your clothes... and leave a grenade in its place!  Anyone can parkour (i.e. Acrobatics) with effort and training, but only the Paragon can parkour up the smoke from your campfire.  Or maybe, like the Martial, maybe your Paragon chooses to have "initiate" level training in a dozen skills, instead of "master" training in just one.As for races -- that's so setting-specific, as everyone has already said and given examples of.  Maybe, take a page from Thundercats -- yeah, it's Earth, but the only Human here is Mum-Ra!  Everyone else is a mutant, alien, or mechanical/cybernetic lifeform.  And let's be realistic - "mutant" covers anything you can imagine, from furries (mutant-fur) to dragonborn (mutant-scales), from goliaths (mutant-big) to halflings (mutant-small), from elves (mutant-lithe&magic) to dwarves (mutant-hardy&antimagic), and everything in-between.</blockquote>

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