A thread on a Facebook group caught my attention, and one comment in particular got me a little riled up. The subject was on how you prefer your character creation system. Do you prefer Iconic Classes, Homebrew Rules, or Classless systems (e.g. GURPS)? Good question and a neat thing to think about and see what other people say just to get a peek at the way other people think.
I of course mention that I prefer systems that don’t use classes and that I feel that Iconic Classes (and classes in general) restrict the player unnecessarily when crafting their characters. That got a few likes from like-minded individuals and it was all pretty benign discussion until one person decided to disagree with my statement. Now, I’m all for disagreement, but when you don’t address me directly and say something that’s philosophically incorrect it bothers me in a pet peeve kind of way.
Anyways, the response was directly regarding what I said with an underhanded insult. Basically he said Iconic Classes are only limiting if you lacked imagination. It got a little bit nastier as it went on. There were accusations of requiring Labels and Mechanics in order to be able to design a character. Some type of implication that the only way to interact with the world is through dice rolls. I’m sorry for being the butt hurt guy going to my blog with this but, WHAT!?!
Seriously, that’s insane and doesn’t make sense. A character class automatically is a restriction on your imagination. It is designed to give you certain gameplay bonuses based on a set role. A fighter is a weapons master, typically refining their ability to use a single type of weapon to the point of insane mastery. A Wizard studies spell books and is able to cast spells. A Rogue sneaks about, does precision damage, and is an extremely skill-based character.
In a game like Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder you select a class to be granted a set of bonuses, abilities, and powers related to your specialties that give you bonuses based upon particular rules situations. When you create a character you must funnel their personality and backgrounds through the filter of how it brought them to whom they are when you start playing. Their abilities are restricted to whatever the class says they are unless you’re allowed to multiclass. Even then you are still going to see restrictions on what you can or cannot do based upon what classes and archetypes are available to you.
I am very strongly in favor of a system that isn’t based on classes and allows complete creative control of the design of PCs. It might be because I grew up playing Everway and how spoiled I was playing such a simple and liberating system. You don’t realize how spoiled you are until you try to design your first character in a class based game with a non-class based mindset. This was something I struggled with for years. I never could get it quite right.
Take a character like Shem the Forsaken. Shem is a fallen paladin. Not a Blackguard, a fallen paladin. His story was that his knighthood and powers were stripped from him by his order because he tried to protect non-believers and violated the orders of his superiors doing so. He married one of them and was living a simple life with the people he saved until some new evil-infused power raided his town. He fought as bravely as he could, but he didn’t have his old powers and was eventually overwhelmed. Most of the people in his town were captured or killed while he was unconscious and left for dead. He awakens to see the evil god that was the nemesis of his order’s god before him offering him power to go forth and find and rescue his wife and his people. He was given a magic sword, some magic, and “shadow creatures” that would help him on his quest. The shadow creatures were things coming from his own shadow that mostly only he could see that would make strange noises and would tempt him down the darker path at every opportunity. He doesn’t want to be lead down these paths of evil and tries his best to resist, but the more he uses the powers, the more he is tempted and converted.
Shem is a character that doesn’t fit anything in the DnD/PF system. The closest thing available is Pathfinder’s Anti-Paladin who shares a couple of the proper powers. Unfortunately, as always, the requirements to be an anti-paladin are pretty restrictive. The requirement of being forced to perform evil deeds and embracing evil to its fullest just doesn’t sit right with me. I’d have to alter the concept more towards the embracing of evil rather than the attempt to only use it when necessary to prevent corruption for as long as possible.
Meanwhile in a game like Fate or Everway all I need to do is generate these powers using the rules with the DMs help designing and we’re good to go. I get exactly the narrative and mechanical items that I as a player want and we create a character that will be beholden to his high concept as a reluctant agent of evil who is trying to do the right thing. We have a man walking the path to damnation while trying to redeem himself and repent for his decision, but only attempting to drop the mantle when his quest is complete. If you attempted to do this in DnD/PF you’d be having far more difficult time playing this character in an RP heavy game.
Essentially all I’m saying is that I like it when I have no class.
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