The Fantasy Class Mixer

A Generic Class System for Fantasy Games

Flexibility with constraints. That’s what I find fun and to generate the most creative ideas. So I’ve created a generic system for fantasy classes. (Just remember, half the fun of old D&D games was making your character!)

Each character has three slots to use, assigning each a class archetype from the nine below. How you interpret these combinations is where the fun comes in. There are a lot of possibilities, and I’ve provided class specializations to shade each selection as well (each slot gets its own specialization). Order should matter for this, so that a fighter-sneak is different than a sneak-fighter.

The Classes

Combat Classes

• Warrior (Melee/Archer/Unarmed/Mounted)
• Mage (Power/Flexibility/Constancy)
• Healer (Protection/Regeneration/Buff)

Utility Classes

• Woodsman (Wayfinder/Hunter/Tracker)
• Sneak (Burglar/Pick-Pocket/Spy)
• Mechanist (Consumables/Equipment/Traps)
• Charismatic (Leader/Comrade/Charmer)
• Beastmaster (Single/Few/Many)
• Fanatic (Frenzy/Calm/Vision)

How it Shakes Out

There are a lot of possible combinations. Combat oriented games probably want to require at least one slot in a combat class, but that only restricts things slightly. Options:

• 3 pure classes (all combat)
• 48 dual classes (half with combat dominant)
• 217 generalist (3 classes, half of which are combat dominant)

That’s a lot of options! Of course, there may be incentives to specialize or not. I think it’s wise to give some: make it so 2 slot in a class is 80% effective compared to using all three slots, at 100%. (And maybe a single slot is 40%.) A pure specialize then has a definite edge over a dual-classer, but isn’t 50% better.

Some Examples

• fighter-woosdman: a classic ranger
• fighter-charismatic-healer: paladin
• fighter-sneak: a ninja
• fighter-fanatic: a berzerker
• sneak-artificer: burglar
• charismatic-healer(buffs): bard
• healer-beastmaster-woodsman: druid
• mage-mechanist: an alchemist

So its easy to create standard fantasy tropes that aren’t pure archetypes. But there’s a lot of fun to be had with more original combos too:

• fanatic-mage: a Warg-like who goes into trances to cast his spells
• healer-artificer: a non-fantastic doctor, with medicines and scalpels
• healer-woodsman-mage: an herbalist or witch (swap the order)
• beastmaster-mage: a summoner — skeletons anyone?

Randomization

Want to roll up some characters?

• d6: 1–2 fighter, 3–4 mage, 5–6 healer
• d12: as above, and for 7–12 each of the utility classes
• d12: as above

Maybe you can adapt this to your home-brew or original fantasy game, whether it’s a tabletop affair, or some JRPG you’re developing. Maybe the users will see the selections above; maybe you’ll curate a few class combos for them. Either way, I hope it helps get your (restrained) creativity going.