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.
