Four new sub-roles as an alternative to multiclassing.

[Dragonspawn]

I've always disliked multiclassing, so I'm experimenting with four new "sub-roles" that effectively replace every multiclassing option. Let me know what you guys think?

Occultist (The Adept/Expert)
Level__Combat__Fort___Ref__Will__Rep
1_____+0_______+0___+2___+2___+1
2_____+1_______+0___+3___+3___+1
3_____+1_______+1___+3___+3___+1
4_____+2_______+1___+4___+4___+2
5_____+3_______+1___+4___+4___+2
6_____+3_______+2___+5___+5___+2
7_____+4_______+2___+5___+5___+2
8_____+5_______+2___+6___+6___+3
9_____+5_______+3___+6___+6___+3
10____+6_______+3___+7___+7___+3
11____+6_______+3___+7___+7___+3
12____+7_______+4___+8___+8___+4
13____+8_______+4___+8___+8___+4
14____+8_______+4___+9___+9___+4
15____+9_______+5___+9___+9___+4
16____+10______+5___+10__+10__+5
17____+10______+5___+10__+10__+5
18____+11______+6___+11__+11__+5
19____+11______+6___+11__+11__+5
20____+12______+6___+12__+12__+6

Occultists have the following traits:
Abilities: Occultists focus on mental attributes. Intelligence is particularly valued for providing more scholarly skills. Dexterity may also be handy in professions requiring fine manipulation.
Skills: Choose 4 + Intelligence score (minimum of 1).
Feats: Choose 4 from Expert, General and Supernatural.
Special: Occultists use supernatural powers at a rank equal to their occultist level +3 divided by two.

Occultists might include bookish clerics and monks, hedge wizards, Arcane theorists, alchemists, herbalists, artificers, techno-mages, or psionic scientists.


Battle-Mage (the Adept/Warrior)
Level__Combat __Fort__Ref__Will___Rep
1_____+0_______+2___+0___+2___+0
2_____+1_______+3___+0___+3___+0
3_____+2_______+3___+1___+3___+1
4_____+3_______+4___+1___+4___+1
5_____+3_______+4___+1___+4___+1
6_____+4_______+5___+2___+5___+1
7_____+5_______+5___+2___+5___+2
8_____+6_______+6___+2___+6___+2
9_____+6_______+6___+3___+6___+2
10____+7_______+7___+3___+7___+2
11____+8_______+7___+3___+7___+3
12____+9_______+8___+4___+8___+3
13____+9_______+8___+4___+8___+3
14____+10______+9___+4___+9___+3
15____+11______+9___+5___+9___+4
16____+12______+10__+5___+10__+4
17____+12______+10__+5___+10__+4
18____+13______+11__+6___+11__+4
19____+14______+11__+6___+11__+5
20____+15______+12__+6___+12__+5

Battle-mages have the following traits:
Abilities: Battle-mages use a balance of physical and mental abilities. They exercise both body and mind to become effective and versatile combatants.
Skills: Choose 2 + Intelligence score (minimum of 1).
Feats: Armor Training (light), Weapon Training, and Choose 2 from Martial, General and Supernatural.
Special: Battle-Mages use supernatural powers at a rank equal to their battle mage level +3 divided by two.

Battle mages might include: War wizards, Jedi, Bladesingers, battledancers, spell-swords, guardian druids, war chanters, totem warriors, gun mages, psycic warriors, paladins, antipaladins/blackguards or warrior-priests.


Swashbuckler (the Expert/Warrior)
Level__Combat __Fort__Ref__Will___Rep
1_____+0_______+2___+2___+0___+0
2_____+1_______+3___+3___+0___+0
3_____+2_______+3___+3___+1___+1
4_____+3_______+4___+4___+1___+1
5_____+4_______+4___+4___+1___+1
6_____+5_______+5___+5___+2___+1
7_____+6_______+5___+5___+2___+2
8_____+7_______+6___+6___+2___+2
9_____+7_______+6___+6___+3___+2
10____+8_______+7___+7___+3___+2
11____+9_______+7___+7___+3___+3
12____+10______+8___+8___+4___+3
13____+11______+8___+8___+4___+3
14____+12______+9___+9___+4___+3
15____+13______+9___+9___+5___+4
16____+14______+10__+10__+5___+4
17____+14______+10__+10__+5___+4
18____+15______+11__+11__+6___+4
19____+16______+11__+11__+6___+5
20____+17______+12__+12__+6___+5

Swashbucklers have the following traits:
Abilities: Swashbucklers favor dexterity over strength. Intelligence is also valuable as they rely upon a repituar of skills as much as their sword arm. Charisma can also be very useful.
Skills: Choose 4 + Intelligence score (minimum of 1).
Feats: Armor Training (light), Weapon Training, and Choose 2 from Martial, Expert and General.

Swashbucklers could include: Pirates, musketeers, thugs, warrior-philosiphers, warrior-poets, assasins, scouts, nobles, rangers, and military officers.


Dilettante (The Adept/Warrior/Expert)
Level__Combat __Fort__Ref__Will___Rep
1_____+0_______+1___+1___+1___+0
2_____+1_______+1___+1___+1___+0
3_____+2_______+2___+2___+2___+1
4_____+3_______+2___+2___+2___+1
5_____+3_______+3___+3___+3___+1
6_____+4_______+3___+3___+3___+1
7_____+5_______+3___+3___+3___+2
8_____+6_______+4___+4___+4___+2
9_____+6_______+4___+4___+4___+2
10____+7_______+5___+5___+5___+2
11____+8_______+5___+5___+5___+3
12____+9_______+6___+6___+6___+3
13____+9_______+6___+6___+6___+3
14____+10______+6___+6___+6___+3
15____+11______+7___+7___+7___+4
16____+12______+7___+7___+7___+4
17____+12______+8___+8___+8___+4
18____+13______+8___+8___+8___+4
19____+14______+9___+9___+9___+5
20____+15______+9___+9___+9___+5

Dilettantes have the following traits:
Abilities: Dilettantes generally have all their abilities at about the same level (+1 to all) though some do favor intelligence a bit to get extra skills and become even more versatile.
Skills: Choose 3 + Intelligence score (minimum of 1). Alternatively a Dilettantes may take twice this number of skills all at rank equal to their level +3 divided by two.
Feats: Armor Training (light), Jack-of-all-trades and Choose 2 from Martial, Expert, General and Supernatural categories.
Special: Dilettantes use supernatural powers at a rank equal to their Dilettante level +3 divided by two.

Dilettantes might inclue: Rennaisance men, bards, entertaining magicians, jokers, generic adventurers or supernatural prodigies.

[aaronil]

Nice work Dragonspawn! I appreciated the "possible roles" you listed as well. I'd scratch the Jack of all trades though - it seems unbalanced and I just can't think of unique roles for it besides "Jack"

[Dragonspawn]

aaronil wrote:
"I'd scratch the Jack of all trades though"

I added Jack-of-all-trades simply for the sake of completeness. Its not nearly as well defined or interesting of a concept as the other three, and if I do end up using these in my game I will probably exclude the jack.

Nisarg Wrote:
"I think I'll be a Swashbuckler for about 5 levels, then multiclass into Battle-Mage for the next 6.. after that, who knows.. maybe straight warrior for the rest."

Very witty. You do bring up a good point that I might not have been clear on. These sub-classes are intended to replace the multiclassing option, so the way they are intended to be used each character would only ever have one role (one of the 3 original roles or the four sub-roles I presented above). Of course nothing is stopping you from using these sub-roles AND allowing multiclassing... it kinda defeats the purpose of what I set out to do, but hey... this is a game. As long as your having fun thats all that really matters.

[Chairman Aeon]

The Jack has a unique thing in that they are neither good nor bad and all their saves are the same. It's great for the player who doesn't like anything to suck. I'd also suggest the Jack have to take their namesake in feat as well. It could also be renamed Dilettante. And a minor niggle, but shouldn't the Jack really have powers at level + 3 divided by 3.

Good work.

Iain.

[Dragonspawn]

Thanks for the comments Iain... I like "Dilettante" better than "Jack-of-all-Trades". Its less cumbersome. I changed the name, and added the "Jack-of-all-trades" feat at your suggestion.

As for the arcana rank for the jack/Dilettante, I considdered dividing by three but I'm worried that would drop the ranks too low to be all that useful. I'll have to take another look at that though.

[Chairman Aeon]

I scooped up your hybrid classes and tweaked the names to better fit my setting. It will help get rid of multiclassing, which I find messy in True20. I'd like to give you credit in my OGL section, so if your wouldn't mind PMing me how you'd like to be refered to in Section 15, I'd appreciate it.

I understand about the /3, I was mostly being silly about it.

Iain.

[Grim Luck]

You know, multiclassing is a breeze when you use my Excel Character Generator.

[critter80]

Where are their defense bonuses? Did I miss something?

[Grim Luck]

A role's defense bonus is the equivilant of their combat bonus.

[The Shadow]

Interesting... The only catch I can see is that your hybrid classes have better saves than regular multiclass characters.

I have a feeling that these roles will be chosen more often than vanilla Adept or Expert. I'm getting flashbacks to AD&D where so very many people played half-elf multiclasses. :)

[Grim Luck]

Shadow: That was my concern. Of course, no one in my group minds multiclassing.

[Dragonspawn]

I have a feeling that these roles will be chosen more often than vanilla Adept or Expert.

The saves are worse than a vanilla expert because an expert has two good saves, AND gets to choose them. They also still have the most skills.

As for adepts, they may have worse saves, but they gain supernatural powers at rank of their adept level plus three without dividing by two. A huge advantage over the magic using sub-rolls.

With my sub-rolls I basically rounded saving throws up and rounded combat bonus and reputation down (this is a gross simplification, but I won't get into the specific methods and equations I used).

So in the end I think it all ballances out (Or at least that was my design intent).

[Dragonspawn]

Just a shameless plug and *bump* of this thread for the folks discussing how to simulate a battle-mage type class in True20 at first level.

[Warbringer]

I'd limit the occultist to 2 supernatural feats at 1st.

Make the Adept better at supernatural, not just on saves

[Dragonspawn]

Well the adept gets supernatural powers at rank equal to their level plus three...

Occultists only gain supernatural powers at a rank equal to their level plus three and then divided by two... so they get powers at half the rank an adept would.