Class design principles

 Hi,

 Planned Classes

Nothing special, the base classes are the following: Fighter, Gladiator, Assassin, Knight, Thief, Bard, Cleric, Paladin, Martial Artist, Swordmaster, Witch, Warlock, Firemage, Wizard. 

 Levels

In this game as i mentioned earlier the starting level is the 3rd. So a new PC is not experienced.  That fits to the old M.A.G.U.S design pattern, because in that system starting PCs were professionals, but not seasoned. Below the 3rd level the characters are common soldiers, apprentices,etc.  

Lvl 4-6 for experienced adventurers, most of them finishes their adventurer life and settle, retire or undertake a peaceful duty. Mostly some local leader, a commander of city forces, master of a local mage guild, or  head of a temple, etc. Some of them touches the politics, but it is not general.

Those who continues the adventuring reach the lvl6 get the signiture feature, which rise them into the heroes. Between lvl7-9 the adventurer steps into the major league. Usually besides of the adventuring the characters get involved in the higher politics. 

The real unique heroes, demigods, immortals are starting at lvl10, between the lvl10-12 the characters are world famous or feared who are able to change  the destiny of a empire or a continent. Pontifexes, emperors, world leaders, arch mages, thief princes etc. can be in this level.

 

 

 

Abilities

 I do not want to change this part of the game. Classes will not affect it, only the races. There is no ability requirements also.

 

Secondary values

I want to keep the well developed trends. Warrior classes has d10-d12 HD, Rogue/Religious% classes: d8, Magic-Users: d6.  

Saves are diverse, typically the strong and high hp characters has the better grade on the Fortitude, Rogue classes are best in Reflexes, Magic-Users are the champion of the Will saving throws. Some classes has advantage on the saves, mostly the defensive, supportive classes, like cleric, paladin. It means that they have the better grade in two or three saves.

Attack value follows the Saves, warrior classes lvl*1, Rogue/Religious classes: lvl*2/3, Magic Users: lvl*1/2.
The attack of the paladin and the assassin is still undecided. Because the paladin in the original MAGUS system starting with warrior values, but the per level increment is lower because of the religious knowledge (limited divine magic, knowledge skills). So it is a knight or fighter who uses divine magic. Assassin in d20 systems is rather rogue (lower combat values, sneak attack, etc.), but in the MAGUS system it is rather warrior with rogue skills, so I will follow this scheme. Unfortunately the MAGUS system was imba and the assassin is the most powerful (besides the wizard), because of it is full warrior. Only the skillpoints are lower than the figthers, but it has free skills in exchange, but in the other hand it has damage bonus, sneak attack, some slan psi. Assasin in MAGUS is a super agent. But in this system i would correct this imbalanced situation, so my intention is that fighter, knight, gladiator must be better warrior face to face and only the backstab and other dirty tricks will compensate the difference of the combat skills.
At the martial classes I have a dilemma also. They are in the beginning  fighters with special slan psi, that boosts their combat skills. (for example: chi fighting add some combat bonus, deadly finger: HP damage with touch, etc.) So i think i will follow the Azael example and the martial class progress will be at rogue level in combat values, but they will have martial features, like the slan psi and some daily usage feat.

AC: Some feat can modify the AC, for example the unarmored Martial Artist will get AC bonus.

Alignment: D20 and MAGUS has a simple alignment system. In MAGUS you have 2 categories: order-chaos and the life/death. There is no neutral value. In this system there is no affection of  the alignment. So I can keep the old dnd alignment system. Currently this is my viewpoint.

 

Feats 

The following categories will be regarding the Features:

Class: The base package, these features describe the profession of the class. (weapon specialization, sneak attack, etc)

Combat: The feats that modify the combat values or grants new maneuvers in combat.

Social: Helps to the character deal with NPC-s, mostly active feats with daily usage. Eg.: Charm feature for the Bard.

Skill: Extra skill, or advantege on existing skill in order to show the class specialty.

Intrigue: I am planning an intrigue system, the characters will have some resource and they can indicate itrigue actions like scandals, spying, etc. through their contacts. It is optional, instead of this subsystem the DM can use flat bonuses.

Roleplay: Mostly titles, that helps to the NPC to judge the character in roleplay situation. Eg: Noble title for the Knight. Titles can be replaced if the current character background justify it. For example if  the Knight character is a member an order and not inherited the knight he is not a noble, so you have to add another title. 

 Not all category will be used and sometimes one category will be allocated more than one time exchange for another.

If you have any suggestion please let me know!

 

BR,

P