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#1 vongentlemen Nov 22, 2009 21:37:37

Hah, as much as I hate to toot my own horn, (Or pipe, in case of my Gentlemen-ness), I hope that this guide will help you people out a lot. It certainly helped me. And I wrote it! Class Creation 101 And whew, where do I begin? Making classes is a subject that could fill books. (It does, in fact). Of course, there is a pretty simple way to break it down* (Simple is relative, of course) The first thing to remember is the main food groups of classes. They are as follows: ~Glass Cannon (High damage output, low durability) ~Hit-and-run (High mobility, usually medium damage output and durability) ~Tank ~Backbone (usually support classes. Melee ones tend to have medium durability and higher mobility, magic are usually higher damage or supporting spells and lower mobility) ~Hey, how's the weather over there? (high range. Varying damage output and durability) ~Guy-Who-Has-Really-Good-Skills-But-Doesn't-Seem-To-Understand-His-Role-In-Combat-Because-He-Didn't-Actually-Read-His-Class-Sheet-And-Only-Picked-The-Class-Because-It-Entitles-Him-To-Hunt-Witches-And-The-DM-Agreed-To-Give-Him-The-Hat-He-Wanted (Usually has some pretty solid variant skills that give him solid durability and damage output at the cost of limiting his attack options, forcing him to approach battles more strategically, which he won't do) After you have all that figured out (usually you have at least four or five kinds for every six classes you create), it's time to look at combat styles. The big ones are as follows**: Melee:*** ~Heavy Armor and weapons kind ~Fast swordsman ~Diverse fighter ~Skill reliant fighter ~Mutli-range combativeness ~Kamikaze Fighter ~Well-Rounded combatant ~Fighter with magic abilities Ranged ~Long distance with interval attacks ~Mid Range sprayer ~Mid range heavy hitter ~Close/Mid range with melee option ~Suppressing attacker ~Ambusher Magic**** ~Buffer ~Healer ~Damage Output ~Skill based ~Mix-and-match Once you have the archetypes and the roles, it's time to focus on the fun part: Balance! the idea behind balance is that all of your classes could engage a standard enemy (One capable of damaging them in normal conditions) in conditions perfect for their class and emerge victorious with roughly the same amount of %HP as the other classes with roughly the same Ammo/magic % expenditure as the other classes. Of course, most classes don't have inherently perfect conditions, which is where special abilities come in. And speaking of specials, they break down into three kinds: 1.) Abilities that make the combat situation more favorable for the class 2.) Abilities that counter a class's weakness 3.) Abilities that bolster a class's existing combat capabilities. Classes that rely more on circumstantial situations (AKA Hunter) tend to have skills that serve to tip situations more toward their class's favor, whilst classes that lean more toward a set role (AKA Chosen One) have abilities that bolster their combat abilities corresponding to their class's role. Classes that have set combat roles (AKA Mortician) have skills that negate their weaknesses and make their primary skills more usable. Once you have this generally figured out, assign an identity to the class, making it relevant to the world. Adding a quote or theme song to a class can help tend to inspire its' identity a little more. After all that, remeber that each class should have an opposite to balance it out. For example, a cleric like ability would be owned by a tank, who would be owned by an offensive mage, who would be owned by a ranger, who would be owned by a swift-swordsman, who would be owned by a tank, ect. After you have a relationship behind characters, feel free to write various classes into roles in the setting. Make classes usually follow some sort of rules or back story. Get Creative. Experiment. * This is in no way comprehensive ** There are of course, many, many others. This list refers to the conventionally used ones. *** Fighter is not referring to a class here, but rather a combatant that uses melee as a primary means of attacking **** Or whatever the akin to magic is in your setting. Of course, you could just skip all this needless class making and use a perk system instead, which is totally easier to make and totally more functional.