Category talk:Character Classes

Design Notes on Character Classes

A character class in Adventure Band is one of the basic building blocks to define your character. We have fewer character classes than 5E or Pathfinder. Our character classes are meant to express the most basic types of adventurer you can play. For example, Pathfinder (2E) makes the barbarian a separate character class from the fighter, but they're both designed for physical combat. In Adventure Band, we'd consider them both to be Warriors.

The reason we only four classes is to manage complexity. Simply put, it's easier to learn and remember how four Classes work than twenty. This is what software designers call modularity or loose coupling.

To make a character with a more specific theme, such as a Viking-style berserker, choose your basic class and add an optional Archetype. Archetypes are themed templates for building a character. Most of the character classes in 5E or Pathfinder are archetypes in Adventure Band. For example, a ranger is a specific kind of Scout, so it's an Archetype. A paladin is a specialized kind of Warrior (with some spellcasting abilities), a druid is a nature-oriented cleric, and so on.