8.1

Basics

Considering a change to basic formulas. Candidates include:

Core magical abilities

Whither rituals? And detect magic? All the stuff practitioners should have, but aren't about to sink an entire power on it? How do they get these abilities?

Considering the archetypal characters, there seems to be a three-way tradeoff. That is, you have a given amount to invest into three categories:

But it's not quite so simple. System 8 explicitly doesn't let you trade away powers; you don't have to have spell-like abilities, but you have to have something: super strength, uncanny luck, even if it's not from your blood, but from a cool item or something. It's essential to maintain some sort of balance.

This would seem to imply that there are really only two "classes" per se:

So who is good at fighting? Well, melee attacks or whatever aren't really on this spectrum. Whatever normal HP, ACs, attack and damage rolls, etc that a level X caster can achieve, a level X innate can use their power to easily overmatch them. Training should matter, too, of course, but it seems like the job is mostly taken care of by ability scores. The true "glass cannon" style of pure caster will entirely neglect their physical stats and be rubbish at physical combat, whereas an innate power user should have little use for most of the mental stats and will necessarily have more focus in the physical ones (if not more ability score points overall due to said innate power).

This doesn't suit a 3.5 base very well. Two classes isn't a great look for d20, especially since neither fits any of the in-between abilities like Reflex. It might work with a 5e base somewhat better, where we just let people pick their ability scores as normal, and let proficiency separate the level bands. Maybe we can borrow something from PF2 and have different levels of proficiency (proficient, expert, etc).

So what does this look like? Let's talk specifics.

The "Classes"

There are really only two, but we'll pretend there are more by shifting the label of "class" down to the level of subclass. Thus:

Fuck, no. It doesn't work. What if you're an innate power user who uses Invocation bindings? Why have separate classes for Elemental and Elementalist?

Well, the other approach would seem to be:

Classes and Powers

Classes describe training, skills, experience, hard work, knowledge, etc. Powers are cool supernatural things you can do. They are separate game mechanics.

A power is something like "Fireball". Maybe you can make a fireball because you're a wizard who has studied magic for years and knows the arcane symbols and words to evoke one. Maybe you can do so because you're a sorcerer and fire is in your blood; you don't have to think about it, magic just comes out. Maybe you can do so because you're literally a fire elemental, and making a fireball is as natural for you as throwing a punch is for a human. Either way, it's a 20-ft radius burst that does medium fire damage, and costs 1 power slot on your character sheet.

But that other stuff? The difference between erudite wizards, innate sorcerers, and monsters? That's what classes are for.

Classes, and some of the abilities they grant:

Practitioner

The classic "pure caster". Count on high mana, the ability to detect magic, dispel, counterspell, metamagic, feats to modify and augment your powers, creating items to enhance spellcasting, etc.

Focuses on the three mental ability scores:

Gifted

Some people are just born with gifts. Maybe you're stronger or faster than you ought to be. Maybe you have an innate magical ability. This is a relatively simple class that grants bonuses that most adventurers would find useful, such as:

Monster

Similar to Gifted, but usually with a distinct flavor and more power, but also significant disadvantages, such as Vampire or Werewolf.

Class Skills

Well, that's all well and good. But maybe skills are the answer. Not sure how to balance them all yet, but many of the core abilities work fine as skills. For example:

Thaumaturgy

Uses:

Invocation

Arcana

Psionics

Spellcraft

Concentration

Willpower

Proficiency bonuses

You might ask, how do you roll these crazy skills? Is Arcana Int based? Cha? Wis? Which is which?

Well, it's time for skills to part ways with the concept of permanent ability score assignments. Fact is, skills represent training, not fundamental talent. Thus, they provide the "training" portion of the roll, and ability scores provide the "talent" portion. There's no reason they have to marry one particular score.

For example, a selection of Invocation's uses:

Similarly, a selection from the Melee skill:

Mic fucking dropped.

Actual Proficiency Bonuses

A few things:

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