Class change and storytelling

As long as if it flows naturally, I'm game for it.

>>51923440
Like multi-classing? If the system allows for it and we're playing that kind of game, go for it.

But a completely change of class... I wouldn't immediately say no to it, but I'd need a pretty compelling reason to allow it and it'd have to make sense in the setting. For instance, in terms of DnD, a fighter could arguably make a logical progression into a paladin, or a rogue, since those are just abstractions of the same basic idea. How, exactly, does a wizard forget enough about magic to become a fighter without any wizard levels?

If a PC is way behind or way ahead of the rest of the party mechanically and nobody realized that at character creation (usually because the players are new to that system, maybe because they weren't minmaxing to the level this player expected) I'd consider letting the player change classes to something similar, then retconning things so that he was always that class.

Then, after the campaign, I'd never touch that system again. There are plenty of systems to choose from, so I'm not going to waste my time with a system that badly balanced.


I doubt I'd allow it for story reasons, unless the game includes some method for changing classes and/or multi-classing. Though that really depends on what options changing classes gives me for where I can take the story.

>>51924266
>Arcane ritual changing you into a fighter at the cost of your magical skills.

Unless there's a reasonable in-universe explanation for it, I'd probably just tell them to roll up a new character.

But then I tend to run fairly high-fatality games so most players have at least one backup character rolled up at all times (one guy even has 8+ of them he keeps in a binder) so it wouldn't be too much of an issue apart from taking a minute to have the new character join the party in a plausible way.

Classes (as used by most games) don't exist. They are just a meta-concept written on the character sheet.

In cases where they do, changing them doesn't even make sense if there's no good reason for the change.

>>51927400
Even when classes mean nothing, replacing skills you have with new skills and forgetting the old ones entirely generally makes little sense, unless it's a game where you're swapping in skillsofts like you can in Shadowrun.

I feel you guys are thinking about it all wrong. If I were to do class changes in game I would do it like they do in Final Fantasy games. It's not that you forget the abilities. You're just changing your current style of fighting to suit the situation like.

Like using a real world example. If you were studying one style of martial art, and then you studied a second martial art, you wouldn't forget the first one you were practicing. You'd just be focused on performing the new martial art style and thus not using the old one.

So for like, if you had somebody who wanted to go from a warrior to a ninja. He hasn't forgotten how to be a warrior. But the situation calls for him to be sneaky, so he leaves behind his heavy armor and weapons at home and decks himself out with gear that suits his current needs. He hasn't forgotten how to cleave somebody in half with a great sword, but that knowledge and skill isn't going to help him when he's currently only has small daggers that can easily be hidden on hand.

As for magic to fighter, it's not that he's forgotten his spells. He just simply hasn't been bringing his components/foci/preparing his spells. So he still has the potential to cast magic, he simply hasn't made preparations to do so and thus can't.

>>51927649
That gives the player an amazing amount of strategic flexability.
Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of it, but its something you would need to keep an eye on and would work better in a classless, skills based system than one which uses classes.

But I also like >>51927396 and the idea that a mage or other caster might go through a huge ritual to funnel their magic power into physical power. It could even come out that this is the reason they went into magic in the first place.

The other way round though, I can't see unless you went for the kung-fu mystic aproach.
They could go through some kind of mystic training where they inscribe ritual tatoos on themselves. The tattoos harness mystic energy when moved correctly, and the old combat forms effectively cast spells. The tatoos are customised to the fighting style of the individual though so trying to actually fight creates the energy too, and unless strictly controlled (reduced fighting capacity) will result in a buildup lethal to the fighter.

>>51927829
Thinking about it further, both these options would allow you to use a non-standard atribute as your primary stat now.
Fighter casting spell by forcing the magic into paterns with str, and Wizard fighting by pushing his weapon with telekinetic magic using int.

>>51927856
Divine caster into anything is simple, you ask the god to give you the powers you need rather than the ones you have, standard divine transformation stuff.

It's the rogues and skill based characters that I am having trouble with. I suppose into a caster they could use the same kind of ritual to control the magic with movement, but into a martial character? the only thing I can think of is a transformative potion coupling a boosted fighting instinct to their preexisting finesse and buffing them up, but if that existed why would fighters not also use it?
I suppose it could be an attitude thing, it changes their mind so they switch focus and almost ignore their old skills in favour of the new ones.

>>51927486
Very few games track skills so autistically tied to classes that you couldn't at least approximate it, or wouldn't have the DM handwave the restrictions on.

Basically, the only situation I can think of would be something like 3.PF, where you switch from a rogue to like, a Cleric with 2 skill points.