Character Class - Classless Characters

Classless Characters

A common alternative to class-based systems, skill-based systems are designed to give the player a stronger sense of control over how their character develops. In such systems, players choose the direction of their characters as they play, usually by assigning points to certain skills (such as "hiding" or "forgery").

Classless games often provide templates for the player to work from, many of which are based on traditional character classes. Many classless games' settings or rules systems lend themselves to the creation of character following certain archetypal trends. For example, in the role-playing video game Fallout, common character archetypes include the "shooter", "survivalist", "scientist", "smooth talker" and "sneaker", unofficial terms representing various possible means of solving or avoiding conflicts and puzzles in the game. Although Fallout is classless and there is no set limit on how a character's skills can grow or what image they may make the character into, their initial skills are specialized into three selected skills and are based directly on the character's other attributes. In Eve Online (a space-themed MMORPG) no strict classes exist but by training certain skills one can become a specialized player within certain archetypes such as combatant/pirate, constructor/inventor, miner/gatherer. The player can freely choose which abilities to train and choose to be specialized in one field or become an all-rounder. While theoretically a player can excel in all fields over time by training all skills, usually players pick one field that matches their playing style, thus following the archetype model. The Java-based MMORPG RuneScape, a player can choose to train up all aspects of the game's "combat triangle" (warrior, mage & ranger), and use any class whenever they choose, or can focus on only one type of combat. RuneScape's class system follows the rule of warriors having an advantage over rangers, rangers over mages and mages over warriors.

Like class-based systems, classless games have their own set of criticisms. One major problem is the tank mage syndrome. Even though a classless system typically restricts somehow the number or level of skills a player can have at any one time, the player can usually choose at least two, and some choose a defensive melee skill and an offensive spell skill. This takes advantage of the best defense and offense in the game, in effect turning a wizard from a powerful squishy into a nearly indestructible offensive cannon, and breaking the offense-defense inverse relationship considered central to balancing a game. Ultima Online suffered from tank mage syndrome, made all the worse by rampant PK. Additionally, instead of maxing out one defensive and one offensive skill, sometimes players can "pick and choose" a large number of low-level skills from many skill trees and thus achieve the same effect. Star Wars Galaxies suffered from this early on, where many skill trees offered some defensive choices at low levels, and players would pick many of them, achieving an armor class far greater than the designers envisioned, while advancing one shooting skill to maximum level. This was partially nerfed by preventing the player's AC from exceeding the max in any of their skill trees.