Playing D&D 5e without Classes

Name: Playing D&D 5e without Classes | Open Video
Uploaded: 2022-09-30T20:48:01+00:00
Duration: 18 min 54 s

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Hey guys, I want to talk today about a concept that I have that utilizes the mechanics of 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons
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But for players who are more veteran than myself, like decades veteran, I'm sure that you've tried at least every class that you're interested in
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And maybe you're a little disappointed with the limitations that you find with the classes
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or maybe you just want to combine several classes together, but homebrewing can just be
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tedious, I suppose. My concept today is a class-free D&D game, and if you are a veteran
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chances are you've done something very similar to this. I'll be going over what that means
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and some mechanics that you can utilize, my own experience running a class-free game
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I hope this topic intrigues you, and if it does, please comment below if you've ever experienced a game like this
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or if you've conceptualized this sort of campaign as well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, I'd love to hear what worked and what didn't work
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So let's explore the unknown. So the basics of a class-free game are very similar to your regular D&D campaign
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The only difference is, instead of starting the game with a set of skills and specialties
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you're going to develop those throughout the campaign based on how your character reacts to situations
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What I mean is, suppose your party is fighting a few kobolds
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and you've got one particular member who is just adamant, like, I don't want to fight these guys, I think that we can reason with them, with their little intelligence
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I think that we can barter or something, come up with something more diplomatic
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Perhaps when that character reaches a milestone, the Dungeon Master will say
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Your interest in conflict resolution has helped you develop a more diplomatic approach to encounters
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Therefore, I will give you a portion of the diplomat feat in Unaffed Arcana
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and you can now add that to your character skills. So in this type of campaign, the dungeon master is going to be splicing up all the different skills, classes, features, abilities
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and kind of mulching them together to create a very unique and customized character, very personal to the players
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Whenever they reach a milestone or do something noteworthy, they can receive a new feature or skill that is dependent on what the character has done
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or what the character is interested in. Perhaps also if the character meets any mentors or has a master
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or has someone to teach them a skill, they can just gain that skill
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You are no longer bound within the constructs of the class that you are choosing as a character
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So what does this look like in gameplay? So when I dungeon mastered for Flutes and our friend Chaz
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I set up this campaign similarly. The premise is that the two characters were brothers, young brothers, I think like 13 and 15 years old
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And in their island dwelling habitation, they were hired by an unknown but prominent figure in the island
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to search for a specific item from ruins that were being discovered close but kind of far away
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Being young boys, they had very basic skills. Like they could rig up a boat, a small boat
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um they had a few hobbies i think they were uh i think they had some jewelers experience because
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they were the younger brother would create stones to sell at the festivals he would turn them into
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jewelry i gave them a few stats like intelligence plus one or something like that and then when they
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went to these ruins in order to find the special item they developed a lot in their skills and
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characters because they were sent with a team like a captain and a few crewmen in order to take
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them to this new island. They learned a little bit of swordsmanship from one of the crew members
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and I think the other boy was interested more in like magic or healing or something like that
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And so they gained very basic abilities in that way and then they went to these ruins and they
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discovered a lot of world building devices. They learned the secrets. A few of the secrets of the
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the world that they were just barely learning to explore. And they really learned how they react
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to situations and encounters. Like a large spider attacked them and there were a few NPCs that helped out because they very unskilled but they can still you know be wily and maneuver around and figure out ways to defeat this spider with just a few of the equipment that they discovered
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One of the boys reacted to that situation of, I need to be faster so I can avoid these situations
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and the other one said, I need to be stronger so I can fight in these situations
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And then when they finally reached a milestone of finding a big secret of the world
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that kind of set off their journey. That's when I said to the younger brother
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you are more interested in learning how to navigate. You spent time with the captain. You gathered some bees on your journey and kept them beside you
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You learned how to reason with a few thieves and you've really honed your stone cutting and jewelry making
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Therefore, you gain part of the grappler's feet, which says you are perceptive and calculating
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you can determine how best to avoid getting hit through your wisdom. I gave him unarmored defense
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and some sneak attack for knowing how to best strike when its target isn't paying attention
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because he's just this little boy no one's gonna expect him. He found an obsidian dagger that's his
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first piece of real equipment and uh the player chose to be a heavier kid so he learned how to
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throw his weight around and he could grapple better. The older boy was interested in learning
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how to sail ships more, water vehicles. He received a flute, I think, from someone who
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mentored him or was important to him, so he learned how to play that. He fell in a trap
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into some water, and it was more of a character development moment of, I need to learn how to swim
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and be more athletic. He was kind of a scrawny guy. Andy was a little bit jealous of his younger
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brother, who had better problem-solving skills. Since he fell through this trap when his brother
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was being more aware of the situation, this older brother learned how to be cautious with traps
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So I gave him the dungeon delver feat. And for his athleticism, I gave him the part of the mobile
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feat. And he found a magic book that he was able to decipher somewhat. So I gave him the magic
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initiate feat, as well as some proficiencies and languages. And of course, you don't expect a
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character at level one to have 20 feats. That's a little insane, but if you mix and mesh parts of
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the feats and just kind of create your own overall abilities and skills, it makes up for not having
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equipment and class features and so forth. So overall, it was a system of surprising my
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characters based on their choices and their experiences, how they reacted to encounters
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and situations, they received these parts of skills and abilities that they could further
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use in the game. You can read more of this story in detail on the article I'll post in the description here
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I kind of go more into the detail of the world building and such, if you're interested
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This link will also show all these ideas and mechanics that I have in one succinct place
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in case you're not taking notes. So check out the link. It's on our Flutes Loot website, flutesloot.com
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So, obviously you can do whatever you want with these campaigns. It's really loosey-goosey
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You can just throw in whatever you think is fun. And your encounter challenge rating will be based on how much damage your players can do overall
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Hit points, how much they can receive in terms of damage to themselves
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Just kind of feel it out, gauge it, maybe throw in a few NPCs who can help out if needed
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In my opinion, the most important part of playing a class-free game is really understanding that your characters are just normal people who have some call to adventure
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They're not setting out expected to be heroes. They probably weren't hired by an adventures league or have great connections throughout the land
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They're just people who are exploring the world that you've built and learning how to be themselves for the characters, you know
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All too often, conflict and action overtake the story in Dungeons & Dragons
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And I think that playing in this situation where they're not just a paladin, they don't just serve their deity
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they're not a barbarian who goes into fits of rage and that's like their only thing about them
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They're not warlocks trying to pay back some unknown patron in an attempt to get as much
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power as they can. These are all great tropes and they fun to play but a class game allows players to really explore what they want in their characters So players playing a class game need to shift their mindset from we are heroes we going to solve the problem
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we're going to save the world this is a grandiose adventure to I'm trying to live my life in whatever
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means possible. Maybe it eventually does lead to them saving the world or whatever but they don't
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know that that's not what they're setting out to do. They're just normal people and they gain some
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skills along the way and figure out what they want, figure out what the DM wants, and just
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have fun with it. So mechanically speaking, this is how I would set up a game that's less along
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the lines of classes. I would start each character at level zero. That doesn't exist. So we'll just
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make it up. Let your players choose a race. Don't give them racial stat bonuses because according
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to Toshas, you can just add in whatever racial stat bonuses you want anyway. Like they kind of
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made it really loose of like, if you want to be an elf, but you want to have the stats of a dwarf
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like it's cool. So don't give them their stat bonuses until they hit level one when they have
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a major milestone. And then you can decide what stats fit in your story. Instead, we're going to
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be focusing on background and backstory as well as personality. Flutes and I developed a worksheet
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for your players that really fleshes out a backstory and it's an Excel spreadsheet. You can
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use it on Google Docs, whatever, but it's a place for DMs and players to have all the information
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in the same place. It's super handy. I've enjoyed it when I filled it out. We even had a reader of
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ours. Use those questions in game. Just kind of incorporate it into his gameplay and then fill it
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out for his players later on. This is a really great idea. But have your players figure out what
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their personality is, what their background, their relationships, their follies, their triumphs
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what are they good at, what really like hangs them back. Figure out a few of those simple things
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but also remember that you're not limiting the possibilities of what your character can become
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You're just giving who you were for some context along with the story
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and then you're going to shoot from there to become whatever you want. So have your players set up their character sheet with the typical stat rolling system
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but you have to understand that stats only correlate to personality at this point
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A big, strong, tough guy will have high strength, awesome, but that doesn't mean he's going to be a fighter or a barbarian or a paladin
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A scrawny kid might have high intelligence and dexterity because he has to avoid all these bullies
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So if he has strong dex and intelligence, that doesn't mean he's going to be a rogue
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because there are no rogues or fighters or barbarians or wizards, etc
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Players will get parts of each class that they find interesting that their character walks into
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So stats only correlate to personality. At their first milestone, when they level up to level one, whatever that means for your characters
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that's when they can have the racial stat boosts that they would normally get
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or whatever is equivalent to that, that they have grown into. Next, I would choose an official background for the character
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And based on the background or backstory that they develop, what are two to three skills that they might have
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That could be animal handling, history, arcana, if they have a background that fits that
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Like if their parents are librarians to a magical university, they might know a bit of arcana
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And that's cool. That's fine. Or if they grew up in a rough place and had to learn to evade the law or get what they needed to survive
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perhaps they have thieves, tools, proficiencies. That's perfect too. Give them some very basic skills and abilities based on their backstory and background and personality
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Next, let's talk about equipment. I know that players love their loot and their equipment
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and they just really hang on to what they can get at the very beginning
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It's kind of fun to say you're a normal person. If you have this call to adventure, what are you going to take on your back
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You're probably not going to pack everything you have. You probably don't already have a great sword or a legendary magic item
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At level one, maybe it's a rare magic item or something. but they probably don't have access to those things
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Picture Bilbo Baggins leaving the Shire with a bunch of dwarves What is he taking on his back Not a lot He does have one magic item and I think it would be fair to give players a common magic item that was maybe passed down
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from their parents or ancestors or something that they have, maybe they even built it themselves
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But I would estimate that players only have two to five gold pieces worth of equipment
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on their person. So look at the equipment available to them. Think about their background
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Once again, where do they live? What have they done in their past? Maybe what did they do to
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make money or what did their parents do to make money? These are the kinds of things that they
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can throw into a knapsack, fling it on their back and then get moving. They might have short bows
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staffs, daggers. Maybe someone whose dad was in the army or something has a long sword or a short
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sword, but honestly they should not have great equipment when they're starting out because they
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don't know if they're going to be more interested in hand-to-hand combat or spellcasting and why
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would they have a sword. They could use it for basic defense, like I know I'm going into this
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wild, this wilderness, I need to have something, but maybe they lose interest in it later on
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And finally, I would say that if their background matches, they might know one to two to four
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cantrips and maybe that's as far as their magic goes in the future. They only know cantrips
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but they could start off knowing a few cantrips. That's fine too. So now what do encounters look
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like? They're going to be a little difficult when you only have 10, 20 hit points and like a small
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dagger. Like of course you're not going to fight a huge army of goblins. That's going to rip you
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apart. So players either have to have simple encounters. I call this D&D on safe mode and
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that's more like role-playing encounters or they have to use their brains and their wit to solve
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problems to evade combat. Perhaps they run into, like in my story, it was a giant spider and there
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were two NPCs who were actually robbing my characters but when you have a giant spider
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are coming, they're not really partial to who they attack. So these two NPCs had to help the boys
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defeat the spider and then, you know, make their way out of there. So there can be a couple of
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NPCs that come in clutch to help out with these encounters, and it should really be about character
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development and how they handle encounters that develops their skills in the future. But I would
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say encounters should be very limited in terms of combat or very simple in terms of combat. And then
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when they reach a major milestone, that's when you level it up. These milestones could even happen
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at different times for different players. Maybe one character decides to sit back in an encounter
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but another one says, I'm courageous, I'm going to run forward. The one who saved the day might
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receive skills, where the other ones are like, this is a real character defining moment. I realized
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that I am scared of encounters, but how can I avoid that? And then when they figure that out
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they can gain a skill or something. If this sort of a campaign feels like cheating in D&D
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that's okay. D&D is all about having fun doing what you think is fun with a basic structure of
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mechanics. And that's what I'm suggesting for this class-free D&D campaign style
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is to use the basic mechanics of Dungeons & Dragons and pick what you think is fun for your character
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or what fits and what builds your story. Focus on character development, story, and world building
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and just really set them loose to have fun in a simple adventure
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that focuses on their character. Again, if you have played something like this
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I haven't playtested it too much. The time that I have playtested it, it was super fun
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I feel like the players were really honed into their character needs and what they were playing
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If you've played a campaign where you ditched the class system and you just cherry-picked your own character
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let me know how it went. What worked for you? What didn't work? What was fun
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What felt biased against your characters or for your characters? Let me know in the comments
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We love responding and we love having conversations about Dungeons & Dragons
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I'll drop the article link in the description below. And thank you for listening
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Happy adventuring

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Playing D&D 5e without Classes

flutesloot.com