Classes

From LegendWiki

A class defines a major part of how your character solves problems. Whenever you create a character in Legend, you start by selecting a character class. Your class grants a collection of three ability tracks, plus a "schedule" of when you gain the abilities for each. Unless you multiclass, you progress the three tracks of your character class throughout your adventuring career. A class is not a job – a barbarian and paladin might both make a living as a knight, a trader, or a sushi chef.

Legend Classes

Barbarian
Monk
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Sage
Shaman
Tactician

Ability Tracks

The classes in this system progress on a set of ability tracks. Each track generally grants an ability every three levels. These tracks are designed to be roughly balanced in terms of power, compared to other tracks, and form the core of the Legend multiclassing system. Each class progresses 3 tracks as the set of class features that they provide to a character.

Tracks provide 7 abilities over a character's progression. We classify these abilities by their "circle" – the point in the track at which the ability becomes available. So all abilities, whether they are extraordinary, supernatural, spell-like, or spell abilities, have a "circle" (from first to seventh). This is particularly critical for spells and spell-like abilities, since their circle determines how easily they can be dispelled.

There are several classes in this system – barbarian, paladin, sage, shaman, ranger and rogue – that have numbers for track progression but do not have specific tracks named. This is because each class has multiple tracks available, for purposes of increased customization. This does not represent an increase in overall power, because track choices are permanent; it simply represents an increase in variety.

Ability tracks based on spellcasting grant access to new circles of spells on a specific spell list, detailed at the end of the class using that spell list. Full details of each spell, along with specific rules for using spells, can be found in Magic and Spellcasting.

Ability Track Progressions

Track Progression
Level Medium Track Fast Track Slow Track
1 Circle 1 Circle 1
2 Circle 1
3 Circle 2
4 Circle 2
5 Circle 2
6 Circle 3
7 Circle 3
8 Circle 3
9 Circle 4
10 Circle 4
11 Circle 4
12 Circle 5
13 Circle 5
14 Circle 5
15 Circle 6
16 Circle 6
17 Circle 6
18 Circle 7
19 Circle 7
20 Circle 7

All player characters have at least three tracks. These three tracks follow three different progressions, staggered so that each character level gained grants one new ability. The progressions are called Fast, Medium, and Slow, and are detailed below. A character using the Full Buy-In option gains a fourth track that follows the Medium progression.

  • Fast Progression: A track in this progression receives circle abilities at 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th,12th, 15th, and 18th level.
  • Medium Progression: A track in this progression receives circle abilities at 1st, 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level.
  • Slow Progression: A track in this progression receives circle abilities at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 20th level.

Tracks do not have an innate progression – progression speed is always determined by the multiclassing choices of the individual character. For example, while the Path of War track is normally in a Medium progression for barbarians, a multiclass character that trades away a Slow progression track for Path of War would advance Path of War circles in accordance with the Slow progression.

Multiclassing

Players who have a character concept in mind that doesn't quite fit in any single class may multiclass. Multiclassing is done by trading a single ability track from a player's chosen class in exchange for gaining an ability track from another class or from a list of bonus tracks.

Some ability tracks (such as the paladin's Judgment and the rogue's Esoterica Radica) cannot be accessed by multiclassing. Such restrictions are always included in the text of an ability track. Some other tracks may include prerequisites (such as race, a feat, another track, or a minimum in an ability score). You can never multiclass into a track for which you lack a prerequisite.

To multiclass, simply choose to multiclass at character generation. You can substitute one track in this way, with no associated costs. This substitution represents characters who begin their careers as multiclassed "hybrid" characters, and therefore can only be done at 1st level (or, if the game begins at a higher level, at character generation). You may not multiclass into a racial track.

The Guild Initiation feat represents characters who decide to change their life paths later on, and pursue training, a ritual or magical procedure that can replace existing track features with the abilities of a new track. The new track from Guild Initiation can replace either a standard track (listed as part of your standard class features) or a multiclass track.

When you gain a new track via multiclassing, you pick one of your class's tracks and give up that track. You instead gain the circles of the new track, in order, at the levels that you would have gained features from the sacrificed track. You cannot gain any track more than once. Some tracks are part of the same overall track, and therefore you cannot have more than one of them for any reason. For example, the three options for the rogue's Offensive Track are mutually exclusive, as with the rogue's Defensive Track options, the ranger's Daggers and Bolts options, the sage's Wrath options, and the barbarian's Path of War options.

Some tracks, including most rogue tracks and some barbarian tracks, change the Key Ability Modifier of any character who possesses them. If you have more than one track that changes a Key Ability Modifier, choose which change to apply first. For example, the Rage track sets your Key Offensive Modifier to Strength, while the Demo Man track sets it to Intelligence, so a character with both could choose between Strength or Intelligence for their Key Offensive Modifier. This choice is permanent, although if you gain or lose a track of this type with the Guild Initiation feat, relevant Key Modifiers are reset according to what tracks you have after the change.