Building Classes

Classes are the callings of the adventuring life, and they are the most load-bearing entries in the project — everything a player does at the table flows through them. A class entry is a small engine: it must tell the sheet exactly how to generate a member of that calling and exactly how that member grows. Build it carefully, because the whole system leans on it.

The anatomy of a class entry

Read several existing classes before you write one and you will see the pattern. Every class carries:

• group — the pillar it belongs to: warrior, priest, wizard, or rogue. The group is not just flavor; it is the key to progression, because hit dice, THAC0, and saving throws all run along group lines. A class that declares itself a warrior inherits the warrior's combat curve.
• hitDice and hpPerLevelAfter1 — the size of the hit die at first level and the fixed hit points gained each level after name level. Warriors get the d10, priests the d8, rogues the d6, wizards the d4 — keep to your group's die.
• xpTable and thac0Table — the experience cost of each level and the fall of the combat number. Your table should follow your group's curve (a wizard is always more fragile and slower in THAC0 than a warrior), even when the exact cost varies so the calling feels distinct.
• savingThrows — the five category numbers by level range, again following the group's pattern.
• primeRequisite — the ability score the calling is built on: Strength for warriors, Intelligence for wizards, Wisdom for priests, Dexterity for rogues. High scores here earn bonus experience, which is the system rewarding the hero who is born to the craft.
• proficiencySlots, weaponProficiencyGroup, and nonweaponProficiencyGroup — how many weapons and skills a member starts with, and which weapon groups they may learn. A wizard's sparse slots and restricted weapon list are a core part of what makes a wizard feel like a wizard.
• specialAbilities — the gifts the class unfolds by level. Point at abilities in the Abilities folder (a shared backstab, a shared turn undead) rather than rewriting their text into the class.
• racialRestrictions, multiClassAllowed, and dualClassRestrictions — the bounds on who may take the calling. Paladins are famously human-only; most callings are open to most folk with level limits doing the shaping.

The four pillars as constraints

The cleanest way to build a class is to pick your group first and stay inside its physics. The group is the honest frame: it decides how tough you are (hit die), how surely you strike (THAC0), how well you resist magic (saves), how many weapons you may learn, and how your spells — if any — are handled. A warrior class that secretly casts like a wizard, or a wizard with a warrior's hit dice, does not build a new hero; it just breaks the tables. Respect the pillar, and the class will sit neatly in the roster.

Kits: variation within a calling

Most of the classes beyond the core eight are kits — variations on a base class rather than a new pillar. A kit keeps its parent's group and core curve and changes the texture: the cavalier is a warrior with a code and a mount, the assassin is a thief with a lethal edge, the avenger a priest of a different flame. When you build a kit, the discipline is in the delta: keep the engine, change what makes it feel different, and make sure every change is expressed in the fields the sheet reads. A kit that says "like a fighter but more so" without the numbers is a paragraph, not a class.

The design intent

Every class should answer two questions the player is asking:

1. What is my job? — the calling's role in the party: the wall, the hammer, the healer, the storm, the shadow, the voice.
2. What do I trade for it? — the honest cost: the wizard's frailty and preparation, the thief's dependence on situation, the paladin's code, the kit's narrowed breadth.

A class without a job is a dead weight to build around; a class without a cost is a dial set to ten. The most playable callings in the compendium are the ones where the job and the cost are tightly braided — you feel the calling most through the price exactly as much as the power.

When you finish

Build a test character from your new class: roll the scores, apply the hit die and prime requisite, set THAC0 and saves, spend the proficiency slots, take the special abilities, and for casters pull a starting spellbook from the Spells list your class can actually learn. If the sheet fills in cleanly and the result is a hero you would enjoy, the class is done. If any field is a guess or a placeholder, the table will find the hole — fill it before a player rolls it.