Talents and Tiers

Today I want to discuss the heart of the character generation system—feats and other class abilities. Most of these will reflect training and skill growth in the character, and I want a name that reflects that. Feat doesn’t carry the right connotations at all. Skill makes some sense, but it already means something else. I think taking a cue from the Pathfinder rogue and calling them talents is best—it has a dual meaning of learned and inherent ability, and thus encompasses the widest range of potential talents.

Next, then, I must decide how to organize talents. To start, I’ll look at how Pathfinder handles feats and class features. Feats in Pathfinder are arranged haphazardly; some stand alone, others form short progressions, and some are arranged into complex interconnected trees. Some modify or enhance class features, while others are relatively generic. While flexible, this approach is inelegant and the vast selection of feats can be overwhelming to new players. Conversely, class features come in simple progressions, with the exception of occasional stand-alone abilities. They improve at regular intervals, anywhere from each level to every sixth level. Those that improve at every level are limited to simple numerical bonuses, such as base attack bonus and base saves; these are covered by the experience bonus. Spellcasters gains access to a new spell level every other level, but even in early versions of this rewrite I wanted to reduce the number of spell levels to seven or even fewer; this would slow spell level acquisition to every 3rd or 4th level, in line with the majority of other class abilities.

This then suggests to me a system where all abilities are scaled by either three- or four-level steps. The steps can be given a universal set of names, similar to the Pathfinder Basic/Improved/Greater feat naming convention, or the 4th edition D&D Heroic, Champion, and Epic tiers. Actually, I rather like the concept of tiers—the levels of talents will be identified by the tier names, and they can be used as a general measure of power level. A three-level tier system could start at level 0, and have seven tiers bringing it to level 20. A four-level tier system would start at level 1 and have five tiers to bring it to level 20. The first would give me seven spell levels, which I like, but I think would prove problematic for most other abilities; so I’m going to go with a four-level progression, and adjust spells as necessary.

So I have five tiers which need names and general descriptions. One of my main concerns in tier definition is making sure that non-player characters are well represented. Without classes, I need a way to build relatively unskilled NPCs—commoners, guards, craftsmen, and the like. My immediate thought is to reserve the first tier for these types of characters. Player characters could typically begin at the second tier, with their first-tier talents encompassing abilities such as weapon and armor proficiencies, good save progressions, and extra hit points. Next, I want to establish roughly where the limit of ‘real human ability’ is. This is very useful for calibrating skill DCs and in defining what abilities should be available in a given tier. In my opinion, real-world people can be sorted roughly into three groups—typical people, extraordinary people, and historic individuals—so I will use the first three tiers for ‘realistic’ characters. Now that I know where the boundary lies, I can go about naming my tiers.

To start, I’ll make a list of potential descriptors: apprentice, novice, journeyman, expert, master, heroic, mythic, legendary, champion, epic. Heroic stands out to me as a good name for the fourth tier, just past the limits of realistic human ability. Novice, expert, and master sound nice for the first three tiers. I think I like mythic for the fifth tier; legendary and epic could be good descriptors for a sixth and seventh tier, should I want to expand the progressions further.

To summarize, each talent will have a progression through the tiers. In order to select a talent, a character must have already taken the lower-tier versions of that talent, and must be of the appropriate tier themself; for example, a 5th-level (or higher) character with Novice Toughness could take Expert Toughness. The tiers are defined roughly as follows:

Novice: Typical people, such as farmers, craftsmen, and regular soldiers or guards.

Expert: Particularly well-trained or talented individuals, such as elite troops or master craftsmen. Characters of this tier typically influence a town or small region.

Master: Characters of this tier represent the peak of real human abilities. Such characters leave an impact on history. Real-world examples include Genghis Khan or Leonardo da Vinci.  

Heroic: Characters that bend the limits of possibility. Examples include ancient heroes such as Achilles or Hercules, or the protagonists of most action movies.

Mythic: Characters of this tier have the power to affect entire worlds. They perform the impossible on a regular basis.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a sample talent.

Precise Shot

Novice: When using the Focus action with a ranged weapon, you receive an additional +1 to hit.

Expert: You can make ranged attacks into melee with no penalty.

Master: You can attempt disarm, sunder, or trip maneuvers using your ranged attacks. Your attack bonus for such a maneuver is equal to your Awareness + experience bonus + size modifier - 4, plus any bonuses you receive with the weapon used to make the attack.

Heroic: Your ranged attacks ignore anything less than total cover or concealment.

Mythic: As a double action you can make a single ranged attack that ignores armor.