Chapter 01 · Classes
Using Classes
What a Class Defines
Choose a class that fits the character's background and way of acting. Its tables give the values to record at each level:
| Class Value | Use |
|---|---|
| Action reserves per round | Attacks, spell actions, and general actions |
| HP per point of Strength | Multiply by Strength to find maximum HP |
| Dedicated dodges | Dodges available each round |
| Save quality | Full or half level added to each Save |
| Speed grade | Base movement per tick, before Dexterity and other modifiers |
| Charisma-to-Caster-Level conversion | The class's rule for its source of power |
| Signature mechanic, where present | A class feature such as the Ranger's companion |
Attributes and feats develop through play under Character Creation and Progression. A class's feat list describes techniques its members commonly learn; it does not grant those feats automatically.
Four Class Conventions
1. Save quality. Each class assigns a good or standard progression to each Save:
| Quality | Formula |
|---|---|
| Good Save | 1d20 + attribute + level |
| Standard Save | 1d20 + attribute + ½ level, rounded down |
This is the main axis of defensive differentiation between classes. It is why a wizard remains vulnerable to poison and a rogue gullible before an illusion. Reflex Save quality also applies to attacks, parries, dodges, and priority duels. There is no second Reflex calculation reserved for combat.
Example. A Level 1 Cleric of Archon with DEX +3 has a standard Reflex Save of 1d20 +3: half their level, rounded down, is 0. They use 1d20 +3 to dodge, parry, attack, and determine priority. They never replace this bonus with DEX + level in a duel.
2. Speed. Every class has a speed grade that determines its base Speed at each level. Add 2 ft per point of Dexterity, then apply modifiers from race, size, feats, and spells (see Movement, Space, and Ranges).
| Grade | 1 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 10 | Archetypes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Measured | 30 | 30 | 35 | 40 | 45 | 90 | Wizard, Cleric of Archon |
| Trained | 30 | 35 | 45 | 55 | 65 | 130 | Fighter, Ranger, Psychic |
| Swift | 40 | 50 | 60 | 75 | 90 | 180 | Rogue, Barbarian |
| Granitefist | 30 | 60 | 90 | 120 | 150 | 300 | Monk of Kaz'Nakaram |
Every grade doubles at Level 10, as Hit Points, weapon damage, and access to Level 10 spells all do. Level 10 is where the game stops being about people.
The grades matter more than they look, because 6 leaves full Speed to a character who attacks and only half to one who casts. A Level 9 Wizard shows 45 ft and travels 22 while working; a Monk shows 150 and travels 150. Three times on the chart is seven times at the table, and that gap is deliberate.
Speed feats stack with the grade rather than replacing it.
3. A class grants no feats. Gaining a level never grants a feat. Feats remain rewards for play, awarded by the GM for what a character has lived through, studied, or accomplished (see Character Creation and Progression). The feat lists on the following pages are predilections—what members of a class naturally pursue—never a talent tree with points to spend.
4. Class feats remain available one level later. A feat's category identifies the tradition that teaches it earliest, not an absolute monopoly. When a feat requires a class at Level N, a character from another class may take it at Level N + 1 if they meet every other prerequisite and truly learned the technique in play.
Example. A feat available to a Level 5 Rogue becomes available to a Level 6 Fighter, Barbarian, or Wizard. In a progression limited to ten levels, this single level already represents a meaningful gap.
This rule changes neither the feat's category nor its identity: the character learned a rogue technique but did not become a Rogue. A feat reserved for its class at Level 10 remains exclusive because Level 11 does not exist. When prerequisites explicitly name several classes, each receives the listed level and all others wait until the next.
The Eight Archetypes at a Glance
Values show Level 1 followed by Level 9.
| Fighter | Barbarian of Brazzant | Rogue | Ranger | Cleric of Archon | Psychic | Monk | Wizard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Attacks per Round | 3 → 9 | 3 → 12 | 5 → 15 | 3 → 9 | 3 → 6 | 2 → 3 | 4 → 11 | 2 → 4 |
| Spells per Round | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 → 3 | 2 → 4 | 3 → 4 | 2 | 2 → 4 |
| General Actions | 3 → 9 | 3 → 5 | 4 → 12 | 3 → 7 | 3 → 5 | 3 → 4 | 3 → 8 | 3 → 5 |
| Dedicated Dodges | 1 → 3 | 1 → 3 | 2 → 4 | 2 → 3 | 1 → 2 | 1 → 2 | 1 | 1 |
| HP per Strength Point | base 10 | base 12 | base 8 | base 8 | base 8 | base 8 | base 10 | base 6 |
| Good Saves | all three | all three | Reflex, Fortitude | Reflex, Fortitude | Will, Fortitude | Will, Fortitude | all three | Reflex, Will |
| Standard Save | — | — | Will | Will | Reflex | Reflex | — | Fortitude |
| Speed per Tick | 30 → 65 ft | 40 → 90 ft | 40 → 90 ft | 30 → 65 ft | 30 → 45 ft | 30 → 65 ft | 30 → 150 ft | 30 → 45 ft |
| Caster level from CHA | ½ CHA | ½ CHA | ½ CHA | ½ CHA | — | ½ CHA | — | ½ CHA |
Rogue, Ranger, Cleric of Archon, Psychic, and wizard each have two good Saves and one gap. Rogue and Ranger endure poison but fall for illusions; the wizard sees through illusions but dies from poison. Cleric of Archon and Psychic resist both, but poor Reflex makes them slower to answer sudden attacks and spells. Fighter, Barbarian, and Monk have all three.
Every character begins play at caster level 1. What a character adds comes from race and power path rather than from class: a human on red mana gains 1 CL per 2 points of Charisma (2). The last row shows only what each class does with that racial rate—none of the eight alters it—and a dash marks a class that does not run on Charisma at all. Raising the ratio belongs to innate casters and to the epic layer (10). A GM can still open a character higher when the story has already paid for it, but that is a ruling about one character's history, not the default a sheet is built from.
The Board, Class by Class
5 establishes that a character's largest reserve sets the width of their Action Board—one slot per three actions, rounded up. Every reserve point is a token of that category, and all slots are generic. A small reserve is not rigid: its tokens fit anywhere, but there are few of them.
One rule follows for this entire layer: the largest reserve fills its own board to within two slots over the whole round, because it set that board's width. A class never buys space; it buys volume, and space follows. The eight charts account for this mechanism, each producing a different temperament:
- Fighter advances attacks and general actions together. Both reserves supply the same number of tokens, and neither is secondary. From Level 3 onward, a Fighter can strike and manipulate something in the same instant.
- Barbarian pays for volume in full. Attacks periodically open a new slot, then provide enough tokens to occupy all the space gained: the same motion creates and consumes it.
- Rogue advances two large reserves at once. No archetype composes a tick more freely: almost every attack can become a manipulation without exhausting general actions.
- Ranger has the Fighter's martial board, but fewer general actions. Sparse spell tokens fit anywhere, though casting a Standard spell costs two potential attacks. At Level 8, the third magical action unlocks Swift effects without granting a second Standard spell.
- Cleric of Archon opens the board with weapons before magic catches up. The class has fewer formulas than a wizard, but simple divine liturgies are quick to pronounce and combine naturally with an attack or manipulation.
- Psychic opens the board with powers. It casts earlier than a wizard but never exceeds four spell actions: its advantage is early access, not volume. Attacks lag throughout the class's career.
- Monk of Kaz'Nakaram opens the board with fists and speed. Psychic power grows slowly; attacks and movement remain its first tools.
- Wizard alone keeps spells aligned with attacks from beginning to end. Its reserves are tiny: it lacks width, not flexibility.
Writing a New Class
A GM designing a new archetype sets six curves in this order:
- Attacks per round at Level 1 and Level 9. This is the class's identity: between 2 and 5 at the start, between 4 and 15 at the end.
- Base HP per point of Strength. Between 6 and 12. It doubles every two levels, as elsewhere in the game (Health, Injury, Death, and Conditions).
- Two good Saves, or three. Three good Saves are a physical-class privilege paid for elsewhere. An archetype with two must have a named gap: poison or illusion.
- Dodges. From 1 to 4 by the end of progression.
- Speed grade. Measured, Trained, Swift, or a curve of its own when movement is the class's identity.
- What the class does well besides striking—general actions for a manipulator, or spells per round and Charisma-to-Caster-Level conversion for a caster.
Then inspect the board those curves produce. The largest reserve alone decides the slots per tick and therefore the round's total: three, six, nine, twelve, fifteen. Nothing caps it—a class reaching eighteen attacks would open a sixth slot per tick—but nothing helps it either, since that reserve alone fills the space it created. The true tuning point is the gap between the largest reserve and the others. A narrow gap creates an archetype that composes each tick; a wide one creates a specialist for whom every off-category action costs a professional action (see 5).
The Charisma-to-Caster-Level ratio is reserved for innate casters. The default is ½ CHA for everyone. Wizards shape their inherited red mana through study, but study does not create their power. A class with innate rather than learned magic—a blood sorcerer or bard—is precisely where the ratio rises to 1 CL per Charisma point, paid for with a shorter spell list.
Epic Classes
An epic class grants exceptional abilities and progressions to a character whose story has set them apart. It may alter values ordinary classes leave unchanged, such as spell-slot reserves.
It belongs to a king, a founder, or the author of a world-changing event. The GM does not grant it during character creation, but recognizes it after the fact.
The Lazy Wizard is this book's worked example. A table using ordinary classes can ignore it entirely without losing anything.