These Class abilities generally reflect a meta-narrative in the genre of Heroic Fantasy - that the characters are extraordinary beings and have a power and destiny beyond most others in the world. Many times in 5e, all but the most powerful of magic items pale in comparison to innate Class abilities. In fact, magic items are not necessary at all in 5e - one can easily play without them. This takes out any dependency on using magic items to help progress a character and focuses completely on innate abilities.
Every Rogue gets these abilities in the same progression, spelling out the “path of the Rogue” or its meta-narrative.īy the time 5e comes about, this meta-narrative is very intentionally structured into “tiers of play” and attempts to balance the relative abilities of Classes as they gain levels. As the Rogue gains levels, they get the ability to evade damage, take additional “quick” actions, and use magic items normally restricted to other Classes. For example, the Rogue (formerly Thief) Class gains abilities early that emphasize a role of the “skilled” character by giving them additional or bonuses to skills as well as being able to “sneak attack”, providing a burst of damage in combat different from other Classes. This is the meta-narrative of how a character gains or receives additional power in the world by the descriptions of the abilities they gain at set milestones (levels). To keep in line with mechanical progression, there was a sort of implied story of progression to each Class as they gained levels and abilities. This also helped with game balance as one could expect characters of a certain level to have a set range of abilities rather than the huge amount of possibilities derived from having magic items (which, again, were necessary to early design). Instead of relying on external magic items to define a character, characters developed more and more intrinsic qualities and abilities. In the years that followed, D&D and other RPG systems explored more of the narrative side of character progression. Character progression and distinction was necessarily tied to magic item acquisition. What distinguished one fighter from another or one wizard from another were the magical items that gave them bonuses and abilities apart from their Class and Level. What truly made characters unique were the adventures they went on and the magical items they gained along the way. There was a skeleton of a meta-narrative as characters received “titles” for their level advancement, but this was mostly “flavor” that had little-to-no mechanical influence before 9th or 10th character level. There really wasn’t much of a set destiny for a character, other than spellcasters who could potentially cast high-level spells and warriors who did multiple attacks. When characters progressed, they gained the ability to deal, receive, and otherwise mitigate more damage, and got better with their class-specific abilities (usually just a couple). In Basic, 1e, and the beginnings of 2e, Class was a combat role with a relatively small ability set.
In 5e, Classes have a very structured meta-narrative emerging from the design of character progression. ClassĪlong with Race, the most distinguishing feature of Dungeons and Dragons is Class.
Both Race and Class (and, to a degree, published Adventures) are structured by stories (implied or explicit) on how the world works and how individuals exemplify their natures and destinies. Thoughts on Game Design Meta-Narrativeįifth Edition D&D (5E) incorporates “meta-narrative” as an intrinsic part of its design to help generalize what can be complex ideas and rule sets. At some point, classes may be significantly modified see Thoughts on Game Design below. Classes/subclasses must be approved by the DM and may require minor modification based on the homebrew setting.
0 kommentar(er)
