Sci-Fi Class Ideas

[8BitNinja]

For my new game Futurequest, there are some classes, but all of them are military based, so I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions for some not so military classes

this is what I have

Nurse: A medic/craftsman/debuff, makes medical supplies, debuffs, and heals, has abilities that compliments the medic

Bishop: A healer that draws from divine power, doesn't need medicine or anything to heal (must be good)

Hood: A Monk/Rogue type of character, uses free-running, stealth, unarmed, and improvised weapon abilities (must be chaotic)

Any more ideas?

[Grinner]

Could you give us a brief overview of the setting? I gather that it's sci-fi with fantasy elements, but what kind of sci-fi? How fantastical are the fantastical elements? Are we talking "Tolkien IN SPACE!", or is it more like Star Wars or Farscape? On a scale of Firefly to Eclipse Phase, how much techno-porn is involved?

Off the top of my head, is there a pilot class?

[darkrose50]

Bughunters has a Cook class that had some mental health and moral benefits.

[Elvenoutrider]

The preacher who is a dedicated buffer and secondary fighter think bardic music plus cleric buff spells

Boomer - fighter who has an alchemists grenade ability but no bonus feats

Robotics specialist - rewrite the pathfinder summoner to build and deploy custom robots instead of summoned monsters - can also cast battlefield control spells

Junkie - fighter that can rage and has some buff spells he can cast on himself - increased chance of losing control or having various detrimental effects the more buffs he uses

Mad scientist - casts like a wizard or sorcerer but has to use custom devices to do it - random chance of weird effects if he pushes his devices too far

Sniper - long range fighter who can add debuffs to his shots

Psion - refluffed sorcerer

Doctor - dedicated healer and debuffer - uses nanite swarms under his control to heal his nearby friends or poison his foes

Cyber warrior - fighter character that chooses new modifications to his body as he levels until he becomes more machine than man

[noob]

Mad scientist - casts like a wizard or sorcerer but has to use custom devices to do it - random chance of weird effects if he pushes his devices too far

Why not use PF artificer for that.

[dps]

Could you give us a brief overview of the setting? I gather that it's sci-fi with fantasy elements, but what kind of sci-fi? How fantastical are the fantastical elements? Are we talking "Tolkien IN SPACE!", or is it more like Star Wars or Farscape? On a scale of Firefly to Eclipse Phase, how much techno-porn is involved?

Off the top of my head, is there a pilot class?

Yeah, pilot was the first thing I thought of, too. The second was navigator. Those wouldn't necessarily be military, though there would naturally be some in military service.

Third thing I thought of was a trader class. And at that point, I started asking the same questions you asked.

[ideasmith]

From already-existing games (probable 'military based' in parantheses):

Babylon 5: Agent; Diplomat; Lurker; (Officer;) Scientist; (Soldier;) Telepath; Worker

Dragonstar: Pilot; Mechanist

Traveller D20: Academic; Barbarian; Belter; Mercenary; Merchant; Noble; Professional; Rogue; Traveller; (Army; Navy; Marines; Scout)

Star Munchkin: Bounty Hunter; Farce K'nigit [Jedi, sorta]; Gadgeteer; Psychic; (Space Ranger); Trader

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Anyone who can work the stuff that matters in your universe. Robots everywhere? Roboticist. Lots of things done with computers and software? Hacker. Diplomacy is still important? Diplomat. Mechanical body modifications? Cyborg or cyborg builder. Biologial enhancements? (Mad) geneticist (even though she most definitely won't be working with genes alone if she wants to alter anything within the time frame of a game). You use a lot of vehicles? Does your pilot class already "do" all of them? In a modern day game you could probably almost get away with a class of communication specialists, even separate from hackers. If that's an aspect your setting has... If people have chips in their heads or mind reading has been invented, mind readers.

In short: what does your universe look like? Write a 200 word summary, then reread it and highlight the important words. Those are your classes...

D&D monks also work pretty well in a setting like this I think. Semi-reclusive characters who shun technology, see themselves as honorable and kick loads of ass.

Maybe remove the chaotic prequisite from the hood and merge them into a single class even. Mechanically they might share quite some stuff.

[8BitNinja]

The Pilot, Diplomat, Hacker,Craftsman, and body altering scientists are all in there, but here is a brief description of the setting

The game takes place in the far future where androids are humanlike, everyone pretty much has an AI companion, and there are about 15 alien races that came from another plane and colonized far fetched parts of the universe before making contact with us here on earth. Plasma weapons, space travel, hover vehicles, and personal flight are commonly used. There are also psychokinetic powers that certain races have.

It's very much inspired off of Star Wars settings-wise, but there are some planets of interest, like New America- which I drew inspiration from Fallout, and Mechanopolis- which I drew inspiration from Terminator and other Robot world domination stories

I can also give a link to the rulebook so far if you would like, but it's a work in progress and hasn't been playtested, and probably needs serious revisions

[8BitNinja]

The preacher who is a dedicated buffer and secondary fighter think bardic music plus cleric buff spells

Boomer - fighter who has an alchemists grenade ability but no bonus feats

Robotics specialist - rewrite the pathfinder summoner to build and deploy custom robots instead of summoned monsters - can also cast battlefield control spells

Junkie - fighter that can rage and has some buff spells he can cast on himself - increased chance of losing control or having various detrimental effects the more buffs he uses

Mad scientist - casts like a wizard or sorcerer but has to use custom devices to do it - random chance of weird effects if he pushes his devices too far

Sniper - long range fighter who can add debuffs to his shots

Psion - refluffed sorcerer

Doctor - dedicated healer and debuffer - uses nanite swarms under his control to heal his nearby friends or poison his foes

Cyber warrior - fighter character that chooses new modifications to his body as he levels until he becomes more machine than man

I'm sorry, but I have all of those, just some with different names, except Cyber Warrior, but anyone can be that regardless of class

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I'd like to play a semi-roboticst that's pretty much a re-skinned ranger at some point. With funny little "Runaway" (the other robot movie of 1984) style robots he handles a lot like animals. Bonus points if he has a modifyable robot companion. :D

Probably not the flavor you're looking for. ;)

[Grinner]

Unless you're going to incorporate drastic changes to what you've outlined, such as arcane magic, perhaps you've already covered everything worth making into a class?

You might consider making the basic classes and then implementing racial/cultural variations or alternative class features. For example, if I'm making a character and I pick Race B and the Psion class, there would be certain Race B exclusive Psion alternative class features available. Some races and/or cultures may not even have access to all classes.

[8BitNinja]

Unless you're going to incorporate drastic changes to what you've outlined, such as arcane magic, perhaps you've already covered everything worth making into a class?

You might consider making the basic classes and then implementing racial/cultural variations or alternative class features. For example, if I'm making a character and I pick Race B and the Psion class, there would be certain Race B exclusive Psion alternative class features available. Some races and/or cultures may not even have access to all classes.

This is already the case for psions

Not all races can be Psychokinetic in the first place, such as humans

but Psychokinetic abilities are different, you have a choice of 30 powers and you must pick 10, so I guess I could make some certain race only abilities

Another Note: I recognize all of you guys from my other posts, I'll be sure to put your names in the credits, and to thank the entire Playground

[daremetoidareyo]

How Sci Fi you goin, bruthah?

Human Consciousnesses from 100s of years ago that have been inserted into neural machinery surgically implanted into different body types of humanoids, each has an archaic skillset of importance during that time and were chosen for this because of it. Some of the highest ranking athletes of the time also were chosen for the experiment. The majority, however, were just spoiled rich kids from years ago, many of whom proved to be worthless.


Solipsists, folks who have the ability to believe so hard that reality around them warps to conform to their ideas, perspective, and truest desires. Class would consist of long term projections and short term projections. Could be as simple as a re-fluffed wizard, or as intense thrall herder. Overall, most want to disbelieve in the sentience of robots, and by believing hard enough, they can cause "bugs" to occur.


The un-electric, a class of pseudo humans that looked for a way to erase their bio-electric signals, and thus any way for the robots to track or hunt them. They genetically modify their body to run on quantum interchanges through genetic experimentation. Imagine an untraceable person who can, for short spans each day, basically have the power set of the flash, or one of those monks that can step 2 seconds into the past or future. Which of course results in a causality problem for the DM to decide what to do with.


Levitating dolphin encryption/sonic weaponry race/class. Dolphins, being found to be sentient beings to whom we can communicate with are found to have various cultures and languages. The RAN corporation owns the last pod of arctic dolphins, a language bearing race that was never computed by the AI web. These dolphins have been equipped with gear for levitation and hydration and are tapped for secret communications between humans fearing the interception by the robot AI.

[8BitNinja]

How Sci Fi you goin, bruthah?

I am going pretty soft for sci-fi, bordering fantasy with the Psychokinetic, but some of these ideas are not going to work, such as, a race that can only be one class and that same class only belonging to one race (the wizard dolphin). The Sophilist is also to much Psychokinetic to be it's own class, maybe a good roleplaying idea, but not a good class. The Spy already has the ability to hide themselves from anything, they even carry around pills that can instantly dissolve corpses. The Transhumanist seems like the Android race with just a backstory you could put to your character. So I will put your ideas on to other classes, but they won't be classes themselves

[daremetoidareyo]

I am going pretty soft for sci-fi, bordering fantasy with the Psychokinetic, but some of these ideas are not going to work, such as, a race that can only be one class and that same class only belonging to one race (the wizard dolphin). The Sophilist is also to much Psychokinetic to be it's own class, maybe a good roleplaying idea, but not a good class. The Spy already has the ability to hide themselves from anything, they even carry around pills that can instantly dissolve corpses. The Transhumanist seems like the Android race with just a backstory you could put to your character. So I will put your ideas on to other classes, but they won't be classes themselves

Then for class ideas, I would mine super hero comics.

Flash/quicksilver - super speed character class
Wolverine/sabretooth - genetically modified troll-like warrior - regeneration + inextractable weapons.
Archangel - dodging stuff...and flight
Gambit - explosives expert
Batman - Rich guy with unlimited resources
Magneto - magnetism wielder (probably the best idea here)
Mission impossible dude - Change your face + buttload of skills
Aquaman - talk to fish, withstand incredible pressure, water elementalism
Rogue/leech - Soak up other peoples powers and abilities and memories as a class skill
martian/kitty pride - phase through stuff probably needs more stuff to stay interesting...
stretch armstrong - stretch body limbs.
Dude from the invisibles - Do a lot of drugs to become Neo from the matrix

[8BitNinja]

Then for class ideas, I would mine super hero comics.

Flash/quicksilver - super speed character class
Wolverine/sabretooth - genetically modified troll-like warrior - regeneration + inextractable weapons.
Archangel - dodging stuff...and flight
Gambit - explosives expert
Batman - Rich guy with unlimited resources
Magneto - magnetism wielder (probably the best idea here)
Mission impossible dude - Change your face + buttload of skills
Aquaman - talk to fish, withstand incredible pressure, water elementalism
Rogue/leech - Soak up other peoples powers and abilities and memories as a class skill
martian/kitty pride - phase through stuff probably needs more stuff to stay interesting...
stretch armstrong - stretch body limbs.
Dude from the invisibles - Do a lot of drugs to become Neo from the matrix

The Magnetism wielder is a good idea, also the wolverine idea, but Flash is the scout, archangel is the pilot, gambit is the technician, Batman is the diplomat, Tom Cruise is the Spy, Aquaman is Psychokinetic, and Neo would turn into a netrunner or decker which would be annoying to some people. People always complain about the Net in Shadowrun, so I don't want to include it in my game. Stretch Armstrong is a funny idea, so I will think about that one too

I should probably post what classes are confirmed for 1st editon

[LibraryOgre]

I tend to describe folk's classes in terms of Firefly characters.

Malcolm Reynolds: Leader, something of a generalist (he is capable of flying Serenity, but Wash is a good pilot. He's capable of fighting, but Zoe and Jayne are better at it).

Kaylee: Mechanic.

Simon: Medic

Zoe/Jayne: Warrior.

Wash: Pilot

River: Psychic/Weird Stuff

Book/Inara: Social/Diplomat role

Jubal Early: Bounty Hunter

[CharonsHelper]

Much also depends upon how much customization you have within each class. The more customization, they fewer classes are needed to cover all of the options that you want.

In addition, some games have in-combat & out-of-combat skills level up entirely separately, or with different pools of stat-ups or whatnot. That way a character doesn't have to make their character a bad shot with a gun in order to be a hacker. There's nothing wrong with either option - but the games where some characters do the bulk of the combat and others do the bulk of non-combat has a very different feel from one where the characters spread out both categories more evenly.

[8BitNinja]

First off, people keep suggesting classes I already have, so I will list the classes I have

Marine: Main fighter, doesn't use many special attacks, can hit hard and take a hit

Sniper: Long range with heavy damage, uses trick bullets

Technician: A sapper, uses offensive abilities to debuff and inflict status effects

Scout: Light assault and Reconnaissance

Commando: Versatile fighter with both combat and survival based abilities, backup healer

Enforcer: Nonlethal damage, tank, crowd control, most abilities involve shields or nonlethal damage

Juggernaut: Heavy Damage, DoT, Has the ability to be a tank but does not have to

Medic: Healer

Drill Sargent: Applies Buffs, anti-artillery and anti-vehicle

Pilot: Can use air vehicles with offense, defense, and/or support capabilities

Engineer: Area of Denial, Stationary support

Psychokinetic: Gets all abilities at the beginning, glass cannon

Diplomat: Noncombat, persuades, intimidates, bribes, and uses charisma

Craftsman: Makes gear and consumables

Spy: Noncombat, stealth, recon, infiltration, sting operations, etc.

[goto124]

That's a lot of classes! If your game is combat-focused, it's normal that classes are largely about combat.

[8BitNinja]

That's a lot of classes! If your game is combat-focused, it's normal that classes are largely about combat.

The game is very combat focused

I decided since my last game I made was very adventure focused, this one would be combat focused

Anyway, each class brings something special to the table, and I'm not expecting every class to be taken up at the table, so you really have to find creative ways to cover your weaknesses

[CharonsHelper]

I must ask - have you done much play-testing yet? Frankly - if you haven't, that seems like a lot of classes to test all at once.

[8BitNinja]

I must ask - have you done much play-testing yet? Frankly - if you haven't, that seems like a lot of classes to test all at once.

I am finishing up class abilities, and it will be a lot to play test

when I'm done with writing my draft, I'm going to post it on my website and ask you guys to help, if you guys want to, tell me what name to put in the credits for you

Some other people are already in the credits. I'm talking about you Lvl 2 Expert

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I am finishing up class abilities, and it will be a lot to play test

when I'm done with writing my draft, I'm going to post it on my website and ask you guys to help, if you guys want to, tell me what name to put in the credits for you

Some other people are already in the credits. I'm talking about you Lvl 2 Expert

Nice, I has credits.

(Lvl 2 Expert is fine as a name, I can always change my mind for the non-draft/beta version, and this way I'm getting bragging rights where I can use them.)

[8BitNinja]

Nice, I has credits.

(Lvl 2 Expert is fine as a name, I can always change my mind for the non-draft/beta version, and this way I'm getting bragging rights where I can use them.)

I'm glad I could get help, I'm still working on it, typing ability lists and what not

The abilities take up about 50 pages, mostly because there is an average of 12 per class

But the median is 15

And the mode is 10

and the range is 20

Math

[Sol]

I would mine a lot of stuff for your hacker class from the Fixer class in Anarchy Online.

Most importantly, computers aren't the only available thing to hack. Hack everything. Hack the world, hack your brain, hack your legs, hack your opponents.

AO's equivalent to the shadowrun net is far less annoying, and is called the Grid. It allows everyone to travel between set terminals, but Fixers can teleport directly into it from anywhere.

Fixers can phase part of their physical selves into the grid, making them exceptionally hard to hit, and allowing them to move at incredible speeds.

They can also phase parts of their foes into the grid, which has the opposite effect, since their opponents are (generally) less in tune with it.

They're neither the best nor the worst ranged combatants, and they have minor heal-over-time effects using nanobots to repair injuries.

Obviously, a tabletop variant doesn't need all of these traits, but they combined to make one of the more memorable/different classes I've ever played in a MMO.

[8BitNinja]

I would mine a lot of stuff for your hacker class from the Fixer class in Anarchy Online.

Most importantly, computers aren't the only available thing to hack. Hack everything. Hack the world, hack your brain, hack your legs, hack your opponents.

AO's equivalent to the shadowrun net is far less annoying, and is called the Grid. It allows everyone to travel between set terminals, but Fixers can teleport directly into it from anywhere.

Fixers can phase part of their physical selves into the grid, making them exceptionally hard to hit, and allowing them to move at incredible speeds.

They can also phase parts of their foes into the grid, which has the opposite effect, since their opponents are (generally) less in tune with it.

They're neither the best nor the worst ranged combatants, and they have minor heal-over-time effects using nanobots to repair injuries.

Obviously, a tabletop variant doesn't need all of these traits, but they combined to make one of the more memorable/different classes I've ever played in a MMO.

Good for bringing that up, but I was already going to have it

they were even going to be able to create minions, which are digital silhouettes made physical for combat purposes, although they have 1 HP, a lot of them can be created, making it overwhelming