Essential Character Concepts and Archetypes

[sengmeng]

Looking at RPGs, primarily D&D, I kind of decided that a character is, at its core, a set of skills and abilities, a background and personality, and a power source. So, I'm throwing around ideas for a system that lets you mix and match power sources, like Nature for a druid, Arcane Magic for a wizard, Ki (or meditation) for a monk, etc., and of course Mundane for stuff that you physically trained at. What I have is:
Primal (like a barbarian's rage)
Arcane Magic
Divine Magic
Nature
Mundane
Pact or Oath (a bargain with a supernatural being for power)
Ki (or Meditative, could also be a Psionic characters power source).

So, is there a glaring omission in the types of characters you can build with these descriptions? I'm not talking about roles or what a character can do, just how they do it.

[Kyutaru]

You're missing Supernatural or any sort of superheroic entity that is just special due to freakish genetics.

I've seen a similar list here:
https://marklenser.com/5e/powers

Primal seems odd on its own, usually would combine it with Nature or Mundane/Martial.

[AMFV]

I would make a distinction between things that are trained and things that are just naturally capable. Batman is a trained combatant, he should be in a separate category than a bear (who is just a motherflipping bear), right now they'd both be mundane (although some versions of Batman might be Ki, but you get the idea).

[sengmeng]

I would make a distinction between things that are trained and things that are just naturally capable. Batman is a trained combatant, he should be in a separate category than a bear (who is just a motherflipping bear), right now they'd both be mundane (although some versions of Batman might be Ki, but you get the idea).

That is a good point, but the bear could be considered Primal instead. I think that fits the barbarian's rage as much as the bear's instinctual ferocity.

Perhaps a few of them need a "external" and "internal" version; Meditative used to enhance your self is Ki, Meditative used to alter reality is Psionic, something like that.

You're missing Supernatural or any sort of superheroic entity that is just special due to freakish genetics.

Could lump that into Primal, but maybe a separate category of Inherited or Bloodline power for aliens, mutants, and descendents of demons, angels, dragons, etc.

I've seen a similar list here:
https://marklenser.com/5e/powers

Thanks!

Primal seems odd on its own, usually would combine it with Nature or Mundane/Martial.

Yeah, a Fighter type would be pure mundane, a Barbarian would be mundane/primal. Pure Primal would be a bear :)

[Elvensilver]

I also do not like the idea of primal. One essential quality of adventurers ist getting stronger. Primal beings, lets say bears, do not gain in being primal, being strong and burly, there physical capabilities stay the same. When they advance in experience, their advancement is like the one of a fighter: betterment in technice, not in body. There are hardly any classes, that advance in something, that could be called primal abilitys stats. I would put "primal" under physical characteristics.

[sengmeng]

I also do not like the idea of primal. One essential quality of adventurers ist getting stronger. Primal beings, lets say bears, do not gain in being primal, being strong and burly, there physical capabilities stay the same. When they advance in experience, their advancement is like the one of a fighter: betterment in technice, not in body. There are hardly any classes, that advance in something, that could be called primal abilitys stats. I would put "primal" under physical characteristics.

A primal character would be more like a barbarian advancing by learning to unleash more of the beast within, to fall more fully into the rage. It's not my favorite character concept either, but it's not something I'd take away as an option. The uses per day and a short duration of boosted abilities say to me that simply training does not explain what a barbarian does in a rage, and I wouldn't call it magic, ki, or any of the others.

[Millstone85]

I would boil it down to three.

Arcane
Ambient magic. Wizards study it. Sorcerers have an intuitive understanding of it. Both can be affected by the quirks of local magic.

Divine
Magic that relies on an ongoing connection with another being. Typically from a god, hence the name, but other options exist.

Ki
Inner magic. Fighters access it through martial training, allowing them to perform extraordinary feats of strength and dexterity. Psions access it through deep meditation, typically for telekinesis and telepathy. Monks do both.

[lucky9]

I will agree on the Bloodline and/or Genetics ideas. Though there’s lots of room for discussion on virtually any of these.

I will also submit... what to call it exactly? Ancient? Creation? Something along the lines of the original powers of creation (arguably one of the other categories) but the “true words” or “music of creation.” The cheat codes of the universe.

Also, perhaps Far Realm, or some such, for “the powers beyond the known or understood universe.”

Edit: Has Psionic been mentioned? Is that vastly different enough from mundane?
Just some food for the discussion

[Frozen_Feet]

There's a massive overlap between these concepts, so it is hard for me to see any of them as truly archetypal or essential.

To wit:

Trying to split "mundane", "primal" and "nature", using those words, is ridiculous. It would be better to talk of "human" and "beast" when talking of the first two. With maybe "plant" as distinct category of its own.

The third, "nature", is even more problematic, because forces of nature in fantasy are frequently seen as acts of or domain of gods. There is, hence, massive overlap with this and "divine magic".

"Pacts and oaths" fails to be distinct as well. In this case, pacts and oaths are archetypical of magic, but they're archetypical of all kinds of magic. What is "divine magic", if not a pact or oath with a higher power? What is "arcane magic", if not a pact or oath with lower powers?

"Ki" has the same problem except worse. "Ki" and "Qi" , roughly, mean "energy". In Japanese and Chinese, this word is often part of a compound word, because different beings have their own characteristic type of Ki! For example, "youki" is the Ki of Youkai, or folkloric evil spirits.

---

So, instead, I'd suggest the following categories:

Human: Characterized by abilities particular to mankind: community, intelligence, skill, use of tools, language, logic, rhetoric etc. For example, a Fighter who embodies the Human archetype progresses through becoming a great leadee of men and learning how to make and use the best kind of weapons and armor.

Beast: Characterized by abilities associated with animals: being strong as an ox, tough as a wild boar, agile as a jaguar, sharp-eyed as an eagle etc.. For example, the Barbarian exist halfway between Human and Beast archetypes, combining arms of men with embodying aspects of beasts.

Plant: Characterized by abilities associated with plants: being flexible yet strong like bamboo, being able to subsist on mere water and sunlight like grass, being long-lived like trees etc.. For example, a Monk or Druid exist halfway between Human and Plant archetypes, having the trappings of humanity but slowly becoming part of the forest (etc.)

Elemental: Characterized by traits of non-living nature normally unreachable to man: wind, lightning, waves of the sea, earthquakes, the sun, etc. For example, a Sorcerer or a Demi-God who commands the power of lightning is part of this category, and progresses from small sparks to thunder storms. Wizards, Warlocks and others who exists halfway between Human and Elemental, make those pacts and oaths with these kind of beings to have their powers.

Taboo: characterized by things of sinful and immoral nature, given personification in the form of evil spirits and monsters: cannibalism, disease, insanity, desecration of the dead etc. For example, a Necromancer stands halfway between Human and Taboo realms, again, making those pacts and oaths to commune with these creatures and bending them to their will.

Celestial: characterized by abstracted and symbolized forms of highest virtues, moral and spiritual goods, given personification in shape of angels and deities: justice, compassion, love etc.. For example, the Paladin stands halfway between Human and Celestial, combining arms of men with the metaphorical and literal light of justice and reason, opposing the Taboo.

Abstract or Ideal: characterized by those things that transcend the material and causal entirely: infinities, mathematical constructs, pure consciousness, dreams, imagination. For example, the Psion exists to move from Human towards the Abstract, overcoming limits of the material world by replacing it with the mental. A Monk, too, can move past Plants, Elements or the Celestial to occupy a place beyong all of them.

[Kyutaru]

There's a massive overlap between these concepts, so it is hard for me to see any of them as truly archetypal or essential.

So, instead, I'd suggest the following categories:

Human: Characterized by abilities particular to mankind: community, intelligence, skill, use of tools, language, logic, rhetoric etc. For example, a Fighter who embodies the Human archetype progresses through becoming a great leadee of men and learning how to make and use the best kind of weapons and armor.

Beast: Characterized by abilities associated with animals: being strong as an ox, tough as a wild boar, agile as a jaguar, sharp-eyed as an eagle etc.. For example, the Barbarian exist halfway between Human and Beast archetypes, combining arms of men with embodying aspects of beasts.

Plant: Characterized by abilities associated with plants: being flexible yet strong like bamboo, being able to subsist on mere water and sunlight like grass, being long-lived like trees etc.. For example, a Monk or Druid exist halfway between Human and Plant archetypes, having the trappings of humanity but slowly becoming part of the forest (etc.)

Elemental: Characterized by traits of non-living nature normally unreachable to man: wind, lightning, waves of the sea, earthquakes, the sun, etc. For example, a Sorcerer or a Demi-God who commands the power of lightning is part of this category, and progresses from small sparks to thunder storms. Wizards, Warlocks and others who exists halfway between Human and Elemental, make those pacts and oaths with these kind of beings to have their powers.

Taboo: characterized by things of sinful and immoral nature, given personification in the form of evil spirits and monsters: cannibalism, disease, insanity, desecration of the dead etc. For example, a Necromancer stands halfway between Human and Taboo realms, again, making those pacts and oaths to commune with these creatures and bending them to their will.

Celestial: characterized by abstracted and symbolized forms of highest virtues, moral and spiritual goods, given personification in shape of angels and deities: justice, compassion, love etc.. For example, the Paladin stands halfway between Human and Celestial, combining arms of men with the metaphorical and literal light of justice and reason, opposing the Taboo.

Abstract or Ideal: characterized by those things that transcend the material and causal entirely: infinities, mathematical constructs, pure consciousness, dreams, imagination. For example, the Psion exists to move from Human towards the Abstract, overcoming limits of the material world by replacing it with the mental. A Monk, too, can move past Plants, Elements or the Celestial to occupy a place beyong all of them.

Funnily enough, that's basically what Heroes of Might and Magic did for their towns. In HOMM3, these are the factions:

Conflux - Elemental faction - Elemental Creatures
- pixies, air/water/fire/earth/psychic elementals, phoenix, elementalists, planeswalkers

Rampart - Nature faction - Woodland Creatures
- centaurs, wood elves, pegasus, unicorn, green dragons, rangers, druids

Dungeon - Conquest faction - Labyrinth Creatures
- troglodytes, harpies, beholders, medusae, minotaurs, manticores, red dragons, overlords, warlocks

Stronghold - Orc faction - Goblinoid Creatures
- goblins, wolf riders, orcs, ogres, rocs, cyclops, behemoths, barbarians, battle mages

Castle - Human faction - Holy Creatures
- pikemen, archers, griffins, swordsmen, monks, cavaliers, knights, angels, clerics

Inferno - Demon faction - Unholy Creatures
- imps, gogs, hell hounds, demons, pit fiends, efreeti, devils, demoniacs, heretics

Necropolis - Undead faction - Dead Creatures
- skeletons, zombies, wights, vampires, liches, black knights, bone dragons, death knights, necromancers

Fortress - Beast faction - Monstrous Creatures
- gnolls, lizardmen, basilisks, gorgons, wyverns, hydras, beastmasters, witches

Tower - Wizard faction - Magical Creatures
- gremlins, genies, nagas, giants, golems, mages, gargoyles, alchemists, wizards


It's pretty similar to how you're dividing things up by race and it makes great sense to do it.

[Quertus]

OK, time to don my oddball hat, and throw a few characters out there, to see where they land.

0) this character is a highly trained Fighter, just here for a baseline.

1) this character is a well-trained Fighter, whose skills are augmented with a mixture of cybernetics and magic.

2) this character *looks like* a highly trained Fighter, but they have an always-active magical ability / mutant power / whatever that lets them see a split second into the future. Remove / disable that, and they're worse than untrained, constantly confused about when they are.

3) this character is incredibly sensitive to the flow of ki / chakra, using it to predict their opponents' movements. Of course, against an opponent who doesn't use that power source, their performance suffers.

4) this character is a bloody giant, utilizing a combination of size, strength, and skill.

5) this character is made of pure narrativium. Their power is because "the story".

6) this character's power is purely divine grace.

7) this character is just lucky.

8) this character has preparedness, a whole slew of gizmos and gadgets up their sleeve.

9) the Borg. Individually, they are weak; collectively, they analyze and adapt.

10) the common cold.

11) this character has fighting skills, metacurrency, and, why not, the ability to alter reality in a limited fashion to impose their rules on you.

Many of these clearly discuss the "what" rather than the "how", but hopefully that will be useful to inspire thought into the "how".

[Frozen_Feet]

OK, time to don my oddball hat, and throw a few characters out there, to see where they land.

...


Many of these clearly discuss the "what" rather than the "how", but hopefully that will be useful to inspire thought into the "how".

How is way more important than what and these examples are incredibly sparse on even what. They aren't even full character pitches. I'll show you what I mean:

0) this character is a highly trained Fighter, just here for a baseline.

The basic Fighter class in D&D is an example of the Human archetype, provided they are human(oid), but can cross over to any other archetype. Classic Greek heroes, for example, are Fighters, but they're also demigods, standing between Human and Celestial.

1) this character is a well-trained Fighter, whose skills are augmented with a mixture of cybernetics and magic.

"Cybernetics" is just equipment, unless we're talking of one of those settings where cybernetics eat your soul, in which case it is Taboo instead. So halfway between Human and Taboo. Meanwhile, "magic" in this discussion is utterly devoid of meaning without additional details on how and why.

2) this character *looks like* a highly trained Fighter, but they have an always-active magical ability / mutant power / whatever that lets them see a split second into the future. Remove / disable that, and they're worse than untrained, constantly confused about when they are.

Just Human.

What? How?

It's because humans (and likely, all other beings) already constantly predict the future. We have to, due to lag in processing sensory perceptions. A superpower this lame is not actually super, it wouldn't allow a person to do anything you can't already see in people with good reflexes.

If you up the predictive power to a level that would actually be impossible in real life, then it's Abstract.

3) this character is incredibly sensitive to the flow of ki / chakra, using it to predict their opponents' movements. Of course, against an opponent who doesn't use that power source, their performance suffers.

In a world with Ki, every living thing should be assumed to have Ki! And every martial artist worth their salt should be assumed to know how to conceal their Ki or read that of others! Like 2) above, this isn't ordinarily a superhuman power. If you make it so, it could be anything, because Ki is not a particular thing!

4) this character is a bloody giant, utilizing a combination of size, strength, and skill.

Beast.

5) this character is made of pure narrativium. Their power is because "the story".

Abstract.

6) this character's power is purely divine grace.

Celestial.

7) this character is just lucky.

Not enough information. "Luck" in modern speech isn't a particular thing, it is vague bull crap word we use when someone succeeds for reasons we don't really know. In the past, "luck" actually was synonymous with divine grace. If you don't accept luck-as-divine-grace, then it is not particular to any archetype.

8) this character has preparedness, a whole slew of gizmos and gadgets up their sleeve.

Human. Unless you assume a particular nature for "gizmos and gadgets", at which point, it could be anything. "Preparedness" is not particular to any archetype.

9) the Borg. Individually, they are weak; collectively, they analyze and adapt.

Human crossed over with sci-fi flavor of Taboo.

10) the common cold.

Not a playable character, so completely pointless to categorize. If you make it a character by personifying it, then it is a classic example of the Taboo category. If you do not, it is just a tool for Human archetype to use.

11) this character has fighting skills, metacurrency, and, why not, the ability to alter reality in a limited fashion to impose their rules on you.

Abstract.

To summarize, "characters" 0), 2), 3), 7) and 8) could just be a single Human Fighter with no contradictions whatsoever.

[Quertus]

@Frozen_Feet

1) the idea was that the character has no deeper concept of their power beyond "magic". Which, sure, I wanted the explicit admission that, for this discussion, that's as pointless and annoying as "because magic" is normally.

2) so, abstract.

3) if this were "the Force", then it wouldn't work on, say, robots. Turns out, for this example, I was actually describing an existing character / universe, and, afaict, a) nobody in that universe can hide their ki while fighting; b) almost nobody can read it beyond Geiger counter "yup, there's some / a lot" - that character is all but unique in reading the flow to predict actions.

7) in some RPGs, "Luck" is a thing.

7a) I once built a character whose luck actually flowed from a cause, namely "loved by the universe". But many systems don't acknowledge a cause for luck beyond luck.

10) well, I have a friend who played a video game (maybe called Pandemic?) where you were the virus. I'm just waiting for some edge lord RPG company where it's a playable character.

[The Kool]

Looking at RPGs, primarily D&D, I kind of decided that a character is, at its core, a set of skills and abilities, a background and personality, and a power source. So, I'm throwing around ideas for a system that lets you mix and match power sources, like Nature for a druid, Arcane Magic for a wizard, Ki (or meditation) for a monk, etc., and of course Mundane for stuff that you physically trained at. What I have is:
Primal (like a barbarian's rage)
Arcane Magic
Divine Magic
Nature
Mundane
Pact or Oath (a bargain with a supernatural being for power)
Ki (or Meditative, could also be a Psionic characters power source).

So, is there a glaring omission in the types of characters you can build with these descriptions? I'm not talking about roles or what a character can do, just how they do it.

I'd tweak slightly, to the following list:

• Arcane: Magic that draws it's power from the environment, the 'force', the 'weave', and the like.
• Theurgic: Magic drawn from another powerful being, frequently but not necessarily of divine nature.
• Ki: Supernatural energy drawn from within the user, such as some psychic magic or certain martial art training.
• Primal: Raw power, evolution, innate talent. Ragers, beasts, and many superhumans. Skill means nothing here, magic plays no part.
• Skilled: Training, such as a practiced thief or a skilled swordsman. No magic, no raw talent, just skill.

You may notice the glaring omission of 'nature' magic. That was not the original intent, but as I wrote the list and defined the categories, I found it mostly falls under my definition of Arcane. Since I was naming sources of power and not flavors of power, I left it out. This list wound up significantly shorter than I expected... can anyone think of anything left out?

[Frozen_Feet]

1) the idea was that the character has no deeper concept of their power beyond "magic". Which, sure, I wanted the explicit admission that, for this discussion, that's as pointless and annoying as "because magic" is normally.

When and where characters have no in-depth concept or understanding of their own nature, their own knowledge is useless for pinning down their nature.

3) if this were "the Force", then it wouldn't work on, say, robots. Turns out, for this example, I was actually describing an existing character / universe, and, afaict, a) nobody in that universe can hide their ki while fighting; b) almost nobody can read it beyond Geiger counter "yup, there's some / a lot" - that character is all but unique in reading the flow to predict actions.

"Ki" is not particular to a specific fictional setting, so it would've been impossible to guess the correct setting & character from an example with so little information. I can do little about fictional universes using pre-existing concepts in a stupid way, other than express my disapproval.

"The Force" is a more specific fictional invention tied to a specific franchise. It is a mix of Celestial and Taboo.

7) in some RPGs, "Luck" is a thing.

Yes, but it's usually a basic ability or a form of metacurrency similar to Fate Points. It's rarely tied to any specific class, archetype, or source, because...

7a) I once built a character whose luck actually flowed from a cause, namely "loved by the universe". But many systems don't acknowledge a cause for luck beyond luck.

... because again, "luck" is a vague bull crap word we use when someone succeeds or fails for no reason we know of. "Luck" can be turned into an actual game resource, but it's highly uninspired and inexact as such. If you accept "there's no cause for luck beyond luck" as a setting fact, that would make it Abstract.

---

Also, upon thinking on it, I realize Sci-fi games would benefit from one more category:

Machine: characterized by attributes associated with complex machinery: artificialness, inorganic and metallic materials, motion built on explicit mechanics, chemistry and electronics. The Cyborg and the Robot would obviously stand halfway between Human and Machine.

[MoiMagnus]

• Arcane: Magic that draws it's power from the environment, the 'force', the 'weave', and the like.
• Theurgic: Magic drawn from another powerful being, frequently but not necessarily of divine nature.
• Ki: Supernatural energy drawn from within the user, such as some psychic magic or certain martial art training.
• Primal: Raw power, evolution, innate talent. Ragers, beasts, and many superhumans. Skill means nothing here, magic plays no part.
• Skilled: Training, such as a practiced thief or a skilled swordsman. No magic, no raw talent, just skill.

I'd like to approve this list.

For the sake of not having a one line comment, I'd like to suggest a variation I personally used when designing the magic system of one of my worlds, though it isn't exactly adequate to the goal here:

• Arcane: Magic that draws it's power from energy fluxes going trough the universe.
• Soul: Magic that draws its power from faith and oaths.
• Spirit: Energy drawn from the power of the mind of any intelligent individual, or group of being complex enough to have some basic "consciousness".
• Blood: Raw power, evolution, innate talent. Also include blood magic, which consist in sacrificing this innate power for an immediate effect.
• Skilled: Training, such as a practiced thief or a skilled swordsman. No magic, no raw talent, just skill. [And anti-magic abilities for plot convenience of the campaign]

[Kyutaru]

Let's go super basic.

Magic (Pure Magic) - Draw power from the energies of the universe through arcane, divine, or otherworldly means.
- Wizards, Clerics, Druids, Shamans, Warlocks, Bards, Paladins, Sorcerers, Pixie, Genie, Elemental

Mutant (Body Magic) - Innate gifts and evolutionary talents power the weird body of this character's freakish abilities.
- Mind Flayers, Owlbears, Manticores, Rust Monster, Black Pudding, Grey Ooze, Otugyh

Natural (Pure Body) - Completely mundane power obtained through training and skill and claws by normal beings.
- Fighter, Barbarian, Monk, Warlord, Ogre, Giant, Orc, Goblin, Kobold, Minotaurs

Supernatural (Magic Body) - Magical abilities that defy logic and reason yet are common to various monsters and races.
- Vampires, Werewolves, Ghosts, Beholders, Rakshasha, Dragons, Angels, Demons

Construct (Artificial) - Powered naturally by the magic of science but man-made enhancements and creatures.
- Golems, Cyborgs, Androids, Robots, Skeletons, Zombies, Ghouls

[Lord Raziere]

I will simplify this.

The commonality between all characters that go adventuring, or superheroing, exploring or fighting or however you want to term it, is that they have chosen a path and sticking with it. That are highly motivated people no matter what the reason, and no matter where their power comes from, if it can be improved, it needs work to be improved.

Therefore anything that can be adventurer has to have Determination or Dedication. The will to choose something and keep on that path and keep improving within that path. Fighter, Wizard, rogue, paladin, anything you can name- requires Dedication to being that thing. even a dragon, has to be dedicated to being an adventuring dragon rather than lazing around in a cave with riches. to being more than just another person living in the world, but someone who goes out and changes it.

All else is side fluff. The true source of power for all things is Dedication to improvement and your goals no matter where you come from, no matter what power you wield. it takes many different forms, and can alternatively be termed Devotion. even cybernetics requires maintenance and research of proper upgrades, testing to make sure they work right, and nature requires growing plants, caring for animals, taking care of the world around you or hunting for your food. and so on.

The only essential character, the only essential archetype needed, is one Dedicated enough to go forth on their path and change the world with it. all else flows from there.

[Millstone85]

You may notice the glaring omission of 'nature' magic. That was not the original intent, but as I wrote the list and defined the categories, I found it mostly falls under my definition of Arcane.

I could see "nature" spellcasting being portrayed as the original method, drawing from the land with the help of its guardian spirits, which was later split into arcane and divine.

Arcane spellcasting would have been discovered in an effort to do things the spirits wouldn't allow, because it would upset nature's balance and such.

Divine spellcasting would be the result of the development of civilization and the appearance of more anthropomorphic deities.

[The Kool]

I could see "nature" spellcasting being portrayed as the original method, drawing from the land with the help of its guardian spirits, which was later split into arcane and divine.

Arcane spellcasting would have been discovered in an effort to do things the spirits wouldn't allow, because it would upset nature's balance and such.

Divine spellcasting would be the result of the development of civilization and the appearance of more anthropomorphic deities.

Well my definitions were very broad, and not founded in D&D. As such, you answer questions to determine what the power source is. Does the magic come from within the user? Ki. Does the magic come from another being of power? Theurgic. Does the magic come from your surroundings/environment? Arcane. As such, we can see that if you have magic drawing from nature spirits, that's actually theurgic magic. If you have magic drawing on the power of the life of the land itself (not the spirits that reside there), then that's 'arcane' magic. In any given setting, sources could potentially be split or added. For example, if you had a setting that placed enough emphasis on it or worked a certain way, you could classify 'nature' as it's own source. But I wanted to give the simple approach.

[Psyren]

I'd go with Mental if you plan to have the same power source for monks and psions

[Rakaydos]

I notice most of these list have the catch-all "Magic" or "Arcane" along with other concepts that overlap with the D&D capabilites of arcane users.

Why not break it down?

Elemental

Mental/Illusion

Life/Death energy

Those three cover most of it, and absorb some of the other aspects.

[SaurOps]

I'd go with Mental if you plan to have the same power source for monks and psions

Psionics seriously needs to drop any pretense of being sci-fi "mind powers". No explanation in that vein can justify it; it's a supernatural power, plain and simple, and typically gets associated with some kind of spiritual enlightenment - the 2e psionics book directly cops to as much in its final chapter, and the use of crystals and dorje wands as implements is... telling. This would have the additional benefit of ending repetitive naming conventions that revolve around a million synonyms for minds or thought. The general brain motif can also go; it works for the illithids, but using it as a broad gimmick just steals their thunder.

[Pauly]

I think the other way to look at is not the mechanics of how the power works, but in the function the character brings to the party.

Trickster. Uses sleight of hand and illusions to fool the enemy.

Archer. Specializes in ranged damage. Can be broken into Sniper, high effect on a single target, and Bombadier, area of effect.

Duelist. Melee specialist that relies on skill and technique to defeat the enemy. Levels up by improving skills.

Beast. Melee specialist that draws on inner strength. Levels up by being able to draw on more power.

Librarian. Acquires knowledge, and by distributing that knowledge allows the rest of the team to be more effective.

Medic. Self explanatory.

Summoner. Brings allies to the fight.

Nature spirit. Has an affinity with nature and uses that link to enhance the team.
Technificer. Like Nature spirit but uses tech.
(NB most game systems will allow one but not both of these types).

Leader. Uses charisma to inspire the team. Not seen a lot in RPGs, but is very common in fiction.

Now of course characters can have a main type however sub types are common.

I find this type of classification is more helpful way of thinking about archetypes than the rigid class system of D&D.

[Psyren]

Psionics seriously needs to drop any pretense of being sci-fi "mind powers". No explanation in that vein can justify it; it's a supernatural power, plain and simple, and typically gets associated with some kind of spiritual enlightenment - the 2e psionics book directly cops to as much in its final chapter, and the use of crystals and dorje wands as implements is... telling. This would have the additional benefit of ending repetitive naming conventions that revolve around a million synonyms for minds or thought. The general brain motif can also go; it works for the illithids, but using it as a broad gimmick just steals their thunder.

I guess I'm not really seeing the distinction, if I'm honest.

I notice most of these list have the catch-all "Magic" or "Arcane" along with other concepts that overlap with the D&D capabilites of arcane users.

Why not break it down?

Elemental

Mental/Illusion

Life/Death energy

Those three cover most of it, and absorb some of the other aspects.

You'd probably want something for summoning, shapeshifting, and divinations too.

[Millstone85]

You can also use subdivisions:

• external (spellcasting)
  
  • direct (arcane)
  • mediated (divine)
  
  
• internal (discipline)
  
  • bodily (ki)
  • mental (psionics)

[Max_Killjoy]

You can also use subdivisions:

• external (spellcasting)
  
  • direct (arcane)
  • mediated (divine)
  
  
• internal (discipline)
  
  • bodily (ki)
  • mental (psionics)
  
  

Are you defining "external" and "internal" by the source of the power, or where the effect takes place?

[HouseRules]

I hate this Ki (Chi) stuff. It's aether, or at least, aether is the closest literal translation of it.

When is meditative not internal? It's practicing self-psychology. If practicing self-medication (using drugs) is illegal, so should meditation (practice self-psychology).

mediated definition 2 is clearly self-psychology.

[Millstone85]

Are you defining "external" and "internal" by the source of the power, or where the effect takes place?

Do psionic disciplines only affect the user's own mind, or do they influence other minds, move objects around and more?

I am obviously talking about the source.

When is meditative not internal?

You misread "mediated".

[Max_Killjoy]

Do psionic disciplines only affect the user's own mind, or do they influence other minds, move objects around and more?

I am obviously talking about the source.

OK, I was simply curious.

Was just going to note that magic can also be internal (source), both in various material outside of D&D, and within D&D depending on how one reads the various text and blurbs about sorcerers -- but wanted to know what you meant first.