Platonic Race-As-Class

Race-as-class is an idea that, in theory, works. It allows a setting to have truly alien races by making the way they play fundamentally different from human classes. It also allows races to have impressive powers while keeping them balanced, since their strength is offset by the fact they lack the cool class powers humans get.

In practice, I've had bad experiences with it. Players avoid it, and when they don't, they make every Dwarf Gimli and every Elf Legolas. And almost inevitably, someone will ask if they can play a Halfling Fighter or Dwarven Magician and I'll have to tell them no.

There is a ethos found in many OSR games that pushes away from the highly customizable characters of modern D&D and D&D derivatives, preferring instead to focus on making the characters different through how they're played and what happens to them during the course of their adventures. I'm all for this (in certain games - I enjoy the customization inherent to the playbooks of Apocalypse World variants, but get why that doesn't work in an OSR game), but I feel like race-as-class hinders, not helps, this idea. When every fighter is the same, you start to try to set them apart from each other. But when every dwarf or elf is the same... you start to play them like a stereotype, since everyone has an image of what a dwarf or elf "should" be.

Secondly, there is also a push towards verisimilitude in OSR games. Again, I agree with this (and again, see where it's better to focus on an interesting story over what feels "real"), but then a part of me starts wondering why only humans and elves can learn spells. Why can't a dwarf start studying magic? Or why can't an elf or dwarf of halfling be a specialist and learn any number of skills which, in theory, you don't even need to be an adventurer to learn?

Part of my reason for feeling this way is spending a long time playing Dwarf Fortress over the years. The eponymous dwarves in your eponymous fortress all have different jobs and personalities, and yet when you run into elves or humans or goblins, it's clear that a dwarven engraver is different from an elven engraver. Art by RaysinMocona.

So here's my idea: each "human" class has a certain part of it that is not strictly necessary for the class to function and can be removed. Furthermore, each race-as-class has a certain part of it that is inherent to the race, but is also not so strong that it warrants being part of its own class.

If you want to play a race as a class you can do that. An elf is an Elf, a dwarf is a Dwarf, a halfling is a Halfling. But if you want, you can play a Fighter who's also an elf, or a Specialist who's also a dwarf, or a Magician who's also a halfling. (Note the use and disuse of capitalization - the difference between a race, and a race-as-class.)

To do so, you remove the unnecessary part of the human class, and replace it with the inherent part of the nonhuman class. So your magician doesn't have cantrips anymore but now they can see in the dark. Your specialist no longer deals sneak attack damage but now they're impossible to surprise.

This also makes it easy to make new races and classes who work. Each time you make one all you need to do is find one part of them that fits the mould and you have guaranteed compatibility with any other class and race you make.

Give me something I can use you nerd!
Okay, okay, fine. Some of these may seem complicated but once you figure out what a class in your system should have removed you're set for life.

I want to play a...
Fighter...
Remove any bonus HP (e.g. move their Hit Die down to the average).

Specialist...
Halve the number of skill points gained at level one. If not using skill points, remove any sneak attack damage bonuses and/or the ability to gain them.

Magician...
Remove any cantrips. If you don't have cantrips, -1 cast per day unless you only have one cast per day at level one or don't have casts per day, in which case reduce the number of known starting spells to one. If you're outside that you're probably using a homebrew in which case you know more about the class than I do. Make up your own removal.

Cleric...
Remove any bonus HP, if they don't have bonus HP remove the ability to dispel magic, if not that their ability to turn enemies, if not that reduce their spells like a Magician.

...who's also a(n)...
...Elf!
Automatically pass test of initiative/any other reaction-based bonuses.

...Dwarf!
Can see in the dark or just better in dim light (either way the better-sight-in-darkness stuff).

...Halfling!
You can heal from eating any number of times per day or you're good at hiding behind stuff.

...Orc!
+1 HP per level or step your Hit Die up one step (whichever you prefer).

...Fishman!
You can breathe underwater.

I've never seen an Orc or Fishman class before.
I got you good, didn't I!

The beauty of this is you don't have to make a race an entire class. I've never had an Orc or Fishman class in any of my games (yet) and I'm willing to bet most people haven't either. But with a single line of writing - one stolen from the Fighter class, the other the most obvious racial bonus in existence - I just made one.

Furthermore, that Orc bonus implies an Orc class is just a Fighter with green skin. Which I think is awesome! You could spin a Cleric into being an Angel or a Specialist into being a Ratman. Then just take a key part (probably not the same one that was removed - a Cleric's extra HP doesn't really say "Cleric" to me) and you can turn them into an Angelic Magician or Ratman Fighter.

But wait, there's more! What makes an elf an Elf? Fighting + magic? And what makes a dwarf a Dwarf? Spelunking focused stuff? Why not make a Human Dwarf or Halfling Elf! Replace the Dwarf's darksight with +1 HP/level or +1 HD size (humans are durable), and the Elf's initiative with a Halfling's eating or sneakiness.

Geralt (like all witchers) casts spells and stabs people. He even has sensory abilities. Sounds like an Elf to me! Art by Zary.

Not only does this system make it easy to play a Dwarven Fighter or Elven Specialist, it makes it easy to play more unusual takes on existing classes. All of a sudden, a Dwarf isn't the only type of dwarf you can play - and, when you play a Dwarf, you don't even have to be playing an actual dwarf! What was once a restricting system is now an open encouragement to be creative, while at the same time being simple enough in structure that players aren't bogged down with choice.

Where to go from here:
Joseph Manola's neat B/X D&D classes. He's written a lot of cool classes but you can mine this file for ideas/usable ones without diving into his blog (but you should do that anyway because it's neat). Even has an Orc and Fishman class!

Joe Fatula's take on fantasy races. These are very interesting just in general but also play with idea of races being based on but not strictly bound to a stereotype - adventurous humans, haughty elves, etc etc.

Emmy Allen's Miner and Lantern-Girl classes. It's easy to see how a Miner is just a human Dwarf and a Lantern-Girl/Link-Boy is a human Halfling, and easy to see how you could easy run them as just a Dwarf or Halfling. The Miner is the class that inspired me to write this post in the first place.