Dragon Warriors

I'm not sure if this topic has ever been raised before. With all the discussion on this forum at the moment on what defines a profession and what the Player's Book will have to say about existing rules and about new professions, I was thinking on how flexible the rules are for allowing a player to change his character's profession mid-career.

One of the problems with "class-based" systems is the difficulty associated with changing your pigeonhole once you're in it, and DW is no different. But theoretically there is no reason why a Knight might experience an epiphany one day and decide to become a Mystic, or an Assassin decide to expand his skills and learn some Sorcery. Has anybody ever given any thought to how this might be achieved with the rules as they stand?

Cheers,

-Kyle

I have given thought to it and have attempted to add some similar rules to the Sorcerers shift to Demonologist. Knight to priest should be a reasonably doable one.

But again with that comes added complication and as a GM I'd probably just prefer to adjudicate on an ad-hoc basis.

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co-author Fury of the Deep
co-author Friends or Foes
co-author Dragon Warriors Players Guide
co-author Cold Fury
co-author Cadaver Draconis
co-author Ordo Draconis 1 and 2.

I think a mechanism for changing class is needed to better align what happens in game mechanics with what happens in the game world - for example, surely Duke Darian started out as a knight who became a sorcerer - but I'd like to avoid mechanics that force characters to start over again from 1st level, like in 1st edition AD&D, because it's not a lot of fun playing with your 8th rank friends when you've restarted as a 1st level sorcerer.

Cheers,

Gary Johnson

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Interesting. Did you need to restart from scratch in AD&D or did you get to keep your old level in your original profession and only the new profession started from nothing?

For that matter, how they do it that game nowadays?

I'm reminded now that a first level character is not a fresh-faced novice, but in fact has already had a body of training and experience to get to that point. A 'hotblood' can accrue six adventures worth of experience to become a first rank Knight but how much learning does (say) a trainee sorcerer have before he graduates as Rank 1?

Cheers,

Kyle

Book 5 is essential. If you want to change professions, best if you go insane first....

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Hahaha! I'd forgotten about that. Its a shame a sufferer of multiple personality disorder doesn't keep their other profession skills when they switch over though.

Cheers,

-Kyle

Changing professions is an interesting one. In other game systems, classes just represent training, so taking a rank in this or that seems reasonable enough (well, maybe... can one spend a week in the presence of a sorcerer on a couple of adventures and learn a rank of sorcery? Or should first rank represent many years of gruelling apprenticeship?) But in Dragon Warriors, many of the professions have social aspects that are difficult to change - for example, how does one 'become' a barbarian, and being a knight is as much about one's social position as much as it is about one's combat training. Mysticism is another interesting profession - can one simply awaken one's latent psychic talents, or must one be born with the gift, perhaps Mystics are changelings, or otherwise touched by otherworldly forces that will only touch a blank canvas, etc.

If a player is currently playing a knight and is then desperate to play a mystic, the GM can either create a scenario in which the knight has his latent psychic gifts awakened (adding mystical abilities to his character, and advancing as a Mystic from then-on out), or the player can retire his knight character and play a new mystic character. I think rules to govern changes to professions would be impossible because such profession changes would be rare and exceptional and have to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Sorcery is perhaps the profession closest to representing pure training - perhaps it is possible for anyone to learn sorcery (Psychic Talent willing!) But how long does it take, and would a master sorcerer take a mystic or knight to be an apprentice, or does the master want a younger apprentice he can mold into a responsible sorcerer - maybe it's not even possible to teach the vagiaries of sorcery to someone above a certain age?

As for Duke Darian to have started as a knight before becoming a sorcerer, there's nothing to indicate the Duke was ever a knight, but even if he was, he had to sell his soul to Rimfax in exchange for power - I'm not sure a PC would be prepared to do that (unless you were running a particularly 'exotic' campaign!) Only through such drastic means should a change of profession be possible, in my opinion.

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_________________
co-author Fury of the Deep
co-author Friends or Foes
co-author Dragon Warriors Players Guide
co-author Cold Fury
co-author Cadaver Draconis
co-author Ordo Draconis 1 and 2.

One of my characters did! Different context (set in Nehwon of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar books) but Quarn the Mingol Sorceror sold his soul to Chaos...

http://www.quest-bird.com/nehwon/quarn/quarn1.html

This is a very interesting point, worth expanding on. How easy is it, socially, economically, psychologically, and spiritually is it to 'break into' a foreign profession? Here are my thoughts for the canonical professions:

Knight: Most knights really are knights, that is, knighted persons, so you would not expect other professions to be able to become knights without first acquiring a knighthood. However the rulebook itself states that not all knights by profession are necessarily knights by social status, and that mere hotbloods can become knights purely by dint of running through six adventures. Anybody should be able to become a knight on this basis.
Barbarian: It appears that you really must be from a more 'uncivilised' background to be a barbarian (unless you've grown up in a particular way, you can't 'learn' the unbridled fury that gives makes you a berserker or gives you bloodrage), so perhaps this isn't a profession that anybody else can learn. But what about Elementalists who hail from the wild frontiers? Perhaps they can become barbarians.
Sorcerer (and demonologist): This is largely an academic profession so just about anybody should be able to learn it, although all sorcerers are left-handed, which I take to mean that right-handed people can't be sorcerers. That is a definite restriction.
Mystic: This is a mystery. What exactly are mystics, how do they learn their skills, and what does it take psychologically for a person to be a mystic? Perhaps anybody can become one (I see no evidence to the contrary, apart from the limit on psychic talent), or perhaps only certain psychological or spiritual makeups will permit mysticism. However the latter speculation is, to my knowledge, unsupported in the DW books so I am inclined to permit anybody with the right scores get their mystic wings.
Assassin: This seems to be a very rarified and secretive profession, and it would be very difficulty for a member of another profession to switch to this one.
Elementalist: Take what we said about barbarians and reverse it.
Warlock: Another tricky one. What exactly are warlocks, how does their magic relate to that of the other magic-using profession, or their combat abilities to the other fighters?

I'd say changing professions is currently very rare partly because their is no rules framework to govern it. In other words, if Dave Morris had put a section in book six back in the day about how to switch from Elementalist to Assassin etc I think we'd be taking it for granted right now like it wasn't even a thing.

I think some transitions, such as non-knight to knight, non-sorcerer/mystic to sorcerer/mystic, and perhaps barbarian to and from elementalist, should be allowable from all perspectives (except technical) and I for one would be interested in a working out a way of doing it.

Cheers,

-Kyle