Charles, that's what I loved too. Hearing, Greetings

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As long its not made as crappy as fallout, as long a 8 to a 16 make some diference.
But combining this with the fact the engine read your greater skills and give missions to you accordinging to them, well:
1) how can you manage "hybrid"
2) missions will be restricted to your more evolved skills, another matter to say class (overall "not that kind of mission again, can t bear this anymore ??)
3) All mission will be solvable (Oblivion lack of challenge until the modders to the work as it should have been done syndrom ?)

Can anyone answer those nasty questions ?

That's my issue with this too. I always made a Sorceress class and just picked my own order of skills. I just liked to be called a Sorceress. But now I won't be able to.

Like some here it's not the class itself I will miss, but rather the label. Other than that I don't care.

Just put [whatever] the Sorceress as your name. Problem solved. That's what I'll probably do. Same with any class. call yourself Jack the Shadow or Rowlf the beserk.

I basically liked the class system in TES, for those who wanted a quick start into game it was helpful. On the other hand it is not that bad if the class system is removed. You still have your skills and perks and you can develop them as you like. That is not so different from having chosen a class.

When I actually look at my Oblivion game it doesn't really matter if I had chosen a class or not. By now I have completed nearly all of the quests, including the Add-On quests and my avatar is at level 51 with all major skills up to 100+ and most of the secondary skills are at a high level or even at maximum.

What would have changed if I haven't been able to choose a class? The major and minor skills would be different, I had levelled a different way but my avatar would have been developed as I played. And this is the intention for Skyrim, I guess. To let the gamer explore the world and develop his/her avatar its own way without restrictions of a specific class system.

Assuming your character is still born under a specific sign, which carries its own perks, does the loss of the class system really damage RPing that much? I mean, those born under the Mage or the Apprentice are still obviously going to be Magic-based characters.

I think this feature of being born under a specific sign will stay in Skyrim and will also have an influence on the game. That's one of those little things that makes TES unique.

Indeed. Or, *you* (the player) can always *call* your character whatever you want to call him or her. I mean, it's not like Oblivion gives you room for proper titles, for example. And some of my characters have had titles. *I* knew that, and for roleplaying purposes, that's what matters. Goes in the Journal that way, too.

I've always used custom classes, but having a name for a "class" (i.e., an arbitrary, artificial, abstract, kinda "meta-game" construct) means about as much in the game world, as... the player's name might, say. Well, not much more, anyway.

Im glad they took it off

Title + stat boost = class



It's not though, it's a defining characteristic of pen n paper rpg's and has been present in almost every stat based rpg ever made as means of forcing specialization. Forced specialization is the defining characteristic of rpgs and it doesn't matter how it is achieved. Just because it's not what your accustom to doesn't mean it won't play well.

Other: I liked the idea of being able to create and name a custom class, so I will miss that. But I don't think it will negatively impact my experience with the game. As long as specialization is rewarded, but jack-of-all-trades characters are possible but slightly nerfed due to being harder to level up, I'll be fine.

Great. The dumbing down has started, I see. :facepalm:

Bethesda said it will be hard to just be good at everything. Leveling up everything and not focusing on certain skills will raise your level but make things difficult for you once your facing tougher enemies with lots of low skills

Based upon past history, sounds about right.

I think this is not a big deal. It's the same as doing the tutorial dungeon in Oblivion--just without the formal naming system. I play the way I want to play. Some restrictions or difficulties may be implemented to avoid being a jack of all trades or switching from one "class" to another. I really do not mind since I just play/roleplay without thinking about technical things like that sometimes.

Roleplay however you want. It's the staple of ES games... isn't it...?

Classes make sense in party-based RPGs. Not so much in single-player single-character RPGs, especially the Elder Scrolls where the emphasis is on defining your character through your actions.
If they set up the perk system well I think doing away with classes will mean *more* opportunity for specialization, not less.

Other.

I was disappointed at the news. I had thought it rather elegant the way it was designed. The character's early life commitments predisposed them to a certain style, but it did not prohibit them from picking up a bit of skill in an area where they lacked the aptitude and the progress was not so easy.

*A blacksmith's apprentice would likely learn to use a warhammer faster and easier than a jeweler's apprentice, but both could still learn it with practice; while a few interested Blacksmiths could learn to fix a necklace clasp, or set gems ~even craft their own tools to cut them. Early life experience greatly affects a person, and will influence what they learn easily, or with difficulty.

I consider the removal of character classes (or a class-like system of limitations) to be a real mistake for most any serious RPG.

Reserving my final judgement until I can actually test the new system myself but... The way they have presented the new system make it sound well thought out actually. The only thing that really prevented to concept of free leveling was the preset of minor and major skills to begin with. For a lack of better system they were good for focus but now that it's been tied entirely to what skills the player choose to focus on, the presets are redundant. And it's not like they're actually gone, they're just hidden behind the player's own actions instead of a choice made within the beginning of the game.

Of course there are classes in Skyrim- you just don't have to pick it at the beginning.

Rather, you get to build up your class by the way you play during the game and what your actions are and possibly by what guilds you join. Kind'a like real life. Yes I know there is no little box where you get to record a name for your class in your stats section (that was almost irrelevant anyway, because no one ever refered to it in the game).

Besides, they don't have business cards in Skyrim anyway.

Storm

It only took 5 games to go from a purely class based system to a purely skills based system. I think it's a move in the right direction, I felt the classes were redundant in Morrowind and Oblivion, and I always used custom classes.

I am curious about attributes, though, and wonder what effect their potential removal will have on the character system. It would require races to have some pretty unique abilities(perks) to differentiate eachother beyond just skill bonuses. I'd hate to see my choice of race depend mostly on what skills I want to improve, so I hope skill bonuses are minimal, per race.

It's not like anything actually changes. Rather than pick your dominant skills fresh out of the tutorial without fully realizing who you want to play as, you grow into them. You know, like normal people do. You discover things that are fulfilling to you, and the things you are good at contribute more to who you are.

The point is that in the end, you are still placed into a role, but at any point after your character has already been made you can decide to focus on different skills than you thought you would. Saves people the trouble of making new characters.

Yep.
I won't lament the loss of classes I can probably recreate for the most part anyway.

well part of the problem is you can no longer say you are a knight, or mage, or battlemage etc. which these classes have been named even in the lore. which makes it much harder to tell ur freind wut kind of character u have now. now u'd have to talk about perks and crap with him for 50 hours. plus classes limit how good u can be. my destruction skill as a knight would not touch the destruction skill of a mage even if mine was maxed out.

No I don't miss it. This way makes more sense, you build your own character. If it promotes specialization then it's good. Jack-of-all-trades was a problem with other TES games from bad leveling system.