Class: The Sage

Roleplaying "intelligence" has always been a tricky prospect, when the players themselves have either greater or possibly less intelligence than the characters they are trying to play. After digging into this issue, including reading my favorite blog post on the subject, Smarter Intelligence Checks, I've found that it's not only possible to do this well, but also to make it interesting. There is untapped potential in this area, which I hope to capture in Hostargo's newest class: the Sage.

Every character should be able to view, explore, and inspect the world they live in, giving the player a window into its detailed workings. The more alive the world, the richer, more immersive experience the player receives. But we know that some players lean towards being more "explorers" than others. The Sage aims to fulfill this player style, giving them more and better tools for digging into their world.

The class's role is defined as information acquisition. This means they get more information about the quests, characters, events, battles, mysteries, and puzzles that they encounter. To help with this, they have a general knowledge skill tree that includes topics like politics (to learn about the city's governing powers), forensics (for helping with investigation scenes), and Memory (the world's magic system, which they can know even if they do not use it themselves).

Luck is spent on class special abilities, and when the Sage does so, they have a sudden realization about something in the game. Depending on how much they've upgraded this Observer ability, the GM is forced to reveal some vulnerability, clue, or potentially even motive about a creature, character, or event. While this can be viewed as a simple "hint system", it truly is a class power that only a character like Sherlock Holmes or Doctor Strange might possess. It also encourages teamwork, since knowing is only half the battle.

I am excited to GM for players who really embrace the Sage. Not only will the class cater to their play style like no class has before it, but it will also force me as the game creator to answer a lot of highly detailed questions about the Hostargo game world.