“All right, now, before we get to picking classes, understand that in your new world, there are two kinds of classes. There’s ‘base classes’, and ‘prestige classes’. Base classes are like what you would expect, and can be taken at any level. Prestige classes are special, and typically have some advanced requirements before you even qualify for them. With me so far?”

I nodded, so the old man continued. “Now, you might not even need to go into prestige classes to get an interesting effect, if you want. See, one of the boons granted to Transfers in Tarona is the fact that they are all given the ability to have two classes at once. Now, this doesn’t give you twice the power of a person of your level, nor does it give you the ability to, say, cast a cleric spell and a wizard spell in the same instant, or any foolishness like that, but it does give you a greater variety of options, and can let you cover for weaknesses better. The System calls this a Gestalt, because you take the two classes and essentially fuse them together. You won’t be far and away more powerful than your fellows, but you will have options available to you that they would never be able to realize, and certainly not to the extent you will.”

That sounds incredible! So, I could be a fighter and a rogue, and become some kind of ninja? Or barbarian and a mage and use rage-fueled spells? Things like that?

The old man laughed. “Yes, yes. You souls always get so excited about that kind of thing. Though you’ll find that there is a ‘ninja’ class, and some combinations, like barbarian and caster, have prestige classes that accomplish the same things. Some combinations do not work well together, though, because their natures are incompatible, like Ninja and Bard. Some classes, such as the Paladin and Warlock, are completely incapable of coexisting because of the alignment restrictions.”

Alignment restrictions?

“Ah, yes, I’d forgotten. In Tarona, the System helps codify someone’s alignment or moral standing. There are nine alignments, based on the concepts of Good vs. Evil and Law vs. Chaos. Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking ‘Good’ is always nice, and ‘Evil’ is all about kicking puppies for fun. Same with Law and Chaos. There’s a lot of play there.”

Can you describe them for me?

The old man humphed, and leaned back against his chair. “Well, if I were to describe them, then I’d say that, when you’re talking about Good and Evil, as far as the System is concerned, you’re looking at ‘selfless’ and ‘selfish’, respectively. Now, selflessness is not always a great thing. Lots of terrible things have been done in the name of the ‘greater good’, for instance. And selfishness isn’t always bad. Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty, in order to protect what is important to you, or to avenge wrongs.”

I can understand that.

“Yes, you would, wouldn’t you? Anyways, with Law and Chaos, it is the same thing. Basically, where does your sense of ethics and morality come from? If it is your society, your religion, or your government telling you what to do, then that would be Lawful. On the other hand, if you prefer to live by your own code, and make your own decisions about what is right or wrong, then that is Chaotic.”

I considered that for a bit. I had been a good girl my whole life, back when I was alive. Look what that got me. No, no, NO! I wasn’t going to do that again. Fuck that. This time, I’m going to live for me.

I think I’ve earned a bit of selfishness, after all that bastard put me through. And I don’t want anyone telling me what to do any more. Does that mean I’m Chaotic Evil?

“Well, there’s a spectrum, but yeah, that means you’d be trending that way. Nothing wrong with that, mind you. Just being evil doesn’t mean you have to go and try to become the new Dark Lord, or go on any kind of Unholy Crusade, just like being Good doesn’t mean anything of the sort. There are quite a few rulers in Tarona that are Evil, and while they might not be universally liked, a few of them have earned the respect of their people, since they are cruel, but fair. So, don’t go thinking that you have to be locked into a certain way of being because of your alignment. And your alignment can change over time, depending on your actions. For every story of a noble warrior that fell into darkness, there’s a tale of a servant of shadow that found the light.”

I understand. I think, then, that I’d like to at least start as Chaotic Evil. I have some… frustrations I need to work out.

“All right, then. A moment, and I’ll filter the list of classes for you. There. Now, take a look through the base classes, and tell me which ones you’re thinking on taking.”

I started looking through the classes with relish. After all, most people in this world I was going to were born with their class and abilities, and had to deal with it. I, on the other hand, was going to get a chance to pick not just one, but two classes, and use them together! So, I wanted to make a good choice. My old life had enough regrets. I didn’t want another life full of regret on top of it!

I quickly realized that some classes were not going to be a good pick for me. The ‘Fighter’ class, for instance, looked to be pretty simple on the face of things, with its only real class ability being to get a multitude of ‘feats’, but they could get to be really deadly if you picked those feats right. Unfortunately, there were two big problems with the Fighter class. First, being allergic to iron meant that I wasn’t going to be able to wear metal armor at all, at least not until I was able to find some rare materials that could be used to make heavier armor and weren’t iron. That was a big problem, because it led straight into problem two: my being allergic to iron meant that I needed to keep sharp, pointy things way the hell away from me, and being a front-line fighter was a bad choice for that, especially since I couldn’t wear the heavier armor, for all the obvious reasons. That’s even before considering that my template would reduce my STR and CON scores, which were apparently a big deal for hitting people with melee attacks and surviving the hits you got in return!

So, obviously, I needed something else, something that could do more of a ranged approach to things. Since I was able to fly, that made it all the better for me to just try and keep up, out of people’s reach, and attack from above. There was magic (honest to god magic!) in this new world I was going to, and so I figured being a spellcaster would be a good way to deal with my enemies.

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that the spellcasting classes, especially at the lower levels, quickly ran out of gas. Like, literally a first level wizard would get only five to eight spells a day, depending on what their INT was, and they had to pick those spells at the start of the day. Worse, three of those were ‘cantrips’, which were essentially worthless when it came to keeping you from getting killed by angry monsters. That was what I would call ‘less than ideal’.

Sorcerers were hardly better. They got more spells per day, sure, and they could choose which spells they wanted as they cast them, but they only knew a few spells to begin with. And, at most, you were only talking about four extra spells a day at first level. And one thing that became clear, fast, was that spells didn’t automatically hit, like in some video games. If you missed, or the target resisted the spell somehow, then you had wasted it!

Things weren’t looking good. Other classes had some… quasi-spellcasting abilities, but had even fewer spells. They made up for it in other ways, like having more skills, or being able to wear armor, and things like that, but it wasn’t really what I was looking for. The ‘psionics’ section looked interesting for a moment, but it really didn’t sit well with me. I wanted something more… magical.

That’s when I found the class I knew I would take as the first half of my gestalt. The Warlock was a magic-fueled blaster. Sure, they got a low number of spells (they called them invocations), but they could be used at will. They never ran out of gas! Plus, their primary ability was literally a blast of non-typed magical ‘eat this’ damage! This was perfect for what I wanted!

Now, with Warlock chosen, I had to decide on the second class. For a moment, I considered taking one of those spellcasting classes that I had passed up on, but that really wouldn’t help me much. The Sorcerer, for instance, got nothing I wasn’t getting except for the ‘normal’ spells, and a familiar. If I was going to make the most of this gestalt, I needed something to balance my blasting goodness, preferably something that would help me in the ‘survivability’ field. That meant something that was combat focused, rather than spellcasting focused, but something that didn’t rely on armor to take the hits for me.

There were plenty of classes that were big on ‘not getting hit’ as part of their defense strategy. Problem was, that some of them were at odds with my Warlock class. Some, like Rangers and Scouts, had mobility, which I liked, but were heavily focused on their weapons, which meant I wouldn’t be using as much of their abilities while blasting. The Ninja (you know I had to look up the Ninja once the old man let it slip that there was an actual ninja class!) was cool and all, but it was stealth focused, and magic blasts of doom were inherently unstealthy.

You could easily say that this was a major problem, but, just as I was considering going back to Sorcerer or one of the other classes that could double down on my magical attack abilities, I found an odd little class: the Battledancer. One of the key effects of the class was that you could basically turn being pretty into armor! OK, so it was more complicated than that. Basically, as long as they didn’t wear armor or carry too much stuff, their movements distracted people enough that they had trouble hitting them! And it even made their fist hit as hard as a monk’s, which was pretty cool, as well.

I quickly selected Battledancer as my second class, and began to assign my attributes. I had a set of 18, 13, 15, 14, 17, 12 to put into the six attributes. Given that my Classes both used CHA, and my template boosted it as well, that’s where I put my 18. When I was done, my abilities looked like this:

Attribute

Score

Enhanced

Modifier

STR

10

+0

DEX

19

+4

CON

11

+0

INT

15

+2

WIS

14

+2

CHA

20

+5

Once I had my class selected, and my attributes placed, I started looking at the feats, since these would be a big part of keeping me strong. There were a LOT of feats. However, not knowing where I was going to be born, or in what situation I would find myself, I skipped feats that relied heavily on certain weapons, or required a certain birth place, or other such things. No, I went with two feats that I was sure would help keep me alive. They might not be ‘optimal’, as the hardcore gamer kids at school, back when I was at school, would say, but ‘not dying’ was my primary objective. I got two feats at first level, since I was a human, so I chose the following:

Feats

Feat

Description

Improved Initiative

+4 on Initiative Checks

Improved Toughness

Gain +1 HP per HD when taken. Each time you gain a level, gain +1 HP, in addition to the normal HD gain.

Initiative was important because that was basically how quickly you could respond to situations. If your initiative was low, you were more likely to be reacting to enemy attacks, instead of making them react to yours. Improved Toughness, on the other hand, gave me a steady source of increased Hit Points (HP), which meant I was further from death. A single HP might seem like nothing, but even with that bonus I was currently sitting at 9 HP as my total. That was… not a lot.

Turning back to the old man, I took a metaphorical breath, and said, I think I’m ready.

The old man smiled, and said, “Not yet. You still need to buy your skills.”