Classless RPG Recomendations

[JAB Creations]

Last year I played Path of Exile and it was okay though while I was not wild about the extreme-libertarian trade-only economy (I only soloed) what I really liked was the classless style. I also recently purchased Grim Dawn which is okay though I think they went noticeably out of their way to make the item system as distinct (and thus unfriendly/non-intuitive) from the Diablo series and the item system is (from my ~12+ levels) fairly class oriented instead of play style oriented.

In high school Diablo came out, Diablo 1. There were three classes and instead of huge tweaks taking months to refine classes it was basically warrior, mage and rogue. I played a spell casting warrior and getting spell tombs was better than getting uniques in Diablo II most of the time (oh boy! My fifth Diggler! Why would I want Hell mode Bale to drop anything else!?).

Of the games I do know Skyrim fits the classless system best.

Beyond that I think what would be really cool is having quests build around how you build your character. "I heard if you want to set people on fire the best place to start is at Honest Bob's and procure a few scrolls of Roast a Duck."

While I'd like to see Diablo IV the problem is Blizzard is not the company it once was especially with all the ethical and political issues. I'd like some recommendations for Diablo-like games that are either completely classless or have minimal impact from classes like Diablo 1. Bonus points if I can mod/hack it like Diablo 1, has nice looking graphics, is available DRM-free / GOG and does not require an Internet connection for single player. If I find something nice I would enjoy being able to LAN party with friends without being forced in to a scenario where we could not mod the game. Mods really improve the replayability of games. Picture semi-related.

 

[Frick]

I'd say Fallout 1/2 and New Vegas, but from your post it looks like you're after ARPGs. Dungeon Siege? Not nice graphics though.

 

[Sithaer]

I guess you could keep an eye on Wolcen.

It will be relased in ~1 month unless they delay it again,game runs on Cryengine so it looks pretty good for an ARPG.ű

I also second Dungeon Siege 1/2 tho it is indeed an old game so no 'pretty' graphics but the game is fun imo.

 

[Vayra86]

Last year I played Path of Exile and it was okay though while I was not wild about the extreme-libertarian trade-only economy (I only soloed) what I really liked was the classless style. I also recently purchased Grim Dawn which is okay though I think they went noticeably out of their way to make the item system as distinct (and thus unfriendly/non-intuitive) from the Diablo series and the item system is (from my ~12+ levels) fairly class oriented instead of play style oriented.

In high school Diablo came out, Diablo 1. There were three classes and instead of huge tweaks taking months to refine classes it was basically warrior, mage and rogue. I played a spell casting warrior and getting spell tombs was better than getting uniques in Diablo II most of the time (oh boy! My fifth Diggler! Why would I want Hell mode Bale to drop anything else!?).

Of the games I do know Skyrim fits the classless system best.

Beyond that I think what would be really cool is having quests build around how you build your character. "I heard if you want to set people on fire the best place to start is at Honest Bob's and procure a few scrolls of Roast a Duck."

While I'd like to see Diablo IV the problem is Blizzard is not the company it once was especially with all the ethical and political issues. I'd like some recommendations for Diablo-like games that are either completely classless or have minimal impact from classes like Diablo 1. Bonus points if I can mod/hack it like Diablo 1, has nice looking graphics, is available DRM-free / GOG and does not require an Internet connection for single player. If I find something nice I would enjoy being able to LAN party with friends without being forced in to a scenario where we could not mod the game. Mods really improve the replayability of games. Picture semi-related.

Din's Legacy (as classless as you can get, literally fits right in your wishlist in every way, if you can see through the clunky its good fun!) - your ENTIRE build is created on the fly with randomly unlocked mutations. You only can access a handful of classes at the start, and you unlock a huge number of additional ones while playing. Then you can freely pick skills from any class to cook up something nice while said skills can also mutate randomly as you gain experience; those you can tweak out, or keep and find synergy with. The game has two major flaws: its 100% RNG, so once you know things, it fails to surprise you and lacks hand crafted coolness. But discovering everything takes a good while. The other flaw is balance. I had little trouble figuring out a killer combo and it was pretty easy to even fine tune that and destroy the game. But, then again, I did have the joy of doing that destroying. Recommended.

Torchlight (2) modded and expanded. There are loads of class mods out there, the game's got a LOT to offer. It is class based though, but if you haven't done this yet, its worth looking at. Def. on the level of Diablo/Grim Dawn in many ways.

You've already played some of the better ones.

If you want something refreshing
Book of Demons
Im not gonna say too much about it. Just get it, and dive into it, and then come to love it.

About Grim Dawn, I get the impression you missed out on what it offers. The game is indeed pretty classless because of how it builds around dual classing. The limitation also does not lie in class per say, but more the choice of skills and the damage types you want to go for. As you get deeper you will notice that the aforementioned class restrictions really aren't restrictions but guides for you to focus a build towards. If you keep finding fire damage with a specific skill, take it as a hint that perhaps you ought to run fire on it. If you keep finding a specific class with certain damage types, the same thing applies: the game points you to it. When you get to top levels, you will find more and more items that even are usable for three or more classes (!) and more and stronger damage conversions that enable you to suddenly turn your all electricity into an all poison or whatever build - and opening up totally new classes to combine with skills.

The distinctness of the system has its purpose, the balance in the game is pretty tight, though you only discover that later, and the scaling is not quite as exponential as it is in Diablo's. That is why they have different ways to scale damage, albeit somewhat more complicated. The level of itemization and options is incredible, not as flexible as Path of Exile but in a very very good place between depth and playability, something PoE has some issues with, it has a much steeper learning curve.

Basically the game aims to keep inspiring you to try out new things. And yes, that means many many rerolls

-signed, an ARPG purist

PS. that picture man. Memories! I played a Mage in vanilla WoW/TBC too

 

[Sensates]

Haven't heard of Din's Legacy, between this and Book of Demons which one do you prefer?

I had BoD in my cart for a while now, just never pulled the trigger.

 

[potato580+]

dark soul is good, although i never yet finish the game

 

[Dixevil]

Grim Dawn is a great game and on top of that you can install Grim Reborn 3.0 (you can find it on Discord) which makes it even more fun.

 

[Rezzorx]

Divinity original sin 1 and 2, you choose a class at the beginning but you can change it up/mix later easily with skills to whatever you want, and its one of the best rpgs that came out in my oppinion.

 

[Vayra86]

Haven't heard of Din's Legacy, between this and Book of Demons which one do you prefer?

I had BoD in my cart for a while now, just never pulled the trigger.

Din's Legacy is indie-clunky but total freedom. Difficulty is potentially extremely low, lots of exploits available if you seek them.
Book of Demons is indie-polished but very linear. Difficulty is pretty high. Zero exploitable stuff.

Its like yin and yang Neither will last you hundreds of hours. I do think BoD is the better, higher quality game in every way, also mechanically and definitely in terms of balance.

A peek into the last act Look familiar?
Also this game has so many easter eggs and funny things, its unreal. Even just entering the last act, the wording of it; you have to click on 'Go To Hell' (because the area is called Hell ). When you enter the game, intro movie starts with 'Welcome to the archive of Awesome' And yes, you meet a flimsy old dude in your town, who opens with 'Stay, and listen for a while'... Also, 'Diablo' apparently has a yellow rubber duck he plays with in his sea of fire

And here are some Din's Legacy shots
Classes... Note how not all are unlocked, sheer amount of them - though there are a lot of duplicate skills inside.

 

[Toothless]

dark soul is good, although i never yet finish the game

You literally pick a class at the beginning of every Dark Souls game. OP wants classless.

 

[kurosagi01]

Does The Witcher 1-3 count?

 

[JAB Creations]

You literally pick a class at the beginning of every Dark Souls game. OP wants classless.

It's okay to have a "starter" class so long as any character can use any skill. I agree with the notion that it's more important to be able to quickly choose a style and start playing versus sitting around for two hours tweaking skills before the first swing of an ax or the first mob being set on fire. Diablo I was great because it had those early defined classes but didn't force you to use any particular skills; you could use a bow as a warrior and cast spells...not that I'd recommend that however you had that freedom.

I also like being able to freely appoint attribute points, Diablo III really...it's static and while it has a good chunk of grinding end game content you have to use certain builds with certain items to be able to make any meaningful headway. Another problem: too many Ancient drops from regular mobs and typically garbage from bosses, it's very backwards. Don't get me wrong, Diablo II was too scarce and there are items I never found myself (only found a single Stone of Jordan from a rat's nest in Act II sewers even though they were traded like currency) and forget about the items worth grinding for - hence the hack/mod tools for just straight up creating capable items.

I think games should focus less on "I need better items to be able to kill a single trash mob in less than 20 minutes" to more "if I can find a certain item it'll let me summon skeletor on a strawberry colored pony to drop cup-cake bombs upon my foes once every ten minutes" or something more fun, creative or whatever. Damage should still be variable but not ridiculous.

 

[Toothless]

It's okay to have a "starter" class so long as any character can use any skill. I agree with the notion that it's more important to be able to quickly choose a style and start playing versus sitting around for two hours tweaking skills before the first swing of an ax or the first mob being set on fire. Diablo I was great because it had those early defined classes but didn't force you to use any particular skills; you could use a bow as a warrior and cast spells...not that I'd recommend that however you had that freedom.

I also like being able to freely appoint attribute points, Diablo III really...it's static and while it has a good chunk of grinding end game content you have to use certain builds with certain items to be able to make any meaningful headway. Another problem: too many Ancient drops from regular mobs and typically garbage from bosses, it's very backwards. Don't get me wrong, Diablo II was too scarce and there are items I never found myself (only found a single Stone of Jordan from a rat's nest in Act II sewers even though they were traded like currency) and forget about the items worth grinding for - hence the hack/mod tools for just straight up creating capable items.

I think games should focus less on "I need better items to be able to kill a single trash mob in less than 20 minutes" to more "if I can find a certain item it'll let me summon skeletor on a strawberry colored pony to drop cup-cake bombs upon my foes once every ten minutes" or something more fun, creative or whatever. Damage should still be variable but not ridiculous.

You ever seen the game Fate?

Fate Portal: It's Here! Find Out What FATE has in store for you:

Fate Portal, An All New FATE, Fate: The Cursed King

games.wildtangent.com

 

[Sensates]

Spoiler: Spoiler

Din's Legacy is indie-clunky but total freedom. Difficulty is potentially extremely low, lots of exploits available if you seek them.
Book of Demons is indie-polished but very linear. Difficulty is pretty high. Zero exploitable stuff.

Its like yin and yang Neither will last you hundreds of hours. I do think BoD is the better, higher quality game in every way, also mechanically and definitely in terms of balance.

A peek into the last act Look familiar?
Also this game has so many easter eggs and funny things, its unreal. Even just entering the last act, the wording of it; you have to click on 'Go To Hell' (because the area is called Hell ). When you enter the game, intro movie starts with 'Welcome to the archive of Awesome' And yes, you meet a flimsy old dude in your town, who opens with 'Stay, and listen for a while'... Also, 'Diablo' apparently has a yellow rubber duck he plays with in his sea of fire

View attachment 142774

And here are some Din's Legacy shots
Classes... Note how not all are unlocked, sheer amount of them - though there are a lot of duplicate skills inside.
View attachment 142775


View attachment 142776

NIce! Sold me on the Book of Demon, will grab it on discount. Love to play games like these during podcast listening.

 

[Vayra86]

I think games should focus less on "I need better items to be able to kill a single trash mob in less than 20 minutes" to more "if I can find a certain item it'll let me summon skeletor on a strawberry colored pony to drop cup-cake bombs upon my foes once every ten minutes" or something more fun, creative or whatever. Damage should still be variable but not ridiculous.

See and thát is the bread and butter of Grim Dawn right there. Build diversity and stacking a plethora of on-hit and triggered skills on top of whatever you swing or shoot. There are (many) examples when the add-ons you link to certain main skills are more powerful than the skill itself. (Not just Devotions, either)

 

[Hyderz]

Final Fantasy XII : Zodiac Age, not really a classless rpg but you can choose whatever jobs you want for your character and build them as you go, there are tons of combinations available. You could change up as you progress through the game.

 

[Vayra86]

NIce! Sold me on the Book of Demon, will grab it on discount. Love to play games like these during podcast listening.

Cool, let us know what you think of it

 

[Vario]

Dungeon Siege (2002)
Your character class (which is purely a descriptor) is determined based upon what skills you have used so far, its very "organic". Does it better than any other ARPG I've found.

 

[Remeca]

Dungeon Siege (2002)
Your character class (which is purely a descriptor) is determined based upon what skills you have used so far, its very "organic". Does it better than any other ARPG I've found.

I also still find the game pleasant to look at, if you aren't zoomed all the way in to see the low poly models, the textures and particle effects still hold up better than other games of it's age imo.

 

[AsRock]

Divinity original sin 1 and 2, you choose a class at the beginning but you can change it up/mix later easily with skills to whatever you want, and its one of the best rpgs that came out in my oppinion.

Yes Larian Studio's are one of the very few good company's of today, although they are turn based but surly worth looking in too.

As some one else said The Witcher series.