Classes to Actors

Oath-Bound replaces the PHB class list with four actor types. These are not classes under a different name. They are broader categories that describe how a character primarily engages with the world — the ground from which their specific capabilities grow.

A Martial Actor acts directly through force, confrontation, and physical skill. A Divine Actor acts through authority granted by a Foundation — an institution in formal relationship with one of the gods. An Arcane Actor acts through learned command of the arcane forces that permeate the world. A Gray Actor acts indirectly through access, positioning, discretion, and practical competency that doesn’t fit the other categories.

These are not ceilings. A Martial Actor is not forbidden from eventually developing capabilities associated with other actor types. Actor type reflects where a character begins and what they are primarily good at. It does not limit what they may eventually become.

Actor type and the specific capabilities that develop within it are established at Session Zero — the collaborative process at the start of play in which the character is built from the fiction outward, with the GM and the other players present. This is where the template ends and the character begins.

In the Player’s Handbook, class is closely tied to a set of abilities and a defined progression. It describes what a character can do.

In Oath-Bound, the familiar class names — fighter, cleric, magic-user, thief — describe modes of engagement rather than fixed ability sets. Each represents a dominant way of acting on the world. Fighters act directly through force and confrontation. Thieves act indirectly through access, positioning, and discretion. Clerics act through authority granted by institutions. Magic-users act through learned command of arcane forces.

These modes are not exclusive. Many characters may act in more than one way depending on circumstance. A cautious merchant may act like a Gray Actor in some situations. A priest may act with the directness of a Martial Actor when required.

Actor type indicates which mode is dominant and developed, not which actions are possible.

This shifts class away from a list of abilities and toward a pattern of behavior. What a character can do is determined less by what has been selected, and more by what has been practiced, permitted, and demonstrated in play.

A character’s path is not fixed by their starting point.

A former soldier may enter play as a Martial Actor, defined by direct action and conflict. Over time, that same character may find himself operating in a different world — carrying messages between factions, managing delicate relationships, moving through spaces where open force is no longer an option.

This change does not come from a decision to become something else. It follows from the role he occupies and the demands placed on him. To continue in that role, he adapts. What he learns, how he acts, and where he operates begin to shift.

In time, he may come to act in ways traditionally associated with a Gray Actor. This is not a class change. It is a consequence of how he lives.

The same process applies to roles like a bard. They are not reached through a defined progression. They develop over time through experience, movement, and position. What is recognized as a bard is the result of accumulated practice and circumstance, not a class to be entered.

This approach does not remove specialized roles. It changes how they are reached.

A player who wants to run a druid, an assassin, or another highly specific figure can do so. What differs is that these roles are not taken on by selecting a defined structure at Session Zero. They develop through play.

A character becomes a druid through sustained association with natural places, practices, and traditions, and through recognition within that sphere. A character becomes an assassin through the adoption of methods, contacts, and work that define that role over time.

These are not states entered at a moment. They are positions arrived at through continued action and circumstance.

This allows characters to take on specialized identities without requiring that those identities be defined in advance. What matters is not the adoption of a form, but the accumulation of practice, relationship, and reputation that supports it.

Capability develops in response to need, not selection.

"I have spent enough years in the shieldwall. That is a young man’s work. I travel more now, and often on horseback. A shortsword serves poorly there.

If I am to fight well in this life, I must learn a longer blade. I have the strength and the sense for it now. It is time to begin."

This is how new capability appears in play. It is not granted at a moment of advancement, and it is not chosen from a list. It arises from the demands of the life being lived and from the character’s recognition of those demands.

What follows is practice, failure, and eventual competence. Advancement may later reflect that change, but it does not create it.

Actor type does not determine what a character will become. It reflects what they have come to be.

It is not a plan. It is not a path. It is not a set of options.

It is a record of how a character engages with the world, shaped over time by action, constraint, and consequence.