Now, fair warning, a certain pirate/fan-run server has a thing called ‘Archetypes’, which is a fusion of two classes, ie you pick and choose what abilities you want, but that would be a balancing nightmare in a game where balance is an interesting theoretical concept.
Please do not go to fan-run servers, they tend to be dens of horrors and egomaniacs, and you’re basically handing over some rather sensitive information to a random stranger who thinks nothing of breaking international law. We may salute their efforts, but that’s too big of a risk for me. I like this account and I have put twenty years into it.
So, what if we instead took a page from the Hero Class system we got in the War Within, and made a ‘generic’ class for each of the following ‘Multi-Class’ trees, and then mixed in some flavours from Vanilla and Legion.
Defender (Tanking skills, can be flavored with Prot Warrior, Prot Paladin or Guardian Druid).
Gladiator (Melee DPS skills, can be flavoured Fury Warrior, Retrib Paladin or Survival Hunter)
Scout (Mobility, Evasion and Stealth, can be flavoured Rogue, Monk and Demon Hunter)
Mystic (Elemental/Nature magic, can be flavored Resto/Elemental Shaman, Resto/Moonkin Druid, Holy/Shadow Priest)
Conjurer (Pets and party/raid buffs, can be flavoured Beast Mastery Hunter, Demonology Warlock or Unholy Death Knight)
Adept (Ranged magical attacks, can be flavoured Mage, Warlock or Shaman)
Now, much like the Hero Class talent system, this doesn’t add more abilities, but rather alters existing ones with both a graphical design reminiscent of your choice, and may add or alter the damage type.
Each ‘Multi’-Class has 10 levels. You have the option of 12 possible abilities, and 1 of 3 Capstone abilities, dependant upon the choice you made, which Class you wanted to learn abilities from.
Dabbling into another Class is not an easy task, especially when you’re already amongst the best in the world at what you do already, so rather than add to button bloat and rotation hell, most if not all of the abilities you learn either alter your pre-existing abilities or are buffs or applied abilities like a Rogue’s poisons or a Shaman’s Elemental Weapons, to avoid cognitive overload on the players.
Let’s say a Warrior decides they need some stealth to let them get close enough to their opponents before the alarm is raised, and picks Scout. With the first level they are sent to three Trainers who will train them, but the player has to pick one, and this cannot be undone until they reach maximum level.
Any and all abilities they learn remain learned, but for balance reason, if they decide to respecc, they lose access to that flavor of Scout until they go and respecc back into it, at which point they may re-learn those unlocked abilities.
The Warrior has three trainers in Scout. A Monk, a Rogue and a Demon Hunter. The Warrior chooses Rogue, and his first ability becomes a choice between Stealth, learning the ability to enter stealth like a Rogue, or Apply Poison, at which point they learn how to apply a small DoT poison to their mainhand weapon.
The Warrior has to go out on quests with their Rogue Trainer, who assigns them tasks such as “Bring me the dentures of the monster who lives at the far end of this dungeon.” or “fetch me twenty boar livers.”, which proves they are learning and they can unlock abilities from their Rogue Trainer’s skill tree. At their second Level of Scout, they can choose whichever choice they didn’t take at 1st level, or an third option.
This goes on, allowing the Warrior to build the skill-set that they prefer, which can add poisons to their weapons, allow them to stealth, use a grappling hook to zip out of danger, shoot somebody in the face and ruin their armor for a brief few seconds, apply a second poison to their weapon or their off-hand weapon if they are dual-wielding, so on and so forth, until they reach 10th level and can choose from 1 of 3 Rogue Capstone Abilities, such as Evasion, Lunging Strike or Hard to Pin Down.
Evasion functions much like the Rogue Ability of the same name, Lunging Strike passively grants them an additional 3 feet of reach, or 5 with a two-handed weapon, and Hard to Pin Down might make them resistant to AoE and mobility-impairment effects.
A different Warrior who chose the Demon Hunter instead might learn to apply Demonic Runes to their flesh to burn with Fel-fire on command, grow wings that allow them to glide, summon Shadows to hide from attackers in, and even imbue the Fel into their weapons to deal minor Chaos damage when they make an opponent bleed or they crit. The Capstone might be able to launch a short-lived eyebeam attack, call forth their Inner Demon for a brief while to boost their stamina and movement speed, or Fel Flurry, allowing them to rapidly slash at a target with their Fel-infused weapon to deal a DoT Chaos ability.
A Priest decides they want the power of the Storm to aid them in their battles, and seeks out the Adept Trainers, and picks the Shaman. Their Void spells now have lightning effects added to them, and they can even learn to call forth abilities that might snake their void rays from target to target, their Void Pet becomes more elemental-like and they can apply Ice and Lightning to other spells, making their spells do Void and Ice, or Void and Lighting, or even Cold and Lightning, meaning based on their choice, if they are silenced, they are not immediately out of offensive options for their spells.
A Paladin, on the other hands, becomes vexed at how the Void both counters and diminishes their Light, and seeks aid from a Mage Adept trainer, and starts adding Arcane damage to their repertoire, granting their smite attacks the chance to dispel buffs if a certain amount of holy charges are used, or even bypass barriers altogether, as well as the ability to hurl bolts of Arcane force at a distance, or even call down hails of magical missiles that blanket an area and can temporarily slow down any target within their range.
A Druid, eager to seek out ways to control the Fel to help heal the Wild Lands, seeks out a Warlock Adept and learns to wield the Fel Flames themselves, weaving this destructive power into the claws of their Bear and Cat forms, twinning their Moonfire spells with the all-consuming green flames, and even turning their Treant Companions into entities that radiate out emerald flames, consuming all around them in a conflagration even as the Druid bombards the enemy with falling stars of both arcane and fel persuasions, the destructive interplay between these forces causing explosive damage to any enemy in range.
A Mage decides that it is time to dabble in Necromancy now that Dalaran is gone and seeks out a Death Knight Conjurer, and learns how to summon a weak skeleton to aid them. By the time they are done, they can apply a shield of Undeath to an ally to grant them Leech, a shroud of necrotic could to their allies to diminish incoming magical attacks, their weak skeleton now lashes out with a magical weapon and wearings heavy armor to provide a loyal bulwark against the enemy and they’re probably as close to a Necromancer as we’re gonna get here.
A Paladin decides they need some assistance on the battlefield and seeks out a Hunter Conjurer, and learns to tame a loyal hound to aid them on the battlefield, training to learn to strike in tandem with their pet so that when they smite, the hound will bite, either to hold the target in place or deliver a viciously bleeding wound. By the end, the very Light coursing through the Paladin likewise empowers the hound, allowing it to interrupt and harass a spellcaster who is staying out of melee range of the Paladin, deliver the Paladin’s Lay on Hand ability at a reduced effectiveness to a second injured target near the original one, or even lay down its life to shield an ally it was told to guard.
A Rogue decides they need a bit more ‘oomph’ to tackle the growing threat and seeks out a Paladin Gladiator, who trains the Rogue in how to apply the Light to their weapons, purify diseases with a touch, generate short-lived barriers of Light to diminish incoming damage and even turn Undead and Demons on command, finally resulting in a Rogue that can Smite in while using their normal Combo Attacks, can deliver a strike that illuminates a target and ruins their defences for a brief moment, or even consecrate their blades, adding a Holy damage bonus to bleed or stun effects on a target.
A Mage decides they’re tired of being called a Nerd and seeks out a Fury Warrior to learn how to fight, and learns to apply their spell effects to melee strikes, focus their magical barriers into sturdier forms at the expense of range, and turn their Mirror Images into terrors that can now bully the bullies. While still fragile, the training has made them more sturdy, their spells are more devastating the closer they are to their target, and they have learned either to whirlwind with a flaming staff or sword in hand, dealing punishing damage and a stacking flame DoT, they can temporarily grow in size and endurance ala the Avatar spell, or they have mastered the I Cast Fist technique, shoving an arcane fist into their target’s everything and delivering both a heavy blow and a mortal strike that inhibits the target’s ability to magically heal.
I know it’d be a nightmare to balance and pull off, but the idea stuck itself in my head as I was trying to sleep, and it won’t bloody leave until I inflict it onto somebody else!