Professions

On Wyrlde, Classes are called Professions. As professions, they are seen as being collectively part of the structure under the Guilds, and so have the common basis for ranking, to demonstrate competency and skill.

Specifically, they are professions within the overall job of an Adventurer – someone who has chosen to go out into the world for whatever reason and stake their claim and make their mark, risking life and limb for the chance of riches, glory, power, honor, esteem, and whatever else is out there.

The Professions of Wyrlde are not the same as you might encounter elsewhere. The name may be similar, but the basis behind it probably isn’t. Wyrlde’s archetypes are drawn from Wyrlde itself, and there is a different approach to the philosophy of Professions. There are no subclasses in Wyrlde, no subprofessions.

Here, a warrior is an incredibly dangerous foe, and a wizard may have studied spells that can wipe entire towns off the map but need cover while they cast it. The professions, or classes, are still the core mechanic, but they are specific to Wyrlde itself, and do not easily or readily cross into other worlds, nor do those other worlds easily cross over into Wyrlde. One practical example of this is the Yrthe dimension – there, things seem somewhat akin to the Wyrlde, but the roles and classes are different (and much more akin to what you might know).

The professions of Wyrlde are both familiar and yet not. They are all specific to Wyrlde and the cultures therein. Every class has a role, a place, a purpose in the world that is not merely to exist as an archetype in general – each profession must be a part of the world and fit within it.

Professions are directed by Affinity and Axiom, each one unique and different and special to itself, but note that there are broad groups of them: Disciples, Nulls, Sensates, and Servants. They can also be grouped by Affinity Arcane, Divine, Eldritch, Mystical, Null, and Primal. This ability to dual classify them is essential to balance and ensure that there is a degree of variety and distinction between all of the classes.

The professions presented here are in no way the only possible professions for someone to have. They are the basic, core professions, and it is up to the creativity of Players and DMs to find new ways of achieving the goals without breaking those three cardinal rules of Affinity, Axiom, and Defining Trait.

Bard	Null	Arcane	Divine	Eldritch	Mystical	Primal
Sensate	Vanguard	Sorcerer	Paladin	Reeve	Corsair	Ranger
Servant	Outlaw	Envoy	Shrineward	Gunslinger	Mystic	Shaman
Disciple	Warrior	Wizard	Cleric	Warlock	Monk	Witch

Wyrlde does have a structure that allows for professions to be individually customized and tailored, adding in new capabilities, from a list of them. These new abilities are of many different types, and while none of them replace certain core defining traits of professions, they are able to be used broadly across all of them. This is what helps to define an adventurer, in particular, the habit they have of moving beyond the norm and seeking out special things to do to give them an extra edge in their day job.

Yes, here, being an adventurer, and being a type of adventurer, is a job. It is a job trained for, and beneath many a Guildhall there are what are called Practice Delves, and often there will be bounties for the live capture of some beast or critter for the purpose of sending them down there.

Prior to starting the game, your character will have completed an apprenticeship with someone who either was or is an adventurer of much higher rank that has retired or set aside time to teach. This came about because some people just had to go out and make a name for themselves, and the world certainly makes that necessary.

Adventurers are an odd bunch; they charge a fortune, they help out in disasters and emergencies, they solve problems and they do it in ways that make most folks shudder. Adventurers are mercenaries and privateers, the folks to whom those in power or those overly settled turn when they need something done. All of the professions have grown out of a need or place within the world, and many can do more than merely go out and look for trouble. Adventuring is a worthy pursuit, undertaken even by nobles and so all of them have established structures, a history, a way that they are part of the world as a whole.

This has further repercussions, and for those who like to min/max for multiple options, it will be an even greater challenge for you.

Mastery

A concept you will encounter often is the idea of Mastery. Mastery is levels – instead of saying what level are you, you will give your degree of mastery. Degrees are collections of levels, because the darn game uses the word “Level” for far too many things.

Each Degree includes several Levels, and a level still reflects your experience and improvement. There are distinct kinds of Degrees according to different factors in play. Mastery is about knowledge and the world around you. Discipline is about your personal growth and the ability you have to deal with it. Difficulty is about how hard something is to do. Complexity is about how challenging and complicated magic is.

Mastery is the primary form of ranks and has an impact on many things you do.

Discipline is used when your effort results in a development for you, on your terms.

Spells are grouped by complexity of the spell and difficulty in “containing” it.

Degree of Ability		Degrees of Mastery		Degrees of Discipline		Degrees of Complexity
Tier 1	1 to 4	Novice	1 to 4	Novice	1 to 5	Simple	Cantrips/0th to 1st Level
Tier 2	5 to 7	Yeoman	5 to 8	Competent	6 to 10	Rudimentary	2nd to 3rd Level
Tier 3	8 to 11	Adept	9 to 12	Experienced	11 to 15	Intermediate	4th to 5th Level
Tier 4	12 to 15	Master	13 to 16	Expert	16 to 20	Advanced	6th to 7th Level
Tier 5	16 to 20	Grand Master	17 to 20			Expert	8th to 9th Level
Tier 6	21 to 25
Tier 7	26 to 30

Degree of Ability reflects the distinct tiers of capability of a person based on an ability score. This applies to Primary, Derived, and Societal Scores. The greater your mastery in, say, Renown, the more influence and power one has within the guild, in society, in your profession, leading to better and more choice assignments.

Degrees of Mastery play a role throughout the character development process and in navigating the world as you play. One degree of mastery is awarded every four levels. Mastery is how you navigate the world around you on the world’s terms. Degrees of Mastery are like the Tiers of Play you may be familiar with from the Player’s Handbook. They are the way the rules of the world affect you.

Degree of skill influences NPCs – non-player characters – heavily, but also influences how you engage with them and what new skills and abilities you gain as you rise in levels.

Degrees of Discipline are akin to the points and places where you push yourself to a greater point, crossing and passing an undefined sense of your ability to challenge the entirety of the world. This is your personal ability to navigate the broader world, on your own terms. They are, then, more about Agency. One degree of discipline is awarded every five levels. You gain Ability Score improvements according to Degrees of Discipline.

Degrees of Complexity are ways of defining how challenging and involved a spell is, and how much effort must go into the knowledge behind that spell, the foundations, and approaches to creating it. Those who put the greatest amount of time and effort into mastering the intricate mental whorls and whirls of highly complex spells do not have a lot of time to devote to other efforts and may often spend hours concentrating and doing little else, while those who push through in other areas may not be able to fully grasp the intricacies of a complex spell but could easily manage a rudimentary one and struggle only a bit with an intermediate one.

In practice, people will refer to themselves and others using titles of mastery, and each degree of Mastery has impact on the classes and play. So, a 17^th level Wizard is referred to as a Grand Master Wizard, and a 7^th level Bard is a Yeoman Bard, while a 10^th level Warrior is an Adept Warrior.

Wyrlde also uses mastery to determine degree of challenge and difficulty. Mastery gives us both a way to talk about characters in game, and a way to measure their ability to handle and deal with different threats and challenges that come along. Mastery also gives us a point of reference within the inspirations for Wyrlde, and so brings us closer to the goals of the setting.

Wyrlde has two ways of moving forward, with the one used dependent on your DM. The first is a traditional use of Experience Points. The last is a slightly more complex milestone point system, which is the default used in the Wyrlde campaign.

Points in both forms are awarded at the end of each session if any point has been gained, normally – but if you pause in combat, they may wait until later.

As your character goes on adventures and overcomes challenges, he or she gains experience, and advances in capability. This advancement is called gaining a level. When your character gains a level, their profession grants additional features, as detailed in the profession description.

Some of these features allow you to increase your ability scores, increasing your choice of score by 1 or 2 points, because you gain 2 points each time and can spend them how you see fit. In addition, every character’s proficiency bonus increases at certain levels.

Each time you gain a level, you gain 1 additional Hit Die. Roll that Hit Die, add your Constitution modifier to the roll, and add the total to your hit point maximum. Alternatively, you can use the fixed value shown in your class entry, which is the average result of the die roll (rounded up).

When your Constitution modifier increases by 1, your hit point maximum increases by 1 for each level you have attained. For example, if your 7th-level fighter has a Constitution score of 17; then when he reaches 8th level, he increases his Constitution score. He now gains additional hit points.

Different Aspects have different degrees of Mastery. The bulk of them follow the normative path explained. Some follow different paths, but all have a particular way of going about it and none have any effect beyond when you get certain things.

Leveling Table

Level	Mastery	XP	MS	PB	Skill	Forte	ASI	Maxims	Precepts	Mysteries	Orders	Esoterica
1	Novice	—	0	0		Yes				Simple	First
2		2,000	3	0	Yes							Yes
3		5,000	4	0			Yes		Yes
4		9,000	5	+1				Yes		Rudiments
5	Yeoman / Doyen	14,000	6	+1		Yes					Second
6		20,000	8	+1	Yes							Yes
7		28,000	10	+1			Yes		Yes
8		38,000	12	+2				Yes		Medial
9	Adept	50,000	14	+2		Yes					Third
10		64,000	16	+2	Yes							Yes
11		80,000	18	+2			Yes		Yes
12		98,000	20	+3				Yes		Advanced
13	Master	118,000	22	+3		Yes					Fourth
14		140,000	24	+3	Yes							Yes
15		162,000	26	+3			Yes		Yes
16		188,000	28	+4				Yes		Expert
17	Grand Master	216,000	30	+4		Yes					Fifth
18		246,000	32	+4	Yes							Yes
19		278,000	34	+4			Yes		Yes
20		312,000	36	+5				Yes

Improving Mastery (Leveling up)

Mastery requires a Rite of Mastery to be conferred at each major stage, within which there are minor stages, bits and pieces of improvement insight.

This requires that one goes to a Master of their profession and request a Rite of Mastery be performed. The Adventurer’s Guild often has Clerics on retainer for this. For those who scorn the Powers, the rite is performed by the Masters of the Guild. Higher level Adventurers may do it for each other.

The first time this rite is done, it is to move from an Apprentice to a Novice.

Leveling up in between those is more simply a matter of acquiring more experience. So, to go from 1^st to 2^nd level is merely a matter of getting enough experience in. It gets much harder to level up at each Degree of Mastery, and one of the reasons that the Milestone point system is favored is its effective way of accounting for that.

But for the Degrees of Mastery, you cannot move up until you have achieved both the requisite experience and the had the Rite of Mastery performed.

Thereafter, as you earn enough experience for each degree of Mastery, you must do it again for Yeoman, Adept, Master, and finally Grand Master degrees of mastery.

Rites of Mastery

The Rite of Mastery is performed either by your Guild or by the Faith.

Rites of Mastery require the normal sacred ritual stuff: A coven plus at least one Focal, consecrated ground, an altar, a day of fasting prior, and the ritual takes 12 hours to perform.

The material components are six carved ivory (or other precious material) forms, about three quarters of inch in diameter each, with four, six, eight, ten, twelve, and twenty sides respectively. They are re-usable until you become a Grand Master; then they are consumed to ash.

The typical cost is a donation of money and some sort of quest or favor to those performing the rite, often represented by either Hero Points or Milestone points.

Experience Points and Milestone Points do not have a direct connection. Experience points are awarded on the basis of encounters and challenges overcome; Milestone points are awarded for accomplishing something germane to the story of the group.

The table gives the amount of points needed to move up to that particular level for each case. So, to move from 9^th to 10^th level requires 130,000 experience points, or 13 milestone points. After each level, the total is reset to zero. Altogether, it takes 270 Milestone points and right around 3.7 million experience points to reach 20^th level.

Advancement is slightly faster using milestones but does require having a campaign where there are defined milestones, and thus a story that must be advanced.

Hero Points are worth ₁/^10th of a Milestone points – 10 Hero Points equals one milestone if the DM is willing to accept heroic actions as currency for advancement of story.