Avowed is the upcoming first-person fantasy RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, and its story will take place in the same universe as the studio's popular Pillars of Eternity series. The world of Pillars of Eternity and Avowed is a modern take on classic fantasy, filled with scheming gods, ancient powers, and brave heroes.
Both Pillars of Eternity and Avowed let players shape their characters, mastering new skills and abilities as they progress. However, although they may share a world, it wouldn't be the best choice for the two games to share a class system.
Breaking Down the Pillars of Eternity Class System
Like many RPGs modeled on classic games like Baldur's Gate, which in turn was modeled on tabletop RPGs, Pillars of Eternity has players pick their class during character creation. There are 11 classes to choose from, each with its own unique mechanics and powers, and each class has several subclasses which alter how they play. Alternatively, players can choose to multiclass, which will enable them to level up two classes at once for the price of not being able to reach top levels in either of them.
The classes in Pillars of Eternity are very varied, with many roles and playstyles accounted for. Players who are looking to take on the role of a Bard-like supporting caster in Pillars of Eternity can pick up the Chanter, while those who prefer to risk it all on the frontline should look no further than the Barbarian. The subclasses further deepen the system, allowing for a huge amount of a variety even in the same class. On top of this, the game has no class-dependent weapon proficiencies, meaning that any class can use any weapon right from the start. This allows unusual but interesting builds, like a gun-slinging Monk, or a Wizard with a greatsword.
The traditional class system found in Pillars of Eternity proudly wears its Dungeons & Dragons heritage on its sleeve, allowing players to build all kinds of imaginative and interesting characters. In fact, it has often been praised by critics as one of the highlights of the Pillars of Eternity series. However, this doesn't mean that it's necessarily suited to a game like Avowed.
What Avowed Should Do Differently
While Pillars of Eternity is a top-down classic CRPG with real-time or turn-based combat and a party system, Avowed will be a first-person RPG with much more action-orientated combat and only a single character under the player's control. This huge difference in genres makes the games almost incomparable, and certainly makes Pillars of Eternity's class system unworkable in Avowed.
The biggest problem is the lack of a party. Having players locked into their class from character creation works in Pillars of Eternity, because they will still get to experience and level-up the other classes through their companion characters. They can even build entirely custom companions to join the party, allowing them to experiment with any class at any point in the game. However, games like Avowed rarely have party systems, making it a mistake to lock players into a single class.
Instead, Avowed would do much better with a skill system similar to those found in RPGs like The Elder Scrolls,The Witcher, or even Divinity: Original Sin. These systems give players the freedom to mold and shape their character other the course of the game, trying out new skills and deciding which paths to spend points on. This kind of system removes the restrictions from multiclassing, allowing players to focus entirely on one skillset, or spread their points as widely as they like.
Players are still waiting for the full details on Avowed's gameplay, and Obsidian Entertainment has shared very little information so far. What's clear though, is that wherever the developers draw inspiration for Avowed's class system from, it shouldn't be a carbon copy of Pillars of Eternity.
Avowed is in development for PC and Xbox Series X/S.