Highlights

  • Avowed features a streamlined player progression system, combining class-based and skill-based systems for versatile builds.
  • The game's skill trees represent different playstyles, with Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard skills interchangeable.
  • Exclusive Grimoire spells and a flexible build system encourage experimentation and multiclassing, setting Avowed apart from traditional RPG classes.

Obsidian Entertainment is bringing its experience with classic RPGs into a world of first-person combat with Avowed later this year, and this title is set to feature a streamlined approach to player progression that fits the shift. The studio has a history with titles that have utilized both traditional class-based systems and those revolving around skills alone alike, and it appears that both of these styles have gone on to inform its latest effort. It might be true that Avowed is set within the same universe as Pillars of Eternity, but its lack of classes indicates that it actually takes more influence from the streamlined designs of action games.

While Avowed has faced Skyrim comparisons since its initial reveal, its similarities to an experience like The Outer Worlds have become more apparent with each of its recent showcases. Instead of adhering to the explicitly defined classes found in RPGs like the PoE titles, Avowed's progression is made up of skill trees that represent different playstyles. This seems to encourage players to create versatile builds that favor multiclassing over the typical archetypes of the genre.

Avowed main art logo
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Avowed May Be Repeating an Old Trope, But it Makes Perfect Sense

Although Avowed looks to be making use of a very well-worn conceit, due to the nature of the setting and story, it's more reasonably applicable.

Avowed’s Skill System Focuses on Simplicity

Fighter, Ranger, and Wizard Are Interchangable

The three primary skill trees that make up the bulk of Avowed’s progression represent distinct approaches to combat, with Fighter and Ranger seeming to focus mainly on passives and Wizard offering a range of active spells. Points can be assigned across these trees freely due to the lack of classes, and they can also be reallocated at will to adjust around specific scenarios. Various types of spells are all within this single spellcasting tree, and the presence of complementary sources of additional magic skills further highlights Avowed's action RPG foundation.

The Godlike and Companion Skill Trees Hint at Further Variations

As what has been revealed to be a potentially mandatory member of Pillars of Eternity's Godlike race, players also have access to a specialized skill tree built around this cryptic race. A companion-focused tree suggests skills centered around party interactions and tactics, but specifics remain unknown in gameplay shown so far. Given that these demigod-like beings are associated with the gods of Eora, there may even be an inherent ability to access magic across all builds.

Avowed’s Options Seem Poised to Encourage Multiclassing

Leaving the Class System of Pillars of Eternity Behind

There was a robust set of classes and their intersecting subclasses in the second Pillars of Eternity title, but the layers provided by these distinctions have been broken down in Avowed. Magic could be split between spells types like Faith, Arcane, and Nature which caster classes had access to, but these will now all presumably be available under the umbrella of the general Wizard tree. Now that many of the previously available talents and abilities of PoE are likely to be consolidated into a lower number within Avowed's skill trees, there might be an inevitable overlap that technically gives the player traits of a multiclass no matter what route is taken.

The Versatility of Grimoires

On top of whatever offerings will be present within Wizard skills, there are also confirmed to be spells that are exclusive to Grimoires in Avowed that can be found in the world and equipped for casting. This not only expands the possibilities for investing in purely non-magical skill trees while still having access to these spells, but also building unique takes on casters that also utilize what the Wizard has by default. Between the constant ability of the player to remake their entire build and this kind of freedom in accessing choices within combat, Avowed is shaping up to be an engaging platform for experimenting with styles beyond the conventional bounds of RPG classes.