Swaps and Adds

Dyson Logos has an idea: roll a d12 on a table to get a random subclass for your main class. I'll confess that I've been toying with a slightly similar idea, but that's not going to be ready for a long while.

But anyways, I like some of the ideas in Dyson's table, but I noted that I didn't like the abilities based on adding a bonus. I have a general aversion to abilities that are mostly about numbers. I can see having a single, broad bonus, like the way attack rolls improve with level. You can see it in the way I break down the core class abilities:

Fighter: Use any armor/weapon, Fight multiple opponents simultaneously
Magician: Cast spells, Create magic items
Cleric: Split combat/spell ability, Turn undead
Thief: Stealth, Cunning, and Surprise Attack abilities.

What I've typically done, when creating a new class, is to swap out a non-numeric description or two. So, I swapped out the word "undead" in the Turn Undead ability to make alternatives: Beastmaster, Bard. I swapped out "stealth, cunning and surprise attack" for the various healing abilities of the Leech.

A couple of Dyson's subclasses do this, although he expresses these as added powers instead of substitute powers: Elementalists command elementals, Dragon-Priests command draconic creatures. Paladins, too, have an added ability (edged weapons,) but that actually seems like the possible kernel of a good idea on replacing traditional paladins. Might be worth exploring.

Heretics really do swap rather than add: they get to replace one cleric spell per level with a magic-user spell. I might want to tweak this, but it also seems like a cool idea.

I may have to sift through the other classes to see if there's a way to transform them into "swaps" instead of "adds", to my satisfaction, at least.