Question Classless System? Choosing Skills on Creation

Hey everyone, just been up for some coding again for fun. This time, my goal is to make a snippet that turns tbaMUD into a classless system that allows one to choose skills on character creation. I'm not really sure who all would be interested in something like this, but this seems like a pretty fun project to do. At the same time, I was thinking of trying to make it levelless; this leaves me wondering how I should try and handle CLASS_WARRIOR, CLASS_THIEF, and so on.

Originally, I was thinking of removing different races altogether, so that everyone played humans; it makes it a bit more balanced, seeing as some races could see in the dark (giving them two free hands, which is very.... handy!). Instead, a player can choose a character type that has different bonuses and penalties. Just to name a few examples... The Intellectual, someone who gets a large bonus to intellect and wisdom, but a penalty to strength and constitution. The Barbarian, who gets a bonus to con and str, but a small penalty to int and wis as well as not knowing how to read. Things like that.

What do you think? It'd be interesting to take tbaMUD and make it more into an old-style adventure game from way back when.

The code I've been played with I've tweaked quite a bit, but I'll still see about trying to post it on here for anyone who might be interested. Note, it'll take me a while... having a wild baby girl to take care of leaves me quite busy these days. But I've already started making little changes here and there.

Just an update on how this is going.... so far, I've succeeded in changing how skills are assigned, have made a skill selection part of character generation, and also changed how saving throws are calculated (instead of basing it on class, I'm having it based on stats). I've already removed the ability to use practices to bring skills up; a character has to either use it or have an NPC train him (easily done using scripts). I also changed how HP, MP, and MV are calculated; they're also stat-based, with some randomness thrown in.

The potential problem I've noticed regarding calculating saving throws that way is... well, at least with my current formula, most saves are roughly around the same number. I've coupled this with a point-allocation stat system that was posted here on the forums a while back.

I'm planning on repurposing classes, using those instead as a "character type." Each type gives different bonuses and penalties, and allows a player to further customize his character. Example: an intellectual type would have a higher int and wis, but suffer some physical stat penalties, while a brute would have a bonus to str and con, while suffering int and wis penalties. Barbarian types get a bonus to con and a bonus to survival skills, but get a small int penalty and cannot read.

I'm not really sure if this is anything anyone would be interested in. If so, let me know and I'll start working on a file to post onto here.