One of the key concepts of Rolemaster is that any character may attempt any skill. All skills are available to all professions but your profession determines how easily skills are learned. A mage may become an expert swordsman but will never learn sword fighting as easily as a fighter. Rolemaster is flexible enough to handle any character concept you can think up.
Here is a page with charts containing various Profession Bonuses.
Rolemaster groups all professions into four broad classes:
- Arms users (non spell casters)
- Semi casters (limited access to one realm combined with Arms)
- Pure casters (draw from only one realm of power)
- Hybrid casters (draw from two realms of power)
It should be noted that for most classes your realm of power comes pre-determined and only pure arms users may choose their realm of power. For those classes the realm is a minor choice and will normally have only minimal impact on your character's game play. The deciding factor for arms users choosing their realm will be the armor type you choose to wear. For reference, the three realms (and their respective stat) are listed below:
- Essence (Empathy) casters (of any type) will wish to avoid most light armors and certainly all metal armors
- Channeling (Intuition) casters will have reduced penalties for casting in heavier armor
- Mentalism (Presence) casters can wear any armor but will wish to avoid helmets, particularly metal helmets
Sample profession image:
