The careers of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay.
In Warhammer you do not pick a class, you inherit a trade. Rat catcher, boatman, wizard's apprentice, pedlar: your career says what your character did before the adventure pulled them out of their routine, and what they will go back to if they survive.
Here are the eight career classes of the fourth edition, their four tiers, the social status that comes with them, the famous random roll, and how to change your life entirely halfway through a campaign.
A trade, not a class.
Warhammer hands out jobs rather than classes, and with the job come the social standing, the skills and the company you keep. Rat catcher, boatman, wizard's apprentice, country physician: your career says first what your character does with their days, and only then what they are worth in a fight.
The fourth edition published by Cubicle 7 holds 64 careers in its core book alone, split across eight classes. Each career fixes a list of skills, a list of talents, a set of starting gear and a level of status, in Brass, in Silver or in Gold. That status decides which doors open for you and which ones stay shut.
The eight career classes.
They read, translate and know things nobody else does. The college wizard belongs here, with all the suspicion that comes with it.
Artisans, innkeepers and merchants are the backbone of the imperial towns. It is also the class of the rat catcher, the game's signature character.
They live on influence, rumour and debt more than on skills. High status opens doors that violence closes for good.
The poorest, the most numerous and the most useful outside the towns. A herbalist or a poacher will save a party on the road.
They know the roads, the tracks and who uses them. This is the class that lets an adventure leave town.
The Reik is the Empire's great highway and they live off it, legally or otherwise. A barge gives you a moving set and a permanent source of trouble.
Thieves, entertainers and hired blades work while the rest sleep. Useful, though their standing draws trouble from the watch.
Soldiers, guards and dwarf Slayers take the hits when talking fails. One is enough in a party, two and the adventure becomes a brawl.
Four tiers per career.
A career is walked through in four tiers. The first one lets you in through the side door, as an apprentice, a novice, a servant. The fourth hands you the title, the wages and the authority: the boatman becomes a captain, the soldier becomes a sergeant then an officer, the apprentice becomes a wizard of their college. Every tier adds skills, talents and a notch of status.
To climb, you spend experience on the advances of your current tier, and you have to work that tier seriously before the next one opens up. Progression is therefore slow and legible: you watch the character gain in craft, in reputation and in income rather than in hit points.
The random roll, and what it pays.
Character creation invites you to let the dice pick your career. You roll on the table for your species, human, dwarf, halfling or elf, and the game pays you for every bit of control you give up: taking one of the careers you rolled earns experience, keeping the very first one earns more.
This is not a punishment, it is the best idea generator in the game. Nobody spontaneously chooses to play a gravedigger or a pedlar, and those are exactly the characters people remember. You always keep the right to pick your career, you simply start with less experience than the rest of the table.
Six careers worth the detour.
They know the sewers, therefore the secret ways, therefore the skaven. A joke character at first glance, indispensable by the third session.
They can question, arrest and burn, which settles a great many scenes. They also attract the hatred of every town they pass through.
Eight colleges, eight winds of magic, and an imperial licence you never leave at home. A miscast costs far more than an ordinary failure.
They seek a glorious death, which simplifies their tactical decisions considerably. The rest of the party spends its time stopping them from succeeding.
Police and customs on the rivers, with the right to search any barge. The career that gives you an official reason to meddle in everything.
They live off wanted notices, which supplies a plot per session. Bringing someone back alive pays better, and complicates everything.
Choosing your first career.
Taking the career you rolled pays fifty experience points, picking one of three pays twenty five. Choosing freely pays nothing at all.
Status decides your inn, the tone of the guards and the price of things. A ruined noble lives better than a properly paid soldier.
Humans, dwarfs, halflings and elves do not share career tables. An elf in town also carries a permanent layer of suspicion.
You need someone who talks, someone who searches and someone who takes hits. Four warriors turn every adventure into a tavern brawl.
An innkeeper or a settled artisan loses everything the moment they leave town. Prefer a trade that travels, or accept losing it all in session one.
Every career has four tiers, and the last one is often worth the trip. You can change career along the way, but it costs experience.
Running careers online.
A career comes down to concrete details: a status that opens or shuts a door, a set of starting gear, a list of skills nobody thinks to check at the right moment. On paper, all of that gets lost between two sessions.
Tomeus gathers the sheets, the dice, the backdrop and the music in a single window. Your players keep their career in front of them, you follow their advances from one session to the next, and nobody installs anything.
Frequently asked questions.
How many careers are there in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay?
The fourth edition core book holds sixty-four, split across eight classes: Academics, Burghers, Courtiers, Peasants, Rangers, Riverfolk, Rogues and Warriors. Supplements add more, and since every career is played across four tiers, the number of possible trajectories is far larger than the number of lines in the table.
Can you change careers mid-campaign?
Yes, and the rules say so plainly: it costs a hundred experience points, and you start again at the first tier of the new career. It is one of the real pleasures of the system. A boatman who survives a run-in with a cult can end up a witch hunter, and that turn says more about the character than any backstory written in advance.
Do you have to roll your career randomly?
No, nothing forces you. The game simply pays those who accept: taking one of the careers you rolled earns experience, and keeping the very first one earns more. If a player is set on their knight, let them have it, they will just start with a little less experience than everyone else.