Is there any way for a character to identify another character's class?

Question

Quite often, a dungeon master will reveal to the players the classes of the NPCs whom the PCs are fighting for ease of tactical decision making, on assumptions such as that the guy in heavy armour and carrying a two-handed weapon may be a fighter, while the small guy without armour who is carrying pouches of spell components may be a wizard.

However, the DM doesn't need to do this explicitly. The DM could just describe the NPCs and let the PCs and their players work it out.

Now, I'm getting into a situation in my campaign (a murder mystery at a civilised party) where neither the PCs nor the NPCs will be equipped for battle, and many of the guests will be people that the PCs haven't met before that night... and many of those that the PCs have met are known to them by name and occupation (such as cargo broker, or their nation's Chancellor), not their character class. Many aristocrats will be Aristocrat-class, but some will be other classes. There will be a few Assassins in attendance who may - or may not - have had anything to do with the murder(s).

My question is, Is there any mechanism in D&D (by use of skills, magic or otherwise) by which the character class(es) and/or level(s) of another character (NPC or PC) can be determined to the in-game knowledge of the characters, or will the PCs (and therefore the players) and NPCs just have to 'work it out' from the way the characters act and what they say?

Answer 1

Sort of, at least for later classes

At some point within 3.5e, Wizards of the Coast started including a section for each new class called “Xyz in the World,” which would have a subsection called “Xyz Lore.” That section would describe how characters can learn about a class, usually with Knowledge and/or Gather Information, with specific DCs for learning specific facts.

Sometimes, the highest DC for these sections is for finding a local member of a given class—but it’s specifically for knowing or finding someone who is a well-known member of that class, not for asking if a given person is in that class. To do that, you’d have to compare what you know about the class with what you know a person can do (for help with that, Peregrin’s fine answer points out the convenient know opponent spell).

Anyway, most class lore sections all follow a pretty similar format:

____ Lore

Characters with ranks in Gather Information, Knowledge (___), or Knowledge (___) can research ____s to find out more about them. When a character makes a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs.

DC 10: […]
DC 15: […]
DC 20: […]
DC 30: Characters who achieve this level of success can learn important details about specific ____s in your campaign, including notable members, the areas where they operate, and the kinds of activities they undertake.

Unfortunately, while there are a lot of classes with something like this, there’s a lot of variety. The DCs vary considerably, and many classes don’t actually have the final entry for learning about specific individual members.

Worse, many, many classes don’t have any “Lore” entry at all.

The core books don’t have this feature, nor do most of the Complete series. Complete Mage, Complete Psionic, and Complete Scoundrel do—which are the latest books in that series, aside from Complete Champion (which is even later but does not have this feature). Sandstorm and Stormwrack do, but Frostburn doesn’t. Cityscape and Dungeonscape both do. Tome of Battle and Tome of Magic both do. And so on.

The other thing is that this sort of thing kind of... conflicts with how a lot of campaigns are run. Most classes aren’t really specific in-character concepts in a lot of campaigns. Wizard is pretty specific, due to the spellbook, but “fighter” really isn’t. A fighter who was trained by one nation’s military as a heavy cavalry fighter probably doesn’t recognize themselves as having that much in common with a self-trained archer, even if both are built using the rules of the fighter class. Likewise with rogue, scout, swashbuckler, and so on, for most “mundane” classes. So your mileage may vary on whether this is even something that exists to know at a given table.

Answer 2

The spell Know Opponent ( Spell Compendium, p. 129, Bard 3/Cleric 3) lets you learn a number of strengths and/or weaknesses of a chosen target. Although the spell does not reveal class or level of an NPC it can give you some very good clues. For example you would probably discern the most powerful spell currently available to a caster, the sneak attack ability of a rogue or assassin, or the wild shape ability of a druid. In most cases it should be easy to roughly identify what kind of NPC you face and how powerful they are.

Downsides: you can only target a single creature. They get a Will Save and feel "a hostile force or a tingle" if they succeed - which will most certainly cause suspicion, to say the least.

Answer 3

I have looked at this exact question for a while as a DM. Which skills would apply to discerning the background of an individual? Which Spells?

My over all answer was every skill and/or spell gains a little clue if the lore is there to be found. The DM would hand out these clues as if Sherlock Holmes had seen them.

The skill Sense Motive if read carefully should give some insight in habits, clothing and body language. ex. Studies all the exits when entering a room, positions one self to make a fast break or at defensive point in room (ranger rogue, or martial type), studies all symbols on walls, craved into furniture or postings in chamber (might be spell-caster), adventurer's eyes immediately catalog everyones' most expensive items (definitely rogue).

Check PHB pg. 131 that given the impression that clothing can make the class or status bracket in the campaign.

Profession and Crafting Skills can give clues. ex. "That guys bow on his back is a Hancluck's, which makes stringing it an easy effort but very expensive. Only a true Archer would purchase it." "That half-elf is not use to wearing his plate armor or how clumsy in a tavern it makes him. Is that a him?"

Lastly but by no means least, Knowledge. Where does the DM's clue spring from what knowledge base?

Answer 4

Answering this question because I have seen some bad practices that other DMs have done.

Some DMs may tend to "give a clear figure of the class" somehow. That lets a character identify another character's class simply by looking at it. The good side is that the bar of character description can be lowered and may add more class-specified flavor to the characters; the bad side is that the characters who don't want their classes to be discovered can find the world being hostile to them. (The Rogue PC complained to me (while I am not on that table) that every NPC knows he is a rogue and would start being alert at the instant they see him.)

Normally, without the help of certain spells/feats, no one can identify another character's class simply by looking at them without applying some class-based stereotypes, or "dress codes".

• Wizard and Sorcerers tend to be wearing robes with no armor.
• Paladins and Clerics tend to wear plate armors or other sorts of heavy armors.
• Rangers, Rogues, Bards and Barbarians tend to wear light armors like leather armors.
• Fighters could wear any kind of armor based on their needs.
• Monks mostly won't wear armors at all, but neither wear robes, and would normally be able to see their muscles.
• etc.

That would be the easiest way to identify a character's class, which is also the easiest way for a character to disguise their class.

A character could also roughly identify another character's physical attributes by looking at their body. Someone with high STR tend to be looked strong, high DEX could indicate the character is swift and balanced, high CON could make someone seem energetic, etc. While the mental attribute is likely not shown outside, high CHA can make a character look friendly and approachable before even talking to them (which means the Diplomacy skill hasn't come into play yet). So, if a Fighter is pretending to be a Wizard, other people may doubt that this Wizard is "too strong" to be a Wizard.

There're also some other special rules for class identification. For example, Clerics and Paladins tend to have strong (stronger than most ordinary characters) alignment-based aura that shows their connection with their deities. There's also a feat called Vatic Gaze (PHB II) which can let you know the highest spell an opponent can cast by simply looking at them and passing a Sense Motive check (but without telling you what kind of spell (arcane or divine) the opponent can cast).

PS. @KRyan has provided the Lore-relevant settings. But those are seems to be the way that a character can get the background knowledge around a class, rather than the way for a character to know what class their opponent takes.