The charm of games like D&D is undoubtedly the freedom they come with, and how a party of players can set out on an adventure together with wildly different characters and playstyles. This has been emulated in a ton of different video games throughout the years, generally most prominent in RPGs or MMOs, where buildcrafting can get delightfully complex and even a little convoluted.
RPGs With The Most Impressive Customization Options
Some RPGs let players go crazy with their customization options. These are by far the most impressive.
Having these different builds, though, especially in a co-op game where players roam an open-world environment with their squad, is quite nice because of how it creates balanced parties. Someone might be focused on supporting and healing, while another person controls a crowd of enemies and tanks all the damage. Finally, one player will deal damage, possibly as a powerful glass cannon. Building this synergy is something the following games are great at, thanks to the immense amount of customization options that will directly affect the way each player experiences combat and general gameplay.
Warframe
Your Frame Determines Your Playstyle
In Warframe, choosing your frame is what will greatly influence the selection of abilities and the general role you will have, though even then, you have a fair bit of flexibility and buildcrafting freedom to shape your frame in a way that best fits your playstyle and preferences. With 60 base frames available, there's absolutely no shortage of creativity.
Each frame comes with its own special sauce. For example, Ash plays into the stealthy ninja power fantasy with abilities like shuriken and invisibility. Then there's Kullervo, a frame known for his incredible melee capabilities, or something like Protea, with turrets and shields, and solid support for allies in the form of her Dispensary skill. With how nuanced and varied all these frames are, a typical 4-man squad in Warframe is bound to be diverse.
Enshrouded
A Flexible Customization System Inspired By Classic RPG Classes
Though Enshrouded has a skill tree that names three different groups of classic RPG archetypes, from mobile rangers and assassins to magic-wielding wizards and healers, and finally to strong barbarians and tanks, there's freedom in how you mix and match gear and skills from multiple archetypes to your liking.
Games That Feature The Biggest Skill Trees
These games feature skill trees so massive it can be hard for players to wrap their heads around them.
Even if you never grab any skills from the magic tree, you can still wield a wand, for instance. Of course, there's a benefit to creating a tighter and effective build, as you can min-max attributes and skills more easily. There's also the choice of gear to figure out, as some gear is better adjusted to tanky, melee gameplay, and others a best suited for any battlemages or wizards. Given the size and variety in the skill tree, and just how flexible it can get, it's easy to make a group where every player will specialize differently.
Outward
No Classes, But Skills Greatly Influence Your Role And Affect Survival
Outward is a marriage of survival and RPG gameplay, and though it doesn't exactly have classes, the skills that players choose to unlock will be the spice that determines what everyone's role and specialty is in a co-op group. Since survival is key and the world is unforgiving (and death a common occurrence a la Kenshi), it's actually pretty important to have the right skills and to take full advantage of them.
Talking to teachers and trainers is the number one way to get new skills, though it's also possible to earn them through quest completion rewards. Like in all classic RPGs, there are skill options for mages (Rune Sage) and melee-oriented characters (Warrior Monk), and everything in between, like spellblades. In a co-op group, everyone will find something unique fit for their preferences, thanks to the staggering number of weapons ranging from bows and arrows to pistols.
The Elder Scrolls Online
Race, Class, Armor, Weapons, and Guilds All Define Your Role In A Group
A lot of the games mentioned here focus on skulls, attributes, perks, items, and such to customize characters, but The Elder Scrolls Online goes a bit further, with a lot of the game focused on players roughly falling into categories of tanks, damage dealers, or healers. Depending on your race, you'll enjoy certain perks, fit for these roles, specific classes, and builds.
Redguards will have a nice starting bonus to their stamina, whereas High Elves are a go-to for anyone looking to make a powerful mage. These will all complement the choice of class you'll make. You can become a Sorcerer, a Templar, or even a Necromancer. Once you start leveling up and gain attribute points and skill points, the buildcrafting gets even more complex, as more skill trees as unlocked and discovered through gameplay and quests. Thanks to all these variables and subclassing, it's pretty easy to have a group of four, each with its own flavor of gameplay that complements the others.
Dying Light
Robust Skill Trees Determine Each Kyle's Specialty
Everything in Dying Light can be experienced in co-op, from free-roaming the massive world to playing through the campaign and the side missions. It also comes with a commendable number of skills, divided into several trees ranging from Power, Agility, to Survivor, and then later on Legend and even Driver, if players have the DLC.
These skills greatly affect your playstyle and determine whether you're an explosive expert, a crafting enthusiast, a melee menace, or the ultimate parkour god that no infected can ever catch up with. Of course, some skills are more general and useful for everyone when it comes to surviving against the infected. However, there are some really funny, unique options, too, like vaulting over enemies and stunning them while doing so, so a co-op group will easily end up with friends playing in wildly different styles in no time.
Valheim
How Each Person Plays Determines Their Skills
Everyone's a Viking in Valheim, but the type of Viking you become with your friends might differ greatly depending on what you end up doing in the game. There's a solid list of skills, and by completing tasks related to them, you level them up. For example, if fishing is your thing, you will likely end up with a high fishing skill, which will increase your reeling speed and consume less of your stamina.
Open-World Games With The Best Crafting
Craft weapons, armor, and more in the best open-world crafting games on the market. In some cases, the options feel limitless.
The same also goes for the weapons you use. There are swords, polearms, knives, crossbows, clubs, and bows to name a few, and magic as well, with Blood Magic and Elemental Magic, for instance. Whatever you choose to do, you can level up, and in that sense, you have a lot of freedom to define what flavor of class or job your character has.
Diablo 4
Different Classes, Different Builds, Different Gameplay
Diablo 4 lets players venture out into its world and through the campaign and seasonal content in a co-op group, and among friends, there can be a ton of different playstyles. Not only do the different classes from Barbarian to Sorcerer all play very differently, with strengths and weaknesses and their own unique gameplay and buildcrafting flair, but there are also major differences within a specific class depending on which build players go for.
The abundance of Passive, Active, and Legendary skills, and the unique gear make it so it's very easy for two players to have wildly different playstyles, even if they land in the same class. Sorcerers alone have a lot of flexibility depending on what kind of element they focus on, for instance.
Elden Ring
Classes And Specialization Greatly Influence How You Traverse The Lands Between
Elden Ring's co-op is available either in vanilla or through the Seamless Co-op mod. It's a game with tons of buildcrafting available, and it all starts with what starting stats and class you pick when creating your character. You can respec later on, but committing to a build from the get-go will make the grind a little less daunting.
Due to the way stat points are distributed, players will always have to make big decisions and accept that one stat is worse than the rest. A tanky melee character will have to play up close and personal, with high Vigor and STR, whereas any magic users will essentially be glass cannons, chucking out powerful Glinstone magic from a distance with no armor on. There are also builds that sort of fall in between, combining aspects from multiple archetypes to create some really funky, interesting combinations. It's the ultimate game with solid co-op, where everyone in the group has the potential to experience the game in a completely unique way due to their differing weapons, ashes of war, and stats.
Baldur's Gate 3: 15 Fun Overpowered Builds
There are some entertaining and overpowering builds in Baldur's Gate 3. Here are some great examples.