WHFRP 1E - 20 "High-Level" Career Paths

I'm trying to clean out my unfinished blog posts and get my writing habits back on track and all that. I don't even know exactly where I was going with this one, or if it even had much of a point besides "Wow, the character advancement rules in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st Edition sure get wacky beyond a certain point, huh?"

Anyway, I know that WFRP 1E characters are supposed to advance slowly, and that they don't tend to have very long life expectancy - or at least I guess that's the common consensus online - but assuming you do have a character who lives long enough to acquire and spend a bunch of XP, it looks like you're pretty much bound to wind up taking a long, circuitous, unorthodox career path with lots of strange detours. Unless you're a magic-focused character, I guess, in which case your career is probably going to be fairly linear as you try to just get all of the spells you want and eventually reach Level 4.

So...yeah. Here are some examples of career progression you could theoretically pursue. I just thought they seemed fun, I guess. Or maybe I was trying to see how many different careers I could include on a list of somewhat "sensible" career paths with as little overlap as possible. Who knows?

I don't remember for sure, but I think I used the same amount of XP for all of these, for the sake of comparison. (Then again, maybe I just slapped five careers together for each example; I really don't remember.) At any rate, if any of these require dice rolls, I probably assumed success on the first try so as to avoid wasted XP; some of these might actually be hard to follow due to random chances of failure. I probably also assumed that all of the skills were obtained in each career before moving on.

Roll a d20 or whatever.

1. Bodyguard > Bounty Hunter > Protagonist > Duelist > Assassin
2. Tunnel Fighter > Sapper > Mercenary > Troll Slayer > Giant Slayer
3. Herdsman > Militiaman > Mercenary > Mercenary Sergeant > Mercenary Captain
4. Prospector > Soldier > Squire > Free Lance > Templar
5. Tomb Robber > Tunnel Fighter > Pit Fighter > Judicial Champion > Witch Hunter
6. Boatman > Smuggler > Pilot > Navigator > Sea Captain
7. Entertainer (Tight Rope Walker) > Thief (General) > Outlaw > Highwayman > Outlaw Chief
8. Servant > Scribe > Engineer > Sapper > Gunner
9. Hunter > Coachman > Scout > Bounty Hunter > Targeteer
10. Grave Robber > Physician's Student > Herbalist > Pharmacist > Physician
11. Bawd > Gambler > Raconteur > Charlatan > Spy
12. Fisherman > Trader > Exciseman > Merchant > Explorer
13. Servant > Scribe > Forger > Counterfeiter > Fence
14. Exciseman > Scribe > Student > Lawyer > Demagogue
15. Alchemist's Apprentice > Alchemist Level 1 > Alchemist Level 2 > Alchemist Level 3 > Alchemist Level 4
16. Wizard's Apprentice > Wizard Level 1 > Wizard Level 2 > Wizard Level 3 > Wizard Level 4
17. Wizard's Apprentice > Elementalist Level 1 > Elementalist Level 2 > Elementalist Level 3 > Elementalist Level 4
18. Wizard's Apprentice > Illusionist Level 1 > Illusionist Level 2 > Illusionist Level 3 > Illusionist Level 4
19. Initiate > Cleric Level 1 > Cleric Level 2 > Cleric Level 3 > Cleric Level 4
20. Druid > Druidic Priest Level 1 > Druidic Priest Level 2 > Druidic Priest Level 3 > Druidic Priest Level 4

Bold = Advanced Career, Underlined = Current Career, > = Non-Standard Career Exit