One of the complaints levelled against D&D is that its classes portray a very limited scope of archetypes from which to pull. Despite the fact that a rule-0 "tweak things to fit your vision" note has appeared in 3.x from the beginning, this complaints lives on.
So, here's the challenge. create a variant of an existing core class to fill some niche or archetype. one we have 101, we'll be able to truly say that the detractors are wrong.
The Rules: It must be a variant of a class from the Core 3.5 PHB, must have an 'archetypical' names, and must be fully realized in less than 100 words.
EDIT: I have started compiling them in this first post for recent arrivals.
#1 Beastmaster (reynard)
This Barbarian variant enjoys a close relationship to a powerful animal, which accompanies him on his adventures in the 'civilized lands'.
Mechanical Changes: The Barbarian loses all uses of Rage and related abilities and gains access to an animal companion as a druid of the same level. Should the barbarian multiclass to druid or ranger, levels stack for determining total number of levels as it pertains to the animal companion.
#2 Priest (Eternalknight)
The cleric is a warrior-priest. The Priest class represents those who are not as skilled at fighting.
Mechanical Changes:
D4 hit dice, no armour or shield proficiencies.
The Priest gains a bonus spell of each level, as well as acess to a third domain that his or her deity grants.
Class #3 Battle Mage (Sravoff)
This sorcerer loses some spell casting to increase his battle prowes.
Mechanical Changes to Sorcerer:
medium Bab, d6 Hp, Bards progression/spells known, 10% deduction for arcane spell failure +5% per four levels. Gain proficienct in medium and light armor, shields (not tower) and swords, axes, bows.
Class #4 Warrior Monk (Sravoff)
This monk trains in weapons instead of fists.
Mechanicla changes: Monk:
Drop unarmed damage, gain martial weapon proficiency, At first level and every three after that the warrior monk designates one weapon with witch flurry of blows can be used.
CAUTION: BROKEN CLASS, NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
#5 Artificer (Eternalknight)
The artificer is a variant wizard that concentrates on magical items and equipment.
Mechanical Changes:
The artificer is limited to choosing item creation feats as bonus feats. However, they may cast detect magic 3/day as a spell-like ability and identify 1/day/5 levels as a spell-like ability, without paying for material components.
#6 Elementalist (Eternalknight)
The elementalist is a variant specialist wizard that is adept at the elemental spells.
Mechanical Changes:
The elementalist is a specialis in the elemental school of magic (which includes all spells with air, earth, fire and water descriptors). He or she must give up two other schools of magic as normal.
#7 Thief (Eternalknight)
The thief is a variant rogue. A thief is even more adept at stealing than their base-class cousins.
Mechanical Changes
The thief loses the sneak attack ability. Instead, whenever they would gain sneak attack, they gain Skill Focus in one of the following skills: Appraise, Climb, Disable Device, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Slight of Hand, Spot or Tumble.
#8 Swashbuckler - Fighter Variant (Reynard)
This is your Dread Pirate Roberts
Skills: 4 skill points/level. Add Balance, Bluff, Diplomacy and Tumble to class skill list.
Feats: Bonus feat at 1st, 4th and every 4th level therafter. Remove the Power Attack tree from the bonus feat list.
Defense Bonus: When in light or no armor, the Swashbuckler gets a dodge bonus equal to his Charisma modifier, as well as the Dodge Bonus progression of the Monk.
#9 Scout -- Ranger Variant (Reynard)
This is a 'non-magical' ranger geared toward stealth and observation.
BAB: As rogue
Add Disable device to skill list
Remove Spells, Combat Style and Animal companion. Replace 'Favored Enemy' with Favored Terrain variant.
Add Evasion and trap finding & trap sense as a rogue of the same level.
#10 Archer (Eternalknight)
This fighter variant concentrates on long-range attacks.
Mechanical Changes:
d8 hit dice, only proficient with light armour, monk BAB
Gains the monk flurry of blows ability that can be used with any bow. In addition, they gain the Enhance Arrow ability of the arcane archer beginning at 4th level and increasing by +1 every four levels thereafter.
#11 Berserker -- Fighter Variant (Reynard)
This is a non-barabrian warrior who rages, perhaps a cultist to a god of war or a special shock trooper.
Up HD to d12.
Add the Rage chain.
No bonus feat at 1st level. Bonus feats at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th & 20th.
#12 Elemental Commander (Sravoff)
Commands the inborn elemental power
Mechanical Changes: Wizard:
Diesn't cast spells, instead spells deal elemental damage=1d6/spell level. 0th give 1d4 damage. Reflex save for half. Can use spell in light armor. Gain light armor proficient, adn mdeium Bab, like rogue. Gain sorcerers weapon proficiencies. Also may command/Rebuke elementals. Can also use summon monster to call elementals once per spell level as an apropriate summon monster spell. Example, A fifth level Elemental Commander can can use summon monster 1, 2, and 3 all once per day. Can only call elementals.
#13 Dark Cavelier (Sravoff)
He rides from the Abyss with the anger of the dark ones burning inside.
Mechanical Changes: Paladin
Drop spell casting and remove disease. Gain warhorse/other mount at first level. Bonus's for an animal campanion with paladin levels equalling druid level for effects. Gain int bonus and other abilities for warhorse as normal. Smite Evil>Smite good, Lay on hands is now negative energy. Darkk Cavelier now is healed by negative energy instead of positive energy.
(The warhorse may bee too strong, perhaps 1/2 paladin level adn get either druid animal campanion or paladin wwarhorse str/dex/hd and ac bonus.)
#14 Summoner (Sravoff)
this alternate will allow her summoned creatures to pummel any of their own kind.
Mechanical Changes: Wizard
Lose Bonus feats and scribe scroll. Must prepare one "summon" spell per spell level. Gains sopell focus(conjuration) as a bonus feat at first level. Gains Augument summoning as a bonus feat at second level. Every four levels past leel 2, her summoned creatures get an aditional +1 str and +1 con. At sixth level all "summon" spells are effected by the extend spel feat without their level being raised.
#15 (Domino)
The Craven Minstrel
This class is skilled in using his charm and personality to trick people into lowering their defenses.
Mechanical Changes: Bard
Drop Bard spells and bardic music, gain Fighter BAB and Rogue Sneak Attack progression.
#16 Magician (Sravoff)
This Wizard casts spells directly from his spell book without preparation.
Mechanical Changes: Wizard:
Add one spell per spell level. Drop bonus feats, not scribe scroll. Doesn't prepare spells, instead casts directly from spell book. All spells have thier casting time increased, except free action spells which the Talented Bookworm cannot learn. Standard action->fullround action->Happens at beginning of next turn->Happens at end of next turn (allows two Aoa from adjacent foes.). Using metamagic increases casting time by another step.
#17 Talented Book Worm (Sravoff)
This sorcerer has learned to utilize the teachings of the arcane orders to increase his spellcasting power.
Mechanical Changes: Sorcerer:
Drop Spells known. Uses wizards spell book and mustr prepare as wizard. Starts play with five 0th level spells and one plus the averae of her Cha and Int bonus's. Gains one spell per level instead of two like the wizard. Metamagic functions same as wizard. Spell DC's run off average of Int bonus and Cha bonus.
#18 Adventurer (Sadrik)
Rogue variant
Mechanics: Delete sneak attack, add all skills as class skills, gets 12 skill points per level. Gains skill focus: Use Magic Device at 1st level.
#19 Horse Nomad (Eternalknight)
A ranger variant that rides the steepes.
Mechanical Changes:
Lose Combat Styles, instead gain Mounted Combat/Ride By Attack/Spirited Charge. Gain animal companion at 1st level (horse).
#20 Woodland Defender (Sravoff)
This Ranger is far more intuned with the natural world and its animal inhabitants.
Mechanical Changes: Ranger:
Lose Spells and favored Enemy. Gain animal campanion as druid. Gain a +1 to attack and damge rolls against al who threaten the forest. Commercial trappers, orcish loggers ect., not you average huntsman. Use Summon natures Ally as a spell lik ability usable equal to 1+wisdom modifier per day, or your Woodland Defender level, whichever is lower. Summon natures ally starts at Summon naturesally one at first level, increase to summone natures ally two at levle three adn increases again every two level after that. Untl it reaches summon natures ally nine at level 17.
#21 Gladiator (Eternalknight)
A fighter variant raised in the gladiatorial pits.
Mechanical Changes:
Proficient with simple weapons plus short sword, flail, trident, whip, spiked chain, two-bladed sword and net; Profiecint with light armour and shields; gains Perform as a class skill and the Bardic Music ability to fascinate.
#22 Weapons Master (Eternalknight)
This fighter variant is adept at using any weapon he finds.
Mechanical Changes:
Proficient with all weapons; bonus feat at 1st level, 3rd level then every 2nd level thereafter.
#23 Battlefield Commander (Eternal Knight)
Another fighter variant, this one is well versed in strategy and leading others.
Mechanical Changes:
Gain bonus feats at 1st, 3rd and then every 3 levels thereafter; gain Perform as a class skill and the bardic music abilities of inspire courage, inspire competence, inspire greatness and inspire heroics.
Class # 24 Natures Primal Warrior (Sravoff)
Thsi druid loses her spellcasting for better battle prowes.
Mechanical Changes: Druid:
Loses spell casting. HD increase to d10 and Bab becomes full. Also gains Barbarian DR ability at level five, begins at one and increases by one every three levels. Remember her weapon/armor restrictions.
So, here's the challenge. create a variant of an existing core class to fill some niche or archetype. one we have 101, we'll be able to truly say that the detractors are wrong.
The Rules: It must be a variant of a class from the Core 3.5 PHB, must have an 'archetypical' names, and must be fully realized in less than 100 words.
EDIT: I have started compiling them in this first post for recent arrivals.
#1 Beastmaster (reynard)
This Barbarian variant enjoys a close relationship to a powerful animal, which accompanies him on his adventures in the 'civilized lands'.
Mechanical Changes: The Barbarian loses all uses of Rage and related abilities and gains access to an animal companion as a druid of the same level. Should the barbarian multiclass to druid or ranger, levels stack for determining total number of levels as it pertains to the animal companion.
#2 Priest (Eternalknight)
The cleric is a warrior-priest. The Priest class represents those who are not as skilled at fighting.
Mechanical Changes:
D4 hit dice, no armour or shield proficiencies.
The Priest gains a bonus spell of each level, as well as acess to a third domain that his or her deity grants.
Class #3 Battle Mage (Sravoff)
This sorcerer loses some spell casting to increase his battle prowes.
Mechanical Changes to Sorcerer:
medium Bab, d6 Hp, Bards progression/spells known, 10% deduction for arcane spell failure +5% per four levels. Gain proficienct in medium and light armor, shields (not tower) and swords, axes, bows.
Class #4 Warrior Monk (Sravoff)
This monk trains in weapons instead of fists.
Mechanicla changes: Monk:
Drop unarmed damage, gain martial weapon proficiency, At first level and every three after that the warrior monk designates one weapon with witch flurry of blows can be used.
CAUTION: BROKEN CLASS, NEEDS TO BE FIXED.
#5 Artificer (Eternalknight)
The artificer is a variant wizard that concentrates on magical items and equipment.
Mechanical Changes:
The artificer is limited to choosing item creation feats as bonus feats. However, they may cast detect magic 3/day as a spell-like ability and identify 1/day/5 levels as a spell-like ability, without paying for material components.
#6 Elementalist (Eternalknight)
The elementalist is a variant specialist wizard that is adept at the elemental spells.
Mechanical Changes:
The elementalist is a specialis in the elemental school of magic (which includes all spells with air, earth, fire and water descriptors). He or she must give up two other schools of magic as normal.
#7 Thief (Eternalknight)
The thief is a variant rogue. A thief is even more adept at stealing than their base-class cousins.
Mechanical Changes
The thief loses the sneak attack ability. Instead, whenever they would gain sneak attack, they gain Skill Focus in one of the following skills: Appraise, Climb, Disable Device, Forgery, Gather Information, Hide, Jump, Listen, Move Silently, Open Lock, Search, Slight of Hand, Spot or Tumble.
#8 Swashbuckler - Fighter Variant (Reynard)
This is your Dread Pirate Roberts
Skills: 4 skill points/level. Add Balance, Bluff, Diplomacy and Tumble to class skill list.
Feats: Bonus feat at 1st, 4th and every 4th level therafter. Remove the Power Attack tree from the bonus feat list.
Defense Bonus: When in light or no armor, the Swashbuckler gets a dodge bonus equal to his Charisma modifier, as well as the Dodge Bonus progression of the Monk.
#9 Scout -- Ranger Variant (Reynard)
This is a 'non-magical' ranger geared toward stealth and observation.
BAB: As rogue
Add Disable device to skill list
Remove Spells, Combat Style and Animal companion. Replace 'Favored Enemy' with Favored Terrain variant.
Add Evasion and trap finding & trap sense as a rogue of the same level.
#10 Archer (Eternalknight)
This fighter variant concentrates on long-range attacks.
Mechanical Changes:
d8 hit dice, only proficient with light armour, monk BAB
Gains the monk flurry of blows ability that can be used with any bow. In addition, they gain the Enhance Arrow ability of the arcane archer beginning at 4th level and increasing by +1 every four levels thereafter.
#11 Berserker -- Fighter Variant (Reynard)
This is a non-barabrian warrior who rages, perhaps a cultist to a god of war or a special shock trooper.
Up HD to d12.
Add the Rage chain.
No bonus feat at 1st level. Bonus feats at 2nd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th & 20th.
#12 Elemental Commander (Sravoff)
Commands the inborn elemental power
Mechanical Changes: Wizard:
Diesn't cast spells, instead spells deal elemental damage=1d6/spell level. 0th give 1d4 damage. Reflex save for half. Can use spell in light armor. Gain light armor proficient, adn mdeium Bab, like rogue. Gain sorcerers weapon proficiencies. Also may command/Rebuke elementals. Can also use summon monster to call elementals once per spell level as an apropriate summon monster spell. Example, A fifth level Elemental Commander can can use summon monster 1, 2, and 3 all once per day. Can only call elementals.
#13 Dark Cavelier (Sravoff)
He rides from the Abyss with the anger of the dark ones burning inside.
Mechanical Changes: Paladin
Drop spell casting and remove disease. Gain warhorse/other mount at first level. Bonus's for an animal campanion with paladin levels equalling druid level for effects. Gain int bonus and other abilities for warhorse as normal. Smite Evil>Smite good, Lay on hands is now negative energy. Darkk Cavelier now is healed by negative energy instead of positive energy.
(The warhorse may bee too strong, perhaps 1/2 paladin level adn get either druid animal campanion or paladin wwarhorse str/dex/hd and ac bonus.)
#14 Summoner (Sravoff)
this alternate will allow her summoned creatures to pummel any of their own kind.
Mechanical Changes: Wizard
Lose Bonus feats and scribe scroll. Must prepare one "summon" spell per spell level. Gains sopell focus(conjuration) as a bonus feat at first level. Gains Augument summoning as a bonus feat at second level. Every four levels past leel 2, her summoned creatures get an aditional +1 str and +1 con. At sixth level all "summon" spells are effected by the extend spel feat without their level being raised.
#15 (Domino)
The Craven Minstrel
This class is skilled in using his charm and personality to trick people into lowering their defenses.
Mechanical Changes: Bard
Drop Bard spells and bardic music, gain Fighter BAB and Rogue Sneak Attack progression.
#16 Magician (Sravoff)
This Wizard casts spells directly from his spell book without preparation.
Mechanical Changes: Wizard:
Add one spell per spell level. Drop bonus feats, not scribe scroll. Doesn't prepare spells, instead casts directly from spell book. All spells have thier casting time increased, except free action spells which the Talented Bookworm cannot learn. Standard action->fullround action->Happens at beginning of next turn->Happens at end of next turn (allows two Aoa from adjacent foes.). Using metamagic increases casting time by another step.
#17 Talented Book Worm (Sravoff)
This sorcerer has learned to utilize the teachings of the arcane orders to increase his spellcasting power.
Mechanical Changes: Sorcerer:
Drop Spells known. Uses wizards spell book and mustr prepare as wizard. Starts play with five 0th level spells and one plus the averae of her Cha and Int bonus's. Gains one spell per level instead of two like the wizard. Metamagic functions same as wizard. Spell DC's run off average of Int bonus and Cha bonus.
#18 Adventurer (Sadrik)
Rogue variant
Mechanics: Delete sneak attack, add all skills as class skills, gets 12 skill points per level. Gains skill focus: Use Magic Device at 1st level.
#19 Horse Nomad (Eternalknight)
A ranger variant that rides the steepes.
Mechanical Changes:
Lose Combat Styles, instead gain Mounted Combat/Ride By Attack/Spirited Charge. Gain animal companion at 1st level (horse).
#20 Woodland Defender (Sravoff)
This Ranger is far more intuned with the natural world and its animal inhabitants.
Mechanical Changes: Ranger:
Lose Spells and favored Enemy. Gain animal campanion as druid. Gain a +1 to attack and damge rolls against al who threaten the forest. Commercial trappers, orcish loggers ect., not you average huntsman. Use Summon natures Ally as a spell lik ability usable equal to 1+wisdom modifier per day, or your Woodland Defender level, whichever is lower. Summon natures ally starts at Summon naturesally one at first level, increase to summone natures ally two at levle three adn increases again every two level after that. Untl it reaches summon natures ally nine at level 17.
#21 Gladiator (Eternalknight)
A fighter variant raised in the gladiatorial pits.
Mechanical Changes:
Proficient with simple weapons plus short sword, flail, trident, whip, spiked chain, two-bladed sword and net; Profiecint with light armour and shields; gains Perform as a class skill and the Bardic Music ability to fascinate.
#22 Weapons Master (Eternalknight)
This fighter variant is adept at using any weapon he finds.
Mechanical Changes:
Proficient with all weapons; bonus feat at 1st level, 3rd level then every 2nd level thereafter.
#23 Battlefield Commander (Eternal Knight)
Another fighter variant, this one is well versed in strategy and leading others.
Mechanical Changes:
Gain bonus feats at 1st, 3rd and then every 3 levels thereafter; gain Perform as a class skill and the bardic music abilities of inspire courage, inspire competence, inspire greatness and inspire heroics.
Class # 24 Natures Primal Warrior (Sravoff)
Thsi druid loses her spellcasting for better battle prowes.
Mechanical Changes: Druid:
Loses spell casting. HD increase to d10 and Bab becomes full. Also gains Barbarian DR ability at level five, begins at one and increases by one every three levels. Remember her weapon/armor restrictions.
Last edited:
