Appropriate classes for a pirate game

[dougmander]

I can't believe no one's mentioned Skull and Bones. Includes new core and prestige classes.

 

[Kaladhan]

D'oh!

I bought skull and bones last week, but totally forgot about it.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Holy Warriors make good substitutes for the law-abiding paladin, if you have acces to that class. I think it's especially appropriate for Eberron since I can really only see paladins following the Silve Flame (or maybe the Path of Light, too).

Like the Warlock, the beguiler might be a good option for a more toned down spellcaster. Skull & Bones also has two voodoo caster classes that are good, but they'd take some setting changes to fit into Eberron.

 

[phindar]

Another vote for the Unfettered from AE. I like all the AE classes; Warmains, Totem Warriors (Shark esp) and Champions (most notably Freedom, Dark and Death) for a pirate game, but the Unfettered is the one class that just screams PIRATE to me. Everytime I watch PotC I think, "Man, I got to play another unfettered."

 

[Slife]

Nix the druid. If it sees use, removing the other heavy duty casters will be pointless.

 

[Kafkonia]

Non-spellcasting ranger (variant from Complete Warrior.)
Swashbuckler (a little underpowered, but in a setting with lots of seafaring -- and thus lots of chances to fall in the water and drown -- don't underestimate the benefits of being lightly armoured.)
Rogue
Scout
Fighter (not so bland if you pick the right feats.)
Hexblade, if you're willing to put up with a smidgen of spellcasting (and going by the presence of an artificer you probably are.)
Ninja can actually work well, all joking aside.
Marshal might be good to represent the inspirational captain.
If you're using barbarians, I'd definitely look at some of the alternate totems in Unearthed Arcana.

And, of course, you should probably check out Stormwrack to see if they have any useful substitution levels/alternate class abilities.

 

[Qualidar]

I'm not even close to running this yet, but I'm thinking of using the classes from Northern Crown (shout out to Dougmander) and/or Green Ronin's Pirate class from the new Freeport book. The only reason I haven't dropped everything to actually do this is the group I'd run it with just went throught the Isle of Dread with their Freeport characters (one month before Dungeon previewed the AP).

~Qualidar~

 

[Nyaricus]

Pirate game classes, eh... hmm, lesse here....

• Archivist (HoH; also availiable on the Wizards site for free) - a well-balanced sub-in for the divine spellcaster role.
• Artificer - no comment.
• Barbarian - use the totem version to open up some options for them
• Bard - good choice; will fit in well.
• Beguiler (PHBII) - I think this class would fit fairly well; a crafty spellcaster with a rogue's mindset.
• Factotum (DunScp) - I've heard a bunch of good things about this class; might fit the Jack Sparrow type, haha.
• Fighter - I think you should have this class included, if only for options sake.
• Hexblade (ComWar) - the curses bit kinda fits with the superstitious type the pirates were, IMO.
• Paladin - here's a neat Water Paladin I contributed to from here on the boards. It makes the Paladins a goodly Champion of the Sea rather than a zealot. Might be right up your alley
• Ranger - a solid choice.
• Rogue - an obvious choice
• Scout (ComAdven) - this class is a good choice for this type of campaign, IMO. Gets some love in Stormwrack.
• Shugenja (ComDiv) - these are attuned the the elements, much like UE's Witches - you could rule that they can only be of the Water or Air-focused Shujenga's, which would work fine IMO.
• Swashbuckler (ComWar) - this class sucks mothballs. Here's an alt. version from the WotC boards which rocks my socks link. It's now archived and looks really ugly though; mea culpa.
• Warlock (ComArc) - would likely work, yea.

Oh, and buy Stormwrack. It's really awesome

cheers,
--N

 

[Driddle]

No matter what you do, be sure to apply the half-dragon swarm templates.
And then add a few levels of bard to top it off.

 

[sensate]

I was in an Eberron pirate game and played a halfling barbarian with one level rogue. It was fun swooping down on ships while riding my pteradactyl.