I've been DMing this game for 3 years, and I have to disagree a little with you...
I've yet to see a borderer in my game, but bardiche-wielding Southern Islander barbarians certainly kick ass. Pirates obviously work best at sea, but they do get Uncanny Dodge (which thieves don't). The nomad is perhaps weaker than the soldier in straight combat, but has some cool abilities and definitely fills a cultural niche.
And if everyone wants to be a soldier or thief, so what? Those archetypes are most common in the stories, anyway. And by selecting different races, feats and skills, the characters can still be distinct from each other.
In the first paragraph, you said that people wanted to play scholars because of their "broken magic". In the next paragraph, you say that their magic isn't really useful?
In my experience, scholars really start to kick ass from level 7 and upwards. They have several save-or-die spells, many spells are resisted by Will saves (and the great majority of opponents are fighter-types with poor Will saves), and since magic is relatively uncommon they are often very useful.
To make the scholar a little more useful at the lowest levels, I wrote up a variant class called the "Savant", and also revised several spells and made up some new ones, suitable for low-level sorcerers. You can find the PDF here:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/classes/index.htm
You have to consider this in a larger context. So what if you can deal 10 points of Con damage with a grapple check, if you can routinely deal 40-50 points of damage with a dagger (thief's sneak attack) or greatsword (soldier's power attack) and force a massive damage save, most likely killing the target with one blow? Combat is short and brutal, not a drawn-out attrition of hit points, and this makes the game move faster than regular D&D.
- thulsa
RangerWickett said:
I've yet to see a borderer in my game, but bardiche-wielding Southern Islander barbarians certainly kick ass. Pirates obviously work best at sea, but they do get Uncanny Dodge (which thieves don't). The nomad is perhaps weaker than the soldier in straight combat, but has some cool abilities and definitely fills a cultural niche.
And if everyone wants to be a soldier or thief, so what? Those archetypes are most common in the stories, anyway. And by selecting different races, feats and skills, the characters can still be distinct from each other.
RangerWickett said:
In the first paragraph, you said that people wanted to play scholars because of their "broken magic". In the next paragraph, you say that their magic isn't really useful?
In my experience, scholars really start to kick ass from level 7 and upwards. They have several save-or-die spells, many spells are resisted by Will saves (and the great majority of opponents are fighter-types with poor Will saves), and since magic is relatively uncommon they are often very useful.
To make the scholar a little more useful at the lowest levels, I wrote up a variant class called the "Savant", and also revised several spells and made up some new ones, suitable for low-level sorcerers. You can find the PDF here:
http://hyboria.xoth.net/classes/index.htm
RangerWickett said:
You have to consider this in a larger context. So what if you can deal 10 points of Con damage with a grapple check, if you can routinely deal 40-50 points of damage with a dagger (thief's sneak attack) or greatsword (soldier's power attack) and force a massive damage save, most likely killing the target with one blow? Combat is short and brutal, not a drawn-out attrition of hit points, and this makes the game move faster than regular D&D.
- thulsa
