Hombrew Settings; 11 Base Classes, Which Ones Would You Choose?

[Duskblade]

I'm considering building a new world for a new 3.5 campaign. I have access to a bunch of 3rd Paryt Books and am considering scrapping the standard 11 Base Classes.

This is to be a world that has very little than a single small area fleshed out. Basically, anything goes.

In a new 'vanilla' homebrew world if you were to pick any 11 base classes (from the PHB and/or D20/OGL sources), which ones would you choose and why?

 

[hafrogman]

I have no 3rd party material, so my 11 are chosen from my knowledge of WotC sources, only.

1. Archivist - One of the few viable cleric alternatives. I also like how it counterpoints the wizard, with the divine side of written magic.
2. Cleric - One of the four basics, the one I'd most like to be rid of, but there just aren't a whole lot of viable alternatives that provide the same kind of healing power.
3. Dragon Shaman - An all around fun class in my opinion. Interesting flavor that adds for the opportunity to introduce more dragons into stories. A good "5th Man", great for a group without the stigma of the bard.
4. Druid (Shifter Variant) - A nice way to keep all the fun of shapeshifting without the bookkeeping and opportunities for abuse that seemed to run rampant with completely free shapeshifting.
5. Duskblade - A nice balance of magic and physical combat. Difficult to reproduce with multiclassing. A fun base class.
6. Fighter - One of the four. A staple.
7. Rogue - Thieves!
8. Scout - A nice rogue alternative without the sneaky thief stigma. Also provides a bit of naturey background, since I removed the ranger for personal reasons.
9. Warlock - Another fun, simple class. Lots of ideas floating around in this one.
10. Wizard - Another staple. Maybe not entirely neccessary. Could be replaced with the sorceror for an easier class to play. I don't think you need both, so the wizard won out for literary prescedence. Everyone needs a cranky old magician locked away with his books.

11. . . I couldn't come up with one I really wanted. Maybe something from a 3rd party that I'm not familiar with.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Tricky. I'd go with fewer than that, but I'll try. . .

I suppose archetypes are where I'd start, so here are some published base classes that might cover the essentials:

Fighter [you need something like this; they fight. in armour.]
Rogue [again, a staple; they lie, cheat and steal. and sneak around lots.]
Barbarian [rargh. me crush. angry. rargh. fight good, no training.]
Mageblade (Arcana Evolved) [warrior-mage par excellence.]
Magister (Arcana Evolved) [archetypal wizard, staff and all, by default.]
Holy Warrior (Holy Warrior's Handbook) [Paladin any way you want him or her.]
Cloistered Cleric with spontaneous casting (Unearthed Arcana x 2) [spellcasting priest, without the mangling the Paladin Holy Warrior's toes, along with the rest of them.]
Witch (Witch's Handbook) [another classic archetype, but pretty flexible.]
Shaman (Shaman's Handbook) [better than the druid at being the 'druid', or well, 'shaman'.)
Swashbuckler or Unfettered (Complete Warrior or Arcana Evolved), with mods [a lightly-armoured, agile warrior with panache and other poxy words.]
Some kind of alt.Ranger sans casting (Iron Kingdoms? Wildscape? I dunno) [wilderness warrior, tracker, scout, that stuff.]

Off the top of my head, anyway. I'm sure there are better choices, and I'll see what comes to mind in the next few days or so.

 

[Greg K]

1. Barbarian: The barbarian is a fantasy staple. However, not all barbarians are ragers. Some are just tribal warriors from less developed cultures skilled in the wilderness, but hardier than their civilized brethern. Therefore, I would include the barbarian hunter variant (Unearthed Arcana) with Favored Environment option (Unearthed Arcana). I'd also include an urban barbarian variant using the skill trade off from the Cityscape web enhancement #1 since not all ragers come from the Wilderness.

2. Cleric: These would be the priests of the gods from the more "civilized"/dominant lands/cultures. I'd also include the cloistered cleric variant (Unearthed Arcana) some clerics are not martial. I would also make all clerics use spontaneous divine casting (unearthed Arcana) and make some other tweaks to the cleric (e.g, predetermine the settings deities, create specific deity spell lists based of their domains and a few general spells).

3. Fighter: Common fantasy staple. I would give it some extra skill points per level and some additional class skills based on background/training.

4. Holy Warrior (Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous) or Paladin (using the spellless, Holy Warrior, variant from Complete Champion): The divine warrior!

5. Myrmidon (AEG's Mercenaries): handles the warrior mage. Rather than forcing things like spellcasting through a weapon upon the player, it provides player choice to customize their character through class bonus feats (in addition to choosing spells).

6. Psychic (Green Ronin's Psychic's Handbook) : Imo, this is mind powers done right and allows for a psychic/psionic type character.

7. Ranger using the spellless variant from Complete Champion and additional combat style choices from othe sources. Hunter of men or beasts. I'd allow the urban ranger (Unearthed Arcana) and also combine it with the spellless option from Complete Champion and you get your non-mystical bounty hunter.

8. Rogue: Common staple. I'd also include the Martial and Wilderness rogue options (Unearthed Arcana) for more combat or wilderness oriented rogues to better reflect training, background, and/or culture the character grew up in.

9. Shaman (Green Ronin's Shaman's Handbook) : Archetypal spiritual leader of less technoologically developed cultures.

10. Sorcerer: The arcane caster with inborn power . You could go with wizard, but I like spontaneous casting. I would make a few mods. Some additional class skills (to take advantage of Charisma) and UMD (sorcerers are innately magical). Also, to encourage staying with the class rather than multiclassing, I would some bonus metamagic feats every five levels.

11. Witch (Green Ronin's Witch's Handbook) : The wise witch with curses, transformations, healing, etc is a common fantasy staple.

(optional 12): OA Shaman as the Monk. Imo, it is customizeable for a place in the world. Perhaps, the worshipper of a wilderness deity and whom studies the animals to learn their fighting techniques. You could even tweak it to be less wildernes/spirit based to create a divine class and slightly different spells and class abilities (e.g, turn undead) making it the priest of a deity that specializes in unarmed combat.

(option 13): Specialist Wizards using Specialist wizard variant abilities (Unearthed Arcana). If your your settings wizards receive specialized training in certain areas from the beginning, this would be a good addition. It also tones down wizards by removing some of the flexability.

 

[Duskblade]

Please remember, I'm also looking for the reasons why you'd choose these classes.

 

[drothgery]

Hmm, for an arcane-heavy 3.x game that incorporates my bias against prepared spell casters...

I love the 'dedicated specialist classes'...
Warmage
Beguiller
Dread Necromancer
Artificer

... and I sort of built a divine one of them...
my Healer

... and we need a fighter replacement ...
Duskblade

... then throw in a few of the 'can go on forever' types ...
Warlock
Dragonfire Adept
Dragon Shaman

... and finish of the list with the 'traditional' spontaneous casters ...
Sorcerer
Favored Soul

 

[Stormborn]

Hmmm..."vanilla" worlds do just fine with the PHB classes for me. If I was going to do something different I would go with:

Warblade, Crusader, and Swordsage - I really like these for martial classes and when you include them the fighter et al just don't stand up.

Archivist - divine magic is now the province of monastic-wandering hermit types who spend years learning it and not battle priests (ie clerics).

Artificer - I love the idea of the mage smith and a specialized class is perfect.

Ninja - A more intersting choice than the Rogue.

Binder, Truenamer - These two have more flavorful magics than the standard wizard/sorcerer, but very much fit in with the mythology of spellcasters.

Akashic (Arcana Evolved) - a unique and adaptable class for people who like being good at evertying.

Psychic (GR Psychic's Handbook) - covers a wide range of supernatural abiliteis and can fill the role of blaster mage if you need one, or just about any other while still being different.

No really strong 11, but I will throw in Warlock because I like the flavor of it. Its a handly little class, especially with some house rules to expand its options.

 

[Sigurd]

I have only one solid criteria for class existence:

Can the class\paragon\prestige whatever sustain itself as an economic model.

The core classes could reasonably expect people to need them. Training and equipping them would be profitable and they are not so specialized that they vanish after one initial problem\idea.

Some of the stuff out there just doesn't seem viable. If the players are going to find the class already in existence it should have people that need it and people that make their living at it.

Mercenary, Soldier, Soldier for the Church, Theif, Spy, Scout, etc... what role does it fulfill and would you hire one over the standard classes? Could they sustain themselves on reasonable pay? Sorcerers for example can be much cheaper than Wizards but they are less flexible.


I'm not saying that strange prestige classes can't exist but if they are going to be a 'one off' my players better start devoting time to building the existence of the class before they can even take it.


Sigurd

 

[Robert Ranting]

Firstly, since I am a huge fan of AE, I would start with the 13 classes from that system, and then work back toward a more vanilla middle ground. One of the biggest complaints people have about AE is that many of the classes are too mystical or have too much flavor baggage, so I would just take the classes that are tried and true vanilla fantasy archetypes, the Champion (warrior of a greater cause), the Mageblade (fighter-mage), Magister (wizard), Unfettered (swashbuckler) and Warmain (heavy armored warrior).

Without the Akashic and Totem Warrior, our list lacks skillful and nature-oriented characters, so let's take the Rogue, Ranger, and Barbarian from 3.5 to address that issue, since they are all solid classes mechanically, and are instantly recognizable archetypes. In order to make these fit with AE, we replace the Rogue's trapfinding exclusivity with the ability to get a free check to notice secret doors or traps within 5ft, much like the elven racial ability, make Improved Evasion a mandatory choice for the first rogue special ability, and replace all the other special abilities with bonus feat slots (since in AE, all the others are feats anyone can take). As for the Ranger, we can take the Complete Champion variant as a model and give them bonus feats instead of spells, importing ranger specific feats like Improved Favored Enemy where necessary.

Now our list only lacks for three archetypes from the core set, the Bard, the Cleric, and the Druid. Since I have the Book of Eldritch Might, the first one is easy, I simply drop the variant Bard class from that book, including it's spellnote casting system into the mix. As for the latter, at this point I break out the homebrewing skills. The Greenbond is a solid primary caster with a focus on healing magic that was only cut for flavor reasons, so let's bring that back, reflavor the special abilities and skill list to be more divine and less plant-oriented, and call it a cleric. The free Ptolus/AE conversion document does most of the work of getting our cleric domains into the AE casting system, although my preference would be to make a feat called "Cleric Domain" that only the cleric can take. As for the Druid, let's take the Shapeshifting variant out of PHB2, reduce the fort save to a medium progression (like our greenbond/cleric), and give it the witch's spellcasting progression with improved access to any spell with the Animal (Litorian and Sibeccai, with a few exceptions) and Plant descriptors. Since there's a lot more incentive to remain in animal form at this point, let's throw in the Touch of Vitality ability from the Dragon Shaman, and specify that unlike their spellcasting, it can be used in animal form for a bit of combat healing. Alternatively, you could skip the work and just look at the final product on my wiki, here:
Cleric volkheim wiki / Cleric
Druid volkheim wiki / Druid

So after all that, we come to our final list of eleven base classes:

Barbarian (PHB)
Bard (Complete Book of Eldritch Might variant)
Champion (AE)
Cleric (AE Greenbond variant)
Druid (PHB2/AE homebrew)
Mageblade (AE)
Magister (AE)
Ranger (PHB with Complete Champion variant)
Rogue (PHB with houserules)
Unfettered (AE)
Warmain (AE)

 

[Mon]

Here is what I'd do...

Barbarian (Player's Handbook) - A classic, well balanced core class.
- No changes.

Binder (Tome of Magic) - Full of flavoursome goodness, nice alternative approach to magic
- No changes, but things besides vestiges can be bound (ancestral spirits, unknowable horrors from the far realm, etc).

Fighter (Player's Handbook) - Fundamental warrior, needs work though.
- Armsmaster: +1 damage with focused weapons at 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level (replaces Weapon Specialization feat chain).
- Battle Sense: +1 to maneuvers (disarm, feint, trip, bull-rush, overrun) and flanking/charging/AoO damage at 3rd, 7th, 11th, 15th, and 19th level.

Marshal (Miniature's Handbook) - A good "educated warrior" and alternative to bard for party buffer.
- Fighter base attack (they're warriors, afterall).
- Minor aura bonus is lesser of Int and Cha mods (minimum +1).

Mystic (Dragonlance Campaign Setting) - Conceptually, miles ahead of the groan-worthy Favoured Soul. The basic divine caster.
- No changes.

Rogue (Player's Handbook) - A classic.
- Trapfinding gives a free passive search check within 10ft. (anyone trained in search can actively use it to find traps of any DC).
- Sneak attack deals half damage against creatures immune to critical hits.

Savant (Dragon Compendium) - The only decent Jack-Of-All-Trades class I've come across
- Spells are spontaneous, not prepared. Know all spells on list. Can swap arcane and divine spells around if desired (divine at 5th, arcane at 10th).

Scout (Complete Adventurer) - Decent ranger substitute and rogue alternative
- No changes.

Shaman (Complete Divine) - Good class, crappy name; Taking out the "spirit" part improves things, esp. since there are no dragon shamans on the list. Basic nature caster.
- No changes, other than name shortening from "spirit shaman".

Sorcerer (Player's Handbook) - Basic arcane caster.
- No changes.

Warlock (Complete Arcane) - Another flavoursome class with a good alternative form of magic
- No changes.

--

Why Other Classes Are Out (aka I paid good money for this?!?!)
Bards are too fruity/weak, Clerics and druids are too powerful, Monks are too oriental, Paladins are just fighter/clerics (or fighter/mystics), Rangers have never been done "right", and book magic is represented by rituals not over-powered Wizards. Most of the "splatbook" classes are fairly cheesy and ill-conceived IMO, so they're out.

Rituals (aka "book" magic for a world without wizards)
* Rituals don't use spell slots.
* Any spell can be cast in ritual form, but it is pointless for some (e.g. fireball).
* Casters can use their known spells as rituals if they want.
* Anyone can try to cast a ritual if they have the spell in written form and can read it, using a caster level of 2 x spell level.
* Casting time: +10 mins/level; Component cost: spell level x caster level x 5gp (half what you'd pay an NPC to cast for you).
* Arcane rituals require an int check (DC 10 + spell level), divine rituals a Wis check; Failure means spell doesn't work and half components lost.
* On a natural 1, a mishap is threatened (as per failed UMD check or scroll reading). Repeat the Int/Wis check, with a second failure confirming it.
* Multiple participants can use Aid Another with a DC 10 Int/Wis check, but might cause mishap. Maximum 1 assistant per 2 spell levels.

Short Rests (aka surviving in a world without clerics)
* Resting for five minutes resets hit points to half maximum (after that point, natural and/or magical healing required).

We have all the bases covered...
Tanks: Barbarian, Fighter, Marshal
Skimishers: Rogue, Scout
Priests: Mystic, Shaman
Mages: Sorcerer, Warlock
Hybrids: Binder, Savant