D&D General Tell me of "PHB" classes of prior eras!


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EzekielRaiden

Follower of the Way
Do Dwarf, Elf, and Halfling get a slot?
Despite my dislike of race-as-class, yes, I will be giving these spots. And because they're genuinely distinct enough from other later options (e.g. Dwarf is kind of a Fighter, but also kind of not), I won't be lumping them together.

I am electing not to include the Oriental Adventures classes, both to at least try to keep this list short(er), and because many of them really do have overlap with existing options. Perhaps imperfectly, but it's enough for me to set them aside. I've also elected not to look beyond PF1e for additional stuff.

Trying to give each edition its due without going full madboy "ALL THE THINGS, ALL OF THEM!!!"

Thus far my list (going in order newest books -> oldest, concatenating together stuff that warrants it)

5e
Barbarian
Bard
Cleric (4e: Runepriest)
Druid
Fighter
Monk (RC: Mystic)
Paladin
Ranger (4e: Seeker)
Rogue (B/X: Thief, UA: Thief-Acrobat)
Sorcerer
Warlock (PF: Witch)
Wizard (AD&D, B/X: Magic-User)

PF1e:
Alchemist
Cavalier (3e: Knight)
Inquisitor (4e: Avenger)
Oracle (4e: Invoker)
Summoner

4e
Ardent
Battlemind
Psion
Shaman (3e: Dragon Shaman, RC: Wokan)
Warden
Warlord

3e
Beguiler (2e: Illusionist)
Duskblade (4e: Swordmage, PF: Magus)

AD&D:
Assassin

B/X:
Elf
Dwarf
Halfling

Or, if you prefer them in alphabetical order...
Alchemist
Ardent
Assassin
Barbarian
Bard
Battlemind
Beguiler (2e: Illusionist)
Cavalier (3e: Knight)
Cleric (4e: Runepriest)
Druid
Duskblade (4e: Swordmage, PF: Magus)
Dwarf
Elf
Fighter
Halfling
Inquisitor (4e: Avenger)
Monk (RC: Mystic)
Oracle (4e: Invoker)
Paladin
Psion
Ranger (4e: Seeker)
Rogue (B/X: Thief, UA: Thief-Acrobat)
Shaman (3e: Dragon Shaman, RC: Wokan)
Sorcerer
Summoner
Warden
Warlock (PF: Witch)
Warlord
Wizard (AD&D, B/X: Magic-User)

I'll be making it an alphabetical list, irrespective of edition, once I have the thing compiled. Doing it this way just helps me avoid duplicate entries. Also, with what condensing/combining I've done, I've gotten it down to a total of 29 classes--which, honestly, I feel pretty good about. I had been expecting like, 40-50, which would be hella unwieldy.

As a concession to anyone who may be fans of OA content, I will run a separate race just for those options, after this first one is concluded. Hopefully that will compensate, at least a little, for the exclusion.

As for the rules:
  • I am thinking about setting a limit of 8 winners for this race
  • Each vote will give +2 to one option and -1 to some other option.
  • Everyone will start with 10 points, and needs to reach 60 (meaning, they need to gain a total of 25 net upvotes). I'm starting things at 10 rather than at 0 because that should let us avoid negative scores, which would just be a hassle. Options voted down to 0 cannot be reduced further.
  • Once an option has hit 60 (or 61) points, it will be removed from play and placed in the winners list. This would mean a theoretical minimum of 200 total votes (which would equate to roughly 10-15 days, give or take) and an extremely unlikely theoretical maximum of 400 votes (which would be about three to four weeks, give or take.) Actual expected win time would be around 18-21 days.

Future races, with fewer participants, may have a lower place cutoff (e.g. with only the 8 options of OA, I might set the cutoff at 3 or 4 places). Mostly, my goal is to still make it so there is time for interesting interactions to occur, reversals of fortune or the like, while not having things always take an age to complete. 8 is a pretty high amount, but that's enough to make a full book roster, so to speak, so I feel it's appropriate for this specific thing. I may do something similar for the one about races/lineages.
 
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AD&D PHB:
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Paladin
Ranger
Magic-User
Illusionist
Thief
Assassin
Monk
Bard

AD&D UA:
Cavalier
Barbarian
Thief-Acrobat

AD&D OA:
Samurai
Shukenja
Sohei
Bushi
Kensai
Wu Jen
Ninja
Yakuza

B/X (Moldvay/Cook/Marsh):
Cleric
Dwarf
Elf
Fighter
Halfling
Magic-User
Thief
Thank goodness someone else did 1st edition, reading through the first page I was beginning to think I was going to have to dredge my memory!

A couple of points: Ranger and Paladin were described as subclasses of fighter; assassin was a subclass of thief, and “not intended for PCs” illusionist was a subclass of MU, and Druid, cleric. It had an effect on which magic items they could use. Bard was in the DMG not the PHB, and monk was in a PHB appendix.
 
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EzekielRaiden

Follower of the Way
Thank goodness someone else did 1st edition, reading through the first page I was beginning to think I was going to have to dredge my memory!

A couple of points: Ranger and Paladin were described as subclasses of fighter; assassin was a subclass of thief, and “not intended for PCs” illusionist was a subclass of MU, and Druid, cleric. It had an effect on which magic items they could use. Bard was in the DMG not the PHB, and monk was in a PHB appendix.
Other than MU, these will all be their own entries. There's no other way for me to recognize that Paladin and Ranger have been their own classes for essentially the whole game. Likewise, Assassin has repeatedly been a separate class or PrC.

I am generally erring on the side of inclusion, but have picked a few spots where I'm aggressively merging (e.g. Seeker, Runepriest, Witch) or recognizing overlap with non-PHB classes that people might want mentioned (e.g. Magus/Swordmage). If only Alchemist had even a little bit more of a "devices" angle, but sadly it doesn't, so Artificer just gets left out I'm afraid.

Rules Cyclopesia had Druid and Mystic. Druids already covered Mystic is essentially a Monk.
Thanks. Have added the Mystic reference to the Monk line.
 

pemerton

Legend
Thank goodness someone else did 1st edition, reading through the first page I was beginning to think I was going to have to dredge my memory!

A couple of points: Ranger and Paladin were described as subclasses of fighter; assassin was a subclass of thief, and “not intended for PCs” illusionist was a subclass of MU, and Druid, cleric. It had an effect on which magic items they could use. Bard was in the DMG not the PHB, and monk was in a PHB appendix.
Unfortunately, some of this is wrong. The Monk is in the core PHB, not an appendix. The Bard is in Appendix II of the PHB; UA lists it in the core class tables (though not the racial level limits tables).

Nothing suggests that Illusionists are not intended for PCs. Illusionists have a specified list of usable magic-items, which is narrower than the items usable by M-Us.
 

Pathfinder's Occult Adventures was also another one of PF1's 'PHBs', and their attempt to make psionics into another kind of magic. Psychic Magic.

Kineticist
Medium
Mesmerist
Occultist
Psychic
 

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