Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The danger of the Three Pillars of D&D
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ratskinner" data-source="post: 5823006" data-attributes="member: 6688937"><p>I'm not sure its so tough, from a design point of view. I'm leaning towards the idea that themes can be expanded to handle a lot of this. The idea of a poly-classed system has been suggested before (where you choose a combat class, a parley class, and perhaps an explorer class). However, I don't think (within the context of D&D) that full classes are appropriate for non-combat roles.</p><p></p><p>Themes as sort of a "subclass" that you can bolt on make a lot of sense to me here. So, if you take the "Woodsman" theme, you get tracking and some other bits of outdoorsy lore, it doesn't matter if you're a fighter, rogue, or wizard. Worried about talking to kings and the like? Take an "Aristrocrat" or "Diplomat" theme and get some bonuses to holding out your pinky correctly while drinking and talking real fancylike. </p><p></p><p>The party can select an appropriate hodgepodge of themes to cover all the bases they are worried about. Making each character useful in different types of non-combat encounters <u>in a way they want to be</u> that is also (almost) totally independent of their combat class/role.</p><p></p><p>The big drawback here is that this would be a big change for some classes. As you might note in my example above "Woodsman" shaves a bit off of Ranger or maybe Druid. "Burglar" might shave a bit off thieves or rogues. "Curmudgeon" or "Brute" might intrude on Barbarian. However, I think that the flexibility gained would be more than worth it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ratskinner, post: 5823006, member: 6688937"] I'm not sure its so tough, from a design point of view. I'm leaning towards the idea that themes can be expanded to handle a lot of this. The idea of a poly-classed system has been suggested before (where you choose a combat class, a parley class, and perhaps an explorer class). However, I don't think (within the context of D&D) that full classes are appropriate for non-combat roles. Themes as sort of a "subclass" that you can bolt on make a lot of sense to me here. So, if you take the "Woodsman" theme, you get tracking and some other bits of outdoorsy lore, it doesn't matter if you're a fighter, rogue, or wizard. Worried about talking to kings and the like? Take an "Aristrocrat" or "Diplomat" theme and get some bonuses to holding out your pinky correctly while drinking and talking real fancylike. The party can select an appropriate hodgepodge of themes to cover all the bases they are worried about. Making each character useful in different types of non-combat encounters [U]in a way they want to be[/U] that is also (almost) totally independent of their combat class/role. The big drawback here is that this would be a big change for some classes. As you might note in my example above "Woodsman" shaves a bit off of Ranger or maybe Druid. "Burglar" might shave a bit off thieves or rogues. "Curmudgeon" or "Brute" might intrude on Barbarian. However, I think that the flexibility gained would be more than worth it. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The danger of the Three Pillars of D&D
Top