D&D 5E Which classes are functionally composite classes to some degree?

[Yaarel]

the bard a fighter/wizard/thief

The 3e Bard is a Fighter/Wizard/Druid/Rogue.

But the 5e Bard is something like a Wizard specialist, with its own spell list.

the ranger a fighter/druid

The Ranger seems more like a Fighter/Druid/Wizard.

, and the druid a cleric/wizard.

The 5e Druid is weird. I am unsure what to make of it. Part elementalist, including plant as an element. Part healer. Part beast master. Part shapeshifter.

I wouldnt mind the anniversary edition making the various aspects of Druid synergize better, as well as allowing specialists, such as a full-on shapeshifter without elemental magic.

It may be why the more popular party mixes included rogue + cleric, fighter, wizard or sorceror and rogue + ranger, paladin, druid--the partial offensive and defensive spellcasting of the last three compensated for the lack of a specialist. Is there anything to this?

Maybe the Barbarian is a Fighter/Shapeshifter?

Hmmm. Maybe the Barbarian can have an archetype that is the full-on shapeshifter.

 

[Mind of tempest]

So... a well designed monk that isn't hung up on weird legacy 'Asian' stereotypes?

we could cut the weird and legacy fairly easy the Asian ness would be harder as a supernatural martial artist was mostly an east Asian thing with a bit of south and south-east Asia also doing bits of it, Europe and the middle east never really did that to my knowledge and Africa is kinda a blind spot for me beyond its horrific exploration, but they did at least have a martial art, no idea about the first nations of both the Americas are Polynesia I knew very little about so I do not even know if they had martial arts to make mystical.

 

[le Redoutable]

Well if you go back to AD&D, Unearthed Arcana Barbarians did have a lot of abilities that seem a little Roguelike, like climbing and detecting ambushes.

here we get Conan as a Thief/Fighter/Ruler
( THief 'cause The Tower of the Elephant, and Ruler because of King Conan )
then is he a Barb' instead of a Fighter, or Barb' is it equal to a mix of Brutes and Rangers ??

 

[le Redoutable]

Nope.

The saint/chosen is smites and innate superpower class.


The paladin in the 5e sense isn't defined by spells. So a Fighter/Cleric would not emulatiing a Paladin as you would miss core Paladin experiences.

except in the case of LG Fighter/Cleric ??

 

[Minigiant]

except in the case of LG Fighter/Cleric ??

Again.

The 5e Paladin's divine spellcasting is not a priority to its image.

 

[le Redoutable]

Again.

The 5e Paladin's divine spellcasting is not a priority to its image.

you mean his calling is GloryHound ?

 

[Vaalingrade]

we could cut the weird and legacy fairly easy the Asian ness would be harder as a supernatural martial artist was mostly an east Asian thing with a bit of south and south-east Asia also doing bits of it, Europe and the middle east never really did that to my knowledge and Africa is kinda a blind spot for me beyond its horrific exploration, but they did at least have a martial art, no idea about the first nations of both the Americas are Polynesia I knew very little about so I do not even know if they had martial arts to make mystical.

Every culture has supernatural warriors. The idea that there aren't is a myth used to chain Fantasy to Tolkien and a fake version of why medieval fantasy 'should' be. Remember western fantasy had a dude cutting the tops off mountains, the man who was invincible save for where mommy decided not to double dip him in immortality juice, and Teddy Roosevelt.

 

[James Gasik]

Every culture has supernatural warriors. The idea that there aren't is a myth used to chain Fantasy to Tolkien and a fake version of why medieval fantasy 'should' be. Remember western fantasy had a dude cutting the tops off mountains, the man who was invincible save for where mommy decided not to double dip him in immortality juice, and Teddy Roosevelt.

George Washington as well. The man was immune to bullets. Or how about that tenacious Barbarian/Rogue known as Andrew Jackson, who would lurk in ambush to attack politicians that crossed him, and who was so terrifying that once an assassin jumped him with two loaded pistols, and both weapons misfired simultaneously (despite being investigated later and found to be in perfect working order)! Then President Jackson proceeded to beat the would-be assassin to death with his shillelagh, until his own Secret Service agents pulled him off of the guy!

 

[Jer]

we could cut the weird and legacy fairly easy the Asian ness would be harder as a supernatural martial artist was mostly an east Asian thing

I mean, if you want to tie things to history then I guess. But why hold the martial artist to a standard that literally no other class in the game is held to? Every class in the game has absorbed the influence of pop cultural tropes and the "monk" needs to get with the times and get out of the 1980s.

The supernatural martial artist in today's pop culture has grown beyond its origins. You've got characters like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, the Jedi from Star Wars, and the Qowat Milat from Star Trek just off the top of my head who are all in that unarmored supernatural hand-to-hand combatant paradigm. The class could be, and IMO should be, a much, much more flexible chasis for character design than the "warrior monk from a 1970s kung fu movie" that it originated from.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I almost cited Washington, but couldn't find the article that likened him to the Hulk.

I pretend Jackson didn't exist. Prefer not to acknowledge blights on my family name.