D&D 3E/3.5 3.X Compatible Racial Classes

[Samloyal23]

Delving into OSR videos on YouTube has me intrigued by the idea of racial classes for non-human PCs. Are there any good conversion for Elves, Dwarves, and other races to racial classes? Also, monstrous races like Centaurs, Minotaurs, and Bullywugs that can be turned into PCs interest me. What do people think of the idea? How does it work with multi-classing in a 3.X game?

 

[Dioltach]

Have you looked at Savage Species? I don't think it was particularly well received when it was first published, but it might have some useful stuff for you.

 

[Voadam]

Are you familiar with paragon classes? From 3.5 Unearthed Arcana

 

[Voadam]

Also for the races in Arcana Evolved which includes a giant race that starts out medium but grows large at 3rd level and eventually huge. Also includes Faen who grow smaller and more magical as they progress in their racial class, and other more world specific races.

 

[Voadam]

Rite Publishing put out a line of In the Company of Products for Pathfinder and 5e which were 1-20 classes for various monster races from things like Giants and Gargoyles and even Gelatinous Cubes and Unicorns. The Pathfinder ones should be easy enough to be compatible with 3e.

 

[Voadam]

In Savage Species they start at level 1 equivalent and build up to the normal monster starting point level by level, for the paragon classes it is a full class you can take instead of or in addition to other classes with regular multiclassing rules.

 

[cbwjm]

The World of Warcraft RPG had 3 level racial classes that expanded upon the archetype of each race. They'd still have basic abilities but if you wanted to be a dwarfier dwarf then you could take a level or 3 of dwarf to get things like stoneform or bonuses with hammers and axes and maybe a constitution boost (I can't actually remember the bonuses). Multiclassing worked just like with any other class so you could be something like a dwarf fighter 1/dwarf 2

 

[Samloyal23]

I like the core mechanics of 3E over 5E, but I like the old idea of racial classes. Having Humans be the only race that has full free choice of starting class makes them special in their own way and gives people a reason to play a human, while making a race like Elf or Dwarf into a class allows you to develop their powers over time and make them less like a human in a funny suit. So I am looking for good examples to work off of to develop some for my campaigns.

 

[Voadam]

All elves (and only elves) are hexblades would be a bit of a match to Basic elves being Fighter-Magic-Users who lag behind in levels due to xp requirements and who are level capped so they do not get higher level spells. Hexblades are generally considered a weak class though and have a lot of curse aspects that are not quite on point for classic elves.

 

[Deset Gled]

I like the core mechanics of 3E over 5E, but I like the old idea of racial classes. Having Humans be the only race that has full free choice of starting class makes them special in their own way and gives people a reason to play a human, while making a race like Elf or Dwarf into a class allows you to develop their powers over time and make them less like a human in a funny suit. So I am looking for good examples to work off of to develop some for my campaigns.

In addition to the Savage Species and paragon options above, 3.xE does a lot of it's racial specialization through Prestige Classes. There are a number of splat books that have prestige classes that are restricted by race.

Also, the Races of (Stone, Destiny, Wild) books have what's called "Racial Substitution Levels". Basically, race has an option to replace one level of a specific class with a race-specific level that has minor differences. Like, a dwarf Cleric could get Smite Giants instead of Smite Undead. It was a little bit clunky as a mechanic.