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<blockquote data-quote="rounser" data-source="post: 4551187" data-attributes="member: 1106">Well, you'd still have the MM to quirk it up with D&amp;Disms...doesn't get much more D&amp;D than drow hanging out with mind flayers, for instance...and the spells for your magic missiles and fireballs, and the magic items for your flying carpets and vorpal swords.&nbsp; That's one heck of a lot of D&amp;D, right there.The core classes and races should IMO play &quot;straight man&quot; to the vast weirdness of the optional implied setting on the DM's side of the fence, which gets a lot less screentime, and is much more easily customisable to personal tastes (e.g. don't like a monster, don't use it).&nbsp; At least begin with a semblance of pseudomedieval heroes, then go berserk with the Eyebrows of Vecna and tapdancing Tarrasques.&nbsp; And if it's your style, a party packed with warforged, dragonborn, goliaths and other freaks, but keep it optional and out of the core implied setting.I think Gygax wrote an essay to this effect in the 1E DMG.&nbsp; He emphasised humans as being the cornerstone of a D&amp;D world as the most populous race and default PC race, because it anchored the game thematically. Clerics always struck me as a sort of kludge to make the game go.&nbsp; Something like &quot;We need priests for healing magic....but um, healing isn't enough of a hook, no-one wants to play them...okay add armour and weapons and make them fight better to make them more appealing....oh wait, they look too much like fighters now....um....okay, restrict them to bludgeoning weapons....oh wait, they don't look like priests anymore....okay, let's call them something esoteric like 'clerics'.&nbsp; Sorted!&quot;&nbsp; If they really are priests, or healers, then I think they could benefit from a redesign to make them appear more as that.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="rounser, post: 4551187, member: 1106"] Well, you'd still have the MM to quirk it up with D&Disms...doesn't get much more D&D than drow hanging out with mind flayers, for instance...and the spells for your magic missiles and fireballs, and the magic items for your flying carpets and vorpal swords. That's one heck of a lot of D&D, right there. The core classes and races should IMO play "straight man" to the vast weirdness of the optional implied setting on the DM's side of the fence, which gets a lot less screentime, and is much more easily customisable to personal tastes (e.g. don't like a monster, don't use it). At least begin with a semblance of pseudomedieval heroes, then go berserk with the Eyebrows of Vecna and tapdancing Tarrasques. And if it's your style, a party packed with warforged, dragonborn, goliaths and other freaks, but keep it optional and out of the core implied setting. I think Gygax wrote an essay to this effect in the 1E DMG. He emphasised humans as being the cornerstone of a D&D world as the most populous race and default PC race, because it anchored the game thematically. Clerics always struck me as a sort of kludge to make the game go. Something like "We need priests for healing magic....but um, healing isn't enough of a hook, no-one wants to play them...okay add armour and weapons and make them fight better to make them more appealing....oh wait, they look too much like fighters now....um....okay, restrict them to bludgeoning weapons....oh wait, they don't look like priests anymore....okay, let's call them something esoteric like 'clerics'. Sorted!" If they really are priests, or healers, then I think they could benefit from a redesign to make them appear more as that. [/QUOTE]

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