Another Core Class

[Particle_Man]

The Noble in Arthurian Adventures: LEgends of Excalibur (by RPGobjects) is nice.

She can send Knights on Quests (which means that the knights get bonuses while they are on those quests, dependant upon the NOble's level). Mind you, these nobles are a bit souped up (the Diving Right of Kings is taken seriously, Nobles get an aura of command, can "unexcommunicate" people occasionally, etc.

Not sure how well it would generalize in this form, but it sure fits the campaign setting well!

 

[Afrodyte]

I think the generic classes (expert, spellcaster, and warrior) are the only classes necessary to play. There are a lot of archetypes that could fit within one (fighter, wizard, cleric, rogue, aristocrat, merchant), some (barbarian, bard, paladin), or all of them (ranger).

Something I did in my own class redesigns is start off with 10-level generic classes similar to Unearthed Arcana then have the 20-level base classes from there. I use the talent tree concept from D20 Modern, and I'm liking how flexible I can make the classes. I have the warrior and spellcaster classes done for the most part, but I have yet to do the expert.

 

[Remathilis]

I think the generic classes (expert, spellcaster, and warrior) are the only classes necessary to play. There are a lot of archetypes that could fit within one (fighter, wizard, cleric, rogue, aristocrat, merchant), some (barbarian, bard, paladin), or all of them (ranger).

Something I did in my own class redesigns is start off with 10-level generic classes similar to Unearthed Arcana then have the 20-level base classes from there. I use the talent tree concept from D20 Modern, and I'm liking how flexible I can make the classes. I have the warrior and spellcaster classes done for the most part, but I have yet to do the expert.

Of course, you'll HAVE to post this somewhere when your done (hint)

I love the generic class concept from UA, and with some PrCs you can make just about ANY PH class approximate. It has some potential there.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

The Akashic

The one class I've seen that absolutely filled a hole in the core classes was the akashic from Arcana Unearthed.

Without that you just can't do a straight up adventuring skill user without bringing on a lot of unnecessary baggage. The adventuring sage or scholar archetype is entirely missing.

You could run a rogue, but then your absolutely trap and combat oriented and there are large areas of knowledge you can't get into in the guessing and inspired way that the adventuring scholar archetype traditionally does.

The akashic struck me as the perfect way to handle that niche and run around and still be useful in a variety of situations and in an interesting fashion, something no variation of the expert has yet achieved.

It has it's flaws, the full armor proficiency thing is a little odd, and the flavor strikes people oddly, but the memory user flavor is easily swapped out and no core class is, as yet, flawless in its own right.

Still, something like that needs to be in there, and then maybe the bard can be the straight up skill-user/magic-user hybrid it's meant to be.

 

[Afrodyte]

Of course, you'll HAVE to post this somewhere when your done (hint)

I love the generic class concept from UA, and with some PrCs you can make just about ANY PH class approximate. It has some potential there.

I have a version of it in the House Rules forum. It should be listed under the revised classes and races thread. However, I've done a bit of revising, so I think I'd like to start a new thread or PM what I have to you sometime in the future.

 

[Afrodyte]

The one class I've seen that absolutely filled a hole in the core classes was the akashic from Arcana Unearthed.

Without that you just can't do a straight up adventuring skill user without bringing on a lot of unnecessary baggage. The adventuring sage or scholar archetype is entirely missing.

(snip)

The akashic struck me as the perfect way to handle that niche and run around and still be useful in a variety of situations and in an interesting fashion, something no variation of the expert has yet achieved.

I'm glad you brought this up, since I definitely agree. I only wish there was a non-mystical variant of this archetype that was not the DMG expert.

 

[Cam Banks]

I'm glad you brought this up, since I definitely agree. I only wish there was a non-mystical variant of this archetype that was not the DMG expert.

It's my hope that the master class in War of the Lance from Sovereign Press fits the bill on that score. Or at least, that was the design intent!

Cheers,
Cam

 

[snarfoogle]

In my humble opinion, I think that Archer should be a core class in 4E, along with a Base Ranged Attack Bonus. I think that you need two generic fighter types, and who can fight well with an axe might not be able to handle a bow.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'm glad you brought this up, since I definitely agree. I only wish there was a non-mystical variant of this archetype that was not the DMG expert.

See I never thought of the Akashic as being that mystical. I mean the flavor certainly is, but the actual abilities of the class are pretty far from mystical. As in, someone at the high, read adventuring, end of most classic fantasy/pulp ranges of human potential could do all this stuff sans mysticism in the same way that Batman can pull off astonishing leaps and Holmes can bridge riddles with astonishing leaps of insight or intuition.

I just thought the memory stuff worked because it was a coherent way to explain all of that so that it looked like a flavorful class rather than a wonky reading on a very broad archetype.

Either way, it works and I love it.

 

[Particle_Man]

In my humble opinion, I think that Archer should be a core class in 4E, along with a Base Ranged Attack Bonus. I think that you need two generic fighter types, and who can fight well with an axe might not be able to handle a bow.

You might want to check out the Yeoman, also from Arthurian Adventures: Excalibur by RPGObjects. They are an archer (with Track), kinda Robin Hoodish. At high levels, they do cool beans stuff like Power Attack with an arrow (if only one arrow shot that round) and auto-crit with arrow (if only one arrow shot that round). Put those together and...