Available Classes at Start

[jmucchiello]

For well defined campaign reasons, sure, there's nothing wrong with limiting initial race/class combos. Still, the PCs are supposed to be Heroes. Above the norm. Destined for great things. So even if there are no other dwarven monks, allowing a player to start with that character can also add to his uniqueness and point out that he has a destiny. Thus, I wouldn't be too strict with such limitations as long as it isn't a whole party of exceptions.

 

[Particle_Man]

I see no problem with it.

That said, it might be the perfect time to showcase some of the new base classes in the Completes books and PHB II, etc, by putting them on the "allowed" list for certain sub-races. Scout would fit into (some of) the Elf races fairly well, for example, and might be a better fit in some cases than rogue for an allowable starting class.

 

[Scribble]

For well defined campaign reasons, sure, there's nothing wrong with limiting initial race/class combos. Still, the PCs are supposed to be Heroes. Above the norm. Destined for great things. So even if there are no other dwarven monks, allowing a player to start with that character can also add to his uniqueness and point out that he has a destiny. Thus, I wouldn't be too strict with such limitations as long as it isn't a whole party of exceptions.

That was the idea... Like here are the rules... but if someone REALLY wants to break said rules, they can...

 

[Sejs]

Eeeh. :\

Kinda harkens back to previous editions and the idea that X race is only capable of Y job. Not terribly fond of that.

I'd venture to say that much better would be rather than say X race can only be these classes, to instead draw up a short list of classes that thematically embody that race, and have those as suggested class options rather than a hard restriction.

I myself try to do something similar in my games, particularly when it comes to various humanoid races. The Three-Class Standard, one of which is the races' favored class. Elves might have Wizard (fc), Ranger, and Bard as their three. Gnolls might be Ranger (fc), Barbarian, and Spirit Shaman. So on and so forth.

 

[Emirikol]

We kind of do that. Our Conan-Hyboria game has over 35 races (no D&D races). Each race has "preferred classes" just like D&D races. For example, Cimmerians are naturally barbarians.

Ideally, you'd not ban any classes, you'd just have 'drawbacks' to some. For example, in our Hyborian D&D world, all spellcasting classes must be multi-classed with a non-magic class for at least 2 levels ("Riddle of the Steel.") That's a fact for all but a handful of races (Stygians and a couple others). It doesn't weaken the characters at all, but it drops magic back by one spell level. That's a pretty big disincentive for most folks who are used to D&D magic being all-powerful.


jh

 

[Scribble]

Eeeh. :\

Kinda harkens back to previous editions and the idea that X race is only capable of Y job. Not terribly fond of that.

I'd venture to say that much better would be rather than say X race can only be these classes, to instead draw up a short list of classes that thematically embody that race, and have those as suggested class options rather than a hard restriction.

I myself try to do something similar in my games, particularly when it comes to various humanoid races. The Three-Class Standard, one of which is the races' favored class. Elves might have Wizard (fc), Ranger, and Bard as their three. Gnolls might be Ranger (fc), Barbarian, and Spirit Shaman. So on and so forth.

Well... the idea isn't to ban them completely... Because after first level, they can multiclass into anything they encounter...

But say if you make an elf that is from the elven city, then "knight" is not on their class list because there are no knights in the elven city, so where did you train and gain the title knight...

If you make an elf from the southern kingdom, then Knight would be on that list... (and it would possibly be a different subrace of elf... )

(but if they reeaaalllly wanted to they could make one, but as long as they have a good background... IE the knight I squired under was an emmisary from the southern kingdom that took me under his wing...)

 

[Nyaricus]

This is what I have been doing since I started GMing last February, actually. I always thought that it was silly that races could only favour one class, so each race has a list of allowed and banned classes. This gets rid of nonsensical combinations, like half-orc wizards and elven monks (well, if monks were even allowed in my games )

I don't plan to let up on this either; personally I think it's a great way to make races fill a niche with more focus than letting anyone be anything, and less shoehorning than favoured class: x for every race.