Campaign with All Alternate Core Classes

[Kid Charlemagne]

In an off-handed comment to one of my players, I expressed the idea of running a game with the players only having alternate classes as options. I want to consider this a little further - and I want to create a list of good alternate core, 20-level classes. Of course this is all theoretical right now - I've got way more campaign ideas than time, so who knows if it will ever happen. If I were to do it, it would probably be in a slightly horror-themed campaign, possibly run in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy from Judges Guild.

I don't want to just open it up to any core class at all - I want to create a group of classes for the players to choose from that fit the usual archetypes reasonably well. I'd like 5-6 versions of each of what I see as the four main class types - fighting, magic-wielding, skill-based, and divine. I want to avoid the simpler alt-classes - Monte's alt-sorceror doesn't excite me, but Monte's alt-bard is different enough, for example.

First, what do you think of the idea? And secondly, what are some good alternate core classes for me to use?

 

[Grimstaff]

Swashbuckler, Scout, Warmage, and Favored Soul would be a pretty effective group, both combat and skill-wise.

 

[Voadam]

Unfettered from Arcana Unearthed is a nice swashbuckler.

Psionics can be an alt magic for classes as a psion is basically an alt sorcerer

Favored soul is a simple alt cleric (sorcererstyle) and I think the minis handbook has a whole healer class.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I'm actually running an all-alternative core class fantasy d20 campaign right now. There are 2 groups of PCs, all of which have core classes not found in the PHB. I didn;t put together a pre-defined set, but a few trends are beginning to develop anyway, which I thought might be helpful to gathering info for your question.

In addition to different core classes, spellcasters are required to have half their spells come from a source other than the PHB. Characters with access to their whole spell list get to swap out half their class list for spells from other books.

I haven't required different races, but a few have shown up anyway.

The total result to date has been a game we can all play easily (the basic rules are all the same), but that feels very different from normal D&D.

So far, the major characters have included:
2 marshals (Miniatures Handbook)
2 warmages (Complete Arcane)
1 eldrich weaver (Advanced Player's Manual)
1 warpriest (Advanced Player's Manual)
1 Kai lord (Lone Wolf, with modifications to match standard d20)
1 spellthief (Complete Adventurer)
1 favored soul (Complete Divine)
1 justicar (d20 Weekly)
1 ritual warrior (Arcana Evolved)
1 scout (Complete Adventurer)

The really big hits have been the marshals and the warmages. The marshal is a facinating class that is essentially a group-support fighter. They really appeal to players who like to be team players, but don't have the same level of resource management issues as traditional support characters like clerics and bards. The warmages end up acting a lot like archers but with spell-fire. The ritual warrior is a lot like a spellcaster in resource management, but takes the front-line fighter role. The justicar takes on a paladin kind of role, but has odd resource management issues I'm not sure balance it well.

Most characters are human, but there is one spartes (Relics and Rituals: Olympus), one merg (Bastards and Bloodlines) and a few half-elves.

The new spells are drawn largely from the Complete books, the Advanced Player's Manual, and Legends and Lairs' School of Evocation (thanks to the warmages); a smattering come from other sources as well.

The most underused niches so far are the unarmed combatant and the stealthy rogue. The closest are the spellthief and the scout, but both are acting more like fighting classes than stealthy ones so far. The highest leveol character is 4th or 5th, so that may change as the campaign advances.

I've recently seen the thanemage (Advanced Player's Manual), healer (Miniatures Handbook), warlock (Complete Arcane) and spirit shaman (Complete Divine) in use in another campaign, and suspect I'll be using them as classes for NPCs in the near future.

Owen K.C. Stephens
d20 Triggerman

 

[Scotley]

I was considering running such a game here myself. The list I came up with included all the non-oriental core classes from the complete books--Warlock, Spell Thief, Hexblade etc. As well as those from the Miniatures Handbook that weren't redone in the complete series--Healer and Marshall and a couple from the Dragonlance books I particularly like--Noble and Mariner. Artificer will likely be in as well. I was thinking of adding Bard to the list just because it tends to be an also ran in our group. I hadn't made up my mind about Monte's stuff yet. I may want to stay more core than that. Psionics are pretty popular, so I might leave them in. I was also thinking of leaving out the most popular races as well--Human, Elf and Dwarf and instead going with the new ones in the Races of series.

 

[Remathilis]

Artificer is nice, but then one I saw didn't get played long.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Come to think of it, my new campaign is mostly made up of non-core classes. So far I have a Swashbuckler, a Warlock, a Psion, a Martial Artist (the class created by Hong), and a Spirit Shaman. We have a PHB Monk and a Druid, but the Druid is a sea-going one using the rules from Stormwrack.

So far it's been pretty fun. The guy playing the Warlock is a total waste of time when it comes to creating characters (he had 4 weeks to get his character ready and called me the day of the campaign kickoff with this lame story about why he didn't have a character). So I handed him the Warlock when he walked in the door. I told him it's pretty much a point and shoot class, you can't screw this up. And so far I've been right.