D&D 5E Challenge: Invent a PHB Class List with 6 Classes

[Lord Mhoram]

Mine would be:

Fighter
Wizard
Rogue
Cleric.

I'd look to add in something outside the box than those.
Psionic
Artificiar.

Now the other thing I would do - is that with each class is so broad, There is really strong support for multiclassing so you could build a Paladin with Cleric/Fighter. Feats or special abilities or something that come online when you have 2 level in each class (Smite evil in my example).

While the core mechanics are d20, saves, hit point, attack, damage all stay the same - the specific mechanics for each class is separate.

Fighter gets the 3.pf idea of a smaller pool of points to power special abilities (think Ki like Monk)
Wizard has vancian casting.
Rogue has backstab, and at later levels get abilities from skills more than just the skill roll that other classes don't get.
Cleric has a different way to cast spells than the wizard, and really push channel energy.
The Psionic uses spell/psionic points
Artificer has a special relationship with equipment.

That way each class not only has a flavor and ability niche protection, but also mechanic niche. Helps make playing a different class something different so you don't get that "cleric is a wizard with a different spell list"

Maybe have all the casters be the equivelent of 6 level casters (like Starfinder did).

 

[Vaalingrade]

Fighter
Includes Warlord, Archer, Sword and Board, TWF, Great Weapon, Bastion, Martial Artist and Wrestler

Rogue
Includes Face, Thief, Swashbuckler, Acrobat, Ninja, Expert, Alchemist, Sniper, Duelist and Tinker

Bard
Includes Charlatan, Loremaster, Musician, Dancer, Magical Warlord, and Mindbender

Warlock
Includes Pact, Book, Ancient Secrets, Nature, Clerical, Oath, and Petmaster

Sorcerer
Includes Dragon, Outsider, Angel, Demon/Devil, Mutation, ANCIENT EGYPT (for some reason), shadow, fey and absolutely never the far realm as bloodlines.

Free Space
Just feats that let you mix and match the abilities of the others to roll your own.

A feat set will let you graft psionics into any of these.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

The three points of the triangle: Combat Specialist (Figher), Skill Monkey (Rogue), Magic User (Wizard).

The Three points between the triangle:
Combat Specialist-Magic User: Cleric
Combat Specialist-Skill Monkey- Ranger
Skill Monkey-Magic User: Bard or Artificer

 

[Malmuria]

The OSR game I play, Whitehack 3e, has three very open-ended classes: The Strong, the Deft, and the Wise. Classically, Fighter/Thief/Magic-User, but the system is open enough that you can easily customize in conversation with the gm. For example, the deft starts with two "attunments," described as follows:

As they advance, the Deft get slots, each of which they permanently associate with two attunements. A deft attunement must be a teacher, an item, a pet or a place. For example, a ranger could have a well trained dog or be attuned to her ancestral lands. A monk could have a famous master or be attuned to her bow.

For something with a classic feel that is more 5e-adjacent, I like the way Five Torches Deep does it, which is four classes with modular archetypes: Warrior (Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger), Thief (Assassin, Bard, Rogue), Zealot (Cleric, Paladin, Druid), and Mage (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard).

 

[RealAlHazred]

Hmmm....

• Controller: controls the environment, i.e. with spells (wizards and druids go here).
• Defender: action-oriented, primarily defends the party from threats (fighters and paladins, definitely).
• Leader: inspiration, healing, and aid of other party members; the primary support class (clerics, some monks, some bards).
• Striker: surgically-precise elimination of hazards and obstacles, so by dealing with one foe in a fight, or disarming a trap, bribing an official, etc. (barbarians, rogues, rangers, some monks, assassins, some bards).

 

[cbwjm]

I think I'd go with the following:

• Warrior (could easily have subclasses for various flavours of paladin or ranger. I'd also use this for the monk and barbarian which would become any warrior that uses rage/internal energy to increase their damage potential)
• Magic-User (folds in sorcerer, wizard, and warlock. Choices made at creation provide specific mechanics for your spellcasting ability)
• Priest (cleric and druid. Could actually use the existing cleric class with the druid gaining Channel Divinity: wildshape)
• Expert (rogue and bard, bard likely wouldn't be a full-caster. I'd probably put the artificer here.)
• Mentalist (psion, psionicist, mystic, mind melter, whichever name of choice you prefer)

That's 5, coming up with a 6th class is kind of hard off the top of my head, I can't think of anything to really differentiate them.

In this system of 5 classes, I wouldn't need any half-caster base classes since I'd make any subclasses that gain magic half instead of 1/3rd casters. I'd probably have 5 subclasses based on each of these 5 as well that other classes can take as a subclass so that an eldritch knight or mystic the urge could take the magic-user subclass to add some magic to their class.

 

[Raith5]

Warrior (knight/barbarian/warlord)
Hunter (ranger/scout/witcher)
Rogue (thief/assassin/bard)
Mage (Wiz/Sorc/Warlock/artificer)
Priest (Druid/Shaman/Paladin)
Mystic (Monk/Psion)

 

[Minigiant]

Easy. I just copy my 1e/2e heartbreaker.

• Arcanist
  • Bard
  • Sorcerer
  • Warlock
  • Wizard
• Champion
  • Gish
  • Paladin
  • Ranger
  • Warden
• Priest
  • Cleric
  • Druid
  • Invoker
  • Shaman
• Rogue
  • Assassin
  • Swashbuckler
  • Thief
  • Trickster
• Scholar
  • Artificer
  • Alchemist
  • Smith
  • Warlord
• Warrior
  • Barbarian
  • Fighter
  • Gladiator
  • Monk

 

[Deset Gled]

Fighter
Wizard
Rogue
Cleric
Bard

The rest are just details.

 

[squibbles]

The OSR game I play, Whitehack 3e, has three very open-ended classes: The Strong, the Deft, and the Wise. Classically, Fighter/Thief/Magic-User, but the system is open enough that you can easily customize in conversation with the gm. For example, the deft starts with two "attunments," described as follows:



For something with a classic feel that is more 5e-adjacent, I like the way Five Torches Deep does it, which is four classes with modular archetypes: Warrior (Barbarian, Fighter, Ranger), Thief (Assassin, Bard, Rogue), Zealot (Cleric, Paladin, Druid), and Mage (Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard).

Oh, there are absolutely tons of ways remix and recombine classes and, as always, the OSR is full of strange variety. My favorite OSR-clone system, Simulacrum, has only two classes--warrior and mage. But, again, the challenge here is to get to 6 good classes. And 6, as opposed to 4 or 3, is a very tortured arrangement to arrive at.

One of the other posts by @Remathilis back in the What Would Your Perfect 50th PHB Class List Be? is as follows:

The typical method of pairing down classes always goes something like this:

• There are too many/arbitrary classes in D&D. Let's fix that!
• Well, we can combine similar classes into one, like making barbarian a part of fighter.
• Well, we've paired them down to like five or six, but D&D has classically only had the Core Four, so we can make the outliers fit into them.
• A.) OD&D only had three classes, we should replicate that and remove thief. B.) Magic is magic, let's combine mage and priest into one caster class.
• Actually, all you need is sword user and magic user. Two classes.
• Eh, screw it. Let's just go classless and allow you complete customization.

Not everyone gets to the final step: inertia to removing all guide rails is strong. But if you've gotten down to two, you just need balance magic costs and you can go full classless like M&M.

And so, the point of this thread really isn't "what are cool class lists in D&D?" and certainly not "what is the ideal class list in D&D?" it's "does there exist an elegant and thematic list of 6 D&D classes that includes everything most players would want from the game?"

[...]
Free Space
Just feats that let you mix and match the abilities of the others to roll your own.

Ha! you smuggled a classless system in at the last minute