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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 9762286" data-attributes="member: 7006">What works about the class and subclass system is that it gives players a pre-designed narrative for their characters, rather than asking the players to invent their own.If the game had just the flavorless Warrior / Expert / Spellcaster as their three "classes"... a player could decide that their "warrior's story" is one of a bare-chested, angry sod who wields a two-handed axe and goes crazy on the battlefield, killing everything in its path.  And none of that requires any game mechanics... it just be purely how the player chooses to run their warrior.On top of that... that same player might decide that the reason their "bare-chested, angry sod who wields a two-handed axe and goes crazy on the battlefield" is killing everything in its path is because their warrior is insanely devoted to the God of War in the setting.  They will try and emulate their god with every action they take.  And again... none of this requires game mechanics, it's also just the story the player has decided on in their head for why their character does what it does.But this player is not all players.  Not all players will necessarily have the desire or creativity to come up with a story like this.  So to allow for those players to have something different each time they play... the game creates a certain number of Classes that gives the players those stories.  And then on top of that... the game further creates a certain number of Subclasses that gives those players even more detail to those stories.The more Classes the game has, the more diverse types of character stories the game is giving players to play without them needing to think them up themselves (and in addition, gives them new and different game mechanics they might not otherwise get to use.)  And the more Subclasses the game has... the more detail the world and its inhabitants have.  So there's nothing inherently wrong with having more Classes and more Subclasses because that just gives us all more stories to play.  But it does mean it also gives us more game mechanics to have to learn, and for the designers to have to try and balance.  But that balancing can be a pain in the freaking butt.  And is usually the biggest thing that players will complain and whine incessantly about moreso than any other thing in the game-- that so-and-so ability or feature isn't "balanced".Why else do the designers make almost any new supernatural feature a "spell"?  Because they know how to balance spells.  Balanced enough not to piss off the "balance police" part of the gaming populace.  And better that than trying to create entirely new game systems (like say for psionics) that are somehow different but also equal (and balanced) to the stuff the game already has.</blockquote>

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