Class Books: How would you do them?

[DDK]

This is much along the same lines as the Dragon mag thread. I'm curious about what you would like to see in a class book.

There are the WotC splatbooks and the Quint books and the various paladin, assassin, etc. PDF's and whatnot, so you've got a lot to draw from in terms of what features you think are good, bad, ugly or missing.

That's sortof what I'm curious about, basically. What features in a class book would you keep, excise or add?

 

[Arnwyn]

Uh, how about "not doing any more"?

(Yeah, yeah, I know this isn't helpful, but I'm sick and tired of companies out there wasting their resources on books I have no use for. Of course, I'm sure everyone else does use them, so too bad for me.)

 

[BiggusGeekus@Work]

1) Keep the format the same for all the books. I can't find anything in the WotC classbooks because the different authors put thier content in different orders.

2) Plan out what you want for each book and make sure one book doesn't step on another book's turf. Can someone give me a reason why the seduction use for Bluff is in the fighter/monk book rather than the rogue/bard book? ("Baby, I love you like I love my FLYING DRAGON KICK!")

3) One or two NPC-oriented PrCs/feats is fine. Not more than that though.

4) New non-magical equipment is always nice.

5) Ways to develop the character. Yes, this is very power-gamer-ish. But maybe someone wants to play a ranger who is the best with the bow. What's the fastest and most efficient way to do that? Answer those questions.

... just my two cents ... except for the flying dragon kick joke which is worth an extra nickel.

 

[diaglo]

Uh, how about "not doing any more"?

(Yeah, yeah, I know this isn't helpful, but I'm sick and tired of companies out there wasting their resources on books I have no use for. Of course, I'm sure everyone else does use them, so too bad for me.)

i vote for this one.

basically, i find what is important already exists in the PHB. and if i want anything more. i ask the people i'm gaming with for their advice. or i go to the internet.

 

[Drawmack]

Here is what I would like to see:

Ch 1: Building an effective X - give me some ideas on how to make my numbers match my character concept

Ch 2: Feats & Skills - No don't give me 100 new ones give me some interesting combinations this class can use and tie it in with the character concepts from ch 1

Ch 3: PrCs:

Ch 4: Rules for this class (will be vastly different for every class but would include some changes, clarifycations and optional rules)

Ch 5: Non-Adventuring characters - tell me about the high ranking church officials. Things that I can want for my character after he retires.

Ch 6: Example Characters - bunch of full fledged NPCs of this class of different levels with a rich background and complete stat block.

 

[Nightfall]

I'm just waiting for people to come up to me and say "Gee Nightfall that was a great spell you put in Player's Guide to Wizards, Bards and Sorcerers!" At least three times please.

 

[DDK]

1) Keep the format the same for all the books. I can't find anything in the WotC classbooks because the different authors put thier content in different orders.

Yes! Definitely! Cripes, you'd think they woulda learned from the Handbooks...

2) Plan out what you want for each book and make sure one book doesn't step on another book's turf. Can someone give me a reason why the seduction use for Bluff is in the fighter/monk book rather than the rogue/bard book? ("Baby, I love you like I love my FLYING DRAGON KICK!")

I think this'd be pretty hard seeing as you can get genre cross-overs which create class cross-overs. Like a swashbuckler. You could have it as a fighter or a rogue... in which book would you have it written up in?

Here is what I would like to see:

Ch 1: Building an effective X - give me some ideas on how to make my numbers match my character concept

Ch 2: Feats & Skills - No don't give me 100 new ones give me some interesting combinations this class can use and tie it in with the character concepts from ch 1

5) Ways to develop the character. Yes, this is very power-gamer-ish. But maybe someone wants to play a ranger who is the best with the bow. What's the fastest and most efficient way to do that? Answer those questions.

See, I would've thought these things would be something you'd leave up to the players and DM's. Would suggestions like these really go down well with many people or would they be seen more as, "Sheesh, I coulda thought of that, what a waste of paper."

Uh, how about "not doing any more"?

Heh, well, I'm not about to do one if that's what you're thinking but I figured that since the WotC folks and a goodly number of all the other publishers and writers frequent these boards, that any revisions that may be coming up (you do realize that 3.5 ed. means revisions of EVERYTHING, right?) that they could at least get it right this time around

I'm just waiting for people to come up to me and say "Gee Nightfall that was a great spell you put in Player's Guide to Wizards, Bards and Sorcerers!" At least three times please.

I would... but I've never heard of it

 

[Technik4]

PHB II

Hey they make a monsters manual 2, why not a phb 2. Combine all the splatbooks, cut the npc-prcs. revise and errata what needs to be, make it hardbound, add some 3rd party outstanding stuff and BAM. You got a big ol class book I would buy

I would drop all the organizational stuff, include all the equipment, all the feats, all the spells. It would definitely be a handy resource.

And I already own all the splat books once.

Technik

 

[BiggusGeekus]

See, I would've thought these things would be something you'd leave up to the players and DM's. Would suggestions like these really go down well with many people or would they be seen more as, "Sheesh, I coulda thought of that, what a waste of paper."

People are going to say that no matter what. Part of doing a classbook is touching on some tried-and-true themes. For instance, the fighter book is going to have some kind of non-magical jousting knight ... duh. This is obvious and something every DM who runs feudal-European based games has already thought about.

But some players are crummy powergamers and they want to powergame as part of their character. For instance, take a player who wants his character to be "the best swordsman in the world". The player may be a great role-player, but may not have a great idea about the most efficient way to spend his skills, feats, and levels. The result is that by level 5 he's being out performed in melee combat by another character. It is frustrating when another character out performs you in your own niche.

I'm not talking a big section of the book. Just a quick level 1-20 table not unlike the ones in the latest issue of Dragon

 

[Nightfall]

I would... but I've never heard of it

Sword and Sorcery Studios (S&SS) is doing their own Player's Guide/Class books. I did a few spells in that book.