Class pallet for campaign world?

[Twiggly the Gnome]

I'm trying to come up with list of classes available for my world. I have 12 classes that have definitely made the cut; Fighter, Rogue, and 10 mystic classes. The mystic classes are associated with one of five elements and divided between scholarly and martial paths:

Fire - Wizard - Duskblade
Water - Cleric - Paladin (with UA varients)
Wood - Druid - Ranger
Earth - Artificer - Samurai (OA)
Air - Psion - Psychic Warrior

I'm not opposed to using Bards or Monks, but I just don't see a place for them to fit. I have a bit of a fetish for numeric symmetry so my ideal situation would be to have three other "mundane" classes, besides Fighter and Rogue, each with a slight elemental affinity. Any suggestions?

 

[RisnDevil]

The Knight, from PHB II.
The Marshal, from the Miniatures Handbook.
The Sohei, from Oriental Adventures.

Those are my top three suggestions, but you could also use the Barbarian.

 

[Turanil]

my ideal situation would be to have three other "mundane" classes, besides Fighter and Rogue, each with a slight elemental affinity. Any suggestions?

Well, my ideas would be:
-- Shugenja (OA) can probably fit where elemental affinity is concerned. They would make for a nice replacement of Sorcerer anyway.
-- Monk (PHB1) could be seen as having an affinity with the Ether element (taking inspiration from Japanese symbolic).
-- Barbarian (PHB1) cold have some slight affinity with the Earth element, dunno.

I cannot think of ways to give some elemental affinity to Bard (PHB1), Beguiler (PHB2), Dragon Shaman (PHB2), Knight (PHB2), or Sohei (OA).

 

[Nyaricus]

The bard would obviously be Air, since he uses his voice

Also See:

Water/Aquatic Paladin Build

Air Elemental Ranger Variant

Fire Variant Barbarian

Earth Variant Monk

Most of which I helped build, along with their OP DamionW. Awesome Classes, BTW

 

[Nyaricus]

Second Thoughts:

Since You want a martial/scholarly path for each, may I suggest a expert path as well, since the core class are essentually Spell Caster Guy, Fighting Man, Expert Dude. Given that:

Air: Psion - Psychic Warrior - [need expert]
Earth: Artificer - Samurai (OA) - Monk
Fire: Wizard - Duskblade - Barbarian - [duskblade is redunadant, need expert.]
Water: Cleric - Paladin (with UA varients) - need expert
Wood: Druid - Ranger - Scout (Complete Adventurer)

barbarian makes a good case with Fire, and Scout makes a nice 3rd for tea with Wood. You need experts for Air, Fire and Water, however. For air, I'd make the argument for Bard. Fire has the Duskblade, which you could either chuck or keep - personally I'd chuck and grab the Soul Blade, and flavour his Psionic Balde with Fire descriptors. With water you need an expert class, and I am not sure about the Spelltheif or Ninja -they just don't seem to cut it for either, so I am not sure what to suggest - but hopefuly I've helped in some way.

 

[Turanil]

Speaking of UA variants, if you don't know about them, let me suggest the races' elemental variants (Fire elves, Earth dwarves, Ice orcs, and what not).

 

[Nyaricus]

Speaking of UA variants, if you don't know about them, let me suggest the races' elemental variants (Fire elves, Earth dwarves, Ice orcs, and what not).

Good point, Turanil. Most of those "Enviroment" Books (Sandstorm, Frostfell, et al)have varients as well that may be worth your while to check out (Glacier Dwarves, Shoal Halflings, etc).

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Thanks for the all the suggestions. I think I'm good on casters and half-casters, so my main concern was perhaps adding some nonspellcasting classes that might provide unique roles in a party. So I'm probably more apt to use the Marshal than Bard. Letting them stand outside the element paradigm might be for the best. :\

I've thought of giving the races in the campaign certain elemental affinities, but the UA ones don't quite match up with what I have in mind. I have:

Gnome - Earth
Halfling - Water
Elf (small) - Wood
Goblin - Air
Kobold - Fire

This world doesn't really have any "gangly folk" in it.

 

[Nyaricus]

Bards are pretty unique, having 6 SkP/Level, some neat abilitites, and 2 good saves. I dunno, JMHO, but I think they fit in with air much better.

Anywho - do dwarves count as 'gangly'?

Because I'd call them earth more than the gnomes by far. In folklore, sure, both are associated with the earth (along with kobolds and goblins, in fact) but dwarves seem so much more... iconic.

Air - why not use raptorians from Races of the Wild? They have wings and everything!
Earth - I'd personally call it dwarves, but JM(no so)HO
Fire - orcs seem like a natural choice here, IMO. They are "hto tempered" and everything!
Water - halflings seem like an okay choice, and give us a race that's small size.
Wood - elves are a natural choice

Just some more ideas.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Part of the back story of the campaign involves a great cataclysm that devastates the planet. The smaller races were better able to survive on the scarce resources available, while (for the most part) the "gangly folk" died off. A small sized offshoot of the elf race survived, and the remnant of dwarfdom retreated into the earth and became the Derro (not availible as PCs).