Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Minigiant" data-source="post: 5903385" data-attributes="member: 63508">As I read the design goals of the fighter, rogue, and wizard and the blogposts of the designers; I am getting the feeling that the main role of the class aspect of your character is to determine the primary method and approach to obstacles and hostile situations.Gone is the default flavor of a class. Classes no longer  seem to be what you are but how you do it. Sure most thieves in most worlds will be rogues and most arcane adventuring scholars will be wizards but they don't have to be. Most of the direct flavor will be from background and theme. The wizard is no longer a smart old guy who is a master of the all the arcane spellcasting arts, the wizard is just a person who uses arcane Vancian spells.Classes are the now the primary method and approach from getting from Situation A to Situation B. Background and theme might (probably will due to balance) give you a secondary method of getting from A to B.A: A lord who doesn't want to spend resources helping you.B: A helpful lordA: Being on this side of a locked doorB: Being on That side of the doorA: 10 hostile goblinsB: No hostile goblinsA: In the elf villageB: in the dwarven cityWhen you have your current situation (A) to a preferred situation (B), your class JUST determines how you prefer to do it.Primary: Use your class<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use strong Combat ability and Natural toughness (Fighter)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use indirect and maybe shady schemes and tricks, and Additional skills (Rogue)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Cast powerful magic to remove or bypass issues (wizard)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Use decent combat ability and more subtle healing and enhancement magic (cleric)</li> </ol>Secondary:  Use your background, theme, and ability scoresSo now I wonder about the methods and approaches of the classes outside of the core four. Some are straightforward like the assassin. The assassin just kills people and if killing someone doesn't work, they must lean on their background and ability scores. Hostile goblins? KILL the goblins. Indifferent lord? KILL the lord's brother and scare him into helping. Locked door. KILL the lock. Can't KILL the lock and don't have knock prepared? Lean on your background and ability. Fail at Open Lock and the door Bash? Lean on your allies.But what about the classes like monk, paladin, ranger, warlock, etc? I'm sure the design team has plans for these and the playtest will tell them if we like the methods and approaches they choose.But the main thing a class brings is the method and approach to challenges. If you want to make a mobile warrior, you have to choose how well your character fights. If he or she is supposed to extremely skilled at fighting, you have to choose fighter (or barbarian, ranger, assassin, or monk) as those classes are straight up battlers. A caster is either subtle and supportive for cleric or powerful and versatile for wizard (or maybe repetitive and indirect for warlock or whatever they do for the sorceror for the sorceror). When you make the adventurer who solves problems with his fists, you have to choose how he uses his fists. Is he an excellent brawler who can pick up any weapon for when he can just punch through things (fighter)? Does he employ dirty tactics and additional skills to set up a suckerpunch (rogue)? Does he enchant his body with magic to boost his punching strength? Is his real method of doing things is via carefully chosen spells and the fist thing a method he really sucks at but likes using (wizard)?The major effect on the game may be how we evaluate our characters. You can't just jump to a default class for an idea. You must choose how your character really does things.For example, I had a character named Two-Eyes Thomas. He was a thief who fought up close with anyone who disrupted his entering attempts. If I were to remake him for 5E, I must discover his real method of doing things. Is he a fighter-thief and beat up or threaten to beat up anyone in his way to the chest? Or does he employ additional skills and dirty tactics on any obstacles he meets as a rogue-thief? Or was he a fighter/rogue who was a half decent fighter who cheated and used skills when an obstacles was too dangerous for his weak frame?Anyway, discuss if you think I am right with my assessment. Or if you agree with the methods and approaches being hinted at by the designers. Or if you like the change from a full archetype to a method delivery system for classes.</blockquote>

Verification