Complete Warrior and Miniatures Handbook Base Classes

[Remathilis]

Favored Soul: Bleh. Use the DL mystic, make FS a Prc.
Healer: I like the idea, but it seems like it'd be boring in the very game he was designed for (high combat)
Marshal: An interesting concept, not sure how it would work out though...
Warmage: Fine on its own, ruined by ANY full caster PrC. (Fighter1/Warmage6/Eldritch Knight?) Would have perferred it as a PrC.
Swashbuckler: Love the concept, might be a good class to pick up a level or two for bards and rogues. Duelist is a no-brainer, even if its only 3-4 level for canny def.
Samurai: A good class, maybe overshadowed by the OA samurai, but for a western campaign, he fills the role of the exotic warrior without being too repetitive with the fighter (my complaint on the OA samurai)
Hexblade: Looks fun, but its RP restriction makes it a hard character to PC with. Esp. in a group of mostly goods. Great antagonist though.

 

[Tzarevitch]

Here's my take:

Favored Soul: The bonus abilities are a bit strange and silly but I have always thought that divine casters should've been spontaneous casters.

Healer: Why was this needed? The cleric spell list is small enough without limiting it to healing spells. Why play this when a cleric can spont-cast most healing spells anyway AND keep the option to use different spells and domain spells?

Marshal: Cool concept. In my experience it works very well, expecially for npcs. One marshal commanding troops increases the troops' capabilities significantly. It is a lousy class to play for PCs but it is a good class for a PCs cohort if the players are in a military-minded campaign.

Warmage: A sorcerer with an even more limited spell selection. Oh joy! I like the idea, I think the implementation was not so good however. Personally I think the warmage's abilities should've been added to the sorcerer core class.

Swashbuckler: I like this one. It is a light fighter, a cross between a rogue and a standard heavy fighter. It nicely fills a niche that was otherwise empty.

Samurai: Lousy, lousy class. Leave aside the fact that it does not in any way resemble a historical samurai, you can create a two-weapon fighter with a fighter or a ranger and a good feat selection AND still have the option to do something else. Waste of page space in my opinion.

Hexblade: Whoah this class blows. Even moreso than the samurai. Mettle at 3rd level is its only credible ability. It tries to be an arcane paladin but forgets that arcane spells don't support the fighter/mage concept very well and the spell list that it was given support the fighter/mage concept even less. The hex ability is strange and nothing to write home about. Thankfully it doesn't really cost you anything to use although I'd rather have a fighter feat in its place. The class doesn't even take PrCs very well because PrCs kill the class' one real schtick (hexes).

The spells are just awful. Too many save-to-avoid spells. This class should have ray spells, touch spells, movement-enhancers and personal enhancement spells on its list like a proper fighter-mage not divinations and enchantment/charms. In short it should have spells that enhance its ability to fight not try to be a poor-man's sorcerer.

Caster level for the hexblade's spells is terrible (meaning that your spells don't last long and are startlingly easy to dispel and will never penetrate anyones SR). Add to this that you have a lot of spells that must be cast on someone else to be effective and you have a recipe for problems. No class needs the Arcane Strike feat more than this one (except perhaps Bards) because that is the only real way to get good flexibility out of your dinky spell list.

This class really should've been a PrC. Condense it into 10 levels and give it requirements that a fighter could find his way into at about lvl 5 or 6 (+5 BAB, Knowledge (Arcana) +5 ranks) and it becomes a pretty decent PrC (similar to the Templar in DoF). Also, open its spell list to all sorcerer spells. You only get 4 levels of them, you have a very limited number of them that you can ever know and your caster level is pretty lousy so what harm could it do?

Tzarevitch

 

[Remathilis]

As an academic exercise, has anyone TRIED to make Warmage/Healer/Marshal/Hexblade/Favored Soul INTO Prestige classes? Anyone wanna try?

 

[jgsugden]

The hexblade isn't as bad as you all think. I tried playing around with the concept a bit while designing some new NPCs. It is surprisingly interesting.

First of all, it is not a fighter/mage. Fighter/mages are primarily fighters that use magic to supplement their fighting ability. The hexblade is not designed to boost his fighting ability with his spells any more than a paladin or ranger is designed to boost his fighting abilities with his spells. The spells are primarily there to support the hexblade favor, not to boos this combat abilities. The best combat boosting spells for a hexblade come from his allies, just like a paladin or ranger.

Second, the curses should not be overlooked. Many people miss the most important aspect of the curse: It is a free action. There is nothing to indicate how many curses can be thrown out in a round (if multiple curses are available to the PC). A medium level NPC enemy hexblade can have a huge effect on a battle with the party. Effectively draining 8 points of strength from the front line fighters in a party before a massive battle gets going can be rather deadly - especially when you can't just dispel the loss. If that curse is effective, it is like the hexblade (and his allies) gained X points of AC and DR X/- against the cursed individual. Remember that these curses have an effect that lasts for a while and benefits the entire party, not just the hexblade.

Third, the familiar for the hexblade can be very nasty. Many players fail to make full use of a familiar in combat. They forget that familiars can deliver touch spells (to allies or enemies). They forget that (small and larger) familiars can be used to flank. They forget that familiars can perform actions (such as pulling levers, performing a weak C'dG, collecting items from a fallen foe, etc ...)

Finally, His AC is going to be roughly the same as a ranger or rogue. He'll take a lot of damage, but he has the hps to survive that damage, at least in the short term.

All in all, it is a decent class. Not overpowered, but not as underpowered as it appears at first glance.