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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Dealing with Unnecessary Classes
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<blockquote data-quote="Meatboy" data-source="post: 6143448" data-attributes="member: 40857"><p>For 4e what I mean is that the system itself is codified and rigid. Look at sorcerers and wizards from 3e pretty much the same class but achieved different ways. With 4e AEDU power schedule you couldn't do that. </p><p>Making a whole new class in 3e was pretty easy. Think of a schtick, pick an appropriate hit die, advancement tables for attack bonus and saves, amount of skills and a list. Then using the schtick design a few interesting things to fill up levels to 20. </p><p>I've made plenty of classes for 3e this way and its fun and relatively quick. In 4e I've made 2 classes and only for first level. Seriously designing what amounts to a whole spell list for 30 levels worth of stuff and making sure it works with other classes without stepping on toes is a nightmare. </p><p>4e is ok for house ruling if you want to add a power here or there or make your own monsters, which I found both fun and easy. But If I wanted to make wholesale changes to rules I found it everything was just too interwoven and didn't respond well to tinkering.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Regarding the skill thing. Why should class A have more skills than class B? It all boils down to siloing and the game forcing teamwork on the players. When one class can't do everything, as was the case pre 3e, then you need to have a mix of classes so that when the problems crop up you have some one who can deal with them. Traditionally thieves are the skill monkeys it was their job to scout, find traps, locks, look outs and deal with them then get back to the party and let them know whats up. In pre 3e editions this meant having special thief only abilities but when 3e added the skill system things which had been thief only were then pushed over to the skill system that all classes had access to. But to be able to do the things they used to be able to do and still be better than other classes they needed to have a ton of additional skill points.</p><p>And your right any character should be able to do those things, but the rogue and bard should be better at them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Meatboy, post: 6143448, member: 40857"] For 4e what I mean is that the system itself is codified and rigid. Look at sorcerers and wizards from 3e pretty much the same class but achieved different ways. With 4e AEDU power schedule you couldn't do that. Making a whole new class in 3e was pretty easy. Think of a schtick, pick an appropriate hit die, advancement tables for attack bonus and saves, amount of skills and a list. Then using the schtick design a few interesting things to fill up levels to 20. I've made plenty of classes for 3e this way and its fun and relatively quick. In 4e I've made 2 classes and only for first level. Seriously designing what amounts to a whole spell list for 30 levels worth of stuff and making sure it works with other classes without stepping on toes is a nightmare. 4e is ok for house ruling if you want to add a power here or there or make your own monsters, which I found both fun and easy. But If I wanted to make wholesale changes to rules I found it everything was just too interwoven and didn't respond well to tinkering. Regarding the skill thing. Why should class A have more skills than class B? It all boils down to siloing and the game forcing teamwork on the players. When one class can't do everything, as was the case pre 3e, then you need to have a mix of classes so that when the problems crop up you have some one who can deal with them. Traditionally thieves are the skill monkeys it was their job to scout, find traps, locks, look outs and deal with them then get back to the party and let them know whats up. In pre 3e editions this meant having special thief only abilities but when 3e added the skill system things which had been thief only were then pushed over to the skill system that all classes had access to. But to be able to do the things they used to be able to do and still be better than other classes they needed to have a ton of additional skill points. And your right any character should be able to do those things, but the rogue and bard should be better at them. [/QUOTE]
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