Eight is Enough: How Many Classes?

[Kaffis]

I think they already stated that this might not exactly happen, because some of these combinations might not make much sense or be hard to work out (what does a Martial Controller do?), and we (or rather: they as designers) shouldn't let ourselves be fooled otherwise just because the symmetry looks so nice.

A martial controller buckles swashes. Thus, you have the Wizard, Druid, and Swashbuckler.

The one I have trouble with is the arcane defender. I suppose it could take the form of a buffing class, but bleah. Hrm. Illusionist as arcane defender? Go-go blurred mirror images!

Most of the rest are already accounted for. Martial and divine defenders, check; martial and divine leaders, check; arcane and divine controllers (and now, martial), check... It's the strikers that get messiest overall.. rogue is martial, to be sure. But then, what's the ranger? Sure, we can make him a divine striker, but lots of people hate the ranger as druid-lite flavor. Meh. I'm just glad I'm not trying to categorize ranger for the masses ... no matter what you do, you're bound to make enemies. =)

 

[Snapdragyn]

I would actually go a re-visioned barbarian for a martial controller, using warcries to intimidate opponents & immobilize them with fear. I think arcane defender has already been mentioned for the swordmage (or whatever name they used) that is likely to show up in a later PHBx.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

A martial controller buckles swashes. Thus, you have the Wizard, Druid, and Swashbuckler.

The one I have trouble with is the arcane defender. I suppose it could take the form of a buffing class, but bleah. Hrm. Illusionist as arcane defender? Go-go blurred mirror images!

They've alreaqdy said what the first arcane defender is... the Swordmage> They had to start working ont he class mechanics since the book of the same name is due out in May. Its an arcane caster who works magic on himself to improved his physical abilities, shield himself from harm, and enchant his weapons. Essentially your Shadowrun physcial adept.

Most of the rest are already accounted for.arcane and divine controllers (and now, martial), check...

The only controller confirmed so far is the Wizard. The warlock was hinted as being a controller, but again, it seems redundant to put the only 2 arcane classes as controlelrs and the only 2 controllers as arcane when they are trying to make the classes feel and play differently.

 

[Kaffis]

Yeah, I was going along with the school that thinks warlock may well get moved to the striker territory, as I find the redundancy pointless, too. So I was throwing druid in as a controller (since I don't think anybody doubts that druid would make a 12-class cut).

 

[Toryx]

I said that I had asked because the Internet was taking 8 classes as a given--and I do think that EN World has placed too much weight on a comment that may no longer be relevant and that it seems other WotC folks have backed off from--and he told me that that would probably the 'middle of the range' figure that we'd get.

That particularly statement is about as non-concrete as you can get. It's like asking how many trees there are in a forest and being told, "There are trees." He's just confirming the assumption that if it's between 12 classes and 4, 8 would be a good average guess.

As far as Logan goes, suppose Wizards had decided on 8 classes. Then suppose they decided not to ever make a blanket statement about how many classes there really would be. Then one day Logan comes along and says, "There are 8 classes." Now suppose that the high mucky mucks at Wizards heard what he did and strung him from his toes in one of the conference rooms for a couple of playtests as punishment.

It stands to reason that Mearls wouldn't make a concrete statement. I mean, really, who wants to be strung by their toes during a playtest?

Besides, it may be that playtesting has shown that one of the classes is simply broken, and they don't have time to fix it. Not sticking to a straight number gives them the flexibility to drop or add another class.

As for the possibility of 12 classes? Come on, there's only so many pages in the bloody book. 12 classes would be ridiculous.

 

[Lord Fyre]

v) We are witnessing a battle within Wizards R&D over the number of classes in the PHB. Soon, one of them will the found floating face down in Puget Sound, and a press conference will be held where "the one, true number of classes in the PHB" will be revealed.

For some reason I particularly like this option.

 

[SteveC]

Really, do we need more than 4 classes?

<King Lear>What need one?</King Lear>
There's a joke that only the most extreme English Lit majors out there will get...

But seriously: if you're going to go and create these new "power sources" and "roles" out of whole cloth, it only makes sense to have power sources x roles classes, so in this case you'd be talking about 12 classes.

I don't think there would be much trouble at all taking an existing class and fitting it to one of the roles, except in the case of the martial power source, but it could certainly be made to work. Just looking at Rolemaster will give you more than enough examples to fill the roles.

I hope that is what they decide to do, because otherwise if the assumption is you're going to have a character for each of the roles, someone is going to have less of a choice concerning their class than others. Isn't that one of the things they want to remove?

Just my $.02.

--Steve

 

[howandwhy99]

Re: "Eight is Enough"

If you play your cards right, you can be a Ranger named Hank with a power bow in Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[Imp]

The one I have trouble with is the arcane defender. I suppose it could take the form of a buffing class, but bleah. Hrm. Illusionist as arcane defender? Go-go blurred mirror images!

Guy in a golem suit/ animated armor? Master of short-range telekinesis? Quester for total arcane immortality? Re-imagined spellsword? Shapeshifter? All sorts of possibilities. Though I confess I am already sick of this "power-source + role = concept" business and I haven't even seen the results yet.

I imagine they'll have ten classes in there. Two surprises!

 

[Belorin]

After reading what I could find on the roles, there was early mention of a grid that suggested what class fit best in what role, I'm doing this from memory so I could be wrong.

-------------Leader-----Defender-----Controller-----Striker

Martial------Warlord-----Fighter------XXXXXXX------Rogue

Divine--------Cleric------Paladin------OOOOOO------Ranger

Arcane------OOOOOO----XXXXXX-----Wizard--------Warlock

As you can see there are some gaps and there are some roles I believe that certain Power Sources can't fill. Like a Martial Controller or an Arcane Defender. Clerics could fill the Divine Controller slot and Wizard the Arcane Leader by judicious selection of skills, feats, talents, etc.
Now some may argue that the Ranger is a Martial Striker, but I can't see doubling up on those and leaving yet another open slot. There has been talk in other threads about there being more than 8 classes and if so look for them to fill in at least one of the emppty slots.
This is all conjecture on my part so far so take it with a grain of salt.

Bel