Ever play an Expert?

[JPL]

And if so, how did that work out for you?

And what was his field of expertise?

 

[diaglo]

yes. back in 1981 or so. iirc, the module was Isle of Dread.

 

[JPL]

Was this 1st Edition AD&D? What was your guy like in terms of stats?

I remember trying to extrapolate a Sage PC class from the materials on NPC sages in the DMG 1st Edition...never quite got that figured out, but I still like the idea of playing a sage.

Something like a diviner/bard might be more playable as a sage rather than playing an expert, but still...

 

[DaveMage]

I think Diaglo is referring to a character using the Expert D&D rules.

But, as for the "experts" of 2e and 3e, I don't have enough gaming hours to experiment like that.

I still haven't gotten to play about 6 of the 3e standard classes yet!

 

[diaglo]

i have a 1edADnD sage posted on dragonsfoot i think.

other sources to consider of course are the DSG and WSG and OA from 1edADnD. this is where NWP really started to go ape...

N4 Treasure Hunt and the Greyhawk Adventures Hardback also had rules for playing 0 lvl characters...

and the Dragon article on the Cavalier. with 2 negative levels to consider before becoming a real Cavalier.

 

[JPL]

I think Diaglo is referring to a character using the Expert D&D rules.

Ah. I see.

To further clarify...I'm talking the DMG 3.0/3.5 NPC class, not the Unearthed Arcana class [although for the purposes of playing a highly skilled nontraditional PC, the latter is very interesting].

 

[candidus_cogitens]

If I ever start a campaign from scratch again, I will require players to take two levels or so in one of the NPC classes before they can qualify for a normal class. I like low-power games. This way, the normal classes become almost like prestige classes. Got the idea from Dragon magazine about two years ago, in an issue about George R. R. Martin.

 

[painandgreed]

In 1E, we had our own class called "Mundane" which was essentially the same as the current Expert class. We had one or two PCs take some levels in it to get the skill points (also had our own skill system since 1E didn't really have one).

 

[Achan hiArusa]

The UA expert

Didn't really like it. I would boost his skill points to rogue levels and let him have feats as a fighter (number, he would not be limited to a list). That way he would be on par with a rogue, but the player would have the freedom to make what he wanted.

 

[Crothian]

And if so, how did that work out for you?

And what was his field of expertise?

Not yet, but a guy I know is working on the Quintessential Expert, and considering I really liked what he did with the Aristocrat I'm eagerly looking forward to it.