Favorite Non-Core Base Class (Redux)

[Psion]

Psion and Psychic warrior work for me.

Few of the Complete Blah classes do much for me. I find they overlap too much with the existing classes. And in particular, I hold the CW Samurai in particularly low regard ("with the burning hatred of one thousand suns") and see it as a prime example of bad design and ways you should not design a core class.

Warlock is an interesting concept, but I feel Green Ronin's Eldritch Weaver does the same concept better.

I like the Hexblade. I want to like it more. I think it needs a bit stronger backstory element to link it to an existing campaign. As it is, I really don't understand why they exist. As it stands, it seems like they are just "guys real good at fighting and (literal) cursing."

 

[archastrel]

I'm surprised you can't extrapolate from the abbreviations, but they're in the The Complete Arcane and The Complete Adventurer, respectively.

Thanks. I'm terrible with remembering names, (books, people, whatever), and so I couldn't reverse the abbreviations into book titles.

 

[Bront]

I like the Swashbuckler, though I think they could have left a few bonus feats open instead of the way they went. Give the class a bit more variety.

I like the Psychic Warrior. Strangely, if they had created a Fighter/Mage along these lines, it would have been cool. There is no generic Fighter/Psion because of the Psychic warrior, which I think is a good thing.

I also like the Artifacer. A PC Playable character that makes item creation, in my oppinion, a much more viable PC option. I've never been a big fan of PC's manufacturing items, but this works well with that concept, and makes me actualy accept it and willing to try it.

I never bothered to look at the oriental classes, because I generaly don't feel they fit into what I do in a RP sense.

I'm not a huge fan of the dark bent of the Hex Blade or Warlock classes. Though, I'm generaly not a huge fan of core classes being allignment restricted (Paladin included, which is why I like the UA Paladin Variants, and yes I know there are others). I think with the warlock, you could easily expand it to fit with anyone who has made an arcane deal with an entity, good or evil. Not sure how to fix the hex blade.

I do like the scout, but generaly for my concepts I've been better off with a Ranger/Thief. My only problem with the scout's power is that it requires him to move around more, which I think can be counter to a more stealthy approach, which generaly fits my ideas more.

The Favored Soul is a good try, but I think it is a bit too specific, and I don't care for the whole wings thing. I still may try playing one at some point though. I did enjoy my UA variant spontanoious cleric.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Favor Soul, I like the concept, but think it could be mechanically way better than it is...

Healer, one of my favorite characters I’ve ever played is one and I couldn’t have pulled it off with any other class but wow… It surely is weak.

I voted for those two.

I also voted for the scout. It adds something that I rather dislike about the ranger… (No spells) but it’s also not exactly what I would want.

To me WotC isn’t very good with adding classes to the game cause they need to make them as generic as possible.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Artificer - I like the folkloric archetype of magicworkers who create items and/or imbue them with power, and the artificer is a good implementation of it for D&D.

Psion - The Expanded Psionics Handbook is a balanced and interesting implementation of psionics.

Warlock - Flavourful, revolutionary without being imbalanced, and just plain interesting.

 

[Nifft]

Excellent! Now I can persecute anyone who likes the Samurai!

-- N

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Excellent! Now I can persecute anyone who likes the Samurai!

I don't think there's enough to persecute.

I'm shocked that the Healer isn't dead last... Are people voting while thinking about PCs only or with cohorts in mind also?

 

[Psion]

I'm shocked that the Healer isn't dead last... Are people voting while thinking about PCs only or with cohorts in mind also?

Well, while I'd never play one, a request to do so in my game wouldn't be greeted with an icy glare and a "hell no" as in the case of a CW samurai.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Well, while I'd never play one, a request to do so in my game wouldn't be greeted with an icy glare and a "hell no" as in the case of a CW samurai.

I've played a healer, great character, but it’s a pretty weak class and we had to house rule a few things to make it playable. Like the ability to spontaneous cast healing spells like a good and some neutral clerics can do.

 

[Gez]

I played a warforged healer. Not the ideal power-play combination, but the concept was rather original.

Though IMC, I'd modify the healer that way: Spellcasting, BAB, and save progressions are left unmodified, and each ability that isn't rewritten below is likewise unmodified.

Level  Special
  1    Healing Hands
  2    Skill Focus (Heal)
  3    Cleanse paralysis
  4    Cleanse disease
  5    Cleanse fear
  6    Cleanse poison
  7    Effortless healing
  8    Unicorn companion
  9    Cleanse blindness
 10    Cleanse spirit
 11    --
 12    Extra cleansing 1/day
 13    Cleanse petrification
 14    Extra cleansing 2/day
 15    New limb
 16    Extra cleansing 3/day
 17    --
 18    Extra cleansing 4/day
 19    --
 20    Extra cleansing 5/day, new life

Healing Hands (Ex): Whenever a healer casts a spell of the healing subschool that she casts as a healer (not by virtue of levels in another class), she adds her Charisma bonus to the amount of damage healed.
In addition, a healer may lay on hands as a standard action, restoring up to her healer level times her Charisma bonus hit points per day. She may choose to divide this healing among multiple recipients, and she doesn't have to use it all at once. If she has levels in other classes granting lay on hands (for example, paladin), the class levels stack for purpose of this ability.

Extra Cleansing: Starting at 12th level a healer gets to use her cleansing abilities more often. She can use extra cleansing to get one additional use this day of a cleansing ability (cleanse paralysis, cleanse disease, cleanse fear, cleanse poison, cleason blindness, cleanse spirit, and clease petrification) she already used. For example, a 16th level healer could use cleanse petrification four times, and each of the other cleansing ability once one day. Or she could use cleanse petrification, cleanse poison, and cleanse blindness each twice, or any other combination. Extra cleansing doesn't apply to the New Life and New Limb abilities.