"Generic" Classes in Unearthed Arcana

[Kryndal Levik]

Has anyone made use of the "Generic Classes" as detailed in Unearthed Arcana? They've appealed to me ever since I first got the book, for some reason, and I was thinking about introducing them in a new campaign. They seem to simultaneously be more simple, yet offer more flexibility than the "standard" classes...

For those that have used/tried them- what's your experience been like? Are they more or less complex to use than the standard classes? Any impact on your campaign? Do players min/max (one thing I fear in using them)? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Crothian]

I think you either have to everyone use them or no one. My guys were never interested in them at all perfering the normal classes.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

Yeah, my intent was to have everyone in the campaign use them. They seem somehow... grittier, I don't know...

 

[Bront]

I didn't care for them, but I don't like the more generic classes in general, and they weren't quite balanced well for my taste from what I remember (I haven't looked at them in months though).

 

[Baragos]

I've considered using them in a campaign. Like the flexibility and customisability. But it's not for everyone I guess...

 

[Sammael]

I'm planning on using them eventually. But they don't fit my FR campaign at all.

 

[Turanil]

Personally, I would just allow the Expert class, added to the normal D&D classes.

 

[SWBaxter]

Yeah, my intent was to have everyone in the campaign use them. They seem somehow... grittier, I don't know...

They're not, really. Use something like wound points, armour as DR, and/or a lower massive damage threshold for grittiness. The generic classes are really just another philosophy of accessing a wide range of class abilities, by getting them through feats instead of multiclassing. I found UA's classes actually weren't particularly balanced when I tested them out, but that was only over a few sessions so it might have just been a bad run. The Expert in particular seemed to lag behind.

A better implementation, IMHO, is in Blue Rose/True20. It'd take a little work to convert them back to d20 (mostly figuring out what to do in terms of spellcasting), but it'd probably be less work than balancing the UA classes.

 

[Grazzt]

Green Ronin made use of them (good use of them) in Blue Rose and True20.

 

[Klaus]

A brazilian publisher released an OGL game titled First Adventure, with its own low-cost Player's Book and GM's Book. It uses the Generic Classes from UA, and offers "kits", showing how to turn one of these classes into something very similar to the core classes.