Help me with Homebrew Classes - Meta Thread

[Celebrim]

Making the cleric a limited-list caster brings them too close to the favored soul and sorcerer, I think.

While I'd definately think about a spheres system and if some worked on out for me I might use it, I don't think that it worked that well in 2e and it would be a lot of work to successfully create one for 3e. It would probably vastly increase the number of spells that you'd need in your 'core'.

Moreover, as I stated in my first post, I'm only concerned with a very limited set of classes. So if I step on the toes of the 'favored soul' class - a class I honestly wasn't aware of before today - it doesn't bother me at all. I don't plan on using them. Looking at the class its exactly the sort of class I don't want to create. "You become an angel" is far too narrow of a concept for a class. It's a subclass of a subclass, and I already have ways to get there with existing rules and could create more on whim if a player had that as a concept.

The really interesting question is, "Does the cleric get out of tier 1 if I go this route?"

 

[Sekhmet]

Yes, a Cleric would be Tier 2, simply because he has to specialize, which is the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 classes.

 

[Greg K]

Clerics: I, personally, like to limit their spells to their deities domains and then a small list of spells shared by all clerics (e.g., augury, bestow curse, bless, remove curse, mark of justice, planar ally (each deity has a specific predetermined creature or two)). I'll also add a couple of other appropriate spells based on domain.

I also like to make them spontaneous divine casters as per Unearthed Arcana

Wizards: Some possibilities
a. Change memorization back to 1e
b. require wizards to finds spells on scroll or enemy spellbooks
c. make all wizards specialists and limit spells to the specialty
d. I've wanted to try giving them the bards spell progression. I know Andy Collins ran a campaign where you could only take levels every other level. In between, you had to take another class.

 

[Celebrim]

Clerics: I, personally, like to limit their spells to their deities domains and then a small list of spells shared by all clerics (e.g., augury, bestow curse, bless, remove curse, mark of justice, planar ally (each deity has a specific predetermined creature or two)). I'll also add a couple of other appropriate spells based on domain.

I also like to make them spontaneous divine casters as per Unearthed Arcana

This gets them too close to Shamans, which - unlike favored souls - are a class in use in the campaign.

Wizards: Some possibilities
b. require wizards to finds spells on scroll or enemy spellbooks

This I already do. There are no free spells just for leveling up, which means that when a Wizard levels he may or may not actually know any spells of the new level. Granted, it's rare that he doesn't, because he usually has killed some higher level wizard by that point and has their book.

 

[Greg K]

This gets them too close to Shamans, which - unlike favored souls - are a class in use in the campaign.

I use GR's Shaman as well

 

[Eldritch_Lord]

Moreover, as I stated in my first post, I'm only concerned with a very limited set of classes. So if I step on the toes of the 'favored soul' class - a class I honestly wasn't aware of before today - it doesn't bother me at all. I don't plan on using them. Looking at the class its exactly the sort of class I don't want to create. "You become an angel" is far too narrow of a concept for a class. It's a subclass of a subclass, and I already have ways to get there with existing rules and could create more on whim if a player had that as a concept.

My mistake; Sekhmet mentioned the favored soul so I thought it was in your list, but looking back it appears not. A limited-list cleric should be fine, then.

 

[Celebrim]

I use GR's Shaman as well

Have you ever had a character take on up to 15th level or higher?

 

[Greg K]

Have you ever had a character take on up to 15th level or higher?

No. I won't run past levels 10-12. When I was running D&D, the player of the Shaman moved to Northern California at level 4 and the campaign stopped at level 6 when two more players moved for school. I haven't run D&D since then and, currently, am using Savage Worlds for my non-supers gaming.