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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hillsy7" data-source="post: 7185307" data-attributes="member: 6689191">I would agree that a true 'character-archetype-as-class' approach in D&D is somewhat hamstrung by balance, but I would pinpoint it more specifically and say it's hamstrung by balance in mechanics, and not persay issues with character concepts. Using your example, there are a number of "stab and cast" mechanical builds out there....Valor Bard, Several Clerics, All Paladins, Blade-lock, Eldrich Knight, Arcane Trickster, Elemental Monk, Moon Durid......However, your point stands in that they are adaptations of the base class bias (aside from the paladin really - and even then you can argue that the core mechanics lean heavily towards melee-smiting rather than Casting).....a bard is a full caster, as is a druid, and and EK is always going to hit things predominately. WotC made mechanical choices that, in many cases, blocked off half an archetype (my Druid example above).What you do allude to though, and you can argue the Sherlock Holmes Polymath/Samwise Gamgee Everyman mirror, is that by breaking mechanics from personality, certain classic Archetypes cannot be expressed. You mention the Combat Polymath, I would add the Flawed Genius to that list....the reason here is their balance is between personality OR mechanics, not between different aspects of their mechanics (which is where the classes are added). 5e with backgrounds did a bit to quantify parts of the personality aspect, but you can't choose negative background attributes in order to buff your mechanical prowess, such as a Sherlock Holmes type Flawed Genius. In your example, a character would need to be a full class Fighter & Wizard - and so would need some awful personality deficiency to compensate......It can only apply balance across one axis.Personally, I don't mind D&D doing this too much....if I wanted personality and mechanics to have equal balance across the game there are other systems, such as Fate, which do this better. D&D allows me to attach any eprsonality, knowing mechanically everything is in equalibrium.Actually, negative abilities in a class might be an interesting class mechanic.....hmmmm....</blockquote>

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