How many classes do you prefer in a RPG?

[Roadkill101]

Originally posted by Drowbane
With Point Buy, I want as few flaws as possible. Every PB System I've played has been rather easy to break... so I avoid them currently. (I hear HERO 5th is good, but its a big damn book... not ready to absorb that much ).

Hero 5th is the game that introduced me to point buy systems. I never got my head wrapped around all the info until I actually played the game, even then I didn't get how to optimize a character until after I had quit playing. I like the way class-based templates were handled by giving various skill-sets, as were presented in the Fantasy Hero supplement.

My whole problem with class based games is that to me, classes come across as being restrictive. I read a lot and can't seem to build a character concept after a book character using class alone, not without having to multi-class or having to buy a lot of splat books to find a class that's close to the concept I want and even then I don't always get as close a match to the concept I had in mind.

With point-buy systems, I just buy into the skills I need to fit the character concept, and increase those skills from there as necessary.

 

[Wik]

I voted six, for a few reasons:

1) Class-based systems, while not offering the same customization options, allow for players to create characters without knowing much about the sytem - and, hopefully, those characters will be useful, since the system was built around them.
2) Each class should have a "role" (in D&D, there are four: fighter, sneak/expert, arcane/utility caster, and buffer) that works in the context of the game. I personally feel that three roles that a group needs to fulfill (in this case, I prefer a combat role, a utility/finesse role, and a skill user role; buffers be damned!) is a great number. I went with six classes to allow for three "mix" classes - combat/skill, combat/utility, and utility/skill.
3) Six is a good number to allow for powers and abilities to be customized for each class, while still feasibly allowing for game balance (basically, the more classes a game has, the more unbalanced the system tends to become).

 

[jmucchiello]

So I'd say no more than 5 for a game that's fun for everyone. I voted 4 because I'm a classic D&D junkie.

A true classic D&D junkie would say 3.

Depends on how much crossover is allowed. Can two classes have the same ability or is the division of abilities really strict? With crossover 10 is a good starting point. Without crossover, I'd go down to 3 or 4.

 

[Storm Raven]

Six is a good number. You need to cover the defender, the damage-disher, the sneak, the healer, the tank, and the gish. Fighter, monk, thief, cleric, mage, bard. Or some variation thereof. Everything else is just icing that can be roleplayed.

Se, I'd see the monk as being little more than a specialized fighter-thief combination, the bard as basically a mage-rogue combination, and the cleric and mage being essentially the same thing. For me, D&D works best with three classes: fighter, rogue, and wizard (with the wizard subsuming the spells currently on the cleric list).

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Zero here as well, for same reason I like my point-buy, leveless systems.

 

[Jdvn1]

Depends on the game.
I can't vote.

Cheers, -- N

I feel the same way.

But I kind of want to vote 42.

 

[Arkhandus]

What's the point of a class system though if all it serves to do is divide PCs into Fighters, Rogues, and Mages?

They'll start to be pretty boring after the 3rd or 4th nearly identical party of Fighter, Rogue, and Mage. Unless they put in enough options for each of those to differentiate themselves in many different campaigns, in which case, it's basically a point-buy system thinly veiled behind a forced choice of primary role (melee grunt, dodgy opportunist, and fragile blaster). Heavy multiclassing for each character to fit its concept would defeat the purpose of having a set of classes to choose from, as opposed to point-based character creation.

If a game's going to use a class system for simplicity, balance, or uniqueness (one class having different abilities and methods from the next one, even when they share a similar role) purposes, then it may as well have enough classes for that choice of class to actually matter and help define the character. Beyond just some weak, forced establishment of primary role.

Also, if you include so many options for 3 classes or so, it won't be much more newbie-friendly than a point-based system. And that's one of the main strengths of a class-based RPG system.

 

[Mallus]

None.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

I voted for 12. But it's a toss up between 9 and 12.

Classless systems like Vampire are ok, but I like class systems personally.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Here are some d20/OGL products with numbers of 'base classes', to give some people a few examples:

• D&D 3e: ~31-50(?) (the number of base classes found throughout all the WotC 3e books)
• Spycraft, 2nd edition: 12 (basic classes in the core book)
• Arcana Evolved: 12 (base classes in that book)
• D&D 3e: 11 (the number of classes in the PHB)
• Iron Heroes: 9/10 (base classes in the core book; 10 with Arcanist included)
• Conan, the Roleplaying Game (Atlantean edition): 8 (base classes in the core book)
• D&D 4e: 8(?) (possibly the number of base classes in the PHB I)
• d20 Modern or Grim Tales, etc.: 6 (the number of basic types of Hero, IOW base classes)
• Star Wars, Saga Edition: 5 (classes in the core book, IIRC)
• True20 or Blue Rose: 3 (the roles, or classes, found in the core rules, and assumed throughout other books)
• Mutants & Masterminds: 0, or 1, whichever you think more suitable (point-based)