D&D (2024) How quickly should WOTC add new classes?

[Minigiant]

Doesn't help that 99% of the playerbase also thinks that gish is a bad martial glued to a bad caster with absolutely no mechanics to mix them.

A fighter should hit a lot and do fancy manoeuvres with their sword.
A wizard should blast things with a fireball.
A swordmage should set their sword on fire and hit people with it.

More like 40%

Most of the community under 49 watched enough anime, Saturday morning cartoons, and action movies to know how a gish is supposed to fight.

It's literally, and its a bit ageist, only people who are over 55 or se who didn't grow up with that media who don't get it.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

More like 40%

Most of the community under 49 watched enough anime, Saturday morning cartoons, and action movies to know how a gish is supposed to fight.

It's literally, and its a bit ageist, only people who are over 55 or se who didn't grow up with that media who don't get it.

Nah tons of younger people who appeared during 5e also don't understand how a gish should play and don't want any more classes. You can tell it's also the 'arrived in 5e crowd' by how the PHB 12 are basically considered sacred, despite many of them not going all the way back to classic DnD. While PHB classes from older editions are completely ignored.

Gishes actually played well back in 3rd edition. And in 4th edition, and in pathfinder. Gishes being half a martial glued to half a caster is a new thing.

 

[Minigiant]

Nah tons of younger people who appeared during 5e also don't understand how a gish should play and don't want any more classes. You can tell it's also the 'arrived in 5e crowd' by how the PHB 12 are basically considered sacred, despite many of them not going all the way back to classic DnD. While PHB classes from older editions are completely ignored.

Gishes actually played well back in 3rd edition. And in 4th edition, and in pathfinder. Gishes being half a martial glued to half a caster is a new thing.

No I mean younger people grew up with cartoons and anime and comics with characters who fight like gishes.

So without even playing a 3e Duskblade, a 4e swordmage, or a PF2 magus my younger cousin watched Steven Universe and Black Clover and read Bleach and X-Men.

But if you were to ask the senior design team who Ichigo Kurosaki is, I'm not sure you'd get the correct answer in less than 5 minutes.

 

[Frozen_Heart]

No I mean younger people grew up with cartoons and anime and comics with characters who fight like gishes.

So without even playing a 3e Duskblade, a 4e swordmage, or a PF2 magus my younger cousin watched Steven Universe and Black Clover and read Bleach and X-Men.

But if you were to ask the senior design team who Ichigo Kurosaki is, I'm not sure you'd get the correct answer in less than 5 minutes.

To be fair, I've never watched anime either! I think my introduction to characters who have magic and weapons is Bionicle, and ironically they're pretty bad examples of gishes. They barely ever use their weapons, and instead just use them as arcane focuses to fire ranged spells most of the time.

They're the reason why I'd love an elemental themed swordmage though.

 

[Minigiant]

To be fair, I've never watched anime either! I think my introduction to characters who have magic and weapons is Bionicle, and ironically they're pretty bad examples of gishes. They barely ever use their weapons, and instead just use them as arcane focuses to fire ranged spells most of the time.

They're the reason why I'd love an elemental themed swordmage though.

Well that's the thing. Children, young adult, and adult fantasy and sci Fi have been full of gishes since the late 80s. So Millennials and Zoomers grew up with gishes. And "Cultured" Gen Xers as well.

 

[MoonSong]

Until someone at WotC realizes 'gish' means character that uses magic as part of blade craft instead of 'wizard who swords after he fireballs', we're never going to get a really good gish.

It's like with healers. Instead of making healing a mini-game that is equally fun and challenging, they opted to make healing as bland and unengaging as possible so "healers are more fun to play" because that way healers get to have fun by not healing.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Bland, unengaging and wholly ineffectual in combat.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If they give me an assassin, avenger (could even be merged with a remade monk), Captain, and a fighter that can actually lean far enough into things like being an archer, knight/cavalier, swashbuckler, etc, that it feels like playing a class named Archer, Cavalier, or Swashbuckler, I’d be thrilled with 1 new class per year-ish. Like aim for that, but iterate until it works for most people, and keep interacting even if it means skipping to a different concept for the next class to get published.

And Swordmage!

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well that's the thing. Children, young adult, and adult fantasy and sci Fi have been full of gishes since the late 80s. So Millennials and Zoomers grew up with gishes. And "Cultured" Gen Xers as well.

Yep. I grew up with the “Gish” being more normal than the “warrior” and “mage” being totally separate. Liono of the Thundercats had magical abilities!

 

[MGibster]

I'm going with Other. Let's put a freeze on new classes and simply bring kits back.