I have the PHII...

[Greg K]

The duskblade, to my mind, seems narrow because of some of the class features, such as delivering spells throgh a weapon attack, or lowering spell resistance with a successful attack. To me, those should be the province of feats, thus allowing any aspiring warrior-mage to take them.

The above pretty much sums up my take on the matter.

 

[Agent Oracle]

I just started a new campaign, my 1st level dwarven Knight is Powerful. He only has a 15 STR, and he's alleady proven himself more effective in melee than the 1st level human fighter with an 18.

I took "Improved Unarmed strike" as my starting feat, since I can't hit a foe for leithal damage when they are at a disadvantage, I had a lariet made for my axe so I can let go of it to punch somebody without dropping it. So now when a foe is "helpless", i just subdural them. I "subdural'd" the Big bad Hobgoblin leader so we could bring him back alive.

The ability to "Call out" the boss of a group of enemies is pretty powerful stuff. It allready saved the hiney of our party's spellcaster once, and it'll probably serve me well in the future (as long as I keep rolling high hit points). The starting gold was rough on my character, having to invest all 150 into my armor, starting weapons, and a healing potion means I'm a little short on cash, even after our first encounter's windfalls.

 

[Particle_Man]

Y'know, now I am curious as to how a party of 4, one of each of the PHB II classes (no multi-classing, no prestige classes, just same class 1-20) would fare. I think it would be a little more grim and gritty, and at high levels there would be less God magic, but it might make for an interesting campaign.

Hmmm...what if those (and the five NPC classes) were the only classes that existed? How would the world's setting be different?

 

[Agent Oracle]

Well... the healing would be REALLY weak for one thing. I mean, the Knight has no healing skills, the Dragon Shaman's auras are minimal, the duskblade is arcane, and so is the Beguiler.

 

[Andor]

Y'know, now I am curious as to how a party of 4, one of each of the PHB II classes (no multi-classing, no prestige classes, just same class 1-20) would fare. I think it would be a little more grim and gritty, and at high levels there would be less God magic, but it might make for an interesting campaign.

Hmmm...what if those (and the five NPC classes) were the only classes that existed? How would the world's setting be different?

That would be interesting. The only healer would be the Dragon Shamans(and adepts), and they get less healing and at a higher level than clerics, so magical healing would be rarer and more precious than by default. By further implication there are no gods, or at least no gods that empower clerics (Unless you count whatever empowers adepts) and so Dragons are the highest power one can appeal to.

The most powerful casters are Beguilers, followed by Adepts, followed by Duskblades. That would really change the feel of magic. I kinda like that.

With the only full BAB PC classes as the Knight and Duskblade you have a choice of Honor or Magic... Interesting distinction there. I'm digging the feel of this world.

I think it would also bring the NPC classes to the fore, or at least make them more attractive. Want lots of skills? Expert, since there is no rogue. Want a full BAB without an honor code, or spellcasting? Warrior.

It would take some world construction to really suss things out, but I think you could make a pretty cool campaign that way. And it would, oddly enough, reflect that 'Magic is an untrustworty force, and those who use it are dark' vibe that so many people seem to like, in sipte of the fact that only one of the 4 PC classes is mundane!

 

[hong]

I took "Improved Unarmed strike" as my starting feat, since I can't hit a foe for leithal damage when they are at a disadvantage, I had a lariet made for my axe so I can let go of it to punch somebody without dropping it. So now when a foe is "helpless", i just subdural them. I "subdural'd" the Big bad Hobgoblin leader so we could bring him back alive.

So what you're saying is... you make their heads explode? Whoa d00d!

 

[Particle_Man]

By further implication there are no gods, or at least no gods that empower clerics (Unless you count whatever empowers adepts) and so Dragons are the highest power one can appeal to.

I am liking this more and more. I wonder if I can sell some players on it. I might tweak a few things: Dragons would have access to the beguiler, duskblade and adept spell lists, plus enchantment and illusions spells on the sorc/wiz spell list.
I might limit PC races to dwarf (Favored class: Knight), Gnome (Favored class: Beguiler), Elf (Favored class: Duskblade), half-elf and human (the other two races might exist, but as npcs, since the focus would be on the pc classes and the races most likely to adopt them).
Adept sources of magic...well Tiamat and Bahamut are obvious contenders here, although I personally would want them more behind the scenes and less "in your face" so maybe they would be named and believed in, but not present (and since (I think!) there are no summoning (calling) or gate spells or other interplanar travel spells (except shadow walk, and etherealness and etheral jaunt, (and technically dimension door, but that doesn't seem useable for travel too a plane (except for a one way trip to the astral plane!) which I think avoids the other planes), this might work).
Magic Items: Either I would have to change some of the spell prerequisites of some of these items, or there would be less magic items (and less variety in what is found, unless I do some homework).

Trouble is, I like making settings like this, but I can see how a player might not like such a strict class (and less strict race) restriction. Mind you, it would be a nice way to try out the four classes in play.

So, I guess I would reiterate that I have no problem with the four classes mechanically, and "fluff-wise" while on the fence with dragon shamans in a "standard" campaign, could see one working in the campaign tailored more for them.

 

[mmu1]

Figured I'd Brag

My favorite part of PHB II is that I'm in it. My current GM is one of the writers, and I ended up as one of the players (Matt, the guy running Jozan) in the Chapter 7 play example. The other people (William, Wendy and Leigh (in reality, Lee, I believe the name got changed to keep the genders of the sample players and characters even) are some of our other friends.

 

[Agent Oracle]

Wow, way to go mmu1! Let's hope we all get to know authors for future expansions.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

delted