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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 5867604" data-attributes="member: 14159">Every being in the game world should either have stats, or be able to be depicted with the game system.  If a character is going to interact with the game world, it needs the framework of that interaction: i.e. rules.  It is a sloppy, poorly designed game system (IMO) that is unable to depict 90+% of the people in the game world it depicts.If a DM is running an adventure where a town is under siege by undead and what little help the PCs have is in a handful of town guards and the local priest. . .are we to assume he cannot participate in combat because he's not a Cleric, or does he magically become a Cleric once combat begins?  If the PC's need advice about a strange religious symbol they found, is the NPC more or less knowledgeable about religion than (How many NWP's/skill points does he have, what is his INT and WIS score, ect?)  What are his saving throws (if the PCs are going to try to Charm Person or Suggestion him if they can't talk him into something normally, for example)?If a PCs character background is that they were a humble, novice parish priest before being caught up in adventuring, and not a pseudo-Templar. . .do they get an underpowered class for having this background, or do they somehow automatically get the full Cleric power set including being skilled in the wearing of heavy armor. . .despite never training for it before those orcs attacked his temple? 3.x gives us the "Expert" class for these people.  2e did have a Blacksmith class, in the supplement "Sages and Specialists", for specialist classes meant mostly for NPCs, it also had a "Guide" class which it noted could be used for maritime navigators.  IMO, the Commoner, Warrior, and Expert classes were some of the good design decisions of 3.x.3e also gave us the Adept class, which in some ways was meant for non-adventuring Clergy, but as it tried to be the alchemist, tribal shaman, witch AND parish priest roles in one class it did most of the former better than the latter: a spell list blending the druid, Cleric and Wizard/Sorcerer lists, casting off of WIS, but getting a familiar, ect.The 2e AD&D PHB said that the Cleric was derived from the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaler, with Archbishop Turpin as an example (never mind the anachronism that the historic Archbishop Turpin lived about 300 years before those orders were founded.  The Cleric class was written to be a Knight, and treated by players and later authors as a parish priest, but keeping the Knight Templar skill set with the parish priest/party healer role.If a PC would rather play Friar Tuck (robes & staff, lots of support & healing abilities, modest melee ability) than Archbishop Turpin (Knight ordained to the Priesthood, hard-hitting melee fighter with combat/healing oriented spellcasting), he doesn't have much rules support.  The 2e AD&D PHB explicitly used Robin Hood as a good example of a Ranger, Alan-a-Dale as a good example of a Bard, and Little John as a good example of a Fighter.  It's funny that they have no class to support Friar Tuck, since he's so unlike the typical Cleric.</blockquote>

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