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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1993233" data-attributes="member: 10201">I'm gonna agree that the level titles were not helpful and, in fact, were counter-productive. In addition to often not being appropriate, and possibly implying a setting that you're not playing in, they serve to give the classes in-game reality. Really, IMHO, they are more an element of &quot;crunch&quot; than &quot;fluff&quot;, in that they tie you to the mechanics. I think the mechanics should just be the game rules, and the fluff whatever your group wants. However, some tools for bridging the two would be extremely helpful, IMHO. Precisely for those who want to divorce the two, and not be constrained by the rules. The Arcana Unearthed Players' Guide has a section on &quot;playing AU PCs&quot;, and within it, it has some discussions of how the classes relate to actual characters. First, at least 3 archetypes is given for each class--so, frex, an unfettered character might be a dashing swashbuckler, a spoiled noble, or a kid born to the streets. Then, it looks at some common archetypes--pirate, archer, assassin, priest--and gives suggestions on what classes to use to fulfill them. My players absolutely loved that second section, in particular. So, what i think the D&amp;D PH should do is ditch all that flavor text in the class descriptions--all that stuff before the game mechanics begin. Then replace it with a section discussing a whole lot of common PC archetypes, and give at least two suggestions for each on how to build that archetype with the game mechanics provided.Similarly, instead of PrCs or new core classes, a new setting need only have building advice. I'm running an &quot;Al Qadim&quot; game right now, and rather than create any new classes to fit the setting, i took all the archetypes that had warranted classes in the AD&amp;D2 version, and provided the players with the flavor text describing them, plus some suggestions on what races/classes/feats/skills to use to build that sort of character. [I did invent a couple new feats to cover some specific and unusual archetypes, like the spellthief, but that was about it].</blockquote>

[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 1993233, member: 10201"] I'm gonna agree that the level titles were not helpful and, in fact, were counter-productive. In addition to often not being appropriate, and possibly implying a setting that you're not playing in, they serve to give the classes in-game reality. Really, IMHO, they are more an element of "crunch" than "fluff", in that they tie you to the mechanics. I think the mechanics should just be the game rules, and the fluff whatever your group wants. However, some tools for bridging the two [i]would[/i] be extremely helpful, IMHO. Precisely for those who want to divorce the two, and not be constrained by the rules. The Arcana Unearthed Players' Guide has a section on "playing AU PCs", and within it, it has some discussions of how the classes relate to actual characters. First, at least 3 archetypes is given for each class--so, frex, an unfettered character might be a dashing swashbuckler, a spoiled noble, or a kid born to the streets. Then, it looks at some common archetypes--pirate, archer, assassin, priest--and gives suggestions on what classes to use to fulfill them. My players absolutely loved that second section, in particular. So, what i think the D&D PH should do is ditch all that flavor text in the class descriptions--all that stuff before the game mechanics begin. Then replace it with a section discussing a whole lot of common PC archetypes, and give at least two suggestions for each on how to build that archetype with the game mechanics provided. Similarly, instead of PrCs or new core classes, a new setting need only have building advice. I'm running an "Al Qadim" game right now, and rather than create any new classes to fit the setting, i took all the archetypes that had warranted classes in the AD&D2 version, and provided the players with the flavor text describing them, plus some suggestions on what races/classes/feats/skills to use to build that sort of character. [I [i]did[/i] invent a couple new feats to cover some specific and unusual archetypes, like the spellthief, but that was about it]. [/QUOTE]

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