A thread about fighters and one about monks got me thinking that a few of D&D's classes are really specific. We might be better suited if we made tweaks to them to make them more broadly applicable.
What I'd like to accomplish here is to identify baggage that classes have that prevent them from being used more broadly. It's odd to mention things that could be taken away from classes (and moved to Subclasses) as an improvement, but I do think there are a few.
The Ranger and Paladin are both rather specific. The Paladin was shifted to being about oaths instead of just LG and instead of inherently being tied to a deity. This oath connection helps differentiate a paladin from a fighter/cleric, and that's good! The ranger is another story and is its own thread, but I'll leave things open here in case people have ideas on what might be excess baggage.
The Druid is a very specific class. Wild Shape might be over applied. Without it, other nature oriented priests/spellcasters could be emulated.
The Bard is an interesting class, but it could be so much more if it didn't have it's tight connection to music and performances. What do I mean? The bard could serve as a magical interpretation of the Warlord (just like the paladin is the fantastical knight in shining armor, and the ranger is the fantastical woodsman). As the jack of all trades, the bard can also function well as a Hero class, referencing open JRPGs and the like where the protagonist character can do a little of everything.
The Monk could be made more diverse if they had a choice of their ki abilities. Choice here would allow the Monk to range from a more grounded martial artist to wild wuxai and anime inspired stuff. Tomorrow, I'll post something I've been working on in this regard.
The Fighter has an opportunity to make their heavy armor more of an optional thing. Dex fighters don't really get the full use of it, and might not even qualify for it, so making it an option could be good (trade heavy armor for an extra skill, for instance).
Last on my list, if the Rogue didn't have their thieves' tool proficiency and thieves' cant feature, they could apply to more characters. Nobles come to mind. Swashbucklers and other rogue archtypes don't necessarily need those thief trappings as well. They could be moved to the thief subclass or be part of the criminal background, and the rogue could get something else.