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Message: <blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 3290607" data-attributes="member: 2067">I do largely disagree with Psion about the PHBII classes being weak sauce. Though most new classes aren't stellar, the PHBII classes go a long way toward filling some archetypes that aren't extremely well-supported by the core rules. AE, instead, re-creates some archetypes...so it already has things that are fitting in the slot, and then it tries to cram more in the same slot.My own gut reaction to the classes:Akashic: "Delving Into Racial History" sounds kind of cool, but the mechanics aren't tied to the flavor, which I think is kind of tragic. Mechanics say "skill monkey," flavor says "semi-magical beings in touch with an unseen world of all experiences," I say ???Beguiler: A charm/illusionist specialist without the baggage of the bard? Perfect! They're a great trixster archetype; making a favored class for gnomes pretty easy. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Champion: Hoorah! Variant Paladins! Nice, but kind of unnessecary, I've got no problems with normal paladins.Knight: A "tanking" class if there ever was one, this fits a defensive warrior archetype quite well, in a way that acknowledges that successful defending involves more than just having a high AC.Dragon Shaman: A nice little support class, and a good way to represent a "tribal shaman" that doesn't need the spirit/OA baggage, or the cleric baggage. It comes with different baggage (the dragons), but at least the existence of dragons is largely assumed to be a universal within D&D. It does some new stuff with auras and breath weapons, too.Duskblade: Well....it's the elf-class. Fighter/Mage hybrid that doesn't have to overly sacrifice either...it's something that 3e has been waiting for since 2e, really. It's enough of an archetype that a prestige class shouldn't be nessecary, a base class works well.Greenbond: Take a druid, add some hippie "living planet" stuff, and you've got the greenbond (kind of fills the healer role with druidic motifs). You could also go play a druid or a nature-cleric, though I think the greenbond fills a nice role without either class's baggage. Still, it doesn't do anything new, really.Mageblade: The whole "weapon as the focus of your magic" thing seems a bit too...narrow....to be a base class in my mind. It's cool, but it doesn't give the class the archetypal status I think a good class really needs. The Duskblade avoids this by tying it to the elves, the mageblade stumbles here because its not tied down: "I'm a mage with a sword" doesn't hit me as a totally seperate class.Magister: Meh. Variant wizard. We've got a wizard. Heck, we've got two in the core (wizard and sorcerer). Magister has some new mechanics, but in the end, he's a wizard with the serial numbers filed off.Oathsworn: It's an interesting direction to take a monk, admittedly, and fills it with AE-specific flavor, but in the end, it's a variant monk.Ritual Warrior: Generally beloved. It's a cool concept and a nice archetype. Unfortunately, it's still something RPGs have yet to get truly elegant about handling mechanically...not monte's fault he was one of the first, though. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Runethane: Again, an idea that I think is a bit too narrow to be its own class, with mechanics that are as wonky as any other rune mechanics out there. Runes are a cool idea, but they probably shouldn't be their own seperate bag of magic, andI don't think it justifies the space it takes up, since its not much of a sperate concept.Totem Warrior: Pretty cool. Animals and martial arts have been together for long enough, and this melds them well within the d20 system. Though, ideally, this would have been a mechanic anyone can take advantage of, it works okay as a base class.Unfettered: It's something that many have tried, and no one has gotten right yet, Monte included. Sneak Attack = Unsatisfying.Warmain: Pretty sweet, actually. It's good that there's a fighter focused on WAILING ON STUFF, since that's enough of a sperate archetype to warrant a new class. And this handles it pretty nicely.Witch: Can I say, for the record, how much I utterly loathe the fact that AE co-opted this word and then did *nothing* for the hag-style archetype? Instead you get something like crazy specialist-mages without a whole lot of justification. Mechanically, it's pretty cool, but there's little concept behind the mechanics, and none of it jives with what "witch" should be (in my mind) in a fantasy game.</blockquote>

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