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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Technik4" data-source="post: 1058582" data-attributes="member: 7211">Well, I think this is a problem of all the non-basic classes. Look at the Monk, Ranger, Druid, Paladin, and Barbarian. Each one has many class abilities, but unless you are playing a specific character each of those abilities may not apply.Monk is easiest, since many monk abilities are just "there", while the overall emphasis is speed, stealth, and defense. Some abilities like Slow Fall are just hold-overs from older editions.The ranger does present a diverse amount of abilities, but talking 3.5 for now, they have an overall theme of wilderness tracking, stealth, and favored enemy fighting. Favored Enemy is all that really makes 2wf viable (imo, with the nerfing of Power Attack) and its icing on the cake for an archer. The stealth and tracking both fuel the favored enemy, as they are necessary abilities to stalk one's prey, and many of the class's spellcasting is suited towards that end. The light armor just further enhances the vision of someone chasing after someone, not someone gearing up then riding a horse (although a ranger can do that too). Perhaps if you tried one of your own tricks and renamed him Bounty Hunter you wouldn't have such a problem with it? It seems to be at least as widespread a class as Paladin, and quite a bit broader in terms of style of characters which can be created.The druid casts like a cleric (but a little worse), gets wilderness abilities, has oath restrictions, and eventually gets to turn into animals and elementals and stops aging. What does spellcasting have to do with wildshape? It seems like the barbarian should have the wildshape, as he has no spellcasting to lose while in wildshape (this is looking at the classes objectively, with no regard for what has come before). The druid gets abilities following a theme of nature, spellcasting, and animals. Their abilities mesh rather well.Paladin seems to be a far worse offender than ranger (in terms of having a cohesive group of abilities). Why can a paladin remove disease but not curses? All paladins are already cookie-cut to such a particular cast that it makes the act of making one different exhausting. Race and feats aside, they are all identical, something which cannot be said of the ranger who picks his foes, picks his combat style, and has enough skills to set each one apart. Paladins and Rangers both pick spells, but both suffer a lack of cantrips and an abundance of spells that should never be picked (what is the cantrip that gives 1 temporary hp doing on the paladin's 1st level list??). Overall I think paladin's still peter out too early (gaining only smiting and disease removal at higher levels) and for all their holiness and devotion to a code they don't have abilities which accurately reflect it.Barbarian. While I am perfectly able to make arguments for why Trap Sense is a barbarian ability, it overall doesn't jive with what a barbarian is about. And as someone developed on this board some time ago, a barbarian is a very poor class at showing a generic "barbaric" character. Multiclassing can help, but what about a barbaric (or shamanistic) wizard? barbaric paladin? barbaric cleric? I think this is trying to mix a caste of people with a class, something that works for many characters, but doesn't suit the system well overall. A barbarian template (as developed on these boards) makes much more sense to me. Besides that fault, I think a barbarian is a choesive class, with skills and abilities emphasizing rage, speed, and survival.The sorceror would be better served getting a treatment like the druid, minus the wilderness stuff. She needs her own spell list, her own custom mid-high level ability (which reinforces her bloodline and spellcasting), basically her own shtick, to stop being such a simulacrum of the wizard.Technik</blockquote>

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