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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lizard" data-source="post: 4020591" data-attributes="member: 1054">Here is my problem, and again, we go back to the Hobgoblins in MMV as the likely prototype.It's VERY likely for hobgoblin PCs to exist. They're normal humanoids with an interesting culture.I cannot wrap my mind around telling a player, "Well, you can be a hobgoblin wizard, but you can't be a Hobgoblin Warcaster" (Unless, presumably, you start as one and eat the +3 ECL, making you a 7th level character with 4 hit dice and 2nd level spells). OK, I can wrap my mind around it, but it's irksome, foolish, and serves no good purpose. "NPC only" classes, or pseudo-class-builds, offend my sensibilities. They remind me of some of the worst features of AD&D 1e. (3e NPC classes CAN betaken by players, they're just weak...). The Warcaster's abilities aren't innate, like a Dryad's, so it's not a matter of building them Savage Species style. They'd be better done by being a hobgoblin-only PrC, or as a set of 'replacement levels' for hobgoblin wizards, or any other mechanic which is based on the same rules concepts that PCs are based on. (There might be such mechanics 'hidden' in the warcaster, but, if so, why not reveal them in an appendix so DMs have the tools to make similar creatures without pure handwaving? At least 4e presumably does this.)</blockquote>