D&D General The rapier in D&D

[Remathilis]

No grief, I never play rogues anyway. But if you look through most published adventures you will see that undead are by far the most common enemy creature type. It's a game about tomb raiding, what else would you expect?

Yup. While the rogue was a huge step forward compared to the useless thief, the fact that criteria/SA attack was far more common then spell resistance meant martials (and rogues in particular) were almost always inferior in damage. Add on spells that ignore SR...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

paladin was a human only concept and the ability to be one a human racial trait

BG2 had a whole companion built around “halflings can’t be paladins”.

 

[Umbran]

I cast Vicious Mockery. I can still hurt it's feelings.

Gorignak's only emotion is tranquility, found when you stop making such a racket.

 

[Umbran]

Sapience really ought to be a requirement for that spell IMO.

Gorignak does speak, just as it is jettisoned into space.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No grief, I never play rogues anyway. But if you look through most published adventures you will see that undead are by far the most common enemy creature type. It's a game about tomb raiding, what else would you expect?

Published adventures where? In any case I don't run published adventures, just homebrew.

 

[Micah Sweet]

In 1999? It was the Hallmark of munchkin players who didn't care about racial identity and only wanted to play the most powerful or wacky combos imaginable. Specifically, ruined the story that dwarves hated magic and were so antimagical they couldn't do it (possible exceptions for clerics, depending on edition) and paladin was a human only concept and the ability to be one a human racial trait. (No joke, that was argued). The concept of any race being any class was so reviled that the 3.0 DMG added a half-ass "option" for the DM to limit them placed in the optional rules section.

I've come to believe that, except for the most hardcore grognards who still use 1e initiative RAW, most people and game publishers allow any race/class combo. But that was a huge area of disagreement when it was announced.

Unless the game does race as class (a perfectly viable option).

 

[Micah Sweet]

BG2 had a whole companion built around “halflings can’t be paladins”.

Sounds awesome, and would never have happened without those restrictions.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Sounds awesome, and would never have happened without those restrictions.

Nah, they were irritating, and due to the rules restrictions, not very effective.

 

[Remathilis]

BG2 had a whole companion built around “halflings can’t be paladins”.

Yup. There were all sorts of workarounds (such as kits that weakly mimic certain classes for banned races) but I don't think there was many people who were content with playing "I want to be X, but I can't so I'll take all the draws backs but none of the benefits".

(And honestly, could you imagine a mainstream RPG in 2025 saying you can't do a job because of your race? The firestorm would be off the charts!)

Anyway, this doesn't have much to do with rapiers except to say they were both hot spots when 3e was announced and I had assumed both were no longer issues 25 years and two editions later. Guess not.