Thoughts on these classes?

[MoogleEmpMog]

Those are spells. The problem I have with the Knight ability is that it's Ex, but it's basically a mind compulsion.

You'd go nuts with Exalted social charms.

Also, called it!

This seems to be a subset of the Everything Is Okay As Long As The Fighter Can't Do It argument. To whit:

It's okay to tactically railroad PCs as long as it's using a spell. Allowing a non-caster to do it is videogamey and badwrong.
It's okay to have one character be able to 'reload' from a saved point, as long as it's using a spell (clone). Allowing the whole party to do it is videogamey and badwrong; after all, the whole party may include non-casters.

 

[Nikosandros]

You'd go nuts with Exalted social charms.

Also, called it!

To me it's mostly a question of flavor... the issue arises only when the ability is used on PCs.

If I'm telling a player that his character is behaving in a certain way I "need" some kind of "mystical" explanation.

In other words, I don't like telling to a player: well, Duke Barghanz just rolled a 38 on his diplomacy check, so now you've changed your mind about helping him.

 

[Set]

OK, I'm still narrowing down a campaign setting(it's coming down to Dawnforge, Planescape, Oathbound, or, yes, Scarred Lands), and now I'm compiling a list of classes for my players to choose from. I know that I'd have to pick up some extra books for them, but what do you guys think of the Swashbuckler and Hexblade from Complete Warrior, and the Knight from PHB2? And just those two books in general, as well.

Also, Dread Necromancer and Warlock, thoughts? As either PCs or NPCs.

The Player's Guides for the Scarred Lands setting include brief notes as to where various PrCs would fit into the setting, and these can be checked over to see where these base classes would fit as well.

The Players Guide to Fighters & Barbarians, for instance, mentions that Duelists would be at home in the southern settlements of Ghelspad, such as Fangsfall, Shelzar and Rahoch, as well as the lightly-armored and graceful-weaponed nobility of Vesh, and this would make a logical set of places for a Swashbuckler to come from.

I'm not fond of the Knight, Swashbuckler or Hexblade. The OA Samurai, tweaked to fit the setting, makes a much better Knight, IMO, the Swashbuckler doesn't really progress well, and the Hexblade just stinks. The Duskblade is many times better as a one-class Gish than the Hexblade, as is the AU Mage Blade. Even a UA 'Battle Sorcerer' might end up being a better choice, in the long run, progressing into Abjurant Champion or something...

(Blah-blah, add IMO to the end of every sentence. I'm sure someone out there who loves the Hexblade is right now burning me in effigy for failing to recognize the greatness of the class. I'd rather play a Bard, personally, if I wanted to suck at both melee and casting, 'cause Bards have cooler peripheral abilities and betters skills than Hexblades...)

The Dread Necromancer is an amazingly awesome NPC Big Bad, although it can be a bit of a nuisance to allow as a PC (if you don't mind the player having minions, and how they can slow down the combat, then no worries). The Warlock is the least versatile caster ever, but makes a blaster-Sorcerer cry with the sheer endurance of his never-ending supply of Eldritch Blasts. The Dread Necromancer in particular would fit well into a Scarred Lands setting, due to the settings heavy use of Necromancy in general (between Hallowfaust, Glivid-Autel, Duhnanae, the Empire of Chains, the Mourning Marsh, Blood Bayou and any other places that have a large number of Necromancers).

I know nothing about the Oathbound or Dawnforge settings, so I don't really have any advice for those areas. As for Planescape, it's like Spelljammer. *Anything* can fit into a Planescape setting.

 

[Psion]

I'm sure someone out there who loves the Hexblade is right now burning me in effigy for failing to recognize the greatness of the class. I'd rather play a Bard, personally, if I wanted to suck at both melee and casting, 'cause Bards have cooler peripheral abilities and betters skills than Hexblades...)

I think anyone who likes the hexblade as-is should take into consideration what Mearls has to say in the thread Ehren linked above:

The hexblade suffers a little because he came on the scene relatively early in 3.5's life. As R&D pushes the boundaries of the game, we learn that some things we thought were risky or potentially broken aren't. Other times, we learn things that look fine don't actually work in play.

Armored mages fall into the first category. Them seem really powerful, but in the long run they aren't. Spells and magic items allow an unarmored mage to build great defenses. The spell mage armor is as good as medium armor, and its duration allows most mages to keep it active at all times. If you compare the hexblade to the duskblade from PH 2, you can see how the thinking has changed.

If you want to boost the hexblade, I'd try the following changes:

* Good Fortitude save
* Curse ability usable 1 + the hexblade's Cha modifier per day
* Curse ability usable as a swift action
* Curse ability does not count as used if the target makes his saving throw
* Ability to cast in light or medium armor and while carrying a light shield or buckler
* At 6th level, the hexblade can cast one hexblade spell per day as a swift action, as long as its original casting time is a standard action or faster. He gains an additional use of this power at levels 8, 11, 14, and 18.

The key to the hexblade is his curse ability, but it's a little un-fun to have it so limited in use. The hexblade also has trouble casting spells and using his melee attacks, so shifting spells to swift actions fits in with the idea of an armored mage.

(These are by no means official. They're just off the top of my head changes I'd consider making.)

 

[Nightfall]

Psion,

I like Hexblade, but I'm the first to admit, it's not without faults.

Set,

Thanks for mentioning the Player's Guides! *did write a little for them*

 

[Nightdawn]

Well, that's a hell of a lot of great advice.

I do have Arcana Unearthed in my collection back home(that I'm bringing up here); would the Unfettered and Warblade(I think that was the name of the uber-tank fighter) be unbalanced compared to the normal core classes? I'm thinking of doing those, the Book of the Righteous paladins, possibly a variant ranger. Hexblade still looks cool, but now that somebody mentioned the Mageblade, that's sounding more and more attractive again(with a replacement spell list, obviously).

In fact, just in general, would the AU classes be overpowered compared to the D&D base classes?

 

[Nightfall]

AU/AE core classes aren't that overpowered in my book for a D&D game. Changing the spell lists some might be a good way, but you might just want to use the Readied list as possibly spells per day and the other spell list as spells known.

Warblade...eh. I like it, but some people do think it's overpowered.

Holy Warrior class is good but I haven't look to see how they fixed to say if the current 3.5 is better or not. Psion says yes, so I'll trust him.

Mageblade is indeed better than Duskblade or Hexblade.