Unusual Race/Class Combos

[Pinotage]

I'm sure this has been asked/discussed countless times in the past, but I'm curious.

What unusual race/class combinations do you play and what is your experience with them? (Let's limit it to Core Rules only)

We've all played Elven Wizards, Dwarven Clerics or Halfling Rogues before, but what about the other combinations? Do we go for stereotypical combinations and stick to the more powerful ones? What about unusual weapon choices? Everybody's played dual wielding characters, or spiked chain characters, or touch spell wizards and cleric archers.

Ever play one of the following:

Half-orc Wizard or Sorceror or Druid or Bard
Elven Barbarian
Halfling Barbarian
Dwarven Bard
Gnome Barbarian

or some of the other less heard of combinations? Do we just build a character for power and rationalise the choice by personality quirks or do we go for interesting characters? How much does the DM's style influence our choice of character?

A bit of a mouthful, I know. And before anybody asks - I've always stuck to stereotypical combinations.

Thoughts?

Pinotage

 

[AIM-54]

I'm a huge fan of unusual race/class combos, my favorite being Myrg'Thuur, my Half-Orc Wizard with a strength of 5. He was a tremendously entertaining character to play, with a great backstory...all derived because I happened to roll a 3 for one of my stats. Still a character I wish I could have played more.

I'm also a fan of Halfling Fighters. I don't know why. The always use two-weapon fighting and I refuse to take levels of ranger, even though they're more skirmisher warriors than anything else. If nothing else, it makes for humorous moments as the 3-foot guy weaves a path of destruction through bad guys...at higher levels at least...

 

[Sir Whiskers]

Ever play one of the following:...snip...Gnome Barbarian

A GM ran RttToEE and threw in an npc gnome barbarian named Garsten just for the heck of it. Turned into one of the core members of our group (2 PC's plus assorted npc's). Once he reached high levels, he could hack through just about anything.

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

I've DMed for a gnome paladin and a dwarf wizard (different campaigns for each). Both were quite interesting and well played. I think it worked because the players played to the strengths of both the race and class.

The gnome paladin was always mounted (I think he started with a riding dog). The dwarf wizard had a huge Con and Toughness.

 

[Desdichado]

Played a halfling barbarian once. And I've had a hankering to play a foppish dwarf bard one day...

 

[Kalendraf]

Ever play one of the following:

Half-orc Wizard or Sorceror or Druid or Bard
Elven Barbarian
Halfling Barbarian
Dwarven Bard
Gnome Barbarian

I mostly DM, so I haven't played those. However, In the last few campaigns and one-shot adventures I've participated in, players have used a few from that list including

Half-orc sorcerer - eventually picked up barbarian levels and tried for rage mage concept.
Elven Barbarian (eventually multiclassed into something like Barb3/Fighter2/Rogue2/Ranger2, but started as a barbarian so we mostly though of him that way.)
Halfling Barbarian - In Dark Sun, so it wasn't a big stretch.

I've tossed a few Half-orc druids and bards at the party before. Haven't tried a half-orc wizard though. The Dwarf bard sounds interesting.

Gnomes don't get much respect from my players, and a gnome barbarian would probably merit a laugh or two from them. Of course I eventually ran the party up against a trio of Gnomish assassins (Monk/Assassin, Ranger/Assassin and Rogue/Assassin), so now gnomes get a bit more respect as adversaries. Of those, the Monk/Assassin and Ranger/Assassin were quite unusual choices for a gnome, IMHO.

 

[Owen K.C. Stephens]

I had a great deal of fun with a halfling ranger/paladin (god's own special forces). That was a sub-optimal combo for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was I took a 20% exp penalty at several levels (I had to build up paladin as far as I wanted before ever switching to ranger).

In the same game my wife played a half-orc barbarian/cleric. That was mostly interesting because she took one level of barbarian, got converted to a lawful relgion, and changed alignment, losing her rage, and became a cleric. (She also took no feat but Extra Turning after that, resulting in the ability to turn about 20 times a day).

Both characters were a blast, despite being far from maximized. (Of course, we also had one of the world's best sorcerers on that team, which helped overcome any failings of our characters.)

Owen K.C. Stephens

 

[staz100]

I am currently playing a half-orc druid from the Stonelands (in FR). He uses a a Great Club and tends towards earth-based spells. His father was human and his mother was an orc . It's his goal to unite the tribes of orcs into a powerful nation-state, and not just to run wild and conquer everything. He knows it is not his destiny to be the one who unites everything, he knows he needs to find the one to unite the tribes. He is a great character. His backstory is tied into ranger's history, as well as a former PC's history.

His role in the party is backup blaster, backup healer, and backup tank. He's not the best at any of those three things, but when needed, he adds the extra bit of power to get over whatever challenge we're facing.

 

[The Baron]

I once had a great NPC - Gleeb, a gnome barbarian.

He was really awesome once he reached higher levels (two-handed scimitar + improved crit). While raging he caused some massive damage. Oh, yeah, he was awesome vs. Giant thanks to the dodge bonus.

Something about the sight of a really angry gnome taking down something four times his size in a round or two. He still brings a tear to my eye.

 

[Thanee]

One of my earliest 3E chars was a halfling ranger.
One of my longer-played PCs was an elven rogue/cleric.
I had played an elven barbarian/rogue in a PbP for a short while.
Currently playing another barbarian/rogue, but she's human, not so unusual.

Other than that... no I think most of my characters don't fit into that group.

Bye
Thanee