RigaMortus2 said:
Unless, you know, your campaign calls for specific classes. I've played in games where all base classes were banned, only classes from the Complete Books and alt books (like MoI and ToB) were allowed. It was a lot of fun. I don't think it is at all cruel. Sometimes a campaign calls for specific things.
I am running a campaign like that. The classes from the Player's Handbook do not exist. The Complete Series classes exist, but are for NPCs only. The Players are limited to PH2, Bo9S, and Miniatures Handbook for selecting their classes. I would allow the Factotem from Dungeonscape, but none of us have the book.
The campaign has a Crusader [which I built for the player, using the various Shield feats from PH2, the Shield Crystal from MiC, and the shield maneuvers from his class, he is really hard to hit [even by ranged touch attacks], and can almost automatically negate an attack against an adjacent ally 1/combat.
There was a Warblade, who sadly died at the hands of a troll he taunted, then missed when attempting his Concentration check= DMG maneuver. He was replaced by a Desert Wind specialist Sword Sage.
There is a Silver Dragon Shaman who only shows up about half the time, unfortunately, as I would like a better chance to see what this thing can do. So far, Entangling Exhalation has been working rather well, though.
There is a Centaur who is now taking levels in Knight. This means between his lance [a reach weapon] and his hooves [not a reach weapon] he threatens a 10' radius around himself, meaning that eventually enemies will be unable to get past a 30' square of the battlefield!