What class has changed the least through the editions?

[Emirikol]

THoughts on which class has changed the least through the editions?

jh

 

[Sejs]

Wizard.

Spells change, feats show up eventually, the class itself... largely untouched.

 

[wildstarsreach]

THoughts on which class has changed the least through the editions?

jh

I agree that the Wizard has changed the least followed by the base Cleric.

 

[Emirikol]

I'm leaning cleric more. He's got more that could have chaned too, but didn't (8mth/9th spells). Plus, the wizard went from one class to all those specialist classes.

I'm wondering why most people didn't put fighter or paladin.

jh

 

[Nifft]

I agree that the Wizard has changed the least followed by the base Cleric.

Depends on how you view the spells per day table... and the addition of 8th & 9th level spells.

Cheers, -- N

 

[howandwhy99]

I say Cleric. Armor & shield, simple weapons, divine caster, and turning.

Turning isn't nearly as useful as it was (and is limited to #/day) and the spells are all radically changed, but the basics are still there.

Spells used to be more like chemical reactions; multiple uses were possible as they were based solely upon description and then the DM's interpretation. Now they are absolutes and made for unambiguous push button use.

 

[smootrk]

Wizard - no real changes.

Cleric went from blunt weapons, no domains, and 7th level spells to changes to all three aspects (at least from OD&D or AD&D 1e). Changes were a little less pronounced from 2ed to 3.x.

 

[Peni Griffin]

I would say fighter changed the most. Feats changed fighters, once the simplest of all classes, drastically and beyond recognition. Paladin became its own class, rather than a subtype, and got pretty shafted in the process. Although the original bard, in all its complex glory, may be argued to have undergone a bigger transformation in that it was rendered a class rather than an impossible dream.

Clerics got shafted in 3E. Everybody else gets class features as they go up but not clerics, nooooo. People have always had a weird attitude about clerics. They may be the single most useful class, in concept and in practice, and yet I frequently default to playing them because other people won't. There's something about them that folks find inherently uncool, and I think the absence of class features in the revision stems from the designers accepting that perception as a reality. If I'd been doing that revision, I would have made sure clerics got some bells-and-whistles to encourage folks to play them and get to know their full potential.

Y'know the change I resent most? They took Chariot of Sustarre away from the Great Druid. Come to that, they took away the Great Druid. I'm going to have to find somebody to DM us in 1E again if I ever hope to fly in a Chariot of Sustarre.

 

[Alisair Longreach]

Peni Griffin, if you miss the old Chariot of Sustarre spell it has been updated as Chariot of Fire in the Edritch Sorcery book from Necromancer Games. This book also has updated versions of several lost 2. ed. spells.

 

[Whimsical]

Clerics got shafted in 3E. Everybody else gets class features as they go up but not clerics, nooooo. People have always had a weird attitude about clerics. They may be the single most useful class, in concept and in practice, and yet I frequently default to playing them because other people won't. There's something about them that folks find inherently uncool, and I think the absence of class features in the revision stems from the designers accepting that perception as a reality. If I'd been doing that revision, I would have made sure clerics got some bells-and-whistles to encourage folks to play them and get to know their full potential.

It's because you heroic role as a cleric in the grand adventure is to be the teat that everyone else suckles.