D&D 5E What classes should be restricted?

[Fenris-77]

I wouldn't exclude a class simply because the fluff didn't fit my setting. The point above about the separation of crunch and fluff is important. If you strip off the fluff all a class is, essentially, is a feat tree that provides additional rules. When I start with a character concept it very often isn't tied specifically to a class, so I'll treat multiclassing, or even single class choice, as a practical matter of what rules best represent the character concept I have in my head. This happens, for example, with the Bard class all the time for me - the crunch suits a lot of builds, and not all of them are performers who deal magic by keying up Toss a Coin on their medieval IPods.

I'm sure not everyone treats classes like I do, but I try not too get to caught up in the fuff, at least not at the expense of a good character concept.

 

[Umbran]

In my worlds (and in my own mind), certain things are evil ispo facto. A man becomes contaminated with evil when he kills stealthily for hire

Be careful about conflating class and socio-economic role. A person with an Assassin class can be someone who kills stealthily for hire... or they may be dedicated to the defense of their people by being part of special forces deployed only at the word of their ruling council to end the life of terrible threats to their people.

 

[Umbran]

Unless the campaign setting is not supposed to be heroic. Some groups like to have an evil campaign instead, for instance.

I believe I had already addressed this:

I think "the PCs are heroes" is a setting conceit the GM could apply - not that all settings are such. And, IF the GM does make that conceit, then "does not fit the setting" already applies.

 

[Fenris-77]

D&D has some nuance about this that the real world doesn't. In D&D you know that, for example, certain creatures are evil, while the real world is never like that. If my character is an adventurer who is regularly hired to hunt down, say, Liches and kill them stealthily (who wants to fight a Liche head on anyway?) does that make him, ispo facto, evil? Pretty clearly not. Sure, there's a lot of grey area north of Liches, but my point is that knowledge of alignment, and in fact the very existence of alignment (and a far more black and white ethical palette generally), changes some questions of ethics and morality.

 

[Fenris447]

In general, I limit my players' options to official 5e content and to UA, with a few caveats:

• I can buff or nerf UA at my discretion
• If the options you're using becomes official (like the Eberron races), we switch you to it whenever makes sense in-game
• We'll adjust your character to make sure any changes don't hurt your play experience. For instance, I provided armor for our Warforged player when the new, official version dictated he needed some, and I let him tweak his stats because the altered racial bonuses had knocked one down

I don't have any particular subclasses or classes banned, as I've tried to design my homebrew world such that anything can fit. I would be wary of bringing in 3rd-party stuff, but open to it if they follow the same rules as above.

TL;DR I'd only outright ban things if they made the game less fun for anyone or if there's just no way to fit them into my world without breaking verisimilitude.

 

[Fenris-77]

Whoa there pal. There's a strict one Fenris per thread rule here.

 

[Fenris447]

Whoa there pal. There's a strict one Fenris per thread rule here.

We settle this like men, then. Slap fight, you and me, 3 o'clock, by the swings.

 

[Fenris-77]

We settle this like men, then. Slap fight, you and me, 3 o'clock, by the swings.

I can't slap fight you at 3, I'm slap fighting Fenris420 at 3. Would 4 o'clock be acceptable? Bring you second, sir.

 

[Fenris447]

I can't slap fight you at 3, I'm slap fighting Fenris420 at 3. Would 4 o'clock be acceptable? Bring you second, sir.

Dear god. I almost suggested bringing seconds, but I thought there was no way anyone else was as lame a child as I was and wouldn't get the reference.

I'll gladly fight Fenris420 with you at 3 and fight you myself at 4. Fenris69 will be my second.

I must warn you though, he plays a Ninja class he got from D&D Wiki and is so OP it's not even funny.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If cleric is available, gods are real? that kinda thing?
PrCs would be even better world building tools, to that way.

Clerics can be available without gods, though.

Now, saying there is no divine magic certainly builds part of the world, but even then you could have that be true and still have gods. They just don’t grant spells. Weird mechanic anyway.