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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5940059" data-attributes="member: 386">I think this is why there is a Paladin class:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">XP for GP</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Training costs</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Thief and Assassin classes</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Neutral, Evil, or Chaotic Clerics</li> </ul>On the first point:  When you get XP for GP, you are pushing towards mercenary PCs.  PCs who will do whatever it takes to get the loot.Throw in a class that has moral restrictions on what they can and can't do in order to keep their special abilities and you put that behaviour in stark relief.On the second point: Training costs are pretty expensive.  You have to keep a decent amount of loot on you over the course of a level in order to pay for training costs.Throw in a class that has restrictions on how much GP they can carry in order to keep their special abilities and you shine a light on how expensive training costs can be.On the third point: When you introduce classes who fight best when deceptive and with poison, players are going to use those abilities and have their PCs fight deceptively and with poison.Throw in a class that has restrictions on fighting deceptively and without poison and you bring those differences into stark contrast.On the fourth point: When you have PCs who can cast divine spells at the behest of selfish-at-best gods, divine magic takes on a certain flavour.Throw in a class that can only cast spells or use special divine gifts if it upholds a certain behaviour and you throw those other PC's magic in stark contrast.Which is to say:When a player decides to play a Paladin, that choice draws focus to all these elements of the game.  These are basic parts of the game: how you gain levels, how you conduct combat, and how you treat divine magic.  (Though that last one could use some work, I think.)I'm not sure how the Ranger class works; I imagine it does a similar job on the Fighter class, but I don't think it has as much influence on the game as a whole.edit:  This is what I am thinking:Imagine a table. Lying on the table are ten needles, scattered a little, pointing all different directions but all lying flat on the tabletop. There's an eleventh needle too, though. Someone's stabbed it hard into the tabletop, so it stands up instead of lying down like the rest. The eleventh needle declares the whole space to be 3-dimensional. Without it, you have the convenient plane: you can describe all the needles and their positions in only x- and y-terms. But that eleventh needle requires the z-axis, and so gives z-positions to all the others too.</blockquote>

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