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General Tabletop Discussion
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D&D Older Editions
What was the original intended function of the 3rd edition phb classes?
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<blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 8459145" data-attributes="member: 20564"><p>The intent of the 3.0 classes was to be a reboot by WotC of D&D after it had languished for years under TSR with nothing new.</p><p></p><p>In terms of the "technology" used to play, it was a huge leap from AD&D - the industry had been making a lot of progress, and the three Lead Designers were big names.</p><p></p><p>But that means that there's lots of places where things are very new, such as the multiclassing system (very different then what came before), the very concept of Prestige Classes, feats, and of course the aggressive publishing schedule that put out lots more character creation/advancement content, often not playtested with other expansions that were being developed at the same time.</p><p></p><p>Asking "what was it supposed to be" was a new version of D&D - that things morphed later is something we can evaluate in hindsight but it false to say that the designers knew everything from the beginning.</p><p></p><p>Looking back at the 3.0 classes, they were meant to evoke spirit of earlier editions of D&D while at the same time modernizing it without killing too many sacred cows. We can look at AD&D classes for a clue, but that's only part of it. Unless you talk to an insider from that time, the best place to get a feel for what the 3.0 classes were supposed to be is the fluff describing them in the 3.0 PHB.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue, post: 8459145, member: 20564"] The intent of the 3.0 classes was to be a reboot by WotC of D&D after it had languished for years under TSR with nothing new. In terms of the "technology" used to play, it was a huge leap from AD&D - the industry had been making a lot of progress, and the three Lead Designers were big names. But that means that there's lots of places where things are very new, such as the multiclassing system (very different then what came before), the very concept of Prestige Classes, feats, and of course the aggressive publishing schedule that put out lots more character creation/advancement content, often not playtested with other expansions that were being developed at the same time. Asking "what was it supposed to be" was a new version of D&D - that things morphed later is something we can evaluate in hindsight but it false to say that the designers knew everything from the beginning. Looking back at the 3.0 classes, they were meant to evoke spirit of earlier editions of D&D while at the same time modernizing it without killing too many sacred cows. We can look at AD&D classes for a clue, but that's only part of it. Unless you talk to an insider from that time, the best place to get a feel for what the 3.0 classes were supposed to be is the fluff describing them in the 3.0 PHB. [/QUOTE]
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What was the original intended function of the 3rd edition phb classes?
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