D&D General Your Core Classes if The Core 4 Aren't Allowed

[Mephista]

The four "core" commoner classes. Farmer. Chef. Maid. Merchant.

Species options: Average, robot-ish, fey-ish, smol, swol, furry, scaly.

 

[Blue]

This is straightforward, I just would go tightly tailored to a setting.

An Mysterious-East flavored list, likely with lots of different flavors of humans -- none generic.

Or something completely new, with crystal people and other non-usual races, and elemental and psychic powers, just go gonzo.

Hmm, actually just a lot of different cultures have different hero tropes out there. Like one thing common in art and anime is the lightly/not armored, agile fighter with big weapons. Not served well by any of the "core 4". Or martials who use magic to infuse themselves, can easily be done in non-core-4 ways. Different traditions of casting and such as well.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Cool, I'd probably make some changes.to each, no full casters, but I think it would be a cool core 4. Warlock over Sorc as the more Caster leaning.

Hell yeah. I think warlock nd sorcerer make great foils.

Knight, Assassin, Necromancer would be three; there isn't a decent replacement for Cleric that isn't just Cleric by another name (and to me Druid is just a specific type of Cleric using another name).

An actual priest class, paladin, an alchemist, etc.

You list four species I would never replace (orcs can go as playables). It's all the other ones that need to go.

Nah, we have ten thousand things with them at center.

As far as Species, I struggle if we remove the 'core' as they are sssssssssssssssssssssuper foundational to everything Fantasy for me.

This is actually harder than I thought. Wow.

Goblin, think Pathfinder 1 Goblins, yeah, those ones. Thats right.
Goliath 'Big Guy/Girl' species.
Plant species.
Elemental Type. Genasi essentially.

Yeah I guess. I really wouldnt like to do that however. Without Human/Elf/Dwarf/Halfling, I have problems with a setting.

That surprises me. Fantasy without humans isnt exactly unheard of.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

CLASS
Swordmage, Avenger, Druid, Ranger (e.g. 4e's Hunter subclass)
or
Paladin, Monk, Warlord, Sorcerer

If, that is, it has to be only four. If I'm allowed more, then all of those plus several more (e.g. Assassin and Artificer)--basically everything from my 25 core class concepts list, other than the four forbidden options, of course.

what if it could be more than 12?

SPECIES
Dragonborn, obviously, but also satyrs, minotaurs, wemics, musimon (goat-folk), my gnome/halfling merger species, warforged, some kind of proper plant species, tieflings, genasi, and changelings.

See that already hints at a vibe for thw world. I like that.

RELIGION
Taking several leaves from Eberron--making religion much more a true article of faith, making complex interconnections between different major faiths, having somewhat more depth than typical TTRPG religion content, etc. I think I wouldn't go quite as far as Eberron does, but I'd be paying attention. And, of course, one pantheon would be the one where all the gods are dragons. (Or, possibly, that's a particular take on it which not all people ascribe to.)

Pretty sure anything else would be too context-specific to really comment on.

Hell yeah.

 

[Scribe]

That surprises me. Fantasy without humans isnt exactly unheard of.

Yeah, just for me personally, not a fan.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

what if it could be more than 12?

Well, my full list of 24 (not 25 as I had previously said) class-concepts starts from the existing 13 of 5e, and adds, in no particular order:

Avenger
Shaman
Warlord
Invoker
Psion
Alchemist
"Machinist" (still shopping around for a better name; think "combat engineer" + tinkerer + guns)
Swordmage
Summoner
Assassin
Warden

I think these, plus the 13 existing 5.0/5.5 classes (as Psion has not been added yet), cover ground so comprehensive, the only additions you might need would be setting- or campaign-specific, which would thus not be appropriate for generic usage.

See that already hints at a vibe for thw world. I like that.

Exactly! I wanted a feel that communicated the wild power and fey touches in various ways, with some subtle hints of other elements. E.g. the warforged (probably by a different name) don't know who first created them, and don't know how to build new forging engines, so they're constantly in peril of losing their population sources. That implies ancient magic by forgotten ancestors, which is a juicy story to dig into, but one that plenty of individual warforged might not care at all to solve. "Not my problem" sort of thing.

Hell yeah.

I'd probably also take some inspiration from FFT. The way religious litany plays a role in magic is very interesting, and executed in a way that implies deep doctrine without actually letting us see that doctrine.