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

[EzekielRaiden]

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.

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.

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.

 

[Corinnguard]

If the setting had an Eastern flavor to it, the core 4 classes would be some kind of Monk. I am using Laser Llama's Monk subclasses here.

Fighter- Way of Shining Steel Monk (aka Kensai)
Rogue- Way of the Shadow Arts Monk
Cleric- Way of Harmony Monk (aka Mercy)
Wizard- Way of the Wu Jen Monk

For species, I would go for anthropomorphic animal versions of the Chinese Zodiac. Asian Dragonborn for Dragon, Vanara for Monkey, Minotaur for Ox, Haregon for Rabbit and so forth.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Maybe Bard, Paladin, Ranger, Warlock probably.
Maybe Artificer instead of Bard, and have the Ranger be spell-less except in some Fey/Nature Spirit related subclass.
That means associating with powerful supernatural entities is the more common way to access magic, alternatively,y ou have to craft magic.
Or alternatively, just Paladin, Ranger, Warlock, we don't need 4 core classes, do we?

Stealing from 3.x Era's Arcana Unearthed:

• Akashic (skill monkey replacing the rogue): Access to the collective memory of civilization grants various abilities, like remembering a renown warrior to become better at combat, accessing the memories stored in objects, locations.
• Runethane: A spellcaster focused on rune magic. (Arcana Unearthed has a straight-forward Wizard class, but we don't want a simple rename, do we?)
• Witch: Witches come in different flavors - Mind Witches, Sea Witches, Storm Witches, Iron Witches. They have access to some supernatural/spell-like (to use the 3.x terms) abilities related to their flavor, and basic spellcasting abilities. They use
• Unfettered: Basically an agile warrior, specializing in finesse or ranged weapon, with a more urban flavor than, say, a Ranger.
• Champion: Somewhat like a Paladin, but instead of being devoted to gods, they are devoted to a "Cause", like Freedom, Justice, Light, Darkness, Death, Magic. They tend to wear heavy armor, though (Maybe the Paladin of Freedom might not?)

That's 5 core classes instead of 4, but it's h
6th core Class then: Totem Warrior. A mix of Barbarian and Ranger, basically, they transform in their totem animal during combat, and have animal-related powers.

Species:

• Dracha/Dragonborn (Dracha are the Arcana Unearthed Dragon Race)
• Giant/Goliath (in Arcana Unearthed, Giant have freed the lands of great evil and are kinda rebuilding civilization)
• Tiefling
• Litorian (Arcana Unearthed Tiger/Lion-based species)
• Sibeccai (Arcana Unearthed Dog/Anubis-styles species, in AU they were uplifted by the Giants)
• Optional: Warforged (Created by humans, maybe they were even humans but got a clockwork/golem body replacement)
• Optional: Revenant (Humans that returned after life because their destiny wasn't fulfilled, or something.)

Instead of the Sibeccai/Litorian, maybe Shifter. And then all species are actually humans, but all with a twist? The Dragonborn did
things with Dragons and gained their powers, Tieflings with Devils, Giants with Titans, Shifters stayed in the wild and gained animalistic abilities. Revenants used to be alive humans. "Standard" humans don't exist anymore, due to fantasy world things.
But then I'd replace Unfettered with Totem Warrior (or add Totem Warrior to the core).

 

[Bae'zel]

Setting: archipelago water world with Cambrian aquatic fauna. Vast shallow seas.

Classes:

• Ranger (hunter-navigator)
• Bard (spirit-shaman)
• Sorceror (ruling class bloodline only)
• Barbarian (clan warriors)

Species:

• Shark-folk (reskinned Orcs); humanoid people with black eyes, sandpapery skin, sharp teeth, ancient memories - their Bards are Ray-like
• Trilobite-folk (reskinned Gnomes); humanoid cousins to trilobites but mostly living on land; hard segmented shells on back, soft underbellies and faces, love of the sun, wind and high places
• Jelly-folk (reskinned Halflings), plasmoid-like translucent cousins of jelly fish and/or sea slugs; clever, curious, medium sized by default but can squeeze into smaller spaces (benefits of halfling small sizes)
• Wave-dancers (reskinned Aasimar, but wings offer swim speed as well as flight); humanoids with vaguely reptilian and bird traits; slender, beautiful with wing like extendable flaps (resembles insect wings for some reason). Live both on land and in the oceans.

Something like that

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

For a Basic style 4x4...

Classes
Marshal
Savant
Herald
Warlock

Species
Gnome
Sylph
Salamander
Undine

 

[DEFCON 1]

Using this restrictions, I would probably go with a full-on "exploration adventuring party" vibe a la the Fellowship, and create a game that was more geared toward long-range hiking, exploration and such. Meaning that there wouldn't be any heavily armored classes (because long-range hiking in full metal plate mail is actually ridiculous), and the schtick for all four would be wilderness adventuring. Thus I'd go:

Ranger (mediumly armored, larger weapons, more Aragorn-styled combat machine than our standard lightly armored D&D ranger)
Scout (our lightly armored, skill-based info gatherer, best up-close eyesight and investigation, smaller melee weapons)
Marksman (our ranged combatant, best long-range perception, highest speed)
Auspex (our magic-using character, healer, party buffer, mainly a "controller" if use use 4E parlance)

Then for our four species... if we are avoiding the Core Four, and thus the four species we usually think of as our "civilized" peoples that most fantasy RPGs are geared around... I'd lean into the opposite wilderness side direction and go with four that normally were seen as the "enemies" of those peoples and who were built well for outdoorsman life and activities.

Orc (our Human opposite, who would be the primary species the campaign was focused around, and often a Ranger main)
Goblin (our Halfling opposite, smart, sneaky, and often a Scout main,)
Drow (our Elf opposite, agile, fast climber, acrobatic, and often a Marksman main)
Troll (our Dwarf opposite, sturdy, enduring and regenerative, can withstand the rigors of magic, and often an Auspex main)

(And in case anyone was wondering about reasons for choices and naming conventions... I purposefully avoided using the same initial letter for two or more in the same group, and felt certain classes already in the game held enough sway in our heads that they did not fit as proper selections for what I wanted to get out of this campaign idea.)