Favorite Added PC Class Poll, Redux

[Deleted]

Here is a small makeover of the poll, with the Ranger class included.

[Deleted]

I checked Thief but my stealth class is called the Scout and may be of any alignment (and has no particular pick-pockets skill).

Likewise, I checked Druid but IMC I have two types of elf: high elf and wood elf. The wood elf has spell abilities similar to the druid but lacks the shape-shifting ability of the official class.

[Finarvyn]

I'm mostly a traditionalist, using the LBB plus thief, druid, paladin, and ranger. I want enough classes to keep things interesting but I still want the base classes to be the majoritiy in play.

[Deleted]

As of this morning, here are the results of the informal poll. The clear winner is the Thief, chosen by 12 of 15 respondents. The runner-up is the Ranger, followed by a tied third place: paladin and druid. Pretty predictable, given the old school pedigrees of all four classes. The absolute losers, with no votes at all, are the acrobat and psionicist.

[Falconer]

There are quite a few classes in this poll that I don’t think I’ve ever seen written up for OD&D — Elementalist, Jester, Mountebank, Psionic, Sorcerer, and Witch Hunter. I’m curious where you got those.

Some are well-known late additions to AD&D — Acrobat, Barbarian, Cavalier — that I’m surprised to see on a list of LBB additions.

Conversely, I am surprised to see the omission of famous OD&D classes like Alchemist, Anti-Paladin, Berseker, Healer, Monk (!), Ninja, Samurai, and Scribe. I also quite like the Liaisons Dangereuses classes (Pyrologist and Dwarf Craftsman).

That said, I voted for Druid, and that would be my vote no matter what other classes were listed! ;-)

[Deleted]

Oct 9, 2013 10:34:32 GMT -6 Falconer said:

There are quite a few classes... (snip)

I tried to include the ones that have come up here in recent memory. I agree, some of those classes aren't commonly encountered in OD&D rules but some have come up a couple of times anyway.

I knew I would overlook some but I did include an "Other" option ... besides that, anti-paladins are NPC only! (chuckles, runs for cover)

[Falconer]

Still curious where they’re from.

[Deleted]

The Jester and Montebank are from the 2nd Edition AD&D that EGG was writing when he left the company. When asked about them, he spoke of them in very general terms and the one time I heard him pressed for specifics he rather strongly and with more than an air of finality declined to elaborate. There is sketchy info on them in one of the Dragon magazines talking about 2 ed., and there was an imagining of the game released as a "clone."

Psionicist and possibly the Witch Hunter are from the Dragon, The Elementalist was an expansion of the Pyromancer class discussed here (or possibly another D&D related board).

[Hans E Magnusson]

Oct 9, 2013 13:13:41 GMT -6 Falconer said:

Still curious where they’re from.

Maybe Arduin?

[peterlind]

I voted for the Thief, Druid, and Ranger, with these comments:

My concept of the "thief" comes from the guild thieves of Lankhmar. If you read the early stories, you can see that the guild thieves were receiving their special training within the guild and were not particularly good at fighting . . . so there might be room left in the game for a "rogue" class to take in the assassin, bandit, pirate, and such.

I voted for the Druid even though I think that it might be better written up as an expanded Cleric. If the Cleric class takes in the whole concept of Priest (and shaman), then a druid might simply be a neutral cleric. Then just expand the spell list, identifying clerical spells as "law", "neutral", "chaos" and "all." Turn Undead becomes a special, divinely-granted ability that depends on what sort of gods are worshipped.

I voted for the Ranger but have some reservations on the SR version, which seems directly inspired by Aragorn. I would suggest that an approach to class design something like this: what are the class abilities common to all members of that class? In other words, reduce the class to the lowest common denominator. Some of those abilities in the Ranger class might be better attributed to Aragorn's unique background as a Numenorean royal and an Elf-Friend.

I did not vote for a Jester or Bard. May I suggest a non-spell casting Minstrel? Again, I think that SR Bard has a lot of abilities that perhaps not all Bards would have?

I did not vote for an Illusionist or Mountebank. May I suggest that these concepts be combined? As written in the SR, the Illusionist might be a bit too close to the magic user class and thus will always be compared with it. Perhaps if more of the trickster/mountebank aspect is emphasized, this could be a good class that can stand on its own and will not just be a specialist mage. For example, perhaps add a Find/Remove Traps ability that extends to magical traps? How about extending that ability to the magical "tricks" that are found in dungeons (including illusions) -- the ability to identify and analyze and perhaps bypass them? Add a Legerdemain/Sleight of Hand skill (though they are not common pick pockets). Perhaps juggling or such. With these special abilities, there is no need to extend spell casting ability past that of a cleric (i.e. 5th level if LBB are used, or 7th level if Greyhawk is used).