Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Galstaf, Sorcerer of Lite 06-30-07, 12:19 PM	I'm of a mind, like many people, that favored classes need an overhaul. I know a lot of people eliminate them entirely, but I'm not really a fan of that. I like the idea of a mechanical reason why dwarves are usually skilled warriors or why so many elves know at least a little magic. My problem with the favored class mechanic as it stands is that it makes these conventions a little too narrow, and this limitation only gets more apparent as more and more classes get added to the game. At first, I thought multiple favored classes might be an answer; maybe dwarves' favored classes could include, say, the knight from PH2 in addition to fighter, for instance. Yesterday I hit on something new. Classes could be assigned keywords from a small pool (for the PHB classes, maybe five or six identifiers, plus an extra one for psionics and other special cases where a whole new heading might be necessary). Racial favored classes could then be replaced with one of these keywords. Dwarves, for instance, would count any class with the keyword "combat" as a favored class, rather than just fighter. Elves could freely multiclass into any class identified with "magic," and so on. Right now, the keywords I'm working with are combat, magic, philosophy, versatility, and wilderness (along with, as mentioned above, a psionics descriptor for XPH classes). That may need to be tweaked, but I'm liking the basic idea. The list is small, and the keywords are fairly broad. One thing I don't want to do is pigeonhole classes by assigning descriptors that are too specific (i.e, fury for barbarians, stealth for rogues) -- a rule of thumb I've been working with is that any given keyword should be something that can be assigned to at least two classes, preferably three. The idea here is to retain the spirit of favored classes while opening up the options they allow for. For the classes in the PHB, I've assigned the keywords thusly: BBN Combat, Wilderness BRD Versatility CLR Philosophy DRD Philosophy, Wilderness FTR Combat MNK Combat, Philosophy PAL Combat, Philosophy RGR Versatility, Wilderness ROG Versatility SOR Magic, Versatility WIZ Magic As far as races go, humans and half-elves remain open (or maybe the player chooses one keyword at character creation? Or humans stay totally open, and half-elves pick a keyword?), dwarves and half-orcs get combat, elves get magic, halflings get versatility, and gnomes... get either versatility or magic. I'm not sure yet. Beyond just looking for opinions on the idea as a whole, there are a few specific concerns I have: - Should I be worried that not all classes have the same number of keywords? Most have two, but a few only have one. Is this a problem? If two is actually a magic number here, what should the second keywords be for the classes that only have one? Do I need to add a keyword or two to the list? Would it be a problem if a class (say, the bard) somehow ended up with three or more? - Rather than assigning a second keyword to bards, I'm thinking of allowing the player to choose a second keyword for the class when they take that first bard level. Anyone see any problems with that? - Clerics might be able to pick up a second (or even third) keyword through the selection of domains. For example, the War domain might add the combat descriptor to that character's cleric class levels. The magic domain might add the matching keyword as well. - The keywords for the monk and paladin are the same right now. I'm not sure I like having that redundancy, at least among PHB classes. Any ideas? Right now I'm leaning toward switching the monk's descriptors over to philosophy and versatility. - Would it be terribly unbalancing or unfair if a race somehow ended up with two favored keywords? If, say, elves got both magic and wilderness, for example? - Currently, no PHB race has philosophy or wilderness as a keyword. But then, no PHB race has cleric or ranger as a favored class either. - Do prestige classes need descriptors? Or is the standard "PrCs don't count for multiclassing XP penalties" approach still good enough here? I think assigning keywords might be a way to make certain prestige classes a little more (or less) attractive -- some might have only on keyword; others could, theoretically, include all five.
GinTonic 06-30-07, 12:34 PM	In order to get every core class to two descriptors, you could add urban (civilized?) to the list to cover clerics, bards, fighters, wizards, and rogues.