The Problem of Class Proliferation

[SmootRK]

Personally, I'm willing to see the Great Way Adept go.
While I attempted to emulate the Monk from 'the advanced era' or the Mystic from a certain Cyclopedia, I can also see it sparked zero interest (zero downloads).

I am willing to bet that there is a coding error with that entry on the download page. The counter is just not working.

Darn you, Mr. Smoot. Darn you mightily for finding my error!



Fixed now. 799 downloads. Artikid, it's not as bad as it seemed.

I was surprised that he said there were no downloads! Who does not like Kung-fu monks?!!?

[Steveman]

I was surprised that he said there were no downloads! Who does not like Kung-fu monks?!!?

*raises hand*

Though, to be honest, it has more to do with linguistics than the archetype, I absolutely adore the old TV show Kung-Fu. My character enters a monastery and asks "what wine did they make?" not "what style of kung-fu did they practice?"

[SmootRK]

I was surprised that he said there were no downloads! Who does not like Kung-fu monks?!!?

*raises hand*

Though, to be honest, it has more to do with linguistics than the archetype, I absolutely adore the old TV show Kung-Fu. My character enters a monastery and asks "what wine did they make?" not "what style of kung-fu did they practice?"

Of course I don't mean that MONK needs placement in every single campaign (I don't have such a class in my games)... but who does not like the idea of David Carradine (in his prime) or Jet Li jumping around kicking butt?

[xav++]

I think there needs to be an official class supplement book. I don't like having more than one or two versions of classes to sift through. Thats just me.

[shadowmane]

I like Great Way Adept.

[SmootRK]

I think there needs to be an official class supplement book. I don't like having more than one or two versions of classes to sift through. Thats just me.

I know what you mean... but the wording needs to be clear, that NO SUPPLEMENTS are necessary or truly "official" for play. The problem with making an Official Supplement (and something that we will likely be dealing with) is that once one is made, people will think that everyone 'should use' the materials. Which is not the case.

This occurred in 1e with the Unearthed Arcanana (and a lesser extent to some materials written by EGG in the Dragon - back then anything penned by EGG was considered 'official'). Cavaliers, Deep Gnomes, Drow, etc. all became official even when they were rather unbalanced.

To avoid this issue, the wording in the introductory section must be absolutely clear that NO SUPPLEMENT IS OFFICIAL in the sense of being necessary for play. All material outside the core books is optional and each GM has absolute control over what appears in the game.

Personally I wouldn't care if hundreds of new options were shared... I will use what I want and plainly ignore what does not suit me... but I agree that some semi-official set would be an excellent addition to our game overall. It would help even in modules and such, where the author can (more) easily add such items as Rangers or Paladins or whatever.

[xav++]

I don't think that DMs need to have that warning. If they have a backbone they tell their players "no we aren't using the supplement" Or "We can use A but not B from the supplement."

[Steveman]

eeeh, they do. As much as we want to assume common sense, we can not assume common sense.

[SmootRK]

eeeh, they do. As much as we want to assume common sense, we can not assume common sense.

I agree. Seen it before, so no reason to expect it would happen otherwise in the future. I think the only way to stop that is to explicitly spell it out so there is no doubt. The GM decides what appears in the game, either in whole or in part.

[Dimirag]

We must consider that newer GM's have 0 experience regarding game balance and almost 0 capability for discerning between something OFFICIAL and something that seems official but it isn't.
Besides, if we start labeling supplements as officials we run the risk of "closing the door" to people who want to support the game with their own creation "why would a upload my X sub-class, which is rather interesting/good, if theres already an official one", we must try to avoid this...