cyndane.mee.nu

I haven't really had anything to rant about, but a discussion I had yesterday has brought up a(nother) lovely little rant about DnD, divine spellcasting classes.

And, as usual, I'm only going to talk about the base three books in this discussion because it's the last time I think WotC tried to balance their classes.

There are two divine casters in the base Player's Handbook: the cleric and the druid.  The druid is widely considered by people who care too much to be the only class in the PHB worth taking all it's levels.  The other base classes' benefits can be replicated through prestige classes (a rant for another day) or items.  People are absolutely in love with the wide range of abilities that the druid gets, and Wild Shape is a tremendously powerful ability.  With the small cost of one feat (Natural Spell) all your abilities can be used in Wild Shape, and the stats you get in Wild Shape are probably better than your base form.  Dire Bear (or Dire Tiger if you want a high Dex) FTW.

The cleric is widely believed to be the most powerful class in the game.  Proficiency with all armor, 3/4 BAB, spells that rock, and such.  You can be an offensive juggernaut, a defensive wall, a healer, or all three!

But no one wants to play these classes.  Do you know why?  Because they are divine casters, and DnD players nowadays have played too many MMORPGs.  The healer has to be fragile and do nothing but heal.  The fighter has to stand around and take hits and pretend to hurt things.  The mage is supposed to blast everything, and the rogue is supposed to pull in the DPS with sneaky git stabbings.  Now, I understand that the four essential roles in DnD are fighter, divine caster, arcane caster, and trapfinder, as I stated in my bard rant.  Note I DID NOT say tank, healer, mage, and DPS thief.  Many players of DnD seem to be stuck in this mindset.

Which is why no one wants to play a divine caster.  If you play the Druid, you will be expected to prepare mostly cure spells because you're a divine caster.  If you play a Cleric, you'll be expected to stand in the back and just heal people.  If you fight, expect people to be annoyed.  You're the fragile little cleric that can do nothing but heal despite the fact that you a good hit die and can wear bloody full plate, not to mention that you have spells that make you an even better combatant.

I still would have loved to see what people's reactions would have been in the Iron Kingdoms game I was playing my Cleric in.  She was going to take five levels of Cleric before switching to Pistoleer.  Why?  Because I had a character concept, and I wasn't playing her to be a fragile little cleric that stands in the back and heals.  It was a fun character for the short time I got to play her before the game ended.  I never did get to Pistoleer, though.

Next time:  The Great Prestige Class Rant.

Posted by: Cyndane at 12:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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