Back to Basics: Races as Class

[Meatboy]

I guess recently i've been suffering from nostalgia. Between that and some awesome old school threads detailing parties of nobodies dying effortlessly in nameless dungeons I got to thinking about classes. Specifically I've been thinking about races as class. I know that there are plenty of reasons to dislike races as class but I was wondering what pros their are to having races as class.

For me the biggest draw is a combo of simplicity and flavour. A racial class can different from fighter, wizard or what have you and still have its own wierd wonderfullness.

So tell me what are the good sides of races as classes.

 

[delericho]

You basically said it: simplicity and flavour.

Basically, if you want to enforce racial stereotypes (Dwarves are Fighters, Halflings are Fighter/Rogues, Elves are Fighter/Wizards) then race as class will serve you well. If, on the other hand, you prefer to see a variety of demihuman characters, or even if you just want to allow players to play against type, you really need race and class to be separate.

 

[Gadget]

I agree with the original post: simplicity and flavor. I think the original conception of classes were common fantasy archetypes, and as such races as classes made a lot of sense. The later, more situationist complaint of 'why are all elves/dwarves etc. the same, does not make sense in this context because this is specifically for player characters, not for creating whole societies in the fantasy fiction. While there are still difficulties with this implementation (The classic 'High Elf' vs 'Wood Elf' contrast comes to mind here), with more customization options like subclasses, themes, feats, & backgrounds, some of these hurdles can be overcome. I always thought that race in the past couple of editions of D&D has been largely cosmetic beyond the first couple of levels anyway.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I guess recently i've been suffering from nostalgia. Between that and some awesome old school threads detailing parties of nobodies dying effortlessly in nameless dungeons I got to thinking about classes. Specifically I've been thinking about races as class. I know that there are plenty of reasons to dislike races as class but I was wondering what pros their are to having races as class.

For me the biggest draw is a combo of simplicity and flavour. A racial class can different from fighter, wizard or what have you and still have its own wierd wonderfullness.

So tell me what are the good sides of races as classes.

I've never gotten my hands on the 1974 edition of D&D. I've tried, but (not terribly surprising) it's not available these days, at least not from any place that isn't Ebay.

Isn't the elf class simply a fighter/mage? (Was there a dwarf class?)

IMO, it's not necessary to create an "elf class", but you could create an elf-flavored class instead. Perhaps many DMs will only allow high elves/eladrin to play the spellsword (or whatever you would call it) class. And while you're at it, you could perhaps make the class work better for whatever purpose it supports in game terms for whatever edition. (A pre-3e spellsword class might be able to cast Mage Armor a few times/day as a spell-like ability. A 3rd edition version might do something about the action economy, like Pathfinder's magus. Etc.)

For that matter, a fighter/mage done 2e-style might benefit from a new Weapon Proficiency or two (sort of like how Two-Weapon Fighting is a WP there), something that promotes an elegant combination of blade and magic rather than brute style of fighting. Yes, said character might only be proficient with two actual weapons, but that's part-and-parcel of being a bladesinger anyway.

From what little I know of the elf class - and I could be wrong, since this is based on forum posts on the internet - the elf class doesn't really promote elfishness, as characterized in Lord of the Rings, Forgotten Realms or other fantasy settings. It may flavor match some elves though.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I've never gotten my hands on the 1974 edition of D&D. I've tried, but (not terribly surprising) it's not available these days, at least not from any place that isn't Ebay.

Isn't the elf class simply a fighter/mage? (Was there a dwarf class?)

Well, the different editions are different. 1974 OD&D didn't have races as classes, per se, but restricted class choices -- elves could adventure as both fighting-men and magic-users but not as both in the same adventure. B/XD&D subsequently allowed elves to be essentially both fighters and wizards at the same time, using all weapons and casting while wearing armor.

B/XD&D and BECMI are more what is being thought of here, where there was a specific race class with specific/unique skills and application, most of which have subsequently been folded into racial abilities.

I think the simplicity of the approach is an advantage -- when you say "elf" in BD&D you know exactly what that means.

 

[smartmonkey]

I ran a long and successful campaign of Rules Cyclopedia where several racial classes were featured among PC's. I really liked them, but I also allowed people to play, say, an Elf using the mage class for a non-combat elf, and I also allowed someone to use the Elf class to play a fighter/mage. I like racial classes a lot (I found Autarch did them quite well in ACKS) but I like being flexible with them.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I think the simplicity of the approach is an advantage -- when you say "elf" in BD&D you know exactly what that means.

I was probably looking for the wrong books then. What abilities did they have?

In any event, I see where you're going with this, but mainly I disagree. I wouldn't expect an encounter with a community of 200 elves to have that many ... "elves" in it. If anything, that's making things more confusing. I'd expect the usual gamut of commoners, warriors, archers, a few wizards and/or priests and an "elf" or three.

I guess I think "elf" as a class should be used the same way that "gish" used to be used. Only githyanki and githzerai had gish, but plenty of githyanki and githzerai were not gish.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

In any event, I see where you're going with this, but mainly I disagree. I wouldn't expect an encounter with a community of 200 elves to have that many ... "elves" in it. If anything, that's making things more confusing. I'd expect the usual gamut of commoners, warriors, archers, a few wizards and/or priests and an "elf" or three.

I guess I think "elf" as a class should be used the same way that "gish" used to be used. Only githyanki and githzerai had gish, but plenty of githyanki and githzerai were not gish.

Actually, for NPCs I agree with you. "Race as class" is a good model for PC adventurers; it's not a healthy recipe for world building though.

If you want to get the class feel, get the Moldvay BD&D "pink box" rule book (or find the excellent thread with the review of it here).

 

[Ahnehnois]

I think that there is a draw to exclusivity; if there's an ability that only an elf can get, it makes elves feel more special and somewhat addresses the relative unimportance of racial modifiers at high levels.

I do, however, prefer race-specific class variants to entire racial classes.

 

[Dethklok]

You know, you can probably have your cake and eat it too by making "mountain dwarf" a class, and "high elf" a class, and then, on top of this, making an additional rule that lets people say "I want to be a thief who is an elf" and then just have a thief character who happens to be an elf.

You could do as much or as little here as you wanted--make elven thieves totally indistiguishable from regular thieves, or let them choose an elven appearance and write "elven" under their languages spoken, or let them take +1 Dex -1 Con (or whatever), be immune to ghoul paralysis, and everything else.

What this does is give you all the simplicity and flavor of the race as class while placating gamers who really need the option to customize characters or who want to argue about the implausibility of an entire race that is the same.

(By the way, anybody remember Gauntlet, or Heroquest? Good times. I don't recall anyone ever complaining that those games perpetuated the negative stereotype of elves as flighty archers or dwarves as grumbling tinkerers. Maybe that is exactly what made them good times.)