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D&D Ideas — Class

Welcome once again to the weekly newsletter. This week’s topic is the classes, which we discussed in our weekly live chat. We hangout every Monday evening at 8 p.m. EST on Nerdarchy Live to talk about D&D, RPGs, gaming, life and whatever nerdy stuff comes up. Speaking of classes we put together a guide for all the Fifth Edition subclasses we’ve created over the years as part of a FREE bundle. The perfect character for your next game may just be revealed inside! You can get the Nerdarchy Newsletter delivered to your inbox each week, along with updates and info on how to game with Nerdarchy plus snag a FREE GIFT by signing up here.

Nerdy News

Chow down on the week that was! Feast on magic to fuel your rage, let your magic items steep in a treasure hoard and receive boons from the dragon lords plus a new live chat rounds out this week’s Nerdy News. Check it out here.

Delving Dave’s Dungeon

This week’s topic is class. We had a lot of fun with it during the chat at Nerdarchy Live.

Class is a little word with a big meaning in the Dungeons & Dragons game. There are 13 core classes in fifth edition D&D, which was only 12 for the first few years of this edition’s lifespan. The artificer was the most recent addition to the game, from Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Some would argue this isn’t enough.

During the chat we discussed a lot about class as a social construct and using it as a plot device in your D&D game. The different tiers of socioeconomic structures can provide tons of intrigue and opportunities for social encounters in D&D.

I’d look at the characters’ backgrounds and backstories to determine how NPCs might interact with each of them. The upper class are likely to treat a character with a noble background much different than they’d treat an urchin or criminal. A good peasant revolt could make a great backdrop during adventures in a city.

• Will the adventurers take part in the revolt?
• Will they try to put down the revolt and side with the nobility instead?
• Will the revolt just be an extra obstacle to the party’s current quest?

Even trickier might be navigating the nobility as various noble houses try to use adventurers in their machinations.

• Will the party end being duped?
• Will the party willingly do the bidding of corrupt nobles for power and wealth?

From Ted’s Head

Class can be so many things in this great game we all enjoy playing. Looking for a unique angle to ruminate on beyond what my colleagues write about as well as what was covered in the live chat I think I found another way of looking at things.

There are so many unique class features in 5E D&D that can not only be incorporated into monsters and NPCs but can be added into adventure design. For many editions Druidic and hidden languages are mixed into puzzles and challenges but why stop there? Martial classes in 5E D&D get access to fighting styles. These could be translated into symbology and imagery in these puzzles. Imagine the surprise when the wizard see symbols on a wall and it is the fighter who identifies it as a particular kata or weapon practice to allow access to the next chamber.

Barbarians have a specific totem, each of which could have symbols, lore or tribes acknowledging one who follows the path. Bards are easy enough to work into with music and performance. Anyone following a deity or order could obviously be attached to a particular path or quest. The list goes on and on.

To make it easier it would be simple for a DM to see what features the characters in the party possess and make those abilities matter. For even more fun, select the least used features when designing the adventure. Doing shows players the choices they made matter and connect themselves to whomever or wherever they are. When players have a character connection to the adventure it will be more meaningful and potentially can leave a lot of room for fun.

As a player, I personally like multiclassing. I do it quite a bit. While it does leave a character less powerful than a single class, it does allow for far more customization. Thorgarn, who I play over on Mini Terrain Domain on Thursday nights, has four classes — barbarian, cleric, fighter and paladin. It is a crazy mix and I certainly did not see myself taking the character to such an extreme but sometimes things happen in game and it should mean something.

I initially thought it was just going to be a barbarian and paladin after our Justicar character build. *SPOILER ALERT* during the campaign Thorgarn met an Aspect of Moridan and then gained a level. It felt fitting considering the backstory to go with a level in cleric. Fast forward a few seasons and many levels but I wind up with the mind of a construct fighter in my head for a time. I thought it was fitting for him to take a level in fighter adding my fourth class. With lots more levels I think I have it figured out. But I thought this before so who knows. Hopefully nothing crazy happens.

Use what you have access to in game as the DM or the player. After all if you are not going to use those features, maybe you just lack class. I jest! Just looking to get in one more use of class before I head out.

From the Nerditor’s Desk

Thinking about class particularly as it pertains to 5E D&D is kinda weird. On one hand this week’s topic is one of those words with a pretty broad meaning, which we like because there’s so many perspectives from which to approach. On the other hand it’s a term so intrinsically tied to the game and mechanics it’s nearly inescapable to think about any other way.

So I’ll lean into it! But I’ll tackle it from a couple of other angles too. Hang in there.

First up comes a look at exactly what the source material has to say as regards class like I do for just about every other topic. In the Basic Rules class is mentioned many times before giving any insight into what it means. The explanation comes where it’s most needed during the step by step character creation section.

“Class broadly describes a character’s vocation, what special talents he or she possesses, and the tactics he or she is most likely to employ when exploring a dungeon, fighting monsters, or engaging in a tense negotiation.” — from the 5E D&D Basic Rules

I like this concise explanation quite a lot. For one thing it makes more sense to describe class as a vocation than the scant analogy made in the 1977 Basic Rules. In that text the only explanation is “or profession” expanded to “the type of adventurer you are playing” in the classic red box edition. Profession doesn’t quite land right. Characters’ profession is more akin to mercenary or even more plainly adventurer. Vocation suggests there’s some greater calling at play. An individual from any sort of background from soldier to sage feels compelled to show great devotion to becoming a renowned warrior or powerful arcanist for example. I enjoy this approach to playing 5E D&D. My characters’ class is what they’ve chosen to focus their efforts towards with an eye on transcending what the average participant experiences.

There’s also the notion of class as a social construct, which is incredibly complex. Incorporating this sort of theme into a 5E D&D can be very engaging but also quite tricky. It’s something very relatable because it exists in our own real world and for this same reason it must be treated carefully in a game. Adventurers by their nature tend to create anomalies when interacting with any kind of social class structure because their lives exist outside these bounds for the most part. Handling social class themes in a game well can be rather enlightening for all the players. It provides opportunities for everyone to try and see things from different perspectives. In the best cases players takeaway some fresh perspectives into our everyday lives.

Lastly I’ll use this opportunity to encourage behavior I like to see more in games — playing with class. Throughout all these decades enjoying the RPG hobby I’ve noticed something. Perhaps it’s merely a function of my own growth but I feel like there’s a lot more equilibrium between players and DMs. Investing time in creating backstory and more complete characters, eagerness to participate in worldbuilding and taking hold of agency in a positive way are some of the developments I’ve experienced over my time with the hobby and to me this is classy behavior.

Folks on either side of the DM screen put a lot of effort into the gameplay experience in their own ways and this makes game experiences better without question. It shows tremendous class when players contribute as much to propel adventures and stories forward as the DM. Take this forth into your games! Whether you’re rolling funny shaped dice with a core group of friends or enjoying the immense growth of the hobby through games with new faces on the regular bring some class to the table whenever you go.

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