All For One - Using Just One Class in a Party


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion

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In games like pathfinder and D&D when we’re putting our party together we often think about what roles each character can play. Often we do so just in terms of mechanics, but that isn't the only way we can do. Sometimes I like to help build a party around a theme. One of the themes I like is the all one class party. The challenge than becomes making each character’s different both in story terms as well as mechanically even though they are based on the same mechanical chassis.

Have you ever played a game with all just one class? If so which class was it? And how did you make your characters separate both in terms of background and mechanics?


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I haven't done this yet, but this sounds easily done with Oracles. Mysteries and curses can make characters range from a deaf, wolf scarred natural attack Oracle of War, to a legalistic, rainbow shooting, star gazing Oracle of the Heavens. You'd have to try really hard to have a redundant party.


Frosty Ace wrote:
I haven't done this yet, but this sounds easily done with Oracles. Mysteries and curses can make characters range from a deaf, wolf scarred natural attack Oracle of War, to a legalistic, rainbow shooting, star gazing Oracle of the Heavens. You'd have to try really hard to have a redundant party.

Missed Oracles but yes they are another class with enough choices in just the base class itself to find a lot of diversity of character without taking even archetypes.


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One obvious choice to try is a party of Mediums. Every party member can effectively choose each day which class they want to be.

Of course, if the party entirely consists of Mediums, that Shared Séance class feature won't see much use.


David knott 242 wrote:

One obvious choice to try is a party of Mediums. Every party member can effectively choose each day which class they want to be.

Of course, if the party entirely consists of Mediums, that Shared Séance class feature won't see much use.

I haven't really played with any of the occult classes yet but I;ll take a look. If there's an ability that requires players of other classes, perhaps their are archetypes that replace that ability that can be used.


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Mediums, oracles, clerics, warpriests, wizards, sorcerers, druids, bards, inquisitors, magus, summoners, vigilantes, witches, arcanists, hunters, investigators, alchemists, shaman, skalds, kineticists, occultists, psychics, and spiritualists. All of these classes can do a 4 man party and work. Most can deal with any status problems, and all have a lot of options to solve problems. All can do combats just fine.

With rogue getting an honorable mention now that it can get arcane casting.


The game was designed to be played by the four basic archetypal classes. Once you limit those classes to one, problems arise. That said, if you want to do it as an experiment or challenge, then go for it. It just doesn't make sense to me to have a bunch of characters of one class that have to pretend to be a different class, just so they don't wipe out every other session.


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Shaman is the easiest to manage this with, IMO. That class is a swiss army knife deluxe edition.


There was a cool dragon article about this several years ago.


Brother Fen wrote:
The game was designed to be played by the four basic archetypal classes. Once you limit those classes to one, problems arise. That said, if you want to do it as an experiment or challenge, then go for it. It just doesn't make sense to me to have a bunch of characters of one class that have to pretend to be a different class, just so they don't wipe out every other session.

I've played all rogues and all wizards before and they've both worked. I've also played many games where at least one of the traditional roles aren't filled, includng having no healer, and those parties have always worked. I totally disagree that the game needs or is even designed specifically for basic archetypal classes. The perfect party formula is a Myth.

Serisan wrote:
Shaman is the easiest to manage this with, IMO. That class is a swiss army knife deluxe edition.

I imagine that might be true. But I hate the shaman class with a passion so I don't think I'll ever find out if that kind one class party works from personal experience.

Freehold DM wrote:
There was a cool dragon article about this several years ago.

If you could find this article I'd like to see it. I can probably find a copy if you just let me know what issue its in.


Team Paladin. A divine defender, a divine hunter, a sword of valor, an Iroran paladin ,and a holy tactician combine to make an interesting team.


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Related threads:

A party where every PC has the exact same build?

Musical Party

One class party, a thought experiment.

Themed PC Groups

Thought Experiment, Single Class Campaign

Thread Necromancy welcome.

Another thought: Teamwork Feats would be good here, and might actually get some use, maybe even if not using a class that grants them for free.


I love a little bit of tread necromancy its good to see other people's opinions on the subject.

I'd like to see team work feats used more as well and it would be an interesting idea to throw them into the mix with an all one class party.


A bunch of Bards who form a band might be amusing. A standard Bard and a Court Bard could probably make a big buff+debuff impact together, and there are a few other archetypes like Archivist who can offer more stacking bonuses (plus maybe a Sound Striker vocalist to blow stuff up)

A team of Rogues seems pretty iconic to me whether as members of a thieves guild/mafia/etc or maybe spies. Ideally each PC would have at least one area he or she specializes in.

A party of Fighters or Monks could all have different fighting styles. I guess they'd probably need at least one member with Use Magic Device for wands if they didn't want to spend a fortune on potions though.


Apupunchau wrote:

I love a little bit of tread necromancy its good to see other people's opinions on the subject.

I'd like to see team work feats used more as well and it would be an interesting idea to throw them into the mix with an all one class party.

Yes, time for renewed rubber to hit the road!

Shadow Lodge

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All bard parties seem popular.

All vigilante party is thematic and also allows a diverse set of abilities, including arcane and divine casting. Zealot is not the best healer, but you could manage, especially if you use sneaky tactics to avoid damage.

I think an all kineticist party with different elements would be fun, though harder to balance. Kinetic Chirurgeon, though overall a weak archetype, does provide a minimum amount of healing. Add an earth tank, air (or water or void) controller, and fire blaster. Earth or fire character could take elemental annihilator.


fire is fairly useless to take as an elemental annihilator. The devastating can only work on physical blasts.


In terms of replicating a regular mixed party, all-Vigilante or all-Medium would do pretty well. Vigilante archetypes are basically all different classes, and so are Medium spirits. I suspect the Vigilante would be better at specializing, but an all-Medium group could get nifty Seance boons up for the whole party, and be able to swap out roles if a party member goes missing.

However, all-Bard and all-Inquisitor would also be pretty awesome. You could double your buffs on an Archeologist, get a Thundercaller in the mix, maybe get a debuffer-type Bard, and watch as the world collapses around your enemies. All Inquisitors could get some sort of ridiculous teamwork feat synergy or pretend to be other classes (Summoner, Hunter, Slayer). Everybody could decide to take the Tactics Inquisition, which adds your WIS to allies' initiative. With the whole party adding the sum of everybody's WIS to initiative, you could decide to move first every time (not the best choice, but a fun synergy).

Shaman and Oracle are fairly versatile. Extra props to the Oracle for being able to get an Animal Companion and (actually) arcane spells.

Shadow Lodge

Chess Pwn wrote:
fire is fairly useless to take as an elemental annihilator. The devastating can only work on physical blasts.

Right, forgot about that.

Still a possibility for earth depending on taste and how much differentiation you want between PCs. Though I think even without archetypes kineticist as a class allows a good amount of mechanical and thematic differentiation - similar to sorcerers and oracles, thanks to bloodline/mystery and spells known.


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All fighter party. Make it work.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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I've played or ran: all bards, all ninjas, and all fighters. I'm also in an all pally game but it's gestalt so it doesn't really count.

All fighters gets a bad rap but it was actually pretty fun (and happened almost on accident). Our magic guy was a kitsune taking all the magic tail feats and the dangerously curious trait; his UMD was really good plus he had a bunch of SLAs he made creative use of (and dual wielded kukris with butterfly sting in combat). We also had a lore warden/martial master who covered our knowledges and could pick up maneuver feats for some control. That was really all it took- I think the others were all pretty straight forward fighters. The party wasn't huge on stealth or subterfuge (and dealing with traps usually meant making sure only one person got hit), but it worked.


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All-Vigilante sounds not only like an incredible party, but frankly, the basis for an incredible campaign.

Four Vigilantes banding together? You could have some truly incredible roleplay and some exceptional combat.

I'm kind of in love with this idea now.

'Course, I've also been binge-watching Leverage on Netflix lately.


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Any class so long as you have a human with improved improvisation. Can make all skill checks at +4 so long as no skills in it. That's all knowledge checks, the ability to use wands, can sneak, open locks, bluff and do diplomacy.

Elves, dwarves and gnomes can take breadth of experience for +2 to untrained knowledge checks.

It could make for a good low fantasy campaign...which now I want to do. :p


Grumbaki wrote:

Any class so long as you have a human with improved improvisation. Can make all skill checks at +4 so long as no skills in it. That's all knowledge checks, the ability to use wands, can sneak, open locks, bluff and do diplomacy.

Elves, dwarves and gnomes can take breadth of experience for +2 to untrained knowledge checks.

It could make for a good low fantasy campaign...which now I want to do. :p

Half-elf with Improved Improvisation and the Reflexive Improvisation alternate racial trait. Preferably on a class without too many class skills (such as Sorcerer), since you'll want to milk your bonus for all you've got.

Shadow Lodge

nate lange wrote:
I'm also in an all pally game but it's gestalt so it doesn't really count.

I really, really want to play and/or run a half-single class gestalt game. It's got the thematic fun of a single class party, but with more flexibility for customization and party balance.


My Self wrote:
Grumbaki wrote:

Any class so long as you have a human with improved improvisation. Can make all skill checks at +4 so long as no skills in it. That's all knowledge checks, the ability to use wands, can sneak, open locks, bluff and do diplomacy.

Elves, dwarves and gnomes can take breadth of experience for +2 to untrained knowledge checks.

It could make for a good low fantasy campaign...which now I want to do. :p

Half-elf with Improved Improvisation and the Reflexive Improvisation alternate racial trait. Preferably on a class without too many class skills (such as Sorcerer), since you'll want to milk your bonus for all you've got.

Then take the Evangelist PrC.

Multitude of Talents (Ex): "Starting at 5th level, the evangelist gains a +4 sacred or profane bonus on any skill check attempted with a skill in which the character has no ranks. This bonus applies only to skill checks that can be made untrained."

Dark Archive

Umbral Reaver wrote:
All fighter party. Make it work.

As much as I love to hate that class, I was thinking the same thing. Archetypes add versatility and solve the 2 skill point problem. Traits benefit their otherwise lackluster skill list. The party has the spare feats for hilarious teamwork shenanigans while maintaining their core build paths.

The DM just has to be on board, and he players have to step up their game. Traps could be an issue, but leaning more towards traps that target AC means that Fighter class features still get to shine. A more forgiving interpretation of Intimidate could allow fearful antagoniats to maintain the "positive" attitude between interactions to avoid a possible beating.

On top of that, classic adventuring problems are no longer solved with fire-and-forget magic. My inner Wizard is physically ill at the thought of this, but I can appreciate situations that require creative thinking and a varied equipment list to get around. I'm sure it would be fun once I got used to it.

There are still tons of potential problems. Consult one of the dozens of Caster/Martial Disparity threads for examples, but off the top of my head the Cleric's ability to remove negative conditions such as curses,poisons, level drain, ability damage, and outright death is the biggest issue. Despite that, I feel like a well versed DM and some players who want to try something different can have a blast with this.

Edit: I should try and cook up an all Summoner one/two shot one of these days.


graystone wrote:
My Self wrote:
Grumbaki wrote:

Any class so long as you have a human with improved improvisation. Can make all skill checks at +4 so long as no skills in it. That's all knowledge checks, the ability to use wands, can sneak, open locks, bluff and do diplomacy.

Elves, dwarves and gnomes can take breadth of experience for +2 to untrained knowledge checks.

It could make for a good low fantasy campaign...which now I want to do. :p

Half-elf with Improved Improvisation and the Reflexive Improvisation alternate racial trait. Preferably on a class without too many class skills (such as Sorcerer), since you'll want to milk your bonus for all you've got.

Then take the Evangelist PrC.

Multitude of Talents (Ex): "Starting at 5th level, the evangelist gains a +4 sacred or profane bonus on any skill check attempted with a skill in which the character has no ranks. This bonus applies only to skill checks that can be made untrained."

Does that stack with improvisation, allowing all skill checks to be made untrained?

Getting a straight +6 sounds tasty. But he'd give up having 3 attacks, being stuck with 1...

...however he'd still get full fighter bonus feats meaning that he'd easily get whirlwind attack. Add in a reach weapon and you get a pretty specialized fighter.


All ninja !


I had an idea for a lost legion game, where every character started with 1+ fighter levels with the same teamwork feats, then could multiclassed as they wished. The game would start with their army being routed and destroyed deep in wild dangerous territory, escaping the battlefield, then deciding how to survive, either get home, or desert and make new lives, or try to complete the mission somehow.


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Closest I've ever gotten was a party of all arcane casters, 3 of which were sorcerers. The other was a wizard. The wizard took a couple fighter levels, one sorcerer took some ranger levels, third took a couple rogue levels, I stayed single-classed. Fun game, but real life got in the way a lot.

Parties I could see: all barbarians. The horde is come!
Bards: enough said.
Clerics: tougher if they belong to disparate faiths, something that could have lots of RP opportunities.
Druids: What's threatening nature needs dealt with.
Fighters: See Cult of Vorg.
Monks: Who is dishonoring the monastery's traditions?
Paladins: CRUSADE!!!!
Rangers: an elite scout unit
Rogues: Thieves' guild
Sorcerers: Tough. Need a reason to band together in the face of wizardly persecution...
Wizards: Guild


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Run an all Kineticist party. Be one with your inner Planeteer.


Grumbaki

Reflexive Improvisation [+2 racial bonus on untrained skill checks.]
Improvisation [+2 bonus on all skill checks for skills you have no ranks in], [Furthermore, you can use all skills designated “trained only” untrained]
Improved Improvisation [the bonus on all skill checks for skills you have no ranks in increases to +4 instead of +2]
Multitude of Talents [+4 sacred/profane bonus on any skill check attempted with a skill in which the character has no ranks]

So a 1/2 elf could have +2 racial +4 bonus and +4 sacred/profane bonus = +10. That +10 works for all skills with no ranks and you can use skills “trained only” untrained. Best way to be a skilled dumb person! ;)

As to the 3 attack thing, I have no idea what you mean by that.


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pulseoptional wrote:
Run an all Kineticist party. Be one with your inner Planeteer.

Or a party of benders ;)


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I did a little thought experiment a while back about a party of Rangers. Got some nice responses.

Dark Archive

What about a party restricted by not only class, but archetype?

All Exploiter Wizard. All Sacred Servant Paladin. All Synthesist Summoner. All Hunter (teamwork feat extreme).


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Umbral Reaver wrote:
All fighter party. Make it work.

General tip: Don't dump Int.

A dwarf with Vagabond Child (Disable Device) and either Eyes and Ears of the City or Seeker can (mostly) fill in for a rogue with locks and traps. Outside of stone dungeons/buildings they don't gain the automatic Perception checks from Stonecunning; also, they can't disarm magical traps with Disable Device. Other than that they're good to go.

One child of Acavna and Amaznen for minor arcane spellcasting. Not great (bloodrager spell list), but has some decent options; as a prepared caster, they can also learn as many spells on their list as they can afford. They can also take item creation feats (Craft Wondrous Item and Craft Magic Arms and Armor, especially).

One fighter with a 12+ Cha, Dangerously Curious, and focusing on social skills (Diplomacy and Sense Motive, at least) as well as Use Magic Device; covers the "face" role and (with wands) healing. With a 13+ Cha, may possibly consider Eldritch Heritage; the Celestial bloodline allows some damage/healing capability (assuming a typical good-aligned party).

One mutation warrior (for mutagen) or viking (for rage). The "extra-heavy" hitter in the group.


Captain K. wrote:
What about a party restricted by not only class, but archetype?

All grenadier alchemists. Blow up all the things.


Gulthor wrote:
Captain K. wrote:
What about a party restricted by not only class, but archetype?
All grenadier alchemists. Blow up all the things.

All Wildsoul Vigilantes. Avengers Assemble!


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A group of half-orc dirge bards. Doom metal.
A group of broodmaster summoners. It's going to be so cute!
A group of skalds. A bunch of roosters competing about who crows the loudest. May also (d)evolve into doom metal.
A group of occultists. Five characters and 20 implements so strange no town wants to let them enter twice. "Oi, who stole the egg from my chicken-feet tetrahedron again!"
"An abjurer, a conjurer, a necromancer, and a transmuter go into a tavern. Nobody saw the illusionist enter, and the diviner was already present."
A group of spiritualists. Now The Haunting of Harrowstone can be both module name and party callsign.
A bunch of separatist clerics who try to figure out Grand Unified Theology of everything.

I like the kineticist or fighter options. I still have fond memories of Avatar The Last Airbender, and archetypes plus UMD can make the latter work. Cult of Vorg also has something that sounds interesting.


My Self wrote:
Gulthor wrote:
Captain K. wrote:
What about a party restricted by not only class, but archetype?
All grenadier alchemists. Blow up all the things.
All Wildsoul Vigilantes. Avengers Assemble!

I think since it came out people have been running lots of all Magical Child games.


Dragonchess Player wrote:
Umbral Reaver wrote:
All fighter party. Make it work.

General tip: Don't dump Int.

A dwarf with Vagabond Child (Disable Device) and either Eyes and Ears of the City or Seeker can (mostly) fill in for a rogue with locks and traps. {. . .}

One child of Acavna and Amaznen for minor arcane spellcasting. {. . .}

One fighter with a 12+ Cha, Dangerously Curious, and focusing on social skills (Diplomacy and Sense Motive, at least) as well as Use Magic Device; covers the "face" role and (with wands) healing. {. . .}

One mutation warrior (for mutagen) or viking (for rage). The "extra-heavy" hitter in the group.

I like this. Going to try my hand at doing the same thing for Rogue (all Unchained, and making use of VMC, but without taking the easy way out and using Eldritch Scion -- note that feats that are left over from VMC should be used for Teamwork as much as possible, to help set up flanking):

Counterfeit Mage/Sanctified Rogue VMC Wizard (Divination -- each of the 3 options has its own merits) serving as co-primary Trapfinder and UMD monkey (Anvil/Arm/Hammer). The Wizard VMC cranks Initiative and partially makes up for losing Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge (which are traded out for a bonus on Saves and the ability to use the equivalent of Augury), and each of the 3 options has useful powers. This character also invests points in Heal and carries around Alchemical, Wand, and Scroll medicinal supplies, to serve as primary healer. Being VERY good at UMD with Scrolls and Wands (and not too shabby at UMD otherwise) also means being able to do significant magical battlefield control and debuffing. (Another option is to use the Scout archetype instead of the Sanctified Rogue archetype to get off more Sneak Attacks, again at the cost of Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge, but this is semi-wasted when the party is using Teamwork to set up Sneak Attacks anyway. Yet another option is to be a Halfling Filcher instead of a Sanctified Rogue, again trading out Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge, but in this case for abilities that help with stealing stuff -- this might be the best alternative option, since it adds an option complemented by the cranked Initiative, although VMC Wizard (Conjuration:Teleportation) also becomes attractive to be able to steal stuff and then zip away, provided that you can boost Initiative enough by other means.)

Investigator (Rogue archetype, not the ACG class)/Liberator (seems to be a compatible archetype) VMC Bard, for the primary face and invormation gatherer, and eventually providing decent buffing (initially mostly Hammer, but later becomes part Arm as well). Also especially good at opening locks and getting both self and others out of a bind. (An alternative to VMC Bard would be VMC Inquisitor to get Stern Gaze to become even better at information gathering, but then somebody else needs to go VMC Bard, and Solo Tactics is semi-wasted if everyone else in the party is actually taking the same Teamwork Feats.)

Sniper for ranged attacking (and no VMC, because archery is highly feat-intensive) (Hammer) -- the Accuracy 1st level ability that replaces Trapfinding is effectively an accuracy booster for the longer ranges, although unfortunately it doesn't scale.

Thug for debuffing and non-lethal heavy-hitting by way of Intimidation and Sap Mastery (no VMC because this is feat-intensive).

Underground Chemist VMC Alchemist for battlefield control and non-magical debuffing (Anvil/Hammer). It has come to my notice that this character can actually make good use of the normally bad VMC Alchemist option to make pretending to be an Alchemist look better, because Underground Chemist gets the Intelligence-to-splash-weapon damage feature that VMC Alchemist lacks for not having the Throw Anything class feature (Alchemist's Throw Anything is more powerful than the Throw Anything feat, which might be good to have but isn't enough by itself). Underground Chemist doesn't trade out Trapfinding, so serves as co-primary Trapfinder. Also invests points in Heal and UMD and carries around Alchemical and Wand medicinal supplies, to serve as backup healer. (Might also be good to combine with the Makeshift Scrapper archetype to get the Throw Anything feat and the ability to enhance accuracy when fighting things that have really high AC and/or immunity to Sneak Attack.)


Regarding the title, it's funny that the Three Musketeers are depicted as swashbucklers in the movies, but are more of gunslingers by name. They may be multiclass.

The Exchange

5 shamans probably would work too.


Melkiador wrote:
Regarding the title, it's funny that the Three Musketeers are depicted as swashbucklers in the movies, but are more of gunslingers by name. They may be multiclass.

Picaroon Swashbuckler arcetype Swashbuckler for sword and gun style. I haven't ever really read the three musketeers but I don't remember any film adaptation actually having them use muskets.


Apupunchau wrote:
Melkiador wrote:
Regarding the title, it's funny that the Three Musketeers are depicted as swashbucklers in the movies, but are more of gunslingers by name. They may be multiclass.
Picaroon Swashbuckler arcetype Swashbuckler for sword and gun style. I haven't ever really read the three musketeers but I don't remember any film adaptation actually having them use muskets.

The recent BBC TV series includes the characters using muskets a few times, but they're not a great weapon for skirmish fighting because of the reload time. Most of the gunfights in the series are along the lines of fire first pistol - drop pistol - draw second pistol...and club the opponent with the last pistol if he's still standing.

Back on topic, I now want to play an all Investigator game run like a police procedural.


Apupunchau wrote:
Melkiador wrote:
Regarding the title, it's funny that the Three Musketeers are depicted as swashbucklers in the movies, but are more of gunslingers by name. They may be multiclass.
Picaroon Swashbuckler arcetype Swashbuckler for sword and gun style. I haven't ever really read the three musketeers but I don't remember any film adaptation actually having them use muskets.

The recent BBC series had them use muskets the way we would do it in Living Arcanis. Fire as an opening volley, and then conduct the rest of the melee with blade.

It also highlighted the part of the original novels on how dependent the Musketeers were on their various ladies to finance them. That and loot taken from their adversaries, but mostly the former.


Harleequin wrote:
All ninja !

I thought I remembered seeing a PBP thread with a group of all ninjas..

.. but I can't seem to find it now.


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^I think that's because a thread of all Ninja posters would have to involve some kind of circular temporal paradox . . . .


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All fighter party. Low wbl. Awesome sandbox, kingdom buildding campaign. Survived encounters most low level parties would not because we could just keep going. More tactics employed than any other party I have been in. Reach weapons, readying for combat and combat reflexes destroyed many enemies before they could close in. A whip fighter that could trip nearly anything.
Ps. Don't disarm skeletons... they become more dangerous with their claws.

The validity of many situations will depend on the setting, the DM and preagreed details of what type of game everyone wants to play.

Another game we were all bards in a band. Whilst combat was a part of the game, we focused momore on city and social interaction and skills. And a great homehomebrewed battle of the bands system.

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