I was looking over some 3rd party classes on this one website, linked here, and i was wondering if anybody had ever tryed to run a game as one of these or with one in your group.
The link goes to the class that i was most interested in, and because i am not the number crunchin type i thought i would bring my curiosity to the internet.
Would this class be a good addition to a group and if so, would it be overpowered?
Well, yes I have used 3rd party base classes in my game. And I have run successful games and played in successful games that included them without any real issue. The key is to understand what the class can do that might be different from the core class.
For instance the artificer revolves around crafting things. The power of the class entirely depends on free time and available resources. If the artificer has little to no free time to craft magic items and weird science items, then the class is woefully underpowered. Or if the game is a low magic/treasure game, the artificer wont be able to make as much use of it's crafting abilities. If however the class has unlimited access to time and resources, it can be fairly powerful.
This particualr class I dont think you ever need to worry about it being overpowered, as it's principal ability caps out at level 4 'inventions'. But again it really depends the style of the game, and what the challenges the party will face are.
One of my PCs ran an artificer, but recently switched. The main problem we both had is that it's too vague, for example, the inventions mechanic never explains the limits of how many spells can be put into 1 invention, or if that invention has any greater "cost" then an invention that acts as just 1 spell. Meaning, you can put every spell on every class list into 1 invention and cast all of it on a standard action. Personally, I would avoid making an artificer.
That said, I have run other 3rd party classes before (mostly as NPCs though), specifically the Runeblade from the book of experimental might, and most of the Super Genius Games Classes, as well as Dreamscared Press' alpha Psionic classes.
I'm currently playing in a homebrew Eberron campaign that uses mostly PFR stuff in the Eberron setting, but we have a Warforged and an Artificer. Because Eberron has lots of metropoli and chances to rest, our artificer is actually pretty powerful, plus he maintains and buffs the warforged. So yeah, to second what Kolokotroni said it really depends on the campaign.
I've run Time Thieves and Dragonriders (from SuperGenius) and had them work fine, both times checking with the GM ahead of time so he knew what was coming, then we were able to work together to make the class fit well with the campaign.
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I've just started playing an Artificer at high (14th) level, and they are reasonably powerful. I would disagree with Mr Alarm's interpretation of Weird Science, based on some of the erratta/discussion that occurred around the release of the original book (although I can definately see where is came from). My Artificer has 6 buff running almost constantly (all hour/level or 10 mins/level) and another 9 that can be applied as a standard action (all 1 mins/level or 1 round/level). That and equipment creep due to crafting means that he's a little bit silly
Well, that and Leadership, but that's another kettle of fish...
Glad to know that it runs fairly smoothly in game compared to other classes. The setting thing realy isnt an issue for my group because we usually tend to play high on the magic and treasure end of the spectrum.
My players... No need to read here...
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I was looking over some 3rd party classes on this one website, linked here, and i was wondering if anybody had ever tryed to run a game as one of these or with one in your group.
The link goes to the class that i was most interested in, and because i am not the number crunchin type i thought i would bring my curiosity to the internet.
Would this class be a good addition to a group and if so, would it be overpowered?
Well, like anything from a 3rd party publisher, you have to be careful and stick to companies you trust with a good, consistant track record. As long as you do that, there is no reason at all to not give 3rd party classes a try.
Speaking a someone that has two Pathfinder classes published (as well as a thrird coming out hopefully this spring :) I would stand behind them 100% as being balanced, interesting and fun to play!
I ran a game at a con that was all Super Genius game classes..It went quite well
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I ran a game at a con that was all Super Genius game classes..It went quite well
In the games I play we use SGG classes too!
They merge perfectly with the core and APG classes, and most of them are not redundant, with core and APG classes.
For me, SGG classes are some of the best 3rd party classes there are on the market.
The War Master, Godling, Time Thef, Shadow Assasin, Justicar and others are REALLY good.
To sort of bump this back up, I have done some publishing under Little Red Goblin games myself. All the classes that I publish receive a fair round of playtesting, and are ones I use in my games. The Conductor class was selected by someone who wanted to reroll his bard, and he loves it. The second class that I've published, the martialist, was put in play to allow for a swashbuckler-type of fighter or a non-unarmed monk. At present I've used it for just NPCs (My game is at about 14th level now, so no one felt like rerolling) but the style feats caught on with the monk quickly. I've got a couple more in the works as well, and I'm starting sub-games so that my players can have a chance to try out the new content from the APG and what I put out.
I've used the Shadow Assassin and Dragon Rider from Super Genius Games in both of my games. The party went up against a high level shadow assassin and is now very afraid of them.
I personally would like to hear from anyone who's used any of the 4WFG classes from Paths of Power.
I personally would like to hear from anyone who's used any of the 4WFG classes from Paths of Power.
Or Strategists & Tacticians.
I personally would like to hear from anyone who's used any of the 4WFG classes from Paths of Power.Or Strategists & Tacticians.
Well, yes, them too, but I didn't write those...
We've used the Spellblade, Artificer, and Swashbuckler from Tome Of Secrets, as well as LPJ's Blooded Noble. All of them needed a few tweaks, but they were pretty playable.
I've also used the Hedge Witch from the linked site as an NPC in ROTR (before the APG Witch came out.) It made for a great healer, though the Healing Wind was a bit more powerful than expected. (The 2-3 turns of regeneration made characters dropped below 0 hp have a better survivability.) While this was OK with a group of new players with little group cohesion or tactics, I couold see room for abuse.
However, the NPC was fun to play (and we had a guest player "sit in" for 2 months playing the NPC as a PC and she loved it) and she fit the party well.
I think wiht any 3pp (and even a few of the official rules) you ahve to just be careful about combining too many rules together.