A One-Shot Where Everyone Plays The Same Class?

[lair-master]

I've been kicking around an idea for a one-shot where all the player characters are the same class.

What classes possess the versatility to make a premise like this work? Can you make a well-rounded party using a single class?

What kind of stories could be told? Wizards at a magic school? Bards at a music festival? Rogues breaking out of prison?

Has anyone attempted anything like this?

[Eltacolibre]

Clerics. The only problem, with clerics unless you are playing above level 5, they will all be pretty much the same.

Bards have so many archetypes that make the class different is actually feasible from early levels.

[Umbranus]

Clerics, druids, oracles, inquisitors. Paladins might work, too.

[Imbicatus]

Inquisitors have enough versatility to cover all roles with Damage, Spells, Skills, and Healing. Bards could as well, but they aren't as good at healing and bard songs usually don't stack.

[williamoak]

Definitly possible. I've been brainstorming a "heist" style short campaign (maybe 4-5 games). Then again, it doesnt have to be just one class.

I've also got a write-up of a magical school (limited to wizards, witches & maguss). Never really thought about just one class.

[Imbicatus]

williamoak wrote:

I've also got a write-up of a magical school (limited to wizards, witches & maguss). Never really thought about just one class.

Just out of curiosity, why no Sorcerers, Summoners, or Bards? They are CHA based Spontaneous casters instead of Int Based Prepared, but they share much of the same roles and skills, and they are all arcane casters.

[williamoak]

Imbicatus wrote:

williamoak wrote:

I've also got a write-up of a magical school (limited to wizards, witches & maguss). Never really thought about just one class.

Just out of curiosity, why no Sorcerers, Summoners, or Bards? They are CHA based Spontaneous casters instead of Int Based Prepared, but they share much of the same roles and skills, and they are all arcane casters.

It's a school. the characters would start as children. A BIG part of spontaneous casters is that their powers are innate, thus no need for an education. It's really a premise thing, not a role thing.

[Orfamay Quest]

I've both run and played one-shots that were all paladins.

This can be a very good [i]role-playing[i] experience if done right; it encourages/forces players to focus on the idea of paladins with personality and individuality instead of the Holy PITA cookie-cutter. (Galahad, Lancelot, and Gawain were all paladins. No danger of confusing any of them.)

[Warhawx]

Paladins. You can go melee, ranged or even mounted with a Paladin. They have great saves, nice survivability with their d10 hit dice and swift action combat heal, and can do some magic once they hit 4th level. They will probably be lacking in int and wis skills, but traits can help with class skills while archers can focus on Dex skills while melee focus on Str skills, and all of them would also have nice charisma and interaction skills.

The setting isn't hard to come up with. All paladins have the same alignment and usually share a common goal. It wouldn't be strange to see a band of them on a holy mission or something. Although you may need to give some leeway to their code of honor thing due some party members possibly taking "dishonorable" skills (bluff, stealth etc.)

[Kolokotroni]

Well, as others have said, certain classes are versatile enough to make this happen, but there are other things to consider. Like whether or not this should be a 'normal' adventure. If everyone is a specific class, you can highly tailor the adventure to that class. So a party of rogues might not be the best at combat, and cant heal eachother, but they could be great in a heist or stealth based adventure, that is normally difficult since a normal party is rarely composed of all characters that are stealthy.

Another option is instead of everyone being the same class, have everyone have a certain common element to their character.

For instance, its a story about an arcane college, and everyone must have some kind of arcane casting. So a sorceror, wizard, magus, bard, and witch are all options, but you still have a sort of unified theme in character. Or everyone must be a skillfull character(rogue, ninja, bard, ranger, inquisitor, alchemist) and be good at stealth for the heist mission, that sort of thing.

[Mathwei ap Niall]

Witches. You have everything you need to cover every thing that could come up with enough staying power to adventure all day.

Throw 1 scarred witch or a summon focused character in there to be the meatshield while the rest just debuff and destroy every target that comes at them.

Has a built in story too, make them a coven going for some arcane/eldritch secret or simply taking revenge on a city/village that ran them out, go wild with it.

I remember that there was a play by post on this forum about a party of witches trying to do RotRL and it was going well.

[Cassidius]

I'd go with bards. They are the Jack of all Trades class after all. Plus I like the idea that they are a traveling band. It would be like a fantasy setting episode of Josie and the Pussycats.

[Marthkus]

Druid PARTY!

[james knowles]

I actually had this happen the very 1st time I tried a PFS event. All 5 of the players showed up with a different type of Oracle (battle/life/fire/bones/ and wind(me). The GM just stared blankly at us for about five minutes before he snapped out of it and ran the scenario.
We actually did pretty well. The healing overkill and diverse revelations totally made up for the fact that combat took twice as long as it should have due to lack of front line...or even second string fighters.

[williamoak]

james knowles wrote:

I actually had this happen the very 1st time I tried a PFS event. All 5 of the players showed up with a different type of Oracle (battle/life/fire/bones/ and wind(me). The GM just stared blankly at us for about five minutes before he snapped out of it and ran the scenario.

We actually did pretty well. The healing overkill and diverse revelations totally made up for the fact that combat took twice as long as it should have due to lack of front line...or even second string fighters.

Oh my gosh... I've been looking for players to help me out with my idea of "mahou shoujo sareanrae", a group of divine (paladin, inquisitor, oracle into dawnflower dissident, cleric) warriors who fight for sarenrae (would also include dawn dervish bard). Basically just for pure silliness value. I can only imagine everyone going to PFS and everyone shouting "Mahou Shoujo Sarenrae". This needs a theme song.

[Rashagar]

A party of inquisitors would be weird.

So much Solo Tactics.

[nate lange]

i've been toying with this idea, or different variations of it, for a while too... honestly, depending on your players' skill at character creation/optimization (and your skill at designing scenarios and encounters) you should be able to do this with literally any class. it would probably be easiest with a flexible/support class like bard or inquisitor (which is why they keep getting suggested), and full divine casters (with their medium BAB and armor use) aren't far behind, but even classes that often get flack for being inflexible or suboptimal can do it if well designed... for example, a party of all rogues will have skills completely covered, 1 or 2 will probably take UMD and/or the magic rogue talents, and their mutual desire/need to flank will synergize really well with each other and open great use of a couple teamwork feats! here's a few of the ideas i've tossed around:

all clerics:

actually 2 here- a) takes place in a world with a polytheistic but unified church; clerics of different gods (all good or neutral, preferably no diametrically opposed alignments) are tasked with completing some mission for the church. b) some mission that effects multiple churches needs to be done, none trust each other enough to do it alone so each sends one cleric to go together. either way, tons of options- gods like gorum for melee guys, domains like fire for some blasting, archetypes like evangelist for buffs/face, etc.

all witches:

could be in a school, harry potter style (i think it was actually in one of williamoak's threads that i mentioned that originally), or they could just be part of some coven/whatever all charged by their witchqueen/dark priestess/whatever with fulfilling some mission. archetypes like scarred witch doctor for improved durability (maybe even some melee with the right buffs), the animal ally/boon companion feats for animal companion/melee support, and hedge witch for a healer...

all fighters:

with no magic or skills, this might sound crazy but if you have skilled/creative players i think its totally doable... obviously melee/ranged combat won't be an issue. one player has to bite the bullet and put some points in Cha- he takes dangerously curious/UMD, and skill focus[know|arcana]/eldritch heritage[arcane]/improved familiar (take a race with a SLA or use your other trait for Alluring so you have CL=level), which allows him to cover necessary magic with wands/scrolls (and use his familiar to do that); he has Cha so should think about covering diplomacy too... another should take lore warden and build with decent Int to cover knowledges and possibly some other skills (human wouldn't hurt, and maybe even use FCB for skills; could go so far as to take improvisation feat). at least one should also probably be capable with combat maneuvers for some control, maybe combine it with a reach weapon for greater influence.

all oracles:

the mysterious powers that grant the oracles their abilities call them together for some indiscernible reason and send them on this quest. tons of flexibility here... metal/battle/ancestor for melee builds (races like 1/2orc or tengu for better weapon access), life oracle for badass healer, flame oracle for blasting, lunar for a solid animal companion, etc.

religious campaign:

not actually a single class idea but similar... all the PCs are followers of one god charged with fulfilling a sacred quest- either let them pick any combo of cleric, inquisitor, and paladin, or tell them they need some specific combo (like 1 pally, 2 inquisitors, and a cleric, or something like that). assign a god based on the quest, or let the party pick one together to get the abilities/builds they want. if you're willing to use the ACG playtest material you could also include warpriest as an option.

[williamoak]

INterestingly enough, I'm starting a campaign and at the moment I only have a fighter & a samurai... so realistically, I've got something pretty close to an all-figther game. (I'm the GM if it isnt clear. It's also an all-dwarf campaign)

[Set]

I'd love if there were some mechanical options that would make an all-monk (improved wholeness of body, usable on others?) or all-barbarian (fast healing rage?) or all-rogue (improved Heal skill?) party a little more viable.

But, as is, all Cleric, Druid, Witch, Inquisitor, Oracle, Ranger or Paladin groups sound do-able.

All-Bard runs into the 'non-stacking morale bonus issue,' although the right mix of Archetypes might be able to work around that.

All Sorcerer, Wizard or Summoner groups could run into healing / condition removal issues (or tanking issues for the Wizards and Sorcerers, although the 3.X Unearthed Arcana specialist options, such as the perma-charm minion for the Enchanter or the perma-skeleton pet for the Necromancer could make those options more viable).

[Majuba]

Any class could make for an interesting time. Spellcasters are easily able to build to niches, non-casters can use different styles, or combo with teamwork feats. Skills can be diversified or unified (max:stealth party - assassination, or max:bluff - Oceans 11).

[Imbicatus]

I've heard a party of Seven Samurai is pretty neat, but Seven Gunslingers would be magnificent.

[marcryser]

I ran a one shot (3.0) where everyone was a 'medicine man' of a northeastern native american tribe. The medicine man had d8, all good saves, was proficient in club, knife, shortbow, and spear. They each had access to a single school of wizrdly magic and a single clerical domain for their spells.

The tribes elder medicine men were worried and confused by the tribal totem spirits' restlessness. There was a 'source of great and bad medicine' to the south and the apprentices of the tribe were sent to investigate. They discovered a tribe that had errected a great totem pole to a single spirit that they called 'the Great Spirit.' This tribe had a cleric instead of a medicine man and he was training others able to learn to use clerical magic as well.

He was able to convince about half of the characters that the 'spirits' were capricious and limiting where a God was a greater source of stability and strength. They bought into the whole thing while the others fumed. Eventually the dissenters attacked the totem pole and the cleric who was defended by the rest of the party.

The dissenters were victorious, the totem pole destroyed, knowledge of Gods lost and everyone was happy with the game... On the way home they saw three European ships in the bay and I got to tell them that it was Clerics, not gunpowder, that conquered the new world.

[Whisperknives]

My friends and i played through a good bit of the WLD all playing different specialist wizards.

[Lamontius]

Alchemist.

A Chiurgeon healer with Healing Bombs from Magical Marketplace
A Beastmorph/Vivisectionist meat-shield damage monster.
A Grenadier for bringing the pain with bombs and in melee combat.
A Crypt Breaker trap specialist and scout, with the INT to Diplo trait for party faceness.

Throw in a preservationist for summoning giggles, or a Mind Chemist knowledge expert and you have basically everything covered.

[Whisperknives]

Imbicatus wrote:

I've heard a party of Seven Samurai is pretty neat, but Seven Gunslingers would be magnificent.

At some point the seven gunslingers should come across the seven samurai, just so the samurai could call them a poor mans remake.

[Majuba]

Imbicatus wrote:

I've heard a party of Seven Samurai is pretty neat, but Seven Gunslingers would be magnificent.

*GROAN*

[Cap. Darling]

We talked about synthesist summoners. There is a lot of variation and they wont make the martials feel left out.

[Thalin]

Team summoner would make the GM cry. Especially if synthasist and/or Master summoner were actually legal.

Ah the dreams of having 108 summoned creatures in play at once :). At third level no less.

[SiuoL]

Rogue, in an Attack on Titan like setting. Each players required at least 1 rank in acrobatic (for sling on wires), perception, profession solider, knowledge engineering, knowledge local, survive (for wires work) and Use Magic Device for the purpose of refill gas tank supply. Sense motive (to see who the monster is focusing on). They may use other skills to lead the villagers to safety, to intimidate the monster, set traps and hide in building or bluff to get the frighten soldiers get on their feet. Basically very skill based, and titan can only be harm or kill with sneak attack on the back of the neck.

[Imbicatus]

Actually, a good one-shot campaign would be where everyone plays commoners. You are all villagers and strange things start to happen. Your village is remote, and your mayor/constable is out of town. The characters are in the village circle, and start to investigate whats going on. Maybe it's a simple goblin tribe causing problems, but for a small scale situation like this, it might be a a good time to make one of the npc villagers a werewolf/old god cultist/whatever and add a horror element to the game.

[Dieben]

A whole party of level 3 paladins with the holy tactician archetype, I want to play in such a group.

So much teamwork...

[Krodjin]

You could do this with any class so long as the GM builds the adventure for such an endeavour... A bunch of Barbarians breaking out of a Prison (as an example) would need an entirely different set of challenges than Rogues, or Sorcerers, or Paladins...

But you could tailor it so that it is a fun time regardless of the class.

[lair-master]

Imbicatus wrote:

Actually, a good one-shot campaign would be where everyone plays commoners. You are all villagers and strange things start to happen. Your village is remote, and your mayor/constable is out of town. The characters are in the village circle, and start to investigate whats going on. Maybe it's a simple goblin tribe causing problems, but for a small scale situation like this, it might be a a good time to make one of the npc villagers a werewolf/old god cultist/whatever and add a horror element to the game.

It would be a lot of fun to tell a game where "the heroes are busy". Kinda like that episode "The Zeppo" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[Ishmell]

Doo-dads.

[Whisperknives]

We played an entire campaign where we were all Bards in a band.

It worked rather well actually.

Singer - Primarily caster
Violin - Archer (kept a cello that worked as a longbow)
Drummer - Dex Melee (used a pair of agile daggers as drumsticks)
Bass - Str based beat stick (played an Great Axe Guitar)
Manager - Skills, tons and tons of skills and Face.

The name of our band was Ale and Whores

[Bruunwald]

Imbicatus wrote:

I've heard a party of Seven Samurai is pretty neat, but Seven Gunslingers would be magnificent.

This is just what I was thinking.

Or, you could make the gunslingers into a party of gangsters. I suppose you could do that with rogues, too.

[Bruunwald]

Imbicatus wrote:

Actually, a good one-shot campaign would be where everyone plays commoners. You are all villagers and strange things start to happen. Your village is remote, and your mayor/constable is out of town. The characters are in the village circle, and start to investigate whats going on. Maybe it's a simple goblin tribe causing problems, but for a small scale situation like this, it might be a a good time to make one of the npc villagers a werewolf/old god cultist/whatever and add a horror element to the game.

We've done that. We had a whole party of Aristocrats, Commoners and Experts living in a village set on Earth in Romania. One day, weird stuff begins to happen, and folktales begin to come true. As they leveled up, and magic began to creep into the world, I allowed them to dip into Adept and Warrior.

Was short-lived but very cool.

EDIT: Was a 3.5 game, if it matters.

[AndIMustMask]

an all-monk party might be feasible, if they're allowed (some minor) multiclassing:

1-20 zen archer (ranged DPS)
1-20 tetori (anti-caster)
1-20 sensei/4winds ("bard" with lots of spare standard actions at 12th onward)
shizuru crusader cleric 1 / monk 19 hungry ghost/sacred mountain/qinggong (vow of silence because why not)
1-20 sohei (mounted "tanky" combatant)

they'd likely just mob one dude, mash him into paste, and move to the next. this thread and the various links enclosed point out some helpful things for monks, like clockwork prosthetics and various ioun stones/wayfinder slots to bring their attack bonus "up to par" at the very least.

[Psion-Psycho]

Alchemist, Fighter, Paladin, Cleric, Bard, Rogue, Druid, Summoner, Sorcerer/Wizard, and Ranger would all be good options, some are more dependent on the setting.

Alchemist make great ranged bomb throwers as well as melee brutes. I thing that most over look though is they also make for great healers if going for the Infusions and Healing Bomb discoveries along with potion making.

Fighter can cover melee and ranged.

Paladins are great melee champs with self heals. Also great for a setting were the players are of the same church.

Cleric is like fighter but subs out some physical damage for spells.

Bard is also like cleric.

Rogue is great because of the Gang Up feat and flanking making sure that in all fights there gonna get there SA off, those immune to SA obviously excluded. Also can make for a great stealthy game.

Druid is Druid. Great at range or in melee and any class with a pet is a plus.

Summoner for them metric s*** ton of meat shields. Can and will slow down the game almost to a halt though.

Sorcerer/Wizard for the massive versatility of summons, combat control, boom boom spells, ext.

Ranger because its a fighter with a pet and spells.

[KenderKin]

Kender rogues....

[cartmanbeck]

With the help of archetypes, the Bard can actually take up absolutely any combat role. I've got a build plan for a whole party of Bards (a traveling troupe) that fills the standard set of party roles (Tank, DPS, Arcane Caster, Healer).
If you're interested, let me know and i'll post them.

[Quintin Belmont]

AndIMustMask wrote:

an all-monk party might be feasible, if they're allowed (some minor) multiclassing:

1-20 zen archer (ranged DPS)
1-20 tetori (anti-caster)
1-20 sensei/4winds ("bard" with lots of spare standard actions at 12th onward)
shizuru crusader cleric 1 / monk 19 hungry ghost/sacred mountain/qinggong (vow of silence because why not)
1-20 sohei (mounted "tanky" combatant)

they'd likely just mob one dude, mash him into paste, and move to the next. this thread and the various links enclosed point out some helpful things for monks, like clockwork prosthetics and various ioun stones/wayfinder slots to bring their attack bonus "up to par" at the very least.

If you know how to properly play a monk you wouldn't even need to multiclass.

Full Team of monks would be amazing since it adds so much versatility that could allow them to overcome different problems if they work together. Also it could work well from an RP standpoint since they could all be from either the same monastery, or different monasteries joining together and perhaps making their own!.....

.....But they must have this as their themesong

or this one

And make the whole campaign something out of an 80s Kungfu movie!

[lair-master]

cartmanbeck wrote:

With the help of archetypes, the Bard can actually take up absolutely any combat role. I've got a build plan for a whole party of Bards (a traveling troupe) that fills the standard set of party roles (Tank, DPS, Arcane Caster, Healer).

If you're interested, let me know and i'll post them.

I am interested. Please proceed!

[Dragonchess Player]

Set wrote:

I'd love if there were some mechanical options that would make an all-monk (improved wholeness of body, usable on others?) or all-barbarian (fast healing rage?) or all-rogue (improved Heal skill?) party a little more viable.

See nate lange's post in the fighter spoiler; with someone to invest skill ranks in Use Magic Device (and take the Dangerously Curious trait to make it a class skill, if needed), and a higher use of consumables, it's possible.

All monk, with some variation in archetypes (four winds, master of many styles, zen archer, etc.), style feats to increase combat options/survivability, and qinggong to gain some spell-like ki abilities could work fairly well. The hardest part would be at low levels, where the monk in general is weakest (although a sohei could make an adequate tank at that point).

All barbarian is almost exactly the same as all fighter, with more skill points and supernatural abilities from rage powers instead of extra feats.

All rogue will definitely have skills covered (including Use Magic Device) and some good utility can be gained from the Minor Magic and Major Magic rogue talents: for example, undead meeting a barrage of disrupt undead SLAs (if multiple rogues take it as their Minor Magic) in the surprise/first round (with extra Sneak Attack damage from being flat-footed). The Ki Pool and Ninja Trick rogue talents can also come in handy. Expect a lot of more tactical combat to set up flanking (or use Gang Up).

[Remy Balster]

All fighters. Military campaign style, in the trenches of war.

[cartmanbeck]

lair-master wrote:

cartmanbeck wrote:

With the help of archetypes, the Bard can actually take up absolutely any combat role. I've got a build plan for a whole party of Bards (a traveling troupe) that fills the standard set of party roles (Tank, DPS, Arcane Caster, Healer).

If you're interested, let me know and i'll post them.

I am interested. Please proceed!

Tank

Half-Orc Bard (Arcane Duelist) 1 [Drummer]
Feat: Power Attack
Traits: Reactionary (+2 Initiative), Poverty-Stricken (+1 Survival)
Racial Options: Toothy (bite attack), darkvision, orc blood, intimidating
Weapons: Falchion and his bite attack

Striker (DPS)
Kitsune Bard (Dawnflower Dervish) 1 [Backup Dancer]
Feat: Arcane Strike
Traits: Indomitable Faith, Strength of the Sun
Weapons: Scimitar, Light Crossbow

Melee Support, Healer
Halfling Bard (Celebrity, Sound Striker, Songhealer) 1 [Lead Singer]
Feat: Lucky Halfling
Traits: Helpful (+4 when aiding another), Charming (+1 Bluff, Diplom., DCs on Charm spells vs. attracted targets)
Weapon: Longspear (generally uses just to aid another on attacks)

Archer
Human Bard (no archetype) 1 [Accordionist]
Feats: Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot
Traits: Power of Suggestion, Aspiring Bard
Weapon: Composite Shortbow

Controller
Aasimar Skald 1 [Fiddler]
Feat: Weapon Focus (whip)
Traits: Innocent, Theoretical Magician
Weapon: Whip and spells (things like glitterdust and grease to control the battlefield)

The Controller could just as easily be a bard with the Arcane Strike feat instead, I just liked the idea of using the Skald for one of them. :)

[Zhayne]

Any of them ... because in a situation where the PCs are so limited in their options, the GM should design the game around the abilities they do have, and not just throw a regular game at them and watch the fallout.

[lair-master]

Agreed, Zhayne. I used the phrase "well-rounded" because a class that can fill many roles and do lots of different things would be less limiting than a class with few options. It's not much fun for everyone to play the same class if all the characters will be built pretty much the same. That's what I was getting at.

[Whisperknives]

Play an entire group of Paladins on a crusade.

The GM would blow a fuse trying to kill you through all the self healing.

[Hawktitan]

Assuming you mean different archetypes were allowed, bards as mentioned would be fine, arcane duelist frontliner, archaeologist rogue-like, core bard as the archer, ect.

Oracles would be fine too, battle/metal/wood as the frontliner, flame as a blaster, heavens as controller, etc.