Hey guys,
we found a new GM to reboot our Reign of Winter campaign (we restarted it), and one of the players brought the Gambler (3.5 homebrew) class, and it feels like it has no sense of balance built into it until much later levels. Part of the problem is that the class deal energy damage with all of its attacks.
The Gambler class page.
Doing the math, it seems to have an average DPR that is similar to an archer fighter or Gunslinger, but because it is so poorly written, its DPS could range from low 100s to mid 200s around level 16. All of its attacks also target touch in addition to getting lots of random abilities.
In practice, it seems to be the primary killer, but I also know that when we start running into heavily energy resistant or energy immune monsters, that the class will be trivialized.
What do you guys think about this class?
New GM's should never allow 3rd party classes, let alone homebrews from the depths of the 3.5 wiki. This is a manipulative move on the player's part, and I'm a little grossed out. Looking over the class it seems like it replicates a good handful of useful and devastating arcane spells on top of being an extremely accurate ranged combatant. I'm not figuring out how you determine what cards you draw. I'm sure the intention is that in person you would draw from a real deck of cards, but I got the impression that your game was online? Anyway, this class seems like a load of hogwash to me, I'd never allow it. If the player simply wants to play as Gambit I'd allow a Shuriken build to be re-flavored as a card thrower, otherwise the above poster linked some useful material. I have a sneaking feeling that the player in question simply found a broken class with a flavor they enjoy and is puling the wool over the GM's eyes.
Edit: Realized about halfway through writing that you didn't mean that your GM is new to GMing, but new to your group.