single class party.

[robertbevan]

has anyone ever played in a game where all of the characters are one class? my group has talked about it before. variety is nice, but i think a specialized group could be interesting as well.

a group of all fighters could be cool as a regiment of soldiers in a war or something. or hell, they could just wander around smashing whatever got in their way.

a group of clerics might be some weird holy order on a mission. they could hold their own in a fight, and not have to worry about taking too much time to heal their wounds.

a group of rogues could be guerrilla warriors or go on some kind of espionage mission. or maybe some kind of ocean's eleven kind of thing, depending on how each of the rogues focuses.

a group of druids could summon a load of monsters to take some of the heat off of themselves in a scrap.

a group of wizards or sorcerers might have a bit of trouble at lower levels, but beyond that... damn.

i haven't put a whole lot of thought into other classes.

anyway... i'll leave it at that. curious about other people's experiences and opinions.

[Manly Man]

A group of bards would totally form a most excellent traveling band, and, like, rock out all across the land, dude.

[danzibr]

I haven't. Closest thing is I'm about to run a single race campaign.

However, I do agree this would be interesting. In particular, because certain classes can do a variety of things, some parties would function perfectly fine while others would, well, not. All-Cleric could cover your melee, heals, buffs, skills, blasts. So could all-Wizard, but they wouldn't get to the melee as easily. Well, they could summon, I guess. All-Druid could do a great job.

As awesome as, say, all-Warblade would be, they wouldn't be doing much beyond punching faces.

I think all-Samurai might be the coolest though. If there were 7 they could defend a town from bandits.

EDIT: Right, agreed on the Bards. They could be broken strong too, at least in melee.

[Duke of URL]

I've seen PbP games like this - usually all-wizard or less often all-rogue or all-bard.

[sonofzeal]

All-Cleric has been done, I know. There's ways for Clerics to gain Trapfinding, and at that point they really can cover just about every party role with the right build.

[Grail]

One of the PnP games that I am running at the moment is an all Wizard game. There are 8 characters, all are specialist in a different school.

The characters are all 1st level at the moment, some of the characters have gotten close to 2nd now after 3 sessions.

In my opinion, and after talking to some of the players, it has been a real success, they are really getting into it.

The game concept is really straight forward, they have each been selected by the masters of their order who form the Grande Council of Magick, to undertake a quest on behalf of the tower. Namely, travelling to a distant barony and returning with a giant, mystical, enchanted ruby. (I am running a heavily modified Palace of the Silver Princess).

In the 3 sessions so far their combat-ish encounters have been:

All of them encountered 1 Ogre
2 of them encountered a Bar Fight
1 of them encountered a 1st level rogue with a sap (and lost badly)
2 of them encountered 5x 1st level warriors and 1x 3rd level warrior, but they came into the fight between those enemies and 2 potential allies, 1x 2nd level paladin and 1x 2nd level rogue.

[crazyhedgewizrd]

One of my friends was in a all barbarian party, he had fun. Any class could work but it depends on the DM.

[Soranar]

I've done and all rogue party (everyone used penetrating strike and kept helping each other flank)

Pros:

-Everyone was steathly so there was no need to go scout solo
-Fairly easy to overpower single enemies when you have 4 rogues flanking them
-Grease (wand) + bows = lots of fun for 4 rogues

Cons:

-Mobs are painful, even when you sneak up on them as a group at best you only get rid of 4 and the rest are more than a match for u individually if you can't flank them
-characters have a very similar feel so you need to specialize into roles to feel different (we had 1 TWF rogue/swasbuckler, a 2 hander rogue/thug, a rogue/ unseen seer and a straight rogue)

As for the other options

4 of any tier 1 class can make for some very boring games though sometimes the simplest problem can become life threatening (We're all out of spells and CR 1/3 creatures are about to slaughter us all)

Other than that, I wouldn't recommend any tier 5 groups unless you optimize a lot

[Asheram]

A group of bards would totally form a most excellent traveling band, and, like, rock out all across the land, dude.

... The halfling theater troupe. Oh, how I've dreamt of being part of that. I still have the manuscript for "Topsi two-feet, the Halfling Knight" laying around here somewhere.

[riccaru]

Party of 4 healers. Hello white mages:smallwink:.

8BitTheater did it, so why can't we?

[Psyren]

All Alchemists would be really fun - they can tank (Hyde), heal, bomb from ranged, trapfind, summon etc.

All Binders would be awesome too.

[Krazzman]

We did a must have at least x number of levels of monk.

Was pretty fun, had a drunken master, a Monk/Rogue and a "Raging" Monk. Later we had a Dwarven Sorcerer Monk instead of the drunken master.

We had a one shot with Half Orc Barbarian and Ghostwise Halfling Barbarian and our Barbard. Was also pretty much made out of Waaaaarghsome!

It is possible but your DM has to roll with it.

[Titomancer]

My very first D&D game was an all-rogue game. Though it was back in second ed. To this day, all rogue games are some of my favorites. There's so much teamwork that has to go into making it successful. You end up with plans on top of plans, on top of plans, trying to cover every eventuality, since you don't have spells, or a beatstick to hide behind. Lots of fun.

All bards would be incredible, would love to see it. Especially as a halfling theater troupe.

[Soranar]

A 4 bard party would be fairly easy to optimize.

2 singers (1 with inspire courage, 1 with dragonfire inspiration)
2 that give up singing for an animal companion (2 free tanks)

You don't even need to multiclass, this group would be pretty powerful.

[Amphetryon]

I've run All-Rogue before, though they were allowed Gestalt. I've seen All-Wizard, as well, where everyone had a different Specialist school.

[D@rK-SePHiRoTH-]

A group of 4 Factota

Professionals at work

[Salanmander]

I definitely like the all-rogue idea, but it might be more fun to modify it to "all sneaky" to deal with the issue of characters feeling samey. Something like "allowed base classes: rogue, factotum, spellthief, beguiler, ninja"

[Psyren]

I definitely like the all-rogue idea, but it might be more fun to modify it to "all sneaky" to deal with the issue of characters feeling samey. Something like "allowed base classes: rogue, factotum, spellthief, beguiler, ninja"

No love for psychic rogue :smallfrown:

[ericgrau]

A party of rogues is the one that steps up the most vs. a rogue in a mixed party. Everyone can use stealth without one guy botching it for everyone. Bards might attempt something similar. EDIT: As could mixed sneaky types ya.

[Deadlights]

I don't care if it's underpowered, I want an all monk party. (http://www.jokeroo.com/videos/cool/all-199-power-ranger-epic-super-sentai-battle.html)

[Draz74]

Speaking of psychic, I think an all-Psion party could be pretty viable. Skillmonkeying would be a bit tricky, I guess. Still, Egoist/Shaper/Telepath/Seer could be pretty rockin', especially if PrCs are allowed.

[Psyren]

Speaking of psychic, I think an all-Psion party could be pretty viable. Skillmonkeying would be a bit tricky, I guess. Still, Egoist/Shaper/Telepath/Seer could be pretty rockin', especially if PrCs are allowed.

Then they bring in Captain Planet (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metaconcert.htm) to stomp the BBEG.

[Salanmander]

No love for psychic rogue :smallfrown:

Sorry, oversight on my part. The psychic rogue can come play too. =)

(So can other sneaky classes I've missed, I didn't want to put the effort into generating a complete list of sneaky base classes.)

[eggs]

Anything with access to all associated class abilities (eg. Samurai, Druid, Binder, Totemist) seem like the sameness issue would be pretty grating if the characters didn't multiclass out.

But if they all just started with a certain class, I could see this being pretty slick - I'd definitely get into the idea of a party with:
Good Incarnate/Ardent/Soul Manifester
Chaos Incarnate/Sorcerer/Soulcaster
Law Incarnate/Spontaneous Cloistered Cleric/Sapphire Hierarch
Evil Incarnate/Crusader/Ironsoul Forgemaster


Then they bring in Captain Planet (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/metaconcert.htm) to stomp the BBEG.
Now the Elemental Mantle (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) ACF makes so much more sense!

[Callous]

A group of bards would totally form a most excellent traveling band, and, like, rock out all across the land, dude.

This, this, this!

[Greyfeld85]

A 4 bard party would be fairly easy to optimize.

2 singers (1 with inspire courage, 1 with dragonfire inspiration)
2 that give up singing for an animal companion (2 free tanks)

You don't even need to multiclass, this group would be pretty powerful.

While we're discussing groups of characters all of the same class, the Nature Bard just seems... dumb. Giving up your best abilities (short of spellcasting) so you can get a pet is underwhelming at best. It becomes a druid without wild shape and a specialized spell list.

But if we're going for no overlap, the party can get by with just one nature bard, then the last character can drop Inspire Courage to take Inspire Awe.

[Draz74]

While we're discussing groups of characters all of the same class, the Nature Bard just seems... dumb. Giving up your best abilities (short of spellcasting) so you can get a pet is underwhelming at best. It becomes a druid without wild shape and a specialized spell list.

I agree that Nature Bard (aka Fey Bard) is probably only worth one slot in a 4-person party, but it's not as gimped as you're saying. Compared to the Druid, which is usually going to be a harsh comparison for most classes, it's still got a Charisma-focus (useful for various things), better skills, and BARDIC MUSIC. Seriously, just because you lose Inspire Courage doesn't mean your music is useless; that's almost like saying Turn Undead is useless for anything except turning undead. Metamagic Song, anybody? Snowflake Wardance? Healing Hymn, or Fascinate and Suggestion? Sound of Silence? Doomspeak?

Inspire Courage doesn't stack with itself. Two copies in the party is worthwhile, so one can use normal attack/damage plusses while another uses Dragonfire. A third copy might be worthwhile, if the third bard uses tons of feats and/or cheese to change his Dragonfire Inspiration to sonic or something. But a fourth source of IC in a party? Meh. I'd rather have a Fleshraker who can be the delivery mechanism for all that Dragonfire damage. :smallamused:

[Flickerdart]

Who needs T1s?

Savage Horde
The Fighter: Frenzied Berserker
The Rogue: Trapkiller Spirit Eagle Barbarian with either Whirling Frenzy or the Hunter variant
The Wizard: Runescarred Berserker
The Cleric: Champion of Gwynharwyf

Band of Brothers
The Fighter: Bardzilla
The Rogue: Bardic Knack Bard with Knowledge Devotion
The Wizard: Bardic Sage Sublime Chord
The Cleric: Healing Hymn Bard

Watchers on the Wall
The Fighter: Spellless Wildshape Ranger with Fangshield sub levels and Spell Reflection
The Rogue: Mystic Ranger with Distracting Attack and all those tasty Sneak Attack spells plus Shadow Sword sub levels and Trap Expert
The Wizard: Mystic Ranger with SotAO and Shooting Star sub levels
The Cleric: Mystic Ranger

[demigodus]

4 of any tier 1 class can make for some very boring games though sometimes the simplest problem can become life threatening (We're all out of spells and CR 1/3 creatures are about to slaughter us all)

Team druid's fight-as-a-class-feature (animal companions) would like to have a word with this.

I do agree that could get rather boring though... your solution to any CR appropriate problem is to either stroll through it while whistling, or to utterly fail (say, when you need to teleport).

I have to agree with people who bring up team bard. Seems like a fun party to play really.

[Greyfeld85]

I agree that Nature Bard (aka Fey Bard) is probably only worth one slot in a 4-person party, but it's not as gimped as you're saying. Compared to the Druid, which is usually going to be a harsh comparison for most classes, it's still got a Charisma-focus (useful for various things), better skills, and BARDIC MUSIC. Seriously, just because you lose Inspire Courage doesn't mean your music is useless; that's almost like saying Turn Undead is useless for anything except turning undead. Metamagic Song, anybody? Snowflake Wardance? Healing Hymn, or Fascinate and Suggestion? Sound of Silence? Doomspeak?

But you're not just losing Inspire Courage. You're also losing Bardic Knowledge (or Knack, as the case may be), Inspire Greatness, Inspire Heroics, and Inspire competence (though admittedly that last one isn't a great loss). Greatness and Heroics are pretty big losses for... what... +2 to Nature and Survival checks, and +4 to saves against fey?

Granted, the losses aren't that big of a deal in a group of 4 bards who threaten to overlap one another. I'm just speaking about what you lose for what you get in a bubble.


Inspire Courage doesn't stack with itself. Two copies in the party is worthwhile, so one can use normal attack/damage plusses while another uses Dragonfire. A third copy might be worthwhile, if the third bard uses tons of feats and/or cheese to change his Dragonfire Inspiration to sonic or something. But a fourth source of IC in a party? Meh. I'd rather have a Fleshraker who can be the delivery mechanism for all that Dragonfire damage. :smallamused:

Like I said, it's not worth more than 1 bard taking it. In the end, you can have a bard with IC, one with DFA, one with an animal companion, and one with Inspire Awe.

[eggs]

The morale boost doesn't stack, but DFI should.

[Dr.Orpheus]

I played a campaign with all dwarf rangers all of whom were brothers. There was a hammer wielder, a crossbowmen, a axe thrower, and a caster. We rode around on our steadfast mules stopping to mine, forge, drink, fight, sleep, drink, braid beards, complain about our wives, eat roasted boar, drink, count our gold, drink, plunder, explore, brew ale, drink, and partake in all other dwarven ranger ideals.

[Arcanist]

Played an all Wizard campaign before where we started at level 5... Crap was hard man... :smallannoyed:

EDIT: I should probably state that we all started off as specialist and eventually become Red Wizards... I was the most optimized (Diviner/5 Red Wizard/10 Loremaster/5), was fairly good until budget cuts and the store that we played at had to close down... I am now looking for a group in the colorado springs area :smallannoyed:

Anyone know the section I'd have to go to to get a group?

[Soranar]

Other favorites

4 rangers (let's pretend to be a pack of fleshrakers...)

4 Paladins could be doable (would require lots of optimization)

2 with smite to song (one of which with dragonfire inspiration)
1 with sword of the arcane order
1 ubermount

[Dr.Epic]

a group of all fighters could be cool as a regiment of soldiers in a war or something. or hell, they could just wander around smashing whatever got in their way.

It would have to be a very low intensity game. And then, just all go barbarian.

A party full of bard could be fun, like a traveling band.

[Soranar]

1 thing about 4 party wizards

how do you handle golems?

[Esprit15]

In a PTTA game with all straight Psychics in the party. Should be interesting as they're all differently invested in the two primary Psychic stats. One is all CON, one is a mix, one is all INT.

[Siosilvar]

1 thing about 4 party wizards

how do you handle golems?

Disintegrate floor underneath. Wall of stone over top. Fly away.

EDIT: Or, you know, the Orb line of spells.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Four Clerics. (http://agc.deskslave.org/comic_viewer.html?goNumber=247)

Cleric can cover all the typical party roles:
Rogue: Kobold Cloistered Cleric, Kobold and Trickery domains.
Fighter: Human Cleric of Zarus, Strength and War domains.
Cleric: Cleric, duh.
Wizard: Cleric with the Cold and Slime domains, PH2 ACF for one and maybe Domain Spontaneity feat for the other.

[robertbevan]

i would really like to play in one of those all rogue parties.

[Zaq]

I've played in an all-Bard game before. It was glorious.

I'd definitely play in an all-Rogue game. Part of me even feels like all-Rogue would be better than all-sneaky, but it depends on the level and the GM, I'd imagine.

All-Warlock would make for an interesting group, I think. There's a fair bit of variety there.

[Thiyr]

Clearly this should be done with a party of four snarky ranged rogues in a modern setting during a zombie apocalypse. All named Nick (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p5nlXPFFhI&feature=youtube_gdata_player)

[sreservoir]

All Alchemists would be really fun - they can tank (Hyde), heal, bomb from ranged, trapfind, summon etc.

All Binders would be awesome too.

all binders is glorious at low levels. you could build an army of people trained as binders. it's a damn respectable army, too.

[Twilightwyrm]

Not as of yet, though we were thinking of playing a team of Ninjas (as potentially problematic as that may technically be). We decided to go with the team (both thematically "ninjas"), but with myself going with a Grey Elf (since that is apparently the only kind that exist) Dragonfire Adept/Ninja, and my friend a Vanara Ninja/Fighter.

[Knaight]

Anything with access to all associated class abilities (eg. Samurai, Druid, Binder, Totemist) seem like the sameness issue would be pretty grating if the characters didn't multiclass out.

A good way to avoid this is to use the Fighter. They don't get class abilities, so it isn't a problem. Plus, you can have an ubercharger, a chain tripper, and an archer, which is decent for variety.

[Lord.Sorasen]

I did a short thing a while back with 4 paladins. Paladin is my favorite class so I was really down. It was pathfinder, so with variants and ideas we got a whole group thing going. It was, umm...

Aang-Karsk, the pseudo-mongol inspired paladin calvary archer. Novannia, the paladin/shadowdancer with like a 2 level ninja dip. Wup, the gnome sacred servant paladin, and then like a classic sword and shield type. It turned out pretty cool, though neutral enemies were a bit of a pain.

[Malak'ai]

I don't care if it's underpowered, I want an all monk party. (http://www.jokeroo.com/videos/cool/all-199-power-ranger-epic-super-sentai-battle.html)

Argh! My eyes! Too many people in badly designed spandex costumes!! :miko:.

But all Monk would be fun to play, just gotta do a bit of op and they shouldn't be all that bad. No where near as powerful as some of the other groups that have been suggested, but IMO it would be as fun to play as an all Bard group.

[Lonely Tylenol]

I think all-Samurai might be the coolest though. If there were 7 they could defend a town from bandits.

Not effectively.

:smallwink:

All-Cleric parties have been done before, with impressive effect. I've seen a few other all-X party stories around, but for the most part, it depends on how diverse the role can be: a party full of Fighters can... Well... Fight, and as a result, all the challenges they will be facing are either going to involve fighting (in a way that, hopefully, engages all of them), or it's going to involve running. A lot. All-X parties where X is a diverse role is just naturally going to work better than all-X parties when X is a single-dimensional role.