Which classes to choose for a different yet traditional feeling campaign world?

[EisenKreutzer]

I am working on a campaign setting which features four distinct worlds which are brought together by a cataclysmic event. The four worlds have their own cultures, one being chinese themed, one greek/egyptian themed, one 17th century themed and the final one a traditional western fantasy theme.

The three other worlds are easy to make feel special given the concept: Each world has it's own magic system (though all have access to divine magic). The chinese world, which is the one I have gotten the furthest in designing, uses Blade Magic. The greek/egyptian setting has Incarnum, and the 17th century europe one uses psionics. The fourth world, which will use the traditional D&D arcane magic system, is giving me trouble however.
I have decided that each world will have access to a limited number of base classes, both because I want one of each magic user in the group, and to help define the four settings without resorting to writing hundreds of pages of descriptive text for my players to plow through to set the mood for each world.

As I said, finding classes for three of the worlds hasn't been an issue. But I am struggling with the fourth, "normal" world. I don't want to just slap the PH base classes on it and be done, I want specific classes that are different from base, but still recogniseable enough that this world stands out as the "traditional western fantasy" world. I don't want this world to be the boring choice, I want it to stand out and really be satisfying to play in and come from.

The idea behind this world is that it is a traditional fantasy world, with kings and knights and wizards and stuff. 6 kingdoms (four human, two elven) wage near constant war on each other, with shifting alliances and courtroom intrigue being the main sources of conflict. In addition, a unified Drow realm in the Underdark are constantly trying to invade and conquer the surface world. Dwarves, halflings and gnomes are considered inferior "slave races" by the humans and elves in this world, and all major cities have dwarven ghettoes where these races live as underpaid slave labour. They have no kingdoms or lands of theiir own, as the Drow drove them out of their homelands hundreds of years ago.

I need a list of about five or six base classes for this world that are different and interesting, while still giving off that "traditional western fantasy" feel.

[doomlord]

I'd go with the specialised, "whole list caster" classes: Dread Necromancer, Beguiler, Warmage, etc.

They all have the thematic feel of traditional D&D casters, and they each embody an archetype of casters that fits very well into the standard D&D world: Fearsome necromancy, tricky court wizards, powerful masters of arcane fire, and so on.

They are also (honestly) a lot more balanced than the standard know-everything-under-the-sun Wizard class.

That's three classes. If there were a similar class along these lines that focused on summoning/conjuring, it would fit amazingly. Sadly, there is a bit of a whole there. Luckily, I think that's the only major hole.

If you like the idea of focused casters, but want more, you could always allow the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer is similar to the classes mentioned above, in that it casts spontaneously from a certain selection. The difference is that the Sorcerer gets a rather smaller selection, but gets to make it on his own terms: He writes his own list.

If you play up this aspect of the class, you get one class that fills the rolls of many. You can make the world be one of specialised casters, but leave the open-endedness of the sorcerer: If someone wants specialise in something else, other than the roles those classes fill, then they basically can make their own class along the same lines, focusing on what they want to focus in.

[Warlocknthewind]

On top of the whole list casters, I'd slap on a melee, skilled, and divine niche characters.

I recommend the reflavoring a divine bard as a priest. Somebody inspiring to their faith, like their supposed to be. (Which is what irks me about the cleric)

Rogue is an easy one to push for the skillmonkey class, but I feel like scout doesn't get enough of the spotlight just because of the lack of UMD, which would step on the casters toes anyway. Scout +

It's hard to say about the martial character though, it could be anywhere from knight to barbarian, depending on the flavor of how kings hold their title.

[Telonius]

Another option would be to use Unearthed Arcana's "Generic Classes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm)" variant. Different enough to be different, recognizable enough to keep the feel.

[EisenKreutzer]

I like all these suggestions! Keep them coming, I can feel the gears moving in my head.