Reply To: D&D officially turning Forgotten Realms sights away from Euro inspired campaigns

[onlyonepinman 18109xp 1]

I don’t really understand why the basic rules allowing you to make a character fitting any role in any source book doesn’t have any credence unless the only point of the source book is to provide a list of new character classes. For me a source book should provide source material about the place it is describing. I want to about the geopolitical layout including nations, regions, states, cities or other notable locations. I want to know about the people that live there and the various species that the players might encounter (monsters and any unique, playable races) or even play as. Maybe there are some magics (new spells and items) or technologies (nrw weapons and armour) that are available there_ maybe there are some magics and technologies that are NOT available in this region (prohibited choices of spells and equipment). You could even include new feats that represent different tactics favoured by people in the region. But what I don’t really think is needed, is new character classes. The D&D rules are generic enough that you can create a character for any type of setting with just the basic book.

If you want to play a Samurai with a strong code of honour that is enforced by the rules, play a Paladin. If you want to play a samurai without the code of honour, play a fighter. Every single culture in history has had their own iconic Warriors and cultural icons, but they’re all broadly similar and don’t really need new character classes to facilitate Role-playing. If we take melee fighters as examples throughout history, you could make any of these using just the basic character types in the book and then Role-play them differently.

Greek Hoplite
Roman Legionary
Roman Gladiator
Viking Beserker
Saxon Huscarl
English Archer
Medieval Knight
Religious Knight
Mongolian Horse Archer
Saracen Knight
Japanese Samurai
Japanese Ninja
Arabian Assassin
Spanish Conquistador

None of the above need any special treatment and can be made straight out of the book. None of them have any particular abilities associated with them that cannot be replicated using the D&D players handbook. On paper some of them might be very similar but it should be your own Role-play that provides the distinction, not the rules mechanics that govern them. You only need your imagination to make those characters different.