What Class Would Pope Francis Play?

[BvBPL]

If Pope Francis was at your table, playing your RPG, what class would he play?

Cleric / healer is the obvious answer. Maybe too obvious. I mean, he's the head dude of the Church. He's already name level. One would think that while playing a fantasy game he might want to indulge in, say, a fantasy beyond his normal life. This, incidentally, may explain why so many wizards become bartenders.

So, what do you think? Would he be a decker to jack into the 'net, a doughty fighter guarding his friends, a red-clearance troubleshooter tracking down mutants for the Computer, a superhero, or something else?

 

[Hygro]

Bard.

 

[Evie]

No class. They're a pretty stupid system.

Classless or bust.

 

[Hygro]

Oda uninvited to my D&D game.

 

[jackelgull]

Bard.

I approve.

My first D&D character is a bard.

 

[Farm Boy]

Bard.

I think it would take a bit of digging to decide if I'm amused by this or irritated, and it's entirely up to you.

 

[Antilogic]

I used to hate bards, but now they are all right.

Monks, though, WTH? Totally theme-breaking.

 

[gay_Aleks]

No class. They're a pretty stupid system.

Classless or bust.

Look out, we found the Marxist here!

 

[Hygro]

I used to hate bards, but now they are all right.

Monks, though, WTH? Totally theme-breaking.

I have a 5th edition half orc monk who is also a bee-keeper.

 

[Evie]

Oda uninvited to my D&D game.

Good, I get to be spared the horrors of being stuck in the straitjacket that is the class system.

 

[gay_Aleks]

You really do hate the class system, don't you, Oda.

 

[Evie]

Marxist jokes asides, yes.

It's generally overly restrictive, and lock too many character choices in too early. We're supposed to believe the characters have trained for years to the point where they're locked into an archetype and can't get out of it (without the cumbersome dual-classing system, in editions that had it)...but they have only the most rudimentary skills and whatnot. In addition, the whole system perpetuate clichés ("MAgic users cannot be physically fit,", "X archetype cannot use Y weapons"*, etc,) that require house rules and a plethora of specialized sub-classes and alternative classes to address.

Not that it'S the only flaw associated with DnD that makes my personal hate list. The whole Hit Points system is also pretty ridiculous (yes, it totally make sense that the same blow to the same vital spot will outright kill a character, and mildly tickle another, depending on how long they've been adventuring (level, thus HP).

DnD was a nice beginning to RPing, and deserves respect in that regard, but there are superior systems for RPing that have abandoned the class approach.

 

[Hygro]

I think classes are fun and if you're into your character and have a good DM you won't feel restricted.

 

[Evie]

I much prefer to have the flexibility of letting my character grow in new direction as events in the story push him. Picking up a smattering of skills, perks and abilities because they make sense for the character to be learning or discovering them at that point in time, rather than because they're the selection available to his or her class at that point in time.

Sure, that CAN be done by stretching the class system, but a classless system does it much better.

 

[Antilogic]

I have a 5th edition half orc monk who is also a bee-keeper.

I was mostly a 2.0-3.5 player, don't have any active campaigns now. But I always thought Eastern fisticuffs monks were theme-breaking in an otherwise Western fantasy world. It's a bit different where the setting intentionally includes samurais, ninjas, etc., but the campaigns I played in they were always out of place.

Although you reminded me of one of my good friend's characters that was a half-orc barbarian, except he was a great RP'er so he role-played the hell out of his 5 intelligence. In character, he would grunt most of the time, and would intentionally misunderstand our instructions. Like, we would point at a door for him to guard quietly and he would hack it down because usually we point at things and he killed them with his axe. We ended up giving this bizarro plot book that would kill you if you read it to him because he was illiterate and couldn't read anyway.

But I also have a personal beef with monks and ninjas after they claimed my cheesemage. We had a campaign where we all had to have a goofball character trait, and so I was a sorcerer who replaced most of his spell components with cheese. We got ambushed by a bunch of gnoll monks and ninjas who really tore us apart, and I ended up on death's door after like one round a combat. So I asked the nearest gnoll monk for a last meal before he killed me, a piece of smoked gouda. Being a swell guy, he gave it to me out of my pouch (I was grappled), and that was all I needed to cast fireball on myself by eating it. Took down a few of the effers with me on that one.

Marxist jokes asides, yes.

It's generally overly restrictive, and lock too many character choices in too early. We're supposed to believe the characters have trained for years to the point where they're locked into an archetype and can't get out of it (without the cumbersome dual-classing system, in editions that had it)...but they have only the most rudimentary skills and whatnot. In addition, the whole system perpetuate clichés ("MAgic users cannot be physically fit,", "X archetype cannot use Y weapons"*, etc,) that require house rules and a plethora of specialized sub-classes and alternative classes to address.

Not that it'S the only flaw associated with DnD that makes my personal hate list. The whole Hit Points system is also pretty ridiculous (yes, it totally make sense that the same blow to the same vital spot will outright kill a character, and mildly tickle another, depending on how long they've been adventuring (level, thus HP).

DnD was a nice beginning to RPing, and deserves respect in that regard, but there are superior systems for RPing that have abandoned the class approach.

I don't think it was as restrictive as you did, but we made copious use of skills and basically ignored cross-class skill penalties if it fit with our character's jive.

I had one module where we seriously reduced hit points and instead used a modified damage reduction system (so armor granted you damage reduction, and everyone had only a few HP). I think it would have been interesting to extend that system to a whole campaign, but balancing it would be a nightmare.

 

[BvBPL]

Fireballs=OK
Bruce Lee=Not OK

Talk about antilogic!

 

[Hygro]

Medieval Europe had a rich unarmed martial arts tradition, you just gotta imagine your monk being more pagan or in friar clothes with a backstory. Or not a monk in a religious sense but someone who traveled to the frozen north and drank from enchanted glaciers while battling bears bear handed, and has gone full Wim Hof mode.

 

[Leoreth]

Knight of Blood.

What? Nobody said D&D classes.

 

[gay_Aleks]

And who says he isn't a vampire? A Vampire Pope sounds appropriate. Judging by his benevolent behaviour, he'd be a Toreador.

 

[BvBPL]

Indeed, I suggested in the OP that Pope Francis may enjoy RPGs other than D&D.

But which Knight of Blood, Chaos or Renegade?