I had this idea for a campaign that would have magic as the enemy (it's new to the world and pretty much only bad/corrupting).  The king assembles a party of knights to go out and squash the threat.

I could see a few variations, but no magic-using types would be allowed.

I could see a scout type coming with.  They might encounter a warrior/barbarian type along the way.

Any thoughts about [mostly] a single class game?

Ohh, you mean like Avatar: The Last Airbender but without magic, or Gears of War without the aliens, or the Power Rangers without giant transforming mecha, or...

Okay, I'll stop. Honestly, it's a fine thing to do so long as people are willing to differentiate their characters in ways that aren't always going to be backed up by mechanics. Maybe they've all got Strength 20, but one is a bodybuilder and another is just incredibly fit despite his size. Maybe they all took Improved Dodge (or whathave you) but one girl flavors it as being nimbler and the other attributes it to some flashy/distracting swordplay. And, of course, there can be plenty of mechanical differences, but you've mostly just gotta get a group of folks who don't think that a character's class is their most defining trait, and then a subgroup within that group of people who don't mind having fairly similar builds (especially at the beginning of the game).

I like to think of these games as the ones that explore every shade of blue, instead of every color of the rainbow. They can be amazing with the right group of people (which you kinda need from the outset, as I just said), and they certainly gave me new perspectives into just how diverse people with the same numbers can be.

Hope that helps.

Without magic, where is the healing coming from?  I have seen single class parties in the past, in a tournament setting, but most commonly they were thieves.

Healing, per se, wouldn't be a part of it.  The system I'm looking at is pretty generous with HP recovery and truly scary situations should be dealt with more realistically, i.e. Runaway!

Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with it, but then I'm a little biased in that my favorite game is an RP-based Battletech game, which makes it military-esque, which means that everyone is essentially the same "class" because the entire PC cast list is warriors.

So, personally, I'm pretty used to it. I feel that a good group of players that take the time to develop their character will find things that differentiate themselves above and beyond just the abilities on their sheets. As long as you don't run into a situation where magical healing is necessary (and it shouldn't be, if the players are smart), I think it'll be fine, both mechanically and player-fun-wise.

I've played in similar types of games.  Really the main thing to look at is how important niche protection is to you and your players.  Most people like to have something they're good at/known for that's their thing.  Some systems are easier than others to make that happen while keeping the characters relatively all the same "type/class".
This message was last edited by the user at 01:01, Mon 15 May 2017.

I once played a game set in middle-earth. Our GM was a very good friend and was new to the system. He said it would probably be best if none of us were wizards, because he didn't fully grasp the rules for magic. So, we did the most natural thing (to us at least) and made a party of all wizards. I remember it as one of the best games I've ever played. Our GM was a very good sport about it too.

The party membership can be anything, as long as the adventure can be tailored to it.
Healing can come from many places. If not magic, then with powerful herbs and natural remedies.
Or you can do what one of my DMs did, and have "Evasion points" to go along with HPs, so that most damage is just fatigue, rather than physical damage (and actual injuries are a big deal)

There are some systems that deal with this.  Fiery Dragon Productions' Iron Heroes (Presented by Monte Cook, written by Mike Mearls) has several alternate d20 rules for having a game entirely sans magic.  It also has a lot of different non-fighter classes (variations on fighters, swashbucklers, barbarians, rangers, rogues, etc.) to fit with the new rules.

The problem will be getting the players to agree with this strategy.  I mean, it's not impossible and some parties/players have mastered this skill, but it seems to be the minority.  ^_^

Top tier classes allow plenty of flexibility.

A party of clerics or wizards with different focuses can play very differently enough. Clerics are the best for this because they can be created to fill in any slot of the party even at low levels (although at only 2 SP per level it's hard for a skill monkey but not impossible).

Wizards/Sorcerers/witches are trickier at lower levels because they are always pretty squishy, especially since they nerfed the orc CON caster but by the time the group has access to 3rd (or even 2nd level) spells and the GM is careful not to throw them against stuff with too high of Will saves or spell resistance that group can storm through encounters.


Finally I've seen extreme-low level games where the party are all commoners or warriors or experts.Without magic and with crappy NPC classes it makes "low-level" opponents like goblins very tough and an orc raider is something to be feared and run away from.