Is it time to remove race restrictions on Classes?

[Sharby]

Since SL is giving a much needed facelift to character creation and the motif of SL seems to be choose your own adventure style with covenants; it got me thinking, this is like the perfect expansion to go all the way and remove an archaic barrier.


The biggest hurdle obviously being druids, but I think it would be fine for them to retain their exclusivity since they're already supposed to be the 'special class.'



We've seem numerous times that races can deviate from their racial class group, I think its time for players to be able to do so as well. As I see it the concern is over classes losing their identity but in current WoW, Trolls can be Paladins and Humans can be Shamans so I feel that ship has already sailed.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Gameplay class ≠ in universe profession.

Taurens and Zandalari Trolls are "Paladins" mechanically, but they are most certainly not Holy Paladins in the lore. They are their own thing.

I think it'd be okay for Gnomes to be "Druids" who can change between different mecha forms. They'd be Druids mechanically, but they would not be nature druids or anything like that in the lore. In universe, they'd be tinkers/engineers using power armor/mecha/nanites or something.

[Corroc]

Short answer : No
Long answer: Nooooooooooooooooooooooo

[Codah]

Letting pandas be DKs was the end of anything making sense anymore. Might as well have goblin rocket dildo druids.

[Mysterymask]

well not just druids...Shaman they have to make totems for each of the races...have to write at least a half assed story on where certain combinations came from (the order of the holy zombie?)

personally I believe certain classes should just be open to everyone

Warriors: already are...

DK: Already are...any of the above idiots that can grab a 2 hander and swing can be brought back to life...also if Void Elves and Lightforged aren't immune then no reason

Monk: any idiot can throw a punch only one lorewise that MIGHT reject the teachings is Lightforged since it follows the Pandaran Religion but its still not THAT much of a stretch since we can literally just walk over to the August Celestials and wave.

Rogues: Any idiot can use a sword, all races can be pirates...Lightforged are really the only one that lorewise might be a stretch but even the light has use for assassins.

Priest: Every race has some form of religion..and hell if Gnomes can be priests with this philosophy EVERYONE can. This is especially true because its not even really a religion WE KNOW THE LIGHT EXISTS WE ALL SAW NAARU WE ALL SAW A NAARU DIE

Paladin: Take the fact we all know the light exists, give them a sword, problem solved

Warlock: Every race can have a bit of corruption....Human's lore wise hide the fact that Warlocks exist in their ranks so no reason why everyone else has to...

Mage: Every race has access to some magic...we don't really have any lore saying there is anyone who CAN'T access the Arcane so why not

Hunter: Basically already is cause using a bow and taming a pet isn't a race exclusive thing


This leaves the outliers..Shaman, Druids, and Demon Hunters

Demon Hunters are mainly an Illidari thing...and the Illidari have to take people into their ranks and train them...it can be written but its going to be a HUGE stretch to say most races can now be Illidari. At most Nightborne and Void Elves should be added ...maybe Orcs and Humans but like I said..a stretch. Also unlike Warlock its a LOT harder to hide being a Demon Hunter than it is being a Warlock

Druids and Shaman are a really big cultural thing..your people are either into it...or aren't Worgen being the obvious exception but even then not that much of one since they seem to have a natural affinity towards nature. if they add any druids Humans would make the most sense since 2/4 human races (counting undead) can be druids. It's probably not that big a stretch to have Forsaken Druids with this logic. This can be done with saying we started raising other Kul Tirians making it so we can also have Forsaken Shaman.


but hey I don't write the lore

[dragi]

Shaman...every race have access to nature...he is kind of mage using just different power
Druids....every race orphan can be educated by some druid's village deep in forest.
Dh... it's a different story, but who said it's not possible that you find any other races changed to dh.

[Schattenlied]

I'd be fine with it.

[gd8]

no thank you

[darklogrus]

Wasn't too long ago Gnomes were too fucking stupid to be Hunters..

[Amnaught]

They should be unlockable.

The whole reason night elves cant be paladins, for example, is because they aren't supposed to be common in lore. There is no subfaction of night elf paladins, like they created for sunwalkers. But that entire problem could be solved by an achievement, complete that storyline in Legion where you recruit a night elf paladin. It proves they can exist, and so we should be able to unlock them, but they can still be rare enough to justify locking them out from new players.

If undead paladins were unlocked without restriction, it would be the most played class for that race, and theyre supposed to be rare. Unlocking them with a short quest seems like exactly the kind of compromise that would make everyone happy.

[Ealyssa]

No, it is not the time. And never will.

[cparle87]

Letting pandas be DKs was the end of anything making sense anymore. Might as well have goblin rocket dildo druids.

If you exist you can die and Bolvar can choose to make you a death knight. There are much stranger race/class combinations. Like orcs picking magecraft just because they want to.

[FuxieDK]

Shaman...every race have access to nature...he is kind of mage using just different power
Dh... it's a different story, but who said it's not possible that you find any other races changed to dh.

The thing is..., Shaman IS NOT nature based.. It's 100% tied to wielding the elements, NOT nature.

Also, I once saw some numbers (but can't find them again) that DH was not elf only; 70% NE, 20% BE, 5% Human and 5% other races.

[Arakakao]

They should be unlockable.

The whole reason night elves cant be paladins, for example, is because they aren't supposed to be common in lore. There is no subfaction of night elf paladins, like they created for sunwalkers. But that entire problem could be solved by an achievement, complete that storyline in Legion where you recruit a night elf paladin. It proves they can exist, and so we should be able to unlock them, but they can still be rare enough to justify locking them out from new players.

In fact, there are already night elf paladins in lore: Delas Moonfang. She converted from a priestess to a paladin in the paladin campaign storyline in Legion. Her uncle Nerus also becomes a paladin during the same storyline. And in Azsuna you can find Alynblaze, the ghost of a NE paladin, meaning there were already at least one of them in the past.

[Queen of Hamsters]

DKs are a special case. They havent gotten access to new races since Cata due to lore and game play restrictions.
Now however, even if some are ignorant to it still, they are being created still and thus all playable races make sense.

I do not believe that this should entail us to create any race and class combo. Tauren Warlock? Vulpera DH? Orc Paladin?
No thank you.

[Sharby]

DKs are a special case. They havent gotten access to new races since Cata due to lore and game play restrictions.
Now however, even if some are ignorant to it still, they are being created still and thus all playable races make sense.

I do not believe that this should entail us to create any race and class combo. Tauren Warlock? Vulpera DH? Orc Paladin?
No thank you.

Tauren warlocks already exist via fel totem.

Vulpera's can be warlocks and death knights. I dont see how a vulpera DH is any more lorebending.

Hell Forsaken have been able to be holy priests since vanilla when lorewise it shouldnt be possible iirc?

The rules have already been broken a long time ago, some combos might be unusual, but nothing more game breaking than what is already there.

[Lord Pebbleton]

Yes, if it makes sense and is relevant to the lore.

I want to know why something is suddenly possible from a story viewpoint, like tauren paladins due to them worshipping the sun. Just lifting previously established restrictions randomly makes for a very poor RPG experience and for a lost occasion at expanding the world lore.

[Snowfunk]

I am Paladin.

Horde got Zandalari Troll, in BfA. First new race option since 2007.

Yes, I'd love some new Race options.

[Sharby]

Yes, if it makes sense and is relevant to the lore.

I want to know why something is suddenly possible from a story viewpoint, like tauren paladins due to them worshipping the sun. Just lifting previously established restrictions randomly makes for a very poor RPG experience and for a lost occasion at expanding the world lore.

That's the thing though, many of the newly introduced combos in Cata had very brief explanations if any as to why they exist, namely Gnome priesf and Human hunter.


Not everything got the Sunwalker Treatment as I like to call it nor should they cause somet things just make sense IE belf warrior.

Furthermore I feel like race isnt very important to the player characters as far as story goes. The only time our race is ever brought up is during heritage quests.


I think FFXIV does it well in that certain races 'own' a class and have coined the fighting style,, and the class is heavily themed after them, but anyone can be taught to be one. The story doesnt suffer for it.


I think WoW could benefit from this and already has tried it with every race being able to be monks despite it being so heavily tied to pandas.


Additionally, WoW is one of the few games that sticks to its oldschool barriers really hard which hurts its ability to garner new interest imo. There arent many games that force you to chose between preferred aesthetic and preferred gameplay.

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

There should be more restrictions. Worst idea in all of WoW is removing them completely. Just disgusts me the idea of it.