OK now one of you has pissed me off because I read your post, particularly, claims about several of the dud base classes being OK and giving out OK talents.
And I thought. Hey it's been a while, maybe the system has retroactively changed or someone rewrote my memory of it
So you made me go LOOK.
And what the hell are you talking about? Those guys have NOTHING in their talents. NOTHING. The fast hero gets to be half of a rogue. Everyone else gets SKILL BONUSES. If I wrote classes like that for core d20, and lets remember this is still a only barely hatchet jobbed version of that, you would laugh me out of town.
So lets take a closer look at the base classes you claim are mostly playable (and some you don't).
*Note* gratuitous use of the word bitch in some class reviews is a reminder of how the rules designers want you to bend over, think of your country and take your additional sucky class levels etc... like a man, or rather a bitch. I just want people to know, I'm not calling YOU a bitch.
Strong Hero
Meanwhile, Strong heroes get full BAB.
And that's all you say. And really. That is all there is to say. You take strong hero if and only if you need full BAB. It gets you into a minority of bullshit annoying PrCs or "Advanced Classes" (if your game ever gets that far or your GM doesn't hate bullshit PrCs on perfectly reasonable principle) like one to two levels faster than being a Fast hero.
And in exchange for that you get to have less skill points, less class skills, a lower reputation bonus (WTF?) and notably 2 points less defence bonus. AND as if to remind you to bail out at +5 BAB (if you didn't leave at +3) if you take the sixth level you will fall an EXTRA point behind on defence bonus!
But a d20modern basic class is also about 50% bonus feats and talents. So lets look.
Extreme Effort
Yes. You can blow three talents, that's HALF your entire TEN LEVEL strong hero career potential (and more than your entire 2 talents from your 3 level "get me out of this class" career) on nothing more than a total +6 bonus to strength checks. Yes. Strength checks. Wait, that includes strength based skill checks, as full round actions. Did that make it more appealing? No.
Ignore Hardness
Wowee, you can like break stuff, and if you spend like again your entire 3 of 2 talents/3 of 5 talents on it you can do it moderately OK. I mean its still pretty sucky but you might actually notice it if you max it out. But its so bad EITHER of the other talent trees are probably more fun and useful. And did I mention? Melee attacks only. So if you are using this class to become like a Soldier or Sniper or Gunslinger or some such bullshit a level or two faster than the Fast hero, you never use this.
melee smash
Again for a whopping 3 talents you can earn... +3 to damage. Now this is probably the best tree, because well, it actually DOES something a lot of the time, in fact its half as good as ignore hardness for the purpose of breaking objects AND adds its bonus to other attacks as well! But only melee attacks. So unless you actually intend to be the guy bringing the knife to all the gunfights you never use this either.
bonus feats
Pretty much pure Melee. So Yeah, again, nothing for anyone who was just in it for the BAB unless they were in it for the BAB AND want to only ever punch people/hit them with sticks or something. Because there are no like, strong auto cannon lugging machine gun guys or anything, or characters that desperately want to get into a "I shoot things" class with a BAB requirement as fast as possible. I mean there isn't even personal fire arms proficiency on the list.
So anyway in the end you need what? +3 BAB to get into an actual Strong recommended advanced class? And a Fast hero gets that what? ONE level after you do? So is the full BAB anything we care about? NO. Because to use it to get into your advanced class ONE level sooner than being a Fast hero and doing it you lose defence, reputation, and 2 of your talents and one of your bonus feats are crap and possibly irrelevant to the rest of your career.
You can't even use this to sneak into Fast or other advanced classes and their bullshit +2 BAB requirement one level faster because they typically have skill rank requirements that force you to level 3 ANYWAY.
And all of this and your archetype is pushed towards being the guy who hits things with sticks. In a "modern" game. With guns.
No. Full BAB is unremarkable in this context. Utterly so. I really don't need or want +1 extra at that cost.
Tough Heroes
Tough Heroes suck, a lot. There's really no reason for them to exist.
I agree that they suck, a lot, but there IS a reason for them to exist. Being tough is cool. They just don't FULFIL their reason to exist. I'll cover them for completeness anyway.
I mean you drop Jaws out of a plane in d20 modern he is going to fucking die. DR 2/- isn't going to save him.
So anyway. Same BAB as fast, still only one good save, ONLY 1d10 hit die (wheee tiny tiny increment more HP than the Fast and the Strong), less skill points than Fast, a worse skill list than Strong, STILL only one "good" save (that's not very "tough"?), a bonus feat list with the same "I is hitting you" obsession as strong, but also crapper AND...
Damage Reduction
Three talents for DR 3/-. I rest my case.
Energy Resistance
Talent by talent collect obscure rarely used energy resistances of 4's and 5's or something crap. Spend ten tough levels sucking to collect them all and have them benefit you nothing when an otherwise inferior strong hero hits you in the face with a stick or if everyone else just fucking shoots you.
Unbreakable
You want to end your life as a Tough sucker, take Remain Conscious! It actually encourages people to hit you while you are at negative hit points! Yay!
Take Robust for a piddling amount of extra hit points, that will only ever grow (a tiny bit) if you commit to EVEN MORE tough levels!
Take second wind, spend action points (and no actual actions) to get hit points back! Fuck knows how often you can do this! That sounds good, until you realise its only Con mod hit points per use.
Take Stamina and reduce off screen time between the five minute working day (theoretically if you invested in giant Con as I suspect is intended you probably actually need this to heal the same percentage of Hit points as everyone else in the same time anyway), and watch me NOT CARE.
Oh, and you get the same reputation as a Fast hero. I mean, I don't fucking care, but IN YOUR FACE STRONG HERO!
Smart Hero
And Smart heroes, while weaker on the whole than the other two, have various technological tricks the others can't easily replicate, so you probably want of of them.
Lets start with the basics of what you lose. Less hit points than fast, 1/2 BAB instead of 2/3rd. Your only "good" save is on Will (you know, mind control and illusion), not nearly as everyday useful as Reflex (explosives) or Fortitude (god damn massive damage) in many modern games. And your defense bonus is THREE points behind Fast, indeed by level 4 you are FOUR points behind and five by level ten! I mean WOW you are easy to hit, Strong and Tough heroes laugh at you!
Now what you gain is skill points and about every utility skill (but no fun action skills) on your class list. But. If you DO put a big Int on your smart hero, why do you need 4 extra ranks a level over a big Int fast hero? And why do you need EVERY utility skill ever, anyone can get the two or three they might need for requirements from occupations and being the go to guy for star trek AND Babylon 5 knowledge checks is in no way superior to having an expert on each in the party, or indeed particularly superior to just having NEITHER.
You also gain a reputation bonus, but again WTF do I care?
Research
OK so you can use savant to gain an unnamed skill bonus to some utility skill I don't care about, but the bonus could be BIG... but only if you punish yourself by taking more levels of Smart as its a fucking class level bonus. Take it multiple times for different skills, I dare you. And many of these skills are like Int based so if you dumped int a bit because you just didn't need that many fricking different utility skills then you basically need this bullshit to get back to where a high Int Fast character is at.
Linguist is ANOTHER class level bonus, but one of the checks it makes doesn't actually have a difficulty so depending on your GM you either like speak every language ever or, well, don't. Mind you you first have to speak or write several languages and potentially invest in bullshit decipher script anyway to qualify/boost this ability so who cares.
Strategy
So if you DID dump strength and dex to get a big Int so your int based skills could throw on Savant and actually be bigger than a similar Fast hero you can make up for your lower BAB and poor attack attributes using Exploit Weakness. At at least level 3. After taking linguist or savant at least once (it's telling you "go take Savant, bitch"). Only on the second round+ of combat. With a DC 15 int+class level check. For only one opponent. And you don't get a damage bonus.
OR you can take PLAN. Then you can jump through hoops before non surprise encounters and add a short duration bonus to attack rolls and skill checks of UP TO PLUS THREE (if you max out intelligence and roll a twenty). I mean often as not it will be +0 to +1. If you even get to roll. And you can't have it till at least level three because you need to take a research talent first (they really want you to take savant, bitch). Oh yeah, it's an int check (max out Int and suffer, bitch) with a class level bonus (keep taking inferior class levels, bitch).
OR you can take Trick. I mean mindless things and super low Int things are immune because you aren't allowed to trick REALLY stupid stuff (it isn't fair) and if you are Allen Quatermain's assistant on "the incredible racist adventure" then all your enemies are immune to you, unless you took linguist AND the GM likes you. BUT hey, with an int check (max int, bitch) plus class level bonus (max sucky class levels, bitch) and a full round action at 30 feet (suffer, bitch) Once per target per combat (bitch) and only if they ALSO fail a will save (bitch) based on your int (max it, bitch) and your class level (good money after bad, bitch) then you DAZE THEM FOR ONE ROUND. Also at the end of the text on that one they make sure to include a line stating "Fuck you, Bitch."
Super kick ass third talent tree
Oh, wait there isn't one, you get one less talent tree and the ones you do have have less talents. Go take Savant several more times. Bitch.
Bonus Feats
If high int and Savant weren't enough now you can blow bonus feats on skill ranks I don't care about as well! Oh and you can take improved trip for some reason. But really, are you the right character chassis to really be doing that? Bitch.
So all up at BEST you are like someones side kick they roll out when they want a REALLY high star trek knowledge check result. At worst you are they guy who COULD have been failing to improved trip someone but instead either spent your full round action failing to take their action with sucky 1 turn daze, or more likely you are the bitch who just got hit a lot and died quickly before failing to do anything at all. Bitch.
Meanwhile a Fast character has reasonable ranks and can max out Int and take an occupation just like anyone else. So he can skill monkey as well as all but the most cripplingly int focused savant eating bitch and still be a Fast hero.
Dedicated Hero
But Dedicated Heroes are also playable (same BAB, same skill points, good talents).
You get less hit points than fast, same BAB as Fast, and yes even same skill points. But you get a skill list that is packed with utility and very little physical/adventure skills, and you aren't even a smart Savant bitch (though that's probably no loss as already covered). Still you get social skills and that's OK. You get that same 2 to 3 points less defence that makes the Strong and the Tough so useless, but hey, screw you Smart Hero skill bitch, because you get to be middle of the road defence bonus and laugh at his inferior defences.
You do get more reputation than a Fast hero. It's your dedication to not being as good that makes you famous and well liked I guess.
Notably you get TWO "good" saves but one of them is Will so I'm not entirely sure we should care.
Empathic
You can take empathy, then you can freak people out by staring at them for a minute before talking to them to gain another suck on it bitch type class level bonus to your social checks. Cool bonus, but only if you want to be a class level bitch AND feel the whole 1 minute's silence is the appropriate way to begin all social encounters. And indeed that 1 minutes silence should punctuate ALL your god damn social actions even in the same god damn encounter.
Beware the mighty awesome funness of improved aid another, gain +1 to aid another, take it up to four times at the cost of a mere ten levels in this MIIIIIGHTY class to gain up to +4. But know you well that you may not take it 5 times, nor until at least level three for you must first take (mighty) empathy to ensure you are not swept away by the power of your own ability to add small bonuses to uninteresting actions by other people.
If you do take the mighty Empathy prerequisite (they want you to take empathy, bitch) then you can use the mighty ability to class level times per day (take more dud levels, bitch) make a will save (they probably want you to invest in Wisdom here, bitch, but you can probably get away with not doing so on this one). And low and behold. On a success. You get to ask the GM "danger? Hot or Cold?" and he gets to say "Cold" or "Hot hot hot!" And I don't care because that's a pretty damn dumb "ability".
Healing
Take healing knack, get +2 to treat injury checks, watch me care! Then take healing touch 1 and 2 for an eventual +4 hit points healed by surgery. Oh. Did anyone mention surgery requires 1d4 hours, a DC 20 check, a -4 penalty unless you blow a feat on it, special equipment, causes piles of fatigue (as in 6 to 24 hours), has additional time penalties for negative HP, can only be tried once per character per 24 hours and frankly +4 HP is not going to make much difference? But hey its ONLY 6 levels in dedicated to get this "benefit", take them, and like them, bitch.
Insightful
You can take Skill Emphasis, as a talent, as many times as you like, MERRY CHRISTMAS. I hope you like it because I'm stamping no return on that little present.
Once you do take skill emphasis (take skill emphasis, bitch) you get to take Aware. Then you can make your good base Will save, that we didn't care about, become an anti surprise bonus that we do care about. I mean it would be better if you didn't first waste three character levels and a talent on this to get the ability to not be surprised. But in theory if you STOP taking levels in the class right away you might, one day, both not be surprised AND be a character capable of actually doing something with that. I mean Fast heroes get to take Uncanny dodge 1 and 2 if they want, but hey, don't let that rain on your little "measurable non class level based bonus to not being surprised" parade.
Also, but only as long as you take skill emphasis (take skill emphasis, bitch) You can take Faith! Spend action points for a slightly larger benefit, as long as you boosted Wisdom, that this game really doesn't particularly care about. But anyway more to the point, Hands up who fucking hates action points, especially action point dependant abilities you spend permanent character building resources on? (I'm putting up both my hands right now, five minute pause in typing while I wave them wildly and scream).
FORTUNATELY If I were dedicated, and I must be to write this much shit about d20 modern, and if I have already taken my Skill Emphasis and either Faith or Aware AND an additional 2 levels of Dedicated Hero, like the bitch I must be to do that I can recover by taking Cool Under Pressure to nominate a bunch of skills I can take 10 on. The ability is cool. The cost god damn isn't. But hey if you ALREADY busted out the mullah just to not be surprised so much its only TWO more levels of this instead of an advanced class or Fast or something to net a not too bad ability. Just, is it that good? I can get Evasion and +3 defense with ONE level of Fast...
Bonus FeatsMostly suck but hey proficiencies! and like a gun related feat. WOOO you MIGHT spend your level 2 bonus feat productively before getting the hell out of doge.
So all up Dedicated hero doesn't hurt too bad on some basic attributes, sucks on skills and delivers somewhat spotty talents. If I couldn't take fast I MIGHT take it. But I'm not putting it ahead of Strong or Tough, at best on par and I'm god damn out of there at level 3 for something, anything, and I haven't even looked at the advanced classes in ages!
Charismatic Hero
Charismatic heroes suck nearly as much, although at least thye can do some thigns other classes can't easily emulate.
You don't like charismatic heroes. And sure, they totally suck. But I'm not getting why YOU hate them since you seem to actually like Smart and Dedicated heroes and frankly there isn't a short coming imaginable that Smart heroes don't have covered.
Anyway. 1/2 BAB, like the sucky smart hero. The biggest reputation in town (whee!). The same how low can you go defense bonus as the smart hero, with the same d6 die damn you die hit points.
But get this TWO of those dodgey half good save progressions. And they are on Ref AND Fort! That's like almost a good point. (only almost but still).
A generous amount of skill ranks ahead of the Fast hero without making me wonder if investing anything in int is just going to make levelling up a chore. But still probably more than I need. Dodgey utility class skills but hey, social skills are in there and they are cool.
Charm
Charm is basically Savant but only by a specific Gender of target and spread over several skills that actually mess people up with mighty d20 socialising. But its a "take more class levels, bitch" skill so I'm not impressed. Weirdly you pick a target gender so while you may be the hottest woman in town to the men folk your charms don't work on lesbians unless you buy the talent AGAIN. Which you can do as often as you like. I don't know, third time hermaphrodites, 4th time leprachauns, 5th time republicans?
Now we all know that NO people will be nice to you unless you hold unatural charm over at least one of an unspecified number of genders. So you must FIRST take charm at least once (and as often as you like?) before you can take the ability to get people, any people, even the ones you don't sexymesmerise with your charm talent, to perform small favours for you. Yes. You can blow class features for a level on the ability to ask people to help you. Because apparently no one else has that ability. There is lots of text and a little bit of bullshit mechanics but none of it matters because the ability is fucking meaningless.
If you are sexy AND you have the ability to request things from people then you may take your third or later talent as Captivate. Which is so useless it makes Favor look flexible and productive. Heck. It makes TRICK look powerful and that's a god damn Smart talent. I mean its clear they MEANT for it to be all "ooh look at me, cheeze it guys!" but really, its more like "haha, I set you up for surprise attacks, no wait sneak dice are few and far between and it doesn't do that because it ends on attacks and 'threats" Its duration and requirement for attention and various complexity doesn't even make it entirely clear that its a great distraction for stealth or infiltration either. Certainly not well designed for achieving that goal. And remember at least 5 levels of sucking by being a charismatic hero to get this!
Fast Talk
With the self titled entry talent on this album as long as you lie or cheat you can be a Savant (take charismatic levels, bitch) at well, social skills. Which is objectively better than charm because now I can seduce you as long as I lie about not being married. Mind you as far as I can tell this probably stacks with charm so you may be able to begin a whole Diplomancer with this sort of stuff here.
Now I thought Captivate was Bad, roll on Dazzle, burn rounds and multiple rolls with all the same bend over bitch investments of Trick and friends and you too can slowly stack up -1 penalties to some single dude while he and his friends bash you methodically to death with base ball bats.
Taunt is basically Trick with a different name but you have to take Fast Talk AND Dazzle to get it. Who'd have thought it, one up for the smart hero perhaps? Well, Fast Talk is way better than Savant so maybe not...
Bonus Feats
Hey look, boring stuff plus Point Blank Shot. I mean hey, you probably want that at level 1 rather than level 2, but if you HAD to spend your feat at 1st level (the one other than the one you spent on personal fire arms proficiency, you must invest feats to function as even a basic modern hero, bitch) on something else...
So the charismatic hero can probably stack up some nice diplomatising, by level ten with like two talents you can rack up maybe TWO +10 untyped skill bonuses to Bluff and Diplomacy. But once you run out of imaginary genders every time you take a new talent beyond Charm and Fast Talk you will regret being in the class. And all your levels will be are another "class levels bitch" +1 Charm +1 Fast Talk because they sure as hell don't do much else other than screw your Defence bonus and BAB. At least you have Fort and Ref to keep you warm at night, and every NPC you ever met.
Four playable Classes? No. One playable class. Maybe.
Well the game and its rules are, sucky over all so I'm not sure any of the classes are playable. But really. Strong only has BAB and we don't care about +1 extra BAB. Tough has... well... nothing much. Dedicated has at best, spot checks. Smart has, endless sucking. Charismatic has game breaking diplomancing, and endless sucking.
Tough and Strong talents are very narrow, tiny and boring. And the other three are plagued with class level bonuses that invite you to be a bitch and politely ask "can I please have some more sir".
I didn't cover Fast and just used it as a comparison point. But it has average to best basic attributes a good skill list, a good bonus feat list, and a number of good low cost talents including Evasion and Uncanny dodge which is all you ever need to take if you leave at level 3 or 4 which you will if you can actually find an advanced class worth not being Fast anymore (and you might not).
And if you MUST take skills not on the fast list, you get them free from Occupation! If you MUST take talents on someone elses list (god knows why) there is a feat which just god damn does that!
There is basically no reason, ever, to take any basic class other than Fast. Name an archetype, a build, an advanced class prerequisite, anything, and Fast is going to let you do that, and then also let you be better than the guy who did it with the class he was "supposed" to use for that.
Now someone repeat that bullshit about that one advanced class people always seem to pretend makes d20modern function and I'll do a post on how much I hate that.