@gandalftheblack, while I love the fact that you are trying to generate discussion here on the Discourse, these types of threads are not particularly helpful, especially when dealing with multiple suggestions. Conversations tend to move in multiple directions, which makes it hard to figure out what the consensus is. I hope this does not come off the wrong way, but your post is essentially what the suggestions category itself is! Hope you understand 
!
By the way, for class suggestions, there is a great thread dating back 2 years now:
http://discourse.stonehearth.net/t/class-suggestions/3934?u=jomaxro