Picture it: Minnesota in the early 1970s and the characters in Mr. Arneson's game are talking to each other.
Fighting Man - "Well, I can fight but I can't use magic. I could be a samurai, barbarian, weapon master, knight or any other type of warrior."
Magic User - " I can't fight worth a darn but I can use magic better than anybody. I could be a necromancer, magician, conjuror, witch, elementalist or any other type of magic wielder."
Cleric - "I can fight a little bit and use some magic. I could be a priest or... a priest... um, or, um... maybe a priest. Y'know 'cause clerics are priests."
Fighting Man - "I don't think I get it."
Magic-User - "Yeah that's lame."
Cleric (crying) - "I'll tell my god on you!"
<several years of adventuring pass>
Party - "Hi, there. Who are you?"
Thief (looking around thiefily) - "I'm a thief!"
Party (guarding their money more closely) - "Um, okay. You just tell that to people, huh? What do you want?"
Thief - "I want to join the adventuring party, duh!"
Party - "Are you good at fighting?"
Thief - "Nope."
Party - "So you can cast spells then?"
Thief - "Uh-uh."
Party - "So what good are you? Aren't you just NPC material?"
Thief - "I can climb, check for traps, disarm traps, pick pockets, listen for noise and stab people in the back. Isn't that awesome!"
Party (fingering their weapons now) - "We've been doing that stuff for years."
Thief - "Ha! Not anymore though because we've got skills now, man! Soon, you guys won't be able to take a dump without rolling a d20 let alone search for traps or open locks. The future is specialization - niche markets, my friends! We'll have bards, illusionists, assassins, paladins, druids, rangers, and... well, you name it."
So I am looking at dialing it back to just three classes: Warrior, Wizard and Rogue. The Rogue could do some magic and some fighting but would rely mostly on luck.
I'm thinking hit dice, crits and attack progression as a cleric but only 1 spell known. Weapon selection and luck ability as per the thief.
Should I maybe ratchet down the hit die to d6 or substitute the halfling luck abilities (including luck charm)?
Oh, the player could decide whether the character would use divine magic and rules or the arcane magic and rules.