d20 Modern Classes: Does They Work? Can They Be Better?

It's been a very busy few weeks, still settling in from the move, work seemingly always having two or three fires to put out at once, dealing with doctors and all the fun usual stuff that is life. This past weekend, however, I had the fun opportunity to sit down and game with some friends. It didn't work out quite as planned, as some couldn't make it, but my mom had taken the kids for the day, and my wife, old friend Ken, and the internet sensation +Jonathan Henry were able to be there.

Jon ran a game of d20 Modern. Admittedly, it had been awhile since either he or I had played the game. My wife and old buddy Ken had never played d20 Modern, although Ken at least had some familiarity with D&D 3x. So, it was a fun, simple, straight forward game. It left me with the clear realization that I really did enjoy most of the d20/OGL games I played in. Sure, some things could be fixed here and there, which I suppose Pathfinder took care of, although I have yet to play Pathfinder. Instead, when we ran into problems with the d20 rules set, we handled them the old fashioned way--we house ruled it.

Anyhow, back to the point. I really enjoyed d20 Modern back in the day and I apparently still do. I am actually even considering putting together a somewhat complex campaign for my local group here using the rules set. However, I am thinking of making some changes.

One thing I am stuck looking at is these base classes. Classes based off the attribute: Strong, Fast, Though, Smart, Dedicated, and Charismatic characters. Whose brilliant idea was this?!? We had apparently come to the point where creativity was no longer rewarded, but total generic concepts were? I don't know. It has always left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

I am considering using class styled classes for a d20 Modern game--not fighter or cleric, but others like Cyber Commando or Mecha Jock. I would use these in place of the base classes. However, before I do that, I thought I'd put it out there to see what others think. Is there a reason the base classes were included besides utter laziness? Does undoing that change and going back to traditional class design somehow break the system?