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pasko77
2009-12-23, 07:08 PM
Hey all!
Premising that I only own PH1 and FR sourcebook (no X power), I was curious to know if mixing powers (inside the same power source) would be inbalancing, horribly inbalancing, or not really important. I know that in martial power there are fighter moves that mimic ranger's 2 weapon style, so.

Thanks for the opinions!

Artanis
2009-12-23, 07:14 PM
What, you mean like taking powers from any class in the same power source, not just your own?

If so, yes, it would probably be pretty broken.

R. Shackleford
2009-12-23, 07:17 PM
I don't see why it would.

The DM might take exception to mixing powers/exploits from Ebberron and FR or something, but the character builder let's you do it normally...

The only thing that could possibly matter are that some feats and powers might be redundant, allowing you to have duplicates. Though the only case of that I know of is effectively taking Linguist twice, which you can already do, though Mark of Scribing is better.

EDIT: Do you mean the same class within different books? Or the same Power Sources? Mixing exploits from different classes would be broken...

Kurald Galain
2009-12-23, 07:19 PM
Ironically, doing this would lead to less character diversity, as often one power at some level is Just Plain Better, and more characters would take that. Of course, you do need to watch for matching ability scores: for instance, warlock powers (con/cha) do not mesh well with wizard or swordmage powers (int).

I'm sure some people will complain about mixing roles, but that's not really an issue: the four roles are nebulously defined at best, and most of their role stems directly from class features. On the other hand, some classes (e.g. swordmage) have strong class features but unimpressive powers, whereas others (e.g. wizard) have strong powers but unimpressive class features. Your method would allow a character to combine the two.

Finally, it will greatly increase the time it costs to build a character.

For these three reasons I would recommend against it. What are you trying to accomplish, anyway?

DabblerWizard
2009-12-23, 07:49 PM
What, you mean like taking powers from any class in the same power source, not just your own?

If so, yes, it would probably be pretty broken.

On a case by case basis, this might be okay.

On the whole though, there's good reason to agree with Artanis. 4e has no standard list of spells / powers outside of feats and rituals. This is reason enough to assume that cross-class powers are not interchangeable except in the case of multiclassing.

pasko77
2009-12-24, 06:48 AM
Ironically, doing this would lead to less character diversity, as often one power at some level is Just Plain Better, and more characters would take that.

This is the answer I was afraid of.



some classes (e.g. swordmage) have strong class features but unimpressive powers, whereas others (e.g. wizard) have strong powers but unimpressive class features.

No, wait, THIS is what I was afraid of.



What are you trying to accomplish, anyway?
I had the funny idea of a classless homebrew, with a point buy for various powers/features.
Of course, being the frail balance you are describing, it does not look possible.
Thanks for the kind answers!
Pasko

Reinboom
2009-12-24, 06:55 AM
I had the funny idea of a classless homebrew, with a point buy for various powers/features.
Of course, being the frail balance you are describing, it does not look possible.
Thanks for the kind answers!
Pasko

If you are intending to run it, I say go ahead.
It'll make character creation take a bit longer, but, it may generate interesting results. Balance, after all, is relative and you can easily up the ante a little bit (though, not by much I would say) in order to compensate if it appears to be a little out of hand.
At the very least it would let you report back here and tell us what happened. I, for one, always enjoy seeing what occurs when extremes happen.

Hashmir
2009-12-24, 06:56 AM
Well, the ability to have different powers cost different "power points" might make it possible, since you can weight more powerful things higher, but I doubt it would be feasible. This is mostly because there are going to be some crazy synergies that you either won't anticipate or wont be able to stop without nerfing the pieces into oblivion. The way to get around that would be to place certain restrictions on class ability/power combinations and group certain powers together ... which would make it the class-based system we have now. :smallbiggrin:

Leolo
2009-12-24, 07:26 AM
In fact the game supports mixing powers from different classes without any houserule.

So you could allow a different multiclassing / hybrid / dilettant functionality using your point based system. From my point of view, since multiclassing let you count as a member of two (or more) classes it is more powerfull than just switching powers with it.