AstralFire
2013-04-16, 08:49 AM
I've mentioned before that Elan could serve as the party's healer in the loss of Durkon. It's a natural growth of Elan's character story, given that he's devoting himself more to healing rather that improving his personal power further. Mechanically, it wouldn't work without heavy reliance on UMD at this point, but we're past mechanics.
Narratively, though, I don't think he will replace Durkon as healer, for reasons relating to Durkon's character development - returning to his home no longer a follower of Thor as a party member will be interesting - and also relating to Elan's own themes.
Roy has learned to be a better leader, and a better fighter. (He maps very well to 4E's Warlord, IMO.) I think this is evident enough that I don't have to point out the story moments for this.
Haley has learned to be a better leader, but specifically, the leader of a guerilla movement. I don't think we've seen her narratively progress as a thief; she's been outrogued in a diplomatic sense by Celia, but it's not a path she'd go down. Instead, she's been thinking tactically and demonstrated that she's better than dear old dad.
Vaarsuvius, plain as day.
Belkar, same. Ranger/Barbarian - he gets to kill people more if he controls himself.
Durkon - yes, I think he's going to come back to the party as a cleric of Nergal, and explore what faith means. I'm sure I've missed countless discussions on this note.
They're all getting better at their specializations of command, undermining, controlling, berserking, and (if my guess is right about Durkon) counseling. What's a bard's specialization? Well, my bard kicked ass (it's a strong class), but there are other ways to go.
By default, they do a little bit of everything. Elan's demonstrated he's gotten better at fighting, but he is not going to outdo dear-old-Dad on that front. He's gotten better at healing, but he's not going to outdo Durkon on that front. I'm guessing that we're going to see Elan effectively step in as an offensively controlling spellcaster soon, through a well-used illusion against Nale - and it again won't be enough to outdo a better caster, like Malak, but it will effectively buy time for another plan to step in.
Narratively, though, I don't think he will replace Durkon as healer, for reasons relating to Durkon's character development - returning to his home no longer a follower of Thor as a party member will be interesting - and also relating to Elan's own themes.
Roy has learned to be a better leader, and a better fighter. (He maps very well to 4E's Warlord, IMO.) I think this is evident enough that I don't have to point out the story moments for this.
Haley has learned to be a better leader, but specifically, the leader of a guerilla movement. I don't think we've seen her narratively progress as a thief; she's been outrogued in a diplomatic sense by Celia, but it's not a path she'd go down. Instead, she's been thinking tactically and demonstrated that she's better than dear old dad.
Vaarsuvius, plain as day.
Belkar, same. Ranger/Barbarian - he gets to kill people more if he controls himself.
Durkon - yes, I think he's going to come back to the party as a cleric of Nergal, and explore what faith means. I'm sure I've missed countless discussions on this note.
They're all getting better at their specializations of command, undermining, controlling, berserking, and (if my guess is right about Durkon) counseling. What's a bard's specialization? Well, my bard kicked ass (it's a strong class), but there are other ways to go.
By default, they do a little bit of everything. Elan's demonstrated he's gotten better at fighting, but he is not going to outdo dear-old-Dad on that front. He's gotten better at healing, but he's not going to outdo Durkon on that front. I'm guessing that we're going to see Elan effectively step in as an offensively controlling spellcaster soon, through a well-used illusion against Nale - and it again won't be enough to outdo a better caster, like Malak, but it will effectively buy time for another plan to step in.