Classes for the 5 Magic:the Gathering colors

[Calintares]

One of my players has requested I run a one-shot with premade characters with wildly different motivations where the players occasionaly swap characters.

For convenience's sake I've chosen to use the colors from MtG, as they are quite well defined both in terms of motivations but also in terms of their relationship with each other.

Unfortunately I can't quite decide what classes I should make them all. I figured it'd be either all mage or no mage, but in both cases I ran into problems. here are my thoughts thus far

All Mage:
White --> Favored Soul (no deity)
Blue --> Beguiler
Black --> Dread Necromancer
Red --> ???
Green --> Spirit Shaman

No Mage:
White --> Paladin
Blue --> ???
Black --> Assassin/rogue
Red --> Barbarian
Green --> Ranger (wildshape variant)

[Juntao112]

Red --> ???

Warmage.
...

[Kurald Galain]

Red --> ???
Green --> Spirit Shaman

Red gets Duskblade, and green should probably be Druid.



White --> Paladin
Blue --> ???
Black --> Assassin/rogue
Red --> Barbarian
Green --> Ranger (wildshape variant)
[/qutoe]
Blue gets Rogue or Bard, black gets Warlock. If TOB allowed, Crusader is fitting for white.

[kardar233]

I like the idea of them all being full-casters, because planeswalkers.

White: Favoured Soul
Blue: Beguiler
Red: Warmage
Green: Druid
Black: Dread Necromancer

[Alleran]

I like the idea of them all being full-casters, because planeswalkers.

White: Favoured Soul
Blue: Beguiler
Red: Warmage
Green: Druid
Black: Dread Necromancer
At a guess, planeswalkers would be unique, and would be the ones who take a feat or something that allows them to add plane shift to their spell list (and nobody else with a rare few exceptions would be able to have it as a spell or SLA). Or perhaps they'd get it as an at-will SLA.

[Ashtagon]

Warmage is notably underpowered compared to other full casters. Maybe use wilder (if you're open to psionics)?

[Gildedragon]

Blue mundane ought be Factotum

Red magic-er: hellfire warlock

[Psyren]

Any particular reason why White is FS rather than Cleric?

I agree with Wilder for Red, fits them to a tee.

[chaos_redefined]

Casters:
Blue - Beguiler works, but I see the prepared nature of the wizard being appropriate here. Alternatively, artificer, if that counts.
Black - Dread Necro is a no-brainer. But (Hellfire) Warlock could work as well.
Red - Bard, Warmage or Wilder. Possibly Sorcerer/Wild Mage. Bard might not count.
Green - Druid, or if you want to restrict T1's from this list, Spirit Shaman.
White - Cleric or Favoured Soul. Most of the gish-in-a-can classes could go here. Healer, if we dare treat that class as a thing that exists.

Melee guys
Blue - Factotum or swordage
Black - Hexblade or any anti-paladin style class, including Evil Crusaders. Possibly sneak attackers as well.
Red - Barbarian or Bard. Bard might not count.
White - Crusader, Paladin, Knight, all the other variants of the same concept. Marshall Auras feel appropriate here.
Green - Wildshape Ranger/Master of Many Forms, Ranger/Scout Swift Hunter, Beastmaster/Beast Heart Adept

[atomicwaffle]

I like the idea of a bard as blue. Dat countersong.

[Rebel7284]

No healer for white. White in MTG is not nearly that passive. Check out Wrath of God and Savannah Lions... white is quite capable of hitting like a truck and destroying ANYTHING.

Amusing suggestion:

Bard 4/Warblade 16
Feats: Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (WHITE), Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven.

Bard 4/Warblade 16
Feats: Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (BLUE), Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven.

Bard 4/Warblade 16
Feats: Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (BLACK), Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven.

Bard 4/Warblade 16
Feats: Dragontouched, Draconic Heritage (GREEN), Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven.

Bard 4/Warblade 16
Feats: Dragonfire Inspiration, Song of the White Raven.

edit: Hmm, both green and black dragon do acid damage. One of those should be changed.

[Gildedragon]

White gets the Divine Bard and Monks
Blue gets the Bardic Sage and Bard-as-is
Green and Red duke it out for Savage Bard
Black undead are immune to mind-affecting, they get no Bard, but they get Rebuke Clerics, Defilers, and the sacrifice rules from BoVD

[Shining Wrath]

Full casters:

White: LG Battle Cleric build.
Blue: Wizard, transmuter specialist
Green: Druid (the most obvious choice of all 5)
Red: Mailman build sorcerer, bringin' the blasty
Black: Wizard, necromancer specialist or Dread Necromancer

Some casting:
White: Paladin
Blue: Bard
Green: Ranger
Red: Dragonfire Adept
Black: Warlock

No casting:
White: Crusader
Blue: Swordsage, focus on Diamond Mind and Shadow Hand
Green: Sleeping Tiger variant monk
Red: Barbarian
Black: Warblade, focus on Tiger Claw and Iron Heart

[Arc_knight25]

Casters:

White- Cleric
Red- Sorc/Warmage
Green- Druid
Blue- Wizard/Beguiler
Black- Dread Necro

Mundane:
White- Paladin
Red- Barb/Fighter
Green- Ranger/Barb
Blue- ???
Black- Paladin of Tyranny/Slaughter/Rogue


???- Not really sure. Nothing really stands out to me as to what would be a Base mundane for Blue. Since Blue is mostly magics(illusions, summons, counter spells) and knowledge.

[Komatik]

Caster classes:

Blue: Wizard or Artificer. Because the studious nature fits blue, and they're broken and get to do everything even though they're not supposed to. Just like blue.

Red: Warmage. Again, a perfect fit. Monotonically blasting people in the head because R&D doesn't know how to be remotely creative with red. It's just a bolt to the head, a bolt to the head, a bolt to the head, plus some crappy things no one really plays anyway.

White: Cleric with proper domains is a very good fit, for the most part. High-grade minionmancy shenanigans with chain gates and stuff don't quite feel right, but singular divine beings are a-ok. Otherwise white is really versatile and strong, and has a robust feel to the things it does. Cleric is excellent for that.

Green: Druid. Need I say more? Green is fast developing into a color that can do nearly anything. Druid is an excellent mix of calm wisdom and raw fury.

Black: A ton of people are voting for Dread Necro, which is kinda OK but I don't think it's quite there. Tainted Sorcerer sounds a bit more like it, if you make dying of Taint a real thing you have to actively work to prevent from happening. Though Dread Necro... maybe. Planar Binding without Magic Circle sounds quite right, even.


Noncasters:

Blue: Factotum. Nuff said.

Red: Barbarian, Warblade.

White: Crusader. Again, an amazing fit. Paladin can go watch paint dry or something.

Black: Crusader or heavily Shadow Hand Swordsage sound like they'd fit OK.

Green: Barbarian and Wildshape Ranger.

[sakuuya]

White gets the Divine Bard and Monks
Blue gets the Bardic Sage and Bard-as-is
Green and Red duke it out for Savage Bard
Black undead are immune to mind-affecting, they get no Bard, but they get Rebuke Clerics, Defilers, and the sacrifice rules from BoVD

Black get the Harbinger from Dragon Magazine.

[Gildedragon]

Blue- ???
???- Not really sure. Nothing really stands out to me as to what would be a Base mundane for Blue. Since Blue is mostly magics(illusions, summons, counter spells) and knowledge.

Ninja, rogue, anything frosty...

[dascarletm]

Ninja, rogue, anything frosty...

A spellthief may make sense. (Though it's a partial caster).

[Jeff the Green]

Black undead are immune to mind-affecting, they get no Bard, but they get Rebuke Clerics, Defilers, and the sacrifice rules from BoVD

Dirgesinger wants a word with you.

Also possibly harbinger; I've not played MtG in nearly a decade, so I don't remember if Black had things that could be interpreted as fear effects.

[Gildedragon]

Dirgesinger wants a word with you.

Also possibly harbinger; I've not played MtG in nearly a decade, so I don't remember if Black had things that could be interpreted as fear effects.

Tell dirgesinger I am very sorry. I didn't notice them because they were too busy hanging out in the back being gloomy.

Paladins come in a lot of flavors, probably possible to divvy them up some

White: Paladin of Honor, possibly Paladin of Tyranny, Sentinel
Green: Incarnate, Wyrmslayer
Red: Paladin of Slaughter,
Black: Antipaladin
Blue: Anarch, Corrupter (the turn divine spellcasters ability seems apropos)

[Honest Tiefling]

Dirgesinger wants a word with you.

Also possibly harbinger; I've not played MtG in nearly a decade, so I don't remember if Black had things that could be interpreted as fear effects.

An old school card was Terror, so I'd say it seems pretty thematic.

Weird idea, but think your team can handle Gestalt? That way, you can have a caster/non-caster or a partial caster/partial caster combo.

[RedMage125]

No one's said it yet?

White: Wizard
Black: Wizard
Red: Wizard
Green: Wizard
Blue: Wizard

[torrasque666]

Also possibly harbinger; I've not played MtG in nearly a decade, so I don't remember if Black had things that could be interpreted as fear effects.

For a long time Black had a special ability called Fear where only black cards or other cards with Fear could block. Then they changed it to Intimidate so any color could use it.

[Rebel7284]

No one's said it yet?

White: Wizard
Black: Wizard
Red: Wizard
Green: Wizard
Blue: Wizard

or more specifically
White: Abjurer with Healing Domain access and perhaps going into Combat Medic or Initiate of the 7th-fold Veil
Black: Necromancer
Red: Conjurer with Arcane Thesis Orb of Fire and searing spell.
Green: Conjurer focused on summons (malconvoker?)... druid does work best here, sorry.
Blue: Conterspelling wizard.

[Gildedragon]

White: Abjurer, yes, but also Enchanter, all [force] spells
Blue: Illusionist, also Divination, also Enchantment, also [water] and [air] spells (fly, gust of wind...)
Black: Necromancer, [acid] spells
Red: Evoker, all [fire] and [electricity] spells
Green: Transmutation, [wood] spells

overall: conjuration (summoning) is an allowed school

[Troacctid]

No one's said it yet?

White: Wizard
Black: Wizard
Red: Wizard
Green: Wizard
Blue: Wizard

No. Wizards are firmly blue. Blue has more than twice as many wizards (http://magiccards.info/query?q=t%3Awizard+c%3Au) as all the other colors combined (http://magiccards.info/query?q=t%3Awizard+ci%3Awbrg). There are some sharing space with clerics in white and black, but as with most Int-based classes they're virtually nonexistent in red and green.

[dascarletm]

No. Wizards are firmly blue. Blue has more than twice as many wizards (http://magiccards.info/query?q=t%3Awizard+c%3Au) as all the other colors combined (http://magiccards.info/query?q=t%3Awizard+ci%3Awbrg). There are some sharing space with clerics in white and black, but as with most Int-based classes they're virtually nonexistent in red and green.

Just because they have the same name doesn't mean....

[Komatik]

Just because they have the same name doesn't mean....

It doesn't. But the studious, logical approach to magic the Wizard takes is thoroughly blue in character. Depending on what the wizard studies, it can fit white or black, too. Red wizards aren't inconceiveable but they're pretty rare unless they have some blue mixed in. Wizardry is quite antithetical to green, though green and blue mesh really nicely flavour-wise.

[dascarletm]

It doesn't. But the studious, logical approach to magic the Wizard takes is thoroughly blue in character. Depending on what the wizard studies, it can fit white or black, too. Red wizards aren't inconceiveable but they're pretty rare unless they have some blue mixed in. Wizardry is quite antithetical to green, though green and blue mesh really nicely flavour-wise.

True enough.