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View Full Version : D&D 4e Wu Jen 4e Conversion - Ideas?



Royberg
2015-11-18, 08:19 PM
So, recently I've become really enamored by the Forgotten Realms setting and have been doing a lot of reading about the setting, partially because of a friend's game that is set there and that I felt I didn't know as much about the setting as I would have liked. I became further absorbed into everything when I was reading about the lands beyond Faerūn, particularly the Asian themed continent Kara-Tur to the east. I felt Kara-Tur didn't get much love in 4e aside from a short adventure and few Character Themes from DDI. I thought about creating my own Kara-Tur supplement by taking a lot of information about the continent from 3.5 and the various Oriental Adventures supplements from days of yore.

One thing I wanted to include was the Wu Jen class from 3.5, which is a signature arcane class from the far east. Some characteristics of it that I have so far are:

-another essentials offshoot of the Wizard (Arcanist) class; possibly may also use Primal as a power source in addition to Arcane

-Intelligence based with Constitution and Wisdom as secondary stats

-does not get Daily attack powers, but rather picks 2 Encounter powers at a time and can choose to use either one of that level without the need of preparing one in a spellbook. It works like the Skald Bard in that they do this but with Daily powers.

-a way of augmenting their spells by increasing the radius/range, the damage, or by adding an extra debilitating condition. It reflects their Spell Secrets class feature and may work similarly to the Elemental Escalation power that the 4e Elementalist has.

What I need help with is integrating many of their class features from 3.5. I'm a huge novice when it comes to anything other than 4e. They have many taboos that govern their life and failing to abide by them causes them to lose their power. There's also the matter of their spiritual/primal aspect and they specialize in a particular element of nature. I guess you could select particular element, perhaps even adding a damage keyword to a power if you so choose. I got most of my information about Wu Jens from a handbook on this site. It won't let me post links in my post, but if you google "Wu Jen handbook," it's the first result. I got a lot of ideas, but I need help organizing my though process! :smalleek:

Hawk7915
2015-11-19, 02:15 PM
So, recently I've become really enamored by the Forgotten Realms setting and have been doing a lot of reading about the setting, partially because of a friend's game that is set there and that I felt I didn't know as much about the setting as I would have liked. I became further absorbed into everything when I was reading about the lands beyond Faerūn, particularly the Asian themed continent Kara-Tur to the east. I felt Kara-Tur didn't get much love in 4e aside from a short adventure and few Character Themes from DDI. I thought about creating my own Kara-Tur supplement by taking a lot of information about the continent from 3.5 and the various Oriental Adventures supplements from days of yore.

One thing I wanted to include was the Wu Jen class from 3.5, which is a signature arcane class from the far east. Some characteristics of it that I have so far are:

-another essentials offshoot of the Wizard (Arcanist) class; possibly may also use Primal as a power source in addition to Arcane

-Intelligence based with Constitution and Wisdom as secondary stats

-does not get Daily attack powers, but rather picks 2 Encounter powers at a time and can choose to use either one of that level without the need of preparing one in a spellbook. It works like the Skald Bard in that they do this but with Daily powers.

-a way of augmenting their spells by increasing the radius/range, the damage, or by adding an extra debilitating condition. It reflects their Spell Secrets class feature and may work similarly to the Elemental Escalation power that the 4e Elementalist has.

What I need help with is integrating many of their class features from 3.5. I'm a huge novice when it comes to anything other than 4e. They have many taboos that govern their life and failing to abide by them causes them to lose their power. There's also the matter of their spiritual/primal aspect and they specialize in a particular element of nature. I guess you could select particular element, perhaps even adding a damage keyword to a power if you so choose. I got most of my information about Wu Jens from a handbook on this site. It won't let me post links in my post, but if you google "Wu Jen handbook," it's the first result. I got a lot of ideas, but I need help organizing my though process! :smalleek:

4th Edition Homebrew, awesome! Not nearly enough of it in my opinion...

That being said, let's start with the fundamental questions:
1) Does this need to be homebrewed at all, or can refluffing do the job? My gut says no; Wu Jen have just a few too many unique features in terms of their ability to sculpt magic, "Spirit Magic" that grants various benefits, and elemental magic (including Wood and Metal) to completely avoid homebrew. At a minimum I think we need a few powers and feats, but maybe more...

2) Do we need a whole new class, or can we create new Paragon Paths, build options, and powers? I don't think we need a whole new class, so the real question is whether you start with Sorcerer (particularly the Elemental Chaos one) or the Wizard or the Shaman as your chassis. Elementalist Sorcerer is basically 75% of what you want out of this class (just need to add a "Metal" and "Wood" option), but Wizard covers a lot more of what you're looking for in terms of stats, role, and general attitude.

Going from your comments, a few things I am thinking...

1) No Dailies feels like a disaster. Controllers rely on their powers to control, and are going to really struggle without access to big encounter-breakers.

2) I imagine that you just create a "Wu Jen Wizard" build option. This build doesn't get a spellbook, instead choosing one power and having it set. Their class feature grants them (at 1st, 5th, and 10th as you deem fit with powerful effects continuing into 11th and 16th for the "Master Wu Jen" Paragon Path) a few benefits like:

a bonus to attack, range, and damage with spells of a certain Element
a daily reroll of Initiative,
a boost/reroll for knowledge skills.
Permanently alter the area of an at-will power
Permanently make you immune to OA while using a certain at-will power
"Twin" an at-will power or auto-repeat it when using an Action Point.


You might also consider something more drastic. Maybe Wu Jen don't get Encounters. Instead they get "Spell Secrets" that enhance their at-wills, granting increased Area, Range, Damage, Accuracy, Save Penalties, or other effects on a encounter-level basis. As you said this is very similar to "Elemental Escalation", but I envision something more versatile. Whenever they would get new encounter powers they instead get to choose a new Secret, or the ability to use a Secret twice in one fight. Maybe on top of this they get an extra at-will of their favored element.

3) To tap into the Primal, perhaps Wu Jen have Totem proficiency and a special bonus while wielding Totems?

4) In terms of new powers we definitely need some "Metal" and "Wood" ones as well as utilities that mimic "Spirit Binding" (this included all Fey creatures, Elementals, and many outsiders in 3.5, so it could be a powerful stun/dominate/summon effect for them). Some of the Wu Jen's most iconic powers could also show up in power form (Surelife, Arboreal Transformation, Creeping Darkness, etc.)