Brother_Franklin
2007-10-19, 01:50 PM
I, for one, am really psyked about the new charater class philosphy that seems to prevade in 4E. It seems to me [personal interpretation warning] that there will be three major elements that can go into a charater class: the Role, the Power Source, and the Non-combat abilities.
Now the Power Source and the Role should pretty much define how things go in combat- and therby basically make for a wide variety of very functional DnD charaters. I imagine new powersources will come up in supplements.
On the other hand, what I really really hope is that their is a really good system for changing a charaters non-combat abilities in the DMG.
For instance the bard is a really cool charater. It's a leader with an arcane power source- I assume. And then out of combat they have powers to talk their way into and out of situations, seduce people, and play awesome music.
But let's say I'm playing a desert campaign and the bard just don't quite fit. Let's keep the combat the same but change his out of combat abilities. Let's make a proticall master. Let's emphisie the diplomacy, get rid of the music, but keep the arcane power based on leadership spells he's learned.
Allowing DMs with their players to freely ajust non-combat roles would not only allow a plethora of charater architypes to exist, but also allow for many types of campagins to go more smoothly.
Another example. Imagine a theif campaign that still had a striker, a controller, a defender, and a leader, but all of their non-combat abilities where traded for theiving skills. So you could have four charaters climb up the walls, sneak into a house, and still be decent when they eventually have to fight the golem guarding the biggest treasure.
Sorry, if that's kinda rambling- but someone take this ball.
Now the Power Source and the Role should pretty much define how things go in combat- and therby basically make for a wide variety of very functional DnD charaters. I imagine new powersources will come up in supplements.
On the other hand, what I really really hope is that their is a really good system for changing a charaters non-combat abilities in the DMG.
For instance the bard is a really cool charater. It's a leader with an arcane power source- I assume. And then out of combat they have powers to talk their way into and out of situations, seduce people, and play awesome music.
But let's say I'm playing a desert campaign and the bard just don't quite fit. Let's keep the combat the same but change his out of combat abilities. Let's make a proticall master. Let's emphisie the diplomacy, get rid of the music, but keep the arcane power based on leadership spells he's learned.
Allowing DMs with their players to freely ajust non-combat roles would not only allow a plethora of charater architypes to exist, but also allow for many types of campagins to go more smoothly.
Another example. Imagine a theif campaign that still had a striker, a controller, a defender, and a leader, but all of their non-combat abilities where traded for theiving skills. So you could have four charaters climb up the walls, sneak into a house, and still be decent when they eventually have to fight the golem guarding the biggest treasure.
Sorry, if that's kinda rambling- but someone take this ball.