Wheel of Time Characters in 4e?

[Da'Shain]

Me and my friend were discussing WoT the other day, and being all-purpose geeks we got to trying to assign 4e stats to the main characters.

Rand al'Thor, my friend and I disagreed on. I contended he should be an Infernal Pact Warlock, since he's largely self-taught, he uses balefire a lot (eldritch blasty!) and the female Aes Sedai act far more like wizards; I thought that the difference between saidar and saidin was enough to warrant a class difference; he said they should both be wizards, since they can usually do the same things although they get there in different ways.

Perrin, we both agreed he was some kind of insanely high STR/CON Fighter/Ranger hybrid. We'd probably benefit from seeing the Beastmaster build in Martial Power, because that sounds like it'd fit him better; however, he's clearly the most in-tune with nature, and he had a habit of dual-wielding hammer and axe for a while, so I contended he should start as Ranger and multi-into Fighter while my friend though it should be the other way around.

Mat is even harder to fit, though. At first he seems like a textbook Rogue, but then we remembered that virtually NONE of a Rogue's powers can be used without a light blade (or a crossbow or a sling). You can't really have Mat if he can't use his ashandarei, can you?

Anyway, I said he should start life as a Ranger with high DEX/CHA (and low WIS probably :smallsmile:), who uses a glaive as a double weapon (one end heavy blade, one end quarterstaff?) and multiclasses into Warlord after his trip through the door in Rhuidean, for obvious reasons. That way, he has his signature weapon, he's awesome at throwing knives and evading attacks as well, and later on he becomes a great general. My friend still thinks he should start as a Rogue, but he agrees the ashandarei is a problem then.


Thoughts?

[RTGoodman]

I don't know anything about the Wheel of Time really (I read the first couple of books), but here's one suggestion. For Mat, just make a feat like this:

Ashandarei Finesse (or Polearm Finesse or something)
You are adept at quickly wielding a polearm.
Prerequisites: Rogue; Sneak Attack class feature; Str 13, Dex 15.
Benefit: You can use a polearm for any Rogue class feature or power that requires a light blade.

[Da'Shain]

Oh yeah, of course. But we were trying to do it just by the books, without resorting to house rules. Just as an exercise to see how well 4e fits their respective archetypes.

Also, because we were bored.

[RTGoodman]

Oh yeah, of course. But we were trying to do it just by the books, without resorting to house rules. Just as an exercise to see how well 4e fits their respective archetypes.

Ah, well, that's fine, too. :smallredface: There is some precedence, though - there's an alternate class feature in Martial Power that lets Rogues use a mace or a club for SA and Rogue powers, and there's a feat in the same book called Longsword Finesse that lets you do the same with the Longsword, except that you lose one die of sneak attack damage while doing so. If you're not planning on playing them, though, I guess it doesn't matter. :smallwink:

[Arros Winhadren]

No doubt you are aware of this already, but if you're interested in D&D-style WoT fun, there is a WoT d20 game. I've never played it, but from what I've heard it's much more roleplaying based and not so balanced.

[BobVosh]

WoT d20 is kinda fun. Bit OP on casters, if you can believe that.

Also wolfbrother is a class you can get into at 1st level, and is a PrC. Second level if you are willing to take 2 (or maybe 3)D6 madness.

Oh, and nothing in the setting can really threaten you at >8 level.

[Arros Winhadren]

And to stay on topic, I would say Mat isn't a rogue. Sure, he's a rogue in the personality sense, but giving him stuff like Sneak Attack doesn't make a whole lot of sense - he's not really a backstabber like the D&D rogue. I'd say go with inspiring Warlord from level 1 - High Dex and Cha and give him throwing daggers and a glaive. If you want the thievery skill, you could always just take the multiclass feat.

[NecroRebel]

I'd say Aes Sedai are mostly different classes depending on Ajah. Yellows are pretty certainly Clerics (healy powers), IMO, while Whites, Browns, and Blues are Wizards (most scholastic for the former 2, and most varied for the latter), and Greens and Reds are Warlocks (most battle-focused). Of course, nothing stops anyone from being in the "wrong" Ajah or class, and there are probably a lot of multiclass characters in the White Tower.

Most of the Asha'man are probably Swordmages and/or Warlocks; they're trained, almost exclusively, to be warriors, and heavily emphasize swordsmanship as well. Rand probably fits in here as well, though he's probably a multiclass Warlock/Swordmage.

Perrin is probably a Fighter, though his wolf-brother-ness is really quite hard to mimic in the rules. His personal abilities, though, mostly involve hitting things with a heavy piece of metal on a stick (whether sharpened or not) and keen senses. Extremely high STR, high WIS, training in Perception and Insight, and maybe Skill Focus in one or both of those should map most of what he can do reasonably well, and then just fit in the wolves with item or paragon path powers.

Mat is tricky. Early on, he focuses on light blades and skill, but after Rhuidian (sp?) he's a general. I'd say Taclord/Rogue, and just simply neglecting his Warlord abilities for the Rogue side until the Waste. Ashendarei is obviously a glaive, after all, and Warlords do well with reach weapons. He almost certainly has decent to high DEX, both for special polearm powers and light thrown weapon attacks, probably good STR, and incredibly high INT (his tactics are consistently stupidly successful, so yeah).

Lan is almost definately a Fighter/Ranger, combining excellent combat skills with equally excellent outdoorsmanship, so he's relatively easy to build. Just lots of skill training and combat-type powers.

I'd stat out Moraine as a Wizard/Warlock (maybe half-elf to delitantte some Cleric healing) due to her favor towards illusion and fire attacks, but unfortunately the channelers are relatively difficult to make.

Nyneave is probably a Cleric, straight up. Her talent with healing basically defines the character's skills, and Clerics get enough blasty-type spells that she can mimic her inbook exploits with them. She just has illegally-high Wisdom (as in in the 30s at level 1), which explains why all her powers are so strong, but pathetically low Charisma, which explains why she doesn't actually get anyone.

Egwene and Elayne are both probably straight-up Wizards. Neither seems to do so much blasting that it can't be described with that class, and they do a lot of utility stuff that other classes can't really match.

Birgitte is obviously an archer Ranger.

The assorted Aiel, aside from the Wise Women, are all Fighters, Rangers, Warlords, or some combination thereof. Wise Women, including Aviendha, are Clerics or Cleric/Wizards. The same is probably true of most non-Aes Sedai female channelers except damane, who are mostly Warlocks.

Um. Did I miss any major characters and/or groups? Obviously, I got on a bit of a roll here :smallredface::smallwink:

[Kizara]

There's a 3.0 WoT roleplaying game. I have the book for it, its pretty solid really.

It deals with channeling pretty well.


Just throwing that out there.