Tuesday, May 26, 2009

APSC: Answering Some Questions

I love comments, I really do. Lets me know that people actually do read my blog. And I also love feedback, especially feedback that I am looking (and asking) for. One of my frequent commentators, Shinobicow of Charisma 4 (also known as 'The Dump Stat'), commented some questions that I had thought about but had not sorted out completely.
Blogger shinobicow said...

Hmmm... the APSC is hard thing for me to wrap my head around. I like what you did with the divine bard. The thing is a lot of the other ideas that you have for the next one all seem to have alternates which seem to match up.

The Arcane Paladin seems to me a lot like a swordmage if you don't want to mess with its combat role.

The Primal Warlock seems to me to be a lot like a striker shaman, which seems really cool. A divine warlock just seems like an avenger with range.

The martial barbarian seems like a bit too easy of a choice to be honest. That one doesn't seem like it would be too hard, mostly since previous editions of the barbarian played out to be way more like a fighter than a primal warrior.

But, i guess it all comes down to you. Once again, i like what you did with the divine bard. Maybe you should play around with the bard some more and do a primal version or a martial version, either of which i think would be cool since the Bard is really the biggest virtuoso out there and likes to jump around in power sources throughout the different editions and based on what powers he's using.

Keep up the good work.

May 24, 2009 9:20 AM


ok, lets go through these one at a time.

Arcane paladin/fighter too similar to swordmage- A heavily armored chap who channels magic through his weapon. Yes, it sounds just like the Swordmage. Just because they are similar in fluff, they will still play differently. A fighter will have his weapon talent, a paladin will have his Arcane Challenge, a considerably reflavored lay on hands, and have his channel divinities compressed into just arcane strength, which will all be different from the Swordmage's Aegis. Not to mention that they would all still have different powers.

In terms of fluff, the arcane paladin will differ from the swordmage in that it will be more of a protector. Still being a paladin, he still has his code of honor and devotion to his cause, of course, his code and cause might be different. Parhaps he is a part of some order, sworn to fight necromancy or inhumane magical experaments, or sworn to protect an Arcane school of magic. As for the arcane fighter, I dont have any ideas yet.


Primal/divine warlock- The warlock is an interesting case, as it could have very simple changes or very complicated ones. It could work with a change in it's main abilities and slight reflavoring, or I could change it even more than the divine bard. The basic idea I have for the simple version is to reflavor the pacts to match the new power source. Fey pact would become the primal warlock's focus, and the divine warlock would include the star, infernal and possibly even the dark pacts.


Martial barbarian too easy - YES! : D Which is why I love the idea! I'll probably will just fit into the same post as the simple versions of the divine/primal warlock. Truth be told, I feel that the barbarian better fits the martial power source than the primal At least it would better match the feel of the 3.x barbarian, which is also a reason I want to make a primal ranger.


More bard- primal bard I already had in mind for some later date, but martial too? hmm... It seems that it might be possible... If anyone, the bard could pull off any power source, and possible even multiple power sources. How does that sound? Mutliple power source bard.

Yeah, I just got chills.

4 comments:

Greg(ory) Senpai said...

Thanks for the plug! I appreciate the support over in my little neck of the woods.

As per your ideas and elaboration, here are some new comments i had.

Basically, the problem that exists is there is already a Role/Power Source that exists in each of the classes and thus, reflavoring has to really make it stand out. The divine bard did this well. I think, now that i see your ideas for the arcane paladin that this could work out really well. If you don't take away his ability to wear full plate (which i don't think you will), the character could be really cool. A reflavored arcane lay on hands and arcane challenge seem like good ideas to me.

I think the primal warlock's awesomeness is growing on me a lot! The fey-pact-is-central idea is good, but i could see some awesome homebrewed pacts which are also awesome. With the deniable possibility of an elemental power source, you might want to think about an elemental pact made especially by you for some cool new mechanical goodness (though i'm not sure that is on your list stuff you want to do with this).

The Martial Barbarian is, well... perfect. It works out just fine and i think that with a little fluffy readjustment that it would obviously fit right into the entire framework of a Barbarians ideal world. This even makes feat choices so much simpler because otherwise you have to MC to take advantage of martial only feets.

Well, i'll be in touch.

Jennifer L. Post said...

I'm sure this is not helpful at all... but reading the fluffy stuff about the Arcane Paladin totally made me think of the three gods of magic in Dragonlance...

I don't think they have a Dragonlance setting for 4e though. And besides, I think that would make it a Divine Arcane Paladin... yes? XD

Erik Billeci said...

To me the biggest thing I am looking forward to is the Arcane Paladin. As I discussed with you, the fluff is mondo important to this character. It could be complicated, but it could be simple. A band of people who learned to channel arcana to fend off an oncoming religious crusade, or maybe they are just athiests. However, the fluff is mondo important.

Other than that, a martial bard reminds me of a metal rocker. Smashing guitars on stage (or over an orc's head). I can't really imagine where they would fit in singing wise however... And with the guitar smashing idea, you may need to create a new class of weapons. I dunno...

MacGuffen said...

whoops, taking forever to reply to comments...

@shinobicow- No problem! The arcane paladin will be more of a (divine) challenge than the divine bard to refluff, because the fluff for the bard was already mostly there.

@Jennifer- I actually don't know a whole lot about Dragonlance. Now I have to look it up...

@Erik- Martial bard may be the first conversion to martial PS, and I think the singing fits fine. It doesn't take magic to inspire someone, especially when you have music.