Birthday Post: Hybrid Classes Version 2 and Hybrid Character Update

A while ago, I posted about the 4e hybrid class rules, and a character that was using the rules. Today, I am going to review that character to show the changes in the new version. Comments are in italics.

Class	Starting HP	HP Gain/level	Healing Surges	Defense Bonuses
Paladin	7.5	3	5	+1 Will
Ranger	6	2.5	3	+1 Ref
Total	13.5	5.5	8	+1 Will +1 Ref
Rounded	13	5	8	+1 Will +1 Ref

Although It doesn't make much of a difference for this character, now the class' HP and healing surges are not yet rounded, possibly giving more HP and surges that the original system.


MacGuffin
Lvl 1 Human Paladin/Ranger
Str: 18 Con: 11 Dex: 12
Int: 8 Wis: 14 Cha: 14

AC: 18
Fort: 15
Ref: 13
Will: 14

HP: 24
Bloodied: 12
Healing Surges: 9
Surge Value: 6

Class Features:
Divine Challenge (hybrid, not as much damage)
Hunter's Quarry (hybrid, only works with ranger powers)

Powers:
At will: Holy Strike, Twin Strike, Valiant Strike
Encounter: Off-hand strike
Daily: On Pain of Death

Skills: Heal, Nature, Insight, Religion
Automatically learned skills seem to have been dropped from this version.
Feats: Hybrid Talent (Ranger fighting style: Two blade fighting style), Improved Initiative


There is not much change with this character, but I'd like to point out that the hybrid talent feat has had a lot up upgrading, it not has more restrictions and clear meanings. It's more restricting, but works better and is more balanced.

Items:
Hide armor
Broadsword x2
Adventurer's Kit


Well, there was not as much change as I had thought... Oh well, its my birthday, I can post a simple post if I want. Its a small update for my character, but there is a lot of new content. Expect more when they put it into the character builder.

Questions? Comments?

How To Go Over 200 MPH in 4e

I was bored the other day, I decided that I would make a character as fast as possible.

And dag, did I do it.


I start with the razorclaw shifter's base speed 6, made him a druid with the primal predator class feature, and went from there. I adjusted the character's stats to best work with the choices below, which gave me 18 dex (it wouldn't let me go any higher legally) and the rest didn't matter.

Base
razorclaw shifter speed: 6
Druid primal predator class feature: +1 speed

Feats
Bloodied fleetness: +1 speed while bloodied
Student of the plague (flame speed): +2 speed until end of next turn while running.
Fast runner: +2 speed while running
One of the speed feats (Hunting wolf form, fleet footed or both vampiric heritage and vampire alacrity): +1 speed

Powers
Razorclaw shifer racial power, Razorclaw shifting
Lvl 2 Utility Fleet pursuit
Lvl 22 Utility Sky talon
Lvl 29 daily attack Primal Archetype

Paragon path
Sky hunter- lvl 11 encounter attack blinding talons, Skyhunter's action.

Epic destiny
Prison of the winds- +2 speed bonus

Items
The Deluvian Hourglass- Time stop (lvl 22 wizard utility) get two standard actions from a minor.
Fleetrunner boots (epic tier)- when running, move +6 more than your speed, rather than +2.
Clockwork cowl (epic tier)- get two standard actions from a minor.
Fleet hero tattoo (epic tier) +3 bonus to speed until end of next turn when using action point.
Star opal ring (epic tier) +1 speed
Timeless tome + 6- time stop adds 3 standard actions instead of two.
Dagger- everyone knows you run faster with a knife out.


The base speed:
Race: 6
Class feature: +1
Speed feat: +1
Epic destiny: +2
Star Opal ring: +1
Fleet hero Tattoo: +3

Total base speed: 14 squares

Step one: get beaten half to death.
Bloodied fleetness: +1

Current total: 15 squares

Step two: during this encounter
Razorclaw Shifting- +2 speed until end of encounter
Fleet pursuit- until end of encounter, speed bonus equal to dex mod (+ 10 at 30th level)while in beast form.
Sky talon- until end of encounter, gain for that flies at your speed + 2.
Primal Archetype- until end of encounter, gain a +4 speed bonus while in beast form.

Current total: 33 squares

Step three: previous turn
Flamespeed: +1 speed, +2 while running until end of next turn.

Current total: 34 squares

Step four: Action point
Action point- extra action
Skyhunter's action- fly up to your speed before using action gained from action point. (move 34 squares)
Extra action blinding talons- move twice your speed, then attack. (move 68)

Total squares traveled: 102 squares

Step five: Run, don't walk
Running (with fleetrunner boots)- +6 squares
Fast Runner feat- +2 squares while running
Slame speed- extra +1 while running

Running speet total: 43

Step six: Items
The Deluvian hourglass (with Timeless tome +6)- use minor action to gain 3 standard actions.
Clockwork Cowl- Use minor (a Move in this case) action to gain 2 standard actions.

Actions total: 0 Minor actions, 0 Move actions, 6 Standard actions

Step Seven: Move it, move it.
Use 6 Standard actions as move actions (43 squares each, 43 * 6 = 258 squares)

Total squares traveled: 360


Step Eight: Calculate
360 squares * 5 ft/square = 1800 ft
1800 ft/6 seconds * 10 seconds = 18000 ft/minute
18000 ft/minute * 60 minutes = 1080000 ft/hour
1080000 ft/hour / 5280 ft/mi = 204.54545454... Mi/hour


If you can't read that, it says that he is moving at 204.5 miles per hour. 1800 feet in six seconds. I even calculated how fast you could go if you ran for a minute, it averages out to almost 60 mph.


Before you ask what the purpose of doing this is, its a mechanics experiment. When I started I was surprised to get as high as 70MPH.
So, other than that, what do you think? Did I miss anything? Can you do better? How?

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.

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.

Last Chance to Suggest Next APSC and a Bit More Divine Bard

First of all, some shout outs:
Thanks to Berin Kinsman (of Unclebear.com and the Phoenix RPG Examiner) and Oddyesy (of How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less) for posting about the APSC project on their sites.

Thanks to Greywulf (of Greywulf's Lair) made an awesome picture for my divine bard (and for putting up with me while we got it perfect):

(click for larger image)

Second, some changes to the character sheet I made. The updated version includes more things that I missed the first time and the additions from the previous bard post. Hopefully I got everything this time.

(Click for larger images)

And lastly, here is the last call for requests for the next alternate power source class. Once I get enough suggestions, I'll put up a poll to see what the most people want.
I think I know what I am going to do next, but if it seems like a lot of people want something else, I might go with that.

Current requests:
Arcane Paladin
Primal/Divine Warlock
Primal Ranger
Martial Barbarian
Primal Swordmage


Feel free to post your requests for the next APSC!

Actually, I DEMAND IT.

D&D Information Request

WotC seems to be more closely watching what information slips out nowadays. When 4e first came out good ol' Mikey let slip a few hints about the second player's handbook that set the 4e fanboys on a speculation rampage.

Why don't they do that anymore?

There is a lot inf info that they could give us peeks at, or just flat out tell us, and be none the worse. Here are some of the things that I would like to know or at least get a hint to.


Races and Classes
The reference at the top is referring to Mike Mearls letting slip the fist letters of the classes and races in the second players handbook. Playtest of races and classes is nice, but if they want us to really get excited about it, even though it is close to another year away is to let us guess what classes and races are going to appear. Sure, it might take the surprise out of it, but its fun. OH! Better yet! Create a riddle to tell us what the new class/race is, the more cryptic the better. Feel free to make the riddles seem to fit two races, anything to distract them from the edition 'wars'.

The release of the cover for the PHB3 was a good move, because now we have something to speculate about. Or, rather, we better know what to speculate about.


Power Sources
Since the only source of knowledge about the 4 3 yet unexplained power sources has now become decanonized, I don't know what to expect for them. This is one of the things that I would really like to know about, and not just because of my alternate power source class project. The addition of the primal ps added a lot of interesting backstory for the basic D&D setting.

I really hope that the Elemental power source is to the primordials as Divine PS is to the gods and Primal PS is to the nature spirits. Shadow may be linked to the shadowfel, or to something completely different. Psionic, the next power source to be added, seems to have some elements of 'ki' which is no longer one of the power sources.


Future Settings
D&D has a rich history of settings: Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Dragonlance, an insane number of homebrew settings and many other published ones that I may not even know of. WotC dangles a new setting for 4e just out of our reach, and makes references to several of the more famous settings. At least give us a hint as to what it is going to be!

Personally, I'm hoping for a 4e Spelljammer, but thats just me.


Do you guys think I did good? Should WotC give us some more speculation fuel? Do you think you know what the future races/classes/power source backstories are going to be? Please leave a comment!

Monster Manual 2 Monster Races and Ones That Could Have Been

I'm so happy! I got my monster manual 2 in the mail today (1. I'm writing this on Monday, 2. Yay, Amazon!) and I was a little disappointed at the monster races in the book. Not only were there only three of them, but they are notably weaker than the races in the first MM and considerably weaker than the ones from the PHBs, signaling that they really only want these races for NPCs.

New Monster Races in the MM2
Kenku-
Black feathered bird people, give unusually high bonus to flanking and aid another and have the ability to mimic sounds and voices.
I have been looking forward to the Kenku for a while, they have everything that their race needs to be kenku, but I would've liked another race feature or two. I wouldn't mind playing one though.

Duergar-
Dark dwarves, shoot out quills.
Kinda weird for my tastes... dark dwarves... with quills?

Bullywug-
Unnatural frog people that corrupt their swamp home, creates and aura that weakens enemies that spends a healing surge.
Be good for a laugh, but overall, not the greatest of options...


Races they should have had playable in the MM2
Gnolls- Could have had the updated stats for them.
Lizardfolk- Weren't these also in the first MM? Still no race stats!
Shadar-kai- Could also have their updates racial stats.
Spriggan- Corrupt gnomes are the only way to play gnomes! I would like to played one. : D

Races they could have had playable in the MM2
Centaur- Could have been really cool option, but the large size was too much of a turn off for WotC.
Drakkoth- Same as centaur.
Nothic- Crazy, one eyed 'humanoids'. would be VERY fun to play. : D
Phoelarch- Humanoids covered in fire, who burst into flames and are replaced by a medium sized phoenix when they die.
Slaad- Was in the first MM, could have many options... maybe in 'plane below'.
Troglodyte- Yet another one from the MM, evil, but could be playable.
Wood Woad- living trees that hate anyone that looks like they might remotely cut down a tree.
Xorn- Creepy, but it could be playable.

Races I would have liked in the MM2, but I'll let slide this time...
Angel- Too overpowered...
Barghest- Goblin shapeshifters, awesome, but overpowered...
Beholder- Floating eyeball of death, too overpowered...
Marut- "Maruts serve other entities as mercenaries or serve their own mysterious purposes." how does that not get racial stats? Well, they are immortals... Oh, and they fly...
Myconid- They only communicate by SPORES. Otherwise would be cool.
Warforged- Another chance for updated racial stats, but will probably be in the Eberron players guide.

Another thing
They could have slipped the Wilden into the MM2 and have more people playtest it...


Did I get everything? Do you dissagre with my opinion? Post a comment!

APSC: Ideas and Whats Next?

Well, I'd at least like to think that the posts about the divine bard are the cause for my sudden increase in visitors, and because of that I will definitely continue with the project. The only question is: whats next?

There are currently four power sources, and 17 classes in 4e (19 if you count playtest classes) and though not all combos make sense, there are still a lot of possibilities.

Here are some of the ideas that I like:
Divine: Bard (already done), Warlock, Druid, Sorcerer (as favored soul?), Swordmage
Martial: Monk, Barbarian
Primal: Warlock, Any divine class, Ranger, Bard, Swordmage
Arcane: Paladin, Ranger, Avenger, Invoker, Shaman

you may notice that I have no martial classes in that list other than the ranger, they might be possible to alter, but It would be quite difficult and I would like to put that off until I have more experience on this project.



To be honest, I am really happy with how the divine bard has turned out and I will be sure to post my playtest results when I finally get a chance to use it. Some people had trouble understanding WHY I was doing it, but I did get some support as well. I am still open to getting feedback on the mechanical changes and the fluff I wrote, and now I want you to tell me what you think would be good for the next focus of the project.

Do you like one of the ideas above? Do you think another one would be better? Convince me, and I might just do the one you want next!

APSC: 4e Divine Bard Additions

Note: Made slight tweaks to 'Harmonious Strike' that I neglected to add before. (5/22/09)

The divine bard (and the project in general) is an ongoing process, and I have some more to add to the divine bard today!

Power Adjustments
First of all, I can't believe I forgot to mention that the keyword 'arcane' needs to be changed to 'divine.'

Also, divine area powers tend to only affect enemies, while most of the bard's powers already do this, there are a few that need to be adjusted:

Players Handbook 2
Bard Attack 19 Irresistible Dance
Bard Attack 25 Vision Distortion

Arcane Power :
Bard Attack 9 Rain of Starlight
Bard Attack 9 Symphony of Misfortune
Bard Attack 19 Spring to Action


I decided that the divine bard needed a new at-will Power to make it stand out, I studied the divine classes' at wills to come up with something that fits both the divine PS and the bard. Then I realized that that is mostly fluff and I stole a power from the warlord and twisted it to my will... er... I made it fit the divine bard.

Bard Attack 1 Harmonious Strike
You Strike your foe, the sound of the weapon and your enemy's cry of anguish become the harmony of the battle, and you help your ally play the melody with radiant guidance.
At-Will: Divine, Weapon, Radiant
Standard Action Melee weapon
Target: One creature
Attack: Charisma vs. Fortitude
Hit: Deal radiant damage equal to your Charisma modifier, and then choose one ally adjacent to either you or the target. This ally applies your Wisdom modifier as a power bonus to the attack roll and the damage roll on his or her next attack against the target and add radiant to the damage type. If the ally does not attack the target by the end of his or her next turn, the bonus is lost.


Another thing that will make the divine bard stand out a lot more is its own bardic virtue. I am a little torn as to what to call it, either "Virtue of Faith" or "Virtue of Honor". For now it will be Honor.

Virtue of Honor
Once per encounter when an ally fails a saving throw, they can reroll it and add your wisdom modifier.


One last thing, divine classes tend to have radiant damage in their attacks. I would address this issue, but I would like to first talk to some of the other RPG bloggers to see if they have any ideas how to determine which attacks should get radiant damage.


More Fluff
divine bards and deities-
Avandra- Many bards are known to be advocates of chance taking, divine bards are no different. Many bards worship the god of chance, especially those who enjoy their freedoms and adventuring.
Bahamut- There are some divine bards that worship the platinum dragon, holding his domains of justice and honor in high regard.
Corellon- Many, many, divine bards worship Corellon, since they hold music and art in such high regard.
Erathis- There are not a lot of divine bards of Erathis, since her portfolio involves laws. Those that do rejoice in the organization of great cities and enjoy large audiences.
Ioun- Divine bards that seek knowledge often worship Ioun, and some are known to become great prophets. Those who worship Ioun tell great stories in song and poem form.
Kord- Those bards who long for battle, seek to tell tales of great warriors, or just wish to inspire an army worship Kord. Many battles have been turned by the presence of a divine bard of Kord.
Melora- Bards of Melora are inspired by nature and preserve it at all costs. Not all of her bards are divine, as many are primal.
Moradin-The deity common of dwarf bards and those who hold loyal to their family/clan/leaders/people to be immensely important.
Pelor- The sun god's bards favor warm, happy tunes, and tend to play for people in town squares to raise money for Pelor's local church. Some say that it is Pelor's large number of divine bards that make him as widely worshiped as he is.
Raven Queen- Few bards follow the path of the death goddess' blessings, but those that do commonly play at funerals, and other similar ceramonies. Many dirges heard late at night are attributed to the divine bards of the Raven Queen.
Sehanine- Though it is not common for a bard to hide in the shadows, some of the more playful trickster bards follow Sehanine. Elven bards compete for her blessings, and those that receive it are honored among their people.

Evil deities-
Though some of the other evil gods are known to make pacts with mortal musicians, Lolth and Tiamat have the most divine bards at their disposal, spreading their agendas among the bard's listeners.


There you go! I will eventually add these to the divine bard's other posts, or just repost everything in one larger, complete post.


So, What do you think of the new additions? Do you like them? Hate them? Think they are too overpowered? Too underpowered? Leave a comment and give me some feedback!

Power Source Theory

Just a quick post today, next time there will be more Divine Bard!


I have a theory, and to some extent it is based on a mix of 3.x and 4e D&D. Basically its that the Power Sources can be grouped into three different types: Given, Taken, and Self.


Given sources include Divine and Primal, and are granted to them by some other source such as a deity or nature.

Taken sources include Arcane, and are taken from their prospective planes, the universe itself, the mana flow, etc. without any being's consent.

Self sources include Martial and Psionic, and are from within the user, built up from training the body, mind and spirit.



I hope to add the future power sources to this list, Though I assume that Elemental will be a 'taken' and shadow may be a 'taken' or a 'self'.

Does that sound about right? Comment and put in your opinion. I dare ya!

APSC: 4e Divine Bard Fluff and Stuff

Warning: Rant ahead! if you are just here for the Divine bard fluff then scroll down until you see the word "Fluff" in bold letters.


For some reason, people seem to have trouble understanding the concept of this project: To alter existing classes to have different power sources. Hoping to achieve this by first adjusting the mechanics to change the way the class feels when played to match the new power source, then to add some fluff to fill in the gaps.

Maybe I should have done the fluff first, but the change of mechanics is mostly to support the fluff.

I started divine bard is because it is what inspired the project in the first place (if you look at this post there should be a link to The Hypertext d20 SRD, on that page is rules for the 3.x divine bard.), thought keep in mind that the project in question is bigger than just the bard.


If that is not the answer you are looking for: its just something interesting to do, give people more options.

Another Thing that is common among commenters is suggesting that I change the class' name to something else. trying to keep it still a bard, he casts magic through his music, just has a different power backing it. Ok?

What I am trying to get across: Still a bard! Just, not an arcane bard!



Fluff

Divine bard:
Any decent bard can move someone's emotions, but to truly move someone's soul, bring them to a state of euphoria or send them to the depths of deepest depression, they need that divine touch.

Whether by gaining your god's favor by prayer and devotion, trading your soul for the musical ability, or simply being picked out by your god, you were blessed with the ability to make music that truly touches people's souls, and even command the power of your god. Through hymns and songs of worship, you not only inspire belief in your god, but channel his power to attack your enemies.


The three methods of becoming a divine bard

The hard way: By prayer, worship, study, and devotion, you have gotten your god's attention and he finds you favorable to lead his worshipers. You joyfully spread the word of your god in your songs, and pull in new followers without the slightest effort.

The easy way: By dark rituals you have called a dark, evil god and traded your very soul to perform like no other, yet your music carries a silent taint of evil that few can sense. Your music is empty and joyless to you, and after a while you see it begin to spread evil ideas among listeners, as the dark god works through your instrument.

The random way: A god decides that you are the ideal candidate to become his musical champion, whether you want the gift or not. Your songs carry the god's message, even if the song is about a different subject, it can be as much a curse as a blessing if the god is not your favorite.


Of course, these are not the only methods, feel free to create your own. Nothing in D&D is set in stone, it is changeable.


Its not a lot, but what do you think of the fluff? one more post about the Divine Bard, then I'll see what to work on next.

No Goku, WOTC Doesn't Know About Ki

Divine bard fluff is postponed for this breaking news:

Monks don't use Ki.

In fact, Ki may not even be a power source any more.

And samurai? Not even a class anymore.

WHATS GOING ON!?!?


On the plus side, you can use the magic item ritual on your fists. YES. On your fists. I also created a new term: "minor psudo-class" for those feat-only multiclass options that they put into dragon magazine, such as the "bravo" and all of the gladiator weapon feats.



I glanced over the playtest for the monk, it seems interesting, but I require more research...



Also, could this be a hint at new classes in PHB3?
"Does it make sense to group witches, knights, jesters, and friars into one power source?"

APSC: 4e Divine Bard Character Sheet

I was kind of disappointed with the lack of replies to my previous post, but I decided that it needed something more visual to make it stand out more. So I present to you: Davyd the Divine Bard's Character Sheet and Power Cards!

Click to enlarge

You may have noticed that I also abbreviated "Alternate Power Source Class" to "APSC", but that's not terribly important.

What is important is that I get some more feedback on this. I can come up with plenty of ideas, but it helps to know if my ideas are any good. So please, give this and its explanation an honest critique.

Next I will work on A heap of fluff and a new At-will power for the divine bard, open to suggestions for that as well.

Alternate Power Source Class: 4e Divine Bard

Its what you have all been waiting for:

The first prototype for my alternate power source classes: The Divine Bard


I will go through each step, as to make it clear how to alter the power source, and hope to get as much feedback as possible. This build is inspired by a 3.x option found on this page.

Step one: Main Ability Scores
Bards typically have charisma as their main score and intelligence and constitution as secondary abilities. Divine classes have wisdom as one of their scores, usually the main one, but charisma is a vital part of the bard, so I would put wisdom in the place of intelligence, which is the common ability for arcane classes. Note: This is written for the builds in the PHB2. In Arcane Power several powers are added that use wisdom as a main score, if you are using Arcane Power, especially the virtue of prescience, then do not switch intelligence for wisdom, or use it at your (and your DM's) discretion.

Step two: Class Skills
Bards are known for their wide range of skills, so there is little to add. The only difference is that instead of arcana, religion is automatically trained, though arcana is still trainable.

Step three: Proficiencies
Divine classes do not seem to have enough of a theme to make a solid difference. The only change to be made would be the addition of holy symbols to their list of implements, and possibly the removal of wands.

Step four: Defense Bonuses
All of the divine classes get a bonus to fortitude, reflex, and will, except for the cleric, who only has will. The bard already has reflex and will, so for the sake of keeping it balanced nothing is changed in this category.

Step five: Class Features
This is what I think is the most difficult part of this, for fear that I would "unbalance" the class. I would like to make "Words of Friendship" into A Channel Divinity and add an altered version of the avenger's "Channel Divinity: Divine Guidance" where the trigger is a bloodied ally within range making an attack roll, change the requirements (obviously), and change the name to "Inspire Courage". This may be adding too much to the class without balancing it, but I guess I'll have to wait for some feedback to see.


Sample Character soon!

Well, there you have it! the first draft of the divine bard rules. Next, I have to refine it and get it just perfect, adjust the fluff to match, and then test it out if I can talk my DM into letting me. Please leave a comment, as I really would like input on this project.

Tomorrow: Alternate Power Source 4e Class (Beta)

No post today, sorry... But tomorrow's post will have the long awaited alternate power source class, Divine Bard!


Oh, and did you know that four months is the cheeseburger anniversary?

Err... Month-a-versery?

Ideamancy: Create but not control...

It is entirely possible that I have an overactive imagination. I come up with new ideas all the time, so many that I can't seem to work on all of them. but because I like to talk about them, here are some new ones:

Dokapon Table-top RPG
First- a little back story. It started when one of my favorite webcomics did a comic of a game I had never heard of before, Dokapon Kingdom. (and they also did a second comic) I looked the game up, and it seemed pretty interesting, a RPG mixed with a board game. The way the battles are played would work well with a D&D 4e core, as there are few attacks that you can do (you can have three at a time- attack, strike, and whatever magic you have at the time) and it could be quite interesting.
The reason I came up with this is that there is a DS game along the same lines called Dokapon Journey that I just found out about. Seriously, go check this game out, it is awesome.

Arcane Costs
The second idea is a group of possible class feature replacements for arcane characters (only 4e at this point) that gives the character a bonus and a penalty. The basic premise is that the character gave something up for his vast arcane powers, an eye or two, your constitution, etc.

possible costs:
Eye: - 5 perception, bonus to hit?
Both eyes: 1/2 arcana skill + 1/2 Lvl for perception checks, gain magic vision?
Health: Con score can be lower than 8, extra points gained this way go into main ability score.

these are just ideas at this stage, not in any way ready to be used.

Yet another setting: City of Chroma (tentative title)
A smaller than usual setting for me, only a city, but I think it is interesting. A city full of factions, each with their own distinguishing color. At this point, it seems that the faction is nothing more than what their belief system is, but somehow these people are connected.

White- The ruling faction, militaristic and order-centric verging on oppressive. Solders look kinda like Organization XIII members, but in white and with plate armor.

Red- Doesn't care who is in charge, will help anyone from another faction as long as they are not likely to be caught.

Blue- Doesn't care who s in charge as long as it does not inconvenience them.

Yellow- Doesn't care who is in charge, but will help whoever seems to be winning.

Brown- Lower class, taught to believe they have no influence, so they don't realize the power in their numbers.

Black- Rebels against the white faction, most hide amongst the other factions. Lead by the "Black Knight" who wears the same armor as the white soldiers, but black. There are actually several black knights, but few know this.


Well, that's what I'm coming up with lately, what do you think? If this post affects you in no other way, go look at Dokapon Kingdom. It's a lot of fun to play with friends.

Alternate Power Source Classes: Idea Forming

Well, I have not really mentioned it, but I'm on twitter. Apparently, so is Mike Mearls, one of the people that work on 4e. I got to talk to him yesterday, and I asked him what he thought of one of my ideas, and he said he thought it could be pretty interesting.

Geek out.

^^

He he he he he...


Right, so anyway, if you told one of the guys who made 4e that you are doing something cool for it, and pointed him at your blog, wouldn't you want to get on it right away?

Yeah, me too.

The idea is basically this: Find what makes a class fit into a certain power source (PS), in terms of crunch, extract its current PS and give it a new one. Easy, right? since I have been slowly pulling 4e apart piece by piece, I already have a good idea of many things, but the only PS that has some obvious feature that all users of that PS possess is Divine,with their channel divinity . Unless of course, I'm missing something. Well, I suppose there are implements, themes in their powers, and lack of range without a ranged weapon...

So here are some of the things I noticed and ideas for PS transplants.


Common main ability score
Divine - Wisdom
Martial- Strength (dexterity second)
Arcane- Intelligence (only 5 out of 6, Constitution second)
Primal- Constitution (wisdom, second)

Common skills
Divine - religion (all auto), diplomacy, intimidate, endurance, history, heal, insight.
Martial- intimidate, athletics, heal.
Arcane- arcana (all, almost all auto), history (all), diplomacy, insight, dungeoneering.
Primal- nature (all, almost all auto), endurance (all), athletics (all), heal (all), perception (all).

Common class features
Divine- Channel Divinity

Ideas for PS transplants
Divine- Bard, monk, warlock.
Martial- Monk, barbarian.
Arcane- none yet.
Primal- Warlock, Avenger.


Well, it's late... Is there anything that I missed? Do you have any questions/comments/criticisms/requests/etc.? Post a comment!

Optimized Characters: PHB1 Racial Traits Character Ideas

After my last post about optimized characters did so well (I broke my visits/day record!), I decided that I would expand on that and give some suggestions of what would be good optimized character to do based on a race's power and features. Here are the races of the first Player's Handbook:


Dragonborn
Dragon breath- A focus on area attacks or a certain element.
Dragonborn fury- Bonuses to attack rolls or bonuses while bloodied
Draconic heritage- Extra self healing.

Dwarf
Cast-Iron Stomach- Strong against poison.
Dwarven resilience- Self healing genius.
Dwarven WP- It's hammer time!
Encumbered speed- The party's pack mule.
Stand your ground- Stay where you are.

Eladrin
Eladrin Education- Skilled character.
Eladrin WP- Backup weapon.
Eladrin Will- Strong willed character.
Fey Step- Teleporter or just a very mobile character.

Elf
Elven WP- Use a bow and arrow!
Group Awareness- Bonuses to teammates.
Wild Step- Difficult terrain master.
Elven Accuracy- Try, try again.

Half-elf
Dilettante- Great for multiclassing characters or just to get an extra encounter attack.
Dual heritage- Get elf and human benefits.
Group Diplomacy- Group benefits, diplomatic group.

Halfling
Bold- Fearless character.
Nimble Reaction- Super dodger.
Second Chance- Super dodger.

Human
Bonus at-will/feat/skill- So many possibilities, can also benefit other character concepts (not other race's concepts though).
Human Defense Bonus- Tough character.

Tiefling
Blood hunt- Blood lusting character.
Fire Resistance- Flame centered or character that plays with fire.
Infernal Wrath- Vengeance, bonus to attacks.



I know that all of this could be thought up by anyone, but what I really wanted was to get your ideas flowing- what did I miss? Are there better ideas out there?