If you want people to use a wide variety of weaponry in the course of their duties, it is imperative that weapons have a wide variety of variables. The lesson of the 4e weapon system is that a reductionist set of weapon modifiers leads to a reductionist set of weapon uses. People pretty much use Longswords until they invest in the ability to use Bastard Swords. And this is because +1 to-hit is simply worth more than the other powers that weapons get (such as +1 damage). If you want people to use a flail or a morningstar sometimes, you're going to have to have a more complex set of weapon bonuses.
But be that as it may, there is I think a method of rule accumulation that should be followed in order to get the outcomes we're looking for. Namely that fixed options should be settled on first and the variable choices that are supposed to be compatible with those written in later.
What that means is that you've got Tieflings and you've got Gnomes. Tieflings are
Cruel and Gnomes are
Creative. And that's fine. But you've got a bunch of different kinds of Bards. So when you're making sure that Tieflings and Gnomes can both be good Bards, it makes more sense to start with the powers of being a Tiefling or a Gnome and
then write in the Bard Powers on top of that so that they can definitely use either one. And subclasses goes even farther. A subclass doesn't change depending upon what the choices you made in your base class, so it's actually much harder to change how a Subclass works to accommodate the needs of Bards than it is to change
one path of Bard to accommodate the needs of that subclass.
The goal ultimately is that every basic race/class/subclass combination
can be made in a viable fashion. Not that every possible selection needs to be good. But merely that if a new player looks at the top level options; that they can have a viable character made for them using those options by the players who are familiar with the game. Being an
unarmored Paladin subHero doesn't have to be a viable option, but being
some kind of Paladin subHero has to be a viable option.
This is why I think the step is to consider the progressions of the subclasses
first and then build up to the full classes
afterward. Very basically, I see the 13 core classes broken into three groups, which in turn allows us to make and test a different path to work in each of those limited cases. So when we write the Darkness Warlock we can be writing that from the standpoint of a Group II class matchup. So we test the Darkness Warlock as a concept subbed with Bard, Druid, Necromancer, and Psion. It would of course be
nice if being a Darkness Warlock subbed Elementalist or Monk well too - but we don't honestly care. We are actually
testing the Lightning Warlock through Group I and the Fire Warlock through Group III. So ideally, we'll be able to say with confidence that the Darkness, Lightning, and Fire Warlock are all playable, and that a Warlock/subPaladin and a Warlock/subArtificer or whatever are all playable as well. We can't possibly test every possible combination, but by making these representative samples workable, we can have a handleable
math problem. And at the end of the day we can pronounce the minimal case that a new player can select any of the basic options and not have the other players shake their head and ask them to pick again.
Group I:- Gish
- Hero
- Monk
- Paladin
- Ranger
Group II:- Bard
- Druid
- Necromancer
- Psion
Group III:- Artificer
- Elementalist
- Rogue
- Warlock
But anyway, back to Race. I figure that each racial ability set should include 3 powers:
- One "action" power that affects your attacks or something. Maybe Elven Agility lets you call for an Agile Strike that gets to roll two attack rolls and keep the better one, while Drow Treachery gives you Treacherous Strike that lets you grab combat advantage for no reason on an action.
- One "tactical" power that affects movement or defenses. Drow get Treacherous Tactics that let them switch places with an ally, while Gith get a Phasing Leap where they get to teleport instead of moving normally.
- One "utility" power that affects Skill Challenges. This doesn't affect class balance much at all, so it can actually be deferred. As long as you remember to actually do it and not defer it until a few days before publication like 4e's Skill Challenge rules.
So these abilities should all be very open and functional with whatever class you happen to be. If you're an Elementalist subArtificer you are probably a vulnerable cloth wearer who wants to stay out of melee. And if you're a Monk subPaladin you're almost certainly a brawler who wants to get all up in there and soak things. But either one could benefit from the Drow tactical ability by swapping the cloth wearing nuker out of close combat and the metal gauntletted brawler
into close combat.
But that ability set should probably be concepted before making the subclasses, and the subclasses should be pretty nailed down before the paths of the main classes get much more than names.
-Username17
