Is class creation. Gone are the days when you just slap a BAB progression on to a spell list and a few nifty powers. Voila, instant class. 4e is proving to be a real chore. Speaking cynically for a second, does anyone think that the new feature-heavy classes some evil plot by WotC to keep people buying sourcebooks? Making classes is time-intensive enough that I think it will dramatically lessen the amount of homebrew classes we see.
Speaking realistically of course, I know that there is no big conspiracy on WotC’s end. But man, things could have been made a little easier on a poor homebrew GM’s soul. I created an Access application just to facilitate all the data entry that I’m going to have to do ( I’ll gladly share this if anyone expresses an interest in it). Building interesting choices for the player that balance with the current crop of classes is a proper challenge, but I am enjoying it despite my complaints. I feel that building the mindwitch is getting me more in tune with the guts of the system. I’ve got some playtesters in RL lined up, and that’s when the fun process begins. I’ve already made some changes to the powers based on excellent feedback I’ve recieved in the first mindwitch thread, and getting live feedback will be critical for making something that DMs and PCs can actually use.
All this to say, work on the Mindwitch is going well. Thanks for everyone that’s commented so far, I expect to have more powers this week!
Oh, and welcome back from GenCon, those who went.
Similar Posts:
- New Class: The Mindwitch, levels 1-3
- Why WotC is laughing at me: Divine Challenge and the importance of feedback.
- The powers A-list
A Jack of All Trades ,or if you prefer, an extreme example of multi-classing, Gamefiend, a.k.a Quinn Murphy has been discussing, playing and designing games straight out of the womb. He is the owner and Editor-in-Chief of this site in addition to being an aspiring game designer. As you would assume, he is a huge fan of 4e.
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I agree with you whole heartily. In general it seems everythign was designed against customization of the game.
Was it intentional? No idea. If the suits had there way ot would be impossible to do custom anything. But the R&D and testers I feel confident enough don’t think like that and were just copying from WoW (and whatever other MMOs they liked) whixh by nature isn’t customizable (excluding hacks)
Welcome Joey!
I definitely don’t think that the black-boxedness of 4e is intentional , but every once in awhile I have to put on my tin-foil hat. It was a birthday present, I tell you!
This lack of flexibility for customization is also a strength in terms of ease of use. You just pick up what you need, and everything’s already been packaged up and ready for you to use. In 4th edition you spend a lot less time looking for obscure feat/spell synergies.
Ultimately, I think it’s just a matter of compromises that were made into the system. It’s not good or bad, it just…is.
In 3.5, we did the majority of our homebrew world class-building through PrCs. We did have a few original base classes, but I imagine now with the look towards grouping classes, and making sure that no one gets marginalized during gameplay, that creating original classes is going to be more difficult. But couldn’t you come up with original concepts through paragon paths and epic destinies? Or, for that matter, grouped suites of original powers.
I for one would love to see that Access app.
Class creation is harder in 4e for most classes, because it’s similar to creating a 3e spellcasting class (that doesn’t just use another class’s spells): you have to create all of the powers. 4e powers are easier than 3e spells to create, though, IMO.
I have to definitely agree with you on this. We haven’t really tried to do it much in 4e, but that did come to mind while reading the books.
Class creation is harder, but now you can make “new spells” for any class. (they might be called powers or exploits or something else)
Or even new groups of powers to do something like make a new warlock pact type — which would be pretty similar to making a PrC in 3.5.
So while one door is closed (DC30 design skill check to break down), another is opened (DC5 spot, er, perception check).
@Tezrak. Yeah, paragon classes are definitely a light way of doing class mods, but I have these strange disease where I have to do everything the hard way
@Scott. Sure thing. I need to clean it up and add a few features, but getting that publically accessible is certainly on my todo list. Are people using 2007 these days mostly, or should I go for a 2003 version?
@Geek Gazette – welcome! I find thus far that all the great stuff in 4e far outweighs any customization gripes. But it is fun for to kvetch!
@Stripes -what warlock pact would you make if you were to make one? And of course…welcome!
Geeze, I’m not sure what warlock pact I would make. However the Dragon’s FR preview had a “Dark Pact”, and it was really just a new pact power (I think a damage bonus, or directed damage or something), and then some CON based Warlock powers that hurt your enemy extra if you hurt your friends.
It didn’t look like it was any more complex then doing a 3.5 class, so long as it was a class with at least a feature every other level or so.
Let’s see, there is a Fey-pact, Dark-pact, Star(Cuthulu)-Pact, and a Daemon-pact already. So there could be room for a pact with a dragon, or with an elemental maybe, hmmmm, a Djinn. Not sure what kind of “flavors” they would entail though.
I havn’t played a warlock long enough to get a good feel for it (I had a dwarf warlock with a pact with a daemon, if he brought the deamon 1000 souls he would get his own back, but I had to give him up after one game because the party had way way too many strikers, no defenders, no controlers). So I’m not real clear on what would make for a “diffrent” Warlock.
More interesting would be a new passel of Rogue powers. Not because I have any great ones in mind, but because we have seen new Wizard powers, new Warlock powers and that is it. In 3.5 we saw lots of new spells, so everyone understands that spell classes can get “more stuff” pretty easy. In 4.0 any class could get a few new powers, so it would be interesting to see a non-spell using class get a few new power choices.
Some very interesting thoughts. One of the things I’ll be working on with At-Will are some more powers. I’ll look at Rogue Powers first. I have some cool ideas for fighter poewrs as well.