Compiled info on upcoming classes & races

[Larrin]

Originally Posted by andarilhor

.... the [inquisitor] will be a high damage against specific creatures (undeads, demons) or will be something like a striker/leader.

I'm betting they won't go overly specific for what types of creature a striker is good against. If you want a character to deal extra damage to undead, give him radiant damage, but don't force him to go looking for undead and deamons to fight in order to fill his role. He may have one or two powers (a la turn undead) the specifically targets a type, but that (hopefully) will never be a main schtick.

I also hope for the inquisitor...and i hope they don't go stereo typical "Witch hunting/spanish inquisitor Lawful Evil in the name of Good" in the description. I think they should be field agents of the church...eyes and ears of the church and when needed, the fiery holy scalpel, (a nice counterpoint in millitary might to the paladin) but they should uphold ALL of their deities ideals. Paladins of Bahamut should be upright and just in their questionings, they want the truth. Once they have the truth, the gloves are off of course. An inquisitor of an evil god has free liscence to be as corrupt as he wants. I think a good term for their striker bonus damage would be 'censure'....

[GMforPowergamers]

I don't know how everyone missed it...or if I am missing the link somewhere...but there is a new power for artificer in the character builder. It is an @will so I am assumeing it will lead to info o other builds...it is called Magic weapon...an extra bonus to hit basic attack fuiled by INT with ranged or melee weapons...

[WalterKovacs]

Originally Posted by GMforPowergamers

I don't know how everyone missed it...or if I am missing the link somewhere...but there is a new power for artificer in the character builder. It is an @will so I am assumeing it will lead to info o other builds...it is called Magic weapon...an extra bonus to hit basic attack fuiled by INT with ranged or melee weapons...

Seems like they are addressing the "human" problem from what they put up ... which means they will probably do the same thing once they add the bard. The barbarian, since it seems to follow the Rogue/Ranger/Warlord ibuild type [2 neutral at-wills, 1 specific at-will for each build] were able to include 3 at-wills in case of human PCs, as opposed to the paladin/cleric concept where you have 2 at-wills per build and thus showing 1 build means showing only 2 at-wills.

[Vass]

Originally Posted by FitzTheRuke

For the record, there were european monks who were fighting men as well as asian ones.

Fitz

Yeah, the most notorious of which were called the Knights Templar. :P
In D&D they have been traditionally been tied to the Cleric and Paladin classes since the olde days.

[Vael]

Well, according to this, the remaining two classes for the PH2 are the Invoker and the Avenger, likely a Divine Controller and Striker, respectively. The Avenger was probably originally called the Templar, giving us our "T" class, but was since renamed.

[andarilhor]

Originally Posted by Vael

Well, according to this, the remaining two classes for the PH2 are the Invoker and the Avenger, likely a Divine Controller and Striker, respectively. The Avenger was probably originally called the Templar, giving us our "T" class, but was since renamed.

That is a surprise!

Possibly the Templar will appear in the Dark Sun Players Guide

And I bet Inquisitor and Theurge will not be waisted either... or they will become classes (official or not) or paragon paths...

[andarilhor]

The december wizards editorial shows the druid and the invoker as playtests articles in Dragon#370.

[andarilhor]

The playtest of the druid is online: D&D Druid, Levels 1-3
It´s free, but do not deliver the announced 3rd level powers.

[Vayden]

Originally Posted by andarilhor

The playtest of the druid is online: D&D Druid, Levels 1-3
It´s free, but do not deliver the announced 3rd level powers.

For those who don't have insider, it's a Primal Controller, with an at-will toggle called Wild Shape that lets it switch back and forth between ranged area attacks and melee attacks.

**edit - nevermind, it wasn't Insider. **

[CapnZapp]

Is it just me being blind, or aren't the playtest links (bard, druid etc) in the first post?

[Ondo]

So finally updating the OP again, after almost two months.

Biggest change is that all the PHB2 classes are known and confirmed by Amazon listing the power cards for each class. So replaced this:

Barbarians, Bards, Druids, and Sorcerers are all confirmed for the PHB2 (source, source). We also know:

with this:

The classes included are the Avenger, Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Invoker, Shaman, Sorcerer, and Warden (source). We also know these tidbits about the classes:

Removed this:

• The other classes start with W, I, T, and S (source).
• Discussing the classes: "Three are completely and utterly new. The rest are either classes or old concepts revisited." (source)

Added guesses as to which class is being referred to to each of the tidbits - spellcaster-y cleric is probably the Invoker, deadly Striker is probably the Avenger, Leader with buddy is probably the Shaman.
Added this:

[*]One of the classes is a Defender (source). (Probably the Warden.)

Removed this:

Wizards has no plans to reprint races and classes in the Forgotten Realm's Player's Guide in the PHB2 (source).

Also some other new stuff. Added the following:

The primal power source has a theme of transformation (source).

Avenger
The Avenger will be in the Player's Handbook II.

There is a bard preview here (D&D Insider only).

Invoker
The Invoker will be in the Player's Handbook II.

For the Druid, replaced this:

Significant Druid info here. (Link is dead, as it was to a Gleemax blog. Anyone know of a new place to get the info?) A later interview here suggests that the hybrid version may not have made it past playtesting.

with this:

There is a druid preview here (D&D Insider only).

Also did some cleaning, removing the following:

I'm not repeating most info that was in Races & Classes, at least for now.

Martial Power will not include any new classes.

D&D Insider
Dragon will reveal new classes and races in playtest mode before they appear in a future Player's Handbook (source).

Rich Baker hopes to have Half-Orcs on DDi pretty soon after the Player's Handbook hits (source; note this is from January). He expects to see at least a couple of returning classes (Barbarian, Druid, Bard, Sorcerer) on DDi by this summer (source); later he guesses we might see Bard or Druid by late summer or early fall (source).

Wizards has plans to release an annual "Best of" compendium each year (source).

[Ondo]

A few things I forgot: added a note to the Shaman that it will be in Player's Handbook II, and added this:

Warden
The Warden is one of the suggested classes for a Minotaur (source, D&D Insider only), so it presumably benefits from Strength and/or Constitution. It will be in the Player's Handbook II.

[Aust Diamondew]

Originally Posted by FitzTheRuke

For the record, there were european monks who were fighting men as well as asian ones. The asian ones just spark the imagination better.

Fitz

Don't paladin, cleric and fighter largely cover the European Warrior Monk?

At least those are the classes I'd imagine your typical Knight Templar, Teutonic Knight or Hospitllar belonging to. Cleric and paladin fit particuarly well in a fantasy setting.

[Ondo]

One more brief update - added a note to the Avenger and Invoker that they are Divine classes, as the blurb for Divine Power in Wizard's catalog (here) mentions them both.

[fissionessence]

The bladeling has racial stats in MoP. Not sure if it's a PHB- or MM-style writeup, nor what the legality will be for LFR.

Source: Manual of the Planes: Arriving Tomorrow!!! - Page 4 - RPGnet Forums

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edit: The MoP table of contents previewed today shows 'Bladeling Characters' on page 117.