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D&D 4th Edition RulesAsk questions about 4th-Edition rules and the like in here. General discussion about 4E or any other game belongs in General RPG Discussion, above.
So, with all the info we have now, here are my thoughts on PHBII classes.
Bard, Barbarian, Druid, Sorcerer, and Shaman all seem like obvious guesses. (Some might be wrong, but I don't see any reason to guess against them.)
This leaves I, T, and W classes. One guess would be Theurge (as the more spell-oriented cleric), Inquisitor (as the "deadly and dangerous" striker), and then W as another Primal class, to give us 4 Primal, 2 Arcane, and 2 Divine. Count the first 5 as old classes or concepts revived and the last three as entirely new, and everything seems to work out - except that there are no Psionics, which the Rouse seemed to imply were in.
If we assume Psionics are in, it seems fair to assume they'll have at least two classes representing them. So the I, T, and W need to cover a spell-oriented cleric type, a "deadly and dangerous" Psionic striker, and another Psionic class. Telepath seems like a possibility, though it might count as an old concept revived - maybe Shaman doesn't?
Like a few other classes, the 4E wizard has a narrower range of power options than the 3rd Edition wizard. Some of these powers are coming later (summoning and illusions, for example), while others simply aren’t appropriate for the character role.
Does not imply they will necessarily create new classes. It could imply they'll just add new powers to the wizard's selection.
So, with all the info we have now, here are my thoughts on PHBII classes.
Bard, Barbarian, Druid, Sorcerer, and Shaman all seem like obvious guesses. (Some might be wrong, but I don't see any reason to guess against them.)
This leaves I, T, and W classes. One guess would be Theurge (as the more spell-oriented cleric), Inquisitor (as the "deadly and dangerous" striker), and then W as another Primal class, to give us 4 Primal, 2 Arcane, and 2 Divine. Count the first 5 as old classes or concepts revived and the last three as entirely new, and everything seems to work out - except that there are no Psionics, which the Rouse seemed to imply were in.
If we assume Psionics are in, it seems fair to assume they'll have at least two classes representing them. So the I, T, and W need to cover a spell-oriented cleric type, a "deadly and dangerous" Psionic striker, and another Psionic class. Telepath seems like a possibility, though it might count as an old concept revived - maybe Shaman doesn't?
In my heavily houseruled game, the Monk killed the Psychic Warrior and took his stuff, losing some monkish stuff in the process.
Wow, that sounds cool. I never thought of that kind of combo. Any chance of you posting your houseruled monk? If not that's cool. I'll have to make a go of it myself. Thanks for the inspiration!
Edited the first post to add a mention that in spite of the Rouse's comments earlier, there doesn't seem to be any material from future products in the released SRD.
Added info on upcoming races. Specifically, mentioned Drow and Genasi in the Forgotten Realm's players guide, and added:
The Manual of the Planes will include a playable race (source), done as a Monster Manual style writeup (source).
One race in the PHB2 starts with Gn. Others start with D, G, H, and S, and have second letters O, E, and H, and one has the final letter R (source, source).
One race in the PHB2 starts with Gn. Others start with D, G, H, and S, and have second letters O, E, and H, and one has the final letter R (source, source).
I'm going to go ahead and share my guesses on these. First off, I'm assuming that there are, in fact, only five races, even though that's not stated. I'm not assuming the race with the final letter R is a different race from those with a given second letter. That would be reasonable, but I can't get it to work out as well.
Gnome, Half-Orc, Goblin, Doppleganger, Shifter. I expect there would be multiple types of Shifter detailed. If there were four, that would give the PHB2 the same number of races and classes as the original PHB.
Another possibility, if the final R is from a different races than the given second letters, is Gnome, Hobgoblin, Genasi, Doppleganger, Shifter. While Genasi is in the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide, it could easily not be a repeat - Genasi (at least in 3rd edition) isn't actually a single race, so they could easily divide the varieties between the two books. Also, since 4e moves away from the four classic elements, they could add new types.
I'm posting not to add stuff but to support what your doing and hope you keep going with it. I think your doing an excellent job representing the best these messageboards can be.
I seem to remember the developers having mentioned a re-imagined Aasimar race, so maybe they got a new name along the way? The only old races I can think of with e as the second letter are the Deep/Desert races, Kenku, Mephlings, and Centaurs so it's probably a new race.
If the Eberron Players' Handbook has only two races then it'll probably be Warforged and Kalashtar. That would leave both Dopplegangers and Shifters for PHB II, though if it has 3 then maybe Shadar-kai will show up?
I can't imagine that Genasi will show up again, and I think Shifters will end up in the Eberron book since their background is important to Eberron's history. So my guesses based on what we've heard: Gnome, Shadar-kai, Half-orc, Doppleganger, and a new race starting with Ge. If Shadar-kai are saved for the handbook with the Shadow power source then replace them with Shifters.
Last edited by Lurker59; 20th June 2008 at 03:27 AM..
I think you're close. My guess is Gnome, Half-something (probably orc), Gensai, Drow, and Shifter. I don't think they'd put both Doppleganger and Shifter together - they're too similar. Then again, they put Elves, Eladrin, and Half-Elves in the PHB, so I could be wrong.
But I think the Forgotten Realms will just be extra detailing of those races - I think the primary will still be PHB2. And most of those are really popular races that people really want to be. The only other option to me is that the "G" would be the githzs and githys, but then they'd have to do both.
Oh, except the "don't be evil" mantra of the PHB. Maybe Drow is out, then. Unless they're all secretly-good-inside rebels with an emo streak, similar to a certain D we all know...
(Actually, with the exception of the gnomes, all of those races are typically evil, or at least evil leaning...)
Gn is gnome.
G + o is goliath.
D + e is deva, which is the renamed aasimar.
S + h and r is shifter, I think MM is getting tricky with us.
H is half-orc.
For the classes:
B and B are barbarian and bard.
D is druid.
S and S and definitely sorcerer and most likely shaman.
T is probably theurge, given that a divine controller is practically given.
I is inquisitor, given that they want to fill out the divine classes.
W is most likely a primal class, either witch or warden. If the druid is primarily a conroller type, I'm going with warden, if not, witch.
__________________ Howndawg
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My PHBII class list: Barbarian, Bard, Druid, Inquisitor, Shaman, Sorcerer, Theurge, and Warden.
No idea, about races, but here's my take on classes.
I agree with most people on some:
B and B are barbarian (primal) and bard (arcane).
D is clearly druid (primal).
The most likely W, I think, is "witch," a primal controller.
T is, I'm thinking, Theurge, as others have said: a divine controller.
I'd say one "S" is probably Sorcerer. It was mentioned in Races and Classes, and it's probably arcane.
My bet on the others:
"S" is Shadowcaster - a new take on Ari's work for Tome of Magic.
"I" is Illusionist.
So now we have some extra "old power sources" - one arcane and one divine, and two new power sources: Primal and Shadow.
3 primal
2 shadow
2 arcane
1 divine
That almost matches the PHB in format. Then PHB 3 can give us a couple more from earlier sources and introduce one or two new ones, like Ki, Psionics, or Elemental.
...Skadoosh! 
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