EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Well, first of all, I got rid of 'Arcane' as a power source. All arcane means is "something not widely known, obtuse, secret, or mysterious", so it IS NOT A POWER SOURCE (what would it be, the power of ignorance?). The real reason is it is just nebulous and unbounded and thus consumes all else. I have Elemental, Spirit, Martial, Shadow, and Nature. I don't really care about psionics, and hadn't thought of it particularly as an M:tG color analog, but I guess I don't have an issue with that. Other games have done the same sort of thing, and it didn't start with M:tG either. I might consider calling Martial 'Ki', and just limiting it to the more internalized aspects of that. Warrior themes can then pull from that, for say a fighter-like concept where you do studly combat stuff. Martial works though, but I consider it a bit more fantastic than most people would.
All "Paladin" means is "someone from the palace," so I'm afraid etymological arguments don't really sway me. Now, to be fair, my "Arcane" is MUCH more elemental than usual. But it needs to include the Sorcerer (Arcane Warrior), Wizard (Arcane Sage), and Bard (Arcane Trickster)--and I don't really consider the Bard an "elemental" caster. I suppose you could fluff it as thunder, 'the fire within' and such, but that pushes "elemental" to the point of meaninglessness, so I don't really care. It seems pretty clear to me that your Elemental is (more or less) equivalent to my Arcana, Spirit::Radiant, and the rest are identical.
I struggled with the name "Martial" myself. Originally I called it "Body." I definitely want to break away from the "modern" perception that Pure Skill, Grit, And Muscle cannot be supernatural in nature or effect. Hercules is a Martial hero--the fact that he has god-blood in his veins is only a plot-relevant thing, it doesn't give him his powers, not in the way dragon blood gives a (3e/4e/5e) Sorcerer powers. His Awesome Strength gives him powers. Hence why, in my previous post, I noted that the Warlord/Tactician/Captain/etc. has preternatural strategy, tactics that go beyond what Mere Mortals can do. Odysseus, despite not having any godly blood (IIRC?) would be just as epic as Hercules--but as a Warlord/whatever, for he was Ulixes sapientissimus Graecorum. I hesitate to use "Ki" because...well, it communicates an implicit wuxia tone that is not always welcome.
In my theory the 3 classes aren't tied to either roles or power sources directly. Instead that falls to themes. So the 'Paladin' would be a Spiritual weapon user, probably of the warrior class. A more mystical paladin might choose to be a mystic (and that could work out similarly to the 4e chaladin or something closer to the STR cleric maybe). I thought of a Shadow Trickster as being an illusionist. Maybe a Nature trickster would be a bard, more like the old 1e bard and less like the later wizard-lite versions.
With my (proposed, unwritten) system, as stated, the Bard would be the Arcane Trickster. My Nature Trickster is the Ranger, who uses traps, terrain, and animal companions to harry enemies and coordinate with allies. I've already described the Assassin (Shadow Trickster) and WarTaCaptain (Martial Trickster); the only remaining one is the Radiant Trickster, the Avenger, who works kinda-sorta-ish like the opposite of an Assassin, personally harrying foes and, in so doing, leaving them open for their allies to strike.
For someone who wanted to be....a "more mystical Paladin," well, I'd just say "be a Priest (Radiant Sage)," or possibly pick up a little bit of support-heavy stuff. TBH though I don't really get the impulse to be a "more mystical Paladin." Like...that's like saying I want to be a more science-y "pure mathematician"; if you want to be a science-y pure mathematician, do theoretical science, or comp sci, or something like that--don't try to take a borderline-philosophy discipline like pure math and casually inject some empiricism into it.
The other thing that enters the discussion here is going back to my concept of boons as advancement. I don't care that much about 'gaming the system' so to speak. At least not in the 4e-esque way. I WANT all the pieces to play together. The GM is going to be the one dishing out boons according to narrative. The intent is that 'build science' just doesn't exist in this paradigm. Yes, the GM can of course cater to the players, and they can make choices to go after boons that have mechanical advantages for them, but its just not the focus of the game. Instead you make stuff work together so that the players don't think about that, instead they think about what's cool in a narrative context, and it 'just works' for them. Instead of a design that discourages the fighter from taking 'wizard stuff', let that just work for them. It will just work in a 'fightery way'.
Forgive me if I'm misunderstanding you, but...are you saying that the DM would need to custom-build each improvement in a character's advancement? Because that sounds like a *nightmare,* for everyone involved, so I'm really hoping I've misunderstood you.
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