D&D 4E 4e virgin looking for answers

[Jack99]

What I'm thinking is more about an organic method of character development. At level 1 you decide to be a fighter. You have your character backstory, all that jazz, but you don't have a build in mind. Somewhere around level 6 your character has a fight in a temple of Tymora and all his allies are unconscious, he is the only one left against a servant of bane who the party is after. He has 1 hp and he manages to get lucky and pulls of a critical hit, dropping the servant of bane from half health to the ground. He attributes it to Tymora and takes up her worship and wants to become a cleric of Tymora and focus on that entirely as opposed to his training as a fighter. In 3.x the next time he leveled up he would take a level of cleric and continue on that way, possibly taking a prestige class eventually that fit it but probably never taking a level of fighter again. He views himself as a cleric now, even though he still has his fighter training.

Is there any equivalent to that type of mid-game choice available in 4e? Not retroactive, where he gives up his fighter levels and boom, he's a level 6 cleric, but where he could put his fighter training aside-while retaining it, but focus on becoming a cleric instead.

That's exactly how it works in 4e. In your example, the fighter would retrain his level 6 feat and grab a multiclass cleric feat (and thus a power) at level 7, then grab another cleric multiclass feat at 8 (and another power) before finally getting his 3rd multiclass feat at level 10 (and switch yet another power). Then at 11, he could paragon multiclass to cleric, giving him a cleric at-will power and go from there. He would effectively become more and more cleric-like as levels go up.

 

[mneme]

In 4e, the most a player can "abandon their starting class and go into a new class" by the rules is to take all three multiclass feats, paragon multiclass to get an at will of the new class, and in epic, take an epic destiny that finally lets them retrain other class powers out (thus having more than 6 powers from the "new" class).

However, if you allow rebuilds, you can get a much more nuanced shift. You don't mostly get much from level ups that's level dependant except for your powers (aside from essential classes). So for the first few "levels" of multiclassing, taking a multi feat, then a few other multi feats when you level into them (or retrain) works fine. If the player then wants to shift to a 50/50 approach (or rather, base features + whatever mix they want of powers) they can rebuild into a hybrid -- which will give them weaker base powers from both classes and let them (nearly) take powers freely from both classes. Finally, if they want to shift even further, you could let them rebuild to be a cleric multiclassing to Fighter.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

What I'm thinking is more about an organic method of character development. At level 1 you decide to be a fighter. You have your character backstory, all that jazz, but you don't have a build in mind. Somewhere around level 6 your character has a fight in a temple of Tymora and all his allies are unconscious, he is the only one left against a servant of bane who the party is after. He has 1 hp and he manages to get lucky and pulls of a critical hit, dropping the servant of bane from half health to the ground. He attributes it to Tymora and takes up her worship and wants to become a cleric of Tymora and focus on that entirely as opposed to his training as a fighter. In 3.x the next time he leveled up he would take a level of cleric and continue on that way, possibly taking a prestige class eventually that fit it but probably never taking a level of fighter again. He views himself as a cleric now, even though he still has his fighter training.

Is there any equivalent to that type of mid-game choice available in 4e? Not retroactive, where he gives up his fighter levels and boom, he's a level 6 cleric, but where he could put his fighter training aside-while retaining it, but focus on becoming a cleric instead.

They way I would be inclined to approach this would be to have the player take the cleric multiclass feat at the next opportunity after taking up the worship of Tymora and then take the power swap feats however at paragon I would give the player the option to rebuilt the character as a hybrid or a cleric with fighter multiclass to represent his origins.

 

[Reverend47]

Can Deva be revived from the dead via the revive dead ritual?

 

[OnlineDM]

Yes, you can use Raise Dead on a Deva. Now, you could possibly argue that the Deva's soul will be unwilling to return, preferring to be reborn instead, but as long as the player wants the Deva to come back, it's fine.

 

[Reverend47]

I'm looking over the monk. One of my players stated they had specific interest in playing one. I have a few questions.
1) The flurry of blows abilities are at-will, melee 1, free action. The trigger is hitting with an attack during you turn. Then you get a bonus effect to 1, 1 or 2, or each adjacent enemy depending on level. Does this target have to be a melee range enemy? Does it have to be the one you hit?
2) Full Discipline. Lets say you activate a full discipline ability. Does this affect both the move AND the standard action for that round?
3) Implements. I understand if you are using a ki focus item. But what if you say use an enchanted quarterstaff? If you have, say a +3 flaming quarterstaff. How would that effect your implement power?
4) Not relating to the monk, but other psionic characters augment their at will abilities. But from what I can tell they don't get encounter powers, just at-will. And they just end up replacing them. Doesn't this mean that a psion or battlemind will end up with 3 at-will powers and no encounter powers? Just more powerful at-will powers?

 

[Obryn]

1) The flurry of blows abilities are at-will, melee 1, free action. The trigger is hitting with an attack during you turn. Then you get a bonus effect to 1, 1 or 2, or each adjacent enemy depending on level. Does this target have to be a melee range enemy? Does it have to be the one you hit?

It has a range of Melee Touch to start with, so yes, it does have to be in range. It does not have to be the one you hit, and in fact, it's generally better if it's not one of your targets. It usually gets extra damage or riders.

However, you can pick up several feats to expand the ability. Skipping Stone Flurry is probably the best if you don't mind having a sling around.

2) Full Discipline. Lets say you activate a full discipline ability. Does this affect both the move AND the standard action for that round?

Yes, but you can only use one Full Discipline each round. So you can't use the Move part from Five Storms and the Attack part from Dragon's Tail on the same round, for example.

-O

 

[shamsael]

1) There's Paragon Multiclassing, essentially trading your Paragon Path for additional flexibility (like your aforementioned Fighter to Cleric), but nothing to change your class (although I'm unaware of anything in prior editions that did that either)

Human dual-classing ("the character with two classes", as opposed to "the multi-classed character") essentially allowed this in 2nd Edition.

 

[Destil]

Yes, but you can only use one Full Discipline each round. So you can't use the Move part from Five Storms and the Attack part from Dragon's Tail on the same round, for example.

Unless you spend an action point.

Not relating to the monk, but other psionic characters augment their at will abilities. But from what I can tell they don't get encounter powers, just at-will. And they just end up replacing them. Doesn't this mean that a psion or battlemind will end up with 3 at-will powers and no encounter powers? Just more powerful at-will powers?

Yes. Though they may not replace them, because that 'more powerful' bit doesn't apply correctly (especially for the psion and ardent, who have good selections of awesome level 1s). Sort of a major flaw in the system.

 

[Reverend47]

And Implements? I understand if you are using a ki focus item. But what if you say use an enchanted quarterstaff? If you have, say a +3 flaming quarterstaff. How would that effect your implement power?

Thank you all so far