Another "power sources" thread (this time without speculation)

[grickherder]

Here's the list:

Arcane
Divine
Martial
Elemental
Ki
Primal
Psionic
Shadow

I'm still one of the old fashioned DMs/Players who thinks that if one wants eastern flavoured monks, samarui or ninjas in your campaign, that's what a separate "oriental adventures" sourcebook is for. There will be no "Ki" powersource classes in games I run unless I specifically want that flavour in that particular game. I hated that monk was just included as a base class in the first PHB for 3.x.

Same goes for psionics. I certainly see 4th editions powers mechanic as a great way to do psionics. It'll probably handle them better than any previous iteration of D&D.

But that's neither here nor there. It's better for them to include all the possible options and let people playing the game decide what they want to excluse, so I have no real complaint.

Now here's the real question. Which do you think will be in PHB 2 next summer? Has that been confirmed?

 

[VannATLC]

That gets you involved in a mind/body/soul distinction which carries a lot of philosophical implications that aren't necessarily a part of the D&D cosmology. The body/soul/animus distinction mentioned in some of the preview material with reference to certain undead creatures could make sense here, but it'd be a bit of a stretch.

Also, GnomeWorks, that definition of "Ki" is about as traditional as you can get. (No offense to it, of course, I'm just surprised that it seems novel to you.)

You think Body/animus/soul is a stretch for psionic/martial/ki?

I think they are about perfect, to be honest. (In that order.) And I quite like that. I like the fact, that soul energy is an essential unknown in the assumed setting, that not even the gods know what it is.

 

[Mostlyjoe]

Well, there are historical references for ki and psi powers in other forms of literature. But, keep in mind that most older writers and storytellers didn't make the distinction between it and just 'magic'. That being said I think the power to cosmology breakdown in 4E links most powers to a plane. Ki might not qualify in that regard. But I always saw Arcane being linked to the Far Planes myself.

But it does seam:

Arcane - Far Planes
Divine - gods
Martial - n/a
Elemental - Elemental Chaos
Ki - self/soul
Primal - Feywild
Psionic - Astral Sea
Shadow - Shadowfell

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Rather than coming from outside I'd imagine that martial, psionics, and ki come from within. Could easily be seen as the progressing towards the perfection of body, mind, and soul respectively.

So, don't think Far Realm - think near Realm, as in yourself!

Yes, this approach works fine for me. We'll see how WotC defines it, if at all...

 

[hong]

I'm still one of the old fashioned DMs/Players who thinks that if one wants eastern flavoured monks, samarui or ninjas in your campaign, that's what a separate "oriental adventures" sourcebook is for. There will be no "Ki" powersource classes in games I run unless I specifically want that flavour in that particular game. I hated that monk was just included as a base class in the first PHB for 3.x.

Same goes for psionics. I certainly see 4th editions powers mechanic as a great way to do psionics. It'll probably handle them better than any previous iteration of D&D.

But that's neither here nor there. It's better for them to include all the possible options and let people playing the game decide what they want to excluse, so I have no real complaint.

Now here's the real question. Which do you think will be in PHB 2 next summer? Has that been confirmed?

My bet is primal, ki and psionic.

 

[Bolongo]

But I always saw Arcane being linked to the Far Planes myself.
l

That's as may be, but in 4e cosmology, Arcane is explicitly Feywild derived. CBA to dig up the quotes right now, but if you have the books I'm confused as to how you could have missed it...

 

[Bolongo]

Now here's the real question. Which do you think will be in PHB 2 next summer? Has that been confirmed?

Primal is a shoo-in. I'm betting on Elemental and Shadow as the most likely secondaries. Ki and Psionic I think will get their own books, since they don't feel very "core"...

 

[SlimeGuru42]

They listed the first letter of 8 classes on gamer radio zero. I'm going to assume that those are the only classes in the book. My guess is two arcane classes, two divine classes, and four primal classes. My guess for PHBIII is four psionic classes and four shadow classes.

This is all speculation of course

 

[Lurker59]

As corrected on Mike Meyers blog the PHB 2 classes first letters are D, B, B, W, I, T, S, S. He said that 3 are completely new and the others are either old classes or re-skinned concepts (probably just re-fluffed and re-named classes).

I'd imagine that Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer can be taken as given. That leaves W, I, T, and S. To fill out primal I'd imagine that the S will be the shaman. That leaves three classes which, considering the importance of psionics in Eberron, are probably psionic-based. Two possibilities I've seen are telepath and wilder(if shaman is considered a new class).

 

[GnomeWorks]

Also, GnomeWorks, that definition of "Ki" is about as traditional as you can get. (No offense to it, of course, I'm just surprised that it seems novel to you.)

None taken.

My issue with "ki" in gaming, up to this point, has been that, whenever someone mentions it in a gaming context, I get the urge to yell, "over nine-THOUSAND!"

Contemplating what ki would represent in D&D is not something I've really done, because of that particular mental roadblock.

Keep an eye out in the next decade or so. You'll probably see a lot more steampunk and magitech material being introduced into "traditional fantasy games" as gamers who grew up on Final Fantasy IX and Warcraft 3 start writing roleplaying books.

Steampunk and D&D. Two great tastes that taste great together!