Forsaken

[malcolm_n]

Height 5'6"-6'2"
Weight: 97-120 lb.

Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Wisdom
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal

Languages: Common, choice of one other
Bonus Skill: You gain training in one additional skill from your class skill list.
Unending Breath: You gain a +4 bonus to Endurance checks when holding your breath.
Resistance: Resist Necrotic 5 + one-half Level

CANNIBALIZE - Forsaken Racial Power
Encounter * Healing
Standard Action Close burst 1
Target: A creature within the burst which has been reduced to 0 or fewer hit points.
Effect: You can spend a Healing Surge and regain an additional +1d6 hit points.
Increase the amount regained to +2d6 at 11th level, and +3d6 at 21st level.
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WILL OF THE FORSAKEN [forsaken]
Tier: Heroic
Effect: You gain a +1 feat bonus to your Will defense and a +2 bonus to saves against fear effects.

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THE CURED - Paragon Path

Echoes of the Past (11th level): Your Unending Breath racial feature only grants you a +2 bonus to endurance when holding your breath. In exchange, you can pick an additional feat.

Breath of Life (11th level): You no longer require dying flesh to nourish yourself as your body begins to heal itself more frequently. When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can also expend your Cannibalize racial power without need of a trigger.

CURED (16th level): Choose one additional at-will power from your class powers.
[sblock=Cured Powers]WILL TO LIVE - Cured Attack 11
You fight hard to avoid the nothingness; the unfeeling grasp of death.
Encounter * Implement, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon or Ranged 10
Target: One creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC or Wisdom +2 vs. AC
Hit: 2[W] + Constitution modifier damage or 2d8 + Wisdom modifier damage.
Special: When you're bloodied, this attack deals an additional +1[W] or +1d8 damage respectively.

LIFE'S BLOOD RETURNING - Cured Utility 12
You can feel your blood pulse under what skin you have. The sensation kicks your natural defenses into overdrive.
Encounter *
Free Action Personal
Effect: You gain a +1 bonus to your Fortitude, Reflex, and Will defenses until the end of your next turn.
Sustain Minor: The effect persists.

VENGEANCE OF THE FORSAKEN - Cured Attack 20
Being half alive is so much better than being half dead, you lash out when others try to take it from you.
Daily * Implement, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Melee weapon or Ranged 10
Trigger: A creature scores a critical hit against you or would reduce you to 0 or fewer hit points with one attack.
Target: The attacking creature
Attack: Constitution vs. AC or Wisdom +2 vs. AC
Hit: 3[W] + Constitution modifier damage or 3d8 + Wisdom modifier damage. In addition, the target takes one-half the damage it deals to you.[/sblock]

 

[Rechan]

Unending Breath: You gain a +4 bonus to Endurance checks when holding your breath.

Honestly, I don't think it would unbalance it if you said 'you don't need to eat/sleep/drink; this does not make you immune to powers relating to sleeping or gas related powers, unless it specifies that you begin to drown.'

I'd treat them like warforged.

Also, this is a no brainer: Resist Necrotic 5 + 1/2 level. (On par with Tieflings' fire resistance).

I like the racial power. That's pretty cool and appropriate.

 

[malcolm_n]

updated with the resistance; the unending breath is as it is because of flavor. The race breaths, but their curse in a sense "helps" them by decreasing the air required to continue

 

[Thordain]

cannibalize way too strong. Compare to warforged racial power.

 

[cmbarona]

I'm really curious about making the Cannibalize mechanic work. I played a Forsaken in WoW for a while (though it's been quite some time now), and I recall it not working in combat. Perhaps it should modify out-of-combat or directly-after-combat healing when a creature is freshly killed. Whatever you do, be sure to specify that it doesn't work on targets that are reduced to 0 hp and are knocked unconscious. Believe me, some players would try to feast on the flesh of the bounty they were hunting and needed to bring in alive.

In combat, I seem to recall a fear-ending effect that was considered extremely powerful. Obviously there are enough non-fear effects in D&D that this would be less effective by itself. I don't know how this could translate into D&D, but perhaps either getting a free saving throw or simply shrugging off a short list of effects once per encounter would work.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Forsaken have the highest base Intelligence and Spirit of the original Horde races? Perhaps Int should get a bonus instead of Con. Just a suggestion, though; I'm sure Con would work well too, and Wisdom is a very good choice to represent the high Spirit.

 

[Verision]

I might be wrong here, but since the Cannibalize power is an Immediate Reaction, doesn't that mean you can't use it on your own turn?
I.E. if you kill an enemy, you can't Cannibalize it since it's your turn. You can only use Cannibalize when an enemy next to you is killed and it's not your turn (so either you kill it with an AoO, or your teammate kills it or something)

 

[Staffan]

In WoW, Cannibalize takes a while to do (10 seconds to complete), so I wouldn't make it an immediate reaction - more like a standard action, or even more. Perhaps just make it give you a free healing surge during a short rest if you have a suitable target to snack on. In WoW, it also only works on Humanoids and Undead.

As for stats, the WoW forsaken have slightly lower Intellect than humans, but a higher Spirit (which is negated by humans having a Spirit bonus that scales with gear). I think a Wis bonus would match that pretty well.

Will of the Forsaken would be an encounter power that removes any fear, charm, or sleep effect as a free action. It would probably be too much to have two encounter powers on the race though, so if you want to keep Cannibalize as you wrote it, you might want to drop Will of the Forsaken, or make it a feat.

 

[Armadillo]

But, the Forsaken are also consistently portrayed as one of the least wise races, particularly in regard to their fondness for poisoning things. They also don't appear to be all that observant. I'd give them a +2 INT instead. I think that works better in the context of the D&D attributes.

 

[malcolm_n]

Thank you all for the replies. Here is a grouped reply

- +2 Con, +2 Wis; Forsaken get a +2 Wisdom bonus because they have a Spirit bonus in game. +2 con helps to keep them alive longer and makes them a viable fighter. +2 Strength doesn't work because they're not exceptionally strong, so the only other fighter option was con. That, and it plays into their not feeling pain/being partially dead.

- Cannibalize can be used in combat, you just can't get hit or it stops you. You can use an immediate reaction any time the criteria is met, but only once per combat round (to my knowledge). It is an immediate reaction because, in D&D terms this is the closest I could think of to a quick fix in healing. That said, I'll make it a standard action to both balance it with warforged (slightly, warforged get more than forsaken race-wise, so they can have a more powerful racial) and uphold the spirit of the power.

- While I agree with what Will of the Forsaken does in WoW, I'd rather it be accessable as early as first level. I don't quite agree that a free save vs. each of those effects is something to just give away that early. But, I wouldn't be adverse to hearing if others think it'd be okay to give up a feat for that.

- Forsaken Classes (WOW): Warrior, Priest, Warlock, Rogue, Mage.
- Stat Equivalents: Ftr (Con/Wis), Priest (Wis), Warlock (Con), Rogue (none, but really fun), Mage (Con/Wis). I found this to be true in wow as well. While Forsaken can be rogues, the only neat things they contribute to the class are Cannibalize and Will of the Forsaken. Stats-wise, Bloodelves actually make better rogues. This analysis, btw, comes from 2+ years of playing an undead rogue . The stats also work for paladin, but in wow they cannot be that class because of their disconnect with the light. In dnd, i'd allow it, no problem, but it breaks the mold. In a true azeroth-based game, I would probably consider restricting classes, but in dnd, I have no worries.

 

[waterprophet]

WoW Conversion

Malcolm or anyone,

Do you have any other WoW --> 4e adaptations sitting around? Or should I say "WoW inspired?" I'd really REALLY like to run a 4e game set in Azeroth and I don't have the time to do a conversion myself (though I'm up for contributing).

BTW, this Forsaken race is quite good.

~m