L4W Discussion Thread V

[renau1g]

Thanks Scorpius. I'd just wanted to err on the side of caution, not having read the GSL myself

 

[twilsemail]

There are (or soon will be) 26 themes printed by WotC. Is there a direction we'd want to head that's not been covered by these 26 themes for L4W? Perhaps themes to cover the various L4W backgrounds? There's a lot of ground already covered by the stuff in print.

Here's a list of what's already out there or is about to be:
Athasian Minstrel
Dune Trader
Elemental Priest
Escaped Slave
Gladiator
Noble Adept
Primal Guardian
Templar
Veiled Alliance
Wasteland Nomad
Wilder

alchemist
animal master
apprentice
chevalier
explorer
guardian
guttersnipe
hospitaler
mercenary
noble
ordained priest
order adept
outlaw
seer
scholar

 

[stonegod]

The group in the former is pretty DS specific, though I guess they could be reskinned.

However, we should probably have a mechanism for those w/o access to the themes (either from DS or DDI) to be "comparable". Backgrounds were easy: Pick a language, a skill to be a class, or +2 in a skill. Expertise we waved away w/ either a fixed +1 (LEB) or a bonus feat (L4W). But a character w/o a theme is "weaker" (in the sense of less encounter power options) than one w/. So some sort of "vanilla" option might be in order.

 

[twilsemail]

I feel like 50% or more of the DS themes are usable in most settings. It would probably be worthwhile going through each one and deciding (eventually).

Creating a vanilla "Islander" theme or some such doesn't seem like a bad plan. Maybe a choice of two powers, one a generic Implement power and the other a weapon power?

 

[treex]

To my understanding, themes are chosen during character creation. As such, I don't think an implement power serves any purpose to those that don't get Implement Training as a class feat.

Erm, I may be wrong...or there may actually be a reason to take a generic implement power?

 

[stonegod]

To my understanding, themes are chosen during character creation. As such, I don't think an implement power serves any purpose to those that don't get Implement Training as a class feat.

Erm, I may be wrong...or there may actually be a reason to take a generic implement power?

Which is why a choice of a weapon or implement power makes sense: Those that use implements will favor the second, those that don't, the first.

 

[twilsemail]

For the classes that don't use weapons?

I think I worded the above awkwardly. Present two options to players, they only get one extra encounter power, as they would with any other theme.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

The obvious "generic" theme is "choose one extra level 1 encounter power that you qualify for, or gain 1 extra power point". Except I think the theme encounter powers are generally slightly less powerful than class/skill powers?

 

[Iron Sky]

Granting an additional level 1 encounter power from their class - or maybe they could choose instead a level 2 utility/skill power? - wouldn't be too bad.

Most classes rarely have more than one "obvious pick" for powers per level. I think if you've already picked the best one your class has to offer, the rest will already be less optimal (the majority of the time anyway).

 

[renau1g]

This could be a problem for the e-classes as they don't have their own encounter powers so gaining the encounter power from say Fighter might be too good for a Slayer.