L4W Discussion Thread V

[Iron Sky]

I thought Theme encounter power was weaker than class encounter power... why not give something more like Dilettant half-elf power:

-All experts get one extra at-will power from their base class, which they can use once per encounter.

Alternatively, how about a Dilettante Theme that gets a "dabbler" at-will from any class as an encounter power, just like Half-elves do? That puts it more in-line with the "slightly weaker than normal" theme encounter powers but still gives you a lot of interesting options.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Question: Is any player actually itching for the ability to add a theme to their character? Or are we just blue-skying as designers for what themes should look like? I don't think it's worth opening up the can of worms of potentially allowing broken themes accidetanally unless there's actual demand for them.

 

[renau1g]

I guess my concerns are that as part of our current approval process things are automatically approved unless we specify otherwise, so Themes will be approved once the compilation is put together for May (after the waiting period, actually there is no compilation anymore so maybe once the month's done).

Like backgrounds before them, I expect most players will make use of them even as an "optional" rule.

 

[covaithe]

Maybe we should pre-emptively ban them until we figure out what to do about them?

 

[horticulture]

I guess my concerns are that as part of our current approval process things are automatically approved unless we specify otherwise, so Themes will be approved once the compilation is put together for May (after the waiting period, actually there is no compilation anymore so maybe once the month's done).

Like backgrounds before them, I expect most players will make use of them even as an "optional" rule.

And who wouldn't use them, unless all of them were completely counter to their character concept?

In the grand scheme of things, adding an extra encounter power (or whatnot) will not break the game. Sure, there may be an overpowered theme that sneaks through, but there's always the option of neutering - or outright disallowing - it once we get a look at them.

On a slightly off-topic note, I love Dark Sun. I fell in love with the campaign setting from the moment I could get my greasy, teenage hands on it all those years ago. If there were a Living Dark Sun board, I'd live there. Like, literally.

 

[Walking Dad]

What makes Noble Adepts so great? All I've ever heard is, "The get an extra PP, which is basically an extra encounter power!" Which is true, but everyone with a theme gets an extra encounter power, so why is this unbalancing?

The pp can also be used to power psionic items and to choose psionic feats without multiclassing.

 

[ScorpiusRisk]

They've changed the ways themes are built and presented. I think this discussion should be tabled, and themes disallowed, until more of these articles are released.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Off-topic stupid question: what's the best way to get to my Subscribed Threads list? The only way I know is to click on Private Messages, and then scroll down to find the tiny "Subscribed Threads" link in the sidebar. But that's really annoying, and it lists all my subscribed threads whether there are new posts in them or not.

I know I've seen a screen with only the subscribed threads with unread posts before, but I can't remember how I got to it!

I only really want this to check for new posts in the ONE thread that I have to read that's not in this forum...

 

[garyh]

Left-hand side of the upper menu bar, click "Settings." That shows you your subscribed threads with new posts.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

Left-hand side of the upper menu bar, click "Settings." That shows you your subscribed threads with new posts.

Wow, intuitive.

The problem was I thought "Profile/Settings" was one link, so I never noticed I'd clicked "Settings" the first time I found the list, but every time I tried again after that I clicked "Profile".

I mean, the first problem is why would I click "Settings" to get a list of subscribed threads? But the next problem was that I didn't realize Settings was a separate link.