What themes do you want in core?

[Minigiant]

Although I'd love to see many many themes, unless I see want they do.. I'll only suggest a number inversely related to their power.

Academic
-Scholar
-Scribe
Arcane
-Tower mage
-Former apprentice
Aristocratic
-Noble
-Knight
Commoner
-Farmer
-Pubcrawler
Government
-Diplomat
-Town Guard
Magic
-Dragon-blood
-Fey-touched
Maritime
-Pirate
-Captain
Mercantile
-Merchant
-Guild agent
Military
-Trooper
-Officer
Religious
-Acolyte
-Cultist
Traveler
-Nomad
-Refugee
Underworld
-Thief
-Thug
Wild
-Hunter
-Hermit

 

[kitsune9]

I want to play the Far Realmsian Cutist Weretiger Midwife.

Some of these themes remind me of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. Now that was a game where I enjoyed playing whatever career I randomly rolled. I thought playing a ratpicker was just as cool as playing a footpad.

 

[Quickleaf]

So what themes would you like in 5e.

We heard of the noble and blacksmith and the planetouched (I really like the idea of the planetouched), and maybe avenger, but what themes would you like to see?

If Royal Pissboy isn't a theme, I'm out.

 

[tuxgeo]

For generic themes:
Pirate
Inquisitor
Oracle
Mystic
Spy
Tribal
Thug
Bodyguard
Cursed One
Explorer
Ascetic
Scholar
Dreamer
Hunted

Of course I certainly want campaign specific themes, like Inquisitive or Dragonmarked for Eberron, or Anarchist, Bleaker and Sensate for Planescape, . . .

General Themes would be wonderful; but a lot of them might take considerable work to become functional.

How would an "Oracle" PC even work? Bugging the DM for special clues all the time? (So much for adventuring--let's just give you all the answers.)

That "Dreamer" suggestion could be as inventive as you like:
(1) Pray to Sehanine each night, and interpret the dreams she sends to you as being quests;
(2) Abandon each quest halfway through because you interpreted a new dream a new way;
(3) Don't bother to explain your motives, because your hearers didn't have the same dream, so they would never understand.

(Hmm. The "Dreamer" Theme might become the new Chaotic Neutral.)

 

[Yora]

Themes were more an extension of the paragon path and epic destiny paradim. So at heroic you had the themes, at paragon you had paragon paths, and at epic you had epic destinies.

Themes/pp/eds will have there own section representing background, like how you grew up, your passions, and odd ball stuff and kits/builds/subclasses will represent class specializations and alternate class features. I believe kits will be in the class section of the character sheet and themes will be in the theme section.

Source?

 

[gyor]

Its a hypothesis about 5e, although the sections of the character sheet being broken up into seperate race, class, and theme sections thing comes from those who playtested posting on this site.

 

[TheGrandNuge]

If the assassin is going to be a class unto itself, I think other things mentioned such as cavalier should be its own class as well. One of many things interesting to see and discuss in open playtest will be what is a class and what's a theme. Regardless of which, or a third option entirely, a few I'd love to see supported and supported quickly are:

Beastmaster
Cavalier
Duelist
Swashbucker
Noble
Feralan
Different arcane casters like witch, hedge wizard...
Alchemist
Sage

I loved the 2nd edition idea of kits, though of course some were done much better than others. The ranger handbook kits had great stuff, the thief handbook kits utterly lacked imagination. Still, the idea was great. I am excited about Themes.

 

[Yora]

I really have no idea how generic or specific themes are going to be.

But I already plan on using the mechanics to introduce magic specializations, like blood magic, shadow magic, or demon magic.

Others would be:
- Scout
- Bounty Hunter
- Oracle/Diviner
- Thief
- Assassin
- Alchemist
- Scholar
- Explorer/Treasure Hunter
- Noble
- Courtier
- Shapeshifter

 

[KarinsDad]

I'm really on the fence about themes. If there are only a small number of them (like 20), then they might be ok. My concern is that there might eventually end up being hundreds of them which just clutters up the game system.

Player: "My Demon Assistant theme allows me to see in the dark only if it is pitch dark, so I'm not surprised."
DM: mumbles under his breath *fricking themes, I cannot remember all of the details of these when I design my encounters*

If I think about it, any esoteric concept can be drilled down into the details enough to be called a theme. Every medieval job (bartender, knight, fisherman) could be considered a theme.

Also, I do not like how 4E introduced themes. They were just a way of adding more umph to PCs without having good mechanical hooks to encourage roleplaying. IMO.

Then, there might be mechanical or other issues why some themes do not work for some classes. The "Wizard's Apprentice" Fighter. Huh? Couldn't this be handled with multiclassing?

 

[Kobold Avenger]

General Themes would be wonderful; but a lot of them might take considerable work to become functional.

How would an "Oracle" PC even work? Bugging the DM for special clues all the time? (So much for adventuring--let's just give you all the answers.)

That "Dreamer" suggestion could be as inventive as you like:
(1) Pray to Sehanine each night, and interpret the dreams she sends to you as being quests;
(2) Abandon each quest halfway through because you interpreted a new dream a new way;
(3) Don't bother to explain your motives, because your hearers didn't have the same dream, so they would never understand.

(Hmm. The "Dreamer" Theme might become the new Chaotic Neutral.)

An Oracle theme should probably get something like a flexible bonus to use a limited number of times per day. With the big stuff about knowing the future be hooks thrown by the DM when they decide to.

A Dreamer could be tied to the Plane of Dreams, and possibly affect the waking world in some ways as if it was a dream.