D&D 4E 4E sword and sorcery..

[DreamChaser]

Eh, you don't really need them -- it's not like 3e where only one kind of spellcaster was allowed to be the healer.

It's not about need...it's about the OP mentioning that he wanted clerics.

Bard can work but many of their powers are pretty flashy too...but as leaders go, they are a decent choice.

DC

 

[Nytmare]

For me the key on player character design is having players that get your genre.... it doesnt have to be hardwired.

I've learned that (at least with my main group) all I'd have to do is say "think Conan" and the players will do a better job of censuring themselves than a week's worth of hammering out formalized character creation rules could have hoped for.

What are your players like? Are they the kind to play along with your idea, or is giving them a set of rules just going to encourage them to try to find loopholes?

 

[DreamChaser]

I've learned that (at least with my main group) all I'd have to do is say "think Conan" and the players will do a better job of censuring themselves than a week's worth of hammering out formalized character creation rules could have hoped for.

What are your players like? Are they the kind to play along with your idea, or is giving them a set of rules just going to encourage them to try to find loopholes?

I agree with this in theory but the world / options should match the theme. Eberron without Artificers or Dark Sun with magic that doesn't defile creates dissonance that makes it harder to remain in the genre.

Thus, the flashier / happy magic sorts can be weeded out while the grittier more "real" feeling classes step to the fore. After all, no matter how invested the players are in "Conan" a priest in 4e shoots lasers out of his holy symbol which really blows the feel out of the water.

DC

 

[Nifft]

It's not about need...it's about the OP mentioning that he wanted clerics.

Bard can work but many of their powers are pretty flashy too...but as leaders go, they are a decent choice.

Eh, the Strength-based Cleric is totally non-flashy, so he could just allow them in as-is without any genre trouble, and multiclassing into the flashy Wisdom Cleric could be very painful since nobody else uses Wisdom to attack.

So I'm not sure what he's actually gaining by the "multiclass only" thing.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

After all, no matter how invested the players are in "Conan" a priest in 4e shoots lasers out of his holy symbol which really blows the feel out of the water.

Sure, but nothing in the 4e rules says that "laser clerics" shoot lasers out of their holy symbol. That may be the most common way of describing it that goes along with the generic high fantasy theme of most D&D games. It certainly isn't the only way it can be described.

I think the more cogent objection to largely range attacking casters is more along the lines of the whole feel of combat isn't very well matched to the genre when you have a lot of that stuff going on. S&S heroes hack things up with swords for the most part. Standing back and blasting stuff with magic creates dissonance. It can be described in a way that is less out of tune with the genre, but if its a prevalent sort of mechanic then it will tend to undermine the S&S feel of the game.

So yeah, a STR cleric, described properly, might fit in pretty well. NPC wizards and warlocks and such are pretty stock in trade and can work fine too. I wonder though how well a PC warlock, even with appropriate fluff, will really work. Spamming at-will arcane powers around all the time seems rather out of keeping with the genre even if it can be made to sort of fit.

 

[Starfox]

A little something about the rogue's weapon selection. In Sword & Sorcery dd Shortbow to the list of allowed weapons with rogue powers and sneak attack - crossbows might exist in Sword & Sorcery, but they are mook weapons. Maybe rogues have to pay a feat to get this, but it should be accessible.

I am Subotai, thief and archer

 

[Odysseus]

As for races, obviously we'll do human. We may reskin the dwarf as a mountain breed human and the elf as a deep forest breed human - this retains the mechanical variation without disrupting the atmosphere. With a good backstory, I'd even be inclined to allow something like a "gnome" or even a "goliath" as a sort of straggler from the "dead races of long ago." Consider that Wagner's Kane was actually one of the first men - he's often described as being physically different from normal men upon close inspection. In one story, Kane even briefly teams up with a giant that he finds wandering in the desert. They lament the changing times and the rise of man together, heh. In other stories, he fights frogmen, werewolves, vampires and ghouls. .

If your interested in Reskinning Humans. An EnWorlder posted this link a while back. Which is excellent.

 

[Chainsaw]

Thanks man! I'll check that out when I get home from work ("access denied" here).

 

[Garthanos]

Favorite S&S genre inspirations.

Elric
http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/264148-designing-elric-melnibone.html#post4909717

Red Sonja

Death Dealer
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/242823-death-dealer-adventure.html#post4505363

Kane

 

[Nytmare]

Death Dealer
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/242823-death-dealer-adventure.html#post4505363

Whoa. Is there a body of fiction tied to the Death Dealer that I didn't know about?