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

[Garthanos]

Argh! I hate it when someone shows that I'm not on the cutting edge!

Just kidding. Do you have a link?

Download a free demo of the character builder from wizards site (works for 3 levels as is).

... or subscribe 1 month (and download all the archival pdfs for 10 bucks or so)
and get the full version of Character builder... well worth a 10 spot all on its own.

The hybrid rules ought to be in full form in the phb3, but they are pretty solid even now in my opinion for somebody who likes character design.

 

[Chainsaw]

I like it!

I got the hybrid playest rules -

Edit: I think the wizard/cleric hybrid is exactly what I'm looking for. If I could find a way to link that up with the warlock's infernal/star pact flavor, I'd probably be set.

 

[Garthanos]

Yeah, I'll admit it, I read that wrong like 3 times in a row.

Heheh, them is probably divine too.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I like it!

I got the hybrid playest rules -

Edit: I think the wizard/cleric hybrid is exactly what I'm looking for. If I could find a way to link that up with the warlock's infernal/star pact flavor, I'd probably be set.

Eh, you could try out warlock|invoker instead of wizard|cleric. Not sure about stat synergy there though, warlock is fairly finicky about ability scores. Still, they both use INT pretty heavily.

 

[Chainsaw]

Eh, you could try out warlock|invoker instead of wizard|cleric. Not sure about stat synergy there though, warlock is fairly finicky about ability scores. Still, they both use INT pretty heavily.

That's an idea. I will check it out.

Separately, I see in the hybrid test article that there's no artificer listed - anyone seen that somewhere else? Or is it missing b/c it's not a PHB class?

I ask because.. I'm getting crazy here.. I'm thinking about adding some "sword and planet" elements - allowing martial warforged, reflavored as androids from another dimension. It's insane, I know. The more work I did on sword and sorcery, the more I ran into the planetary romance stuff and thought, "Well, heck, what if occasionally there was totally weird stuff like robots??!?"

 

[Garthanos]

- allowing martial warforged, reflavored as androids from another dimension. It's insane, I know. The more work I did on sword and sorcery, the more I ran into the planetary romance stuff and thought, "Well, heck, what if occasionally there was totally weird stuff like robots??!?"

Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter Warlord of Mars.... eh?

Warforged for me reskin in rather versatile ways...
1) Dwarven slave miner race elemental rock construct... that doesn't need to breath eat etc... goes dormant without air very hard to kill and doesn't reproduce.
2) Unaging Internalized Healers .....if you don't kill em out right they just get better... there unusual life force supports magic's that need the unique super charging or which would be dangerous and need ongoing unusually fast true healing (wound sealing / biology fixing variety... Picture wolverine able to be vessel for the adamantine bones and blades.
3) And yup they make solid fantasy robotics... they already are your robots.

 

[Chainsaw]

Edgar Rice Burroughs John Carter Warlord of Mars.... eh?

Something like that, I suppose. I haven't read those, but I'm familiar with alot of the associated art. I may actually place this on Mars, far enough in the future/past to support the setting elements. Just including the word "Mars" in the setting material may help create the right mindset - even if 90% of the setting/adventure material is fairly standard sword/sorcery or dark/fantasy stuff. Actual sci-fi elements would be very uncommon, probably even more so than magic (well, assuming no one played an android, er, ancient machine, er warforged). I'm not looking for wild-and-krazy, just enough non-standard stuff to keep the setting mysterious.

 

[Somebloke]

I am currently running a campaign based on low-magic principles. I ran it as follows-

- Ban all classes except for martial classes and the wizard, which has been re-fluffed to be mostly a alchemist with a few supernatural tricks that even they don't understand. I took the view that especially with the martial power splatbookthis was more than enough for the purposes of a single campaign and covered all of the needed roles. You could just as easily run the druid or invoker with some re-fluffing. To be honest, you could just use the basic martial classes and ease back on the minions.

- Re-fluff the different races to present different backgrounds. I basically ran it as follows:

- Human- Heroic Everyman.
- Hafling- Wandering Soul- someone raised by wanderers or drifters.
- Dwarf/goliath- Peasant Hero- someone raised as a slave or lower-class.
- Half-Orc- Bloody Child- someone raised in an environment where violence was endemic, such as a war-torn region or a particularly warlike tribe.
- Elf- Noble Savage- Barbarian or tribal peoples with a hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
- Deva - Cloistered- Someone raised in an environment like a monastary
- Goblin/Gnome- Urban Ranger- Someone raised in a city.
- Half-Elf/Tiefling- Golden-Blooded- The nobility.

Run the DMG2 option for no treasure, but give the players one 'free' healing surge and action point to be spent per level. Grant them one 'treasure daily' power to be used as per the dailies covered in the treasure section of the PHB, but fluff them on roleplaying actions, combat styles and achievements.

Re-fluff most of the monsters in the MM as humans from various backgrounds- this works great for orcs, hobgoblins, etc and even unexpected creatures like behemoths (just make them medium sized).

...anyway, reading back on your ideas it sounds like the low-magic specrum concept may clash. But this may be helpful for ideas.

 

[Chainsaw]

...anyway, reading back on your ideas it sounds like the low-magic specrum concept may clash. But this may be helpful for ideas.

Thanks for taking the time to share your ideas. Truthfully, I haven't quite decided exactly how much magic/science to include - I'm just mixing-and-matching ideas as they pop up until I find a combination that kinda fits.

I do like your ideas about reskinning humans by using the race mechanics as backgrounds. This somewhat resembles the rules in a link posted earlier and seems to be the simplest way to limit the Mos Eisley Cantina-effect without losing the variety of built-in race differentiating mechanisms.

 

[Garthanos]

- Re-fluff the different races to present different backgrounds. I basically ran it as follows:

- Deva - Cloistered- Someone raised in an environment like a monastary

I think with this one you miss-fired completely ... Deva fit as classic archetype.... the reincarnating heros like king Arthur and Elric who have ideas and ideals that dont fit there time and place memories (or other sources of special knowledge) giving them burst of insights beyond normal ken...
Note in S&S universes they oft find themselves self outcast or simply losing the game because they just dont quite fit the world in which they wander.

In Lord of the Rings universe we have a Deva named Gandalf front and center but he gives it a different cast all together...he is the divine creature made incarnate who's ideals and special knowledge of many eras of history allow him to act as a guide for true mortals.