In the Works: February and Beyond

[Vael]

What confuses me about making a vampire class is that I can't quite grasp what stat to base them on. Depending on which vampire lore you run with to build the class, they could be stealthy (DEX), preternaturally strong (STR), beguiling (CHA), etc. I can justify nearly every stat as primary.

Still, I'm not opposed to a vampire class, it offers a different way to build a character. And, depending how the class turns out, I'm so tempted to make one based on Spike (before his defanging).

 

[Wednesday Boy]

Maybe it'll follow some of the Templates and use your Primary Ability. I'd be a very different way of designing a class but could be interesting.

 

[Samir]

Do we know for sure if the classes in Heroes of Shadows will be Essential-ized?

The reason I ask is because it's a hardcover book, and doesn't have the Essentials logo anywhere on it... that gives me the slightest bit of hope.

 

[Jhaelen]

What confuses me about making a vampire class is that I can't quite grasp what stat to base them on. Depending on which vampire lore you run with to build the class, they could be stealthy (DEX), preternaturally strong (STR), beguiling (CHA), etc. I can justify nearly every stat as primary.

It will depend on your bloodline: E.g. as a Toreador you will use CHA, while Gangrel use WIS.

The power system for Vampire characters will be similar to the psionic system: They have to spend blood points from their blood pool to use them. However they can regain blood points by sucking their opponents dry.

Also, vampire characters get a new stat called 'Humanity' replacing alignment which is reduced whenever they commit atrocious acts. It will be quite important for them, since it determines when they turn into an npc.

Personally, I think the concept is quite original and unique. It makes me wonder why nobody thought of something like this before.

 

[TerraDave]

setting aside the mechanics...

There is a point were a "vampire" that doesnt fear sunlight, doesn't crave the blood of innocent sentients, doesn't sleep in a coffin, hangs out with garlic eating paladins...just becomes a tiefling (or in this case warlock) that needs a tan, or an eladrin (I mean rogue) with sharp pointy teeth.

 

[Zaran]

Do we know for sure if the classes in Heroes of Shadows will be Essential-ized?

The reason I ask is because it's a hardcover book, and doesn't have the Essentials logo anywhere on it... that gives me the slightest bit of hope.

You have a point and I don't know why they would change the format for the shadow book and ten go back to the new format for the rest except that they might not want to box it up. I do know that mearls said that essentials is the direction 4e is going and that the preview we got of the book was all in eClass form.

 

[Knightfall]

I would prefer vampire be a theme or template for a standard campaign. However, since Heroes of Shadow seems to be built around the idea of a Shadowfell campaign, I can see why WotC wanted a vampire class.

 

[Barastrondo]

setting aside the mechanics...

There is a point were a "vampire" that doesnt fear sunlight, doesn't crave the blood of innocent sentients, doesn't sleep in a coffin, hangs out with garlic eating paladins...just becomes a tiefling (or in this case warlock) that needs a tan, or an eladrin (I mean rogue) with sharp pointy teeth.

True, but particularly when you set aside the mechanics, this point is awfully hard to point to on a map, as it moves around a lot depending on observer.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Because a Vampire has enough special vampire powers that focusing on improving/mastering them is a full time experience in itself.

Most of the normal races don't have enough added abilities to do this, so they can focus on using their racial talents to improve other aspects of their life.

IE the elven knight we saw earlier, or racial feats, or powers, etc...



Or since, this is a game after all- when someone decides to write up a penultimate ELF class or or something, then we'll be able to use that character.

Nothing forces them to make a Vampire race that adheres to the same format as existing races. It is after all rather a different thing. In fact I'm not sure it really fits into any of the existing mechanical bins. Just make it a unique thing that provides a set of powers and features which can be subbed in in place of class powers/features on a one-for-one basis. Maybe it takes up your MC feat slot or something, though that would make it an annoying thing to add to an existing character.

Still, it could be its own mechanical thing, something that COULD be added to a character either at creation or even later during the character's career. That would allow for becoming a vampire at any point and as a 'mix-in' you are still an elf ranger or whatever, but also a Vampire and you can pick blood sucky powers or ranger powers (or maybe you just retain your existing ranger powers and can only get new stuff from Vampire, or whatever).

In effect it WOULD be mechanically very close to being a class, but without the awkward mechanical implications of that. You could slowly retrain into Vampire powers, which would have obvious RP significance as well.

I mean normally I'm not a big fan of new types of mechanics just for the sake of having more mechanics, but some things really do warrant their own unique treatment. Besides, it isn't like there aren't potentially many other similar 'mix-ins' that could exist. Lycanthropy is the obvious one, but a character warped by the Far Realm could become an Abberant, etc. Seems like it is warranted to me and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't fit well within the overall pattern of the 4e system design. Sure, you can think of various munchkin problems that could arise, but the DM is going to pretty well control access to any mix-in like that via story elements.

 

[Herschel]

This is (unfortunately) nothing new. For example:

I dunno about DMs in general, but while the DROW race intrigues me and is the one reason I've seen so far for me to even glance at this book, I don't want to have to deal with the type of player who is going to become absolutely welded to this character. Specifically, there is a type of player who will only ever want to play a DROW once they become available and who will try and force the character on any game no matter how inappropriate it is. IME this player will likely also be annoying (as will the character as they play it) even before you have to deal with it in multiple campaigns in a (d)row, and this is going to lead to the player not being able to get into / stay in games, which means he's always there when you want to start a new game.