One thing I hope for at the release of D&D Next is for a Constitution based class/theme right out of the book.
Traditionally Constitution is a defensive and inactive ability score. It increased/decrease your hit points, your ability to not drown, your marching distance, your resistance to poisons, disease, petrification, and death, and how quickly you get "soooo drunk last night". I'd prefer that at release there is a class or a suite of themes that allow the character to use their Constitution actively.
I had so much fun playing my star-pact warlock after my first PC died. It was fun describing all the sorts of body horror that crazy naive fool endured as his fingers blew off while casting and regenerated shortly after. And describing him throwing his blood as arcane grenades.
In my experience as a gamer, there are usually 3 way the features attributed to Constitution are used actively.
1. Conduits Basically the character uses their body to channel an outside force. The heather you are, the more power you can absorb or channel.
2. Sacrifice. With Sacrifice, the character is the battery and not just the means of conveying the power. Your health and stamina fuels the power or skill.
3. Increased body power With this, your body's toughness and fortitude increases the strength of a natural physical feature it can be used actively. Constitution would affect the toxicity of natural poisons, the power of breath attacks, the sharpness of claws, and the hardness of fists.
Now making Con classes would not be hard as there are many ways to make CON active. The issue is getting them at released. That would require the features that allow CON based activity in manner that is not too contrived or out of place with the default D&D experience. So no X-Men like superpowers without actual magic. I doubt grafting will make the first cut nor do i think Dragonfire adepts could appear as base classes in the fire few books.
The best ways to do this is via Warlocks and/or Monks. Warlocks already have a history of Constitution based abilities and can run as conduits or sacrificial magic batteries without breaking history. Monks could end up wit a few Constitution based active feature by playing up their fists of steel or casting from hit points for do near magical abilities like all out fighting and Charles Atlas powers. Via themes it could be done through a Dragon Disciple theme that as CON-based breath weapons, Spelltouched who can cast through their bodies or a Poisoner theme that grants a natural poison. Backgrounds could have Constitution effect like.... a Drunk background could have Constitution based skill increases when drunk a generic Totemist background that gives you some monster parts as skill bonuses.
What say you all?
Traditionally Constitution is a defensive and inactive ability score. It increased/decrease your hit points, your ability to not drown, your marching distance, your resistance to poisons, disease, petrification, and death, and how quickly you get "soooo drunk last night". I'd prefer that at release there is a class or a suite of themes that allow the character to use their Constitution actively.
I had so much fun playing my star-pact warlock after my first PC died. It was fun describing all the sorts of body horror that crazy naive fool endured as his fingers blew off while casting and regenerated shortly after. And describing him throwing his blood as arcane grenades.
In my experience as a gamer, there are usually 3 way the features attributed to Constitution are used actively.
1. Conduits Basically the character uses their body to channel an outside force. The heather you are, the more power you can absorb or channel.
2. Sacrifice. With Sacrifice, the character is the battery and not just the means of conveying the power. Your health and stamina fuels the power or skill.
3. Increased body power With this, your body's toughness and fortitude increases the strength of a natural physical feature it can be used actively. Constitution would affect the toxicity of natural poisons, the power of breath attacks, the sharpness of claws, and the hardness of fists.
Now making Con classes would not be hard as there are many ways to make CON active. The issue is getting them at released. That would require the features that allow CON based activity in manner that is not too contrived or out of place with the default D&D experience. So no X-Men like superpowers without actual magic. I doubt grafting will make the first cut nor do i think Dragonfire adepts could appear as base classes in the fire few books.
The best ways to do this is via Warlocks and/or Monks. Warlocks already have a history of Constitution based abilities and can run as conduits or sacrificial magic batteries without breaking history. Monks could end up wit a few Constitution based active feature by playing up their fists of steel or casting from hit points for do near magical abilities like all out fighting and Charles Atlas powers. Via themes it could be done through a Dragon Disciple theme that as CON-based breath weapons, Spelltouched who can cast through their bodies or a Poisoner theme that grants a natural poison. Backgrounds could have Constitution effect like.... a Drunk background could have Constitution based skill increases when drunk a generic Totemist background that gives you some monster parts as skill bonuses.
What say you all?
