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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KidSnide" data-source="post: 5574491" data-attributes="member: 54710">To be fair, one of my objectives to creating a skill/nwp/trait mechanic is that, IMO, the thief doesn't really have a proper niche.  This is probably because my D&D games rarely venture into a dungeon, but I see one of the advances in 3e/4e is the realization that all character classes need to have a way of being effective in combat.  This comes with the corresponding (if less well executed) idea that all character classes need to have a way of being effective out of combat.To me, allowing any character class to act as the face, trap-man or scout (with the appropriate ability scores) is a feature.I addressed that briefly up-thread.  I figure that each character class would start with a small number of Traits/NWPs (3-5?) and would gain additional ones at a slow rate determined by class.  In particular, I would expect each class to define one trait that represents the character's background, and allow the character to choose a few others.For example, a clerics might all gain "Ordained Priest" as a trait, which would allow them to use the bonus for knowledge about religion or for social roles in the appropriate contexts.  (GMs would be encouraged to allow players to come up with different appropriate substitute backgrounds -- e.g. hedge mystic or touched by the divine.)  Clerics might begin with two other traits (for a total of 3 to start), and gain another 3 as the character goes to level 20.  For the thief, a character might begin with "Born on the Streets", "Stealthy", "Trapmaster", plus three more, as a default starting set.Incidentally, I am far from certain that this is right for a 4e Muscle / BECMI Bones style game.  The more I'm thinking about this, the more I think it borrows more heavily from Over the Edge and Dogs in the Vineyard than it does from 4e or BECMI.  That's not to say that we can't benefit from other major areas of design improvement in the past two decades, but it's definitely a change of scope.-KS</blockquote>

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