[4e] Theme balance, power and utility and other thoughts. (Spoilers)

[Tukka]

For a while now I've been wondering what other people think of the themes added in Zeitgeist. While my degree of 4e system mastery is not super high, looking at the themes and seeing them in play for a while has allowed me to develop some opinions about them. Now seems as good a time as any to share them, especially since Ryan is soliciting our thoughts for revising the Intro Pack and Part 1 adventures.

Please chip in with your thoughts if you have any. A lot of my thoughts are based on theory (and like I said, I'm not an expert optimizer) and those that aren't are based on a pretty small sample size.

This will contain spoilers, potentially up to and including Adventure 6.

Docker
Flint Prestige +1: This seems to be a pretty minor benefit. Its value depends on the players/DMs being cognizant of the favor system, and using it in a consistent manner. Not bad though.
Docker's Jank: This seems to be a really solid power that will be useful in just about any combat encounter.
Sing Your Praises: This is more situational, but is still quite good. It should scale well into the paragon/epic tiers.
People in the Streets: I don't think I'm a fan of these "count a roll of a 1-7 as an 8" traits. It would seem to obviate the need to roll on these checks for a highly specialized character, unless the DCs are set punishingly high... while not being very good for non-specialized characters. I'll probably replace these traits with something else, but I'm not sure what yet -- naybe the player's choice of a level 6 or lower Skill Power associated with one of the theme's skills.

Verdict: A solidly built theme. A slightly more interesting level 10 benefit would be nice.

Eschatologist
Stabilize instead of die from a failed death save: So far I've found that PCs are at greater risk of dying from HP loss than failed death saves. This trait is obviously extremely good if it's ever needed, but it's highly situational. It will get less good in the higher tiers of play when the characters get access to death-defying class abilities and powers. I also like proactive powers more than reactive ones.
Icy End of the Earth: Cool flavor, but all my players and I feel this power is very marginal and in too many situations it seems like it would be more of a liability than a benefit, especially given how rare it is that enemies have healing abilities or gain temp hp, and how common it is for the players to benefit from such. Make this power a minor action and we've got something more worth considering. Possibly give the eschatologist the option of ending the effect immediately if any creature dies in the zone.
It Will All Turn to Dust: This is a double-edged buff for the Icy End power. It could end up helping either the party or their enemies. It gives give the power some utility value as a poor man's pass wall, but I am not sure how often that will come up.
Details of Our Endings: See my commentary for People in the Streets. Also, the skills it applies to seem a bit less valuable than some others.

Verdict: I think this may be the weakest of the themes in terms of mechanics.

Gunsmith
I have some issues with firearms in general. Mainly because they are based on crossbows, which seem to have spotty support as primary weapons in 4e, and much of the support involves making them easier to reload, which is redundant with Firearms Expertise or does not apply. I am not sure how I'd make a good firearms-wielding character.

Second, and this is somewhat specific to my game, but I give everyone expertise bonuses to all weapons and implements at level 5 as a math fix. Firearms Expertise, however, remains a mandatory feat tax, because reloading as a standard action is not acceptable. I suppose it still works, however, if you think of firearms as superior weapons.

Craft magic firearms and ammunition as enchant magic item: The benefit here seems close to nil, and mainly there to support the flavor of the theme. Usually the PC could just buy or requisition the firearms and ammo in question.
The Man with Two Guns is God: I think this is a good power, though I feel silly whenever I say the name.
Tinker: Part of this benefit overlaps with the inherent bonuses rule, but that's probably not a problem. Between all of the different modifications, every gunslinger ought to be able to find at least one that appeals. I think the alchemical launcher is my favorite, but I fear cartridge loading is the mandatory choice for too many builds, unless you let crossbow-oriented feats that allow loading as a free action to apply to firearms if the player stacks them with the Firearms Expertise feat. Having to keep tracking of how many shots you've fired adds a little bookkeeping, but that's not too onerous, IMO.
Bling: Same as tinker.

Verdict: Not many classes seem built to use crossbows/hand crossbows, as a primary weapon, but that's not really a problem with the theme itself, which I think is solid.

Martial Scientist
Trained in History: History isn't the greatest skill, but I'd never turn my nose up at any free skill training. Also, with the way it's written, it lets a character who has History on his class list train it to open up all of the other skills as being trainable, which frees up a non-theme Background benefit for a +2 bonus (or yet another training not on your class list). So this is a solid benefit.
Proficient in all military weapons: There may be some way to leverage this for a decent buff in some builds, but mostly it will be redundant or a minor perk, which seems about right.
Experimental Strike: The martial scientist in my game has rarely missed with his at-will attacks, and the few times he has, he hasn't remembered to use this power (or he wasn't in position to take advantage of any obvious environmental features). Net result, so far this power has gone unused in my game. Still, this is a cool power, and any power that has the potential to turn a hit into a miss is a nice one. How good it actually is depends a lot on the player and DM.
Martial Mythbuster: A solid extension of Experimental Strike, I know my party's swordmage will like it (but it will give him a bit of a dilemma -- use experimental strike when someone misses him, or save his immediate action for shielding aegis).
Doctor of Modern Warfare: This looks really good to me. The way it reads, it grants proficiency with holy symbols, ki focuses, and all superior implements, weapons and armor, on top of Melee Training. That saves potentially saves the martial scientist 2-3 feats, one of which might be a multiclass feat. For certain builds this feature might be a tad weak or redundant, but for others it seems really, really good.

Surgical Precision (Master training): Wow. The free extra damage is quite good by itself, but weakened is a hell of a condition to impose even for a single round. I'm not sure I would give this power to my player if I were to do it again. I didn't notice how powerful it was when I gave it to him, since I read the Surgical Precision attack and thought that's the power card I was handing him. And this will get used every fight. Maybe this should be a Daily power.
Tentacle Technique: Pretty good, albeit situational (adventures 4, 5 and 6 don't seem to feature creatures with grabbing tentacles, and I'm not sure a power that won't see use for a stretch of 3+ adventures merits space on a character sheet).
Focused Severance: While a fun effect, it's more bookkeeping/tracking for a power that is unlikely to have big impact on whatever battle it's used in.
Dale Assault: Again, I'm not sure I like how this ability adds more tracking/bookkeeping to combat. Also, what it means to "delay the onset of an effect by 1 round" in 4e is unclear. So if an enemy hits you with a fear effect that ends at the end of its next turn, does that mean it has no effect? Or do you offset the entire duration by 1 round? I appreciate what this is trying to do and I like Lt. Dale's shtick, but I do not think I like the implementation.

Verdict: I like the martial scientist theme, but I think aspects of it threaten to be overpowered, and the huge grab bag of abilities add too many options/too much complexity. (It's like the equivalent of giving the martial scientist an extra Rare item every adventure.) I think the martial scientist's combat prowess is meant to offset its relative lack of investigatory/utility perks, but even there, it gets free skill training, which is nothing to scoff at. This is the theme I'd fear most in the hands of an optimizer, especially if he knows about the level 10 benefit at character creation.

Skyseer
Skyseer Vision: Cool, though as a sometimes lazy DM, I wish the AP had a few more suggestions about the kinds of things a skyseer might see and the benefits he might receive for some of the obvious questions he might ask throughout the course of each adventure. The first few visions I gave the skyseer were well-received by my players, but now I am having a hard time coming up with visions that strike the right balance between cryptic and helpful, without getting too repetitive.
Look Skyward: A nice, subtle tactical power. I like it, though I think my players are still trying to figure out how to use it to maximum advantage.
Follow Yonder Star: Another really nice tactical power.
Heirphant's Wisdom: See People in the Streets.

Verdict: Another solid theme. What it lacks in overt power in combat, it might make up for with a critical hint in the form of a vision.

Spirit Medium
Speak with Spirit: Obviously a useful power for an investigator. It gives the party a nice little jumpstart in the Dying Skyseer. It gets a little redundant with the Speak with Dead ritual later, but that's not a serious problem.
Unfinished Business: Good little constables don't kill people, which reduces the number of pportunities to take advantage of this power throughout the first two adventures and possibly others, but this power should see some good mileage in Digging for Lies, especially with the "hits insubstantial" kicker. I've considered buffing this power to let the medium invoke someone who has died within the past 24 hours instead of just the past encounter, but I don't think that will be necessary.
Psychic History: Another good power for investigations, at least in theory. I haven't had an opportunity to see it in action yet and am not sure how it'll pan out. Also somewhat redundant with a ritual, but again, not really a problem.
Spirit Wall: I haven't looked too close at adventures 5 and 6 yet to see if one will crop up, but I can only assume this will be a good power to have in the Paragon and Epic tiers. One concern I have in my game is that our spirit medium is a high-willed mage -- not necessarily an ideal target for dominating effects in the first place, so this one could end up being very situational.

Verdict: Good. It doesn't seem like the steady contributor that some of the other themes are, but when it's good it's quite good.

Technologist
Technical expertise: This turns out to be a pretty handy/clutch ability in some of the adventures. Not bad at all.
Disposable Simulacrum: A nice tactical power. A bit vulnerable to area effect attacks, but so far the AP doesn't seem to feature a lot of those. One thing I'm not clear on is how it works with weapon powers if the weapon uses ammunition. By a strict reading of the rules I guess the technologist's weapon would have to be loaded to attack with the simulacrum, and the attack would use the ammunition. I had a crossbow-wielding artificer/technologist in one of my games and he was pretty strapped for actions at times (though this would eventually be alleviated with feats, the issue would remain if he used firearms, but maybe that's just the price you have to pay).
The Pet It Should Have Always Been: A nice upgrade to the contraption that makes it considerably more practical/usable.
Second Self: Again, good. It should probably now be possible to use Power Points to enhance powers used through the contraption so psionic classes aren't penalized.

Verdict: Another good, flavorful theme. Maybe there should be a feat to give the simulacrum a little more durability, either in the form of more HP or higher defenses.

Vekeshi Mystic
Unseen Court Prestige +1: Although the Vekeshi gets access to some of the juicier side-plots in the published adventures, so far as I can tell, in terms of gaining advantage for the party, this Prestige bump does very little, at least in the first 6 adventures.
Hands of Retribution: A little bland in terms of its mechanical effect, but it seems like a pretty good power without being overpowering. Free action damage is always welcome and it should get invoked fairly often.
Vengeful Gaze of the Goddess: Another useful power for investigators which seems like it should get some solid use in Always on Time. I'm not sure it's quite on par with some of the investigatory theme powers given that you have to see the person first and think to use your Daily power on them before they get out of sight, though.
Relentless Terror: Like I said, not really a big fan of these.

Verdict: The Vekeshi gets some of the best storyline support, but in terms of mechanics it seems slightly ho-hum and lackluster.

Yerasol Veteran
Risur Prestige +1: Of all the Prestige-boosting traits, this one is definitely the best, at least in Part 1 of the Adventure Path, since it means getting your requisitioned items faster. If the group is following the favor system as outlined in the ZPG, this is very good.
Display of Heroism: What a sweet, clutch power.
Courage Under Fire: More awesome clutch goodness, and it's seriously good. It should probably read "when an ally is reduced to 0 hit points, you may gain an action point," because who's going to say no to a free action point, especially when it lets you use another during the encounter. [Edit: Never mind, I suppose a player might choose not to use this power to to save the "extra action" benefit for a tougher encounter later on.]
Call of Duty: No real complaints, this looks good.

Verdict: Very good overall. Clutch but not overly situational.

 

[gideonpepys]

I'm not overly concerned with balance, but with fun, and I agree that some of the level 10 benefits aren't all that much fun. I'm not a huge fan of the (1 to 7 = 8) brace of benefits either, but I actually like having characters with one or two skills that both they and I can rely on. In any case, I altered and adapted the level 10 benefits to suit my group, but these suggestions might make the situation worse if balance is your watch-word:

Martial Scientist - Doctor of Modern Warfare. You become proficient with all weapons, armor and implements. You gain melee training as a bonus feat. If you already have it, you gain a bonus feat of your choice. (No changes here. The range of additional powers you have mentioned makes the theme well worth taking.)



Spirit Medium - Spirit Wall. You can resist possession and psychic influence. You may make a saving throw at the start of your turn to end any effect that is dominating you, even if it does not normally allow a save. Location Loresight. You can also use the object loresight power to grant visions associated with a whole location.



Technologist - Second Self. You can use any at-will or encounter power through your contraption. It follows the rules for an animal companion. (This is a huge boost, but the player in question is not an optimizer and will struggle to squeeze maximum value out of this.)



Vekeshi Mystic - Relentless Terror. Whenever you roll a 1 to 7 on an Endurance or Intimidate check, treat it as if you rolled an 8. Once per day you may nominate a target as subject to a Vekeshi Anathema. Until the end of the encounter you may roll two dice when making attack rolls against this target, and choose the higher result. You cannot opt to subdue the target while using the curse and nor can any of or allies, or the curse ends.



Yerasol Veteran - Call of Duty. Whenever you roll a 1 to 7 on an Initiative check, treat it as if you rolled an 8. Courage Under Fire. When an ally of your level or higher is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer, you gain an action point that you must use before the end of your next turn or the action point is lost. You must see or hear the ally when he or she is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer to gain this feat’s benefit. (This is an improvement on the previous power which allowed you to do so once per day.)



Eschatologist - This is not the End. When you roll an 18 or higher on a death saving throw, you can spend a healing surge as if you had rolled a 20. (I take your point about death saves, and the amount of healing later in the game. But that's, you know... later. Love this theme. Got rid of the history/religion boost because it didn't fit my player.)



Skyseer - Heirophant's Wisdom. When you roll a 1 to 7 on a History or Religion check, treat it as if you rolled an 8. You cannot be surprised.

With regards to skyseer visions, I often provide cryptic clues the player cannot be expected to understand in the moment, but make a note of the situations they apply to and grant a bonus to perception, insight or initiative, or simply a sudden realisation when those situations arrive. That way the plot doesn't get spoiled, but the player still reaps a benefit.

 

[RangerWickett]

I admit we came up with some of the higher powers for the themes a while ago, and I'd forgotten to make a point to create situations that use them. Note to self: add more possession.

I don't want to do too much editing of older content when we do the compilation, but I'll take a second look at the themes. And in hindsight, I kind of want to make firearms normally take a standard action to reload, and still a move action with rapid reload, then have Firearms Expertise just do what Crossbow Expertise normally does.

Only folks with clips would be able to fire a lot of rounds. I was originally hoping to have people carry pistols that they could start off combat with, fire once, then discard and use whatever their main schtick is. But yeah, 4e really does NOT want you to go off-script with your attack options. It's hard to design a gun that a fighter would want to use that a rogue would not be overpowered with.

 

[gideonpepys]

And in hindsight, I kind of want to make firearms normally take a standard action to reload, and still a move action with rapid reload, then have Firearms Expertise just do what Crossbow Expertise normally does.

I think that's a good idea.

Only folks with clips would be able to fire a lot of rounds. I was originally hoping to have people carry pistols that they could start off combat with, fire once, then discard and use whatever their main schtick is. But yeah, 4e really does NOT want you to go off-script with your attack options. It's hard to design a gun that a fighter would want to use that a rogue would not be overpowered with.

This solution won't help anyone who is obsessed with maintaining verisimilitude, but it helps bring more firearms into the game while still using the builder:

You can base firearms on ranged weapons other than the crossbow - specifically heavy thrown weapons. (If you puke in your mouth a little bit at the thought of keying a ranged weapon off strength, then this idea is not for you. If you need a half-baked justification, these powerful guns need a firm grip and a steady aim to absorb the recoil.)

To make guns that a fighter/warlord will use once per combat, but won't imbalance the game, have 'heavy thrown' guns follow the optional rules in the Player's Guide - they do an additional 2W damage but lose the brutal 2 trait. But they also require a standard action to reload as an absolute minimum. No means of speeding that up has yet to be designed, and rapid reload doesn't help. So a fighter gets of a 3d6+x shot in the first round, then switches to melee (or fires his second pistol).

If you introduce these guns partway through the campaign, no one can design a niche build to exploit them.

I also priced these weapons at the base price x200. No one so far thinks that's too much.

 

[Tukka]

I'm not overly concerned with balance, but with fun, and I agree that some of the level 10 benefits aren't all that much fun. I'm not a huge fan of the (1 to 7 = 8) brace of benefits either, but I actually like having characters with one or two skills that both they and I can rely on. In any case, I altered and adapted the level 10 benefits to suit my group, but these suggestions might make the situation worse if balance is your watch-word:

Thanks for your comments and ideas. I'll look into incorporating some of them when my party reaches level 10 (still a ways off, we just finished Adventure 2).

I admit I do like for things to be balanced. Although I do think the Martial Scientist is a bit on the strong side, my main concern is making sure all of the themes have powers that will be fun and useful, and see actual use in the game, without adding too much in terms of complexity and stuff to track.

With regard to having skills the players can depend on, I think that is already the case even without those 1 to 7=8 abilities. Outside of combat and skill challenges, characters can usually take 10 on checks (it's not an option that's emphasized much in 4e, but it's there). When it comes to skill challenges, a specialized character will still tend to succeed on Easy/Moderate checks even with poor rolls.

I don't want to do too much editing of older content when we do the compilation, but I'll take a second look at the themes. And in hindsight, I kind of want to make firearms normally take a standard action to reload, and still a move action with rapid reload, then have Firearms Expertise just do what Crossbow Expertise normally does.

Only folks with clips would be able to fire a lot of rounds. I was originally hoping to have people carry pistols that they could start off combat with, fire once, then discard and use whatever their main schtick is. But yeah, 4e really does NOT want you to go off-script with your attack options. It's hard to design a gun that a fighter would want to use that a rogue would not be overpowered with.

Yeah, that is a bit tricky. Also, a player can use Quick Draw or a battle harness in combination with multiple firearms to partially get around any action-based limitation on their use (gideonpepys's pricing of the guns addresses that somewhat, though).

I also feel that a Gunsmith character who invests a feat or two should be able to use firearms as primary weapons 100% effectively from level 1, so if you do go the route of making Firearms Expertise work like Crossbow Expertise, and have Speed Loader make firearm reloading a move action, I would give Gunsmiths ammo clips at level 1.

That said, I don't firearms are too bad the way the are right now... just a bit awkward. Some level of awkwardness is probably impossible to avoid, though.

 

[Balesir]

You can base firearms on ranged weapons other than the crossbow - specifically heavy thrown weapons. (If you puke in your mouth a little bit at the thought of keying a ranged weapon off strength, then this idea is not for you. If you need a half-baked justification, these powerful guns need a firm grip and a steady aim to absorb the recoil.)

Along these lines, I don't think you need to have STR feed into the To Hit bonus, as such - just have higher damage firearms require a minimum STR score or pick from: (i) they have a penalty to hit, (ii) they put the user prone when fired, (iii) they damage the user when fired or some such.

For multi-shot, you could also use historical-but-weird methods to keep/add some nice flavour. Heavy "multi-barrelled" guns, guns with complete breech-ends that unscrewed after firing so you could screw in a loaded one and guns built into a shield were all tried historically, as were pistols built into axes and "duck's foot" pistols that shot 5-7 balls in a fan shape arc. See here, here and here for a few ideas.

Edit: Woo - here's a good site for ideas! And here.

 

[Isklexi]

I admit we came up with some of the higher powers for the themes a while ago, and I'd forgotten to make a point to create situations that use them. Note to self: add more possession.

I don't want to do too much editing of older content when we do the compilation, but I'll take a second look at the themes. And in hindsight, I kind of want to make firearms normally take a standard action to reload, and still a move action with rapid reload, then have Firearms Expertise just do what Crossbow Expertise normally does.

Only folks with clips would be able to fire a lot of rounds. I was originally hoping to have people carry pistols that they could start off combat with, fire once, then discard and use whatever their main schtick is. But yeah, 4e really does NOT want you to go off-script with your attack options. It's hard to design a gun that a fighter would want to use that a rogue would not be overpowered with.

Anyone that takes feats to reload as not a standard action I assume is using custom made weapon that isn't muzzle loaded. Basically, the first feat that makes it a move action is actually where they learn to modify their gun for cartridge based bullets and how to make/use those kinds of bullets; the second feat that makes it a minor action to reload is where they learn to actually reload their gun really fast. I do agree that free action load time should probably be saved for guns with clips/revolvers and possibly only be available to gunsmiths. If you're going to remove the free action load time from feats, you may want to give gunsmiths the clip upgrade for free to let them choose from the other possible mods from their theme

Gideonpepys' idea for "heavy thrown" guns could be a good one. You could make "handcannon" type pistols designed for one-use stopping power. I'm actually planning on having a minotaur character have something like that as his only ranged attack (it knocks the target prone, so he can close to melee).

 

[Balesir]

Anyone that takes feats to reload as not a standard action I assume is using custom made weapon that isn't muzzle loaded. Basically, the first feat that makes it a move action is actually where they learn to modify their gun for cartridge based bullets and how to make/use those kinds of bullets; the second feat that makes it a minor action to reload is where they learn to actually reload their gun really fast. I do agree that free action load time should probably be saved for guns with clips/revolvers and possibly only be available to gunsmiths. If you're going to remove the free action load time from feats, you may want to give gunsmiths the clip upgrade for free to let them choose from the other possible mods from their theme.

The fastest that a "realistic" muzzle loaded weapon could be loaded would be around 3 shots per minute, or ~3 standard actions(!) It took centuries for breech loaders and cartridges to be developed that could do better - there are a host of snags to overcome (barrel fouling and cartridge fragility while still holding an ignition charge being the main ones).

Luckily, though, we are not in a "realistic" world in this case. The more minor sorts of magic and alchemy - the ones that produce sunrods, tanglefoot bags and "firedust" itself - might help. Prestidigitation effects to clear gun barrels (or just smokeless/non-fouling firedust), sparking effects to "give fire" to the gun's charge and self-engaging closures for revolving breech blocks might all help.

I don't personally like the "clip" possibility - it's just hugely out of step with the rest of the technology - but revolving/switching/multiple barrel systems such as I linked to above might do just as well (while not really being practical as mass military weapons, these fit well with occasional "Master Gunsmith" specialists).

 

[Isklexi]

The fastest that a "realistic" muzzle loaded weapon could be loaded would be around 3 shots per minute, or ~3 standard actions(!) It took centuries for breech loaders and cartridges to be developed that could do better - there are a host of snags to overcome (barrel fouling and cartridge fragility while still holding an ignition charge being the main ones).

That's true. I suppose it would be better to just assume all the guns are breach loading, and the faster reload is from skill. I also agree it would be more thematic to stick to revolver type guns than actual modern clips. I view the Zeitgeist setting as a sort of "early industrial revolution", and that leaves plenty of room for various gun ideas.

 

[RangerWickett]

Proposed changes.

Docker
1st level and 5th level is same as usual.

At 10th level, you gain the ability Audience Participation. Whenever an enemy you're aware of starts its turn, it takes 5 damage for each noncombatant creature adjacent to it that is friendly to you.


Eschatologist
If you choose Eschatologist as your character’s theme, the first time each encounter a creature you’re aware of would die, you may choose to have that creature stabilize instead. If it would have died from damage, it still dies if it takes any more damage before receiving healing.

Additionally, you gain the following power at 1st level.

Icy End of the Earth * Eschatologist Attack
The world shall end in ice. As you sense the closeness of your own mortality, this undeniable doomsday manifests in your presence.
Encounter * Psionic, Cold
Standard Action
Prerequisite: You must be bloodied to use this power.
Effect: You create a stationary zone of unnatural winter in close burst 2, including your own space. Creatures in the zone cannot heal damage or gain temporary hit points. Creatures that start their turn in the zone take 5 cold damage.
Level 11: 10 cold damage.
Level 21: 15 cold damage.
Sustain minor. You must be bloodied to sustain this power. If you are outside the zone, you take 5 cold damage. If you are inside the zone, you can sustain without spending an action. You cannot heal or gain temporary hit points while this power this active.
Special. You cannot reduce the damage this power does to you by any means. Other creatures’ resistances and immunities function normally.

At 5th level, you gain the ability It Will All Turn to Dust. When you use your Icy Ends of the Earth power, you may choose to peel away impermanent physical structures. If you do, within the zone creatures can move through man-made objects and structures that are less than a thousand years old as if they had phasing.

At 10th level, you gain the ability Gaze into the Abyss. When you are dying, your allies gain a +5 bonus to damage rolls.


Gunsmith
Only thing that changes here is the wording of Sniper Scope, and I renamed Silencer to Suppressor.


Martial Scientist
If you choose Martial Scientist as your character’s theme, you gain training in History. If you already are trained in History you may gain training in another skill. You are proficient in all military weapons.

Throughout the campaign you will have the ability to learn new techniques from other martial scientists. Keep track of which techniques you know. At the end of an extended rest, choose any one technique you know. You have access to that technique’s power for the day. At 1st level, every martial scientist starts with the experimental strike technique.

5th and 10th level powers remain the same.


Skyseer
1st and 5th level the same.

At 10th level, you gain the ability Handy Intuition. Once per day as a free action you can have on your person a mundane item that you can carry. An intuition told you to prepare for this moment and have the item on hand. You must retroactively pay whatever costs would have been necessary to get and keep the item. You cannot use this ability if events would have made having the item impossible (such as if you were captured and your possessions seized).


Spirit Medium
1st and 5th level the same.

At 10th level, you gain the ability Ghostly Whisper. You can communicate via telepathy with creatures you are aware of within 10 squares, but you must share a language.


Technologist
No changes. I'm adding a feat to improve the pet's hit points.


Vekeshi Mystic
1st and 5th level the same.

At 10th level, you gain the ability Patient Revenge. There are more important things than immediate victory over your enemies. Whenever you face an enemy you have battled before, you gain temporary hit points equal to half your bloodied value. Additionally, once per encounter when an enemy escapes by moving out of line of sight at least 20 squares away, you may make a vow not to pursue for at least one day. If you do, one ally you can see can spend a healing surge.


Yerasol Veteran
No changes.