A Scheme by any other name

[Kzach]

There has been some debate about adding a similar mechanic to other classes based around the idea of rogue schemes. This poll is just to see how popular that idea is.

My personal take would be to have schemes for rogues, domains for clerics, schools for wizards and stances for fighters. But that's not what the poll is about. It's more about the concept of there being a similar 'scheme' for all classes, regardless of what they're called.

 

[Kzach]

Rogue: Schemes.

• Thief
• Assassin
• Scout
• Scoundrel
• Pirate

Fighter: Stances.

• Sword & Board
• Zweihander
• Dual-wielder

Wizard: Schools.

• Necromancer
• Transmuter
• Abjurer

Cleric: Domains.

• Sun
• Justice
• Healing

Warlock: Pacts.

• Dark
• Fey
• Celestial

 

[DEFCON 1]

I don't think they are necessary for the other classes. The schemes look to primarily be about giving additional skills to the rogue over and above the 4 you get with your background (or 3 and a language). As rogues are the skill classes, they're the ones who should get the additional skills and the extra ability or two.

After all... the clerics and wizards get spells instead of 3 skills and a pair of abilities... and the fighters get additional combat ability (based upon what has been said, inferred, and reverse engineered). The 1st level fighter gets +2 attack due to weapon proficiency, +2 damage due to weapon focus, and an additional +1 attack / +2 damage (currently unidentified on the playtest character sheets) due to apparent fighter special ability.

So giving all of them domains/schools/stances to match the schemes seems unnecessary.

 

[Savage Wombat]

The question, effectively, is - are characters allowed to have any abilities (beyond the base class abilities) which are not available to all classes? If you get all other specializations from background and theme, then any other class can do those things too if they choose.

Personally, I like the idea that there are a few powers you have to be a fighter to get.

 

[Agamon]

Scheme and theme not only rhyme, they overlap, and I don't think they'll both make it out of the playtest process intact. And I'd put my money on theme.

 

[variant]

The question, effectively, is - are characters allowed to have any abilities (beyond the base class abilities) which are not available to all classes? If you get all other specializations from background and theme, then any other class can do those things too if they choose.

Personally, I like the idea that there are a few powers you have to be a fighter to get.

Not all themes are open to everyone, some are restricted. There are abilities listed in the 5e playtest fighter that are fighter only.

 

[1of3]

No. One of the easiest traps in game design is needless symmetry. Maybe it will appear to be useful for a great many classes to have such a subclass, but maybe there will be others that appear to work better in another matter.

Looking at 4e, some the choices were rather artificial.

 

[Minigiant]

NO!

Schemes are for Skill monkey classes only.
Other classes have themes, spell choice, and weapon choice that determine their variation.


Rangers, bards, and maybe monks.

 

[Kzach]

To all those people saying no to schemes for other classes, it seems that you're all hung up on the skills aspect. I kinda thought it wasn't needed to be said but that each class would have their own version of schemes and that they wouldn't exactly mirror rogue schemes.

The purpose of the rogue schemes is to add skills because they're a skill monkey class. The purpose of other, scheme-like, additions to classes would therefore be tailored to suit the class. For instance, a wizard 'school' would perhaps give one extra spell slot per level that can only be used for a spell of the school, and it comes at the cost of something else. A stance for a fighter might give the ability to make opportunity attacks against targets attacking allies or something.

 

[variant]

It doesn't matter if they get skills from them or not, they don't all need them. Wizards don't need Schools, Fighters don't need Stances, Warlocks don't need Pacts, etc. If you go down the road that every class needs something similar you are just going to end up with a mess.