Anyone have a concept for a Divine striker or controller?

[Cmarco]

Divine Striker: Holy Slayer (prestige class from Dragon magazine. Could be reconcepted into a base class) or Crusader... makes me think for Kratos from God of War.

Divine Controller: With a little rearrangement and reconception, I'm sure Favored Soul could fit the bill. Perhaps somewhat Moses like... as long as he gets "sticks to snakes" I'd be happy.

 

[Satori]

Monks are ALWAYS divine in nature IMC...except when Psionics are involved.

I like the idea of a Divine Monk Striker, with the plate wearing Paladin as a Defender.

 

[Dark080matter]

There was a pretty good proposal of a Divine Controller in this thread over on the Wizards Forums (sadly dead Thread now though). It's concept was for a class whose mechanics would be really quite different to a simple "re-flavored Wizard," and whatever happens with the Controller role in the future I sincerely pray we don't see simple rehashes of the Wizard class in other power sources. That would just be sad (and unimaginative) as hell.

As for a Divine Striker... I kinda feel like the Striker role is one not exactly suited to the Divine Power Source, much as other people have said a Controller might simply not fit the Martial souce. I picture the thread running through the Divine power source as being an emphasis on defeating enemies through attrition and a flood of self-buffs/heals. There was some other thread (too lazy to find) which discussed the unique play styles single power source parties might have, and based on that discussion Divine parties would definitely be the "slow and steady" approach to combat tactics, wearing enemies down in longer battles of attrition where the monsters simply run out of health to keep up with a party of Buffed-up, self-healing tanks. (Not to suggest that all Divine characters are Tank-ish, but they all can certainly keep themselves and others in their party alive better than the average class is capable of). A striker would seem to directly oppose that concept.

Then again, we already know that Arcane is getting a Defender (Swordmage). So maybe that whole concept is kinda bunk... I forget if the conclusion that discussion came to was that Defender or Leader was most anathema to the Arcane style of combat.

 

[Dausuul]

The Crusader in the ToB: Bo9S is a Divine Striker.

Bwah? The Crusader is either a defender or a leader, depending on how you build him; he's absolutely not a striker.

While the cleric represents the church, a mustic or prophet would be a more moses-like figure, in a simple robe, robe belt, waving a staff around and screwing with the status quo. There could even be a fair bit of animosity with them, with clerics seeing mystics as iconoclasts and zealots, while mystics see clerics as officious and dogmatic.

I think a prophet or mystic would work well as a divine controller.

I really like this concept.

 

[Surgoshan]

As for a Divine Striker... I kinda feel like the Striker role is one not exactly suited to the Divine Power Source, much as other people have said a Controller might simply not fit the Martial souce.

The monk as a divine striker would be pretty simple, I'd think. He starts out only able to wear light armor, gets his Dex or Cha bonus to his AC and attacks with Wisdom against Will for most of his powers. Instead of focusing on higher damage, like the rogue or ranger, his attacks cause a little damage and debilitating effects, like the warlock. Say an daily power that slows, stun until you make a save, or an encounter power that allows him to move "through" one enemy (a la wuxia swordsmen "flying" around) to get to another.

A martial controller I could see as an alchemist. He reshapes the battlefield... with science!

 

[Olfactatron]

My first thought was monk as a divine striker. I always saw 3e monks as caster killers so the role of striker isn't far off in my mind. If you look at the number and variety of abilities that little stunning fist pool could power by the end of 3e there's certainly a theme built up around the monk of negative status effects and additional damage. Sounds like a striker to me.

As for controller, that's kind of a tough one. Could you do more than switch arcane for divine on the wizard? What if you made the focus of the divine controller AE debuffing? Big areas of -2 to hit or enervation or dazing, along with some damage. Maybe call it mystic or shaman, something that brings to mind cursing people.

A martial controller would also be kind of hard to visulize at first. The goblin piccador in the monster preview is listed as a controller and what he does is uses a harpoon to force enemies to move around the battle field. That's a good start I think. The martial controller should definitely have to have a weapon to make his powers work. Not that I don't like the idea of an alchemist hucking vials and jar around a battle field, the imagery is so cool, but I think to fit the concept of martial you need to be using a weapon not just be non-magical.

 

[Dark080matter]

The monk as a divine striker would be pretty simple, I'd think. He starts out only able to wear light armor, gets his Dex or Cha bonus to his AC and attacks with Wisdom against Will for most of his powers. Instead of focusing on higher damage, like the rogue or ranger, his attacks cause a little damage and debilitating effects, like the warlock. Say an daily power that slows, stun until you make a save, or an encounter power that allows him to move "through" one enemy (a la wuxia swordsmen "flying" around) to get to another.

I don't think what you've described is Divine. Judging by fluff, the 3.5 Monk (and to an extent the Swordsage) gains his powers from what would be best be described as the Psionic power source. He can slow his body when falling, gains poison immunity due to mental mastery of his metabolism, stops aging, can will himself to become ethereal, and eventually transcends physical defects as a Perfected semi-immortal "Outsider." At no point does he invoke the power of the Gods to strike down his foe. IMO, this is Psionics: essentially 'Jedi' mental abilities that represent perfection of the mind overcoming the defects of the body. (whereas Martial is by definition the other way around: perfection of the body through physical training and muscle-memory). The path of personal perfection that Monks follow is not essentially religious, it is completely Introverted in Self rather than Extroverted towards a Deity. Read the "Religion" section on Monks in your 3.5 PHB to see what I mean.

A martial controller I could see as an alchemist. He reshapes the battlefield... with science!

Maybe... having seen the birth and death of plenty of Martial controller ideas, I can tell you that a lot of people would tend to disagree with the placement of that particular class in the Martial power source. Maybe when Eberron updates it's Artificer (and decides on a power source for him) you'll have a perfect niche for your alchemist.

 

[Surgoshan]

Most of that is fluff, though, right? If you wanted, you could remake the warlock as a divine striker and say he's made a pact with a god instead of a devil.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

My version of a Divine Striker - Guided Hand.

A Guided Hand is a warrior, who in the heat of battle has given himself completely over to his god. This god guides and adjusts the movement of his body and blade.

It isn't uncommon to see a Guided Hand avoid blows that would have been impossible to be done by another. He is also quite adapt at seeing almost divining the patterns of an enemy's movement, weaving and threading his way through as he follows the whisperings of his god till he reaches his target.

As he increases in level, more and more of his self is given over to his god. Causing strikes to deal out divine energy, for his feet to seemingly never touch the ground as he sprints across the battlefield and avoid even more cunning blows.

Given his divine nature he is allowed to procure divine feats to better link with his god and what his god stands for.

 

[Dark080matter]

Most of that is fluff, though, right? If you wanted, you could remake the warlock as a divine striker and say he's made a pact with a god instead of a devil.

Yeah, that is indeed true. With sufficient background and justification I wouldn't particularly mind a player doing this in one of my games for example. So long as the actual power rules and such aren't completely incongruous (something tells me mocking up a "Divine pact" using the rules for, say, Infernal would be a pretty bad choice for this character, for example )

But on the other hand, it would seem that 4e is making Power Sources distinct sources of rules systems: for example Wizards still have "micro-Vancian" Daily preparation, and the Divine classes get special class abilities related to a subset of "Divine Channeling" per-Encounter powers. Another example would be the Fighter receiving his/her "Reliable" Dailies... although so far we haven't seen other Martial classes with Reliable powers I have a hunch it will be a significant trend overall in the Power source (that's just my guess).

So in practice, were a Divine Striker to be made it would probably be mechanically different from a Striker from another Power Source, more than just fluff at any rate.

My version of a Divine Striker - Guided Hand.

Hey, not bad at all. It sounds like a good character concept, but aside from supernatural-prescience letting him dodge blows however, what other specific class traits might set this class apart from just a reflavored Artful Dodger Rogues however?