Arcana Evolved/Diamond Throne conversion

[WhatGravitas]

The classes will take far longer, I guess. (And I tend to think the Magister = Wizard.)

Needs more healing then. The magister strikes me more as a Controller with Leader traits, whereas the 4E wizard leans towards Striker.

The greenbond is, of course, pretty mich a reflavoured cleric, with carnivorous plants and animal spirits instead of astral defenders and so on.

Warmain is pretty much the fighter, the unfettered a rogue, the paladin could need some variety or "builds" to emulate the champion. I guess the real challenge is the akashic, as he's a jack-of-all-trades.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Needs more healing then. The magister strikes me more as a Controller with Leader traits, whereas the 4E wizard leans towards Striker.

The greenbond is, of course, pretty mich a reflavoured cleric, with carnivorous plants and animal spirits instead of astral defenders and so on.

Warmain is pretty much the fighter, the unfettered a rogue, the paladin could need some variety or "builds" to emulate the champion. I guess the real challenge is the akashic, as he's a jack-of-all-trades.

Cheers, LT.

Akashic and Witch, and probably also Totem Warrior, are the hardest.
I am seriously considering making Witch a mix of feats and Paragon Pathes instead of a unique class. The different types of witch are very different. Alternative is to make it a Hybrid class, but I am not sure I like that approach.

Champion = Paladin, with some different powers.

Akashic might be something akin to a Warlord, but with different "build" options and a few reflavoured attack and different utility powers.

All this is assuming that one would want to keep the roles at all, since Arcana Evolved was a a way to remove strict roles per class...

 

[WhatGravitas]

Akashic and Witch, and probably also Totem Warrior, are the hardest.

The witch is, IMHO, suffering from the fact that it was a pretty murky class in AE as well - nice flavour... but a bit like the 5th wheel - it dabbled a lot.

Akashic, well, I think an akashic could be a bit like a warlord, as you said, (remembering tactics) with some more supernatural, but subtle, abilities, like telepathy (reading memories of the last seconds and so on), giving it a bit of a more flexible slant (though he should stay the hell out of high-damage territory).

Totem warrior screams "builds" - if you adhere to the powers of your build (like the warlock), you get more out of it.

All this is assuming that one would want to keep the roles at all, since Arcana Evolved was a a way to remove strict roles per class...

I think the roles are a nice way to classify the main job of a class - in AE, the classes had also a certain niche, the warmain was usually the frontline guy and so on.

But, in the AE spirit of "more option, more choice", I think it would be better to do a more graded system - a class would get its main role, like 4E, but also gets powers to do well in the other roles, just less well. And perhaps a sort of "non-role", which it doesn't get - usually.

Under this system, I'd look at it like that:

[B]Class            Main Role     Non-Role[/B]
_______________________________________
Akashic          Leader        Striker
Greenbond        Leader        Defender
Mage Blade       Defender      Leader
Magister         Controller    Defender
Oathsworn        Striker       Controller
Ritual Warrior   Defender      Leader
Totem Warrior    Striker       Leader
Warmain          Defender      Controller
Witch            Controller    Leader
Unfettered       Striker       Defender

EDIT: By these "extra roles" beside your main role, I that your powers should tend to gravitate to these roles as extra to the normal effects. For example the warlock in the PHB has a controller-ish slant, if he goes fey (messing with them) or infernal (area effects). In that way, classes should get about four powers per level, two "pures", and one with a slant to the "sub-roles".

That would allow picking up these extra roles relatively painlessly, without compromising the main role.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Update: Part III is online - the Faen.

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I like your class "round-up". I think, though, that the Mage-Blade will be more of a Arcane Striker in my write-up - or I'd just use the Swordmage, once its out.
I also think I like the Unfettered non-role to be something different then Defender - maybe not outright a lightly armored defender, but a small ability to defend sounds nice. But that would only be used if I wouldn't want to stick to the Rogue.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Update: Part III is online - the Faen.

Cool, I've started to comment on this.

I like your class "round-up". I think, though, that the Mage-Blade will be more of a Arcane Striker in my write-up - or I'd just use the Swordmage, once its out.

Yeah, a lot of things in 4E have a strong "AE"-vibe! Rituals, more even power curve...

I also think I like the Unfettered non-role to be something different then Defender - maybe not outright a lightly armored defender, but a small ability to defend sounds nice. But that would only be used if I wouldn't want to stick to the Rogue.

I tried to avoid overlap with the other strikers - plus it was inspired by the rogue. I can see the unfettered (and the rogue) doing moral stuff or pulling of stunts to help his allies and knock his enemies out with throwing daggers (i.e. leading and controlling) more easily than bang-up defending, as in trying draw fire to himself - I see unfettered more of nimble guys always staying out of the way.

Cheers, LT.

 

[SSquirrel]

What about the possibility of having eth secondary ability of the unfettered be Controller? Have him dishing out debuffs , hamstringing guys, etc to keep them contained. I'd love to see some great swashbuckler kind of moves like maybe he tosses his offhand weapon in the air and tricks the opponent into following it, then slugs him w/the sword's guard. Call it Stunning Quickness or something and have it do [W] and opponent dazed stunned for 1.

EDIT:Ok Tirian get out of my head We posted some similar thoughts on knockouts and such at about the same time. I do have to agree that 4E feels a bit more open in some ways like AE did, it's just open in different ways. Instead of having no arcane divine split and all casters able to heal, we have the healing surge/second wind system. Racial importance has moved up like it did in AE, rituals are very prominent, etc.

I respect Monte's wishes to not do an update fest on his old material, but I do think it could be tweaked and made to feel very similar in 4E.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Cool, I've started to comment on this.

And I've commented on the comments.

--- New Blog Entry ---
The newest entry is my 4E take on Arcana Evolved Runechildren! This should be material that can be easily plugged into a lot of campaign settings, often not requiring more then some reflavouring...

 

[WanderingMystic]

my take

Akashic
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much to my dismay it looks like this class will have to be build from the ground up

Greenbond
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The Greenbond works well as a re-flavored 4e Cleric, once the PHB2 comes out then the Primal Leader might be better.

Mage Blade

Wait until the Forgotten Realms Players Guide , the Swordmage will hopefully work for this class

Magister

The 4e Wizards works for this class it might not be perfect but its close enough
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Oathsworn

No ideas at this time

Ritual Warrior

It saddens me to say but with the changes made to 4e I don't think this class is necessary.

Totem Warrior
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Use the ranger as a base and create different totems as paragon paths

Warmain

The 43 Fighter is perfect for this roll

Witch

Create a class similar to the warlock with pacts focused on each of the types make the sword and fire abilities at will attack powers

Unfettered

The 4e rogue works perfectly for this power rename some of the abilities and give them rapiers
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[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Oathsworn - I think it might be either a Striker or a Defender. Both makes sense for him - the Striker-Oathsworn swears an oath to fight against something, the Defender-Oathsworn to protect something.

I feel the idea of an unarmored Defender compelling, but I am not sure it works out.

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Any comments on the Runechildren from my blog?

 

[WanderingMystic]

I love the way you have handled rune-children especially runechild perfection 1 and 2. As far as Rune Messiah goes I'm not to sure about it it feels a
bit weak but i will need to look over it some more