Avatar: The Last Airbender - Bending styles as classes?

[Urizen]

I just noticed this thread, and thought I'd post to it.

My company is putting out a 30 level elementalist class in our upcoming Scarrport: City of Secrets mini-setting book.

The elementalist class lets you focus on whichever of the 4 elements you like.

IMHO it's perfect for an Avatar: the last air bender type of game.

You can check out the class in this thread.

All the powers from the heroic tier are in it, and a few from the paragon tier.

Some changes have been made since I first created this preview, but all in all, I think it will give you a good idea of what the elementalist class is like.

 

[fissionessence]

At Silent7Seven.com you can download for free a pdf of Katara as both a monster and PC. She's level 3 (season 1 version), using the cleric as a base, but pretty much pulling powers from anywhere and reskinning ones that need to be reskinned. Plus, there's a magic item, her Pure Water Pouch, that generates a water whip for her to use as a weapon.

It's not a template for building any bender class, but you could develop it further if you wanted to play a healing waterbender.

~ fissionessence

 

[Garthanos]

At Silent7Seven.com you can download for free a pdf of Katara as both a monster and PC.

Thats very nice! yours?

 

[fissionessence]

Yep

~

 

[Garthanos]

Well if you look at the show, benders are clearly tiered.

"I'm a bender!" benders (no real combat bending NPC)
Basic Soldier Benders (blast at-will Minions and templated soldier NPCs)
Benders with names (bending class)
Main characters (bending class plus paragon path)
Avatar (epic bender)

I'd go for 1 class per element and paragon paths for the unique stuff (water healing, lightning bending, metal bending, plant bending)

Very good call on that one ... The avatar is out of the box a multi-class bender with some sort of accelerated learning curve to become epic fast ;-)

 

[Kord's Boon]

All the suggestions so far have been good, and the multiclassing idea is great.

I'm thinking that each bending class should have its own write-up and features, but draw on the same pools of powers, with the stipulation that they cannot take powers with an elemental keyword other than their own.

I'm also rather curious on how they should be broken down role wise.

From what I saw during the show, all the benders had a substantial controller component: moving enemies around, forcing them to take inefficient actions, area denial, and area damage. In addition, should all the bender use the same primary stat, or can you lump them all into wisdom?

Earth: Does anyone remember a specific example when an earthbender did something 'defenderish', they not only need to be tough, but has some way of making themselves a more attractive target (in other words, what is the mechanism of their requisite marking feature). Also, would strength or constitution be their secondary stat? Wisdom seems to be their primary.

Fire: Striker for primary or secondary role obviously, however considering that it's later revealed the 'life-energy' can act as their power source in addition to aggressive feelings, you might be able to shoulder in the leader roll as well with a little hand waving. Intelligence and Charisma seem to play a larger roll then the other benders.

Water: Leader, Controller, Wisdom and Dexterity/Intelligence I suppose.

Wind: Striker, Wisdom and Dexterity/Constitution maybe.

 

[Ekia]

I'd peg the bender as so:

Earthbenders: Defenders. Con primary, Str secondary.

Waterbenders: Leaders. Wis primary, Dex secondary.

Firebenders: Strikers. Dex primary, Cha secondary.

Airbenders: Controllers. Dex primary, Wis secondary.

I'm not sure why, that's just how I feel about it.

 

[Cwheeler]

I was thinking about this a while ago, and I wrote a few pages of notes while I was working on the subject.

Here are some of the things I cam up with.


SEPARATE CLASSES?

Yes.

While some powers could definitely cross over, I think that different bending styles are probably functionally different enough to warrant different classes. This is mainly because I would like to see the different bending styles have different class abilities.

While there are some powers that could overlap in functionality, this could be executed by having several generic powers available to each of the classes. I would personally shy away from this, as I would love to see each bending style as being functionally different.

PRIME STATS

I worked out the prime stats for each class using two methods:

a) What stats suit the class
b) Looking at the opposite bending style, and not having overlapping stats between the two.

This is what I ended up with:

Fire – Charisma, Dexterity & Strength
Water – Wisdom, Intelligence & Constitution
Earth – Wisdom, Constitution & Strength
Air – Intelligence, Charisma & Dexterity

(Although perhaps Earth and air should swap wisdom and intelligence as their primary stat, due to Air’s nomadic nature, and earth’s propensity to build vast nations and cities, and utilize structured battlefield tactics. what do you guys think?)


ROLES

I spent a while thinking about this one, and came up with a fundamental question – Why couldn’t an air bender be a striker, a controller or even a defender or a leader, if that’s what they’ve trained to do? Certainly, there are instances of striker-like earth benders, and controller-like fire benders. Conceptually, there’s no reason that they couldn’t exist.

But how to make it work? The solution I came up with went something like this:

Rather than creating a separate class for each option, use a structure somewhat similar to the warlock pacts. In addition to choosing a bending style, you pick a role, which decides one (or more) of your class abilities, and offers a bonus to certain powers, much like some warlock powers, but with modifications relating to role. (I believe someone did something similar to this when they where creating a 4e superhero system, but I don’t have the link to that anymore…)


SAMPLE CLASS ABILITY

Ignite Passions.
Using the ignite passions power, a Fire-bending leader is able to get the best out of his troops… by kindling their rage and fury, allowing them to throw themselves into the fray with renewed vigor.

Ignite Passions Fire Leader Feature

You kindle a spark of energy within the target’s soul, spurring them on to acts of heroism… or villainy.
Encounter (Special) Elemental[fire], Healing
Special: You can use this power twice per encounter, but only
once per round. At 16th level, you can use this power three
times per encounter.
Minor Action Close burst 5
(10 at 11th level, 15 at 21st level)
Target: You or one ally
Effect: The target can spend a healing surge and deals an additional d6 damage on their next attack.
Increase the amount of additional damage dealt to 2d6
at 6th level, 3d6 at 11th level, 4d6 at 16th level, 5d6 at
21st level, and 6d6 at 26th level.


POSSIBLE OPTION: Roles and Primary Stats.

If you wanted, it would be possible to have different roles within a bending style focusing on different primary and secondary stats. This would ensure that the characters feel different, and that their role reflected their personality.

It would look something like this:

Fire: Leader: Charisma/Dexterity
Controller: Dexterity/Charisma
Striker: Dexterity/Strength
Defender: Strength/Charisma.

Water: Leader: Wisdom/intelligence
Controller: Constitution/Intelligence
Striker, Intelligence/Constitution
Defender: Constitution/Wisdom.

Earth: Leader: Wisdom/Constitution
Controller: Wisdom/Strength
Striker: Strength/Wisdom
Defender: Constitution/Strength.

Air: Leader: Intelligence/Dexterity
Controller: Charisma/Dexterity
Striker: Dexterity/Charisma
Defender: Intelligence/Dexterity

It might be a little clunky to implement, but it would provide nice variations within the bending styles.


MULTICLASSING

Just a few random thoughts:

No multiclassing into other bending classes.

It could be possible to ‘multiclass’ into another role of your bending style.


THE AVATAR

The Avatar should probably function as a complete character arc, with heroic-tier multiclass-like feats, a paragon path and an epic destiny. I would be quite fun to make.




I’ve got some more notes, but that’s probably plenty for now .

 

[Cwheeler]

Bump!

 

[hobbitguy1420]

I had a similar thought, but came at it from a different direction - have four Bending classes, one for each role, and have selectable class features to represent what element the bender is using to fulfill that role. The reason is this: powers go just as far toward contributing to a class's role as class features do.

Leader classes have a bunch of healing powers, Striker classes have powers that deal more damage, Defender classes have melee-range control and stopping power, Controller classes have long-range control and area effect. I don't know if it'd be possible to devise enough powers to give all four classes all four roles and still offer enough choice to be interesting. However, if you had class by role, with the choice of element modifying the powers to some extent, probably by changing the stat used (say, Fire Leaders tend to use Charisma for their attack roles on powers, where Air Leaders use intelligence) and changing the elemental keywords. Perhaps certain powers could offer bonuses to one element, much like some Fighter powers offer benefits to axe-wielders and others benefit sword-and-board. Say, a Water Leader got better effects from Leader powers that granted healing, a Fire Leader could get better effects from powers that inspire attack, Air Leaders gain improved benefits from powers that grant and improve mobility, and Earth Leaders get a bonus to powers that improve defense.