Challenge! I want to convert your concept!

[Thasmodious]

I think I know better than you what is part of my concept is not.
In a more mechanical term the concept is:
- Good sword/spearfighter
- Good Archer
- Access to buffing and support magic. Doesn't even have to be high level

Reflavoring magical at will attacks as archery? Thats too far of a stretch. Magic is for buffing, not attacking.
Pbartender's post shows nicely that in 4E mixing of two "roles" is possible, but three like in this case is tricky.

PS: Archery was a very important part of the samurai, maybe even more important than the skill with swords.

Just by those three bullet points, ranger/wizard is the obvious choice, both melee and ranged powers, wizard multiclass feat and utility power swap for shield, expeditious retreat, or dimension door, paragon multiclass for more wizard powers if you need them.

That said, reflavoring in that manner is not a stretch, its part of the system. It's addressed in the DMG and is part of the guidelines for this exercise that the OP posted. Staff implement becoming a longbow is not much of a stretch at all. The staff is already the only implement that can be wielded as a weapon. As for reflavoring spells as archery, ever seen the old DND cartoon? That's been with us a long time. Firing your ranged spells through your long wooden bow is a very minor difference from firing them through your long wooden quarterstaff.

 

[Thasmodious]

Fistwraps +1.

As for proficiency...allow someone to trade Martial Weapon proficiency for Unarmed Proficiency. Due to the low damage, I think a +3 or even a +4 is justified.

Player of mine had a concept for his first 4e character that involved a monk like unarmed combatant. So we decided he could take weapon proficiency (unarmed) and move it from the improvised to the military category with a +3 prof bonus. Weapon focus gave him a damage boost. And I had thought some magic gauntlets would be a good plan.

Then he decided he's rather resurrect an old character of his in 4e. So we made that one (a gnome barbarian) instead.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Thanks, forumboss. I'm glad you were here to tell me what to stop posting. So, when did you buy the site from Morrus?

I'd like to run a S&S game styled after Clark Ashton Smith, thank you very much. And I would have no expectation that the PCs would be good or ethical (they would be free to do as they pleased).

Previous editions were flexible enough to allow this kind of campaign. Why isn't this one? If ALL it does is "Tom Clancy's Lord of the Rings" then what good is it?

I don't know about anyone else, but I personally don't understand why you believe this can't be done. The core story assumptions do not prohibit your assumptions.

Are all the mechanics there? For PCs, no. You may have to build some of those yourself. Some suggestions have been offered for how to do that. If you do not like those suggestions, perhaps give it a try yourself. If you do not like 4th edition mechanics, do not play it.

The suggestion that only one type of fantasy game (a suggestion that you seem to have leveled with an incredibly condescending tone) is to me absurd. As I said before, core story does not invalidate what you do. It is easily ignored and replaced. Did you feel beholden to the 3rd edition pantheon? Why would you feel beholden to the elemental chaos or Angel backgrounds or the extreme prominence of Orcus? If you do not like those things, they are just as easily removed as any past edition.

 

[PrecociousApprentice]

- I'm a wandering minstrel, who tells stories and performed for the masses. My gilded tongue and skill with the lute enables me to encourage friends and captivate foes. In a pinch, I can survive through my skill with a blade, by the deft lift of a few coins, or by beguiling another with a bit of distracting illusion magic.

• You are a wandering minstrel. You are awesome. No need to roll for that! If you do want something important, or there's a conflict, then you need to roll to resolve that.
• Play a Warlord.
• Train Theivery by taking Pact Initiate.

This is briliant.
I have suggested before that the Warlord MCed with a Fey Pact Warlock would be a better Bard than the Bard ever was, but I did that before I had actually seen the rules. This is the first time I have revisited this thought since I got the books. I had never thought that you could get some of the skill requirements for a Bard concept through the MC feat. You could take Arcana (Int), Bluff (Cha), History (Int), Religion (Int), Streetwise (Cha), Thievery (Dex), and others, any of which fit the Bard idea. MCing wizard is also a good choice, but you are stuck with Arcana.

 

[Mallus]

How about a Gelatinous Cube monk --he's an NPC from my current game, a former gladiator and political candidate named Glutinous Maximus. Granted, he broke 3.5 a wee bit, but sadly, not by much...

... I suppose you could write him up a 4e monster. That would work.

 

[theNater]

What about my character? Are you going to conveniantly ignore those that you would otherwise fail to convert effectively?

Let me make it easier for you: He's an evil wizard with superhuman intelligence who plots world domination via dark supernatural magic and minions. He is the archatypical villain who sits in his dark tower waiting for the heroes to drop by so they can be vanquished and he can laugh manically. If 4E can't fullfill this archetype, I worry about the game.

Thank you for the synopsis, it helps.

To aquire superhuman intelligence, you need only start with an 18 intelligence, put one of your ability points into intelligence every chance you get, and take the Demigod epic destiny for Divine Spark. This will net you a 28 intelligence by level 28.

Supernatural magic is what wizards do, it can be reflavored to be dark by replacing all colors in flavor text with either "black" or "dark". For example, Magic Missile(1): You launch a black bolt of force at an enemy.

Minions are a little bit harder(see guideline 4), but we can get a little minion work out of some of the spells with the conjuration keyword. I like to think of Bigby's Grasping Hands(15) as summoning a very large ogre who is mostly invisible and intangible.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Good try! My assessment:

Druid

Probably want to start with wizard. Ice Storm(9) and Chain Lightning(23) are directly on point for the storms of ice and lightning, and Web(5) reflavors into entanglement by roots and vines very nicely. Shield(2) can blow a volley of arrows headed for you off course. You can get animals to do your bidding(for certain values of "your bidding") with the Animal Messenger ritual,and get information from them through Commune With Nature. Your Mage Hand(cantrip) can be an enchanted monkey, pelican, or other animal, and Mordenkainen's Sword(9) can be a large snake, too slippery to strike, biting at your foes. As Craith pointed out, there are a number of warlock abilities that use roots, vines, and thorns in impressive ways.

Grade: B. The animals don't work, as they aren't persistent.

Necromancer
Life-Stealer, the infernal warlock paragon path, is quite good at ripping the life force from the living and feeding on it. It also comes with Life Spark Summons, which lets you bring a creature you've killed back as a zombie for a round. You can also multiclass into cleric; three feats lets you get Astral Defenders(9) to serve as your swords and Knights of Unyielding Valor(10) to serve as your shields. They default to ghosts, but you can reflavor them to skeletons or zombies if you like.

I am aware that this is not exactly a permanent army of zombies, but, y'know, guideline 4.

Grade: C+. Again, lack of persistent minions, plus let's face it: there isn't much in the way of necromantic magic in 4E.

Bard
Warlords are all about encouraging friends, and have plenty of skill with the blade. If your stories are true, Diplomacy will help you tell them with social grace, if they are made-up, you can Bluff folks into believing them. Diplomacy's a class skill, so that's probably the way to go. You'll need to spend a feat to get Skill Training in Thievery, but when you need to lift coins, there's no substitute. If you have time for your illusions, the rituals Hallucinatory Item and Hallucinatory Creature will serve you well, if you're in more of a hurry you'll need to multiclass into wizard for Disguise Self(6), Mirror Image(10), or Blur(10), whichever suits you best.

Grade: B+. The illusions are impractical given casting times, but the rest is spot on.

Enchanter
Warlocks revel in working in the shadows, sometimes even bringing the shadows to them as with Shadow Veil(2). The fey pact in particular has a large number of mind-warping spells, ranging from Eyebite(1) to Curse of the Twin Princes(25). Delusions of Loyalty(19) and Curse of the Dark Delirium(29) can cause a target to do your bidding, and while delirious he probably doesn't even know what he's doing, much less who is bidding it.

Grade: D. The word "shadows" must have misled ... this is intended to be pure enchanter territory. I find the mindwarping spells a bit minimal.

My frustration with 4E (besides fluff changes): they added things I didn't need (like dragonborn) and removed/severly diluted options I've had in multiple previous editions (druids, bards, enchanters, necromancers, illusionists ...)

 

[NMcCoy]

Here's a curveball: I'd like to see some characters from Super Smash Bros. Brawl statted up. I want to run a Subspace Emissary campaign. I'm not trying to prove anything; this is honestly something I want to try out. Feel free to reflavor copiously, of course, and even alter/create new powers, but try to keep to the four roles.
(If I recall correctly, the general consensus was that Mario was an unarmed swordsage in 3.5.)

An observation: Lucas can pretty much be statted as a straight-up level 1 Human Wizard.
PK Freeze = Icy Terrain
PK Fire = Scorching Burst
PK Thunder = Magic Missile, substitute electricity for force
Close-range Psi attacks: Thunderwave (swap force for thunder)
I'd do PK Starstorm as a daily: Int vs. Reflex, 2d6+Int Radiant damage to all enemies in a Close Burst 4, half on a miss.
The stick is a staff, obviously.

 

[moritheil]

Not necessarily...

In 4E, the DM could just as easily say, "Skill Challenge time! To sneak past the guards using your ninja magic, first make an Arcana check. If it succeeds, you then can make Stealth checks against their Will defense, instead of their passive Perception to represent your ninja magic. There are six guards, between here and the Lord's bed chambers, so you'll need 6 successes get there without begin noticed. 3 failures means the entire castle is alerted."

Done.

I'm getting that there isn't really a divide between skill checks and Will saving throws. Still, you're leaving it up to the DM to play nice and adjudicate that, aren't you? In 3.x with the beguiler/rogue divide it's hardcoded, so to speak. Furthermore there's no way to fail in 3.x if you become invisible and they can't see invisibility. (Invisibility was +20 while moving, more while stationary, and I'm assuming your beguiler's hide skill is at least comparable to their spot, since usually it's higher.)

I would argue this is a good thing because it forces a choice. The DM needs to actually have an NPC guard of note to beat you with a skill check going up against your magic, or an NPC mage, or risk allegations of contrivance.

I mean, I understand the basic concept of on-the-fly check assigning and handwaving everything while assigning flavor. I did a lot of it in storyteller systems like White Wolf, Exalted, or In Nomine. It's just not what I come to DnD for, because those other storyteller systems already exist.

 

[moritheil]

6. The DM handwaves it. (This is a less lame answer than it seems.)

But it's hardly a merit of the system.