Class prognostications please

[TK Lafours]

Here's a few fun questions I'm interested to hear people's answers to.

1. When all is said and done, how many 4e classes do you think there will be?

2. If there are too many, will they start to feel repetitive? Like a regurgitation of the same roles with different fluff?

3. What role/power combinations or entirely new classes are you hoping for (example for me is a Ki melee/short-range controller)?


Rolls: Defender, Striker, Controller, Leader
Power Sources (so far):Martial, Arcane, Divine, Primal, Ki, Psi, Shadow, Elemental.

 

[1of3]

So there appear to be eight classes in every PHB and one in every Campaign PHB. That's nine per year.

 

[Nifft]

5e will contain 5 classes, and they shall be Red, Blue, Green, White and Black.

Red will initially appear most powerful, but Black will be most popular among new players.

Every module will assume the presence of at least one White, but they will be an unpopular class.

Everyone will complain that Blue has too many interrupt effects.

Green will seem benign, if overly complex, but when multi-classed into White, will utterly break the game. The CharOpt board will have many threads dedicated to GoWzilla.

Cheers, -- N

 

[dragonchild]

You'll probably end up with one role with each power source... maybe a few new power sources and maybe a new roll or two... so you're looking at probably 100-200ish by 5th edition. And yes, they're going to get annoying and repetitive and progressively more and more unbalanced.

 

[TK Lafours]

5e will contain 5 classes, and they shall be Red, Blue, Green, White and Black.

Red will initially appear most powerful, but Black will be most popular among new players.

Every module will assume the presence of at least one White, but they will be an unpopular class.

Everyone will complain that Blue has too many interrupt effects.

Green will seem benign, if overly complex, but when multi-classed into White, will utterly break the game. The CharOpt board will have many threads dedicated to GoWzilla.

Cheers, -- N

Sorry, my question wasn't too clear. I mean how many 4e classes will there be. That's an excellent and probably highly accurate answer regarding 5e though.

 

[Nifft]

Sorry, my question wasn't too clear. I mean how many 4e classes will there be. That's an excellent and probably highly accurate answer regarding 5e though.

More like bad skimming on my part.

Anyway, I think we'll see about 7 new classes each year. So how many new classes total? Dunno. Depends how many years between now and 5e.

Cheers, -- N

 

[cdrcjsn]

So there appear to be eight classes in every PHB and one in every Campaign PHB. That's nine per year.

I think this is fairly accurate.

The PHB2 has been announced with 8 classes. The LFR book with one class. They plan on producing one campaign a year.

As for whether or not they'll start to feel alike, does the Swordmage feel like the Paladin or Fighter to you? Rogue feel like a Melee Ranger? If so, then yes. If not (which is my impression), then there will be many ways to express a class and give it a unique feel, even if it shares the same role or power source.

 

[Ipissimus]

-places tongue in cheek-

Infinite. Aside from being able to make up a new power source every year, in the 8-10 years for this edition to cycle out, the video game industry will bring out the next big thing: MVO (Massively Virtual Online gaming). MVOs will enable you to plug your Playstation 4 or X-Box 720 directly into your brain and live in a virtual world.

Thus, to remain competitive in the market, 5th edition will have to focus on LARP. Roleplaying game purists will be stuck with third party support for 4e and no more roleplaying games will be developed outside virtual worlds.