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Message: <blockquote data-quote="circadianwolf" data-source="post: 5090769" data-attributes="member: 87990">First of all, you get a lot of points for merely trying to write a class, by the far the most complex and difficult aspect of 4E homebrew. I like the idea of a class based on runes/glyphs (and apparently WOTC does too, given that there's a new Runepriest class coming in PHB3).There are as fuzzlewump points out a number of confusing and ambiguous elements to the current version of the class. I think a lot of these are simply due to unfamiliarity with the design guidelines that underlay 4E's classes (understandable, given they've not been released to us of course, leaving us to reverse engineer them). A short list would include<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Master Ritualist: Halving all rituals' costs affects the game economy and magic item balance greatly by making items cheaper via Enchant Magic Item.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spell Circle: Boost: A bonus to attack rolls or defenses for all encounter, every encounter is greatly overpowered. I would try something like this:</li> </ul> With a corresponding Circle of Destruction giving a allied bonus to damage rolls while in the burst. (These would be the two different build options.) <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Glyph of Rebuking: Dazed (save ends) is a vastly overpowered condition for an at-will effect. Save ends effects are almost never seen on encounters, let alone on at-wills, and dazed is one of the most powerful conditions in the game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Glyph of Heroism: Level 1 encounter attacks are generally either 2[W] damage or the equivalent of two attacks (or one attack with a significant condition). This power is 2[W] plus any number of additional attacks, but even a conservative 1 ally is still overpowered for this level. A balanced version would deal 1[W] damage with an effect of one adjacent ally making a melee basic attack.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Attacks should be based off of one ability score, or, if two, the powers should be clearly delineated between them, as most characters will almost certainly use only either one type of power or the other (as with clerics, warlocks, paladins, etc.--note all these examples are from PHB1 for a reason, which is that WOTC has decided rightly that classes with two different attack stats are weaker than those with only one). Riders can use one or two secondary stats or the same stat used as attack, but they should be logical--that is, all riders for one build should be based on one stat (e.g., Protection powers have Wisdom riders and Destruction powers have Constitution riders, or something).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The ambiguous daily effects, as fuzzlewump mentions.</li> </ul>Leaving aside these issues, which are mainly balance and easily ironed out with editing, there are two main concerns I have with the class:a. The class is apparently inspired by runes and glyphs and most of the powers feature those words in their names, but there's no actual mechanic involving them (despite the suggestion of it in the feature's "as long as you have any rune, glyph, or circle active in the current encounter" clause, which has no meaning in the current class write-up). Thus I would focus on figuring out what exactly about the ideas of runes and glyphs you like and how to create a mechanic that incorporates those ideas so that they aren't simply different versions of other leader powers with different names. Glyphs, runes, and circles suggest zones to me, perhaps with at-wills featuring the underused "area 1 square" range (currently only seen in the wizard's Cloud of Daggers). Thus perhaps:orMy other thought was something similar to the vestige warlock or cosmic sorcerer, whereby diabolists have a stable of runes/glyphs they can activate on themselves to gain different bonuses on powers. For instance, activating the Circle of Protection might allow for riders such as this on attack powers:b. This is a leader class without the now nigh-inevitable 2/encounter minor action surge heal. This isn't wrong, necessarily; in fact I think it's a really interesting idea you've presented, to have a leader that heals in small amounts through at-wills rather than in bursts through encounters. (The shaman is similar, although this takes the concept much farther.) Unfortunately it's a very difficult concept to execute due to 4E's dependency on its healing surge system: healing through these at-wills completely obviates healing surges, which are a DM's primary means of controlling the length of the adventuring day. Without a need for surges a party can essentially continue on indefinitely (though without recharging daily powers).Thus my suggestion would be to maintain the at-will healing idea, as I do think it's very innovative and worthwhile to pursue, but figure out a way to integrate it with the healing surge system. Unfortunately I can't offer any suggestions in this regard; I've been thinking about it throughout the evening (I really like the idea) and have been unable to come up with a satisfying solution.</blockquote>

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