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Message: <blockquote data-quote="half-dragon dragon" data-source="post: 4475081" data-attributes="member: 51211">After having read the D&D kitbash thread, it reminded me of one thing that I did enjoy from 3E. That was the differing mechanics between some of the 'power sources' in that edition such as Incarnum, Psionics, Shadow magic, etc. While I do like the streamlining that 4E introduced, I did wonder what the different power sources would be like if they used differing mechanics instead of a unified power system.So my question to you kind folks is this: Given a hypothetical D&D and you were asked to design the mechanics behind each of the power sources in 4E, how would you envision them?For an example of what I'm hoping to get from y'all, here are my ideas for each of the power sources (you needn't elaborate on all of them).Martial: Crossroads of skills, feats, and weapons with a healthy dash of ‘freeformity‘. Essentially feats would act as ‘guideposts’ along the character’s fighting style and skills would provide the means of executing maneuvers similar to skill stunts in other games. So one might take the feat Two-Weapon Fighting and use appropriate skills to perform two-weapon stunts.Arcane: Would use a spell-slot system very much like Arcana Evolved’s. Divine: I think it would be cool if this power source had a central mechanic (not sure at the moment) as well as a Domain feature where depending upon the god, the character would be able to dip into another power source. For example, worshippers of Kord would get limited access to the martial power source. Primal: This power source might use a system that blends a bit of the incarnum and pact magic system. Basically the characters would have totems/animal forms that gave a ‘bundle’ of powers dependent on the totem/form.Psionic: I happen to still like the power point system, so psionics would still use it. I’d also keep the augmentation system but tweak how powers were built. In general the powers would fewer and more generic with augments allowing fine tuning of powers.Ki: Not really sure about this one, maybe something similar to martial, or even wrap it up into martial.Shadow: I have absolutely no idea where to begin with this one. Perhaps for the illusions aspect of this power source, a system of mimicking other power sources and determining how real the illusion might be kinda cool. As for the necromantic part, could be divorced or use a slightly different system.Elemental: I basically see this one as the more chaotic cousin of arcane magic. Thus I would say a wild magic system would be cool. At least as long as it didn’t completely screw you over for rolling poorly. I see it as being structured in a way where powers are pretty broad, probably pertaining to an element, and from there rolling to see what extra effects are wrought by the power.</blockquote>

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