AbdulAlhazred
Legend
It isn't an inherently bad idea. In fact it could be made to be quite workable, in principle. The problem really is that in practice you would probably have to rewrite the bulk of the 4e powers and feats.
What you would need would be a set of powers and feats which could fit together in various ways to produce something equivalent to the way classes work. So a character who's shtick is defending is going to invest in armor and weapons training and learn mostly melee related powers. He won't really find a lot of use for the other types of powers because they are likely based on stats he's poor in, etc.
The thing is, the end result is you basically HAVE classes. They wouldn't be as rigid as the 4e classes, but the end result wouldn't be all that different. The question you then have to ask is what are you gaining and what are you losing? You might gain a bit of flexibility in terms of building certain character concepts. On the flip side classes perform a really useful function. They pigeonhole characters, which really helps people visualize what their character is and gives them a basis for role playing it. Once you do away with that, then it can be hard for a lot of players to really know what to do with their character. She is no longer Elestra the Elven Mage, she's just "another elf".
In any case, like other '4e remodeling' projects it will turn out to be a HUGE amount of work. Who wants to spend months writing and playtesting 100's of powers and feats?
What you would need would be a set of powers and feats which could fit together in various ways to produce something equivalent to the way classes work. So a character who's shtick is defending is going to invest in armor and weapons training and learn mostly melee related powers. He won't really find a lot of use for the other types of powers because they are likely based on stats he's poor in, etc.
The thing is, the end result is you basically HAVE classes. They wouldn't be as rigid as the 4e classes, but the end result wouldn't be all that different. The question you then have to ask is what are you gaining and what are you losing? You might gain a bit of flexibility in terms of building certain character concepts. On the flip side classes perform a really useful function. They pigeonhole characters, which really helps people visualize what their character is and gives them a basis for role playing it. Once you do away with that, then it can be hard for a lot of players to really know what to do with their character. She is no longer Elestra the Elven Mage, she's just "another elf".
In any case, like other '4e remodeling' projects it will turn out to be a HUGE amount of work. Who wants to spend months writing and playtesting 100's of powers and feats?
