D&D 4E [Essentials] Heroes of the... ?

[Nemesis Destiny]

It's been mentioned a couple times now, and I'm just going to throw my two coppers into the pile on this particular subtopic.

I don't feel that D&D, and in particular the Essentials line really needs, or would benefit from Oriental-flavoured classes and / or races. As others have pointed out, it's very easy to reflavour existing material to suit, but I think for most folks, disentangling the flavour of an Asian-themed class/race book would be much more difficult.

Personally, I don't do Eastern-themed campaigns, so I have no use for such a book, and I'm sure many others are in the same boat. In order to keep as broad appeal as possible, I think WotC will not produce such a book for the Essentials line.

What I think they might do at some point down the road, is revisit Oriental Adventures from back-in-the-day. Maybe a Kara-Tur campaign.

For now though, again as others have mentioned, if you want a Ninja, play an Assassin or Thief or Rogue. Heck, even a Ranger would work. Samurai? Sounds like a Slayer or Fighter build to me. For a Monk, you could use a... Monk?

A Katana would basically be a Bastard Sword, No-dachi could easily be a Fullblade, they already have Shuriken. Ninja-to could be a Shortsword, or Rapier, or even a Katar for the nice high-crit property.

Sorry for the digression.

 

[Destil]

Champion - Martial/Primal Defender, based on the Barbarian.
Troubadour - Arcane Controller, based on the Bard.
Priest - Divine Leader, based on the Cleric (light armor & ranged build).
Berserker - Martial/Primal Striker, based on the Barbarian.
??? - Arcane Striker, based on the Sorcerer.

 

[Korgoth]

Oh.. I really like the idea of the lightly armored defender monk. The Samurai doesn't strike me as needing it's own class though. Samurai is fluff layer added onto other classes to me. Slayer and scout come to mind as good samurai bases. If there is something specific you'd like them to have, it could probably get atted as another option to those classes easily enough.

Like the race selection, but I'm not sure what you mean by Half-Oni. Oni was always a pretty generic term that I'm aware of. Closest I can think is half-ogre. Was there something more specific you were thinking about with that one?

Heh. The Samurai was the one I wasn't serious about, actually. I think you could do a perfectly reasonable Samurai using the Slayer (using the his longsword/katana two-handed and wearing scale-equivalent armor). I am serious about the monks, though.

For the Half-Oni I was thinking of Half-"Ogre Mage" actually. Do they still have those in 4E? There isn't one in the Monster Vault, unfortunately (what we need more than more classes is another dang Monster Vault with more classic beasties!). Could be interesting, anyway.

 

[Ahrimon]

I don't know if they could do a half Ogre-Mage justice as a race. Once it balanced out to be a playable race it wouldn't have much left from the cool ogre-mage abilities.

On a non oriental thought, I'd love an essentialized soul blade.

 

[Destil]

For the Half-Oni I was thinking of Half-"Ogre Mage" actually. Do they still have those in 4E? There isn't one in the Monster Vault, unfortunately (what we need more than more classes is another dang Monster Vault with more classic beasties!). Could be interesting, anyway.

My favroite monster change this edition: the Ogre Mage is again the Oni.

 

[Knightfall]

I finally made my selections.

Classes - One build each.
Barbarian: Martial/Primal
Bard
Psion
Monk: Psionic/Martial
Sorcerer

Races
Gnome
Half-Giant [Goliath]
Hobgoblin
Human
Kobold
Warforged

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

As far as races go I actually pretty well like the choices they put in PHB1 and 2. Tieflings maybe didn't do a lot for me and deva is a bit meh. The Minotaur and Wilden both seemed fun from PHB3, could easily see them finding uses but they aren't exactly needed. Warforged? Hmmm, not a bad concept, seems a bit sci-fantasy for my tastes though. No doubt Changeling would prove popular as always.