D&D 4E Flavor Powers in 4E?

[satori01]

Are Flavor powers in 4E or is everything Feats, and powers ala Star Wars? If everything is reduced to a maneuver, I think a large part of the "Role" in Role Playing disappears.

Trackless Step, Druids being able to instantly identify Plants & Animals in 3.0, are pure flavor. They help people be able to define their character by thinking about what Druid stealth school is like, and often prove useful for downtime descriptions.

Quirky Flavor powers keep the game human. So much of the time the designers talk about the Math, but I fear might have lost the soul.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Are Flavor powers in 4E or is everything Feats, and powers ala Star Wars? If everything is reduced to a maneuver, I think a large part of the "Role" in Role Playing disappears.

Trackless Step, Druids being able to instantly identify Plants & Animals in 3.0, are pure flavor. They help people be able to define their character by thinking about what Druid stealth school is like, and often prove useful for downtime descriptions.

Quirky Flavor powers keep the game human. So much of the time the designers talk about the Math, but I fear might have lost the soul.

Take a look at the Light and Mage Hand cantrips on the Wizard sheet from D&D XP, and get back to us.

 

[Revinor]

Take a look at the Light and Mage Hand cantrips on the Wizard sheet from D&D XP, and get back to us.

Mage hand at will is very good flavor power for wizard. Should be more then enough for starters. Some of the racial powers are also quite interesting (especially fey step, you can impress your fellows by teleporting to ladies toilet every few minutes)

What about other classes? I'm not saying there was so much of flavor powers in 3e, but 4e is supposed to be better

In case nothing will be provided in PHB, it should be quite easy to house-rule flavor powers in, as they are not game breaking.


Some examples:

Paladin - Fountain of Pureness: beer in, holy water out
Ranger - Hug the Tree: always able to recognize trees he has touched, so not getting lost in forest
Fighter - None. We are not THAT far from 3e to make Fighter interesting.
Warlord - One More Spoon for the Uncle: Possibility to shift/pull/push food on the plates during dinner, without anybody being able to say no to the new meal
Warlock - Come On Baby, Light My Fire: being able to ignite any pile of wood by standing on it and screaming
Cleric - Preaching: bonuses for Bluff and Diplomacy when trying to extort money from somebody
Wizard - Who Needs a Wife When You Have a Spell: Mage Hand already covers flavor for nerdy mages in glasses
Rogue - Steal the Light: Ability to become center of conversation by pulling coins from others' ears

 

[VBMEW-01]

podcast with Chris Perkins addressed this issue by stating that most non-combat items will be done as "rituals" and such. They did this to avoid that classic D&D scenario of having to choose between Waterbreathing and fireball.

 

[tombowings]

podcast with Chris Perkins addressed this issue by stating that most non-combat items will be done as "rituals" and such. They did this to avoid that classic D&D scenario of having to choose between Waterbreathing and fireball.

Which is a GOOD thing.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Paladin - Fountain of Pureness: beer in, holy water out

Don't let me ever catch you writing such evil, dirty, wasteful blasphemy again! Holy Water in beer out -YES, the other way around is a thought to terrible to contemplate!

 

[VannATLC]

Don't let me ever catch you writing such evil, dirty, wasteful blasphemy again! Holy Water in beer out -YES, the other way around is a thought to terrible to contemplate!

You need to be a Dwarven Cleric.

Then they are the same thing.

 

[jtrowell]

Some abilities have also been included in the "trained only" use of some skills.

I think that detect magic is now handled by the Arcana skills, and tracking will probably need only to be trained in the appropriate skill(s) (like in Saga, expect that it has been hinted that several skills might be of use in tracking, depending on the environement (nature for exemple)

 

[Kwalish Kid]

Holy Water in beer out -YES

A key element of an excellent issue of Hellblazer.

 

[Goobermunch]

A key element of an excellent issue of Hellblazer.

That's a dangerous habit.

--G