dirklancer
Explorer
So the preview from the DMG of modern and futuristic weapons got me thinking about doing a conversion for a long running homebrew sci-fi campaign. I previously did a pretty extensive modern/future thing for 4E for it, but frankly between work, family, and current D&D campaign my free time is limited. So this time I am looking to be as lazy as possible. Races and equipment are two areas I know I will need to do the most work on, but those parts never bother me. Aside from replacing Arcana and Religion with something more genre appropriate, skills will stay as is and tool proficiencies make technology such as computers and vehicles pretty easy. Backgrounds are pretty simple too, either using or modding existing ones or letting the players make their own. Feats will need a little tweaking, but nothing too bad.
Classes are the tricky part for me. Barbarians cab be used for primitive cultures, while fighters and rogues work well as is (minus Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster). Aside from a few mods to powers, monks work as well and I was thinking of making a psionic tradition based on the Way of the Four Elements. Rangers could also work as scouts, and I was thinking of adding something to replace the loss of spells. Clerics, druids, and paladins wouldn't fit well so they would be out.
For general psionicists, I was going to use Warlocks as a base because I think it would fit the feel for the setting best, and there are plenty of spells on the lists that could populate a psionicist power list as is.
I would also like kind of an "Expert" class for non-powered characters that aren't combat focused. I think the best bet would be to use the Bard as a base, but I am having trouble thinking of something to replace or modify the spells with. One thought was to give them "insight" dice that act similar to inspiration, but affect the expert's own skill checks. Another option was to give them spell-like "exploits" where they have a limited number of technology or skills based actions that operate like spells in a lot of ways. Kind of like the doctor pulling off a miracle (cure spell or revivify), but they are non-magical and require a focus of appropriate tools or take more time like a ritual. With this option, I would make the expert pick an area of focus (medical, academia, technology) and they would have exploits for that area only, but could pick up a few from other areas as they level. This option would be more work, but might have a nice cinematic appeal.
So I would like some thoughts, opinions, and suggestions about some simple ways to do this. I think the base rules would work fine as is, but I am also curious if anyone else has been working on something like this and might have some ideas.
Classes are the tricky part for me. Barbarians cab be used for primitive cultures, while fighters and rogues work well as is (minus Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster). Aside from a few mods to powers, monks work as well and I was thinking of making a psionic tradition based on the Way of the Four Elements. Rangers could also work as scouts, and I was thinking of adding something to replace the loss of spells. Clerics, druids, and paladins wouldn't fit well so they would be out.
For general psionicists, I was going to use Warlocks as a base because I think it would fit the feel for the setting best, and there are plenty of spells on the lists that could populate a psionicist power list as is.
I would also like kind of an "Expert" class for non-powered characters that aren't combat focused. I think the best bet would be to use the Bard as a base, but I am having trouble thinking of something to replace or modify the spells with. One thought was to give them "insight" dice that act similar to inspiration, but affect the expert's own skill checks. Another option was to give them spell-like "exploits" where they have a limited number of technology or skills based actions that operate like spells in a lot of ways. Kind of like the doctor pulling off a miracle (cure spell or revivify), but they are non-magical and require a focus of appropriate tools or take more time like a ritual. With this option, I would make the expert pick an area of focus (medical, academia, technology) and they would have exploits for that area only, but could pick up a few from other areas as they level. This option would be more work, but might have a nice cinematic appeal.
So I would like some thoughts, opinions, and suggestions about some simple ways to do this. I think the base rules would work fine as is, but I am also curious if anyone else has been working on something like this and might have some ideas.
