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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kinneus" data-source="post: 5514337" data-attributes="member: 48215">Concerns I have and things I need help with:1) Balance. I don't want these themes to be crazy over-powered, but I'm okay with them being just a little bit better than 'normal' themes. This is for two reasons. First, because I frankly want to encourage my players to take them, since they're the most appropriate for the campaign and the most interesting plot-wise. Second, I want to make these themes really good at level 1 and essentially "front-load" them because I don't intend to do a full spread of powers and associated Paragon Paths. I'm simply not up for or qualified for that level of homebrewing, tweaking and balancing. What you see at level 1 is all you get with these themes. 2) Skills are going to be important in this campaign. Real important. So I want to give my players greater access to them (because, honestly, who takes skill training/skill focus these days?) Since Escaped Slave gave Bluff training in addition to a pretty decent power, I figured it was kosher to go this route with my homebrewed themes. What do you think about allowing players to choose 2 trained skills from that list for the homebrewed themes, perhaps in exchange for scaling down the power? And maybe adding an associated trained skilled for other themes? 3) How should these theme powers scale by tier, if at all? 4) Innate Mage needs some work formatting-wise. I know some people will be wary about taking away Arcane Defiling ("Themes should be additive!"/"You shouldn't take options away from your players!"/"That's easily side-stepped by not taking an Arcane class!"), but this is solely a flavor issue. Innate mages are able to use their magic without drawing off life because they draw off of some other mysterious outside source (a big part of the campaign will be figuring out exactly what). If a player wants to play an Arcane class, wants to be an Innate Mage, and still wants to defile, they can be easily fixed by simply giving that player a Boon that replicates Arcane Defiling. Any player that whines and clamors enough for it will get that boon.</blockquote>

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