Hybrid Classes

[Cadfan]

Reaper's Touch is what?

Feat from Dragon Magazine. Makes a bunch of different at will ranged powers into melee attacks. Could be interesting, but isn't really what I'd be going for. Mostly I just want to mix power sources and carefully loot out choice parts of the magic power sources to combine them with martial characters.

Now this is what I am talking about. From what I have read from this thread it apears I can now play my wizard as a striker (wizard sorcerer) or a defender (wizard fighter). I can take the shtick I want and attach it to the mechanics I want. Kudos, nicely done.

Well, not really. Your sorcerer or fighter powers would still be sorcerer or fighter powers. Your Fireball spell would still be a Fireball, and your Reaping Strike would still be a Reaping Strike.

 

[Rechan]

Now this is what I am talking about. From what I have read from this thread it apears I can now play my wizard as a striker (wizard sorcerer) or a defender (wizard fighter). I can take the shtick I want and attach it to the mechanics I want. Kudos, nicely done.

Not... really.

It's essentially the same thing as using the multi-class rules, except that instead of 1 + 1/6th, you get 1/2 and 1/2.

So your Wizard/FIghter still has to use weapons for his fighter powers, still has to use implements for his wizard powers, he only is trained in Cloth (Because Wizards are only trained in cloth), and he still would incur an OA if he casts fireball next to an enemy.

 

[Rechan]

Feat from Dragon Magazine

It doesn't seem to be in the Compendium.

 

[ppaladin123]

It doesn't seem to be in the Compendium.

It is there. Don't use an apostrophe. The compendium doesn't seem to like those.

 

[Scholar & Brutalman]

It doesn't seem to be in the Compendium.

It is there but something odd is happening:

If I search for "Reaper's Touch" or "Reapers Touch", no luck.

If I search for "Reapers" or "Reaper's", no good, but the Paragon Path Dread Reaper is found.

If I search for "Reaper" or "Touch" it's there under feats, as "Reapers Touch"
in the list or "Reaper's Touch" in it's description.

I'm guessing that the Compendium search doesn't like the possessive apostrophe.

As for what it does: Reaper's Touch allows you to take choose an invoker, sorcerer, warlock or wizard at-will that can be used as a ranged basic attack and use it as a melee basic attack as well. The feat description actually lists the powers it works with, but they are all the at-wills from those classes that are ranged basic attacks.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Opens up a whole can of whoopass, fun and worms! I like it though and (once it is in the compendium) I'll be whiling away spare hours just making up PC's... even more than I do now.

I like a bit of warlock/rogue with Shadow Walk....Drow of course!

 

[Khaalis]

I'm still absorbing the mechanic specifics and what might actually work as combinations, but my 1st gut instinct says I don't like these mechanics. Overall, the "class features" aspect of the mechanics seems broken.

<JMHO>

As it stands I think most of the class' “Class Features” are massively gimped, not to mention they run contrary to the stated focus of the hybrid class.

The idea, as stated, is to make a single unified class, however you have class features like Combat Challenge that only work with half of your “class” – in this case only working with “Fighter” powers and “Fighter paragon Path” powers. So much for a unified class… My personal opinion is that if you are a Hybrid Fighter, your "class feature" should work with any attack. You should be a true hybrid, not be considered Half-Fighter Half-SomethingElse.

I also think some of the other class features are nerfed so far into the ground they are practically worthless, like Divine Challenge.

As it stands I don't see some of these features combining to come anywhere near close to 1/2 as effective their original role.

I also hate that they have created yet another “MUST HAVE” feat. No one is going to build a Hybrid WITHOUT the “Hybrid Talent” feat. It is a required feat to make a build effective, especially if you want most of the better class powers to function optimally since many powers require a class feature to "boost' the effectiveness of the power, such as most rogue powers (artful, etc.).

I'll be watching this to see how it develops and what changes it goes through over the next year. I hope they get a lot of feedback to help work out the kinks, as the core concept of mixing class features to make a unique new hybrid class is a great concept.

 

[Nymrohd]

Seems weak. I'll agree that hybrid Talent seems to be near a requirement and could have been given as a free feature. Classes that have a modular feature need that feature for their powers to work well, especially locks (who also need it for fluff reasons). Also it goes against the design intent of 4E which up until now seems to have been "You cannot screw up while building your character". If you burn all your feats you can probably get a paragon multiclass too and end up with three classes (and a lot of suck because of MAD I guess). I expect there will be a few worthwhile combos but not many.

 

[Jack99]

From an early age, all Barakas could think off was fire. As he grew and started training, he was always (and still is) torn between the blade and the magic, but he always stayed true to his first passion - Fire

At 11th level
Tiefling male
Str 13, Con 16, Dex 12, Int 21, Wis 9, Cha 18
Hit points: 86
Healing Surges: 10
AC: 28, Fortitude 21; Reflex 23; Will 24
Skills: Arcana, Endurance, Athletics
Class Features: Hybrid Swordmage Aegis of Shielding, Cantrips
Feats: Intelligent Blademaster, Toughness, Leather Armor Prof, Hellfire Blood, Surging Flame, Ferocious Rebuke, Hybrid Talent (Swordmage Warding)
At-Will: Greenblade Flame (1), Scorching Burst (1)
Encounter: Burning Hands (1), Incendiary Sword (3), Fire Burst (7), Bolts of Bedevilment (11)
Daily: Flaming Sphere (1), Swordmage Shielding Fire (5), Wall of Fire (9)
Utility: Shield (2), Armathor's Step (6), Blur (10)
Paragon Path: Turathi Highborn

Flaming Longsword +2 (lvl 10), Leather Armor +3 (lvl 11), Cloak of Resistance +3 (lvl 12)

Overall, looks playable, and it could be fun! Even though I like 4e multi-classing, hybrid classes do have that old-school feel.

 

[WalterKovacs]

I really like the way it looks. The feat is going to be a must (it let's you pick one of the 'build' options for one of the classes). For example a rogue/sorceror could either take the artful dodger path or the wild mage path, and thus get those extra benefits from the powers.

I think that doing it for other classes wouldn't be too hard. They look to be taking the main "role" class feature and giving it at a limited ammount. So, basing it on that idea it shouldn't be too hard to work it out, especially comparing things to what you get via multiclass, which is often similar. (and the other parts are pretty simple, like the skills, the hit points, etc as they are mostly straight conversions, or halved).

Some stuff does seem a little underpowered, in part because of the rounding down of HP that has been halved. Giving any combination that doesn't include a defender only 4 HP per level might not be the best idea. Perhaps including the 1/2 (i.e. rogue gets 2 1/2 points) and say that, after adding them together you round down, might be a bit better. A rogue/ranger, for example, would get the 5 HP per level instead of only 4.

Either way, it seems they may have tried to start it off on the low end of the power scale and leave chance for improving it instead of having it start off too powerful and scaling it back.