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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 5154636" data-attributes="member: 2629">OOC: What makes the Ardent kinda cool to you?I can't really settle on any iconic fictional characters that scream ardent to me.  Perhaps that is because I can't figure out what a scream of ardent would sound like.  It seems from the fluff like the ardent is another name for an empath, but many of the powers don't match that concept.  It just feels like a hodgepodge of psionic powers, just like the psion does.  I think the primal power soruce was pretty successful in taking the 3.5 druid and splitting it into 3 different classes (Shaman, Druid, Warden).  Each feels different and plays quite differently.In the psionics area, I feel that they were less successful.  It feels more like they took a bunch of abilities and just pushed the 'controllerish' ones in one PC with rudimentary control mechanics and pushed the 'leadery' ones on the leader with a minor twist on the standard leader format.  A ranger doesn't just feel like 'the martial striker'.  It comes with a bunch of evocative concepts tied into it about nature, scouting, archery and two weapon use.  The ardent just feels like "psionic leader".  Plus, I felt like psionics didn't stand out as a distinct power source, either.  When I read through the class I found myself saying, "This looks like a bard," "This looks like a cleric", or "This looks like a warlord".  I didn't find myself saying, "Wow, so that's really a core type of ability for an ardent!"  For such an emotionally driven class, I was surprised not to find more powers that sounded fun to roleplay out, like the bard's "Vicious Mockery", the Fighter's "Come and Get it!" or an Invoker's "Invoke Obedience".Beyond using power points, the mechanics of the classes didn't do much for me, either.  If I were ranking the classes in each role that I'd like to play next, the Psionic classes that use PPs would be last in every role.  The monk is actually near the top of my striker list, but it is the one class that stands out as a distinctive psionic class.Some of these problems may be reduced when we get more material for the classes, but I doubt it.  The problems seem to be more about the basic core of the class than the options available to implement that core.</blockquote>

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