Jade Empire 4E game

[Vayden]

Hmm - it's not exactly Jade Empire, but I have been tossing around a couple ideas in my head for re-skinning 4e as a Wuxia game. Here's my thoughts:

Races - everyone is Human in terms of biology/appearance, but the core races are represented as different powerful martial arts clans with unique secret techniques and styles, as follows:

Dragonborn) The Dragon Clan - fierce warriors who have mastered the art of collecting their chakra in their mouths and spitting it out as elemental breath weapons.

Drow) The Panther Clan - night-lovers who harness the power of darkness and shadow.

Dwarf) The Stone Clan - solid and durable, the masters of defensive fighting and endurance.

Eladrin) The Spirit Clan - in touch with the spirit world, able to slip in and out of it.

Elf) The Eagle Clan - fast, deadly hunters, renowned for their amazing accuracy.

Genasi) The Five Elements Clan - esoteric mystics devoted to channeling the power of the elements.

Halfling) The Rat Clan - slippery, sneaky rogues and thieves.

Half-elf) The Mimic Clan - famous for their ability to steal the techniques of others.

Human) The Eldest Clan - the first clan to be founded, the oldest, most resilient, and most durable. Holders of the history and traditions of the land.

Tiefling) The Demon Clan - masters of fire and the dark arts, rumored to have made pacts with demons when the clan was founded.

Classes: Basically fighting styles/schools. You could do something cool here like with the Aiel from The Wheel of Time - clan and school define your loyalties - in battles between clans, members of the same school will not fight each other, only targetting other schools on the enemy side.

Cleric - Light of Heaven fighting school - calls upon the powers of the revered anscentors and the emperor of heaven.

Fighter - Earth's Fist fighting school - causes the ground itself to block its opponents movements (Combat Superiority)

Paladin - Lightning Palm fighting school - sister school of the Light of Heaven, focused more on direct combat.

Ranger - Jade Leopard fighting school - the scouts and trackers of the clans.

Rogue - Tiger Claw fighting school - emphasizes stealth, swift movement and brutal attacks to vulnerable spots.

Swordmage - Shining Sword fighting school - masters of the blade, they become one with their weapon and channel great power through it.

Warlock - Falling Darkness fighting school - uses strange sources of power to damage their opponent's body and mind at the same time.

Warlord - White Raven fighting school - tactical geniuses and leaders (yes, I stole it from Bo9s - what can I say, it works)

Wizard - Swirling Storm fighting school - long range fighters who fight almost exclusively through the use of their chakra, disdaining weapons.


That's just a basic shell obviously, but it's something I was thinking about when I saw this thread, so I thought I'd throw it in.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Absolutely some good ideas in here and the concept of heritage might also work for the races. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Ahglock]

If I were to use 4e, for the unarmed combat styles I'd pick a few classes. And then look at a standard weapon they would use and give them that benefit. Take a ranger, a two weapon style ranger might use 2 long swords, or with the right feat 2 bastard swords. So I'd just say a Tiger Style or whatever fit the ranger class had a +3 to hit and did 1d8, with a tiger style expertise feat increasing that damage to 1d10. Instead of enchanted weapons, I'd probably have enchanted tattoos that increased there unarmed damage.

Basically I'd go under some basic assumptions of AC, +to hit, and damage base don class. And just give it to the new class under the description of marital arts. If I were to get super complicated for classes that had weapon styles like the fighter, who might have a power that only worked with maces or something. I'd call those stances, and have it be a standard action to change stances.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I was kinda touching on giving out "weapons" as Martial Styles and I think what you are suggesting works perfectly. Weapons are, generally, always available. To be honest, I've never heard of a game where basic, buy-for-gold, weapons, weren't available at all times. So the characters might get a few extra gold in the beginning and be trained in unarmed Martial Arts styles. I'd also like to include Chi somehow... Howabout a Chi Strike feat that gives you a pool of Chi to use? Sounds fair.

Ok, over to Martial Styles:

Thousand Cuts - fastest of all styles, but does the least damage. Thus I'd say +3 prof, 1d4 damage, off-hand (so it counts for use with 2-weapon fighting). Rogues get to treat this as a dagger (+1 proficiency) and when you have the Chi Strike feat you can spend 1 Chi to get +2 damage. Perhaps add in High Crit?

Legendary Strike - the norm of all martial styles. It is "medium" in all departments, so I'd say a +3 prof, 1d8 damage. Essentially this is like one a longsword -versatility. 1 Chi = +1 damage and +1 to attack.

Leaping Tiger - Using claws attached to the hands, this is a fast and evasive styles. I'd say +3 prof, 1d6 damage, versatile. Chi = +1 damage and +1 Reflex. A better form of short sword.

White Demon - Most powerful, but slowest of the martial styles. I'd go with +2 prof, 2d6 damage. Chi = +1 damage. Somewhat like a Maul.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I was thinking that each class has access to different Martial Styles and you can add a particular style as a Feat. I was also thinking that each style would be its own Weapon Group (so you can use Weapon Focus in it). Whatya think about this?

 

[Angellis_ater]

I'm probably going to follow the concept of using weapons as basis for different Weapon Styles - it has worked out pretty well as we tried it out.

Now, Support Styles - any suggestions on how to handle these?

 

[Angellis_ater]

I'm mergining DSP's rules for Psi Points with Chi, works really nice. However, since Chi allows you to heal in Jade Empire, I was thinking you can spend a number of Chi to regain their Second Wind (best way I could find to model the Chi Heal).

On Support Styles, I was thinking of either making them Feats (Like "Support Style: Spirit Thief") that give you an additional at-will attack power and that you can get "alternative" encounter/daily powers from by spending feats.

For example, Spirit Thief gives you the "Thieving Touch" at-will which allows you to regain 1 Chi with each successful hit. You can take "Spirit Drain" as a feat, giving you an encounter-power that allows you to steal X chi from an enemy within X squares. However, this is not an "addition", rather it works more like Channel Divinity does. It adds an option: You can expend any encounter power to use Spirit Drain instead.

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