Let's help Mouseferatu with the APG

[ZombieRoboNinja]

I don't want this book to just be a "bridge" until material comes out down the road. I want it to be useful in tandem with official material. If I can accomplish everything I want to accomplish, you'll be able to use my version of Class X in the same campaign, or even the same party, as WotC's version of Class X, and while they'll both definitely be Class X, they'll also be different enough that the two players really feel like they're not stepping on each other's toes.

(And for the record, no, I do not have any inside knowledge of WotC's plans for further classes beyond the PHB. I can only judge their future plans by stuff they're already said.)

This makes a lot of sense and is kind of what I expected/hoped for. For example, according to R&C, the 4e druid is going to be very heavily focused on shapeshifting, with healing, nuking and summoning eliminated or greatly diminished. Mouse's Druid could instead focus on druids as nature-flavored spellcasters with a broad range of spell effects (damage, control, and healing), with shapeshifting taking the backseat. One is a defender or striker, shifting into a bear and tearing stuff up, while the other is a controller. Heck, that particular pair could work really well together!

Likewise, the 4e bard is a leader who is reliant on extraplanar magical "patrons" for his spells. This is a cool and flavorful interpretation of the classic D&D bard IMO, but it's certainly not the only way you can go from the earlier-edition bards, and Mouse could probably make a lot of friends in the grognard community by bringing some 1e Celtic mystique back to the class.

 

[Klaus]

Base Classes:

Assassin (possibly a mix of Fighter/Rogue with some sort of Poison Use talent tree), but not restricted to evil (like Paladins are no longer restricted to LG).

Druid (more spells-oriented, with Rainbow and Chariot of Sustarre spells waiting at 7th level, dammit!)

Monk (Grand. Master. Of Flowers. Less of an overt shaolin feel and more Scarlet Brotherhood feel)

Barbarian (self-buffing, doesn't trust magic, even beneficial ones).

Naturally-occurring half-orcs.

My art.

 

[Vradna]

Oh I get it. First Edition-ifying Fourth Edition. This is something that I can identify with.

Perhaps, we could also expect to see:

• Thief-Acrobat Paragon path

• Bards with Druid style spells

• Rangers with Druid and Magic User style spells

• ...and...ahem.. Psionics.

I did borrow a little from UA here, so we may also see Gnomes and their subraces, even more Elves and the Dwarf subraces.

Cool.

 

[Klaus]

I'd rather have a Thief-Acrobat talent tree for rogues.

I do agree on a Bard with more druidical inclinations.

 

[Flynn]

What? No mention of the Cavalier in a 1E class discussion? *tsk, tsk*

Also, I'd love to see some of the 2E classes come in as well: specialist wizards (except that they are truely specialists), or customizable specialty priests. Heck, even spellcasting classes from the 2E Tome of Magic or even Player's Option series would be nice. Kit features translated as balanced powers and/or feats for 4E would provide a lot of character creation options, as well. All that's probably just a pipe dream, though. *sigh*

Any thought on doing the Oriental classes and races from OA with a First Edition feel?

Will psionics be touched by APG? (I don't use psionics in my games, myself, but I have friends that do.)

Inquiring Minds Want To Know,
Flynn

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Does Necromancer Games see the humor in their name?

With all the dredging up of 1e-style stuff, are they animating the dead?

 

[Oldtimer]

As for the sorcerer, I'm not so sure that one's going to make it into the book anyway, so it's probably a moot point.

2. Advanced Player's Guide: To be designed in part by industry insider Ari Marmell, if they left classes and races out, we put them back in.

I can't seem to get these to quotes to work together...

 

[Mouseferatu]

I can't seem to get these to quotes to work together...

All right, with the understanding that I'm not actually saying officially if sorcerers made it into the 1st PHB or not...

If they didn't, they would not be nearly as much of a priority for the Necromancer book as the other classes, for a couple of reasons.

1) Sorcerers, unlike everything else, have no 1E analog, or even 2E. They're purely a 3E creation.

2) Sorcerers were created specifically to allow a second class to make use of the wizard spell list, and to provide a spontaneous arcane caster for those who wanted it. These are no longer necessary or even viable requirements in 4E, given the change to at-will, encounter, and daily powers.

So if we were to do a sorcerer, it would neither resemble anything from past editions, nor would it resemble the 3E sorcerer. It would be something completely brand new, that simply happened to bear the name "sorcerer." People who want to convert to 4E are better off just switching to wizards, since that would be a closer conceptual match than anything I came up with.

I'm not saying I couldn't create a decent sorcerer class. But as I said, it'd be something brand new; despite the name, it wouldn't really be an old-edition update. And I just couldn't make that jive with the mission statement of the APG. So when I realized I was going to potentially run into deadline issues, the sorcerer was an easy choice to discard.

 

[Rechan]

Can we get "Sticks to Snakes"?

 

[Shazman]

Hey, guys.

I appreciate the thought, and I very much appreciate the interest.

But there are two important points to consider here.

First, I'm only one of the writers on this book; it's not 100% mine.

Second, and more importantly, I'm already mostly finished with my portions of the book, and about to move on to other deadlines. That doesn't mean I won't be very interested in seeing what people want, but it means that I honestly can't promise to take too much of it into account at this point.

Still, while I won't for one minute pretend that I'll be able to include everything that everyone wants to see, I hope most of you will be happy with what I do have.

How did you finish so quickly? I didn't even think that non-WotC employees had even gotten a look at the 4E rules yet.