New Classes & Campaign Settings: A Thought Exercise

[exile]

Dark Sun: I'm thinking Templar, maybe with powers grouped according to which Dragon King they serve.

 

[DanChops]

Al Qadim: I'll second the Sha'ir.
Spelljammer: My first thought was for some sort of Pilot class, but then every party would need one, so it would probably be better to simply create rules that would allow any character to power the ships. Perhaps a Sailor/Swashbuckler type would be appropriate?

 

[pukunui]

Ravenloft: I would lean toward a Monster Hunter/Scholar type class

That sounds interesting.

Mystara would need Paragon paths for the various secret mystic magical brotherhoods of Glantri, Epic Destinies for the paths to Immortality, and possibly either a Shaman class for the Atruaghin and Ethengars or a technologist class for the gnomes or possibly a Noble type class.

I must confess I know nothing about Mystara ...

This is a fun thought experiment! Let's see...

Glad you like it!

Dark Sun: Defiler/Preserver
I can see most of the DS classes being variants (maybe with new paths) than brand new core classes. Gladiators are fighters who have a slightly different starting package, templars could be variant paladins, athasian bards are basically rogues...but there's a lot of potential for a "Athasian Sorcerer" kind of class, and it's so rich to the setting (not to mention fairly easy to exportable), it could be done VERY MUCH right.

Ravenloft: Archivist.
Again, most Ravenloft classes wouldn't be changed a whole lot from 4e's core. But the archivist would seem to have a special niche, and an iconic "Van Richten" character built in. It's a very "gothic scholar" kind of feel, which is perfectly evocative of the setting.

Planescape: Philosopher (aka Cloistered Cleric)
Since PS has always been partially about the "kitchen sink," there isn't a great need for new classes. However, if they're going this route, then it'd be a great opportunity to release a divine spellcaster who doesn't turn undead. PS would only benefit from the addition of a class that SPECIALIZES in the philosophies of the planes. Each Faction could be its own Paragon Path!

The other settings I don't know as much about, so I wouldn't venture a guess. Perhaps Birthright could have some sort of semi-magical Leader class? Perhaps Spelljammer could have some sort of pilot/pirate/nautical-type class?

I must confess, this would be kind of cool.

Those all sound pretty cool.

Dragonlance: Mystic. They're not the same as clerics.

I thought maybe you'd chime in on the DL front! I'm not really familiar with the mystic. Care to give a little description for me?

Dark Sun: I'm thinking Templar, maybe with powers grouped according to which Dragon King they serve.

Again, this could be quite neat. As Kamikaze Midget pointed out, most of what's in the Dark Sun campaign could just be variant classes rather than new classes. Still ... they're all very interesting! I really hope they do revive Dark Sun! It was one of my favorite 2e settings (the other being FR).

 

[pawsplay]

Dragonlance: Handler; Tinker; Mystic; Elven Dirty Two-Faced Liar
Ravenloft: Monster Hunter, divine striker
Spelljammer: Explorer, probably some kind of Arcane Defender with powers related to visiting the different worlds
Planescape: Sentinel, a defender, secondary controller, with a new power source (Planar?)
Mystara: Duskblade, something Swordsmage-ish that recaptures the basic D&D elf; Executioner, a martial striker that focuses on using axes and two-handed swords; Wokan/Witch Doctor, a controller that mixes power sources

 

[Praeden]

It's been a long time since I owned the Mystara Gazetteer series, but some of those classes could be turned into base classes or paragon paths. My memory is a bit hazy, but here goes:

GAZ1:
GAZ2: Desert Mystic
GAZ3: 7 Secret Crafts (as was already mentioned, these would make great paragon paths)
GAZ4:
GAZ5: Elven Treekeeper
GAZ6: Dwarven Cleric (obviously this one is already covered)
GAZ7:
GAZ8: Halfling Master
GAZ9: Sea Merchant

That's as far as my collection went.

 

[Cam Banks]

I thought maybe you'd chime in on the DL front! I'm not really familiar with the mystic. Care to give a little description for me?

Mystics channel ambient magic, specifically ambient divine magic. Sorcerers are their counterparts. Where a sorcerer shapes and channels the elemental forces leftover from Creation, mystics draw on the forces that connect living things. A mystic needs some kind of emotional or spiritual framework with which to channel this magic, though—many mystics were once clerics and thus have their faith to serve as a framework, though a deity is not the source of the power. In 3.5, a mystic was essentially a spontaneous divine caster focused on one clerical domain, which was more or less their schtick. In 4e, it's hard to determine what their role would be, since not all mystics have a healing or support basis.

I like the notion of mystics as divine controllers, especially if their channeling abilities are used to create broader effects on the battlefield. In SAGA rules, mystics couldn't affect non-living things, but that didn't carry over to 3e. SAGA mystics picked one or three mystic spheres, depending on their Spirit attribute. These were things like Animism, Mentalism, Meditation (altering/buffing mental stats), Channeling (altering/buffing physical stats), Healing, and so on. So, while there's definitely a Leader sense coming from them, I'm not sure if that doesn't just make them a variant cleric or not.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Atlatl Jones]

I like the notion of mystics as divine controllers, especially if their channeling abilities are used to create broader effects on the battlefield. In SAGA rules, mystics couldn't affect non-living things, but that didn't carry over to 3e. SAGA mystics picked one or three mystic spheres, depending on their Spirit attribute. These were things like Animism, Mentalism, Meditation (altering/buffing mental stats), Channeling (altering/buffing physical stats), Healing, and so on. So, while there's definitely a Leader sense coming from them, I'm not sure if that doesn't just make them a variant cleric or not.

The flavor of the Mystic makes it sound much more like the Primal power source than divine. 4e Sorcerers are probably going to be primal controllers, so a 4e mystic might work best as primal leaders. It would fit the role they seemed to have in the Saga flavor text and books.

The mystic is the only character archetype in Dragonlance that seems to need its own character class. The various knightly orders, and all the other major archtypes, can be done as feats and paragon paths. Mariners don't have much to distinguish them, aside from being lightly armored combatants with good skills. A feat or class option that gives Fighters a benefit for fighting in no armor would fit it.

To sum up:
Forgotten Realms: swordmage
Eberron: artificer
Dragonlance: mystic

Dark Sun: templar and/or gladiator. Gladiators would probably be martial strikers, whose extra damage comes from some sort of challenge or duel mechanic. I'd expect them to be proficient in heavy and light armor, and have lots of flashy powers that impose conditions upon the target. I'm not convinced that we need a gladiator, but it would be nice.

Ravenloft: archivist definitely. Ravenloft needs a scholarly Van Helsing type, who defeats monsters with knowledge and willpower.

Spelljammer: I don't think it needs a new class.

Planescape: Philosopher, maybe. Again, nothing comes immediately to mind.

Birthright: Magician. The magician was basically a 2e specialist wizard who could only cast high level illusions and divinations, and was restricted to 2nd level for all other types. If PH2 or PH3 has an illusionist class, it would probably fit it well, with some tweaks.

Oriental Adventures: Most of the classes could be done as variants on PH classes, new powers for them, and feats. Samurai are fighters, ninja are rogues, sohei are paladins, and wu jen are wizards. A Monk class is needed, preferably killing the swordsage and taking his stuff, so we can have effective armed martial artists, like in Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

 

[Cam Banks]

The flavor of the Mystic makes it sound much more like the Primal power source than divine. 4e Sorcerers are probably going to be primal controllers, so a 4e mystic might work best as primal leaders. It would fit the role they seemed to have in the Saga flavor text and books.

The mystic is the only character archetype in Dragonlance that seems to need its own character class. The various knightly orders, and all the other major archtypes, can be done as feats and paragon paths. Mariners don't have much to distinguish them, aside from being lightly armored combatants with good skills. A feat or class option that gives Fighters a benefit for fighting in no armor would fit it.

I agree. You can accomplish a lot with multiclassing feats and new powers or feats.

I do wish the sorcerer were available now, however, so that I could figure out if it's indeed a primal class or something else. Druids and barbarians are apparently primal, although in DL all druids get their powers from a divine source. Of course, much of this is flavor stuff. It's probably not a big deal to say that a druid in DL gets its primal power indirectly from the gods, as opposed to the direct covenant a cleric has.

The one class I was most proud of designing for DL was the master, which was basically to the expert what the fighter is to the warrior in 3e. It revolved around perform, knowledge, craft, and profession skills. Since it doesn't look as if any of those exist in 4e (or have been changed somewhat) the master likely won't work. In combat, it was a kind of support (leader) class, and it wasn't magical at all, so it'd be a martial class. But, that really doesn't seem to be the direction they're going.

FYI, the master was the response to the sheer number of non-magical crafty/sage-like/bardic/townspeople characters who ended up as PCs. Flint, Theros Ironfeld, Tika, and so forth. In 4e, most of these would be fighters, rogues, or warlords at a stretch (much as the DL noble class = the warlord in 4e.)

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Weyland]

Dark Sun: I'm thinking Templar, maybe with powers grouped according to which Dragon King they serve.

Athasian bard would be cool too - though that could probably be handled with a couple new talent trees and such for rogues.

 

[Edwin_Su]

dragon lance :

knight of solamnia
knight base class ( defender martial )
Knight of the rose paragon path ( defender martial )
knight of the sword paragon path ( defender maybe with some features of a priest)
Knight of the rose paragon path ( more leader then defender with warlord features )

knight of naraka
would be knights with dual class feats in:
rogue for knight of the lily ( martial defender/striker)
priest for knight of the skull
wizard for knight of the torn

and would each have a paragon path