Nostalgia time with Dragon 400: The Jester

[Neverfate]

Don't go "oh well". Write to WotC (either through e-mail or in their messageboards) and tell them you'd love to see a 4e version of the Jester. If enough people ask for it, I don't see why they wouldn't pursue it.

The odd thing is, because of the way Essentials characters are set up, with specific mechanics at certain levels, it would have been ridiculously easy to create mechanics for the Thief.

You change the Thief auto-train Stealth to Arcana. Make Backstab into Magic Trick or something that Dazes and does Int mod extra damage. Instead of Skill Mastery at level 2, gain the Ritual Caster feat.

Then make a few Jester utilities (pre-req, Jester only or trained in Arcana works). You can fit the Catch mechanic or scaling walls/acrobatics and magic mechanics at these levels. Everything else works on the Thief really. Done.

It's like they said, "Here's a wealth of ideas we're doing nothing with in celebration of the game!"

 

[Scribble]

I think it would have been cooler if they had pointed out the differences in design and the thoughts behind the differences.

 

[WalterKovacs]

The Jester seems like it could be an interesting melee controller type of rogue. The whole taunting/demoralizing thing reminded me of the rogue I was toying around with using a combination of feats, to give his attacks rattling, and apply an extra -2 to attack rolls debuff with his attacks, and marking [blade bravo] at the cost of 2 sneak attack dice. Something that goes that way dropping debuffs on enemies. If it loses sneak attack, you can expand their weapon options, and maybe give them the ability to use any 1-handed weapon as a thrown weapon (master juggler) because, who wouldn't want a hammer (i.e. mallet) wielding jester? They'd probably get something like the bard's skill options, but keeping thievery.

 

[Windjammer]

I don't have DDI, but was it really the case that the article didn't update the Jester to 4E at all?

That would strike me as positively bizarre, since Mearls helped update the jester class for 3.5 for Paizo's Dragon Compendium around 2005 (when he was already working for WotC). So he has been there, done that, and it's not as if he's not way more familiar with 4E and couldn't carry it out in very short time.

 

[Neverfate]

I don't have DDI, but was it really the case that the article didn't update the Jester to 4E at all?

That would strike me as positively bizarre, since Mearls helped update the jester class for 3.5 for Paizo's Dragon Compendium around 2005 (when he was already working for WotC). So he has been there, done that, and it's not as if he's not way more familiar with 4E and couldn't carry it out in very short time.

Yep. It's the same exact article from Dragon #60 . . . in case you missed it or didn't know how google worked.

 

[IanB]

Not sure what the purpose of this is. I am majorly disappointed. I have this article printed out. I have the Dragon CD. I was hoping to see, you know, some original content in Dragon 400, not reprints of existing material. Thumbs down.

There's just as much original content in 400 as there has been in every issue. The anniversary reprint stuff is *extra*, and there are a ton of players out there who never had the chance to see this stuff before. I have the old Best of Dragon compilation that has the article and the CD myself, but 35+ year old gamers like me and presumably you, with giant collections and decades of experience are not the norm. I don't understand why you'd begrudge other people the chance to be exposed to that stuff.

That old 1-250 Dragon Magazine CD Archive thing is over a decade out of print and sells for $150+ on eBay. Making this stuff more available for newer gamers can only help. Someone who reads it might be a designer on 6e and have some new perspective to offer that we all benefit from by reading it, etc.

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm not begrudging anyone anything. I want new material. Most people reading WotC's site are probably not playing the edition that was written for. If they want to reprint stuff, that's fine, but I bet most people would prefer content they can use.

Also, logic has almost nothing to do with feelings. I felt like original material would be better. That does not make me a bad person. It just means I wanted something different than what they gave us. I'm not sure how that hurts anyone, frankly.