Player's Options: Speculation

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yesterday, I was discussing a couple of directions WotC could have gone when creating 4e, but didn't. E.g. thinking back, I had been wondering how many powers would be shared by several classes. As it turned out the answer was zero.

I've been wondering if it wouldn't have been a better idea to create a number of 'basic powers' that were available to every class (or every class of a certain role or power source) and a smaller number of class-specific powers.

I've thought this should have been done since the beginning. I'd consider it unlikely they'll actually put such a thing in place at this point in 4e but it would have been a nice way to make power sources distinct. I'm not sure it would work well for roles, its hard to imagine a set of powers common between a Sorcerer, a Ranger, and an Avenger for instance. I think maybe stashing more powers into cross-class themes/styles/whatever would have been good though. The whole concept of every power being unique to a class is simply redundant and bloats the whole system.

 

[Shroomy]

I've thought this should have been done since the beginning. I'd consider it unlikely they'll actually put such a thing in place at this point in 4e but it would have been a nice way to make power sources distinct. I'm not sure it would work well for roles, its hard to imagine a set of powers common between a Sorcerer, a Ranger, and an Avenger for instance. I think maybe stashing more powers into cross-class themes/styles/whatever would have been good though. The whole concept of every power being unique to a class is simply redundant and bloats the whole system.

They did actually do this in Dragon for controllers.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The thing that strikes me about it is the change from 'Player's Essentials:' to 'Player's Option:' which is from 2e days. That, to me, screams 'please come back!' Essentials is billed as being meant to attract new players, but I think they're also hoping to pull back disaffected ones.

 

[ArcaneSpringboard]

It's also possible that Heroes of Shadow doesn't really contain any new classes at all, simply named builds (ie Mage or Warpriest) for existing classes. Necromancy is a Wizard school after all...

You know, I was originally thinking the same thing...that Players Option was going to basically take over for the Players Handbook and <thing> Power books.

However, your mention of Necromancy being a school, and the fact that the Essentials Wizard builds are going to be school based, makes it a lot more likely that the Necromancer is not a new class, but actually a new Essentials Wizard build.

The Assassin would then be an Essentials Assassin, not a 'reprint' of the Assassin from DDI. This would maintain their statement that the Assassin would be a DDI-only class...(though on a technicality). The Hexblade could then just be a different build of something.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I think Heroes of Shadow, will have new full classes. It was said back in some previous Ampersand, that 2011 would introduce new Power Sources. Shadow is more or less a new power source.

I think it will be (True) Necromancer as a full class, that's very likely a Shadow Controller. With necromancy (note the small n) as a school that Wizards can learn as an option for non-shadow characters. Remember they already do have a class called an Ardent, and a Paladin build called an Ardent Paladin so they have no problems with names like that overlapping.

 

[Camelot]

I think Heroes of Shadow, will have new full classes. It was said back in some previous Ampersand, that 2011 would introduce new Power Sources. Shadow is more or less a new power source.

I think it will be (True) Necromancer as a full class, that's very likely a Shadow Controller. With necromancy (note the small n) as a school that Wizards can learn as an option for non-shadow characters.

They have to make more shadow classes. They can't have just one. If they never made the assassin, they could maybe get away with making shadow builds for other classes. But they did, so now they have to make more.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think Shadow will be classes personally. There are plenty of ways that other classes can tap into those. Maybe they're going to create a somewhat more flexible multi-classing or power swapping option in Essentials. If they aren't going to put rules for hybrids into Essentials, which I kind of doubt they will, then perhaps the new approach will be a somewhat better MCing to let you do something very similar.

 

[Camelot]

I think Shadow will be classes personally. There are plenty of ways that other classes can tap into those. Maybe they're going to create a somewhat more flexible multi-classing or power swapping option in Essentials. If they aren't going to put rules for hybrids into Essentials, which I kind of doubt they will, then perhaps the new approach will be a somewhat better MCing to let you do something very similar.

Hold on...is Heroes of Shadow part of Essentials? I've been hearing a lot of connection between the two, but I was under the impression that Heroes of Shadow was another core product, like the PHs and Power books.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Hold on...is Heroes of Shadow part of Essentials? I've been hearing a lot of connection between the two, but I was under the impression that Heroes of Shadow was another core product, like the PHs and Power books.

Everything is core, lol. So the question is are there going to be NEW mechanics in Essentials that are going to be leveraged in future non-Essentials books? This is something we don't really have a handle on. Lets say there WAS a new MC-like option, existing classes could use it presumably, the hitch would be you'd need whatever Essentials book introduced that rule, or at least DDI. I think this kind of thing is where the total compatibility thing gets a bit sticky. Either features like that aren't ever introduced so that people with the PHB series rules have ALL the rules, or else there's a bit of a funny sort of compatibility which is true for the material, but not necessarily the books. Of course if such a new subsystem were added, it could be added in Player Options. THAT of course brings up the thorny question about what device is used to advance the core rules from now on. In the past you knew if you had each PHB you had all the most basic rules of the game. It may become more difficult to do that in the future depending on how the books split things up.

 

[DracoSuave]

Every time I see 'Player's Option' I think back to Skills and Powers and I die a little inside.

That's not a brand name for a D&D product line that screams 'balanced quality' to me.