raider class concept

[Quickleaf]

My campaign world has lots of brigands, pirates, smugglers, and rebels guerillas. While the ranger or rogue can sometimes fill these roles, they're more about doing damage and I'm envisioning a class that's about accomplishing a goal (e.g. kidnap the princess, steal the horses, etc) and getting out safely than killing enemies. I came up with the name "Raider" to accomodate a variety of concepts, but I could just as easily name it marauder or brigand I suppose.

The features I'm considering are more "controller-y":
* do action X or else take Y damage/condition
* push/pull/slide
* cause panic among enemies & horses
* force enemies to scatter with intimidation/AoE attacks
* create threatened zones with ranged or melee
* impose penalties on enemies like taking higher ground
* change terrain to create obstacles/cover or get around cover

My only fear is working on a class that tries to be a martial controller when perhaps all I need to do is make some augments to the ranger or rogue?

 

[ArtofSymmetry]

I haven't read all of the character, but take a look at the lancer. It would take some modification though. Like substituting the lance abilities for abilities that use a different weapon, and changing the name. I know the lancer has a few push/pull/slide attacks and I think I saw a panic.
But the "Impose penalties on enemies like taking higher ground" thing could be expanded to fit the whole world. Because we don't use abilities to make it harder to fight uphill, it's just our perceptions and the angles and such. So you could add a universal penalty for attacking uphill. Unless of course your of small stature. People of small stature will be level with your legs, and chop them off. (fear dwarves with battle axes)
In fact you could add all sorts of strategic bonuses for attacking intelligently. Higher Ground, Flanking, Wedges, Mounted.
Here's an Idea for mounted warfare, since cavalry tended to inspire fear in the enemy, you could force the mounted player to do their control mount check, to make sure it doesn't go wild in battle (See PHB for more details) and if they succeed by 5 or more (Just an example) they could inspire fear in the enemy, adding a -1 to attack rolls against any mounted enemy within 4 squares of them. Just a thought, feel free to rip it apart.

 

[Quickleaf]

I haven't read all of the character, but take a look at the lancer. It would take some modification though. Like substituting the lance abilities for abilities that use a different weapon, and changing the name. I know the lancer has a few push/pull/slide attacks and I think I saw a panic.

I took a look at ff6shadow's lancer and was really impressed. I think it would take a lot of work to adapt to this concept, but as an example of a martial controller/defender it is superb.

But the "Impose penalties on enemies like taking higher ground" thing could be expanded to fit the whole world. Because we don't use abilities to make it harder to fight uphill, it's just our perceptions and the angles and such. <snip>
In fact you could add all sorts of strategic bonuses for attacking intelligently. Higher Ground, Flanking, Wedges, Mounted.
Here's an Idea for mounted warfare, since cavalry tended to inspire fear in the enemy, you could force the mounted player to do their control mount check, to make sure it doesn't go wild in battle (See PHB for more details) and if they succeed by 5 or more (Just an example) they could inspire fear in the enemy, adding a -1 to attack rolls against any mounted enemy within 4 squares of them. Just a thought, feel free to rip it apart.

You make a good point - I suppose a power which allowed you to shift and slid the enemy would work to gain an uphill advantage. Interesting concept about introducing more strategic bonuses - that could be really interesting for a war focused campaign. For the "raider" concept I think it could be incorporated into the powers themselves as it's not the main shtick.