Seeker and Rune priest support idea

[Larrin]

This idea occurred to me in that state between waking and sleeping this morning so i make no claims it is good or bad, just that i had it and it intrigued me.

What if, as part of the way they increase support of the seeker and runepriest Wotc did this:

Runepriest (cleric)
Seeker (ranger)

That is to say, like slayer is to fighter, seeker is to ranger. After all, what is a seeker but a ranger that went full on primal, and what is a runepriest but a str cleric who won his monastery's spelling bee. This does a number of interesting things for the runepriest and seeker, and perhaps some good things for strength clerics and maybe some worrisome things for the ranger (haven't thought it through to its full extent)

1) it increases feat selection for the two 'ignored' classes, giving hopefully reasonable feats to round out their abilities...runepriests should be able to consider their healing runes to be word of healing for these purposes.

2) It gives all the involved classes more power choices. In the seeker case it can be accused of make range an "V" (or maybe and 'E' ) shaped class, but Wis has always been a rangers friend and if they want to grab some magic-like powers *shrug* . Its also interesting to think about a str cleric taking rune priest powers...some rules would have to make this a reasonable choice

3)It decreases the total number of classes, but increases the number of sub-classes. make of this what you wish to.

4) It lets support for ranger = support for seeker, it lets rangers benefit from seeker support, in short it makes all support for the classes go just a little bit (or in some cases alot) further.

Like I said, I make no claims this is good or bad, but I think its interesting and worth exploring in my own thoughts, and maybe some of y'all will like it too.

 

[Nemesis Destiny]

This is a good idea, and one which I (and others) have advocated for quite some time now. There are actually quite a few cases where this could/should happen. Invokers and Avengers, for example, could also fall under the Cleric group as the controller and striker builds respectively. Could probably also slot paladins in there too. The divine power source is actually really easy to pidgeonhole in that manner, but it could work for others as well.

 

[Quickleaf]

Well for ranger this does open up the interesting combo of RBA granting daily powers and seeker RBAs, something only achievable now by going hybrid. It's a lethal lethal combo if you do it right, though, and having that built into the ranger would be a power up.

Personally, I like it but there would be tons of fringe cases like the one I mentioned.

 

[The Little Raven]

I definitely think that making the Seeker and Runepriest subclasses of the Ranger and Cleric classes is definitely the first step in support. They should implement that change and see how it shakes out, since both classes will now have built-in feat, power, and item support. From there, they can determine what Seeker/Runepriest-specific materials are needed to fill their gaps and help them retain more of their specific flavor.

 

[Zaphling]

The problem with the idea of integrating them with cleric and ranger is both seeker and runepriest have very different class flavor, and I mean very. Even the gameplay itself is very different. Compare it to the slayer, knight, and oFighter which have very similar behavior and the same class flavor, asides from having no dailies. Also with ranger, scout and hunter; paladin and cavalier; warlock and hexblade and binder.

 

[TwoSix]

This is a good idea, and one which I (and others) have advocated for quite some time now. There are actually quite a few cases where this could/should happen. Invokers and Avengers, for example, could also fall under the Cleric group as the controller and striker builds respectively. Could probably also slot paladins in there too. The divine power source is actually really easy to pidgeonhole in that manner, but it could work for others as well.

I'd advance the idea that Paladins probably have enough historical and archetypal support to be their own class. Ideally, any "class" should be broad enough to fit in a few subclasses under its umbrella.

I'd make an argument that Avengers would make a good Monk subclass, actually.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I think folding classes like the seeker and runepriest into other classes is a good way to go. Runepriest definitely works as a cleric IMO, and I could see the seeker as being either a druid or ranger.

I also agree that avengers and invokers could be types of cleric. One other more or less "obvious" consolidation IMO is assassins, rogues, avenger, warlocks, bards and maybe even monks; psions, druids, invokers, laser clerics and wizards; and paladins, fighters, warlords, battleminds, ardents, warpriest/runepriest-style clerics and wardens.

These days I'm seeing all classes as simply being variations on the basic three classes from D&D of yore and form the basis of NPC classes in 3.x and the roles in True20 - powerful/energetic guy, agile/skillful guy, and smart/insightful guy. In my own fantasy heartbreaker system, that's what I'm planning on using.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I imagin a mix and match role/powersource/class

A psionic powered fighter, a Primal powered fighter, or an Arcane powered fighter does not seam to me to make a battlemind, warden, or swordmage...

some things have enough diffrence to need a full diffrent class.

now I can almost see Invoker folded into cleric, or avenger folded into monk... but psion is not anything like mage...

Rune priest could almost be made into a cleric...but seeker in no way matches the ranger.

 

[mkill]

I don't think this would help much. Typical ranger feats and cleric feats are tied to class features like hunter's quarry or healing word, which Seeker or Runepriest don't have. After merging them into ranger / cleric, they still would not be able to take these feats. As a players, this means you have to sift through an even larger pile of stuff for the few nuggets that you can use.

For powers, it's more of an issue of unforeseen class balance problems. I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure we'll see a lot of twin-strike centered seeker builds of they get full access to ranger powers. This will completely change a lot of assumptions about the class.

 

[MrMyth]

I think it would take more effort to adjust the seeker and runepriest so that they fit as rangers/clerics than it would take to actually just given them some new support and options.