Speculation -- next Friday's PH3 Playtest?

[RefinedBean]

Here's an idea that I had that I thought I'd throw out there, how about a playtest for a "paragon" or "epic" race, basically something equivalent to the high LA races in 3rd edition.

That's an interesting idea, but how would they balance "paragon" races with regular races that have made it to the paragon tier?

Maybe limit feats/power choices, or have their racial power swap out one of the PP powers one gets. Hrm.

 

[Shroomy]

That's an interesting idea, but how would they balance "paragon" races with regular races that have made it to the paragon tier?

Maybe limit feats/power choices, or have their racial power swap out one of the PP powers one gets. Hrm.

No idea, I haven't give it much thought, but its something that would definitely need to be playtested.

 

[Runestar]

That's an interesting idea, but how would they balance "paragon" races with regular races that have made it to the paragon tier?

Maybe limit feats/power choices, or have their racial power swap out one of the PP powers one gets. Hrm.

Maybe a basic race (roughly equivalent in power with the other races), with a paragon and epic class that makes it more "race-like"?

 

[tylerthehobo]

I'm pulling for kender and gully dwarves!

 

[Belorin]

I'm thinking Thri-kreen for playtesting the extra arms, Illumians for the different Sigils, Changelings/Doppelgangers for the polymorph mechanics or Maybe Elans, playing up their abberant nature.

Bel

 

[doctorhook]

IIRC, someone at one of the Cons this past winter said the upcoming Eberron Player's Guide will have "two races not yet seen in 4E*, and that doesn't include Warforged". Thus, I'm banking on Doppelgangers, Kalashtar, and Warforged for EPG; honestly, they can't expect to sell a book called the Eberron Player's Guide and not include the rules for playing Warforged, can they? Warforged are iconic to the setting! (*Note that I don't believe that the NPC write-up for Doppelgangers in MM1 counts.)

Because of this, I highly doubt that any of these three races will be the subject of a race playtest for PH3, though if I had to pick one of those races that it might be, I'd say Doppelganger. Personally though, I think something a bit "weirder" mechanically is more likely, like Thri-Kreens perhaps.

Has anyone considered the possibility that this might not be an actual, specific race at all? What if it's rules for customizing races, perhaps with alternative racial features? It would be in-line with the kind of material we've already seen playtested as Hybrid Classes, and it would certainly require playtesting...

Lastly, FWIW, Illumians have already been mentioned in 4E, in a box in Manual of the Planes, in case anyone didn't know. Take that as you will.

 

[WarlockLord]

Alright, here's one I'm surprised no one has mentioned, what with the Shadow PS and necromancers and all.

NECROPOLITANS

No, seriously. Consider the fact that we don't have an undead race. Constructs, yes, undead, no. This could be pretty different depending on what direction they want to take it in - and could also sell more minis, if that's what they care about. But they could do some kind of regeneration, perhaps necrotic and poison resist, +2 int, +2 con (undead flesh resists destruction, maybe?). As one can see, I haven't thought this out well.

 

[ppaladin123]

Alright, here's one I'm surprised no one has mentioned, what with the Shadow PS and necromancers and all.

NECROPOLITANS

No, seriously. Consider the fact that we don't have an undead race. Constructs, yes, undead, no. This could be pretty different depending on what direction they want to take it in - and could also sell more minis, if that's what they care about. But they could do some kind of regeneration, perhaps necrotic and poison resist, +2 int, +2 con (undead flesh resists destruction, maybe?). As one can see, I haven't thought this out well.

This would be seriously awesome. I hope the designers are reading this thread.

 

[hong]

Not in 4e, unless I'm crazy. If you're talking about an earlier edition, I'm afraid I'm missing your point entirely.

I thought that was what the oversized weapons thing was about. But maybe that was another race.

 

[Inyssius]

I thought that was what the oversized weapons thing was about. But maybe that was another race.

"The oversized weapons thing" wasn't that complicated (you know pretty much all of this already, I'm just providing background):

1. When the Monster Manual came out, they included some extra races in the back of the book. As a stopgap measure, so you could have Bugbear NPCs and so forth before they got a full racial writeup--NPCs only, mind you; the stuff was designed with monsters and so forth in mind, and should only be allowed for PCs with the DM's discretion.

2. Some of those races were large-ish. To represent this, their short MM racial statblock included the ability to wield oversized weapons.

3. This turned out to be a bad idea, and was dropped from those races entirely when they eventually got a full racial writeup for player characters.

----

That's all there was to it. An abortive early-run idea that might have been balanced for monster use (as the introduction to that section actually said) but (as the MM also brought up as a possibility) evidently not for player characters. No playtesting, no Goliath, no DDI involvement.