Quickleaf said:
Great thread!
Nice to see the sha'ir getting some 4e love.
First, I think you've got a great theme for the class, and like how you're playing up the Elemental Chaos as the font of creation. Your powers seem balanced and very evocative.
However, the class seems to stray into "elementalist" territory. Which is fine if you don't plan on having an elementalist class in your campaign, but I think the class would shine if you played up the unique elements of the sha'ir more. Consider this definition....
Of course they've wandered into "elementalist" territory, I have them as using the Elemental power source!
In the Al-Qadim setting,
all native wizards played off of elementalist themes. An illusionist, necromancer, or even a force-based evoker would be an Ajami - an alienist wizard. A native wizard of the sorcerer kit specialized in two elements. A native wizard of the elementalist kit specialized in one.
Sha'ir in 2e would send their gen to the outer planes to retrieve magic for them, allowing them to cast it. The easiest magic for a gen to retrieve was elemental magic, as they could easily reach and search their native planes. But the gen could go other places to look for magic: their gen could retrieve arcane or divine magic in this way. In 4th edition, that would have been the equivalent of "pick any spell or prayer powers you want, whenever you want." They were, potentially, much more of a Swiss Army Knife than regular wizards.
The easiest powers for a Sha'ir to draw on through their gen, however, were (and I quote) "a spell that a native wizard of the same experience could normally cast." A native wizard in Al-Qadim
is an elementalist.
Translated directly into 4e terms from the original published Al-Qadim setting, the Sha'ir would be drawing on a similar source of power as an elementalist with the aid of a summoned / companion creature, only their powers would be more leader-like (as they had access, however limited, to cleric spells in the old edition and were diplomats with a great degree of flexibility in power.)
Shaman is a planned class for 4th edition to officially cover, probably in the PHB2. They might be more along the lines of what you are looking for.
Quickleaf said:
I would envision the sha'ir as a sarcastic, sharp-witted, keenly observant, and eloquent mystical advisor. Perhaps some powers could play off this concept some more? You might also consider giving him some powers more traditionally associated with the hakima.
Well, you'll have to take that up with the designers of the Al-Qadim setting. I was only going for trying to take the class as written back then and finding a way to make it work in 4e rules. I wasn't designing a new class from scratch, I'm bringing one up to date. Perhaps that is what is needed. That is up to WotC if and when they decide to republish the setting for 4e. But creating something that doesn't resemble the class as written and calling it a Sha'ir in D&D, as that was defined by Al-Qadim, would be disingenuous. I'd be making my own class up from scratch and using the name to promote it. (And honestly, I don't have much interest in promoting this... it was just a thing I wound up doing as an exercise in game mechanics.)
Quickleaf said:
Elemental Font
While I love the idea of a sha'ir creating sand which runs from one hand to the other as he spins a tale.... Are there any limits on this? I mean, does a party with a sha'ir no longer fear dehydration? Can he start thousands of campfires, essentially burning a city to the ground? Can he dam a river with stones?
As stated in the title, this is all in progress. This was intended to be a catch-all equivalent of Cantrips for the class. It does not yet have language to help DMs that don't have any sense to say "no" to their players. Or "Yes, and" or "Yes, but..."
However, with a once-every-five-minutes use, if a DM did let someone go around with this ability and burn the entire city down, one small fire at a time in five minute intervals, without any NPC saying or doing anything, shame on the DM.
Same with any of the other questions. Good luck damming the river. It would have to be a very small one, and if you try to do it piecemeal you'll be there for a long time. (You could also say many things like, by the time you get it half done, the incomplete and therefore unstable structure would probably be knocked over by the force of the river.) You might as well worry that a group of fighters with 20 STR and ritual casting are going to use Tenser's Floating Disk to carry stones to the river for them and dam a river.
Anything can be broken in an RPG if common sense does not prevail. Sadly, RPG companies and creators have not yet figured out how to sell common sense.
In as much as dehydration is a threat to PCs when they have a simulationist DM, that threat is almost always easy to overcome, in any edition, by probably around fourth or fifth level at the latest. Any party that put their mind to it could have chosen characters to avoid this hazard in earlier editions. And it's clearly not the type of focus that D&D 4e is going for in terms of challenges: something potentially lethal with nothing to gain in return, all risk with no reward. Unless you can find me the XP reward for surviving without water.
Quickleaf said:
Gen
Is moving the gen only a minor action when not moving it as a part of a power with the "gen" keyword?
So, if a sha'ir uses a power at 10 squares range (assume the gen is 10 squares away), the power affects the target the following round as the gen could only possibly move 8 squares in one round? So the target sees the gen coming at them and might flee out of range? Hmm... While this does put some limits on the sha'ir as a controller (a good thing, since we want him to be a leader), I wonder if it will get complicated tracking the gen's location all the time?
The following round? That's a truly bizarre interpretation to what's written above and you're the first I've seen to have that interpretation.
The Sha'ir can command his gen to move in a combat encounter as a minor action to help get it into position to deliver a power effect to a target square. When the Sha'ir activates a power with the Gen keyword, the gen moves as an immediate reaction to the square with the Sha'ir's intended target.
"Immediate reaction" and the concept that the gen defines the Sha'ir's range are the keys here.
Sha'ir begins turn. He looks and sees that there is a kobold that he wants to target, and notices it is 12 squares away. The gen would not be able to reach the kobold as an immediate reaction when he uses his power. It is currently out of range.
Sha'ir asks the gen to move its movement rate closer to the kobold as a minor action. The gen is now 6 squares from the kobold. That's close enough.
The Sha'ir takes his standard action to activate the power attacking the kobold. When the power is activated, the gen moves the remaining 6 squares to the kobold as an immediate reaction to the Sha'ir activating the power. The effect is delivered by the gen and the attack is resolved.
One minor and one standard action, a situation is set up, an attack is made. Not on the following round. As part of his standard action.
If the gen can't reach the target, it is out of range and so the Sha'ir can't use a power against it.
Quickleaf said:
Also, you mention gen have a perception = the sha'ir. Are you implying that the sha'ir can use the gen as a scout? That seems awfully potent for 1st level.
Passive perception. You can't selectively ignore the language to make something better than it is. The gen cannot make active skill rolls. As it is passive, the DM determines to what extent the gen will notice things.
As the gen can only exist up to 20 squares from the Sha'ir, and would have to return and have a very audible conversation with the Sha'ir about what it saw (and doesn't have stealth) this would be a very, very limited scout in any event.
Quickleaf said:
Invigoration
Healing Word by another name. I suggest a healing power with side effects instead of the extra +d6 healing, depending on the dominant element used. For example, a PC healed with primordial fire might temporarily acquire fire-like traits - quick, insubstantial, blazing, etc. A PC healed with primordial water might temporarily gain swarm traits or shift under a door. A PC healed with primordial air might teleport 1 square. A PC healed with primordial earth might gain the dwarf's "stand your ground" feature temporarily. You could still work these to scale as the bonus healing does.
This comment / suggestion is actually somewhat useful.
However, note that Healing Word and Inspiring Word are more or less identical, as well, despite being from different power sources and having different means of delivering that healing in terms of flavor. If you want to criticize someone for repeating Healing Word, talk to the creator of the Warlord.
There is the danger that certain benefits (especially if the Sha'ir could choose one of four benefits each time he healed) added to the healing effect would make people choose the Sha'ir over the Cleric or Warlord as simply better, even though it is lacking the +d6 healing.
On reflection, no, you really couldn't. Whole powers are based on the idea of granting someone an immediate saving throw, shifting one square, or providing extra benefits to them. To too many people, adding that to healing word at the cost of a few extra hit points would be too good a thing to pass up. It wouldn't be worth it to invest the time and effort to try to balance something like that.
Quickleaf said:
Resistance
About air resistance = force. What about thunder/lightning?
This is where I break with D&D tradition. Air = lightning has always been the most absurd connection they've ever made in terms of the elements, one made because they didn't know what to do with one or the other, to fill in a grid. "Ok, what do we do with blue dragons? Well, we've got deserts to fill as an environment and lightning to fill as a breath weapon, so let's make blue dragons in the desert with lightning breath." The only solid connection between the two is that lightning travels through the air. But then, you might as well have Resistance Birds 5, for all that that matters.
I certainly wouldn't make it both Thunder and Lightning, as, once again, you've just made one choice better than all the others. But it would be truly bizarre if it had one but not the other. Force is the simplest and most sensible choice, whether you rationalize it as air cushioning the impact of force, or however else you chose to do so.
