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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 5552903" data-attributes="member: 20564">The article isn't bad, but I'm rather underwhelmed.  In Dark Sun, Themes are a full pillar of character design.  True, not as important as race or class -- that would be hard to bolt on -- but within an order of magnitude.  They can really change up the feel of a character, especially with innate bonuses so you can have a implement or weapon theme while your class leans the other way.These are ... well, bigger backgrounds.  Backgrounds are nice, a decent tool for giving a character a bit of a feel outside race/class, but aren't one of the pillars of character design.Beastmaster is closest to what I'm looking for, with something always there (even if not always used) that makes the character different.  Some of the others are just some numerical advantages.  Woo, I get +2 to a skill I'm trained in, so I'm a bit better.  They do have utility powers, but with skill powers long been out there, that's not where we needed power options for character differentiation.  And the somewhat amusing issue of the Order Adept granting a wizard utility power, but it's optional powers are also competing for a utility power slot.This article doesn't do anything wrong - I could play or run in a campaign with these.  The problem is that it does scarcely anything right.  It takes the concept of Themes that was delivered with a magnitude of 7 or 8 out of 10 in Dark Sun, but only delivers it with a magnitude of 3.  It's a decent 3, but I want them to turn up the volume.  Actually, I'm going to say that a bit more forcefully - if you want to add this complexity to the game (as well as a bit of power creep), you need to make it more worthwhile to achieving a character vision.  It needs to be a powerful addition.  This is the skim milk side of Themes.  Nothing wrong with it, but doesn't do much for me.</blockquote>

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