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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5812856" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm not sure I follow this.For example, if what I am is a forester, then some of what I can do is (by definition, as it were) track and hunt. So what do the skills add to the class (or vice versa)?Or, if who I am is the king, then one of the things I can do is (by definition, as it were) pull the sword from the stone. So what does the "pull sword from stone" feat add to the theme (or vice versa)?It seems to me that classes will be a way of distributing the classic suite of D&D stats and abilities - spellcasting, hit points, attacks, weapon and armour use, and some other niche things like backstabl/sneak attack.In 4e, themes are a way of giving access to abilities (either powers or feat-like stuff - in 3E they would all be feats) that are minor tweaks on the class chassis. (The latest <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drdd/20120208" target="_blank">design and development</a> talks about this.) I would expect themes to be used to fill some of the space currently occupied in 4e by subclass differentiation and by feat-basd multi-classing as well as by themes. The difference from class and race, I think, will be of degree rather than of kind - although it seems that themes may, like race, carry more story content with them than does class. This might seem odd, but I think it is a consequence of the fact that a few classes have to do a lot of work for a lot of players, whereas the range of themes will be broader, and therefore the number of players any given them has to please will be less. (In this respect, themes will probably resemble prestige classes or paragon paths or 4e themes, in terms of the amount of story baggage that they carry.)Feat I would expect to be like themes but even more minor - very modest tweaks to the mechanical abilities of a PC, and with less story element behind them than behind a theme, or even a class.Skills I would expect to work as modifiers to ability scores in certain situations.</blockquote>

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